Session Description

If there was one thing we wish all authors knew, us included, before publication, it’s that you can and should start building a following ASAP. Long before publication, before even finishing your novel, you can start building an audience through blogging, reviewing, or podcasting, and we will tell you how! Trust us, your future self will thank you for showing up on publication day with a built-in audience.

Roger Johns & Kim Conrey

Roger Johns is the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year, for Mystery, a two-time finalist for Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award, and the author of the Wallace Hartman Mysteries, from St. Martin’s Press. His short stories have been published by, among others, Saturday Evening Post, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and Mystery Weekly Magazine. Roger has made over 140 appearances at conferences, conventions, and bookstores, as well as on podcasts, web radio, and broadcast radio, where he frequently speaks on writing and career management for new authors. His articles and essays on these topics have appeared in Southern Writers Magazine, Career Authors, and Southern Literary Review. Together, Kim and Roger coauthor “If You Only Have an Hour: Time-Saving Tips & Tricks for Managing Your Writing Career” for Page Turner, the quarterly magazine of the Georgia Writers Museum and the Atlanta Writers Club.

Kim Conrey is the Georgia Author of the Year recipient in the romance category for Stealing Ares, traditionally published by Black Rose Writing and Losing Ares, the follow up. Her urban fantasy Nicholas Eternal was published in June 2023, and her memoir You’re Not a Murderer: You Just Have Harm OCD, which she co-wrote with her adult child, was released in October of 2023. Her work has also been published by numerous magazines and literary journals and received awards. She serves as VP of Operations for the Atlanta Writers Club and podcasts about writing with the Wild Women Who Write. She gives book marketing talks and speaks on various topics relating to writing at local and reginal writing conferences and literary festivals She is the co-author, with Roger Johns, of the quarterly column “If You Only Have An Hour: Time-Saving Tips & Tricks For Managing Your Writing Career”, which appears in Page Turner, the magazine of the Georgia Writers Museum and the Atlanta Writers Club.