20Booksto50K in Las Vegas: the Sneaky Kitty Critic’s Con Report.

Dear humans,

The female dared to leave us again for a few days. We have planned our revenge, and we have begun launching our offensive. This morning, we slept directly on her feet in an attempt to cut off circulation to her toes so they would fall off. Our plan failed, but we will try again this evening.

She didn’t take any actual pictures of the convention. She was too busy learning things and working on various books. But, she took this picture of an illicit present she purchased for herself when her flight was delayed by an hour getting home. It’s pink. Absolutely nobody is surprised by her acquisition of this item.

The male was not happy with this purchase.

She is currently drinking from it in a display of defiance. She keeps looking into his eyes while taking a sip. I’m not sure that’s effective, female human… you are not going to be forgiven for your illicit purchases doing that.

Then again, the male either didn’t notice or didn’t care she bought three new bags. She’s particularly proud of the third acquisition, which became the ultimate travel bag. It fit her laptop, her ipad, her cables, and everything she needs to venture to an airport without a panic attack.

Anyway.

She already talked some about the convention on her facebook page. If you use facebook, you can read it here. Readers, please follow if you’d like–or send a friend invite if you happen to have mutual friends. Everything she posts is public for the most part. (Only a few posts a year are friends only.) Book news happens on her page or in the readers’ group, but if you just want to see what she’s up to, her personal profile can be fun and interesting and whatever.

Main takeaway: she had a great time, and she definitely wants to go again next year. She will hope and pray she can be a panelist again next year, as she had a delightful time on both panels.

Since 20Booksto50K is a writer-centric group, I’ll take a moment to explain what it’s about, humans! Essentially, a bunch of writers got together and helped each other improve their careers with some help from invited industry professionals.

Due to her introverted tendencies, the female struggled for the first half of the con, but then she figured out the other authors weren’t going to bite her, that everyone was super nice, and that she could unwind and chat. She survived! There were things she struggled with, but she came away with some critically useful information she hopes will help her writing business grow next year.

2020 will be about the fun projects. If she can make the money work with the fun projects in 2020, she will finish off as many of the dangling series / trilogies as possible even if she doesn’t make as much money as a result.

2022 will then focus on the more popular stories, with a passion (or fun) project coming out every fifth book.

She wants to find as many new readers as possible, and that does mean writing the kinds of books everyone, including her, truly enjoy… rather than writing the books only she enjoys.

(The Furred & Frond Management would like to state that yes, the female is already planning 2021, although it will not be set in stone until she successfully survives through 2020. It all depends on if the money works in a way that allows her to do what she’d like.)

And yes, one of the female’s takeaways from 20Booksto50K is that while the art of writing is glorious, yes, the money does matter, and no, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the female wanting to be financially successful. The more successful she is financially, the more time she can dedicate to us kitties! And the more often she can write the books she writes just for herself and happens to share with the world.

Once she has some time to digest what she’s learned, she’ll make changes, because she’d rather be able to spend more time on writing and less time on marketing, no matter how important the marketing is. (And boy, that marketing is so very important.)

Moving forward, she is going to make changes that she hopes will improve her general life.

In no particular order, the female is going to try to do the following, all as a result of various panels, discussions, and so-on from the convention:

• Don’t waste time, breath, or effort on people who just want to be offended over things. (In short, stop getting dragged into pointless, anxiety-inducing conversations.)
• Avoid all the drama. It’s pointless and doesn’t help her in any fashion.
• Help others more, worry about other things less.
• Avoid toxic people. Toxic is toxic, and it makes her heart sick. So, block early, block often, and block without regret. (Side note: Toxic to the female does not mean toxic to everyone else.)
• Try to make it through every single day without discussing politics or religion with anyone online. (It doesn’t help anyone, nobody will change their mind, and it stresses her for zero reason.)
• Make sure to eat healthier. Eating healthier is definitely good for the depression, anxiety, and general life.
• Make a better balanced writing schedule. (Not necessarily slow down, but balance the types of books she releases better.)
• Kick all the ass.

The one thing she did like was how the convention was focused on lifting people up.

Allies, not competition. Rising tides raise all ships.

The female has always been the kind more inclined to help others than not, but she wants to do so with more of a purpose moving forward while maintaining her mental health. She is still thinking about it, but she will likely try to open a section of the blog specific for archiving/linking to posts and content meant to help other writers.

With luck, at least one post every two weeks, but she will remember to be kind to herself the entire time–because being kind to herself is important.

The female had a great time, and if she can get a ticket, she will attend next year. And try to do better about introducing herself to random people to talk to other writers. She’s not very good at that.