Write about what you know was a recurring theme during the recent Indie Author Experience at the Major Hilliard Library in Chesapeake.
The conference, hosted by the Virginia Beach Writers organization, featured a diverse lineup of speakers, including Suzanne Snowden, whose “A Witch to Change the World” follows a witch who time-travels from the 16th century to present-day Washington, D.C.
Snowden, 63, published her first book at 59; she got hooked on romance novels during the pandemic but didn't find any with characters her age. She wrote her own.
“Women my age like romance, and we’re still having sex,” she said. “We’re still living.”
Author Andrea Roth-Ross considers it her calling to organize conferences for independent authors. She’s a member of Northern California Publishers and Authors and enjoys the voluntary task of marketing and promoting numerous NCPA authors. She’s organized author events for the Sacramento Suburban Writers Club and the Gold Country Writers Club.
She is also a member of the Virginia Beach Writers and has lived in Chesapeake since 2022. Roth-Ross decided to host the Indie Authors Experience at the Major Hilliard Library because it’s her home library.
Before her talk, she handed out small notebooks for people in the audience to take notes. Authors are inundated with information when publishing independently, she said. During her presentation, she covered the business aspects that independent authors often overlook when starting out and offered insight into the creative journey.
“The details to get your dreams to come true are numerous,” Roth-Ross said. “There are so many little things to be done.”
Roth-Ross said most of the people in the groups aren’t looking for movie deals or to become rich; they write because they enjoy it.
Roth-Ross wrote her first book, “My Diabetic Soul,” about living with diabetes. She was diagnosed with diabetes in 1959 when she was 2. She had two younger sisters who died from the disease. Her goal is to educate young people about its complications. Roth-Ross, who writes under the name A.K. Buckroth, has also written three books about children living with diabetes.
During Snowden's presentation, she discussed BiblioBoard’s Indie Author Project, a free self-publishing platform through the Library of Virginia.
The program helps writers design book covers and market their work through Pressbooks Public. The Indie Author Project, IAP, also partners with the Library Journal, which promotes the top independently published titles and shares them with libraries across the country with the IAP Select Program. Library Journal only accepts 8% of titles, and the recognition is an advertising push, Snowden said.
Self-publishing can be overwhelming, and being a member of a writing group helps.
The VBW meets to critique and proofread each other's work. It includes retired attorneys, retired nurses and veterans. Daphne Harris Dews said she wouldn’t have been able to get through the self-publishing process without the group.
Her book “Nine Girls, No Boys: Stories of Life in Rural Virginia” follows her growing up in Southampton County. The 85-year-old grew up poor during Jim Crow segregation when Black kids had to walk to school and white kids took the bus.
“We lived about 5 miles from the nearest country store,” Dews said. “Young people don’t know nuthin’ about that and outdoor toilets.”
Her second book, “Goodnight, Sam. We Love You,” is about a little boy’s parents reading to him at bedtime.
A retired teacher, Dews spent 37 years teaching as a primary grade and reading teacher.
“I don’t think parents realize how important it is to start reading to children at an early age,” Dew said. “If they read to children, teachers wouldn’t have so much trouble teaching them how to read.”
Visit virginiawritersclub.org for information on writing clubs in the state.
