Join Author Martha Gies and Self-Publishing Coach Ruth Schwartz for a three-hour workshop diving into approachable publishing avenues. Learn how to find a small press you jive with or how to publish on your own with a little guidance sprinkled in. 

Morning Session: Publishing with a Small Independent Press

Martha Gies will walk writers through the author’s journey working with a university press and a small independent publisher, comparing the two. Topics will include the author/agent relationship, how to research agents and presses, contracts, and marketing opportunities, including scheduling bookstores and getting reviews. Martha’s presentation is based on her experience with Oregon State University Press and the small independent press, Trail to Table Press (an imprint of Wandering Aengus Press) based in the State of Washington.

Afternoon Session: Self-Publishing 101 

Whether you’re a first-time author or looking to refine your self-publishing skills, Ruth Schwartz’s session will give you essential knowledge and actionable steps to kick-start your self-publishing journey. Learn the differences between traditional, hybrid, and self-publishing, and get an overview of the self-publishing industry and its evolution. This high-level walkthrough of the self-publishing process focuses on the importance of editing, formatting, and professional cover design. Discover the pros and cons of major self-publishing platforms: Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), IngramSpark, and Draft2Digital. And learn book marketing basics by understanding categories, keywords, and metadata.

Both sessions will wrap up with an open floor for questions and answers to clarify which publishing route is best for you.

Introducing the Presenters:

Martha Gies began publishing in the 1970s, beginning with scattered local journalism and later, upon studying with Raymond Carver, short fiction and essays. Her literary work appears in many quarterlies and in various anthologies. 

Her new book, Broken Open (Trail to Table Press, 2024), is a collection of eighteen essays that explore a life robustly and thoughtfully lived. Up All Night (OSU Press, 2004) is a portrait of Portland told through interviews with 23 people who work graveyard shift. This book was selected by both Salem’s Statesman-Journal and Portland’s Oregonian as one of the Ten Best Regional Books of the year.

Gies taught creative writing for 34 years, including for three graduate programs (Antioch low-residency MFA, Lewis & Clark’s Northwest Writing Institute, and an interdisciplinary program at Marylhurst University), along with undergraduate courses in the short story and short-form memoir as adjunct at Marylhurst, Portland State, and University of Portland. In 2000, she founded Traveler’s Mind, an annual 10-day workshop that took English-speaking writers to developing nations throughout Latin America. Learn more about her writing at marthagies.com

Ruth Schwartz is the founder and CEO of Wonderlady Books, helping self-publishing authors turn finished manuscripts into finished books, complete with professional cover design, interior layout, and ebook editions—all up online and available for sale around the world. Ruth brings over 50 years of book publishing, design, and printing industry experience to every author’s project and has worked on over 200 independently published books since 2012, when print-on-demand technology enabled the current indie publishing revolution.

Ruth has been a member of the BAIPA board of directors for many years, as well as serving as vice president, managing the membership and events teams.