UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Stephen Windwalker

Steve began his career covering the Cape Cod Baseball League and other sports for what was then called the Cape Cod Standard-Times and later the Boston Globe. He studied the craft of writing with Robert Lowell, Kurt Vonnegut, Monroe Engel and Carter Wilson, and served as Fiction Editor of the Harvard Advocate. In 1999, Steve founded a small independent publishing company, which has produced niche bestsellers, and has had exceptional success with the Kindle publishing platform. Steve is a member of the Boston chapter of the National Writers Union. His career includes that of author, publishing executive, bookseller, marathoner, and elected official. 

Website: Kindle Nation.

April Hamilton

April L. Hamilton is an author, author services provider, blogger, Technorati BlogCritic, leading advocate and speaker for the indie author movement, and founder and Editor in Chief of Publetariat, the premier online news hub and community for indie authors and small imprints. Her most recent book is The Indie Author Guide: Self-Publishing Strategies Anyone Can Use. 

Website: April Hamilton

Beth Kallman Werner

Beth has been a professional editor since the age of 20, when she launched PAPER MAKEOVER to help ESL students. She later spent years in b2b magazines, gaining practical training and first-hand experience in consultative selling, Fortune 500 customer relations, and integrated marketing strategies.

Beth has counseled some of the world’s largest companies on product launches, brand/platform development, event production and multi-media promotions. She came to book publishing in 2008 as Director of Marketing & Sales for Kirkus at Nielsen, working with Random House, Penguin, Scholastic, Chronicle and many other publishers as well as countless indie authors on book marketing programs and innovative media projects.

In 2010 Beth launched Author Connections, LLC, to help educate, encourage and empower authors. Her professional mission is to support high quality content for hungry readers. She is the author of Travels of an Independent Woman (#readtiw). 

Website: Author Connections

Ron Fritsch

Ron obtained a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Illinois (major: history; minor: English literature) and a law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School.

He became a public-service attorney representing indigent and disabled adults and abused and neglected children. During his career as a lawyer, Ron spent most of his time writing arguments for of his client appearing in the trial courts as well as the higher appeals courts. This bred a deeper interest and desire to write.

Ron is currently writing and publishing a four-book series of novels, Promised Valley, asking questions about history and civilization and the possibilities for us now if there had been a different beginning. 

Website: Promised Valley

ASIA-PACIFIC

Leigh K. Cunningham, Executive Director/Counsel

Leigh is a lawyer with a career as a senior executive for a number of public companies in her home country of Australia. She has master’s degrees in law and commerce, as well as an MBA (International Management). Her first two children's books, The Glass Table and its sequel, Shards are recipients of silver medals from the Mom's Choice Awards. Her primary area of writing though is for the adult (fiction) market including her novel, Rain, a multi-generational family saga set in provincial Australia in the early sixties. Rain was named the winner in the Literary Fiction category at the 2011 National Indie Excellence Awards, and silver medalist at the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) in the Regional Fiction: Australia/New Zealand category. 

Website: Leigh K Cunningham

AUSTRALIA

Kev C. Webb

Born in Kent, England in 1963, Kev immigrated to Australia in 1971 with his parents. The family settled in Brisbane, where he has lived ever since. He is a qualified tradesman, but writing is his passion. Kev completed his first book, Dream Raider: A Johnny Marsh Adventure, at the age of thirty-three and knew immediately that this was what he wanted to do. He has not stopped writing since. 

Website: Johnny Marsh

SOUTH AFRICA

Fiona Ingram

After 15 years of writing and editing articles for other people, Fiona switched to being an author following alife-changing trip to Egypt that inspired her first novel. Fiona still writes articles when she is not working on the next two books inher "Chronicles of the Stone”series. She isdeeply concerned with issuesof child literacy, especially in her home country of South Africa where many children still cannot read.

Website: Fiona Ingram