Too much fun at RT (or how I went to the convention and lived to tell about it)
(Technology caveat - I had this all written with lots of cool pictures and lost it! Fortunately, I could see the writing on the wall or whatever, so I saved it to a file. Unfortunately, all the pictures got lost and won't come back, and blogspot won't let me re-add them. I'll try to post an addendum tomorrow with pictures)
It's actually warm here in the Great White North! I promised I'd blog last week, which always seems like a good idea until the day comes (or until the day gets going, and you say - oh $$%%^^, I promised I'd blog!)
In trying to keep with my theme of top 10 lists (familiar to the legions of you who actually read my last 2 blogs ;), I'll try to create list of the top ten things I loved about RT and why I hope to beg, plead, and promise sexual favors to my husband so I can go again (okay, that was probably more than you needed to know)
And so, this time in no particular order other than the speed at which they hop into my head:
1. Meeting my editor, Catherine Snodgrass. Besides the fact that this was the first conference I've been to since I was published by AQ, and it was cool just being able to say "I met my editor", she was gracious, inspirational, kept us all on the straight and narrow (as best she could), and actually knew what she was doing. I sat with her on the AQ 'meet the publisher' thing and learned a lot about AQ from her talk. She made some not too subtle comments about how I haven't been the most prolific AQ author since last year's Heat Wave contest win, which was a bit of a subtle kick in the ass to get writing. She also very kindly said she thought my latest story "Cooking With K.C." was the best of my 3, and since she included it in her latest blog - list of recommended reads, I guess she meant it!
2. Meeting everyone else! It was great to put faces, and locations, to names, and to get a chance to focus on what everyone else's past, interests, writing, etc., are. Also fun to know who is in the Amberpaxes with me. Makes me more comfortable emailing them personally with ideas or questions in the futu re. Makes me more comfortable heckling them when they ... (I wouldn't do that!) .
3. Meeting the reviewers. As far as networking, I found this really useful, as they talked about submitting stories for review, doing chats, talked about promo opportunities, and encouraged us to contact them. For me, it was a great chance to say thank you for the great reviews for my first story Reunion. I especially enjoyed meeting Karen Simpson and her husband from Coffee Time Romance, who were everywhere, very friendly, and have great Southern accents!
4. Learning what promo works and what doesn't. Next time I will: not make up newsletters (there's so much paper there!!!), make up more notebooks (went like hotcakes), make up smaller bookmarks, and try to get more AQ authors to go in on excerpt CDs, which were also popular and which I grabbed in droves.
5. Erotica is hot! I know, that's a bit of stating the obvious, but I was really amazed and impressed at the high profile of erotica at the conference and its popularity with readers, as evidenced by how popular the erotica authors were at the bookfair. It was also interesting to hear the comments from other authors about how well their erotica vs. straight romance was selling.
6. The parties. (yes, honey, we were working really hard all week!) This is definitely not RWA, which I went to for 3 years back in the 90s. The fact that the parties are free was a bit mind boggling, and I definitely felt like I got my money's worth going to the conference.
7. The welcome from RT. I was really impressed with how welcome RT made everyone, and every author, feel, no matter what formats your stories were in or how many you had out. I also really liked the different nametags, including the 'aspiring author' ones. They allowed us to start conversations with people about what they're writing and how their stories were going. I would have loved that kind of encouragement when I went to conferences with stories in the drawer but nothing yet published. And Kathryn Falk was everywhere! She talked to you and remembered the conversations later. There were a zillion people there. No wonder she's been so successful.
8. The workshops. I went to one other publisher's forum, and it was interesting to learn how other publishers do things and the choices they make that are different from AQs. I also went to the romantic comedy workshop, which was funny (big surprise) and a little light on content, but I definetly learned a few things.
9 & 10. (I'll combine these since they go together) The bookfair and sitting next to Cathy Linz. It was long and tiring, and all I had are ebooks and figured I wouldn't sell anything, but I went for the experience and to hand out promo. I almost fell over when someone came by looking for ebooks and I sold one! I also had the unbelievable fortune of sitting next to Cathie Linz, which was amazing for me because I'm a big fan of her books. She was lovely and gracious, excited for me when I sold my CD, and we had lunch after the bookfair.
It was a great ending to an amazing week!!!
Obligatory shameless self promotion: Check out my latest erotica/romantic comedy, Cooking With K.C., http://www.amberquill.com/CookingWithKC.html, about a caterer rediscovering her sexuality with her next door neighbor. But don't read it when you're hungry!
For further updates, and hopefully a picture gallery soon, check out my website at www.kelsey-lewis.com
It's actually warm here in the Great White North! I promised I'd blog last week, which always seems like a good idea until the day comes (or until the day gets going, and you say - oh $$%%^^, I promised I'd blog!)
In trying to keep with my theme of top 10 lists (familiar to the legions of you who actually read my last 2 blogs ;), I'll try to create list of the top ten things I loved about RT and why I hope to beg, plead, and promise sexual favors to my husband so I can go again (okay, that was probably more than you needed to know)
And so, this time in no particular order other than the speed at which they hop into my head:
1. Meeting my editor, Catherine Snodgrass. Besides the fact that this was the first conference I've been to since I was published by AQ, and it was cool just being able to say "I met my editor", she was gracious, inspirational, kept us all on the straight and narrow (as best she could), and actually knew what she was doing. I sat with her on the AQ 'meet the publisher' thing and learned a lot about AQ from her talk. She made some not too subtle comments about how I haven't been the most prolific AQ author since last year's Heat Wave contest win, which was a bit of a subtle kick in the ass to get writing. She also very kindly said she thought my latest story "Cooking With K.C." was the best of my 3, and since she included it in her latest blog - list of recommended reads, I guess she meant it!
2. Meeting everyone else! It was great to put faces, and locations, to names, and to get a chance to focus on what everyone else's past, interests, writing, etc., are. Also fun to know who is in the Amberpaxes with me. Makes me more comfortable emailing them personally with ideas or questions in the futu re. Makes me more comfortable heckling them when they ... (I wouldn't do that!) .
3. Meeting the reviewers. As far as networking, I found this really useful, as they talked about submitting stories for review, doing chats, talked about promo opportunities, and encouraged us to contact them. For me, it was a great chance to say thank you for the great reviews for my first story Reunion. I especially enjoyed meeting Karen Simpson and her husband from Coffee Time Romance, who were everywhere, very friendly, and have great Southern accents!
4. Learning what promo works and what doesn't. Next time I will: not make up newsletters (there's so much paper there!!!), make up more notebooks (went like hotcakes), make up smaller bookmarks, and try to get more AQ authors to go in on excerpt CDs, which were also popular and which I grabbed in droves.
5. Erotica is hot! I know, that's a bit of stating the obvious, but I was really amazed and impressed at the high profile of erotica at the conference and its popularity with readers, as evidenced by how popular the erotica authors were at the bookfair. It was also interesting to hear the comments from other authors about how well their erotica vs. straight romance was selling.
6. The parties. (yes, honey, we were working really hard all week!) This is definitely not RWA, which I went to for 3 years back in the 90s. The fact that the parties are free was a bit mind boggling, and I definitely felt like I got my money's worth going to the conference.
7. The welcome from RT. I was really impressed with how welcome RT made everyone, and every author, feel, no matter what formats your stories were in or how many you had out. I also really liked the different nametags, including the 'aspiring author' ones. They allowed us to start conversations with people about what they're writing and how their stories were going. I would have loved that kind of encouragement when I went to conferences with stories in the drawer but nothing yet published. And Kathryn Falk was everywhere! She talked to you and remembered the conversations later. There were a zillion people there. No wonder she's been so successful.
8. The workshops. I went to one other publisher's forum, and it was interesting to learn how other publishers do things and the choices they make that are different from AQs. I also went to the romantic comedy workshop, which was funny (big surprise) and a little light on content, but I definetly learned a few things.
9 & 10. (I'll combine these since they go together) The bookfair and sitting next to Cathy Linz. It was long and tiring, and all I had are ebooks and figured I wouldn't sell anything, but I went for the experience and to hand out promo. I almost fell over when someone came by looking for ebooks and I sold one! I also had the unbelievable fortune of sitting next to Cathie Linz, which was amazing for me because I'm a big fan of her books. She was lovely and gracious, excited for me when I sold my CD, and we had lunch after the bookfair.
It was a great ending to an amazing week!!!
Obligatory shameless self promotion: Check out my latest erotica/romantic comedy, Cooking With K.C., http://www.amberquill.com/CookingWithKC.html, about a caterer rediscovering her sexuality with her next door neighbor. But don't read it when you're hungry!
For further updates, and hopefully a picture gallery soon, check out my website at www.kelsey-lewis.com
posted by Kelsey Lewis at 12:22 PM
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