The first weekend of November, about 60 authors hailing from SparkPress and our sister presses, She Writes Press and SheBooks, made the pilgrimage to Carefree, Arizona for our bi-annual women’s author retreat. If you were unable to attend, not to fret! We’ll recap the weekend for you—and maybe you can join us in 2020!

The weekend kicked off on Thursday night with a Welcome Cocktail Mixer. It was few hours with a beautiful sunset view at the Boulders Resort, with an open bar and plenty of appetizers and desserts. Authors had the time to meet each other, and many staff members attended, offering the opportunity to chat with the people who make the books happen. The staff took turns with polaroid cameras to capture the night, and the next morning the photos were strung up on a “welcome” display with twinkling lights.

Friday morning, after registration, there was a beautiful breakfast spread while Crystal Patriarche, the CEO of our parent company, SparkPoint Studio, welcomed everyone to the event and introduced Brooke Warner, our publisher. At that point, Brooke took the stage and gave a talk about the state of the Presses. She talked about the cool things happening, like SheBooks joining the SparkPoint family, the introduction of the STEP scholarship, and the increased perception of legitimacy of hybrid publishing. She also talked about the importance of women telling their stories in today’s world.

Following Brooke’s talk, there was an Industry Insiders’ panel. Representatives from Publishers Weekly, Ingram Publisher Services, and The Poisoned Pen bookstore (a well-known indie bookstore in Scottsdale) took the stage, along with Jennifer Unter, who is the agent for all of the authors who come to us un-agented. Brooke moderated the panel, asking the burning questions we know authors have about how everything works. After the panel, each author was asked to stand up and give their name, the title of their book(s), publication season, and genre.

After a delicious lunch, the panelists moved to the next room for roundtable discussions. Each had their own table where authors could join them and ask anything that dives deeper than what was discussed on the panel. There was an additional table for the Editorial Managers from the three imprints so authors could ask questions about metadata.

Upon the closing of the roundtables, the publicity panel began in the next room. Crystal moderated and represented BookSparks, our in-house publicity team. She was joined by Sabrina Dax, a representative from JKS Communications, and Playback Productions. They discussed best practices with publicity, building your social media platform, and answered author questions.

After the publicity panel, authors had some down-time before dinner. Many took the opportunity to snap some pictures with their author sisters at our photo wall, grab a note of encouragement or leave one for someone else, or snag some swag from the swag table.

That night, there was a formal sit-down dinner with a keynote speech from Jesmyn Ward. Ward is the first woman to ever win the National Book Award twice. Her speech was spellbinding—the audience was completely entranced and no one stirred. She spoke about racism through the ages, her writing, and the hopes she has for her children.

On Saturday morning, authors breezed through breakfast before heading to Jesmyn’s writing workshop. She gave them two chapters to read as examples, and three writing exercises. A few authors had the opportunity to share what they wrote. Afterward, there was a Q&A and an opportunity to take a picture with Jesmyn and a complimentary signed copy of her book, Sing, Unburied, Sing.

At noon, there was a lunch break, followed by a talk between one of our Project Managers, Lauren Wise, and Katie Donelan of BookBub. Katie talked about the reader demographics and habits, how to maximize your BookBub deal, and answered author questions.

When the Katie and Lauren wrapped up, some of the authors took the stage. We asked eight authors who have done amazing things with their books to be ambassadors. Brooke moderated an Ask Me Anything session with these eight ambassadors to cover everything from innovative ways to maximize your publicity to crossing genres to creating content.

While authors still had many more questions, eventually the AMA had to come to an end. There was some free time, which authors who hadn’t had a chance to yet used to record interviews for Brooke’s podcast, Write-Minded, before going off in groups for dinner at one of the nearby restaurants.

That night, authors reconvened at a campfire, and about 40 of the authors read two-minute excerpts from their books. It was a lovely, low-key event just for the authors, with just a couple staff to keep it from running over.

The event wrapped Sunday morning with one last breakfast and some goodbye hugs—authors promising to come to one another’s events and having one last chance to chat before heading back to reality.