Saturday, May 1, 11am–4pm
Covington Library

Meet some of your favorite best-selling romance authors on a day dedicated to romance readers and book lovers.

11:15am
Keynote Address by Cherry Adair

Noon
Book Signing Party with all participating authors

12:30pm
Paranormal Panel featuring Katie MacAlister, Cherry Adair and Shannon McKelden

1:30pm
Historical Panel featuring Julia Quinn, Elizabeth Boyle and Margaret Mallory

2:30pm
Contemporary Panel featuring Susan Andersen, Gina Robinson and Ann Roth

Books will be available for purchase.

Refreshments provided by The Covington Friends of the Library, the Greater Seattle Chapter of Romance Writers of America and Cherry Adair.

Jacquie Rodgers and Ann Charles: Pre-Published Promotion

Sadly, getting lost, roadwork on the freeway, and Seattle’s gnarly traffic conspired against my attendance at the morning meeting. I caught the last half hour or so… These are my notes, not theirs.

Jacquie and Ann spoke about developing a platform to expand your readership. These tools must include a website (buy your domain name now!), and can include workshops and speeches, mailing lists, and social networking sites like facebook, twitter, goodreads or group blogs.

Three questions to identify when creating your platform:

1. Who are you known as NOW?
2. How do others see you?
3. Where do you want to be a Year from now?

Agents and Editors want to see authors have current websites with interactive elements (such as blogs or newsletters). It needs to be updated frequently so that readers return to the site. A newslist is only meaningful if it has more than 2000 names. They want to see that you’re putting yourself out there. Headshots, which you will put on your website and in the back of your books, should be indicative of your subgenre and writing. Write paranormal? Your picture should be dark and mysterious. Write contemporary romantic comedy? Your picture should be bright, sunny and colorful.

Jacquie encouraged us to find author mentors who is a success in some aspect of promotion that you want to include in your business model. Hers are Stella Cameron for having some of the first book trailers (which are now common), Gerri Russell for networking and establishing a broad reader base, and Rowena Cherry for podcasting greatness. She recommended copromoting on your website by giving away friends’ books. Ann looks up to Jane Porter for always being gracious and kind, Yasmine Galenorn for her disciplen, JA Conrad who has a great publishing for newbies resource on his website, and Jacquie Rodgers for being a social networking whore. She stressed the importance of ALWAYS being gracious, courteous and kind.

The two writers have launched a new website for author and aspiring author promotion: www.1stturningpoint.com

Jayne Ann Krentz defends Pop Fiction

Author Jayne Ann Krentz, who writes Regency romance as Amanda Quick and futuristic romance as Jayne Castle, made an eloquent and uplifting defense of popular fiction. I wanted to stand up and shout “Yes! YES! THAT is why I love the romance genre!” If only I could bottle her speech to replay when needed. A former librarian herself, Jayne applauded librarians for getting romance into the libraries. Culturally, Americans think “if a book is in the library it is somehow a ‘real’ book.” She said that romance authors are not alone – no popular fiction authors feel they get respect.

The prejudice against romance is just a sharp part of the bias against pop fiction in general. The convention and standards held up in literary fiction is a masculine style of writing that abhors sentiment and strong emotion, but his is NOT the style of our historic heroic tradition. It is a relatively recent convention based on psychoanalysis and modern angst. Anything with wide appeal is highly suspect in our culture; it is taken for granted and treated with little respect. But popular fiction has it’s own place in our culture and society. It is NOT watered-down literary fiction. It stands on it’s own and draws its power from the historic heroic tradition – not modern angst. It is wrong to use the standards of literary fiction to judge popular fiction.

Popular Fiction “teaches us we need not be victims, but with courage and honor we can vanquish our fears and triumph over adversary.” – Jayne Ann Krentz

In literary fiction, the protagonists are victims. The genre focuses on their alienation and disfunction: the destructive aspects of the human condition. Popular fiction, on the other hand, pits good against evil on a broad scale. Its protagonists may be victims, but honor, courage, determination and love they triumph despite the hurdles in their path. Pop fiction holds up optimism over despair. It has an enormous survival value. Lit fiction does not hold these values important. It illuminates and examines human neuroses, but does not solve them.

Jayne’s Arcane Society is an effort to tie together her many personas and encourage readers of one subgenre to try the others.

Historical and Paranormal Romance Panels

You can tell we were having a great time!

Amanda Quick, Gerri Russell, and Library Goddess Deborah Schneider (RWA bookseller of year 09)

Stella Cameron, Alexis Morgan and Cherry Adair, (Yasmine Galenorn not pictured)

After the Romance Extravaganza, Cherry Adair invited everyone to a very delicious High Tea, while she regaled us with sage advice on writing, plotting and publishing. While some authors urge us to write the “book of our heart,” Cherry Adair urged us to write in a subgenre that we will want to stick with and continue writing in for many books to come. The food was amazing, the company divine. Looking forward to next year!