AMERICAN CHRISTIAN FICTION WRITERS 2014 By Cynthia Hickey

The conference was amazing. I especially liked the fact that the industry is becoming more and more open to indie authors. As a hybrid author, this is an important element of my career. More and more of the industries big names are becoming indie authors or hybrids, putting their backlists onto Amazon and Nook. Classes were geared toward this trend, one of the best being Randy Ingermanson’s class on how to “Be an Insanely Successful Indie Author.”

 

 Me and author, Gina Welborn

 

Janice Hanna Thompson was one of a panel of authors leading a continuing education class on Marketing that was a huge benefit for indie and traditional authors. They gave several examples of ways to market “outside the box”.

 

My eyes are closed, but here is a pic of Janice Hanna Thompson, myself, Susette Williams, and Kimberly Rae Jordan.

 

My agent, Chip MacGregor, won agent of the year.

 

I was asked to sit at Barbour Publishing’s table for the banquet. That is Barbour editor, Rebecca Germany standing, and first contract author, Becca Whitham in the front.

 

Conference is a great time to reconnect with friends you see once a year and to meet new ones. It’s the perfect place for networking.

 

Here is indie author, Hallee Bridgeman, Randy Ingermanson, indie author, Traci Hilton, and myself.

 

I constantly had people recognizing my name because of my success as an indie author and walked around in perpetual shock. Still, it was a wonderful experience and I plan on attending next year in Dallas. The conference is one of the main things I do for my writing career.

 

Check out the first book in my newest cozy series, Anything For A Mystery

 

 

 Multi-published and Best-Selling author Cynthia Hickey had three cozy mysteries and two novellas published through Barbour Publishing. Her first mystery, Fudge-Laced Felonies, won first place in the inspirational category of the Great Expectations contest in 2007. Her third cozy, Chocolate-Covered Crime, received a four-star review from Romantic Times. All three cozies have been re-released as ebooks through the MacGregor Literary Agency, along with a new cozy series, all of which stay in the top 50 of Amazon’s ebooks for their genre. She has several historical romances releasing in 2013, 2014, 2015 through Harlequin’s Heartsong Presents, and has sold more than 260,000 copies of her works. She is active on FB, twitter, and Goodreads. She lives in Arizona with her husband, one of their seven children, two dogs and two cats. She has five grandchildren who keep her busy and tell everyone they know that “Nana is a writer”. Visit her website at www.cynthiahickey.com