October is our NEW YEAR for the WIP Summit community!
Our Conference season begins in October each year and runs through Sept. 30th. This gives us plenty of time to market and prepare for the March event, but over the years, we’ve evolved from a once a year event to an all year community.
As we get ready to unveil how we’re celebrating our 10th annual conference, we want you to be in the KNOW!
So we hope you’ll join us for this fun, and informative, free webinar.
10/8/26 2 PM ET: 2027 WIP Conference Year Kickoff Party!
Register below!
See you there! And yes, it will be recorded if you can’t attend live.
Guest Blogger for the Overcoming Adversity with Collaboration Series
Who do you know who’s survived seven toxic marriages and is now thriving?
I began writing my first book before knowing that I would leave my seventh husband. By the time the divorce was final, we’d been together for twenty-five years; married for twenty. I realized that our marriage was one-sided and my needs were not being met, but I didn’t realize that he was a narcissist until eighteen years had passed. I moved out-of-state, found a therapist, and kept writing.
Midlife Magic told of the first six toxic marriages, lessons learned, and some good things about the seventh. The Prince Was Wrong was all about husband #7. Using quotes from his letters to me made it easier to see and share examples of narcissistic behavior, helping my healing process and providing material for the book. Writing helped me gain clarity on what I wanted for my life. I found my voice. Inspiration came and the words flowed. Writing that second book helped me regain personal peace. I remembered who I was again. The roller coaster ride came to an end.
Wisdom from My Grandmothers: How Messages from the Past Shed Light on Your Life is the capstone of my “From Toxic to Thriving” set. An unconventional memoir, it contains stories of resilience and advice from several female ancestors long passed that I obtained through a channeler. I wanted to know specifics of what it was like to be a woman in their lifetimes from the late 1700s to the late 1990s, and how they used their voices. I discovered that we shared both troublesome patterns and lovely gifts.
Through the interview and writing process, more healing happened for all of us. We rejoiced about the talents and gifts passed down through the generations. I felt able to break the cycle of repeated negative patterns. By recording our conversations through writing, I pass on their wisdom and stories of resilience to future generations.
Many have helped me during my writing/publishing journey. A friend planted the seed for writing my first book. Erin Lund (Sunshine Editorial Service & Book Coaching) suggested that I write The Prince Was Wrong, and Sara Latourneau (Heart of the Story Editing) was my book coach when writing it. Women In Publishing has been instrumental in making my publishing dreams come true. I have learned so much about being an author and book marketing that I’m really enjoying marketing Wisdom from My Grandmothers. Plus, I’m part of a fabulous community.
Through this journey, I’ve learned the importance of sharing our stories, whatever they may be. Words have power. I’ve remembered my self-worth. Wounds have healed. I feel free to be creative in ways I hadn’t expected, and that brings me great joy!
Jo Ann Fawcetttransformed her life after seven toxic marriages. Writing is an important part of her journey. Author of Midlife Magic and The Prince Was Wrong: Leaving the Narcissist Behind, and Wisdom from My Grandmothers: How Messages from the Past Shed Light on Your Life Today. Mother, grandmother, and cat-mom to Winston. She loves knitting, walking, and spending time in nature. Jo Ann lives in Portland, Oregon.
Jo Ann is a member of WIP Society, an annual membership community for authors and publishing industry professionals to learn, grow, scale, and collaborate in a welcoming environment.
Alexa Bigwarfe had the chance to sit down face to face with Pam Sheppard, Auntie Pam as we call her in the WIP Summit Community, to discuss a range of topics, including literary citizenship, collaboration, and the importance of engagement in the marketplace when marketing your book.
ProWritingAid is a digital tool that helps you self-edit your manuscript. A human perspective can never be fully replaced in the process (good news for writers and editors everywhere!), but this tool takes your first draft and whips it into shape. Using machine learning and years of research, the team at ProWritingAid has built a software that can catch mistakes and just make your writing better.
Guest Blogger for the Overcoming Adversity with Collaboration Series
I used to hesitate when people asked how I got to where I am in the publishing world. My story didn’t feel dramatic enough to qualify as “adversity.” I wasn’t a victim of abuse or overcoming a single catastrophic event. Instead, my adversity snuck up on me, through a season of financial hardship, identity loss, and starting over as a mother and entrepreneur all at once.
Years ago in Castle Rock, Colorado, during the 2009 recession, my husband’s work became unpredictable, and the wellness center I had poured our life savings into began to unravel just as I was pregnant with our third child. I still remember the day my son asked for milk, and I stood in front of an empty refrigerator, realizing I could not afford to buy any. That moment marked a quiet dividing line in my life: before asking for help, and after.
We closed my business, lost our home to a short sale, and made the unplanned decision to move to Temecula, California, with no guarantees and only a small trailer of essentials. The early months were lonely and uncertain. My husband traveled back and forth between the two states for work while I stayed behind with three young children, trying to rebuild stability and purpose for myself.
The turning point in that season was not a paycheck. It was a community. I joined a local Mom’s Club simply to make friends, and what I found was collaboration in its most human form: encouragement, shared resources, emotional support, and eventually connections that helped our family regain stability. At the same time, I began teaching stroller fitness and yoga classes, which helped me rediscover my voice and sense of identity after losing my business.
Looking back now as an author and writing coach, I see that season differently. What felt like survival at the time was actually the foundation of my storytelling. Experiencing shame, resilience, and reinvention firsthand gave me the courage to write my first book and later mentor aspiring authors who feel unqualified to share their own stories.
Attending the WIP Summit last year became another turning point in my journey. Until then, I saw myself primarily as a book author. Being surrounded by writers, mentors, and industry leaders helped me realize my role was bigger than writing alone. I wasn’t just meant to share my own story—I was meant to help others tell theirs. The summit gave me the clarity and confidence to step into coaching, where I am now developing a program to support aspiring authors through storytelling, accountability, and the belief that their story matters because someone, somewhere, is waiting to hear it.
My role in the publishing world today—as an author, speaker, and coach who helps others tell their hard stories—was shaped by both quiet adversity and collaborative communities that encouraged me to grow beyond authorship.
Adversity does not always look like rock bottom. Sometimes it looks like starting over quietly, gathering strength through community, and transforming lived experience into stories that help others feel seen and less alone.
Jamie K. Enfield is an author, speaker, and founder of Pages to Platform, where she mentors aspiring non-fiction writers in turning their lived experiences into meaningful books. Drawing from her own journey through grief, reinvention, and quiet adversity, she helps authors overcome self-doubt and share the stories they once felt unqualified to tell.
The 2026 Women In Publishing Summit virtual conference will open on International Women’s Day and run March 8–11. Tickets are on sale and available at https://womeninpublishingsummit.com/tickets/.
Book launches used to be crowded, public events, often with lavish budgets to match the lengthy guest list. But the way we look at launch day activities has really changed, thanks to new technology and the real need to lock down during the pandemic. And there’s every indication that these new “slipper-friendly” online book events are sticking around.
Guest Blogger for the Overcoming Adversity with Collaboration Series
After I had my daughter, my writing life jolted to an abrupt halt.
Before motherhood, I had built my identity around poetry. I earned an MFA, published widely, and read my work at festivals with jazz bands behind me. I taught poetry in universities and private schools, guiding students through line breaks and metaphor as if these were survival skills. Poetry was not a hobby; it was how I made meaning out of the world.
Then came the baby—a twenty-seven-hour labor, the blur of night feedings, the hormonal fog that made even simple thoughts slippery. What surprised me most was not the exhaustion, but the way it fractured my interior life. The long stretches of uninterrupted thinking that poetry required simply vanished. I would sit in the dark, tethered to a breast pump or rocking a crying newborn, and reach for language the way you reach for a light switch in an unfamiliar room. Nothing clicked on.
Without poems, a low anxiety began to hum beneath everything. If I wasn’t writing, who was I becoming? And if I was going to stay home with a baby, how would we afford it? I needed work that could bend around nap schedules and pediatrician appointments. Just as urgently, I needed to feel alive on the page again.
I arrived at ghostwriting the way many new parents arrive at major life decisions: through research, spreadsheets, and a hard look at what was possible, despite knowing that my twenty-one-year-old, poetry-obsessed self would have bristled at the idea.
At first, it felt like surrender. The work would carry someone else’s name, and my sentences would disappear into another voice. After years of straining toward literary recognition and chasing the fragile validation of publication, it seemed like stepping away from the spotlight I once hoped to stand in.
But collaboration offered something the literary world never had: steadiness.
Instead of waiting for inspiration to return, I began treating writing as work. I showed up daily, drafted on deadline, and learned to shape other people’s stories. There was relief in that shift. Rather than guarding creativity as something fragile and elusive, I used it. I built books. I strengthened arguments and narrative arcs. Writing lost some of its preciousness, but it gained power.
In the four years since my daughter was born, working collaboratively, I have published more, earned more, and built a more sustainable career than in the fifteen years I spent trying to prove myself alone.
Motherhood did not end my writing life. It stripped it down and expanded it. I am still a writer. I am also a ghostwriter, a book collaborator, and a co-founder of a community for writers pursuing traditional publication. I got here, not by clinging to the version of myself I was in my twenties, but by allowing collaboration to carry me forward.
Kelsey Shipman is a ghostwriter specializing in cookbooks and memoirs, with over 15 years of experience as an educator. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and has published her own work in USA Today, The Austin Chronicle, and numerous literary magazines. As the co-founder of Write Up!, an online community for writers, Kelsey teaches first-time authors how to craft successful book proposals that connect creative vision with market viability. An avid food lover based in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, she also writes the satirical Substack Cheese Toast with White People and eats way too many breakfast tacos.
The 2026 Women In Publishing Summit virtual conference will open on International Women’s Day and run March 8–11. Tickets are on sale and available at https://womeninpublishingsummit.com/tickets/.
Lisa Carrington Firmin, champion for women veterans and leader in promoting healing through writing, presented the keynote speech at the 2026 Women in Publishing Summit.
At the 2026 Women in Publishing Summit, our keynote speaker Lisa Carrington Firmin delivered a powerful and deeply personal message about storytelling, healing, and the courage it takes to reclaim your narrative.
Lisa is an award-winning author, entrepreneur, poet, and decorated U.S. Air Force combat veteran. Her work focuses on trauma, resilience, and the transformative power of telling the stories that are often left untold.
Her keynote reminded us of something we say often in the Women in Publishing community:
Our stories matter.
And sometimes, sharing them can literally save lives.
Storytelling as a Path to Healing
Lisa shared that for decades, she carried trauma that she never spoke about publicly. Like many survivors of difficult experiences, she compartmentalized it in order to survive and succeed.
It took 40 years before she spoke openly about the sexual assault she experienced during military training.
That moment of vulnerability changed everything.
During the COVID lockdowns, Lisa began confronting the experiences she had buried for years. Through therapy and writing, she started transforming pain into purpose.
Eventually, that journey led to her first book.
Her message to writers was clear:
Creative expression can save a life.
Writing helped her process trauma, reclaim her voice, and connect with others who had experienced similar struggles.
As she told attendees during the keynote:
“With every word I write, every poem I pen, the burden lessens.”
transcript
From Op-Ed to Impact: When One Story Opens the Door for Many
Lisa’s first step into sharing her story publicly was an op-ed about military sexual trauma.
She didn’t expect what happened next.
After the article was published, survivors from across the country began reaching out to share their own experiences.
That response eventually led to her book Stories from the Front, which amplifies the voices of service members who experienced military sexual trauma.
The book includes stories from veterans across multiple branches of service and generations.
Lisa described the experience as overwhelming but deeply meaningful:
“I started getting people writing me, calling me, emailing me, sharing their stories. I was overwhelmed by what that piece brought up.”
transcript
The book has since been used in educational settings and training sessions for military personnel and veterans.
Vulnerability Is Not Weakness
One of the most powerful moments of the keynote came when Lisa spoke about vulnerability.
For most of her military career, vulnerability felt impossible. The culture encouraged strength, resilience, and silence.
But writing her story changed that.
Lisa shared that the more she opened up about her experiences, the more powerful her voice became.
Her biggest lesson:
Vulnerability equals empowerment.
She explained that when we share our stories honestly, we give others permission to do the same.
Writing Through Trauma
Lisa also spoke about the emotional complexity of writing about painful experiences.
Writing about trauma can be healing, but it can also be difficult and triggering.
Her advice for authors working through personal experiences:
Work with professional support when needed
Set boundaries while writing
Take breaks when emotions become overwhelming
Remember that healing happens in different ways and timelines
One book that played a major role in her healing process was The Body Keeps the Score, which helped her understand how trauma impacts the brain and body.
Collaboration as a Force Multiplier
Another major theme of the keynote was the power of collaboration.
Lisa’s poetry collection Latina Warrior became a collaborative project with retired Army Major and artist Christina Helferich-Polosky. The book combines poetry and visual art to explore identity, trauma, and resilience.
Together they created a unique combination of poetry and visual art that explores trauma, healing, and identity.
Lisa described collaboration as a “force multiplier.”
When creators work together, their impact grows exponentially.
This message resonated deeply with the Women in Publishing community, where collaboration and mentorship are central values.
Owning Your Narrative
One of the most powerful poems Lisa shared during the keynote was “Invisible Veteran,” which highlights the experience many women veterans have of feeling unseen or unrecognized.
The poem eventually became so impactful that the Department of Veterans Affairs used it during a ceremony announcing a more gender-inclusive motto.
It’s a reminder that stories can influence real change.
As Lisa said during the keynote:
“Our stories really matter. They can save lives.”
transcript
Key Lessons for Authors
Lisa closed her keynote by sharing several lessons she has learned through her journey as a writer and advocate:
1. Your story has power
Even the stories that feel small or personal can have profound impact.
2. Healing looks different for everyone
There is no single timeline or path for working through trauma.
3. Community is essential
Support networks, collaborators, and mentors help amplify our voices.
4. Authenticity resonates
Readers connect most deeply with stories that are honest and real.
5. Writing can be transformative
For many people, writing becomes both a creative outlet and a path to healing.
Why This Keynote Mattered
Lisa Carrington Firmin’s keynote was a powerful reminder that storytelling is more than creative expression.
It is:
Advocacy
Healing
Leadership
Community building
For many attendees, the keynote was deeply motivating. In fact, one participant shared that they went on to write 20,000 words immediately after the session.
That’s the kind of spark powerful storytelling can ignite.
Watch the Full Keynote
Lisa’s keynote is now available to watch on YouTube.
If you’ve ever wondered whether your story matters, this talk will remind you that it absolutely does.
