The "Powerhouse Authoring Summit" (Patreon)

So I had great intentions to participate in this free summit online and watch some of their videos to learn what some of the presenters had to say on various author and publishing related topics. Quite a number were geared at self-publishing, which is fair enough but not a part of my current author journey. However there were other topics of interest to me.They sent out the "sessions" each day for 5 days all the while also emailing me to "upgrade before it's too late" XD Apparently this content is too good to lose. I didn't know if it was or not so I never paid to have "lifetime access". It might've been more worth my time to watch a video or two each evening or morning when they got sent out but I also have a lot going on so I couldn't seem to get that routine going.I did go through and see what content I would like to view when it came time by reading the descriptions of each video. That made things easier.Except my best laid plans didn't come through. Saturday got taken up at the last minute by a search for a red dress for an outfit for Sunday's play (went to see Clue; we dressed as character colours!). Ironically, after a literal all day search (and the need to sit down for awhile so I saw Nope in the theatre within the mall), I didn't get home til late and couldn't watch the videos coz I was quite exhausted only to discover today that I had a red dress all along that had gone missing and only found today when I searched for shoes! -_- I was not pleased as it meant that my day before had been essentially unneeded. Also what I wanted to do was watch the video content on my bus rides but my headphone adapter got misplaced and wasn't in my purse so I couldn't hear the videos without being that a-hole on the bus blaring their content. So, ugh.Here's me at the play today, by the way... Today was the play and with it came the unrelated realization of our kitchen is awful I need to empty the dishwasher, put in dirty dishes and wash the rest (and countertops) because omg. Another price to pay living with others who don't always keep tidy and thus fruit flies come to roost. -_- Yeah. After the play this afternoon we were meant to go eat at a local festival across the street. This turned into hours at the festival and at least another in my friend's car having a very good chat, but all the same I realized the late hour and panicked. Gotta get to my videos before expiry.Universe said: hold on. A boy I used to be a community support aide and mentor for called my phone. He hasn't spoken to me in a couple months so I found it important to take his call and keep on it. Only I didn't anticipate 1 hour and 49 minutes!I went right away to my videos. I had to prioritize which one(s) to watch first as they are all pretty much 1 hour. One was almost an hour and a half. I actually chose that one first and fast-forwarded towards the end to get the promoted "secret" near the end that you won't see coming." I now understand why that one was the longest. Where I clicked to, the young author host and the young editor were just exchanging what they love to read and consume and how it's important for the right people to review your book; people who enjoy that genre. Fair enough. But that conversation went on as friendly banter for a good 15 minutes. I had the video on 1.25 speed and then 1.5 speed and they still didn't cut to the point XD The secret by the way was that sometimes you can get away with editing your own work especially in self-publishing. Ah. Good to know coz that's the route I was currently on is being my own editor for the time being.Next I jumped onto one that said "In this interview, Derek talks about why taking a simple approach to your  book marketing is a good idea and why most authors overthink it and get  it wrong."I went again 1.5 and got about 8 mins in and learned that you need to be aware that the platforms you use might change their rules which will impact your traffic and thus perhaps your revenue. Fair.Also learned later on that this individual is like me in that he has difficulty in staying "on top of it" all the time for sending out information, content and so forth. He says that he's found a little success though because he has his email list and also tries giveaways of similar books to the book he's about to release. Also said "be clear not clever" when it comes to blurbs and synopsis. I liked that advice.Also your "packaging" of your book is important. Your book isn't necessarily not bad it could just be the way it's presented.Then my internet cut out briefly and paused the video and I decided to move on.I began to notice that this summit was just made by online video calls between the host and the presenters. It's neat to see it done this way where it feels more down to earth. What feels weird, though, is some of the intro videos are filmed with random things in the background; clearly filmed in his home which is fair enough but one thing looked like the side of a bedside table and part of a bed in a bedroom so not really thought out as to where you've placed your vlog intro XD Also, drinking energy drinks on camera... A bit of a surprise! All the same I appreciate the content I have started to engage with and how it didn't feel like a bunch of older people doing like a "Ted Talk" style presentation and saying "rah-rah you too can be successful here's my 5 year plan!" Ok so that's a bit rude to stereotype it like that but I've seen (and worked) at professional summits with much this attitude of "it's so easy follow what I say and you'll be off to the races!" all the while I'm thinking I've never heard of this person before today so if you're so successful then why haven't I?! hahaWho I have heard of is one of the presenters named Alexa! I signed up a long time ago to her "Women in Publishing" but haven't been able to engage much. So, I gave part of her video a try too. She was talking about using Social Media towards growing your authoring career, but also having successful launches and sustaining long-term success.I learned a bit about her personal journey which made me really moved and now excited to further engage in her content that she sends to me via email.What she said that I did not consider is to use "Influencers" to interview you/feature you. Use "Booktok" and "BookYoutubers" kinda thing.Another tip: Put a link into what you really want people to come to/click on on your platform in bio, etc.Be taggable.and then I paused because I had more videos to get to. I can always get Alexa's knowledge later on anyhow ^_^ I know where to find her lolI also watched briefly a video with 2 gentlemen who seemed to have filmed this for something else and gave this summit access to it as it had a "Q&A". What was cool was one guy lives in The Netherlands the other in "western Canada". Neat. However I wasn't sure that I should prioritize this video because it was described with useful descriptors but then had a focus on Amazon which I am currently a bit uncomfortable with (because I don't really like the monopoly that the platform has become and the practices of the company and its CEO). Maybe I'm shooting myself in the foot by not wanting to use Amazon but I also am not currently self-publishing. I did stick around long enough to learn that Amazon changes almost yearly in its practices when it comes to books. Noted.I quickly checked out another gentleman talking about "making a living as an author". The intro for this guy was like...LONG. Our host just waxed poetic. Nothing like setting the bar super high XDWell they sort of talked about this man's personal business first (he runs podcasts and courses about writing as well as a "make an author website" website where he assists people with that). Relevant yes but not what I came here for. Also they talked about Christian publishing and how that works. Again, useful but not what I'm here for. I had to keep skipping and skipping. Unfortunate.Out of 1 hour and 11 minutes, they didn't get to the point that they described the video was about until 26 and a half minutes. I watched also at 2X speed for most of what I watched til I got here because I wanted to find the point without accidentally skipping over it.It is here that I felt a little bit of criticism creeping in about this summit. So many videos, most over an hour (one I was interested in was almost 2 hours) and yet they don't get to the point of the video. I love hearing people share experience I think it's helpful and wonderful to share. But, with something like this when you only give a limited amount of time to view these before having to pay, it's a bit discouraging. Yet, a great marketing plan I guess.Ok so that 26 and a half minutes actually didn't reference anything useful (for me at least), until 33 and a half minutes when he spoke about typical royalty percentages in different ways of publishing.He then spoke about making money off your knowledge. Cool but not for me at this time. I don't want to speak about what I know about being an author as a way to primarily make my money (and sell my books in the back as was the example he used). Or use summits, courses, podcasts and so forth.Be a virtual assistant for another author. Neat idea but uh I don't think that's for me either.Final way: be a celebrity. Ummm. I let him continue. Grant special access to you and yourself. Endorse others. Get endorsements.He came to this point at about 45 mins. I wondered what the next like 25 minutes were about and skipped ahead a bit because I had one more video I wanted to try out. They were talking about sharing personal info about yourself. "Is it helpful to the reader or do I just want to talk about it?" Probably more geared to non-fiction. I went onward to my last video of the night:How Story Origin can help you grow your email list, drive more sales, and get reviews.I had already saved this website before watching the video in case my access to everything expired. The person "presenting" seems really nice and down to earth and passionate about his site/app. The host was set up/dressed the best in this one except his video kept flickering. Eh, not great. So I had to not watch the video just listen."Reader Magnets" = things you give away or promote to get readers into your content and engaging.Honestly I started to get tired around this point. 11:30 PM will do that to ya! They spoke a bit about group promos which I've heard of before where authors get together and promo "one landing page" for everyone's work/promos of their mailing lists etcI did appreciate him talking about Beta features because I've had a bit of a "blegh" moment in the past in attempting to use beta readers and having different docs sent out to everyone. I do like the idea that his site can put everything into one and also ask questions that you can see the answers to all in one spot meanwhile the readers don't see each others' comments etc.And you have control of the access to the beta copy which is great. You can even interview your reader beforehand because they have to apply to read your file.They also have "review copies". Neat.Another feature is helping you to set goal trackers (like word counts, etc).I will definitely be checking this site out, basically. Glad I watched this video (or a majority of it on 1.5 speed)!Anyway I wasn't going to do a play-by-play initially but then I realized as I went through that my notes might be of interest to you as well and what I'm learning -because your access as Patrons includes knowing where I'm at in my journey and my thoughts about the Professional Development that I'm doing!Alright I'll conclude here. I got through a lot more of the videos than I anticipated. At the cost of not starting the Sandman series tonight. WORTH THE COST. See you soon!-Brittany xoxo