WHAT I LEARNED AT RT

I scribbled notes on many topics, but here are the highlights.

Media & Marketing

I learned about some cool new online sites:

www.romanceinthebackseat.com for author interviews and more promo ops.

www.statcounter.com for a tracking counter on your website

www.profilactic.com

www.bebo.com

www.gather.com where you can earn reward points for your posts. Look for target groups.

www.redroom.com

www.bookscreening.com is a place for you can post your book trailer video

www.readersentertainment.tv

These sites were all new to me. The advice of one speaker is to choose three social networking sites to limit the time you spend on them. A URL like http://ping.fm offers a support service for these sites so you only need to post once and it distributes your words to the selected services.

You’ll also want to establish RSS feeds to your blog and people’s comments on your blog posts. (Okay, I’m lost here. I’ll have to hire someone to do this for me. Any volunteers?)

Agents

Disclaimer: I tried to be accurate but couldn’t always tell who was speaking, so any errors are my own.

Agents present on the Agent Panel were Miriam Kriss from the Irene Goodman Agency, Lucienne Diver from the Knight Agency, Christine Witthohn from Book Cents Literary, and Laura Bradford from the Bradford Agency.

Miriam Kriss is looking for genre fiction except for inspirational. She also will look at YA, paranormal and urban fantasy.

Lucienne Diver is looking for genre fiction, mystery/suspense, forensics, and paranormal, both light and dark. She likes to get into the psychology of a character. Author voice is the most important factor for her.

Christine Witthohn is looking for contemporary romance, women’s fiction, paranormal, mystery/suspense, and YA. No sci-fi and no erotica.

Laura Bradford is looking for commercial fiction, including women’s fiction, mystery/suspense, romance, urban fantasy, and YA. She does not want inspirational and takes limited sci-fi. Laura likes "genre straddling" challenges.

Editors

Disclaimer: I tried to be accurate but couldn’t always tell who was speaking, so any errors are my own.

Editors present included Susan Swinwood from Mira, Randall Toye from HQ Global, Tessa Woodward from Avon, Alexandria Kendall from Red Sage, Heather Osborn from Tor, Amy Pierpont from Grand Central, Monique Patterson from St. Martin’s, Deb Werksman from Sourcebooks, Leah Hultenschmidt from Dorchester, Angela James from Samhain, and Teresa Stevens from Ravenous Press? I couldn’t see the name from where I was sitting.

Susan Swinwood mentioned how character development is important to her when evaluating manuscripts. Agented submissions only for Mira, HQN, and Luna.

Monique from St. Martin’s said they’re looking for commercial fiction and nonfiction plus romance in all subgenres.

Leah likes genre blending.

Samhain is looking for straight contemporaries and wants more futuristics; No women’s fiction or YA. M/M romance is becoming more popular. Unagented submissions are acceptable (see guidelines online).

Avon will look at all romance subgenres. An unsolicited e-mail query is okay (but better check their guidelines too).

Trends

Fast-paced stories; fantasy; sexy historicals; traditional contemporary romance (i.e. babies, small town settings); dark paranormals continue to be popular.

Spotlight on Grand Central

I attended the seminar given by Amy Pierpont. Grand Central is looking for sexy historicals, Scottish historicals, paranormals, contemporary romance (as in heartfelt stories with a sense of community), romantic suspense, women’s fiction, and series based romances with an over-arcing theme. Amy suggests being able to compare your work to two or three best-selling authors for marketing purposes. She says all genres are getting sexier. Dark paranormals still outsell light paranormals. Futuristics may be growing but that’s a niche market. Agented submissions only except for contests/conferences. Their editors look for conflict, characterization, motivation, plot, and voice. They are buying now for 2010 and 2011. Amy said authors should be prolific and self promote. She mentioned widgets, social networking sites like Twitter, discussion guides, bonus features such as fun facts about writing the book, contests, and Q&A as things an author could consider for her promo efforts and website.

And that’s it for my notes.  I’m sure other authors who attended RT are posting what they’ve learned at the conference on their blogs so check out some of the links from my friends in the right column. Have a good day!

Nancy, you're a doll. I missed the marketing w/s, so the information you posted hit the spot.
Thank you!

Great info, Nancy - thanks. Bookmarking this post.

I'd like to see other people's posts on what industry news they heard. Dara and Aleka, it was so nice to see your friendly faces there.

Very interesting, Nancy. Thanks for posting! I learned a little about graphic novels, including how to layout your story, and saw more M/M romance books & authors than I was expecting.

Thank you so much for these notes. It was good to see you at RT.

Thanks to you, guys. It was good seeing you too.

Thanks you for the pertinent information, Nancy. I am saving them.

Thanks for sharing. I've been recapping my experiences at my blog, and will post more detailed notes from one workshop next week. There are so many sessions, it's impossible to get to all the ones that look good. By sharing, it's like making it possible to be in several places at once.

I have no idea what gathering you're referring to but the information you've provided is very helpful to a new author like myself. I have just finished my first book and have decided to market it myself as an E Book and from what you've posted my genre (mystery) fits into the market. I like the way you've made the information easy to read and in point form. I would love to sell your book on my website! (www.fictionetc.com):)

Barbara, I'm not sure how you would get my ebook versions to sell on your website. My books are available in ebook format at www.ereads.com and at Amazon.
The gathering referred to the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention. In addition to a multitude of workshops and panels, they have two mass signings: one for print authors, and one for ebook and small presses. Check it out at www.romantictimes.com and click on the button for the convention. I believe next year's con is in Ohio.

Nancy, this is THE most informative information I have seen yet. Were we at the same conference??? Thank you so much for supplying the info on those workshops I missed. You are the true writing professional and I admire you. xox, Piks

Hello,
Thanks for the mention and I am excited that a new site like mine, Romance in the Backseat got mentioned, though I have worked with a number of authors who went to RT. I was sad to miss it this year, next year is a must. I would love to work with you and any other authors looking for promo opps. or PR. Thanks again,
Terry