Get excited to meet the incredible speakers joining us this year!
Our speakers have achieved incredible things, including:
Multiple authors who have sold over 100,000 books
Full-time artists who have sold over $1.5 million in original art
Podcasters and YouTubers in our industry with 3 million+ downloads and over 200,000 subscribers
And even more incredible experts!
Speaker Lineup
Shelby Leigh (Your host!)
Shelby is a bestselling author and marketing mentor to over 8,000 authors and artists. Over the past 10 years, she has built a creative business that has grown her audience to over 500k, sold over 60k books, and opened doors to international speaking events. Through Marketing by Shelby, she shares her marketing knowledge in an accessible, aligned way so other big-hearted creatives can make an impact and income with their work.
Marketing by Shelby
Savannah Gilbo is the host of the top-ranked Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast (3M+ downloads), where she teaches aspiring fiction authors how to write, edit, and publish stories readers love.
Savannah Gilbo
Ashley D. Shepard
Ashley D. Shepard is a Book Marketing Strategist and Self-Publishing Consultant based in the metro Atlanta, GA area. Ashley supports coaches, consultants, and entrepreneurs to package their expertise with a book that builds their brand through profitable publishing™. As an author, Ashley has sold over 5000 books in three genres and uses her unique approach to help her clients get their books from the page to the people™.
Shep Publishing
Mark McKenna
Mark McKenna Studios
Mark has been a full-time oil painter since 2018 and has sold over $1.5M of his original art. He loves to share his process and expertise with artists who are ready and hungry to grow.
Paula Banks
Paula Banks is an author, speaker, and the founder of EION Creative Studio, where she helps authors build the infrastructure that supports long-term visibility and growth. She is also the founder of EION Books and LitKids Create, initiatives dedicated to empowering young storytellers and helping children become published authors.
EION Creative Studio
Most creative entrepreneurs are amazing at what they do, but don't understand how to turn their creative skills into an income. Kelsey Rodriguez built a 280,000-subscriber YouTube channel and a six-figure business closing that exact gap — teaching creatives the marketing and business fundamentals that turn a passion into a profitable business.
Kelsey Rodriguez
Lara Ferrari
Lara Ferrari is an audience growth strategist who helps creatives feel comfortable and confident online – without the overwhelm. She’s the founder of Lemon Friday, where she shares simple marketing ideas to help you connect with the right readers and fans, so you can spend more time focusing on the work you love.
Lemon Friday
Marin helps authors and bookish business owners start and scale their brands with done-for-you design and DIY templates.
Marin Johnson
Derek Doepker
Derek Doepker went from being a broke valet parker to a bestselling author. He's sold over 100,000 books using free and low-cost marketing strategies. Now he shares these strategies with fellow authors to empower them to turn their passion for writing into a thriving business.
Bestseller Secrets
Jennae Cecelia is a best-selling author and poet known for inspiring more than 16 million around the world with her poem, I Met My Younger Self for Coffee. Since 2016, she has published multiple books – the most popular being Healing for No One But Me and This Is Girlhood. Her interests as an author are to tell stories around life experiences that in the moment seem insignificant but become nostalgic as time goes on.
Jennae Cecelia
A Fantasy-focused book coach, certified by Author Accelerator. I help storytellers and worldbuilders craft unforgettable novels from scratch to final draft, preparing them to self-publish and forge their literary legend.
Kristin Melville
Sonya Sparks is the owner and chief curator at Sparks Gallery. Sonya is the founder of GatewayToGalleries.com, a membership for artists to get into galleries and refine their marketing materials.
Sonya Sparks
Sparks Gallery
Shannon O’Brien is an international school teacher and indie author. She has published a best-selling travel memoir, is working on a children’s series, and writes guides for writers on book marketing, freelancing, and creative entrepreneurship. Her writing also appears on Medium, her own blog, and as guest contributions on other sites.
Shannon O'Brien
Jennifer Martain is an author, consultant, and host of "The Creative If" podcast. She believes creative empathy is the key to solving any problem and loves to help others find clarity, confidence, and inspiration.
As J. Martain, she writes speculative fiction exploring family and soul connections—mixing genres with generous dollops of laughter, tears, and everyday strangeness. (And hurricanes, because she's native to coastal North Carolina and very familiar with them!)
J. Martain
Emma Sian Pritchard
Emma is a professional artist who has been selling her work full-time since 2003. Her work is held in galleries and collections internationally, including UK, America, Nepal, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia. Her work has been featured on television and in publications such as 25 Beautiful Homes and Cardiff Life magazine.
Tammi Labrecque
Tammi Labrecque lives in Central Maine with three spoiled cats, two neurotic dogs, and dozens of fictional characters that keep her awake nights. She writes under a few pen names across several genres, including urban fantasy, thriller, and LitRPG. Under her own name, you can find her writing romance novels that no one reads or teaching at newsletterninja.net.
Newsletter Ninja