20Books Vegas Conference Overview


20Books Vegas 2021

A 20Booksto50k(R) Educational and Networking Event

Dates: November 8-12, 2021

Location: Bally’s Convention Center on the Strip, Las Vegas

Cost:  $299.99. This is for the conference only. You are responsible for your room, travel, and meals.

Register here: https://craigmartelle.wufoo.com/forms/20books-vegas-2021-conference-registration/

What is 20Books Vegas all about? Here’s a short video to show the energy. https://vimeo.com/254950940

20Books Vegas 2021 is by far the biggest and best of the 20Books shows (we’ve had nine so far). That’s why we had to move to the Strip in Las Vegas, to accommodate the more than doubling of our attendee numbers. We had to turn many away who wanted to come. No longer! It is the biggest show in the world focused on self-publishing although there is something for every author, traditional or indie.

Why would you come to Las Vegas in November to be with 2000 authors and publishers? Because we believe that everyone deserves a chance to succeed if they take the knowledge provided and apply it to their author business. What if you could ask a question of someone who is where you want to be? What would that question be? Vegas gives you that opportunity.

With up to 20 authors making seven figures a year and hundreds making a full-time living, there will be something for everyone. Be warned, no one is going to carry you and make you an overnight sensation. You have to do that for yourself by applying what over 100 guest speakers have to offer. Are you ready to excel, reap the rewards of your good work? Then take control of your author career.

There is no other conference like 20Books Vegas. This show is predicated on the principle of giving back. It is run without any profit. We run this show because philanthropy is a part of our lives. We make our money off our fiction. We don’t need to make it from other authors. So we don’t. We get our reward when we see others 

We have our Live Events YouTube Channel so you can see the types of presentations we have made along with our daily material. Please follow the 20Booksto50k(R) Live Events channel for a great source of information on all things publishing.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTrqmZBt-FWUWnxWD2x5Ucg

20Books Vegas 2021 Facebook Group

If you are signing up to be an in-person attendee, then you’ll want to join this group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/20booksvegas2021/.  Make sure you answer the questions otherwise you may not be let in. Most sessions will be live-streamed. Those will be in the Vegas group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/20booksvegas2021/ And they’ll be recorded into that group, too, so you can watch them anytime. We’ll cut them over to YouTube at a later time. 

Map of the conference rooms:

Draft Schedule:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YdPyDqQtSytyndFG3w9j6Kw-Re-5L05PXedwUfKtPIs/edit?usp=sharing

Partial List of speakers and special guests:

Guest Speakers and Special Guests (listed in no particular order)

Michael Anderle

Mark Dawson

John Truby

David Farland

Jonathan Maberry

David Weber

Toni Weisskopf

Kevin J. Anderson & Rebecca Moesta

Kristine Kathryn Rusch & Dean Wesley Smith

Larry & Kat Martin 

Gene Mollica

Maxwell Alexander Drake

Dakota & Danielle Krout

James Hunter & Jeanette Strode

Elana Johnson

Victorine Lieske

Jami Albright

Merri Maywether

Caroline Peckham

Todd McCaffrey

JN Chaney

Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Chris Kennedy

Rhett Bruno & Steve Beaulieu

Maggie Silver (Podium)

Dave Chesson

Damon Courtney

Kevin Tumlinson

Dan Wood

Bryan Cohen

Janet Margot

Tammy Labrecque

Chrishaun

and more…

Author Signing Event:

20Books Vegas 2021 – Mass Author Sales & Signing

Friday, November 12th  from 10AM to 4PM in the Grand Ballroom, Bally’s (right on the Strip, Las Vegas). Free to participate in for attendees (until all tables are filled). Must be an attendee to get a table. It is free for all readers and fans to attend!

 This is an opportunity to meet your fans and sign their copies of your books. You can also sell books if you want, although we encourage limited inventory because of the expense and space constraints (and also centralized billing due to Vegas sales tax issues).

We will have over 300 authors in one place at one time, all of them inviting their fans with additional promotional efforts from Amazon themselves as they offer two months of free Kindle Unlimited for every visitor who shows up in person for the signing.

 Authors can sell books directly, encourage their fans to buy copies ahead of time and bring them to be signed, get a bookplate signed and affix it to their book after they return from the show, or pick up a free bookmark or something that you might be giving away. And sometimes, it’s nice to just chat with the fans and strengthen your brand.

 We expect to draw thousands of fans to this event. 

We’ve set up a Facebook group for the fans if they have any questions or just to see what’s going on. We’ll publish a map where the authors will be and other nice-to-haves before they arrive at Bally’s. https://www.facebook.com/groups/vegasauthorsigning2021

How do you sign up to show your books? Get your paid registration to the conference and then join the 20Books Vegas 2021 Facebook Group. You’ll find all the author signing event information there. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/20booksvegas2021/

Refund Policy

I would love to give refunds now, but chasing the ever elusive total cost goal is an effort that we are all committed to. By authors, for authors. We are all funding this together because I cannot fund it alone. And we don’t have sponsors. Conference and vendor table fees are the only sources of revenue for this show (I’ve also thrown an extra $25k into the kitty for this show).

I don’t want more people to get miffed because we’re not processing refunds until after the show. We need to make sure our costs are covered first.

If you do need to cancel, send your request to 20books@craigmartelle.com and you’ll get a form to fill out so we have all the requests in one place to make it easier to handle after the show is over and our final costs are in and covered.

Based on what is left over, we will either issue full refunds (minus PayPal fees) or pro-rated refunds. Please make an informed decision when you register for 20Books Vegas 2021 as we cannot guarantee that you’ll get any money back if you have to cancel. Latest date to cancel and request a refund is September 30th. Rollovers are generally not eligible for a refund as we used all of that as the baseline for moving the show to Bally’s.

Peers not prey – compatriots not competitors. Here’s our anti-harassment policy for the show. We don’t tolerate discrimination in any form. http://20booksvegas.com/anti-harassment-and-non-discrimination-policy/


What’s this all about?  No better intro than the opening remarks from Vegas 2019, from our own Craig Martelle.

I’m Craig Martelle. Michael and I welcome you to 20Books Vegas.

20Booksto50k® started as the premise of an adequate retirement, enough to live comfortably in a low-cost place. A rising tide lifts all boats, an attitude that we are better together. Combine these philosophies and you get the evolution of the group that is 20Booksto50k®.

Michael Anderle and I are driven to give back to the community that has been both supportive and hostile. Yes, hostile, because if it weren’t for that, Michael would have never started the group. There was no need to get in arguments and fire back. We care about looking forward, through the windshield and not the rearview mirror. There’s nothing back there except for the people who said it couldn’t be done.

Here we are today standing in a room of giants. A thousand fellow authors with a massive gathering of industry providers, here solely for you, the indies. Nearly two hundred of you are making full-time money and there are a couple hundred who have yet to publish a book. With all manner of authors in between, but there’s a single thread that ties us all together. Success. It’s a word that we define each in our own way. Our destinations are as different as the paths we take to get there. 20Booksto50k® is the smorgasbord from which you pick and choose to build your way forward.

If you’re here because you want to be successful, raise your hand.

Ethically and reasonably within our own capacity to perform. You don’t have to like all the things you need to do as an indie, but you have to do them. They can be insurmountable obstacles if you don’t know what to do. It’s yet another reason why we’re here. To fill in the gaps in our stepping stones up the mountain of success. It’s a beautiful view during the climb. It’s also great to look back every now and then to see how far you’ve come, see how many people are down the hill, struggling to take their next step. We challenge everyone to reach a hand back and help the next author take just one more step.

Michael and I never set out to change the world, but when it looked like we could, we changed our goals. With every author who does better today than yesterday, we win. We, as in all of us. You’re here because you want to change for the better. Improve your own life. Improve the lives of your families. Change the lives of those sitting around you.

All it takes to change the world is to change one other person’s life for the better. One today, then another one tomorrow. How does it make you feel when you’ve helped out? Don’t give them a fish, teach them to fish. 20Booksto50k®. That’s why we do what we do, but it starts with you. Embrace the attitude that helping others is a way to help yourself. Look for opportunities to learn and opportunities to share. Take care of yourself first, and then reach a hand back.

How far up your mountain of success will you go before that happens? Take a good look at yourself and make sure you’re on solid footing. You’ll find that you may have already come farther than you realize. Maybe it’s time to reach back and give a hand to the next person struggling up the mountain. You’ll find that you don’t have to go very far before you’ve come a long way. And then you keep going, forward, looking through the windshield.

As I head up the mountain, all I see are hands reaching back to pull me forward, just one more step. I also feel the hands of those behind me, pushing and cheering for my success. Reaching back. It’s the least I can do. I take the time to congratulate Michael Anderle on a book that jumps up and stays up, on a story well told. Everyone needs support. Just because you’re in a different place on the climb doesn’t mean that you don’t need a few kind words of support.

20Booksto50k® exists because of Michael Anderle. Cabo san Lucas where $35k/year is all you need to live comfortably. But when he reached that goal, he set a new goal, and another new goal, and all of a sudden, he’s responsible for all of this – 35,000 like-minded souls, earning the title of indie, every single day, every time you tap that button that says “Publish.”

This job isn’t easy, but it is the most rewarding I’ve ever had. I would much rather work for me and be awarded what I myself have earned for me and my family. That is the control you have as an indie. It can be a heavy burden at times, but it’s also an awesome responsibility.

We have people in here who have tried to take their own lives. I am happy that you’re here with us today. There are authors in here who have been homeless. Others who have been incarcerated or spent long stretches in the hospital. There are those who have opened their homes to others, even if those other have four legs or feathers. And there are those who have never experienced any of that. Your life experiences, your research, your imagination have given you the fertile material to write compelling stories. That brings us here today, united in the singular purpose of writing and selling books.

As authors, we can always escape into the unlimited confines of our minds. Even when sales are down, there’s always another story that must be written. And we need to be the ones to write it because no one knows the story like we do. You are critical to a story’s success. It can’t live without you.

And then you put your baby up for sale! We have to do that. We don’t have patrons like the Medici family, so we have to take care of it ourselves. And we do, all by ourselves because we work alone but know that we are not alone.

There are over a thousand of us in Sam’s Town, Las Vegas, working independently to climb the mountain of success, a mountain that is infinite in size with room for all.

We can climb it together. No one has to be left behind, no one who’s willing to work hard at the right things. Presenters, panelists, and your fellow authors are hoping to fill gaps in knowledge so you can pick and choose what is best for you and your journey.

That’s the power of being an indie. We take responsibility. We have the freedom to decide what we want to do, and we get the rewards for our efforts. Besides writing a great story, that means learning a little marketing, writing some ads, bidding on keywords, paying your taxes, and all those cool adult things. No one is going to carry you in this business. But look how many people are sharing, offering a hand to help you help yourself.

You wouldn’t be listening if you weren’t willing to learn. This is a huge step in the journey to a higher level of professionalism. This is your profession. Your investment to come here, your investment in time if you’re watching from home show your commitment to taking this seriously. Don’t half-ass what could be the best career of your life. You wouldn’t be writing if you didn’t love it. Now’s the time to make those words work for you.

I believe that nothing worth having is easily gotten. Your first book probably won’t be your magnum opus. Accept that it takes practice and a continuous improvement mentality to get better. My personal goal is a single book that sells one hundred thousand copies. I have a ways to go because I don’t think I’ve written that book yet. I make a little across a lot of books with newest releases earning good money right away and adding later to the revenue streams. I call it the blue-collar approach to white collar money.

There would be no glitter on that gold if we didn’t help other people. Philanthropy is a part of our souls and judging by the people who are here today, we are not alone. Feel the hope. It’s not sink or swim. Be energized by the positivity. Stand tall and be proud to be a member of this tribe.

Peers not prey. Compatriots not competitors. A rising tide, lifted by thousands of voices, celebrating success, and riding the tide higher and higher. Together.

Werewolves in love, spaceship ass, horse-drawn carriages, fecking clowns, a murder unsolved, talking cats, an endless parade of adventures. Stories and real life. Fiction and non-fiction. More than a job, it’s a calling, a love for the written word. Your stories could provide an escape from the real world, or open the universe for a future engineer, or help a reader learn something new. So much opportunity, and all you have to do is put those words into the hands of the right readers.

What the books look like, to how they read, to finding buyers who will love your work. That’s what 20Books Vegas hopes to accomplish, and we want you to take advantage of the opportunities. There is no place like this and no other group like 20Booksto50k®.

This conference is a place to feel safe and focused on your way ahead. We’ve worked hard to keep 20Books drama free, so much so, that we’re where drama comes to die. It has zero business value, so don’t waste your time. Invest your time instead in the endeavors that will deliver for your business.

We believe that the 20Books conferences are as inclusive as humanly possible. I care that you are trying to write better words with each new sentence, sell one more book today than you did yesterday, manage your author business just a little bit better year over year. Write the best book you can as quickly as you’re capable of. That is your commitment to the opportunity that is self-publishing. That is your commitment to yourself.

A rising tide lifts all boats.

My name is Craig Martelle and this is 20Books Vegas.

Schedule & Guest Speakers

Schedule Highlights:

We’ll start with Industry Day on Monday, November 8th.

Look for all the major industry providers. We’ll list them as we get closer to the show, but if you self-published, you will have worked with them before. And you may aspire to work with some of them . Last conference, we have most major audiobook producers in attendance.

Tuesday through Thursday will be sessions – lots and lots of sessions. Mostly presentations, some panels, and even a couple workshops. We have 100,000 square feet of conference space for our exclusive use.

We’ll record almost all of the sessions, too.

Can 20Books Vegas be all things to all people? No, but it can be the single best and biggest gathering of professional authors in the world to share, learn, and most importantly, network. It can be what you need it to be.

On Friday November 12, we’ll have an author sales & signing day. From 10 to 4pm (these hours may change, but it’ll be somewhere around there). We’ll set up, do some advertising (while also counting on the participating authors to solicit their fans), and then conduct book sales & signings thanks to Wolfpack for their Business and Tax licensing support. Amazon provided two months of Kindle Unlimited for free to every attendee last year. We will see if we can get that same deal this year, too.

Draft Schedule:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YdPyDqQtSytyndFG3w9j6Kw-Re-5L05PXedwUfKtPIs/edit?usp=sharing

Partial List of speakers and special guests:

Guest Speakers and Special Guests (listed in no particular order)

Michael Anderle

Mark Dawson

John Truby

David Farland

Jonathan Maberry

David Weber

Toni Weisskopf

Kevin J. Anderson & Rebecca Moesta

Kristine Kathryn Rusch & Dean Wesley Smith

Larry & Kat Martin

Gene Mollica

Maxwell Alexander Drake

Dakota & Danielle Krout

James Hunter & Jeanette Strode

Elana Johnson

Victorine Lieske

Jami Albright

Merri Maywether

Caroline Peckham

Todd McCaffrey

JN Chaney

Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Chris Kennedy

Rhett Bruno & Steve Beaulieu

Maggie Silver (Podium)

Dave Chesson

Damon Courtney

Kevin Tumlinson

Dan Wood

Bryan Cohen

Janet Margot

Tammy Labrecque

Chrishaun

and more…

Also for this year:

  • Head shots/pro author photos (on Monday Nov 9) at no cost to attendees
  • Early morning sessions
  • Constant rolling sessions (no set lunch break)
  • A late session or three
  • Karaoke

And then my special treat, on November 10th, I’ll personally host a USMC birthday celebration in the Grand Salon.

I’m inviting all our veterans to join us as we cut a cake, drink some drinks, tell some sea stories, and enjoy the camaraderie of those who wore the uniform (any service, any country – we’re all brothers & sisters).

Parking
It’s Free in the lot between Paris & Bally’s (both owned by Caesar’s) if you are a registered hotel guest, otherwise it’ll be $15 per day.

Your hosts for the show

Craig Martelle

Craig runs the 20Booksto50k(R) group. Retired Marine, lawyer, and recluse Alaskan who breaks free from his sub-Arctic shell to come to Vegas! Craig writes science fiction, mostly with a post-apocalyptic slant. Craig hit the $50k mark with his 19th book, without a single breakout title, although he’s had a number of books wear Amazon’s bestseller tag. He calls himself the blue collar author and claims that quantity has a quality all its own. Craig has an extensive back list and a growing group of fans. The most important thing we can do as authors is give back in some way, whether through social lessons in our prose or helping others reach the next level in their journey as professional authors.

Michael Anderle

With zero experience in indie publishing (and practically zero experience writing a novel) Michael has surprised himself, his readers and the pundits that wish he would shut the hell up about his opinions. Basically, because he chose to do things differently and those audacious ideas worked.

Michael owns LMBPN Publishing with over 800 titles available.

Conference Sign Up

20Books Vegas 2021
Nov 8-12, 2021 – Bally’s

A 20Booksto50k(R) Educational and Networking Event

Location: Bally’s Convention Center, right on the Strip, Las Vegas

Cost: $299.99. This is for five days of the conference only. You are responsible for your room, travel, and meals. The room bloc code for a discounted room within Bally’s is in your confirmation when you sign up for the show. 

Register here: https://craigmartelle.wufoo.com/forms/20books-vegas-2021-conference-registration/

What will be different in 2021?

First and foremost, we’re on the Strip, Bally’s! instead of at Sam’s Town. We have 100,000 square feet all to ourselves, the entire convention center at Bally’s. This has allowed us to grow. We have 1000 rooms in our room bloc, but we’re on the Strip and you can stay at your favorite hotel. You will not be far away.
It’s all us. Vegas, baby.

Side Notes 

– No perfume at the show (we have a number of people who are deathly allergic)
– There were will be up to 2500 self-published authors at the show. Plan accordingly. We have 100,000 square feet within which to operate so 2500 won’t be as overwhelming as it sounds.
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