Self-Publishing in the Digital Age Conference

In the years before websites held so much information, before emails became more acceptable for correspondence and agents more responsive to email submissions, every September I would eagerly await the new edition of Writers' & Artists’ Yearbook.  I would trawl through the agent listings to see who was new, who was accepting what, and see which genres they were representing, not to mention seeing who their clients were. I would ring the ones I wanted to contact in biro (I would never deface a book now!) and make a list of my top ten. Then I’d hone  chapters of the book, stuff those envelopes and away the submissions would go. The rejections (along with the few full manuscripts I got asked to submit) would often, for some unknown reason, be returned on a Saturday morning, arriving with a thud through my letterbox. Another weekend ruined.

So imagine me now, heading off to London to speak at a self-publishing conference run by the very people whose books started me off on my trail.  Self-Publishing in the Digital Age was held at Imperial College, London, on 2 November and I was invited to be a guest author alongside Tracy Bloom. We chatted about our journeys, our ups and downs and all things self-publishing. I really enjoyed the day and came away with lots of hints and tips for myself, too.

The event was well attended and I was made welcome by everyone I spoke to. The authors who attended were there for a multitude of reasons, from those looking for marketing advice and wanting to know about cover design through to those who were just starting out. I chatted to lots of them during breaks and afterwards for an hour or so. Everyone had a different tale to tell – but we’re all writing.  

These events are all about networking, too. One of the attendees, who had self-published a few books, met and chatted to an agent and was then asked to send in her manuscript. The following week, they emailed backwards and forwards. The agent loved her voice and her manuscript and offered representation. It’s another story of someone working hard behind the scenes, for years, to get to where she is and now hopefully is on a new journey with additional support and expertise. I often hear writers say that it is expensive to go to conferences and festivals but it’s here that you can chat face to face with people in the business and network, learn from them and share their experiences. I personally don’t think you can put a price on that.  I’ve met lots of people this way too. It’s so much easier to chat to people in a more relaxed environment, as long as you’re not too enthusiastic – first impressions count.  

For me, the highlight of the day was when a member of the audience came up to me to say she’d attended the conference last year, has self-published since and can’t believe how far she has come in twelve months.

It’s always great to go to these kind of events and look back on my own journey too. I never intended to self-publish but I’m glad I did, and I will do so again alongside my traditionally published books. The stigma is still here in the UK, not so much as times are slowly changing. And that’s good for writers everywhere, I think.

Mel Sherratt has been a self-described "meddler of words" ever since she can remember. After winning her first writing competition at the age of 11, she has rarely been without a pen in her hand or her nose in a book. Since successfully self-publishing Taunting the Dead and seeing it soar to the rank of number one bestselling police procedural in the Amazon Kindle store in 2012, Mel has gone on to publish three more books in the critically acclaimed The Estate Series.

Mel has written feature articles for The Guardian, the Writers and Artists website, and Writers Forum Magazine, to name just a few, and regularly speaks at conferences, event and talks. She lives in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, with her husband and her terrier, Dexter (named after the TV serial killer, with some help from her Twitter fans), and makes liberal use of her hometown as a backdrop for her writing.

Represented by Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency, you can find her on Twitter at @writermels.