“I would love it if after my workshop, my students pop themselves on the forehead and think, ‘Duh! I can do this!’“ —Cyndi Hughes
On Wednesday, September 24, Cyndi Hughes is teaching a class for the WLT called “Secrets and Shortcuts for Transforming Your Self-Publishing Career.” In this hands-on workshop, students will learn the insider secrets, shortcuts, and strategies to a successful self-publishing career as an indie author.
Cyndi Hughes is the Concierge-in-Chief at Booktique Consulting, a.k.a. the Author’s Concierge, where she works one-on-one with authors to build and leverage their careers through writing, publishing, and marketing their books. Before Booktique, she had three dream jobs: She was the founding director of the Texas Book Festival for its first eight years, a former deputy executive editor and copy chief at Texas Monthly, and the former executive director of the Writers’ League of Texas. She has presented workshops at Tsinghua University in Beijing; Rice, the Writers’ League of Texas, and the University of Texas. She lives in Austin, Texas.
Here’s what Cyndi had to share with us:
Who are your earliest influences? What people and books made you a writer?
Cyndi Hughes: Louisa May Alcott, Willa Cather, and then … Woodward & Bernstein. And that’s how I ended up a journalism major at the University of Kansas.
What writing challenges have you faced? What have these challenges taught you about your process?
CH: My biggest writing challenge has been making the time to work on my own novels. My career has been as an editor and literary consultant, so I’ve spent most of it “enabling” other writers, and in the process, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazing writers. I’ve written drafts of at least five novels, but I have yet to finish and publish one—but that’s now in progress. So stay tuned!
From your perspective, what’s the most rewarding part about being a writer?
CH: Indulging in the creative process is so seductive and entertaining for me as I write. But now I’m starting to shift my mindset and am looking forward to seeing how readers respond to my books when they finally see the light of day.
Who do you write for?
CH: Most of my current writing is for my business at Booktique Consulting, and the audience for that, of course, are writers and authors who want to build and leverage their career as authors. For my own novel, my work-in-progress is targeted squarely at women “of a certain age” who grew up in the seventies and eighties—oh wait, basically, I’m writing for myself!
What do you hope writers will learn from your course?
CH: I would love it if after my workshop, my students pop themselves on the forehead and think, “Duh! I can do this!” Then they will head toward their computer and immediately implement at least one takeaway from my class (Spoiler alert: That just might be an assignment!). After that, I hope they put at least three other ideas from my class into play as they move forward on their next book. I can’t wait to get emails from them, telling me what they tried and how it worked.
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Thanks, Cyndi!
Click here to learn more about Cyndi’s upcoming class.
