The first week of February, we held our fifth annual Superstars Writing Seminar, this year in our permanent home of Colorado Springs. We had our usual primary speakers Brandon Sanderson, David Farland, James Artimus Owen, Eric Flint, Rebecca Moesta and me. Our guest instructors were Diana Gill from HarperCollins,  Lisa Mangum from Shadow Mountain Books, Mark Lefebvre and Christine Munroe from Kobo, as well as a few others. With about 70 attendees—including many returning students from previous years—we had a fantastic time.

Superstars is a three-day seminar devoted to the business side of writing and career building, NOT the craft of writing. As such, we’re different from most other workshops out there. We’ve also built an extremely tight-knit community among our students and instructors.

The mountain setting at the base of Pikes Peak was marvelous, although an astonishing cold snap arrived the day before the seminar. As an extra activity, I took a group of students on a hike around the spectacular Garden of the Gods the day before the seminar started…lovely scenery, but not too enjoyable with actual temperatures of –15°F !  Later in the afternoon, when setting up for the seminar, we had a room full of eager volunteers helping us to put the room together. Since all the attendees had met one another on the Facebook page, it was like a gathering of old and new friends.

The seminar started bright and early Thursday morning (too early, according to the non-morning people!). After introductions, I gave my “Popcorn Theory of Success” talk, followed by Eric Flint’s hour on publishing economics. Then IP and copyright attorney M. Scott Boone gave a lecture on copyright, trademark, and intellectual property. For the afternoon, we had panels on collaboration (Kevin Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Eric Flint, James Owen), making money in Hollywood with David Farland, the YA Market (Lisa Mangum from Shadow Mountain press), and then Rebecca and I gave our talk on the dirty secrets of being a professional author. We ended the day with a Q&A session.  Afterward, we all met for an open mixer.

Friday was primarily an indie publishing day. The sessions opened with Diana Gill’s (HarperCollins) talk about the changes in publishing from the New York perspective, followed by Mark Lefebvre (Kobo) lecturing on eBooks and indie publishing. These talks were balanced by a panel with me, David Farland, James Artimus Owen, Eric Flint, and Mark Lefebvre, discussing different paths—indie, traditional, and hybrid authors. Romantic suspense author Terry Odell gave a talk on her experiences with ACX and audiobook publishing.

After a networking lunch, Jeff Brazell from the market research group The Modelers delivered an eye-opening talk with incredible fresh statistics on book buying patterns, price points, eBook categories, etc. A panel of indie authors described their experiences in the trenches working on their own books. Diana Gill, Rebecca Moesta, Lisa Mangum, and freelance editor Joshua Essoe gave a panel on the importance of having an editor. Before the Q&A session, James Owen closed the day with his always-crowd-pleasing Drawing Out the Dragons talk.

The highlight of Friday night was the VIP dinner held at Colorado Springs’s famed Phantom Canyon Brewery. At the sold-out dinner, tables were set up with one instructor and five students for hours of up-close conversation (oh, and excellent food, too).

Saturday morning began with my talk on increasing your writing productivity, then an energetic panel about “breaking the code” of what editors are really looking for (with Diana Gill, Lisa Mangum, Kevin J. Anderson, and literary scout and former agent Christine Munroe). Eric Flint delivered his nuts-and-bolts dissection of a book contract, clause by clause.  Christine Munroe, Brandon Sanderson, and Diana Gill gave a panel on literary agents. After another networking lunch, Brandon Sanderson gave a solo talk on going from being a newbie writer to a bestselling writer in only a few years; I joined a panel with David Farland, Brandon Sanderson, and James Owen on publicity and self-promotion. Our last session was on how to balance your writing life and your personal life.

James Owen draws out the dragons for a young girl in the hotel lobby.

Next year’s Superstars is already set for February 5-7 in Colorado Springs. We will have the usual Superstars instructors, Kevin J Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, David Farland, Eric Flint, James Artimus Owen, and Brandon Sanderson, with guest instructors mega-bestselling indie author Hugh Howey , Toni Weisskopf, publisher of Baen Books, Christine Munroe from Kobo, and a representative from worldwide reading site Wattpad.

We are accepting signups now on the Superstars Writing Seminar main site. Early-bird pricing is currently available.  If you are interested in purchasing the MP3s of previous years, or preordering the audios of the recent 2014 seminar, see the MP3 page.