RT2010

I've been trying to figure out how to present my thoughts about RT2010, but it's a little difficult. There was little drama, lots of fun, and a good dose of uncertainty about the future. And it's been hard to take all the little snips and threads and coalesce them into a single fabric.

Let me give you an example. Lots of people are talking about the pending demise of UF. But when you ask agents, authors, or editors about sales in this genre, they say they haven't seen sales diminish yet. Maybe they're not growing any larger, and maybe a spattering of slots that would have gone to UF are now going to other types of stories. But does this mean that UF is in freefall? No.

I think -- and this is 100% my opinion, so take it for what it's worth -- all the talk about UF says more about a realignment of hope with reality than with anything to do with actual sales. It's a genre with a readership, and it will continue to exist in some familiar measure for at least some time to come. But it's not the next big market-sweeping thing, not the next paranormal or chick lit, and for a while there, people thought it might be.

Is steampunk the next UF or the next vampire craze? Will it be steady or explosive? Lots of interest in steampunk at this conference. The word was on everyone's lips. The panels were well-attended. (In fact, at the steampunk panel I attended, there were a surprising number of editors in the audience. We're paying attention to this niche.) Are people flocking to read the books? Will it explode? It feels like it might go that way, but only time will tell. My worry about steampunk romance is that we haven't yet had that one big breakout book to solidify the market. Several books have done well, but as of yet, no Bridget Jones or Edward Cullen. Nevertheless, it's an interesting subgenre that has the potential to appeal to a lot of readers in a lot of ways. It feels vibrant.

So, against this backdrop, almost every author I spoke to confessed to working on something in a genre other than their current genres. The surprising exception to this are the hearth-and-home contemporary writers, who seem perfectly happy right where they are. Romance plus domestic arts apparently equals happy authors.

My take-away? This market feels ready to jump in a new direction. But where? Authors are trying new things, genre-switching, bringing beloved old projects out from under the bed to see if they can breathe new life into the text. Editors eye sales reports and hold a damp finger to the air to test the wind. Historicals continue to surge, contemporaries continue to wobble, paranormals continue to look like a permanent presence.

So you tell me. What's the book type you want to read but can't find on the shelves? What's the book type that has captured your imagination lately? What books are your non-writer friends all reading now?

Theresa

Conference Report, Day One

I arrived in Columbus yesterday shortly before noon, and the first person I saw upon entering the hotel was Rachael Herron. Squeal, hug, etc. :) Rachael and I had already planned a yarn crawl for Tuesday afternoon -- it's our little conference tradition, much cherished, but this is the first time we've gone just the two of us. What a treat to spend time with her. Lovely, lovely woman, and you should all buy her book, How to Knit a Love Song, now available at all bookstores and Target. (I linked that to Borders for your shopping convenience.) It's charming and bright and funny, just like Rachael.

So we cabbed out to a yarn shop recommended by some of the Columbus knitting locals, and dude, we were NOT disappointed. The place has AISLES. We walked in the door, and the clerk instantly recognized Rachael and went into mild but genuine fangirl raptures. (Rachael is a bit of a celebrity in the knitting world. Check out her blog Yarn-a-Go-Go and you'll see why. See note about charming, bright, and funny above.) So we had a good giggle about how the knitters were all like, "OMG, Theresa, you're going yarn crawling with Rachael Herron?" And the writers were all like, "OMG, Rachael, you're going yarn crawling with Theresa Stevens?" Because that's how it happens when you're a slightly bloated fish in a very tiny pond.

Anyway. You probably don't want to hear about the yarn or the knitting anymore.

But could I interest you in some ice cream? Jeni's ice cream, featured on the Food Network, has probably the best ice cream I have ever eaten in my entire life. And the flavors are beyond anything. They have this deal where you can get three mini-scoops, which amounts to about a regular scoop and a half, so that was what we did. I had the -- get this -- roasted cherry and goat cheese (imagine frozen cherry cheesecake, but better), the brown butter (OMG YOU MUST TRY IT), and the dark chocolate, which was a bit like eating an ultra-gourmet frozen fudge. Rachael had the chili spice, the salty caramel, and I forget her third flavor. We were both in ice cream heaven. Jeni's is located in the North Market, just north and a noodge west of the convention center. Really, you can't miss it. The market also has a fruit stand, wine shop, and lots of little sandwich and takeout stands, all very reasonably priced. I may go there for lunch today and for more ice cream. I have a hankering for some of the mango lassi and meyer lemon this time.

I had hoped to connect with one of my authors last night, but here's how the rest of the day went. I returned to my room to drop off my yarn, and my phone was ringing as soon as I walked in. My friends Alexis Fleming and Lyn Cash were looking for me, and I learned that Lyn had to leave early Wednesday morning. So I headed out to meet them, and one thing led to another. Or to put it more precisely, we decided to get dinner in the hotel restaurant. OVER TWO HOURS LATER we were still sitting at the table praying for food to arrive. At one point, one of our companions got up, marched into the kitchen, and demanded of the cooks, "Who do I have to fuck to get a waiter at our table?" (Best. Conference. Moment. EVER.) That got their attention. But it didn't get our food prepared any faster. Avoid the in-house restaurant, and head to the short north or arena areas, all within an easy two-block walk, unless you want to send people to your hotel room for a snack while you're waiting for your salads. (Seriously. Crackers from the room while we waited and waited.)

In any event, thank God the company was good, because we had a nice chat and mingled with some of the other famished and neglected restaurant patrons. A few brief laps through the bar to look for people and say hello were also included in my Tuesday, but by the time we finished with our never-ending dinner, I really wanted to find my bed.

I have heard some inside gossip, but nothing earth-shattering and nothing I can post here. More like business as usual. Lots of discussion about advances at various houses as authors are still adapting to the reality of lower advances. A lot of garden-variety grumbling about the usual things -- this one was slow to respond to a submission, that one dropped the ball on scheduling something, another has lower-than-hoped-for sales, etc. You know the drill. Everyone loves the writing and hates the business. Those of you who've been around publishing for a while know that these are perennial grumbles that have more to do with the way the industry operates than with anything else.

Today is a little knit-in, our Red Sage spotlight, and some time with authors. There's a party tonight, though I can't recall which one and probably will go to the bar instead. If you're at the hotel, look for me there and say hello. I'll be wearing a grey tweed pantsuit with a black shirt. This funereal ensemble will make people thing I belong at the coffin-makers convention also going on in the hotel this week. Everyone, go peek inside their show floor and help me figure out whether the blue lighthouse thingie is a coffin. I really, really want it to be.

Theresa

Business Cards and Other Trappings

JT sent us an email with a whole slew of business-related questions. We're going to take her questions in stages, starting with one about business cards. (Don't forget -- you can email us at edittorrent@ gmail dot com with questions, or just post them in the comments.)

So, let's start with the basic proposition that writers don't use business cards the same way that, for example, an attorney or salesman would use them. In those professions, business cards are used to try to connect with new clients. Basic contact information is included, maybe a logo, and that's it. The professional hands out hundreds of cards over the course of a year. Every new encounter is a chance for a new business connection.

Authors can use business cards in the same way to promote new releases or backlist. Wherever you go, you meet potential new fans, and passing out a little reminder in the form of a business card is probably a cheap and easy way to promote your books. Bookmarks might be a bit more friendly, but it won't hurt to have business cards with your pen name and releases listed, your website url, your twitter or facebook profiles, and that sort of thing. You can select graphics that build your brand, and you can use the front and back side of the card to include more graphics or blurbs.

But you wouldn't want to hand out your phone number to strangers in the checkout line, would you? So in that case, you might leave off some of your contact information, just for privacy's sake.

And in that case, the card won't do you much good at an industry conference. When you're at a conference and you hand your card to an agent or editor, we want it to have contact information. In fact, it's the main thing we want, plus something that will help us remember you when we're thinking back over the hundreds of people we met. I frequently jot notes on the backs of business cards indicating where I met the author, who introduced us, hair color, details of the conversation, anything that might trigger my memory when I pick up the card later.

Notice that I do actually make use of these cards. I know some folks will toss them after the conference, but I tend to keep them. Not always, though. The ones I toss are the ones from casual encounters (not pitches or other formal meetings) where there was no place for me to write my notes. The card may be beautiful, with glossy roses and swirly text and stars and rainbows and all good things. But if it doesn't help me remember my particular encounter with the author, it's not serving my purpose.

A very smart author once came into a pitch and handed me a very ordinary business card together with a fancy bookmark with all her book covers on it. That impressed me right out of the starting gate. It told me she understood the difference between promoting herself to readers and interacting with other professionals. I was able to use the card to make my notes, and you better believe that one of my notes was about her pretty bookmark.

Another author handed me a somewhat fancier card with her log line pitch pre-printed on the back. This was during a pitch, and that approach made a lot of sense. But outside of a pitching environment, it might not be as effective. And the logistics are a bit confounding. How many pitch cards do you have printed? Do you still get regular cards, too, or just go with bookmarks? I don't know the answers to those questions, but perhaps Team Comments will have better insights.

Another author once handed me a postcard with her book cover and jacket copy on it, and as we were talking, she peeled a sticker off a label sheet and affixed it to the card. The label had her contact information. I thought that was clever, and I'm surprised more people don't do something like that. It let her get around the problem of whether to get different kinds of business cards printed, or whether to spend her money on promotional items or cards or both.

That said, I appreciate business cards more than bookmarks or postcards, mainly because they're easier for me to index and store. I have a plastic case for them. They're alphabetized for search purposes, though I run into problems sometimes with the whole pen name/real name thing. I'm bad with names to begin with, and it's a new fresh hell to have to remember two names for everyone. Please consider putting all your various names on your cards. This won't help me with my indexing system, but it will help me connect your names and brands to the person I met in the bar.

Another helpful thing -- put something like Author or Freelance Writer or something on your card. I keep my author cards in a separate place from all the cards for typesetters, e-book designers, web designers, freelance editors, cover artists, SEO specialists, publicists, booksellers, distributor reps, printers, and all the other non-author business types I encounter. I don't care what job title you assign yourself, though my weird personal quirk is that I tend to read "Author" as someone already published and "Writer" as someone at the beginning of their career. I don't know if this is universal, but I doubt it. And I have no idea where I absorbed that particular distinction.

So that's my take on author business cards. If you have particular questions or tips, please do post them in the comments.

Theresa

From the Comments

Yesterday's post drew a couple of comments that deserve a front page response.

Evangeline asks,
I keep hearing that everyone is hoping for the return of historical romance. Could this be the result of the Regency glut, or was there buzz about a wider variety of settings? And good news about contemporary romance--I've been dipping into it after years of feeling I couldn't relate and am pleasantly surprised at how fun and relatable many are!

It's no secret that I love historicals, real old school stuff, meaty books with actual history in them, so I always listen for the buzz on historicals because it makes my inner fangirl happy. Honestly, though, there wasn't much historical buzz at this conference. I think the consensus opinion is that this is a genre that has seen a smallish uptick in recent years, and we would all like to see it really catch fire again.

That won't happen with a garden-variety Regency or Victorian, though. These books will continue to sell because they're "comfort reads" for many readers. Some of them will even sell in big numbers. The world is familiar and beloved, but there are rarely any surprises there. The next wave of historical frenzy will most likely come from something with a bigger feeling -- perhaps wishful thinking on my part, but the market seems to be softening up in that direction -- and my guess is that it will be in a fresh setting. That's if at comes at all. It might not, though that doesn't mean historicals are dying. (For most readers like me, we gravitated toward historical romance in the 80s and early 90s, and then shifted into mainstream historical novels after that. I would love to see romance as a whole make a play to recapture this reading segment.)

Here's my take on the state of reader interest in general. We've just come out of almost a decade of a culture of fear. The media would have had us believe that a terrorist lurked in every shadow. And what was popular during that time period? Vampires. Werewolves. Rogue villains being defeated by Navy SEALs. "Get it while you can" erotic romance story types. It all fits with that particular zeitgeist.

And which story types felt less compelling? Low-conflict contemporaries. Anything purely relationship-driven. Small-town sweethearts. Not that these particular story types went away, but they sure weren't the ones getting the big buzz.

Now we're in a serious economic situation, and families and friends are pulling together to help each other through it. We're shifting away from "fear of other" and into "we're all in it together." This might be a temporary mindset, but for now, the result is that the conference buzz was about books with weepy family plots (Jody Picoult) and warm, emotional women's fiction/romance feelings (Kristin Hannah, Susan Wiggs).

But will this perceived trend bloom? Eh. Who knows. Predictions are like assholes, you know. (Or is that, only assholes make predictions?)


Green Knight says,
A few years ago we were seeing a shift towards trade and I hate them. Won't buy them. Like hardbacks, they're expensive and unwieldy and don't fit on my paperback shelves. Unlike hardbacks, they're not durable or beautiful.

Worst of both worlds.

Hope your granny gets better - and will we get to hear a rounup of the e-publishing panel you did?

There's a good write-up of our Rogue Digital workshop here. This is from the Scorched Sheets blog, and it contains most of the numbers disclosed during the workshop.

My personal take on the panel has to start with a shout-out to the girls from Romance University, who kept me giggling in the bar the night before the rogue panel. Ah, good times. So I was fashionably late to the panel and missed the first couple of speakers.

I could not believe how packed that room was. I would describe it as standing room only, but that would be misleading. There wasn't even standing room. When I got there, bodies were spilling out into the hallway. I had to pick my way through the crowd to find a spot to stand in the back of the room, if you can believe it. Folks were sitting on the floor in the front, too. Sardine city.

Angela James was talking about the digital publishing model when I came in. She had just started. For details on her presentation, check the Scorched Sheets blog I linked above. Angela did a great job demystifying the digital publishing model and explaining how and why it differs from print. She's a terrific speaker on this topic.

To what Angela said in that panel, I would only add that there is one hybrid model used by us and one other publisher. (As far as I know -- there may be more doing it our way now, but I'm not aware of them.)

In our hybrid model, everything gets an advance. Everything. Our contracts are set up like standard print contracts with digital rights included, and the same contract is used for print and digital. There are some variances on the royalty rates to account for the different costs and distribution expenses with print and digital, but those are spelled out in the contract. Also, we don't do POD but regular print. We've never been POD. Angela didn't get into the differences between POD and print -- it wasn't the panel for that kind of discussion -- but the basic idea is that POD is more expensive to create, but you avoid some warehousing expenses. A well-made POD book is virtually indistinguishable from regular print, but there are some badly made POD books floating around out there. But those are dwindling as this technology improves.

GK, you also commented on the trade size. I hear you. But there are two other details to keep in mind about trade. The first is that in the early days, books came out in trade only if they were upmarket enough to warrant the production of the extra format in a mid-range price point. Otherwise, it was mass market for genre stuff and hard/soft for the big books.

The early perception with consumers, then, may have been that these books were better than a regular mass market paperback.

But then POD became a more widely used form of book production, and POD is always done in trade size. So cheap books that weren't expected to sell more than a couple hundred copies started coming out in POD. Public perception may be slow to change on this point -- I get the feeling that buyers still associate trade with quality -- but until there's a POD process available at the mass market size, and as long as consumers are guarding their wallets, we may see a continued decline in trade.

Any other questions? Now is the time to ask, while this information is all still fresh in my mind.

Theresa

Industry Notes

I'm back from DC. Fully a quarter of the email awaiting my return can be summed up as, "We're in the hotel bar/hotel restaurant/conference center. Where are you?" I made it into the hotel bar twice all week, and I had a couple of brief meetups here and there around the hotel, but for the most part, I was off playing tourist with friends and family. DC is one of my favorite places to visit. I took advantage of it. I was everywhere -- even, briefly, in one of the slummy parts of town. And if you heard the fabric of the universe tear on Saturday, that's because I was inside actual churches lighting candles for my sick granny. They've got some extra-fancy churches in DC, so maybe that will grant her some extra-fancy relief. Apologies to those of you who were looking for me.

I did manage to pick up some industry news. Not sure it's really news, though, but perhaps more just confirmation of what we already knew was going down. A NYC print publisher has slipped under RWA's stated "$1,000 for all books" requirement on a recent 2-novel contract (yes, in print). This is the second NYC house to do so, though RWA may not know about this one yet. Keep watching. This is far from a dead issue. Advances are falling almost everywhere, and I expect they'll continue to fall as long as we have this economy.

There's a definite shift away from trade size to mass market. Trade has taken hard hits in this economy. People seem to be returning to cheaper mass markets or are switching to digital formats. If they're willing to pop for a big-ticket book, it's usually hardback. Over and over again, I heard about lines cutting trade releases or shifting them into mass market formats. Will this be the end of the trade format? Hmm. I keep thinking about that one, and I'm just not sure. We'll have to give that one another six months, I think, but trade is certainly on the decline.

The erotic romance market is also in decline, but this is not a bad thing. The market has been oversaturated for probably two years now. Scaling back means that quality should improve across the board. Readers aren't going to stop wanting to read books with sex in them, but we may see fewer titles with typical erotic romance premises. (Think: girls weekend with flings, one-night stands turned serious, revenge sex plots, "she's just experimenting" plots, and the like.) We were never big into those kinds of premises at Red Sage, so it doesn't affect our submissions guidelines. We have published that type of thing on occasion, but only if the surrounding story was rock solid.

The buzz was mainly surrounding contemporaries with a women's fiction feel. The same authors kept getting namechecked -- Susan Wiggs, Kristin Hannah, that sort of book. My feeling for some time now has been that we're turning into bigger book territory, and that women's fiction feeling fits right in with where I think we might be going.

So, what kinds of things did you all hear in DC? Got questions about particular things?

Theresa

Re: RWA in DC

Before I forget, I wanted to let you all know that Red Sage is co-sponsoring a seminar on digital publishing Thursday morning at 8:30. I'll scare up a copy of the announcement, but it's over on Dear Author and Smart Bitches and probably a few other places, too, if you want to take a look now.

This seminar is not part of the RWA national conference. You don't have to pay the conference fee in order to attend. The panelists are, quite simply, the best people to speak on this topic, and we're very happy to support their efforts to educate writers about the only publishing sector experiencing meaningful growth.

I will be in DC on vacation next week. I'm not attending the RWA conference, but I will attend this rogue seminar. I'm attending one other non-conference event (the Passionate Ink event on Thursday night) and will be in the hotel bar Wednesday evening, but other than that, I won't be around the conference grounds. Feel free to say hello if you see me, though. (I'll also be sightseeing quite a lot, so if you see me at the National Archives, the Smithsonian, the Capital, the National Gallery, the zoo, or dining with my DC friends and family, feel free to say hello then, too. I'm a pretty approachable person, and you're not banned from speaking to me outside of the hotel bar.)

Theresa,
sick of sitting at her computer and SO ready for vacay

She Shrieked Scurrilously

Go here and read the post on Editing Aids if you want a giggle.

I've been too busy to post, but help is on its way. I'm in the process of finalizing two new hires. Thank God, Praise Jeebus, Hallelujah and Amen. We'll do some log lines just as soon as my inbox stabilizes under the 100-pending-messages mark. I've been fighting for weeks to get it into the 90s, but then it shoots back up almost instantly. Just can't keep up right now. Sorry. Too much going on.

FYI, for those who are wondering about this sort of thing, I did pick up a new author from RT. This means I have a perfect record of finding new talent, at least one new author, at every RT I've attended. No other conference yields the same results.

Theresa

RT09 Report

RT was a funny conference this year, somewhat different from years past. I heard of no conference scandal at all. Does this mean there was none, or does this mean that I was so buried in meetings that I missed half of what was going on among the attendees? You tell me.

But I tend to think that there was nothing really shocking going on with the attendees. I tend to think that this year, all the buzzing and whispering was happening on the other side of the fence. It was almost as if there were two different conferences occurring in the same venues with the same people on parallel tracks. In the conference that had microphones at podiums, everyone was talking about how great things are despite the economy. In the conference that occurred behind closed doors and whispered in corridors, the talk was all about the economy's impact on the industry. There was no real news in all those whispers, just confirmations of what has been known for months. Print has taken some hits. Digital chugs along on its growth curve. For anyone interested in knowing more about this, just remember the old adage: figures can lie, and liars can figure. If someone throws a number at you, try to figure out where that number is coming from. One good example of this is Amazon's X% growth recently announced in the media. When you look closer to see where that number originates, it's not books. It's electronics and other sectors.

But there is a general feeling that the market may have bottomed out, though happy days aren't quite here again. There is a general feeling that certain retail outlets and distributors, once teetering on the edge of big trouble, might be past the crisis point. There are flashes of hope here and there, and I'm proud to say that my company has been one of those flashes. We've been beating the market for our type of books.

Our Big Announcement

Last Monday night, after months of complex paperwork and negotiations, we finally got word that the ink on our big new deal was dry. What great timing, huh? We were able to leak the announcement to our authors on Tuesday and make the announcement at RT all week long.

::drumroll::

Red Sage's stories will be translated and distributed in Japan!

***confetti***

For a small press that's not part of a conglomerate with a built-in funnel to foreign markets, this is a big deal. We had to get this deal the old-fashioned way, with a quality product and lots of tenacity. The books are already being translated -- or, I should say, the first batch of eight books selected by the Japanese publisher. We have only a rough understanding of their timeline right now, but expect the translated books to reach the Japanese market later this year or early next year.

Other RT Tidbits

So that's the general impression of what was happening at the conference.

In no particular order, here are a few other notes and details.

* There is no sign of slowdown in the paranormal romance arena. I had the opportunity to chat with Heather Osborn from Tor books, an acknowledged expert in this subgenre, and her feeling is that because so many of the younger readers grew up on these kinds of stories, the trendline on paranormal will remain strong for years to come. I tend to agree with her.

* But paranormal is shifting around a bit. In pitching alley, every time I had a moment between pitches and could eavesdrop, I heard the word zombies. I entertained myself by imagining a hot erotic zombie hero who has to eat lots of -- well, not brains. 'Nuff said.

* Larissa Ione was the star of this conference. Everywhere you went, people were buzzing about her. We're very proud that the industry's newest NYT initiate is part of the Red Sage family. She and Cynthia Eden, another Secrets alum to hit the bigs, signed books for hours at the Red Sage party. Those ladies are champions. They deserve all their success, and more.

* Big thanks to the RT volunteers, the Mr. Romance candidates, and hotel staff who worked so hard to make the Red Sage Poolside Party a huge hit. We're especially grateful that hotel staff let us stay an hour past our scheduled time so that all the partygoers could get their books signed. RT staff was very nice to us, and let me tell you, we noticed.

* Kathryn Falk looks amazing. I want to know what face cream she uses. Her skin glows.

* Gritty realism is less appealing to readers right now. (Think cop stories, romantic suspense, etc.) Escapist fantasies are driving sales in this economy. Some publishers (Avon and Harlequin, in particular) also report successes with the cozier family stories. Of course, these trends might not hold beyond the edge of the bad economy, so if gritty crime dramas are your thing, you might find some light at the end of the tunnel. Just wait it out.

* I've heard confirmed reports that two houses either don't copy edit at all or expect their editors to also do their own copy editing. No, I won't tell you which houses, and I doubt you'd be able to guess. Well, you can probably guess one of them if you've been paying attention at all. It just seems to me to be a questionable efficiency measure.

* Conference attendance was down, but you never would have known it from wandering the conference center. I attribute this to the weird layout of the place. Long narrow halls can feel crowded even if there are just a handful of people in them.

* People didn't like the hotel, not at all. The multi-building layout and lack of elevators was a real problem for some, and there was no easily accessible bar close to the conference hub. Bad layout. The Red Sage suite was lovely, spacious, and well-appointed. But my adjoining room was loaded with problems -- burned out bulbs, broken coffeemaker, no modem or other internet access. The modem thing was a big problem because the hotspots in the rest of the hotel were, well, cool at best. I never once managed to pick up a web signal with my laptop, no matter where I tried. The first thing I did at the airport was check email, and I almost cried when they called my flight and my inbox was still insanely packed with unread messages.

* I was asking around for three things: longer (over 40k, but especially 70-100k) stories for our e-books program, M/M of any length for our e-books program, and resumes for acquisitions editors. I need to hire some freelancers. Soon.

* I heard through the grapevine that a woman had scheduled a pitch with me, but due to a mixup, it wasn't on the schedule and I was released from pitching alley before she arrived. Still trying to find that woman and make a connection with her. Can anyone help?

I'm probably forgetting a lot because I have that post-conference hit-by-bus feeling. Anyone wondering about anything in particular?

Theresa

Post-Conference Coma

Well, I'm back. Back in the physical sense, that is. My brain is still sleeping on the plane 35,000 feet over Nebraska.

This might just have been our best conference ever. I arrived early to give myself time to do a little sightseeing with friends. So Tuesday afternoon on Wednesday morning were spent wandering, shopping, viewing landmarks, and getting caught up with friends. I was thrilled to see the City Lights bookstore, the one owned by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the one where Allen Ginsberg gave the public reading of his poem Howl that gave rise to new obscenity standards. As both an editor and an attorney, that's the kind of landmark that makes my heart go pitter-pat.

My boss arrived early Wednesday afternoon, and no sooner had she checked into her room than we dashed off together for a meeting with a book buyer. This was the first of a series of business meetings, all of which were remarkably fruitful. After we finished those, we made a quick lap through the room for the literacy signing, dropping "Red Sage Secret Society" buttons at all our authors’ signing stations. This was the first stage in a planned giveaway which we kept more or less under wraps before the conference. The idea was that our authors would be doing random stops of people wearing our buttons to give away free books. You had to have a button to get a book. We gave away several hundred buttons, and almost as many books.

After doing the lap through the literacy signing room, my boss and I headed off to dinner at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, Postrio. The meal was fabulous, and our waiter was adorable. I wanted to put him in my pocketbook and take him home. If you happen to be in San Francisco and are looking for a really superior meal, that would be a great place to go.

The next day, Thursday, was a whirlwind of author meetings and pitches. We took a record number of pitches this year, and for the most part, they were all terrific. Authors were well-prepared and understood what we were looking for. Of course, you can always count on an RWA conference to generate good pitches. That's one of the reasons we attend.

Pitches and meetings ran from about nine in the morning until almost four in the afternoon, at which time our coffee social started. What a rush! I still can't believe how many people came out for that! The room was so crowded that people couldn't even get back to the coffee and cupcake table. I want to thank everybody who attended -- you made it so much fun -- and I did try my best to at least say hello to everybody. I failed. I know I failed. But I did try.

From there, we went to the Passionate Ink reception, where we were delighted to see Angela Knight honored by having an award named after her. We love Angela. She's such a wonderful ambassador for the genre. Congratulations to her and to the winner of the award. I paid close attention to the names that were called during the awards ceremony -- but then, I always do. It's interesting to hear which authors are deemed best by their peers. I think that writers are often the most difficult-to-please readers, and an award like this is particularly meaningful. Congratulations to all the winners in all categories.

One rather strange thing happened at that reception, and I'm going to mention it here even though I've debated whether to do so. At one point, I was working the room a little bit, and I walked up to a table of about six writers. They were talking amongst themselves, and all of them glanced at me as I approached the table, but not one of them said hello. I wasn't sure if I might be interrupting, but it quickly became apparent that their conversation was not particularly animated. Some of them were talking to each other, and so I turned to the other three, intending to say hello and introduce myself.

To say that they froze me out would be a great understatement. In fact, I haven't seen behavior like that since the high school cafeteria. I'm not sure what caused it -- I don't know if I may have rejected one of their friends, or even one of them, or maybe they write for one of our competitors -- but after thinking about it, I've decided I don't care what the reason was. The simple truth is that at a business networking event, people should expect to be approached and should be prepared to say hello. They don't have to like me or my company. They don't have to submit manuscripts to my company. But even if they outright hated me or my company, the polite and professional thing to do would have been to say hello, make a brief connection, and then move on. As it happened, I walked away from that table without saying a single word to any one of those five authors.

It's rare that something like that happens at a writing conference. Usually, writers are pretty happy to meet new people at these events -- or at least, that's been my experience. So that's why I debated saying anything here. This particular event, the Passionate Ink reception, is usually a wonderful venue for networking. I don't want to sound like I'm criticizing the event or the event coordinators or the chapter as a whole. They do a great job. I just hate to see their event marred by behavior like that.

In any event, moving on. From there we went to our author dinner. This is always a fun and lively event, and this year was no exception. I think the funniest moment came after dinner. Our submissions coordinator, Barb, was celebrating her birthday that day. Several of the authors got together and ordered a naughty cake for her. I knew something was up when the waiter carried it in, and the look on his face made it plain that something wicked this way came. Then he set down the cake, and we all got a good look at the picture on top -- two bunnies having sex. Maybe you have to know Barb to understand how truly funny that is, because she is definitely a woman who understands the benefit of going at it like rabbits, but regardless, this is one of the funniest cakes I've ever seen. Kudos to the authors who came up with that one.

One other noteworthy moment from the dinner erupted at the end of the table where Alicia and our copy editor were sitting. This was the first volley in what has come to be known as the Great Semicolon Skirmish of ‘08. Trust me when I tell you this was a complicated battle that covered much territory and involved the use of much precise ammunition. I did enter the fray briefly, but backed away slowly when I realized I would have a hard time getting a word in edgewise. And that's saying something. It's not often that someone can outshout me on the topic of punctuation. I will leave the disclosure of further details to Alicia and Lynn.

The next day, Friday, we had several more meetings, meetings, meetings, with a brief break in the afternoon for some much-needed downtime. I was starting to hit my wall. I hid in my room for a bit, and an hour and a half later, I rose refreshed and wandered off for a dinner meeting. This one was at a place called Kuleto's, and it was fabulous. Every meal we had in every restaurant we visited was fabulous. I just can't say enough good about restaurants in San Francisco. We lingered over dinner and drinks, and it was pretty late at night by the time this one wrapped up. I hated to say goodbye to my boss -- she was leaving early the next morning, not joining us on our editing retreat, but if we do this again next year, I really want her there. I just adore this woman. I feel very lucky to be working for her.

So that takes us to Saturday morning, at which time we left for our editing retreat. I won't go into that now. I'd rather stay focused on the conference itself for a little while. This seemed like a very upbeat conference this year, remarkably upbeat. I didn't hear much doom and gloom, and very little dire prognosticating. There wasn't much industry gossip, and what little I did hear, I would agree with. People were talking about paranormal starting to get saturated, and I would say there's truth in that. Readers are still snapping up these books, but I think that the trend is at its peak. Not that it's falling off, but that it's reached maximum density.

I confess, I don't pay a lot of attention to the chatter about other publishers. I did hear are a few tidbits -- I heard something about a new Harlequin contract, though I can't for the life of me remember what it was, and I heard something about Kensington not being as open to new authors, though I can't remember why. If anyone wants to shed light on these rumors, please correct my imprecise information in the comments. Or if anyone heard any other good industry information, feel free to post it in the comments, or if you prefer to remain anonymous, send it to edittorrent@gmail.com and I’ll preserve your anonymity and share your information.

I will tell you about our editing retreat, but to do that, I want to post pictures, and my camera cable is in my suitcase traveling all around the country. Good old American Airlines. They charge fifteen bucks to check a bag, and then they can’t even get it to its destination. But that's a whole other story which we’ll save for another time.

Theresa

Back from the conference....

Finally back! Theresa and I met with lots of writers (and she met with lots of industry sorts) and... well, I don't remember much else. Lots of arguments about semicolons in fiction (that's just the sort I hang out with, alas). I'm sure more will occur to me once I get some sleep and file my final grades in my summer classes.

Theresa, there was something I said would make a good blog post-- oh, yeah, about how pauses in dialogue should be in the narrative, not in punctuation. Remember?

Alicia

A Preconference Day in the Life...

I leave for RWA's national conference in seven days and seven hours. Not that I'm counting or panicking or anything. I know, I know. Everyone feels a crunch right before conference. I thought it might give you a little glimpse into what crunch time looks like on my side of the desk. Here is how my day went today.

8:30 a.m.
Sit down at desk. Refuse to look at task list. Instead, cast one ferocious scowl in its general direction, and briefly mull over the fact that not one item got crossed off yesterday. And yes, yesterday was Sunday. And yes, I worked all day. And all evening.

8:31 a.m.
Open E-mail. Begin answering messages that came in overnight. Normal, routine, everyday stuff. One editor sent me a manuscript she wants to buy. One author wants to know when her cover will be ready. Art director needs some information for two other covers. This one has a question about a release date; that one is doublechecking the time for our author dinner. A few reviews came in -- good ones, but they usually are. Multiple e-mails from boss, and those always get answered first. Most of these are questions about our schedule for the conference. Check status sheets on all upcoming releases. Several are ready for the next phase in the process. Send them off. Ha! Off my desk, and onto someone else's!

9:45 a.m.
Sit back and sigh. E-mail is done. For now. Reach for coffee cup and realize it's not there. Get up and make coffee. Ponder the mathematical improbability of making it this far on a Monday morning before drinking any coffee.

10 a.m.
Renew a solemn vow to clear out entire submissions list before leaving for conference. Evaluate submissions list. At the moment, I have one manuscript from a current author and about another dozen manuscripts to evaluate. One is old enough to be making me feel guilty. Decide I shouldn't feel guilty because I cut my submissions pile in half last week in a massive pre-conference desk-cleaning marathon. Normally I would start with the manuscript the editor wants to acquire, but today is an exception because she is out and doesn't need a fast response. Open the one from the current author. I would really like to get her working on this before I leave.

11 a.m.
Making good headway on the manuscript. Just realized that there is a conference document that I need to proofread this morning. The second page needs an entirely new layout. Save work frequently. This is the same document that disappeared from my hard drive yesterday. That little glitch cost me two hours.

11:45 a.m.
Save document. Print a hard copy, and download it to disk, and e-mail it to self, because paranoia runs rampant today. It's ready for the printer.

11:46 a.m.
Check e-mail. Find revision suggestions for the document. Cry a little. (Okay, not really.) Re-open document and begin making revisions.

High noon.
Finally work up the courage to check the task list. Seven priority items, 24 additional items, 31 total. Open e-mail to deal with a fairly quick priority item -- it's always good to get at least one done before lunch. Inbox has exploded in the last 45 minutes. How does that happen? Do you all get together and decide a time at which you will all e-mail me? A coordinated e-mail blitz? Okay, probably not. Briefly ponder mathematical improbability of everyone I know emailing me in the same 30-minute window. Spend 15 minutes dealing with as many messages as possible, as quickly as possible. Several are FYI messages that don't require a response. Yay.

12:15 p.m.
Lunch. I promised myself a little lunchtime shopping today. I want some new clothes for the conference. Isn't this part of the ritual? Drive to favorite store. Make one lap through favorite department, gathering everything that looks worth trying on. Try it all on. Quickly. Feeling harassed by my task list, and want to get back to work. Buy one pair of pants and one blouse.

1:15 p.m.
At the post office. The clerk mentions that a package came in for me from overseas, and someone needs to sign for it, and it's on my mail carrier's truck. I know what this is. I've been waiting for it. One of my authors is sending me something really special, and I've been stalking the mailman waiting for it. Rush home.

1:30 p.m.
Mailman was already here. Did not leave package. Damn. Briefly contemplate driving neighborhood streets until mail truck is spotted. Decide that might be crossing the line. Instead, call mom and ask her to pick it up later on her way over here.

1:35 p.m.
Email Alicia to discuss Batman and Don Draper and her son's recent silent film project. Important stuff. Problems with an event for conference. Might need a change of venue. Begin investigating alternate venues. Frequent e-mail and phone call with boss. Problem is not so much a problem as a preference, and we debate whether we should just live with it. Update conference schedule spreadsheet. Cross-check my schedule and boss's schedule against master schedule. This is a pain in the ass. More e-mail regarding the same. The e-mail never ends.

3 p.m.
Check clock. Freak out. Reread task list. Nothing is quick and easy. Make tea -- caffeine is clearly necessary. Glower at tea kettle while debating what to do next. Wonder if I have any choice in the matter, the way this day is going.

3:10 p.m.
Have re-evaluated priorities for the rest of the day. Close e-mail browser window. Must disengage from e-mail in order to accomplish actual work. Open manuscript from this morning, and resume actual work.

4 p.m.
Mom arrives with package. Open package and squeal. Dare I tell you what was in it? Hint: not a manuscript. (Okay, it was yarn. Awesome handmade yarn from Finland, a gift-souvenir from a vacationing author. Nathalie Gray, you rock!)

4:30 p.m.
E-mail is piling up. Time is running short. Send many emails. Remember that I promised to help a friend with her pitch before conference, and email her some pointers. Realize I have blog post from author sitting in my inbox and post it to company blog. Briefly note that my email inbox has swelled by half today. Briefly contemplate the mathematical probability of getting entirely caught up on email and staying that way. Realize that I have already defied the math gods twice today, and give up the dream.

5:15 p.m.
Must. Eat. Dinner. Leftover stir-fried vegetables and rice. How exciting. Work out. Shower. Fold laundry. The excitement never ends.

6:45 p.m.
Return to manuscript. Open file, stare out window while contemplating possible solutions to a plot problem. Make notes. Read some more pages in the hope that plot problem will resolve itself. (It won't. They never do. Lucky for me, or I'd be out of a job.)

8:00 p.m.
Dear heaven, how did it get to be this late? Oh. Right. I killed a couple of hours on scheduling and other conference matters. Browse interwebz in lazy slacker fashion. Realize we have the number one book in our category on Fictionwise. Email authors to celebrate. We also have two other titles in the top ten, and three more performing very well over there. Six of our books are kicking butt and taking names. I couldn't be prouder.

8:30 p.m.
Okay, enough slackering. Add four items to task list as a result of pre-slackering email blitz. Cry a little. (Okay, not really.) Scour memory, inbox, task lists, and wall of sticky note reminders next to desk in effort to remember detail I was supposed to remember today. Finally remember. It's a two-minute task related to -- you guessed it -- the conference schedule. Email someone to confirm schedule detail. Spend a few quick minutes rearranging wall of sticky note reminders because some items have been finished today. Feel gloaty for finishing any real work at all.

9:15 p.m.
Email from boss. She says we've spend enough time debating issue with venue. I agree. She has made a decision. Whew! That's a big one off the old task list.

9:20 p.m.
Remember that I wanted to blog about Mad Men and character foils today. Episode notes for Mad Men are not on my desk. Where are they? Um. Hunt for notes leads to general desk-clearing. We take 90% or more of our submissions electronically, so my desk never gets too dreadful. Which makes it all the more puzzling when I can't find something. Give up hunting for notes and return to manuscript, pausing briefly to admire descluttered desk surface.

10:00 p.m.
But I want to blog something, even if not about Mad Men. Throw in the towel on the manuscript. Brain is slush anyway. Contemplate day.

Manuscripts completed: 0
Manuscripts evaluated: one-half
Revision letters written: one-half
Manuscripts pushed to next stage of production: 6
Trips to post office: 2 (one mine, one mom's)
Email inbox count at beginnning of day: 33
Email inbox count at end of day: 45 (Boo! Net gain!)
Number of emails written: 46
Number of phone calls regarding conference: 4
Priority tasks at beginning of day: 7
Priority tasks at end of day: 9 (Boo! Hiss! Net gain!)
Revisions to document for conference: 9,437 (or so it seems)
Revisions to conference schedules: 44,695 (or so it seems)
Blog posts: 3
Number of sticky notes removed from wall: 5
Number of sticky notes added to wall: 2 (Hooray! That's a net loss!)

It is now midnight. I'm set to hit the ground running in the morning, but tomorrow has to be more productive. I think I'm almost done with the conference scheduling and planning, and I really, really want to leave with a clean desk. Or as clean as I can get it, anyway. What's the probability of that?

RWA Nationals

I keep forgetting to mention this here, but Red Sage is going to be hosting a little coffee reception from 4 until 5 p.m. on Thursday at RWA nationals in San Francisco. Room Pacific F. This is an open reception, and anyone is welcome to attend. Please stop by and say hello if you're going to be at the conference or in San Francisco. In addition to a free cup of joe, we're going to be giving away some other little goodies like signed books and the opportunity for a drinks meeting with yours truly. But mostly, it's just an informal mixer, where everyone will have a chance to meet and greet. And I hope to see some of you there.

Also, on an unrelated note, how many of you are watching the AMC series Mad Men? It's an extraordinary example of an antihero in action, and I thought we might want to pick it apart a little bit here on this blog. This is probably only a useful exercise, though, if people have seen the series. They're currently rerunning season one on on-demand, and I think you can watch episodes on AMC's website. And maybe on iTunes. In any event, if you want to go down this path with me, say so in the comments and we'll do it together. The way they build the character of Don Draper is so fascinating and so meticulously crafted that I think it would be a worthwhile study.

Theresa

Indianapolis, Anyone?

Just a quick note to let everyone know that there will be a rare double sighting this weekend of both Alicia and I in Indianapolis. I will be speaking to an RWA chapter at the Fishers library Saturday afternoon. We'll be talking about proposals. Alas, not the indecent kind.

Also, pretty please read Alicia's post on secondary characters twice. This comes up more often than you might guess.

ps. Alicia, you're not a lardbutt! Why would you even think that? <--- note difference in female and male bonding patterns

Theresa

Approaching Editors in the Wild

Just an aside -- we don't usually link back to Red Sage stuff from this blog, but in this case, I'm going to make an exception. I posted to the Red Sage blog today about a writer I met at a conference who ended up selling to me. Several times. Anyway, it's an anecdote that might shed some light on the right and wrong way to meet editors in bars.

Theresa

San Francisco, Anyone?

If you're going to RWA nationals in San Francisco this summer and would like a pitch meeting with Alicia or I, now is the time to sign up for one. Email your name and preferred email address to eredsage at gmail dot com to get on the list. These are independent pitch appointments, and any conference attendee is eligible for one, regardless of any other pitches you may have signed up for. I hear that the pitch schedule is already filling up and that they're looking for overflow room arrangements so that we can accommodate all the appointment requests.

In other news, Oakley Hall passed away. This saddens me and makes me want to pull out my worn copy of How Fiction Works for another read. Have any of you read this one? I don't always agree with him -- I remember in particular that his discussion of cumulative modifiers seemed half-formed -- but I approve of it more than some of the other technique books floating around writerland.

Alicia reports that the weather in England has turned cool, and that finding her way around the English countryside is an adventure of aimlessly meandering roads punctuated by sudden towns. I don't know about the rest of you, but to me that sounds like an adventure worth having.

I'm digging through our gmailbox -- it turns out that a bunch of emails with openings and questions have been languishing in a folder I didn't know existed. Oy. You think you're so organized, and then something like that happens! But I'm sorting it all out and we'll respond to them just as soon possible. Tip of the hat to the commenter who asked if we were ever going to do more openings -- that comment prompted this editor to dig deeper in the gmailbox.

Theresa

Slam Jam Conference

I'm heading up to the Slam Jam shortly. If any of you are attending, be sure to say hello! The rest of you, please send me lots of "good pitch" vibes. I'd love to pick up a new writer or two over the weekend!

ETA: Also, before I forget, I've donated an evaluation of a full manuscript to the Brenda Novak auction. Go bid! If not on that, then on something else. It's for an excellent cause!

Theresa

When We "Hate" the Manuscript: An Editor's Response

Yesterday -- or rather, late last night, because that was the soonest I could get to the blog -- we talked about what to do when one of your critiquing partners delivers chapters that are tolerably well-written but leave you cold.

Today, I thought I'd talk a little about this issue from the acquisitions perspective. Maybe we should entitle this post:

To Form Reject, or Not to Form Reject. That Is the Question.

(So tempted to riff on "whether 'tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrow of outrageous fortune," which seems like a line custom-designed to describe this particular issue.)

Let me start by saying I hate form rejections. No. Maybe I should start by saying I love form rejections. Each statement is equally true, after all, depending on the circumstances.

I love form rejections because they create a defensive shield between me and the disappointed writer. Not all writers tolerate disappointment well. Our side of the profession is riddled with stories about writers who argue with editors over every detail of every letter. If we explain that the protagonist's motivation in chapter seven doesn't work, we know we open ourselves up to a letter explaining precisely why we weren't paying attention to the set-up in chapter six. (That kind of argument won't win you a contract, in case you were wondering.)

Or, we get a letter kindly offering to revise the motivation in chapter 7 and resubmit, even though we never invited revisions. (If we want revisions, we'll ask for them. Never doubt that.)

Or, after reading and rejecting a partial, we sometimes get the full anyway, with an explanation of why we were wrong not to request it. (Gee, thanks.)

This reminds me of a conference legend involving an elevator, a laptop, and a romance editor who can never blend into the crowd at romance conventions because he is a he. Poor guy. He's tall, too. Sticks out like a linebacker at a doll party. Every time I hear a story about this guy at a conference, I wonder if the story is true or if it's always him in these stories because he's such an obvious target.

So, as the legend goes, our heroic editor boarded a crowded elevator at a major conference last year. One of the passengers recognized him and pounced.

"You requested my manuscript and you've had it for nine thousand million kajillion months," said the writer. "Aren't you ever going to read it?"

"I'm a little behind on my reading," the editor admits. At this point, the elevator probably feels a bit like a cage, but this guy is also legendary for being a good sport, so he might not mind being cornered.

"I've got it on my laptop." The writer whips out said laptop and fires it up to the manuscript.

There are two versions of this legend, one which has the editor welcoming the chance to read the manuscript right there, and one which has him blinking in surprise before formulating the answer least likely to get him shoved down the elevator shaft. In either case, the editor is said to have graciously taken the laptop and begun reading the manuscript on the screen.

"Well," he says after reading a bit. "This probably won't work for us. You're opening with a lot of backstory, and it's slowing down the pace."

He starts to return the laptop, but the writer pushes it back on him.

"Keep reading!" she insists. "It gets better in chapter four!"

Ba-dum-bump-tsh!

Form rejections shield us from this sort of thing. We don't know you. You could be the nicest person in the world, or you could be elevator-laptop girl. (Helpful career tip: Don't be elevator-laptop girl.)


The Downside of Form Rejections

Occasionally, there comes a writer who we like very much but whose work we cannot buy. Case in point -- this story is true, and I know it's true because it happened to me.

Last year at a major conference, I went to the bar to meet up with some friends and couldn't find them. Somehow I ended up at a table with three writers, all of whom were strangers. They were delightful people. We talked about the city and the conference schedule and what we like to read. We commiserated over the impossibility of getting table service in that bar. We played the who-do-you-know game and I ended up giving all three of these fine people my card. One of them assured me she would submit something, and that was the extent of our business discussion.

I bumped into these women at various times over the course of the conference and they were always delightful. After the conference, as promised, the one woman submitted work to me. I was happy to see it from her.

I couldn't make her an offer on it, but I also couldn't have lived with myself if I'd used a form rejection. She was so nice, and I wanted to help her. So I sent her a long and detailed revision letter and made sure she understood that my office door remained open to her. Since that time, we've corresponded a bit and I'm doing what I can to help her shape up her prose. I'm always pleased to see something in my inbox from her. She's consistently pleasant and I know how hard she's working to learn her craft.

The Moral of The Story

What does this have to do with critiquing a story that's basically well-written but doesn't appeal? Everything. When I'm confronted with a story like that, my first decision has to be whether to send a form rejection or something more personal. Three factors come into play here, and none of them have to do with whether I "hate" the manuscript. (I hardly ever really hate a manuscript. I either love them, or I think they don't work. Occasionally, they make me spray tea through my nose, but laughably bad manuscripts are more rare than you might think.)

The three factors are time, how much repair work needs to be done, and whether I feel the need to shield myself. As to the first two factors -- I never have any time, and most of the repair work at this pre-contract stage is done by the writer, not the editor.

Which leave the third factor, whether I feel the need to shield myself. Most of the time it's a guessing game because I don't know three-quarters of the people who submit to me. And momma always warned me, don't open the door to strangers, and I always do what momma says. So that means the default preference is for a politely worded and kindly intended form rejection, even if the writing is mostly good.

Theresa

The High Holy Day of Romance

It's late, and I'm very tired after a stressful day. One of my cousins is a student at Northern -- he's okay, but we couldn't get hold of him this afternoon for a while after the shooting. As I said, stressful.

But all day, I've been wanting to come over here and blog about something cool that happened last night. A local romance writers group invited me to participate on a panel discussion of different types of sex scenes in romance. The other speakers were both authors, one of whom writes inspirational romance with a chick lit flair, and the other of whom writes more standard historical romances. Both are successful and are multipublished with big houses.

The setup was pretty simple. We each read and discussed a first kiss scene and a sex scene which has an impact on the relationship. (All sex scenes should have such an impact, but those were the instructions we were given.) We started with the inspy writer, then to the traditional romance writer, then to me. I guess they thought we'd be building to a crescendo of sexual explicitness or heat or something.

But I was astonished by the strong similarities between the scenes. The language used was very similar in all three -- not the language used to describe body parts, of course, but all the other language in the scenes. The yearning and the melting and the caresses, the attention paid to the placement of hands and use of fingers, even the way dialogue was used to back down from tension peaks was all very similar. Oddly, the traditional historical romance writer and I both chose to read scenes involving handcuffs. Go figure.

In fact, if I had to describe differences between the scenes, the differences would be minimal.

• The inspy had to sublimate a lot of the sexual tension -- a description of brewing tea became a metaphor for what the heroine expected sex with the hero would be like, with the heat and the moisture and the leaves unfurling. There was still a lot of passion and emotional intensity, but it was directed at the tea instead of between the characters. Very interesting and effective technique for building tension.
• Issues of power and control were hinted at in the other scenes but explored much more frankly in the erotic romance scenes.
• The emotional context varied between the three scenes, but in all three, the emotions provided a foundation for the scenes.

I expected some in the audience to be a bit down on the erotic romance, and I was not disappointed. At one point, an audience member even drew links between erotic romance and teen pregnancy. But for the most part, the audience reaction was strongly positive. Most of them were surprised at the similarities between scenes, rather than shocked or appalled by the franker nature of the erorom. A few people claimed that the erorom scenes weren't at all what they'd expected, and that even though the scenes were more detailed and, um, bold, they'd been captivated by the characters and wished I'd had time to read more. (Always leave 'em wanting more, right?)

All in all, a very interesting evening. I'd be interested to hear from those of you who read romance -- what is it that makes a scene like this work for you as a reader? Are you more interested in physical inventiveness or emotional power or some combination of the two?

Theresa

Love Is Murder Con, Day 2

I hit my conference wall around 3:30 this afternoon. It surprised me when it happened because this is such a relaxed conference that I never felt the usual mania. And today was a light day for me, too. I took a couple of impromptu pitches and spent some time networking, but that's nothing. I'm frequently double or triple booked at conferences, and this one just doesn't have that same overwhelming, how-will-I-ever-do-it-all feel to it.

I even got to attend a workshop. Astonishing. I went to a panel of book reviewers and listened to them talk about their philosophies of reviewing, how their systems each work, what to send and not send, and why they do the things they do. I was very curious about this panel when I saw it on the conference schedule because this is a side of our business which I understand imperfectly. The panel did explain a few things and, as an added bonus, I got to say hello to Jon from Crimespree magazine again. Good man, that Jon. Everyone should subscribe to his magazine and keep him active and involved in the writing/reviewing scene.

The highlight of the day for me was when I got to meet Lee Child and shake his hand. OMG! Fangirl squeee! I'm never washing this hand again!

Lee spoke at the luncheon today and he made one point that's been echoing in my mind ever since. He said writing is a great profession because it harms no one. People buy books because they enjoy them, so authors aren't profiting by someone else's misfortune or misery but by their enjoyment. Also, he made this analogy: it's not like a baseball team, where if you succeed and make the roster, someone else has to fall off the roster.

This is both profound and true: publishing is not a zero-sum game. It's true that there is a lot of competition for publication slots, but once your book is in the market, it's really not competing with other books in the sense that one book's success means another's failure.

Jenny Crusie once made the analogy that a rising tide raises all boats. One of her books was being released around the same time as a Susan Elizabeth Philips book, and Jenny wasn't worried that her sales would suffer by this proximity. She said that people were just as likely to buy both books as long as they were in the store. And even if they only bought Susan's book, if they loved it (and who wouldn't), that love might prompt them to return to the store and buy another romance. Or two or ten. And maybe a thriller and a self-help book as long as they were at it.

I've noticed this at our website store, too. When one book suddenly starts moving, it usually takes a few others along for the ride. Those other books might not sell in the same volume -- not everyone who buys Book One will choose the same title for their Book Two selection. But a spike for one author usually means a few bonus sales for others.

This is why it's always good to support your fellow authors. Even if you're the most purely selfish person in the world, you can celebrate their victories secure in the knowledge that you will also profit by their successes.

Theresa

Checking In From the Conference

Today was a rough day. Massive snowfall overnight made it tricky (understatement) to get to the conference site. But I soldiered on, and my rewards so far have been plentiful. This is a good conference. A few snapshots--

---
Overheard in the hallways--
Two women walking together, carrying conference bags and talking rather loudly.
First woman says, "So I told him, how should I know that that's a whatever-you-call-it grammar thing. Like I care."
Second woman says, "Anyway, that's the editor's job."

(sigh)

---
A lot of people are buying into the myth that erotic romance e-books generate vast sales across the board. Some ER e-books generate strong sales, and some do not. It's pretty much like any genre.

---
In the coatroom where I temporarily parked my snow boots, I received only two impromptu pitches. Usually a confined space like this will generate a lot more stealth pitches.

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One of the fun parts of a conference for me is the chance to hobnob with other editors and agents. Today I had a lovely 20-minute gab with a small press publisher whose recent months mimic ours very closely: distribution conundrums, staffing issues, and a shocking amount of time spent on marketing and PR. It's comforting, in a way, to know that we're all dealing with universal conditions.

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After that chat, another publisher talked some about innovative PR strategies his house is implementing. This excites me because some of his ideas are in line with some things I've recently suggested for our house. I hope to have the opportunity to pick his brains a bit tomorrow, but don't know if I'll get the chance. Alas, he mentioned that he couldn't really tell if any of their strategies were having any impact on sales. Sometimes I wonder if we (the collective publishing industry) ought to shift some of our resources away from convincing people we have a good product, and toward making sure that the product actually is good.

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Two really killer formal pitches this afternoon, both from writers who claimed never to have pitched before. Both stories are loaded with potential, but it's impossible to learn much of anything about publishability from a pitch. I need to see pages. You can have the greatest idea in the world, but (as the old saying goes) it's all in the execution.

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Thank you, Todd, for piercing me with my own sword during the editor panel this afternoon. I once told Todd that part of what I'm doing in pitches is trying gauge how crazy the writer might be. He used that as a moderator's question during the panel, and I couldn't help but laugh to hear my own reckless words used that way. And yes, for the record, I confessed to the audience that I was the big meanie editor who silently performs a mental health screen during pitches. I don't mind copping to my own brand of crazy.

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Thank you, Terri, for the banana. The hotel really ought to open the restaurant when there's a big conference happening.

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It turns out that MWA recently went through a revamp of their publisher-recognition standards. I hadn't heard about that. I knew about the similar changes in RWA's policies and, from what I can tell, MWA and RWA have adopted very similar standards.

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Everybody is talking about facebook and blogs. Nobody is talking about myspace or second life.

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That's it for day one.