By Christine Munroe, US KWL Manager

I recently spent a weekend in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with Mark Lefebvre (KWL Director). We weren’t there for a beach vacation – and anyways, there was a cold snap, not ideal for sunbathing! – we wanted to meet the wonderful members of Novelists Inc., aka Ninc.

The conference was an intense three days of presentations, panels, banquet meals, and more. Some highlights included:

• An entertaining morning of “Ninc Talks” during which speakers presented quick, personal stories in the style of TED Talks
• Mark’s presentation about how to succeed on Kobo
• Embracing our inner book nerds as we met some of our favorite authors, including the Summit Authors, the Jewels of Historical Romance, Carrie Ryan, and many, many more
• Speaking with attendees about their success using KWL and what we can do to improve the platform in the future

Mark and Christine on thrones surrounded by lovely Jewels! Find their eBooks on Kobo.

Christine goes into superfan mode with bestselling YA author Carrie Ryan. Check out her latest title here.

Ninc is unique because all members must have published at least two novels in order to apply (see here for full details), so the level of professionalism and knowledge of the industry was remarkable. Many Ninc members are hybrid authors, taking advantage of both traditional and indie publishing opportunities.

We loved having quality time to hear from authors about what is working, the latest developments in the indie market (like this cool tool, BookTrakr), and how self-publishing has helped them to grow their careers. Many authors mentioned they were recently able to quit their jobs to write full time because of their new income from indie publishing. So incredible and inspiring!

Next year’s conference will be October 22–26 in St. Pete Beach, Florida—we hope to see you there.

Confession: We did manage sneak in a little beach time… can you blame us? It was beautiful!