The Self-Publishing Book Expo marked its fifth anniversary Saturday at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City with a busy day full of panels, workshops, and addresses, as well as a host of exhibitors—all dedicated to indie books.
According to Diane Mancher—who along with Karen Mender founded and created SPBE—attendance was up this year, and the show featured more exhibitors than last year.
The keynote address—“Thoughts on Self-Publishing From a Leading Traditional Publisher”—was given by Judith Curr, president and publisher of Atria Books, and the show featured 17 panels on anything and everything an indie author could hope to learn about self-publishing.
Among the highlights were sessions on book design, creating and formatting e-books, marketing and promotion, book reviews, editing services, social media, legal issues, audiobooks, and a whole lot more. Exhibitors at this year’s show included Wattpad, Lulu, Kobo Writing Life, Kirkus, Bowker, Publishers Weekly, CreateSpace, BookWorks, indieBRAG, BiblioCrunch, and Nook Press.
Mancher noted that C-SPAN covered the conference this year, filming the keynote and a session titled “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: What Makes a Good Self-Published Book?”
Additionally, Mancher said that attendees and indie authors at this year’s show were more educated and savvy about publishing than ever before. “This was a nice way to celebrate our fifth anniversary,” Mancher said, citing the keynote address from a traditional publisher, C-SPAN’s coverage, and the return of Lulu to the show as among this year’s highlights.
