Earlier this month, I attended one of the biggest indie author conferences in the world. While this conference was geared toward authors and book-based storytellers, there were a ton of high-level takeaways about the future of storytelling for anyone who’s trying to tell their story as part of a greater body of work—entrepreneurs included.
I wanted to share some of my favorite takeaways, because this stuff is super important. These concepts will fundamentally shift how we do business, how we approach marketing, and how we tell our stories. And that’s a very good thing.
1. We Are Storytellers
One of the biggest messages from the conference: we need to stop thinking of ourselves as just authors, writers, or business owners. We are storytellers.
The future of storytelling—and our stories—is greater than the box we’ve historically put it in. Whether that’s a book, a movie, or a speech, we need to switch our thinking so that the story isn’t defined by the product itself.
I’m not just saying you need to be thinking about other ways to leverage and license your IP, though that’s certainly true. I’m saying to take a step back and examine the story you’re telling from a much, much higher vantage point.
As storytellers, we need to be asking: What experience are we creating for our audience, from start to finish?
That absolutely includes what we’ve historically considered the total product—the book, the speech, the product, or the service. But it can’t stop where that product ends.
Because…
2. Story is a Container for Connection
What people are really looking for are ways to connect with others. That’s the experience they want—so how can we give it to them? How can we use our stories to create a container for them to connect?
That could be live events, virtual launch parties, reader groups, or in-person meetups. We all know that community adds value. In coaching, we often say people are willing to pay more for proximity to you—but there’s an even more valuable benefit to the communities we build in our coaching programs: connection with others.
For example, when you go to a Taylor Swift concert, you’re paying to get close(ish) to her—but what really turns people into Swifties is the community at the show. The friendship bracelets, the new connections, the singalongs with strangers.
I’m not a Swifty, sorry—but I do love true crime. One of my favorite podcasts is True Crime Obsessed, partly because the hosts have done an incredible job of creating containers for community.
They have a Discord where listeners discuss episodes, their lives, or their pets. They host Patreon meetups, monthly virtual Drag Bingo parties, and live shows that deliberately foster connection.
I love the podcast for what it is—but I also love it for the community they’ve built.
3. The Craving for Realness
Along with community, people are also craving realness.
Especially right now, in the age of AI-generated everything, people are feeling fakeness fatigue. We see it on Instagram with AI avatars and perfectly polished content that’s impossible to connect with. People want something tangible—something real.
A great example from Author Nation was author David Viergutz. After writing 20 novels, he realized he was stuck on a hamster wheel of constant content creation. He wanted to make something longer-lasting and higher-value—something he could sell for more than $4.99.
So he created Scaremail—a year-long experience that costs $110. Every two weeks, subscribers receive an actual letter in the mail with part of a story, plus little extras like a diner receipt or mysterious clues. It’s a horror story you experience physically, over time.
That idea fascinated me. What can you offer that’s tangible? What can you do to give people something beyond the same digital experience they can get anywhere else?
4. Personalized and Collectible Experiences
People are also looking for things that feel personalized, special, and collectible—even in digital spaces.
On my first night there, I had dinner with Abby Patrick, an author and narrator who’s Gen Z. She talked about how much her generation loves paper books. They’re craving tangible experiences. She told me she buys every edition of a book she loves—paperback, hardcover, special editions, even foreign-language versions she can’t read—just to collect all the covers.
I thought that was so interesting. When people love something, they want it in multiple forms. So how can we offer our work in collectible or varied ways? How can you help your audience “collect them all”?
BookFunnel, for example, is beta-testing a feature that delivers signed ebooks. These are digitally signed and personalized for readers—a simple way to make things feel special. I’m really excited to test that out.
5. The Story Behind the Story
A huge theme I noticed: the future of storytelling is about the stories behind the stories. It’s not just “Here’s my book.” It’s “Here’s why I wrote this book.” Not “Here’s my service,” but “Here’s why I offer it.”
For a long time, creators have been on the content hamster wheel, chasing speed. But as David Viergutz said:
“The gatekeeper is no longer how fast you can put out content—it’s the quality of the content and the person behind it.”
We can’t compete on speed anymore, especially with AI. But we can compete on quality and authenticity.
That realization hit home for me. As a ghostwriter, I’ve spent years helping people focus on their books as single projects. But with Story Rebel, I’m now helping people tell their story across their entire body of work—in their business, marketing, branding, and online content.
It was reassuring to feel like the industry is shifting in this same direction. The story is no longer confined to the book. The story is everything you do.
That’s the future of storytelling.
—> Further reading: The Key Ingredients of Stories that Sell