Saturday 9 February
2:30pm – 3:30pm Cracking it

More than ever, self-publishing is an option for all writers. This is a practical, how-to-do-it session in which seasoned authors talk the nuts and bolts of self-publishing. Jared Gulian successfully self-published his novel The End of Billy Knight, which became a gay best-seller. Interestingly he took back the rights to his nonfiction book Moon over Martinborough from titan Penguin Random House (where it was only just surviving) and self-published it so that it took off and reached No. 4 globally as the best rural humour memoir on Amazon. Author Peter Wells, after a lifetime with established publishers, decided to self-publish Hello Darkness and he talks about what he’s learned. This is a panel about empowering LGBTQI authors so they can sidestep the overwhelmingly hetero-identified major publishing companies. How to do it. What not to do.

Chaired by Douglas Lloyd Jenkins who, after a lifetime as an award-winning nonfiction writer, has decided to step out into self-publishing with his first gay novel.