The Southern California Writers' Conference

This weekend, we headed down to the Southern California Writers' Conference to talk about the state of the publishing industry - where it is and where it's going. We met with several writers, both casually and on purpose, to discuss their projects, their hopes for their writing careers, and their experiences of the conference itself.

On Saturday afternoon, we answered a wide variety of questions on publishing, dealing with everything from the changes in big house publishing to the pros and cons of indie and self-publishing experiences. Of course we love boutique publishing best of all - because that's what we do - but the wide range of practices among small and mid-size publishers makes for an interesting discussion regardless.

Our own Mike Sirota spoke on Saturday morning about what he calls his "three writing careers," the third of which we launched just over a week ago with the release of Fire Dance. Michele Scott, soon to be releasing Happy Hour with us, did a series of probing one-on-one manuscript reviews. Overall, it was a great opportunity to meet with new and growing talent. We're excited to go back, and so thankful to Wes Albers and Michael Steven Gregory for allowing us to take part in the annual event.