Author-Entrepreneurs Learn How to Earn at NCWN's Online Spring Conference 2021

WINSTON-SALEM, NC—There’s a truism that says anyone looking to make a living, much less get rich, by writing a book is probably in the wrong business. Margins for publishers, booksellers, and authors are slim; significant advances are rare.

However, while book sales might account for some of an author’s income, there are other entrepreneurial options for authors hoping to earn a little extra pocket money.

On Saturday, April 24, at 10:30 am EDT, and at 2:30 pm EDT, poets Terry L. Kennedy and Ross White will lead the session “Authors as Entrepreneurs” (All Genres) as part of the North Carolina Writers’ Network Online Spring Conference 2021.

Registration is open.

Because the class will be offered both in the morning and afternoon, attendees can still enjoy a craft-focused class of their choosing and not miss out on the weekend’s business offering. The cost of the conference is “Pay What You Can.”

With the business models of traditional publishing changing, authors are increasingly being asked to act entrepreneurially. But a publisher’s only concern will be selling books, and there are many other ways authors can build a sustainable living by developing creative businesses and services that serve other writers and change the world. In this session, two arts entrepreneurs will look at business model developed by writers and discuss best practices for starting businesses that benefit both the individual writer and the larger literary community.

Terry L. Kennedy  is the author of the poetry collection New River Breakdown. His work appears in a variety of journals and magazines and has been anthologized in Gracious: Poems from the 21st Century South, Hard Lines: Rough South Poetry and The Southern Poetry Anthology Volume VII: North Carolina, among others. He currently serves as the Director of the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and as Editor for both The Greensboro Review and the online journal, storySouth. Follow him online at @terrylkennedy.

Ross White is the author of Charm Offensive, winner of the 2019 Sexton Prize, and three chapbooks: How We Came Upon the Colony, The Polite Society, and Valley of Want. He is the director of Bull City Press, an independent publisher of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. He teaches creative writing and grammar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is the editor of Four Way Review. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, Poetry Daily, Tin House, and The Southern Review, among others. Follow him on Twitter: @rosswhite.

Other features of the NCWN Online Spring Conference 2021 include classes on creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, as well as faculty readings, open mics, and an online picnic lunch social hour. Spring Conference is available to anyone with an internet connection, or who even owns just a telephone.

The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.