RWA National: The Contemporary Romance Market

Authors Susan Andersen, Robyn Carr, and Kristan Higgins, joined by agent Maria Carvainis and ably moderated by Jill Shalvis, conducted this panel discussion on the state of the contemporary romance market. Here are some highlights from their talk:

1. •Readers are engaged by the intimate worlds that have been created by the author, to the extent that the locale itself is practically a character.
   

2. •Writers distinguish themselves from others through their voice and tone--that’s what differentiates the books.
   

3. •Fewer accounts are buying books in all markets, likely as a result of the recession and changed buying habits, not because of e-books.
   

4. •Weathering the market takes stamina (keep writing!) and a strong belief in self.
   

5. •Each author knew clearly what she offered readers in terms of their individual voices and the tone of their books.
   

6. •Author branding is a good thing if you can express it clearly in a few words, but you can’t identify your brand until you’ve written a few books. Brand emerges from the writing, not the other way around.
   

7. •It’s smart to read extensively in your chosen market to see what readers are buying, however...
   

8. •Modeling your books on what successful authors are writing is bad advice.
   

9. •Find a support group who will be truthful with you. In the case of an agent, seek one who will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.

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RWA National: The Quick-Release Trilogy

Authors Zoe Archer, Tessa Dare, Monica McCarty, Christy Reece, and Stefanie Sloane all know what releasing a trilogy of books can do for a career (launch a debut author, facilitate a change in direction, or take it to the next level), and they were kind enough to share it. Some highlights:

1. • Trilogies are a way to get an author’s name out faster. They also keep books in the stores longer.

2. •Readers like discovering more about characters from previous books in linked series.
   

3. •One challenge to writing linked series books is the gap between the initial sale and the later books, since the author’s enthusiasm can lag and that will color the writing.
   

4. •As the series progresses, the time to work on the books shrinks when you add in revisions, copyedits, and page proofs. Build in a couple of months onto the last book to accommodate this.
   

5. •A second contract might be harder to get because numbers won’t have arrived from the first contract’s sales yet.
   

6. •Promo can be simplified because the promo can be contiguous. It’s also more cost-effective.
   

7. •Keep writing! You’ll want the cushion later.

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RWA National: RWA-WF Mini-Conference

Wow! I started off this year’s RWA National Conference with the first-ever mini-conference hosted by the Women’s Fiction chapter of RWA. RWA-WF is an amazing chapter in itself, and the mini-con did not disappoint. We opened with a two-hour session from Michael Hauge (no details here; you’ll need to visit his website for those since the material is copyrighted). Hauge has melded the inner psychological journey of the characters with the outer plot in a way that made several of us scribble notes frantically so we wouldn’t miss the “Aha!” moment before it floated out of the room.

Next up was an Editor/Agent Panel featuring agents Andrea Cirillo, Kristin Nelson, and Meg Ruley and editor Shauna Summers. Some highlights from their remarks:

1. •There is an indistinct intersection between romance and women’s fiction; many successful WF authors have roots in romance.
   

2. •A beautifully wrought, emotional story well-told is what will sell.
   

3. •It’s important to maintain the emotional drive of the story and the reader’s connection with the characters.
   

4. •Writing to your true voice is vital.
   

5. •All publishers are exploring the emerging electronic markets, but some are running toward the change while others are walking.
   

6. •Electronic markets represent a chance for authors to gain career momentum, change direction, and rebuild careers in addition to providing an entrepreneurial way for authors to be involved in their own careers.
   

7. •Authors who are active on social media see an impact in their sales.
   

8. •There is a place for humor in WF, but it needs to work with the author’s voice. Chick lit-style humor and situations feel dated, but funny first-person can still work if it’s done in a fresh, different way.
   

9. •Playing with viewpoints and narrators can pay off if done well.
   

Following that, the Author Panel stepped to the plate to give us their take on the state of the market. Authors Marilyn Brant, Megan Crane, Barbara O’Neal, Jane Porter, and Therese Walsh weighed in on women’s fiction from the writer’s perspective.

1. •Social media are becoming a big aspect of an author’s career, but beware the time suck they represent. Online connections help increase sales, but guard your time carefully.
   

2. •It took each of these authors several years to craft solid women’s fiction that sold.
   

3. •Music is helpful to several of the authors. One finds that kernels of character can emerge from brooding, angsty pieces, while creating soundtracks for each developing manuscript helps another create the tone for the work.
   

4. •The small dilemmas of the internal world are often a key to the kinds of emotions explored in women’s fiction.
   

5. •Inspiration arises from the beauty in nature, families, food, and relationships of all kinds.
   

6. •The best advice is to remember that your story is your story. Even if others are exploring the same topic, your voice and tone should set your work apart from others’.
   

Alas, I was not able to attend Juliet Mariller’s session later, since I was meeting up with old friends, but what little I did get out of the sessions was well worth the price of the ticket. I can’t wait to see what they dream up for next year!

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Road Warrior

Today, mimi flies home after two full weeks on the road. The days have been a blur of essay reading and presentation, first as a reader for the AP English Language and Comp exam, then as a trainer for AVID. Now, 1,981 essays (yes, you read that right) and four days of workshops later, I am packing my trusty sapphire Lands’ End lighthouse rolly suitcase for the last time.

At first, the travel was quite the adventure. Teachers rarely go anywhere--even less so these days, with school budgets in the shape they are--so initially, all this travel seemed like it would be fun. And it was. Don’t get me wrong; it was fun to visit Louisville and Atlanta and do things I never do that often, like watch the movies I want to watch without any flak from the fams. But the blessed solitude wears off after a while. Cabin fever sets in when you’re the only one in the hotel room and you don’t know a huge number of people. Downtown Atlanta seems downright creepy after dark since no one’s on the streets (guess Orlando’s not the only city with an invisible curfew).

But that’s all in the past. My packed suitcase and I are looking forward to a burrito at Moe’s in the Hartsfield Airport before I board the plane, a quick hop home to OIA, and a smiling family waiting for me at the other end.

But RWA National is next week, so I’ll just have to wash everything, repack, and fly out on Tuesday. How do these corporate road warriors do it?

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Color Him Father

This photo is courtesy of the Wayback Machine--Christmas, 1982 to be exact. I made my social debut at the Chester Assembly in the small South Carolina town where my Daddy grew up. That’s me with the handmade silk dress (thanks, Mama!), my graduation pearls, and my grandmother’s kid gloves. The handsome man on my arm is my father, John N. Gaston, III.

There’s no denying I’m my father’s daughter--check out that hair and the facial structure! But I’m much more like him in ways you can’t spot right off. I learned to love baseball, British humor, and Bugs Bunny cartoons because of him. He taught me how to think for myself and stand my ground. He helped me through integers (he’s a computer scientist) and having to put my dog to sleep (he listened to me sob on the phone and gave me the warm reassurance that I was doing the right thing for a faithful companion in pain). Thanks to him, the white hair on my head is taking over more swiftly than it is in any of my siblings. But that’s not a bad thing. The kids at school call it my “wisdom streak,” and I got a bit of that from Daddy as well.

I inherited a couple of his vices, too, like complete impatience with bad design, thoughtlessness, and ignorance. We both have a tendency to fall in love with our own opinions and veer toward stubbornness more often than is good for us. But in the end, I hope that our shared capacity for love and forgiveness will help us ease over the bumpy spots.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy. You taught me why daughters need good fathers and provided a model for the kind of father I wanted my children to have.

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Fixin' the World

Tonight at dinner, mimi and her companions got an ugly reminder that there are some folks out there who just don’t get it. The three of us were enjoying some gorgeous Kentucky weather at a sidewalk table of a Louisville pub. Next to us were two nicely-dressed women about our age doing the same. Later in the evening, our server, a darling law student at the U of L, came to us with a puzzled face, pointed to the now-empty table next to us, and asked if we’d seen the other women leave. We hadn’t. Wish we had, since they stiffed him.

I don’t know about you, but in mimi’s book, that’s tacky.

Unfortunately, tacky runs deep in a certain segment of the American population, I’m sorry to say. I’m not talking about not-knowing-how-to-dress tacky or forgetting-your-manners tacky. I mean the epitome of tacky, the I’m-better-than-you-because-I-make-more-money-than-you kind of tacky that apparently gives some people the idea that they have a license to treat other people like dirt.

Let’s face it: there are some folks who think their Mercedes keys or gated communities or season tickets or expensive bags or what have you have somehow conveyed special privileges upon them. And that’s tacky. What’s classy is treating everyone, from the man who picks up your trash cans to the Queen of Sheba, with courtesy. But since some folks don’t seem to get it, here’s mimi’s plan on how to fix the world. Or the good ol’ U.S. of A., if nothing else.

Everyone who graduates from an American college or university, especially of the Ivy League variety (because it’s folks in those tax brackets who suffer the most from this type of tacky), is required to work for a minimum of two weeks at EACH of the following jobs before being permitted to step onto their respective career ladders:

1. 1. Server in a restaurant (nothing upscale)
   

2. 2. Retail sales clerk
   

3. 3. Receptionist or other front-of-house worker in a business
   

4. 4. Candy striper in a hospital
   

5. 5. Substitute teacher
   

Each of these jobs requires hard work, patience, and service to others, skills the entitled crowd either lacks or ignores. It’s about time the folks who equate bank balances with personal worth learned that all people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. That hollering at the poor girl who answers the phone isn’t the way to get the service you want. That leaving piles of clothing in dressing rooms and unfolding stacks of T-shirts for some department store minion to handle for you is rude. That teachers earn those measly weeks off in the summer with all the early mornings, late afternoons, sacrificed weekends, and bolted-down lunches. If those women today had ever had to bust butt in the weeds at a busy restaurant, they wouldn’t have dreamed of walking away from measly $12 check. Twelve bucks! That’s not just tacky; that’s downright ugly. Thankfully, mimi has, and so had her companions, so we covered the tacky women’s missing check and wrote in a healthy tip on our own.

mimi has a sneaking suspicion that the tacky women are attending the same event she is this week. If so, and I recognize them, I’ll flash them what my college roommates used to call the ES&D (Eat Sh*t and Die) smile and see if they’re up for a lesson, bless their tacky little hearts.

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War and Remembrance

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

—John McCrae, 1919

God bless those soldiers who have given their lives to preserve our freedoms.

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