20Books Vegas Conference Overview


20Books Vegas 2023

A 20Booksto50k(R) Educational and Networking Event

Dates: November 6-10, 2023

Location: Horseshoe (formerly Bally’s) Convention Center on the Strip, Las Vegas

Cost:  $399.99. This is for the conference only. You are responsible for your room, travel, and meals.

Registration is open. https://craigmartelle.wufoo.com/forms/20books-vegas-2023-conference-registration/

What is 20Books Vegas all about?

Here’s a promotional video we had shot at 20Books Vegas 2022

https://youtu.be/oi8ccDuDizE

And here’s the introduction speeches and high-powered author panel from 20Books Vegas 2022. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTrqmZBt-FWUWnxWD2x5Ucg

20Books Vegas 2022 was by far the biggest and best of the 20Books shows (we’ve had a bunch). It is the biggest show in the world focused on self-publishing although there is something for every author, traditional or indie.

Why would you come to Las Vegas in November to be with up to 2500 authors, publishers, and industry professionals? Because we believe that everyone deserves a chance to succeed if they take the knowledge and experience and apply it to their author business. What if you could ask a question of someone who is where you want to be? What would that question be? Vegas gives you that opportunity.

We had over 300 authors making full-time money from their writing. There will be something for everyone. Be warned, no one is going to carry you and make you an overnight sensation. You have to do that for yourself by applying what over 100 guest speakers have to offer. Are you ready to excel, reap the rewards of your good work? Then take control of your author career.

There is no other conference like 20Books Vegas. This show is predicated on the principle of giving back. It is run without any profit. We run this show because philanthropy is a part of our lives. We make our money off our fiction. We don’t need to make it from other authors. So we don’t. We get our reward when we see others 

We have our Live Events YouTube Channel so you can see the types of presentations we have made along with our daily material. Please follow the 20Booksto50k(R) Live Events channel for a great source of information on all things publishing.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTrqmZBt-FWUWnxWD2x5Ucg

Map of the conference rooms:

Monday, November 6th from 10AM to 4PM, we’ll have nearly every major publishing industry service provider and vendor in the house, in a massive meet and greet for our author attendees. Last year, we have 53 vendors from around the world, nine different audiobook producers, including the top five largest, along with a myriad of other publishers, distributors, and service providers. Browse and talk with the professionals to find out what is right for you.

Tuesday, November 7th through Thursday, November 9th – presentations, panels, and sessions galore. Nearly 200 spread out through a welcoming 100,000 square feet. The Event Center can hold 2500 people for a single session. Platinum, Gold, and Silver rooms. Bronze 1, 2, 3, and 4. Palace 3, 4, 5, and 6. So many rooms. So much wisdom. Unlimited amounts of experience. Nearly 200 sessions worth.

Friday, November 10th  from 10AM to 4PM in the Grand Ballroom, Bally’s (right on the Strip, Las Vegas). Attendees can buy a spot at a table (until all tables are filled). Must be an attendee to get a table. It is free for all readers and fans to attend! Invite them early so they can make their travel plans.

This is an opportunity to meet your fans and sign their copies of your books. You can also sell books if you want, although we encourage limited inventory because of the expense and space constraints (and also centralized billing due to Vegas sales tax issues).

We will have over 300 authors in one place at one time, all of them inviting their fans.

Authors can sell books directly, encourage their fans to buy copies ahead of time and bring them to be signed, get a bookplate signed and affix it to their book after they return from the show, or pick up a free bookmark or something that you might be giving away. And sometimes, it’s nice to just chat with the fans and strengthen your brand.

 We expect to draw thousands of fans to this event. 

There will be a fan Facebook group setup to

Here’s what the hall looked like in 2021:)

Refund Policy

The last chance to request a refund is August 31. We reserve the right to pay prorated refunds after the show is over. We may pay before depending on the financial health of this not-for-profit show.

Peers not prey – compatriots not competitors. Here’s our anti-harassment policy for the show. We don’t tolerate discrimination in any form. http://20booksvegas.com/anti-harassment-and-non-discrimination-policy/


What’s this all about?  No better intro than the opening remarks from Vegas 2022, from our own Craig Martelle.

This is Michael Anderle and I’m Craig Martelle. Welcome to 20Books Vegas.

Welcome to the greatest gathering of independent authors in the world. Look across the sea of people, single drops that create an ocean and a rising tide.

We have doctors and lawyers, retirees, people slaving away at a soul-sucking day job, and even students, still learning what life is all about. A wealth of experience and knowledge is right here, along with the wealth of imagination. The greatness that exists within your minds. And the perseverance to put those thoughts on paper. And then publish those words, baring your soul before the world.

This reminds me of a quote by Teddy Roosevelt which is applicable to all.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

The critics don’t matter. Only the readers, those people who vote with their money. They are forgiving if you’ve told a great story, and why wouldn’t it be great? It was in your mind and great enough that committed a month of your life, or a year to get that story down. It was great then. It should be great now.

Whether your imagination or the words you used to portray what you’ve seen in your mind, all of it can get better with practice. Explore within. Shape the words. And then do it again. Practice is the palette before your easel. I won’t stand up here and tell you that any of it is easy. It’s hard. There’s no passive income with being a writer. You have to work at it. As John F. Kennedy said, who, by the way was the originator of the rising tide quote, “We do this, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.”

Working hard at the right things can deliver a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but isn’t the journey through the sunshine worth it? It takes the rain before you can see the rainbow, but it takes the sun to show you how vast the world can be through the prism of the rain. Like the prism of your words.

The world will turn whether you turn with it or not. Life moves on and those who are staying engaged and building a readership for their current books as well as their future books will be the ones who get to slow down and see what the world has to offer.

Success is a harsh taskmaster. You’ll be enticed to push harder and harder. Only you know when you’ve pushed too hard. Balance for those at the top. Balance for those breaking in.

But always remember why you wanted to write that story. Why did you want to educate unknown people? Because it’s a calling. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme.

Carl Sagan said, “What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”

Seven short years ago, Michael Anderle and I wrote our first books. If anyone wonders, look what can be accomplished in seven short years. Millions of dollars earned selling fiction while also changing the entire industry by showing authors what’s possible, showing people who want to be authors what’s possible.

When the end is only the beginning, whole new vistas can open before you. After you’ve finished your book, then the real work starts, but there is nothing like seeing kind words from a stranger about your story, about your non-fiction. How it helped them through a tough time by taking their mind off their own problems or helping them fix their problems. There is nothing like giving people an escape or educating people with the power of your words.

Did you know what you were capable of? Have you already written your best story? I say you haven’t because there’s always the opportunity to do a little better, be a little different. Find a new audience. Why do old golfers keep playing even though they can’t hit the ball as far and can’t walk as fast? The joy of the challenge.

No matter where we are on our journey, we can always look forward. No one has ever reached a peak and said, there is nowhere left to climb. No one. The climb isn’t about finishing. It’s about looking back to see how far you’ve come. From an empty page to a chapter to a completed story. To strangers reading it. And starting all over again, but though the page is blank, you’re not starting fresh. You have learned through the words you have massaged before.

Like a seasoned carpenter shapes wood and bends it to their will, a wordsmith weaves the words to build a prism that translates the images from an author’s mind to the mind of the reader, drawing them into the artistry and majesty of the world that you created.

Let’s get to the business at hand. 20Books Vegas. Look at the craft sessions. Look at the business, or the genre, or deeper aspects of publishing like alternate revenue streams. All of the vendors and industry professionals who are here to answer your questions.

The 20Books shows have been described as “life changing.” That’s your investment in yourself, because you saw what was possible. Then you grabbed it and held on, refusing to quit. Through the hard days, half blind from staring at your screen from a marathon writing session. To often-conflicting marketing and promotional ideas when you’ve run out of money before you’ve made any. But you persevere because it’s the only way forward. Stopping isn’t what you started for.

All failure begins with the expectation of success, but failure isn’t final. It’s only a stepping stone to get better. To be better. To join the ranks of those making good money being an author.

Success is a mountain that we all climb in our own way, higher and higher. We’ve found that it’s easier going when we reach a hand back to help someone else.

Because writing is a lonely business, and that’s okay, but sometimes, it’s better to be alone together.

Sharpen your eyeballs and brace your ears. All of our speakers are well-established in their genre and in the industry. Watch and listen and if you can, talk to people because someone here will say something that will truly change your life. You have only to hear it. And who knows, something you say could make a difference, too. We’re at different stages in our journeys. And we’re all here for the chance to improve our business, the business of being an author and a publisher.

Be the change you need in your life. Be a part of the rising tide.

Schedule & Guest Speakers

How about a schedule of the event? Some 190 sessions presented by over 100 guest speakers.

See the schedule for 2023 by joining the 20Books Vegas 2023 Facebook Group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/20booksvegas2023


Can I request to be a speaker at the conference?

No – all guest speakers are by invite only. And here’s the list of who is presenting, moderating, or on panels at 20Books Vegas 2023

First           Last

Chris          Abernathy

Sasha        Almazan

Melle         Amade

Amazon    Amazon

Brad          Andalman

Michael     Anderle

Kevin J.      Anderson

Cole           Antos

Stuart        Bache

Celeste      Barclay

Steve         Beaulieu

M.C.          Beeler

Sacha        Black

James        Blatch

Cheryl       Bradshaw

Jessica       Brawner

Mike          Bray

Jonathan   Brazee

Jamie         Brooks

Quinn        Brooks-Ward

Marc          Cameron

Diane        Capri

Dave          Chesson

Colette      Clark

Bryan        Cohen

Malorie     Cooper

Larry          Correia

Damon      Courtney

Katie          Cross

Joshua       Dalzelle

Mark         Dawson

Carolyn L.  Dean

Steve         Diamond

Matt          Dinniman

Andrew     Dobell

Jillian         Dodd

Todd         Fahnestock

Paddy        Finn

Anne         Fonteneau

Adam        Fuller

Victoria     Gerken

Julie C.       Gilbert

Lisa            Gold

Luke          Gygax

Robert       Hampson

Cassie        Hanjian

Nicci          Harris

Rebekah    Haskell

Steve         Higgs

Blake         Hudson

Stephanie Hudson

James        Hunter

Kevin         Ikenberry

Shawn       Inmon

EL James

Pierre        Jeanty

Ines           Johnson

Sadie         Kincaid

Jeffrey       Kohanek

Dakota      Krout

Tammi       Labrecque

Oriana       Leckert

Tony          Lee

Mark Leslie  Lefebvre

Monica      Leonelle

Alex           Lidell

Victorine   Lieske

Jon Logsdon

Jonathan   Maberry

Chip          MacGregor

Jenny         Madore

Maggie      Marr

Craig          Martelle

Lori            Matthews

Mathias    Matting

Catharina  Maura

Rachel       McClean

Kevin         McLaughlin

Cecelia      Mecca

Arpit          Mehta

Lisa            Mitchell

Rebecca    Moesta

Gene         Mollica

Leann        Morgan

Brandon Q. Morris

Lee Mountford

Eileen        Mueller

Kate           Myers

Jason         Neal

Adam        Nicholls

Alex           Nieuhaus

Clayton     Noblit

Sarah         Noffke

Russell      Nohelty

Jackie        North

Bonnie      Paulson

James        Peet

Jo   Penn

Nora          Phoenix

Kate           Pickford

Deann       Powell

Suzy K        Quinn

Sharon      Rice-Weber

Nikki          Rome

M.A.          Rothman

Clark          Rowenson

Kristine Kathryn    Rusch

L.T. Ryan

Steven L.   Sears

Anthea      Sharp

Dean Wesley         Smith

Joe Solari

Kyla           Stone

Melissa     Storm

Becca         Syme

Nick           Thacker

Soundbooth         Theater

J.    Thorn

Melisa       Torres

John          Truby

Ramy         Vance

Michael     Webb

David         Weber

Toni           Weisskopf

Elizabeth Ann       West

Brad          West

Marie        Whittaker

Ben            Wolf

Tao Wong

Jonathan   Yanez

Jynafer      Yanez

Vendors attending 20Books Vegas 2022

We have five large booths that will be staffed for the duration of this year’s 20Books Vegas 2022. They include:

Amazon

Blackstone Publishing (print, ebooks, & audio)

Podium Audio

Draft2Digital

Google

In addition to our five permanent booths at the back of the Event Center, we have some of the leading industry professionals and service providers who will be present at tables on Monday November 14th’s Vendor Meet and Greet day. Some will also be available on Friday, author signing day.

Here’s the list of attending pros for 2022 – we expect most will return for 2023. We’ll update this page when we have the vendor registrations in hand:

Organized Authors

Soundbooth Theater

Spectrum Audiobooks

Dreamscape

Pink Flamingo Productions/Fireside Horror

Best Page Forward

Alt 19 creative

Voices by Veronica

J Caleb Design

The Author Helper (formerly ReaderLinks)

Indie Author Magazine

Chanticleer Book Reviews & Media

Reedsy

The Write Services Social Media Management

IndieAuthorBookServices.com

Written Word Media

StoryOrigin

Bookcicle LLC

Atticus

Well Read Translations

Date With the Muse, LLC

Book Brush

G•S Design & Photography, LLC

Night Witch Illustrations

Lovelight Lioness Productions LLC

Ingram Content Group/IngramSpark

Plottr (Fictional Devices LLC)

Curated Audio LLC

Aven Shore Narrating

The Self Publishing Formula Limited

Crave Books

Ream

Tantor Media

Enchanted Quill Press

Lulu

BookFunnel

ScribeCount

Kickstarter

Genius link (Booklinker)

ScribeCount

Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs

Vellum

Publisher’s weekly

Alexandria

Leonard Audio

Superstars Writing Seminars

Typed Write Co

Acutrack, Inc

180g

Laterpress

Findaway Voices

Jeanius Publishing

BookVault

Conference Sign Up

20Books Vegas 2023 – Registration is OPEN!

Horseshoe (formerly Bally’s), November 6-10, 2023

Complete the sign-up form including the $399.99 payment part which the form takes you to when you finish it. It’s best to do this from something other than you phone as many phones block the redirect to PayPal at the end. Your PayPal receipt is your confirmation. You’ll also get an email immediately from vegas@craigmartelle.comwith the data you submitted. If you made a mistake, only an admin can fix it. That means me or Elaine Bateman. We’d prefer not to fix things like a typo’ed email. Please ensure your entries are correct before you hit the submit button.

https://craigmartelle.wufoo.com/forms/20books-vegas-2023-conference-registration/

Your conference fee is for the conference only. You’ll need to manage your own travel, food, and hotel. Make your own luck by whitelisting vegas@craigmartelle.com so you get our highly informative and educational emails, like the room bloc reservation info.

In the email you receive immediately following your submission, you’ll find the details for the room bloc reservations (Resort Tower is closest to the venue). You’ll need to go online through the link provided in the email to reserve your room. They’ll require one night payment of $99 plus tax to hold the reservation. You will not be charged your $15 daily resort fee at this time. You’ll be charged the resort fees for all days the week of your stay. Caesar’s refund terms are on that reservation page.

Comes out to between $125-$130 per night for check in on Nov 5 and checkout on Nov 10. New this year, the hotel is putting a hold of an additional $50/night on your credit card for your stay. Total commitment to the hotel for the five nights is $900, but you’ll get $250 of that back when you check out if you’ve charged nothing to the room. And if you split a room, your costs will be half, but whoever reserves the room in the first place will be the one who gets the $50/day hold on their card. If you have more than two people in a room, the extra person is $30/night.

If you want a table at the RAVE on Nov 10, it’ll be $50 on top of your registration and you can reserve your spot when you register. That cost will be added to your PayPal bill. You will know for sure that you have a table as early as January 2nd. Plan ahead.

If you are a vendor (as in supplier of services or goods, this is not for author sign-ups) for Monday, your table will cost $250 plus $399.99 for a conference fee for one person (all on the same form for 2023). Adding Friday is an additional $50 for a vendor table, but those are limited. This will be a separate form. Do not use the standard conference registration form to sign up if you’re a vendor/industry professional.
Vendor/Industry Professional Sign-Up form: https://craigmartelle.wufoo.com/forms/20books-vegas-2023-industry-application/
February 1 – conference fee is $399.99 until July 31st and then the ticket cost goes up to $499.99.
Bottom line costs (start saving now)

  • Hotel – $650 (plus a $250 hold on your card that you get back upon checkout)
  • Conference – $399.99 (until August 1st)
  • Travel – watch for the best airline deals or plan your drive if you’re within driving distance. Taxis/Uber/Lyft from the airport to the hotel will be about $25 each way. There was a shuttle in 2022 for $14 but it’s not specifically for Horseshoe but that is one of the drop-offs.
  • Meals – Plan for $25 to $50 per day for food, optimal is much more because there are plenty of exceptional dineries in Vegas. You can eat on the cheap in Vegas, but you’ll need to plan ahead.

Virtual attendees can sign up at this time, too – that’s yet another form and the minimum cost to attend virtually is $50. We’ve fixed the issues from last year to create a seamless virtual event. Ingram Spark took mercy on us again. We get a monthly Ingram Spark code to discount the upload of your paperbacks (first time and with your own ISBN, not for revisions, limit of five per month, or 50 total in the year).Virtual Attendee Sign-Up Form – https://craigmartelle.wufoo.com/forms/20books-vegas-2023-virtual-attendee/

Once you’re signed up, you’ll be added to the 20Books Vegas 2023 email list. We will send a monthly email toward the end of each month with the next month’s details and discount codes if we have any. We will update everyone each month as we progress toward the big show.

Thank you for coming on this journey with us.

It’s Vegas, baby.

Refund policy: Refunds for in-person conference fees will be processed after the show, and the last day to request a refund is August 31. To request a refund for your full conference, send an email to vegas@craigmartelle.com and you’ll get further instructions and of course, a supercool form to fill out. No refunds for virtual attendees. Vendor refunds will be processed through August 31.

Please join the 20Books Vegas 2023 Facebook group – this is where all the behind the scenes information happens: and where the attendees share information ahead before the big show.

www.facebook.com/groups/20booksvegas2023

20Books Vegas 2023 – Registration is open

November 6 – Vendor Day
November 7, 8, 9 – Main show days
November 10 – Author sales/signing day

In-Person attendees can sign up here ($399.99from February 1 through July 31, and $499.99 for registrations from August 1st to the show)

What’s the benefit of joining us in person? Besides being up close and personal with over 100 vendors, you’ll be with your tribe. Period. You’ll be in the drink line, sandwiched between two seven-figure authors and won’t even know it, because we are all peers at 20Books Vegas. Kindness, sharing, and a positive atmosphere the likes of which you’ll not have seen other shows. 20Books Vegas is not like any show you’ve been to.

We’ll have up to 2500 attendees and about 200 sessions. But it won’t seem that big. It’ll be as big or as small as you want it to be because we’re all there for the same purpose – to learn. We have a block of 1000 rooms, heavily discounted from normal Vegas Strip rates. You’ll get the special room reservation link as part of your conference registration confirmation. Make sure you have vegas@craigmartelle.com on your email’s whitelist otherwise this confirmation will go to spam, and then you’ll panic and email us. When there’s no need. Just check around and you’ll find that confirmation. Then click on the link and get your room – first come, first served. After they are sold out, the only way to get a discounted room will be for someone to cancel before mid October.

Networking is paramount – at 20Books Vegas 2022, we had over 300 authors making a full-time living from their writing. We have about fifty attendees making in excess of half a million a year. Dress for the job you want. No one is going to carry you but there’s significant value in seeing how these people work. You could be next to them at the bar and won’t even know it. There is no better place for networking. We are all peers in Vegas.

Virtual attendees can sign up to watch the presentation for a minimum of $25:

What’s the benefit of paying for a virtual ticket? It helps our budget first and foremost. And for you, it gets you access to Ingram Spark’s discount code through the year. We had to do this as one additional level of security to get the scammers out of our feed. Virtual attendees will also have the opportunity to ask questions during the live presentations through our A/V team.

Other people will still be able to access all the material from the show at no cost, but that will be well after the show is over via our YouTube channel and those people won’t have access to the Ingram Spark discount codes.

Industry Professionals/Vendors

If you are a vendor (not someone who wants to participate in the author book signing on Friday, Nov 18) then request to reserve a table here (we will vet vendors to ensure the right mix & match is available for our people). And this is just for the industry table – all vendors need to register individually as well.

Side Notes 

– No perfume at the show (we have a number of people who are deathly allergic)
– There were will be about 2500 self-published authors at the show. Plan accordingly. We have 100,000 square feet within which to operate so 2500 won’t be as overwhelming as it sounds. Getting a room in the Resort Tower is important as it’s easiest to escape to, if need be.
– Come with a full belly, leave with a full mind – we have minimum catering at the show
– The famous Carlos cake machine is on the left side of the connecting hallway to Paris on the Horseshoe end
– No refunds will be processed until after the show is over and all refunds must be requested no later than August 31 (you have to fill out a form). We run this show as a not-for-profit. We have no slush fund. We confirm our swag and catering costs based on the numbers we have registered – all refunds will be pro-rated once our costs are finalized.