I survived my first book conference. Scratch that. I “thrived” at my first book conference, the Writer’s Digest Conference held in New Brunswick, NJ, on July 24-25, 2026.

But first, I had to overcome a serious bout of Impostor Syndrome.

I have worked thirty years in the medical device industry as a biomedical engineer. In that job, going to work-related conferences was the norm. I wore my name tag with pride and kept my LinkedIn information handy.

But now, I was going in as a debut author, a newbie really, to a book conference with established writers and authors. I was intimidated, but I thought of my kids and their sports journey and how the coaches would push them to be uncomfortable in practice and games to improve. If my kids could handle being uncomfortable, I could too.

The night before the conference, I created a name tag with two QR codes: one with my LinkedIn information and one linking to my upcoming novel, LEAF, releasing with Manhattan Book Group. At the conference the next day, other writers noticed my name tag and said it was very techy. My name tag did the trick. It was a conversation starter.

I sat in seminars and opened up about my craft of writing and my current situation with my novels. I learned everyone has their own backstories. They had day jobs that paid the bills while they also had visions of their writing going somewhere, and some had succeeded. They also used similar terms I heard while I went through the process at book inc and Project Write Now. From crafting a novel with Save the Cat models to developing tension and what is at stake, or developing a secondary character, to hearing people describe the frustration of getting an agent and hitting that 100-query mark of gatekeepers denying them. In the end, we may have had different journeys, but each journey involved similar aspects of writing, revising, and publishing.

Then I heard success stories. Riley Scott, the keynote author speaker, shared his story of 111 queries before landing an agent, at a point when he no longer believed it would happen.

 I also heard from author Eva Lesko Natiello, who spoke on the self-publishing panel about taking that route to selling over 200K copies of The Memory Box and landing on The New York Times bestseller list.

Hearing their stories of publishing struggles and success made me realize I am part of the writing community, and that I can speak to others about their struggles and this book-publishing industry. I got comfortable in what felt like a very uncomfortable situation for me, letting my years of real-life experience carry me from a spark to seeing one of my novels get hybrid published.

It was refreshing to be asked about my process by new writers who had just started with a spark and were joining the event to get a feel for whether their hopes and dreams were possible. I was honored that even one person wanted me to take a picture with him, as he said, “You did it, you’re going to be one day on that stage, I better get a picture before you become something.” Sure, we both got a laugh, but it reinforced that you’ve got to try, as you never know what is possible. You don’t know if you don’t try the uncomfortable. Your body can push beyond the uncomfortable moments to be extraordinary. Lastly, I learned about networking in this special book community, and I saw how conversations can lead to other connections that further stamp your novel into this world.

So, goodbye to imposter syndrome, as I gained confidence as a writer/author through this wonderful experience and look forward to my next book conference.