Community in Action
Author Nation 2025 Puts Theory into Practice
In only its second year, Author Nation—the largest author education conference in the United States after replacing its predecessor, 20Books Vegas—invited 1,200 attendees to “find your best life through writing.” That’s a challenging aspiration for authors at any stage of their careers, but the weeklong event in Las Vegas November 3–7 offered clear paths to success through a combination of educational tracks and opportunities to build a supportive community.
Sheryl Recinos, who has published more than twenty books for teens, middle-grades, and children, joined the Author Nation community in the early years of 20BooksTo50K®. “When I found the group, there was one seat left for Scotland, and I immediately got that one spot to go to the Edinburgh conference. And after that, I’ve come to every 20Books event because I found my tribe with that first event,” she says.
Author Nation leadership continues to build on the community aspect of the 20Books events, even supplying a photo backdrop emblazoned with the words, “I found my tribe at Author Nation,” and encouraging authors to share selfies under #AuthorNation on social media.
Participants in this year’s event received an interactive notebook at registration, which included a QR code linked to the schedule, inspirational quotes, and daily sections with blank pages for notes and guided reflection. A multi-page contacts list at the end of the book encouraged authors to not only gather the information that would let them keep in touch but also to leave themselves notes on how they met. As a former teacher, this thoughtful detail brought home for me the conference’s commitment to this year’s theme: “Praxis: the art of putting theory into practice.” The fact that Praxis is also the name of the test required for teacher licensure in many states lent a possibly unintended significance to the word choice, and I went into my first professional author conference determined to make the most of this learning opportunity.
Audience members listen to Author Nation Program Director Chelle Honiker speak during the opening remarks of the conference. Honiker is also the publisher of IAM.
Joe Solari and the team at Author Nation began preparing participants months in advance for the conference through their online author community and the interactive event schedule, which was accessible throughout the week on the Eventee app. Panels and presentations from nine topic categories were organized according to four tracks based on author experience: “Pre-Published Explorers,” “Published Voyagers,” “Well-Pubbed Catalog Builders,” and “Empire Founders.” Several panels overlapped multiple tracks. Participants using Eventee could read course descriptions and in some cases download slides in advance of each presentation and make selections to build their schedule. Since indie authors come from a wide variety of backgrounds, new writers may already have expertise in related fields. So it was left up to each author to choose between following the suggested tracks or creating their own combinations.
Once selected, the app sent reminder notifications before each panel started. Event leaders also used the app’s feed to make announcements or inform authors of changes to the schedule throughout the week. A map of the tables for Industry Expo Day was perhaps the most used feature after the dashboard.
The following descriptions of the available tracks provide a general sense of what the conference was like this year, and what authors can expect as they plan for Author Nation 2026.
For Pre-Published Explorers
To new authors considering attending next year’s event, know that you are not alone. In some panels, when asked to raise hands if participants were working on their first book, more than half the room raised their hands. Panels on craft; mindset and wellness; production and workflow; advertising and marketing; and AI and automation approached the topics from both new and seasoned authors’ points of view.
Multi-genre author Jeremy O’Carroll came to the conference from Australia, and though he has published previously, he was new to Author Nation at this year’s event. He describes his first conference as “eye-opening.” Specifically, he says, “Michael Evans’s talk on data gave me a whole new way to look at planning the whole book creation process.”
With over one hundred panels and presentations delivered over three days, pre-published authors may feel overwhelmed by the available options. If this is you, choose panels aligned with the first track and try to focus on absorbing and processing information or asking questions. If you’re further along in drafting and feel prepared to take the next steps into building a business, all categories, including “Audio & Narration”; “IP Beyond the Book”; “Business & Finance”; and “Websites, Email & Direct Sales” offer open presentations, usually with time for questions at the end.
For Published Voyagers
Author Nation 2025 provided a significant amount of content benefiting those who have published but are still working towards profitability. Presentations on mindset, like Becca Syme’s sustainability toolkit, provided inspiring advice on avoiding burnout at any stage of your career, while some other topic leaders took a more granular approach. Janet Margot’s “Getting the Most Out of Amazon” presentation, for example, offered actionable steps for optimizing metadata, A+ Content, and Amazon ads.
Attending the conference for the first time, self-publishing coach and travel/memoir author Carla King was excited to attend business panels by Joanna Penn, Melissa Storm, and Chelle Honiker, which she describes as “probably worth the price of admission to the whole conference.” She shares how valuable she found the community at Author Nation, saying that she intended to recommend it to her coaching clients. “I think we can learn a lot from each other—fiction authors can learn from nonfiction authors, and nonfiction authors can learn a lot from fiction authors,” she says.
Like with any conference, participants following this track thrived when they were clear on their goals for attending the event and planned how to use their time in service of that goal. If you plan on attending Author Nation in the future, consider which presentations might be just as informative in the replays compared with those that might require more interaction, raise questions, or attract authors you might want to network with afterward. Prioritize the activities that require your physical presence to achieve the greatest impact.
Zoe Perrenoud, traveling from Luxembourg for her second Author Nation, has published three dark YA Fantasy novels and is working on her own foreign-language translations. She decided to come back because of the variety of presentations available. “I find that there’s always something [at the conference] to meet me where I’m at, something that will correspond to my current needs, and it’ll help me keep abreast of developments in the industry. And that’s really important to me,” she says.
For Well-Pubbed Catalog Builders
Authors whose businesses have started to turn a profit have plenty of options for educational growth, but many of the authors I spoke with at this year’s event cited the community and networking opportunities as the main draw of the conference. With thirty-minute breaks between panels, an hour and a half for lunch, and several meet-ups, hangouts, game nights, and group sprints planned, authors looking to expand their businesses, try new products, or set up collaborations can use this time to exercise their inner extrovert, while overstimulated introverts can find a quiet couch in the lounge or seat at the event center tables to recover.
Activities continued before and after the scheduled panels; authors met for tai chi on Tuesday morning and gathered for a “bring your own game” night after dinner on Wednesday. Spoken, The AI audiobook company, hosted karaoke after presenting on Thursday.
Cozy Epic Fantasy author ZS Diamanti attended the conference this year for his third year, having previously participated in its 20Books incarnation. “It’s so good to have other people who will talk book business with you and who just don’t gatekeep. Everybody’s willing to just talk around tables. And we actually just talk about what we’re doing in the book world. And there’s so many different ideas that can work for so many different paths,” he says.
For Empire Founders
Although the Empire Founders track was designed for authors whose businesses exceed $100,000 in profit, this track overlapped with the other three more than might be expected. Although many of the advanced panels assumed a base knowledge of their subjects, others introduced ways to expand beyond authors’ original business model: developing merchandise beyond their IP, branching into translations, or testing out special editions. Additional panels in this track offered insights to new platforms, suggested ways for authors to level up, and discussed changes in the marketplace that apply to authors at all levels.
Dale L. Roberts, author and self-publishing YouTuber, presented on marketing through community building, a topic that resonates with how he built his own career and defined his experience with Author Nation. “I really like the sense of community and being able to connect with a lot of the authors here,” he says of the conference. Asked what he hoped participants would take away from his talk, Roberts explained, “With mine, I just want to get it to where they understand that there’s no secret formula, there’s no shortcut. There is only just taking that action and being consistent with that action, so you can be able to build that community and really grow your author brand.”
After Monday’s Industry Expo, many of the more than one hundred vendors at this year’s event maintained a presence throughout the convention, allowing authors who arrived later, or who needed more time with them, to connect. Empire Founders and other advanced authors met with representatives of companies offering publishing services, marketing, and technology, such as Amazon Ads, IngramSpark, Draft2Digital, and Reedsy, on their own time throughout the week. Some of these connections resulted in six-figure deals.
Takeaways
One the most exciting moments for me, as a follower of the Published Voyagers track, was sitting in T.D. Donnelly’s “Superdraft” presentation and finding a seven-figure author sitting next me, geeking out about his ideas as much as I was. The enthusiasm and generosity of authors whose reputations precede them truly made the experience special.
Through Author Nation, Joe Solari and his team have fostered a supportive community where authors at all stages can come together and learn from each other—and the proof was evident at this year’s event. One of the most amazing things about indie authorship is the variety of journeys to success. Everyone brings different experiences, skillsets, and backgrounds, and receptive authors who have found success in one area can still find things to learn from authors who are just starting out.
Lydia Sherrer, whose full-time writing career supports her family of six, says, “One of the main reasons I come to Author Nation is to meet other people like me. We actually feed off of each other. We raise each other up. I love the opportunity to get to be a mentor and to empower other people who are beginners in the journey or just starting along.” The hybrid author of Cozy Epic Fantasy went on to say, “I really love learning from people like Joe [Solari] and people like the Empire Builders, who are a little bit further along from me. And being in the same physical space together is incredibly important for us as human beings, being able to make those connections—it can’t happen over digital.”
Author Nation 2026 will shift from Monday through Friday to Tuesday through Saturday in order to make the Reader Nation signing event more accessible and maximize reader attendance. With over one thousand readers in attendance on a workday, organizers expect an even larger crowd on the weekend, especially given the announcement of featured author Andy Weir’s attendance. Show dates are November 10–14, 2026.
Early Bird tickets for next year’s event went live immediately after the conference, and general admission tickets will become available in January. For more information, visit www.AuthorNation.live or follow @author.nation on Instagram.
