My head is so full of writing tips and facts on digital publishing that there is little room for anything else today! Wait. Is my daughter home with a fever? Yes, I must keep reminding myself of that fact.
Having just come from the Emerald City Writer's Conference in Bellevue Washington where the GSRWA puts on a three day extravaganza for romance writers, I am overwhelmed with a capital O. My home chapter always puts on a great conference and this year they outdid themselves. The Westin Hotel in Bellevue worked fine for our new venue but I missed the open air Lobby bar and Coffee Shop where we could meet, schmooze and be seen. The Westin has no Tulleys or Starbucks and the bar doesn't open in the Lobby until after 5 so anyone who wanted a place to meet and socialize ended up on the 5 couches off the front desk. Many were found in groups on the floor between conference registration and the first workshop on Thursday. Note to organisers of 2012: More couplings of chairs, tables, couches and a no host bar or coffee area upstairs. If we could re-create the coffee shop or the bar on the 3rd floor - that would be lovely. I loved the tea/coffee table on Sunday outside the Lake Sammamish room. Great idea but again, only a few places to sit and talk near the beverages.
The buzz this weekend was definitely digital publishing, self publishing and branding yourself. In that vein, I was honored to be chosen to present my talk "Channeling Your Inner Rock Star" to a group of attendees who wanted to know more about presenting the most engaging side of you for self-promotion. More about that another day seeing I have an online class on this topic coming up in January.
If I reduced what I learned this weekend to a few sentences I'd have to say that Digital Publishing is the future and if you chose to self publish, you better know what you're doing for editing, formatting, cover, promotion etc because it's alot of technical work and alot of your time. Many publishers now have a digital line and can take more authors because it costs less to epub a book. This is good news to a technically challenged troll, such as myself. I learned that self promotion is all about social media and if you don't have a website, FB account, Twitter account etc. you better get one or be prepared to get left on the dock staring at the back of a sailed ship. Branding is essential for first pubs and I'm now spending every waking minute thinking of how to be more unique than I already am. Only write Hawaiian romances? Specialize in writing about gals named Tina who scuba dive in exotic locations and take on a paranormal ability to change life as they knew it? Branding. Don't miss that boat either. Gotta love that gal with the tiny Steampunk hat perched on top of her head all weekend. After the conference I now have 5 agents and editors to submit to this week and I'm like a racehorse at the gate, waiting to send pages and queries and synopses. I love the submission process, almost more than writing the book. Crazy true.
I arrived home from the ECWC with ideas pressing against the inside of my brain to get out, only to find the best rejection letter ever written in my inbox. Although I hoped Kate Folkers would like my MS, The Dream Jumper, I'm thrilled that she read the full and gave me detailed criticism about what to fix. You can't pay money for something like this, even if I had some. I'm in debt to the woman now and will probably have to mention her name in my acknowledgements, even if she doesn't become my agent. The fantastic news is that I believe everything she mentionned to be an easy fix. She loved the characters, setting, said my writing was fluid. I just didn't tie up loose ends well and need to tighten up the middle. Yippe! I can't wait to get started but now I must go get more Hallween candy for this evening's trick or treaters. I ate the last bunch...
All in all, it was another inspirationally amazing weekend for writers, run smoothly and attended by some of the loveliest ladies in the nation. Even two from Australia! Until next year, TY GSRWA for the ECWC. B4N
