Writers Conference report

by Kirsty Kawano

The Japan Writers Conference 2023

This year’s Japan Writers Conference was held at Sugiyama Jogakuen University in Nagoya on October 14-15. Presentation topics ranged from English-teaching textbooks to budging writer’s block, using technology, and building fantasy worlds. The conference covered a lot of genres and offered a lot of inspiration and motivation for writers to not only continue their work, but also to expand it. You can see details about the conference here.

Throughout the weekend there were usually three choices of presentations, with one room dedicated to poetry. The more popular presentations tended to have around 40 participants, and considering that presenters were advised to prepare about 15 handouts if they were using them, it seems that this year’s conference was particularly well attended.

All presenters were friendly, open and generous, often sharing their contact details with the audience. This atmosphere was true for all participants and there was a lot of networking and information-sharing. Some of that took place at the Saturday night conference dinner. The sole WiK presenter was Suzanne Kamata whose talk was entitled, “This is the Best Book I’ve Ever Read: Some Thoughts on Endorsements”. She also had a quality-rich section in the book room of presenters’ publications.

One of the topics that was mentioned multiple times during the conference was self-publishing, with some of the presenters choosing to release their books that way. One reason given for that decision was that their book profits go straight to them rather than to a publisher. It was surprising to hear of someone making good money from self-publishing, but author Hildred Billings says that is what she does. She describes writing as her small business and writes to meet the needs of her market, which is lesbian romance fiction—fans of which expect a title each month. She uses Amazon Kindle direct publishing and was one of the writers who noted that Kindle Unlimited pays per word that is read.

Billings’ presentation was on making money in independent publishing, which she says requires meeting the needs of three areas; 1) book packaging, which is the cover, blurb and editing; 2) cultivating one’s readership, through Facebook, other social media and newsletters; 3) networking, such as attending the conference.

Even if you never envisage your own writing as a money-making venture, as an event for writers the JWC acts as a venue where people who see wonder in the world gather—and that’s good for the soul.

Those who are familiar with the JWC will know that John Gribble, who was the head organizer for 15 years, has passed the baton to Kartika Lestari. As of the end of the conference, the venue for next year was still undecided. It is held around the same time each year, usually at a different venue each time.