Join me in Room 317, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center for this panel discussion at the 2026 AWP Conference & Bookfair. Register here.

Publishing your first book is an exciting and sometimes daunting process filled with questions: What should you expect? What does the publisher handle? What is your role in promotion? What happens when your expectations aren’t met? Five diverse authors from a variety of genres (memoir, fiction, YA, poetry) and publishers (Big Five, independent, Amazon, small press) share their experiences publishing their debuts and offer practical advice on how they navigated the process. (Session T186)