 October 17, 2018 I got the call (as I was entering Home Depot) that my book was accepted for publication by Morgan James Publishing (MJP)! I had been in contact with Karen Anderson, MJP Associate Publisher, since January about my book and the work I still needed to do. So when she called me that day, it felt like a giant leap forward in getting my book, Discovering My Scars, into the world! Fast forward over a year later, with my book now in hand and book to be released to the public January 2020, I got an email about the MJP Next Level training event. 
I liked the idea of going, but it was a big commitment in terms of time, four days of training and travel, as well as the expense involved. To help me decide, I contacted Emily Bernath, another MJP author, to get her thoughts on the event. After talking to her, I decided to attend! I was pretty nervous when I headed down to the event from my hotel room. I didn’t know anyone who would be there, and what kind of training it would be. Right away, I saw friendly faces and nice people came to sit at my table. We all introduced ourselves at the table and I felt like I was with “my people.” As an introvert, I don’t gain energy by being around a lot of new people, and being shy, I find it challenging to just go up to people and start a conversation. So, I didn’t venture too far outside of my table, but did make some good connections and for some reason, I got the nerve to talk to someone at the sink in the bathroom!  The Sessions.There were 8 sessions, each about 90 minutes long. I very much appreciated the hot tea available all day to keep me going (and warm, hotel session rooms always seem to be cold)! Overall, I took lots of notes, felt inspired, learned a lot, and felt encouraged to keep moving forward with marketing my book. I did not connect to all the speakers, and did not appreciate some of the pitches for services the speakers offered, but I did get a lot of out the training. Most of all, I connected with many MJP authors, in person, and have begun to cultivate a network of resources in my industry. Would I go again?Maybe. It was a lot of information, and I am still going through my notes to implement some of the ideas. I could see myself going once a year, or every few years for new best-practices and fresh inspiration. Feedback.I wish there had been an opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves, especially so we could identify books that might be in the same genre as ours. I would have also liked a breakout session or two for the attendees to work together on ideas we learned in the sessions. I also think it would have been nice to have a small easel at each seat for the authors to put their book on in front of them. That way we could put a face to the book, and vice versa. Lastly, I got to meet Karen Anderson in person, hand her my finished book, and thank her for being a driving force in getting my book published! If you are considering going to the Next Level conference and have any questions, feel free to
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