WNBA Nashville ChapterWe gather, celebrate, and serve book lovers in the
Greater Nashville area and beyond |
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2025 Writing Goals: Set Yourself Up for Success without the Stress
WHEN: Thursday, January 23, at 4 pm PT/7 pm ET
Kick off 2025 and make it your best writing year yet with the Women’s National Book Association’s Goal-Setting Palooza on Thursday, January 23, at 4 pm PT/7 pm ET—a lively all-chapter virtual event to ignite your ambitions! Join goal-setting expert Debra Eckerling, author of 52 Secrets for Goal-Setting and Goal-Getting, in conversation with Brenda Knight, WNBA-SF Chapter President and Editorial Director at Mango Publishing. Whether you’re aiming to land an agent, build your author platform, or gain fresh inspiration, this session is packed with tools to help you define and achieve your goals. Tune in live for exclusive giveaways, including a Pitch-O-Rama ticket and a goal-coaching session with Deb! Choose yourself and your writing goals for the new year—register now to attend live or get the replay! CLICK HERE TO REGISTER Southern Festival of Books 2024by Jennifer Sellers, Coffee With Authors Chair
I hope you were able to join us this year at Coffee with Authors during The Southern Festival of Books. Our moderator and Chapter President, Ami McConnell, sat down with authors Sarah Adams, Sarah Ready, Sophie Sullivan, and Melissa Ferguson for our first ever ROMANCE panel. I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t ready for the emotional roller coaster we were about to embark on. They each touched on what writing romance meant to them, the important role romance novels play in their lives, and how they got started. We laughed a lot along the way, and several of us needed to borrow tissues after Sarah Ready was finished with us! The hour went by WAY too fast and we finished with a drawing of curated gift bags. One for each of the authors new books. If you haven’t had the chance to check out these authors or the other amazing romance authors featured this year at the festival, I encourage you to check them out! You can find our CWA authors and their new books here: Sarah Adams - The Rule Book Sarah Ready - Wished Sophie Sullivan - Can’t help Falling in Love Melissa Ferguson - How to Plot a Payback After many months of reading and review, the WNBA is happy to announce the Great Group Reads selections for 2024.
Did you realize there are more pages on our website than this one? Click above the website header on the three lines or the plus sign to find the links to our other pages. You'll find lots more content and information! And don't forget to let us know when you have news for our Member News page! We want to share your accomplishments with our members! |
January
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Member Spotlight |
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This summer marked 30 years since I began my journey in the book publishing industry. I’m Lluvia Agustin, founder and director of The Agustin Agency, a local literary agency based in Nashville. I was born in Mexico and grew up in Southern California. At 18, my family couldn’t afford to send me to college, so my mother helped me find my first job in 1994—a telemarketing sales position at a small book distributor in Azusa, California.
It was a daunting start. I was an introverted, insecure, and petite young woman, unsure of how to navigate this unfamiliar world. When no one was available to train me, I instinctively turned to books. I devoured titles like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, and Developing the Leader Within You by John Maxwell, among others. These books, along with observing the behaviors and attitudes of seasoned salespeople, shaped my understanding of the industry. I quickly realized that success wasn’t just about memorizing product descriptions—it was about demeanor, adaptability, and connecting with others.
In that small business, which generated less than $1 million annually, I discovered my passion for “the business of books.” The idea of taking a mere concept and transforming it into a tangible book that could impact a reader's life fascinated me. Seven years later, when I left the company as operations manager, we had grown its revenue to $7 million annually.
Over the following years, I worked for a publisher in Miami, then moved to Nashville to join Thomas Nelson Publishers, later acquired by HarperCollins Publishers under the NewsCorp umbrella. By the time I left HarperCollins in 2018, I was the Senior Sales Director for the Spanish division, overseeing multiple imprints with a combined annual revenue of $14 million in our territories.
While I loved my role, I felt a strong pull to support the publishing industry from a different perspective—this time, from the content side. I wanted to champion Hispanic writers who write in Spanish, a concept that, even today, feels radical in certain spaces. Early in my career, I noticed that the majority of Spanish-language books were translations of English works, particularly in genres like Christian publishing. Why weren’t more Spanish books written by Hispanic authors themselves?
Through The Agustin Agency, I’ve worked to impact, even if it is in a humble way, that narrative. We support Hispanic writers by curating stronger stories from the outset, providing thorough research, and advocating for better publishing contracts. One of our proudest achievements is the upcoming César Vidal Study Bible, entirely original in Spanish and set to release in the summer of 2025 through Lifeway B&H. Dr. César Vidal, a Spanish historian, theologian, philosopher, and lawyer with over 200 published works and 18 literary and communication awards, is the visionary behind this monumental project.
Our agency’s impact extends beyond books. Some of our titles have been translated into English and Portuguese, while others are under evaluation for potential film adaptations by major international studios.
Visit www.theagustinagency.com to learn more about our work and recent launches.
It was a daunting start. I was an introverted, insecure, and petite young woman, unsure of how to navigate this unfamiliar world. When no one was available to train me, I instinctively turned to books. I devoured titles like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, and Developing the Leader Within You by John Maxwell, among others. These books, along with observing the behaviors and attitudes of seasoned salespeople, shaped my understanding of the industry. I quickly realized that success wasn’t just about memorizing product descriptions—it was about demeanor, adaptability, and connecting with others.
In that small business, which generated less than $1 million annually, I discovered my passion for “the business of books.” The idea of taking a mere concept and transforming it into a tangible book that could impact a reader's life fascinated me. Seven years later, when I left the company as operations manager, we had grown its revenue to $7 million annually.
Over the following years, I worked for a publisher in Miami, then moved to Nashville to join Thomas Nelson Publishers, later acquired by HarperCollins Publishers under the NewsCorp umbrella. By the time I left HarperCollins in 2018, I was the Senior Sales Director for the Spanish division, overseeing multiple imprints with a combined annual revenue of $14 million in our territories.
While I loved my role, I felt a strong pull to support the publishing industry from a different perspective—this time, from the content side. I wanted to champion Hispanic writers who write in Spanish, a concept that, even today, feels radical in certain spaces. Early in my career, I noticed that the majority of Spanish-language books were translations of English works, particularly in genres like Christian publishing. Why weren’t more Spanish books written by Hispanic authors themselves?
Through The Agustin Agency, I’ve worked to impact, even if it is in a humble way, that narrative. We support Hispanic writers by curating stronger stories from the outset, providing thorough research, and advocating for better publishing contracts. One of our proudest achievements is the upcoming César Vidal Study Bible, entirely original in Spanish and set to release in the summer of 2025 through Lifeway B&H. Dr. César Vidal, a Spanish historian, theologian, philosopher, and lawyer with over 200 published works and 18 literary and communication awards, is the visionary behind this monumental project.
Our agency’s impact extends beyond books. Some of our titles have been translated into English and Portuguese, while others are under evaluation for potential film adaptations by major international studios.
Visit www.theagustinagency.com to learn more about our work and recent launches.
BAP Fair
The Books, Authors, and Publishers Fair will be held on March 1, 2025, to coincide with the Nashville Wellness Fest. Both events will be held at the Nashville Fairgrounds. Click on the links above for more information.
WNBA Loves Books!
We write them, we publish them, we sell them, we teach children and adults to read and appreciate them, we loan them, we borrow them, we give them, we read them, we listen to them, and we share them with friends.
--Lee Fairbend
We write them, we publish them, we sell them, we teach children and adults to read and appreciate them, we loan them, we borrow them, we give them, we read them, we listen to them, and we share them with friends.
--Lee Fairbend
About the Nashville Chapter
Since 1955, the Nashville chapter of the Women’s National Book Association has been promoting reading, supporting literacy, and advancing the role of women in the community of the book. We offer informative programs and networking opportunities from September through May, a book discussion group that meets six times a year, and various charitable and outreach activities
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Questions?
All events, with the exception of the annual Christmas dinner and the Garden Party, are free and open to the public. For more information, or to request a Zoom code, contact [email protected]