RWA Time – What Would You Like?
May I just say that I can’t believe we’ve reached the end of June already? This year has just been a blur of activity and if it weren’t for the fact that it’s been 90+ degrees for the past week here in Virginia, I’d have a hard time believing it’s summer.
In two weeks, Blythe and I will be heading down to Atlanta for the annual RWA conference – and we’d like a little input from you. First of all, for the authors, agents and publishers who read here, I’m looking forward to seeing the folks I’ve met in the past and would love to meet some of the rest of you. Blythe and I will be livetweeting the RITAs as we do each year, and we’ll also be covering some of the workshops and publisher announcements.
And that’s where readers come in. One thing I have discovered since I started going to RWA is that there is really more than 1 RWA meeting going on. There are the official announcements and workshops(many, many workshops). However, the conference is also a wonderful place for a more unofficial exchange of ideas and news – and I often find some of that to be bigger news and more relevant to readers. As more than 1 author has told me, it’s the one time of year that you have so many people from the romance writing world together in one place. Given that there’s so much going on, the two of us won’t be able to be everywhere at once.
So, let us know what you want to hear about. Is there a particular author, agent or publisher that you’d like for us to talk to? Some particular topic you want to get the scoop on? Just let us know in the comments and we’ll start making our list of things to look for in Atlanta!
– Lynn Spencer
To begin, let me be the first to welcome you – in advance – to Atlanta! It’s a great city and I am a rare breed it seems these days. I am a native! I hope you have time to check out some of the sights and the great food. On to the topic – I am a long-time reader/listener (love audiobooks) of Romantic Suspense. I feel that the pickings these days are really slim. Well written romantic suspense is a great read and I would love to see more. I am really tired of every time I go to look for a good book, all I can seem to find are vampires, werewolves and other worlds. Not to say I haven’t read my share of those stories, but my experience has been that they all start to sound the same. Give me a really well written plot (J.D. Robb, Nora Roberts, Linda Howard, or Julie Garwood) any day of the week! So tell those folks to please send us more RS!!
I agree. I found this site. http://www.justromanticsuspense.com (hope that’s okay to post here?!?!)…and it’s a great site for readers and writers too (like myself). The “”worlds”” and paranormal are great – but give me a great action-filled plot with danger…and a hot hero any day.
I’d be interested from RWA if the cowboy theme is still hot in series suspense. It seemed to be a big trend for a while.
Well, I will not be very original, but I would like to know what’s next about authors Courtney Milan and Jennifer Crusie. I would like to know if they are going to be translated to Spanish. Something very specific, I know.
Secondly, I would like to know more about digital publishing. And about publishing backlists in digital, something that has been talked about in this blog. I think it could be a good way to read ‘oldies goldies’ without risking a lot of money. For instance, writers like Judy Cuevas/Judy Ivory, Tom & Sharon Curtis and those writers from the 80s & 90s that are difficult to find, or books written by Nora Roberts, Linda Howard or Jayne Anne Krentz in those decades.
A good start could be publishing all RITA winners in digital.
If you run into any editors from Random House, can you see if Judith McNaught is still under contract? She’s had some personal issues and her book release keeps getting delayed.
Also, midlist authors such as Meredith Duran and Sherry Thomas aren’t carried at Target & WalMart anymore. Floor space is being devoted to YA books instead of romances. Is there anything the reader can do to change things and get more books stocked? eBooks isn’t always an option because they don’t offer the same discounts that mass merchandisers do.
I’ll see what I can find out about that.
Also, on the Target/Walmart issue, I have heard form various publishers that they sometimes face a certain tug of war with the buyers for the store so if folks want to see certain authors or types of books stocked at Target or Walmart, it doesn’t hurt to send letters to corporate.
Thanks. That’s exactly what I was asking. I wasn’t sure if letters work.
Judith McNaught now has a Facebook page and says she is still writing
https://www.facebook.com/authorjudithmcnaught
@PWNN: Thanks for the information.
If you have the time you might want to go to the Atlanta Botanic Gardens to see the sculptures. ABG is about 2 miles from your hotel. Here’s the link:http://atlantabotanicalgarden.org/events-classes/events/imaginary-worlds
Oh, that looks like fun! I’m actually getting to Atlanta Tuesday, so I might have a little free time before the conference gets into full swing.
I would be curious to know some current thinking among writer’s and publishers on the future of historical romances. There seems to have been more articles this year, at least to me, that this market is on life-support and interest among publishers and writers has continued to diminish. Is there any new interest with this group to revitalize this market with different locations, different types of characters or time-periods?
I have to agree with KiraW about closing that award category.
I’d also like to know why most all the publishers jump on one genre and glut the market and then ignore the other categories readers enjoy.
Also would like to know the name of Joanna Bourne’s new book. :) And I’d like to know more about new releases from authors.
It seems like RWA is trying to tell lots of romance authors that what they’re writing isn’t really romance. I’m thinking of the whole women’s fiction chapter closing, eliminating SRE novels from the awards and so on. I’d like to know what’s going on with that. Personally, I think they’re shooting themselves in the foot but I also would be curious to see if they have some new change in mind.
I’ll definitely be asking folks about this one! I was also dismayed to see this happening as I think it adversely impacts some extremely talented writers.