The Sparkle Summit - Substack x Publishing.
A FREE ONE DAY EVENT - 16 AUG 24 right here on Substack! The first of it’s kind all completely free (forever) to attend.
Explore the themes of publishing, power play and utilising your Substack to grow a loyal readership, sell books, memberships and more!
Co-hosted by best selling author
from and Substack Expert from .Our co-authored book ‘How to Build a World Class Substack’ is available on preorder until 31st Aug 2024.
Dear reader, writer, creative, author,
We know it can feel confusing.
Being sold a dream.
What we’ve heard, what we see, what we celebrate in others.
It feels distant, perhaps impossible?
In this (future) dream, we are earning a good living from our art, from our writing, from our authorship.
On the way there, we knowingly enter a dark but magical cave where time stands still.
Fireflies land next to us and take flight just as quickly. We chase them for answers. Just.out.of.reach.
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It’s cold, it’s capitalism, it’s an old paradigm
We’ve been in the cave so long that when we are offered work that doesn’t pay what we need it to we open ourselves up to the offer. We sit slap bang in the middle of the seesaw of yes and no.
Yes and we survive another day, no and we model another way for our peers.
We compromise to get to our destination. Our health, our sanity, our time, what we choose to eat. It *will* be worth it!
We emerge.
Resilience is a bright neon badge we can wear and if we stay long enough in the creative industries enough a tattoo we can choose to own. One is more expensive than the other and we’ll pay any price for permanence.
There are two paths of consideration (at least)…
We’re already in the writers departure lounge whether we recognise it or not.
But wait the screen changed, all the destinations are muddled and the count down timer is missing.
A familiar tale - stranded in the airport on the way to destination book deal. Did we choose this?
Our suitcase is FULL of journals, half used pens and manuscripts that just need another summer of work, another professional edit, another pitch to a publisher.
We hand over our security rights to social media giants, our creative integrity to shareholders and all so we can share a photo of the final destination? Huge grin on our faces, book in hand and the will to (possibly) break the internet if it’s our time to do so.
“Say cheese!”
We dream of hitting the best seller chart, any best seller chart. In the dream we are content, we feel safe, it’s new. It happens but in the eye of the media storm there’s no one to celebrate with.
A thousand empty theatres. We clone ourselves ready for the onslaught of applause and stand centre stage like paper dolls in a line. What is it we have to say? The spotlight is on us, now’s the time; we get this one chance.
Driven by a force greater than we can control, burn out comes biting at our ankles.
We’re ready to collapse… for our art?
Must do more, find more time, screen time clocks up and we fall asleep cosy in a train carriage in front of our laptop. When we wake up we realised we missed our stop.
Or perhaps there’s another way?
Another train?
Another flight?
Another airport?
A more sustainable dream?
Let’s see shall we…
WELCOME you to The Sparkle Summit - Substack x Publishing.
Our summit takes place on 16 August 2024 right here on Substack. It’s completely free and will be forever.
This summit will explore writing as an art form, Substack as a sustainable engine for being paid and writing/ publishing books as the cherry on top of a beautiful and richly decadent four tiered cake!
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We’ve been planning this event our entire lives. We’re delighted to introduce you to our guests.
We hope you’ll join us and them and tell a friend you plan to come?
Restack and share in your newsletters? This is for all of us. The writers, the authors, the artists, the dreamers, the creatives who also like to write.
See you on the 16th!
Claire and Russell
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A huge thank you to our hosts, speakers, guests and to
and who have been BRILLIANTLY organising behind the scenes.