Toronto Indie Author Con 2025

Join us for an exciting gathering of indie authors in the heart of Toronto! This in-person event is a fantastic opportunity to connect with fellow writers, learn from industry experts, and gain valuable insights into the world of independent publishing.

Whether you’re a seasoned author or just starting out, the Toronto Indie Author Conference 2025 offers a range of informative and engaging presentations, workshops and panel discussions. Discover new strategies for marketing your books, explore innovative self-publishing techniques, and get insider tips on building your author brand.

Expand your network and make lasting connections with like-minded authors who share your passion for storytelling. Connect with professionals from our faculty for small group mentor sessions to take your writing career to the next level.

Don’t miss this incredible opportunity to immerse yourself in the vibrant indie author community of Toronto and beyond. Join us at the Toronto Indie Author Conference 2025 and take your writing journey to new heights!

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Date:

April 26 & 27, 2025

9am – 5pm

Location:

Beeton Hall

Toronto Reference Library*

789 Yonge St, Toronto, Ontario (M4W 2G8)

Refund Policy:

Refunds may be processed on a case-by-case basis. PayPal fees are not refundable. We will not issue refunds within 30 days of the event.

2025 Sessions:

Special Editions: Planning, Design, Printing, and Distribution
Day Leitao
Special editions are a great tool for authors looking into direct sales, Kickstarters, and events. This presentation will discuss how these books can help your author career, and how to get them produced. We’ll cover some essential elements as well as how to find and vet service providers. We’ll discuss print runs and what you need to know about dealing with overseas printers as well as fulfillment to Canada and the US.

Author Branding
Mark Leslie Lefebvre
Your author brand is far more than the name and font chosen for your cover, or the bio that appears on the back of the book and your website. A strong and consistent author brand can not only help to differentiate you and provide readers with an ongoing sense of familiarity, reliability, and comfort, but can also help you generate long-term reader loyalty. And by employing the very skills you leverage in writing and storytelling—along with some core questions to consider about your long-term author career goals, your author brand can extend well beyond the mere books themselves and become part of the overall reader experience and journey.

Facebook Ads for Ongoing Profit
Malorie Cooper
Learn how to navigate the ever-changing Facebook Ads landscape in a way that equips you with not only the information to make the best ads today, but also the knowledge and understanding that will help you make the best possible ads month after month. Learn how to identify what works, double down on that, scale, and extend your ads to find new readers and bring back old ones.

Social Media for Indie Authors
Elayna R. Gallea
BookTok. Every author has heard of it, but it can be an intimidating place to venture. As a six-figure indie author, I use TikTok and Instagram daily as my main marketing platforms. In this presentation, I’ll breakdown what type of content has worked for me, tips and tricks for using TikTok and Instagram, and why social media marketing can be such a powerful tool.

Publishing Promotional Scheduling
Tao Wong
Planning a promotional schedule for a publication vary greatly, depending on whether it’s a sequel, a new work or a debut. As goals change, the tools required change too. In this presentation, Tao Wong will outline the basics considerations in building a promotional schedule and show how it might be done with simple, easy to access scheduling tools and promotional venue suggestions.

Win This Author Game
Becca Syme
When the stakes are high and the chips are down, we all know what to do with our protagonist… Yet somehow, when the stakes are high and the chips are down in our writing career, we struggle to know what to do next. This workshop will cover the major mindset shifts needed to put gamification to work in your author career. The hope is to walk away with some actionable steps to make this game one you can win.

Direct Sales: Ditching Conglomerates to Sell Your Brand
Rachel Rener
Join international bestselling romantasy author Rachel Rener as she discusses the wide and varied world of direct sales – making the transition from Amazon to Shopify, earning customer trust and eyeballs, and leaving behind the dark days of putting all your e-book eggs in the KDP basket!

Marketing Beyond Kindle Unlimited
Tao Wong, Mark Leslie Lefebvre, Day Leitao & Rachel Rener
This panel will explore effective marketing strategies for authors whose books are available outside of Kindle Unlimited. We’ll dive into techniques for promoting wide distribution across platforms and diversifying income through author shops, subscriptions and crowdfunding. Whether you’re looking to reach new readers or grow your indie author brand, this panel will help you build a diverse marketing plan for a successful career.

Career Longevity: Building a Lasting Indie Author Career
Malorie Cooper, Becca Syme, Mark Leslie Lefebvre & Rachel Rener
Explore the strategies that will help you build a career that lasts as an indie author. We’ll discuss strategies for staying motivated, handling ups and downs, and evolving with the industry.. Whether you’re just starting out or are already a seasoned author, this session will help you build the foundation for a lasting career that keeps you writing and publishing for years to come.

2025 Workshops:

How To Hook Your Readers In Less Than One Page
Day Leitao
As a restless reader, Day decided to figure out why some books kept her awake at night while others couldn’t grab her attention for more than two paragraphs. The results surprised her. It’s not about writing fast-paced scenes, for example. She realized there were three super easy principles to keep readers hooked. In this workshop, we’ll discuss how to apply these principles to your books, with a focus on the first 200 words, AKA the super important first page.

Facebook Ads for Ongoing Profit: Extended Q&A
Malorie Cooper
Join Malorie Cooper for an extended Q&A session where you can dive deeper into the world of Facebook Ads. Whether you’re looking to refine your strategies, troubleshoot specific challenges, or get expert advice on optimizing your ad campaigns, this is your chance to ask all your burning questions and gain actionable insights to boost your ongoing ad profit.

Crafting an Emotional Marketing Hook|
Elayna R. Gallea
In this workshop, we’ll work on forming emotive and powerful hooks for marketing by first looking at an example scene and the hooks derived from it, and then pulling from our own works to learn how to draw readers in quickly on social media.

A Hands-On Approach To Working with Libraries and Bookstores
Mark Leslie Lefebvre
A BookNet Canada study in 2024 shows that reader preference for books is print (59%), eBook (20%) and Audiobook (13%). So what are the ways that you as an author can ensure your books’ availability in those formats in both online and brick-and-mortar stores? But beyond just plain availability, what are specific strategies you can use? This interactive workshop will provide you with key questions, idea-generation tools, and worksheets to help you narrow down your own unique approach to finding solutions that work for you and your books.

The 3 Biggest Mistakes Authors Make When Networking
J.F. Garrard
Over the course of the pandemic, many people have grown out of practice in social circumstances and have difficulties connecting. By using her author network, JF has successfully published short fiction in books that are not advertised, launched a literary podcast and became the President of the Canadian Authors Association’s Toronto Branch. At the end of this presentation the audience will know: 1) Why an author network is important, 2) the 3 biggest mistakes one can make when networking and how to avoid them, and 3) how to use the author network.

Navigating Canadian Business for Indie Authors: Grants, Taxes, and More
Tao Wong & Mark Leslie Lefebvre
Join this Q&A workshop to explore business essentials for Canadian authors, including applying for grants, utilizing Public Lending Rights, and managing taxes. We’ll dive into financial planning, accounting tips, and show you how to leverage programs designed to support indie authors in Canada.

Worldbuilding through Culture
J.M. Frey
Every memorable speculative fiction story has a world we wish we could live in – from Westeros to Middle Earth, from the USS Enterprise to Panem. The geography of your secondary world is key, but the culture and the way it influences your characters is even more important. This session will focus on the nitty gritty of the influence of culture, values, and hegemony on your societies, people, places, and plot. We encourage authors to bring their ideas for their own worlds and cultures to the table, as well as note-taking materials.

Crafting Enduring Romances in Romantasy
Rachel Rener
Sit down with international bestselling romantasy author Rachel Rener as she discusses how to hone realistic, powerful, heart-rending romances across all genres, with a special focus on romantasy. There will also be a discussion around avoiding common romance pitfalls, crafting fully-fleshed out characters (particularly when their flesh is fully out!), and making sure your plot isn’t lost in all that smolder and steam!

Publishing Widely with Kobo
Tara Cremin & Rachel Wharton
For indie authors, Rakuten Kobo plays a vital role in digital book sales worldwide. Gain insights into Kobo’s non-exclusive subscription program, Kobo Plus, and find out how subscriptions are tapping into a new readership and increasing author earnings. Plus, learn about the marketing strategies that work and find out what promotional opportunities are available to authors publishing through Kobo Writing Life.

The Kobo Writing Life Podcast: Live!
Tara Cremin, Rachel Wharton & Tao Wong
Join us for a live recording of the Kobo Writing Life Podcast, where we bring you insights and inspiration for growing your self-publishing business. The KWL team will be interviewing Tao Wong all about his career, the self-publishing industry in general and running the Toronto Indie Author Conference. You won’t want to miss it.

2025 Office Hours & Roundtables:

More information to come!

Roundtable Sessions

The roundtable sessions offer an engaging platform for interactive discussions and knowledge-sharing. Attendees gather around designated tables, each facilitated by an expert in the field. Within a half-hour timeframe, authors have the opportunity to pose questions, seek advice, and engage in lively conversation with both the table expert and fellow writers. After the time is up, all attendees will move to a different table.