RNA Conference 2010 - Industry Day Part One

Sales and Publicity: The Insiders' Guide

Charlotte, Rob & Katie

The opening session of RNA Conference 2010 Industry Day began with a welcome from our wonderful chairperson Katie Ffforde. She then introduced two people she knows well - Charlotte Bush, Publicity Director of Cornerstone Publishing - a division of Random House and  Rob Waddington, Director of Sales at Random House.

Rob began by saying his job was to get books into as many hands as possible and his customers were the retailers. 


He gave the example of the three Katies (Katie Fforde, Kate Flynn and Katie Price) who each -

-write books for their market

-target their market

-know who will read their books

Each of these writers delivers - readers know what they will receive.

He then stated that you need to tell a great story and that the book jacket is the greatest marketing tool. Readers need a signal that this book is for them.

Charlotte then spoke saying her job was to secure coverage and drive sales with as little budget as possible. The process begins 6 months ahead of publication. They need to know what is interesting about you – what’s personal to your story. They need stories to tell. For example:

- what you may have done for research (Katie Fforde being a porter in an auction house for the book Flora's Lot)

-What was the real story or inspiration behind the book?

-Good location connection

For commercial women's fiction the best location to place publicity is:

-women's magazines (5 to 6 months before publication)

-weekly magazines 

This is because women's fiction is about relationship and this appeals to the magazine readers.

Six weeks before publication copies go out to broadcast media.

Radio is a fantastic place for women’s fiction and regional radio is extremely effective – local connection.

Work with your local libraries and book stores.

In general they don't give parties any more because parties don't sell books. Tours are very expensive. Publicity has changed. Space has shrunk.

She recommended using the free media that is avaialable. It is an effective way of getting the news out there.

Internet – use blogger, tweeting, work with website and Facebook

In the questions section this information came out:

-harder and harder to sell to women in their 20s

-the biggest book buyers are between 40-49

-make sure the jacket hits the reader

A question was asked with regard to the level of language used in books - should it be lowered or raised?

-the answer was there was no demographic

-there are 18 Million customers a week in Asda and 25 million a week in Tesco

A question was asked about stickers on books - were they an affective sales tool?

-only if the reader trusted the recommendation - ie Richard & Judy

-there is huge power in recommendation from a trusted source

A question on the difficulty of selling a book from a new author. It is harder.

-retailers rely on reader loyalty

-the jacket is key

-the hook

-the concept

-something a little different

The reality today is that a book may get less than a minute to be sold to a retailer.


NOTE: The above is taken from my quickly scribbled notes and are no doubt very flawed. I apologize in advance for any mistakes...

Conference Musing - An Overview of The RNA Conference 2010

I’m back in Dubai with so many things bubbling in my head – in a good way. The conference this year was amazing – location, speakers, food. The only downside was the accommodation (university digs which it always is but this time the heat and non opening windows were the worst culprit) and none of us go on conference for the food or the accommodation...

This year I wanted to write up my thoughts first as an over view as so many of the sessions seemed to link together – well at least in my head and where I am in my writing journey.(will try and post more session specific notes - I promise)

The industry day was filled with challenging information from the small budget for marketing and PR to a publishers take on romance (it’s big but call it anything but romance) to the agent’s perspective of how important it is to maximize your sales world-wide and that luck is still a key ingredient.

On Saturday’s sessions I heard the same things albeit in a different way – your USP(unique selling point) for the ‘X Factor’ session, ‘fauxromance’ from the MIRA editors, Sarah Duncan in her talk on ‘Mind the Gap’ exhorted us to find pzazz on every page and every paragraph (in other words leave no stone unturned to keep your reader with you for every page to the end), and Kate Hardy encouraged us even if we are not planners to use some to be more effective – even if it’s just time management...

What tied everything together for me was the somewhat controversial talk by, in Katie Fforde’s words our ‘Koh-i-Noor’,  Joanna Trollope because for her too ‘romance’ is a problem. To get around it she gave us a history of the word romance and then moved onto to its origins in literature...where we come from as romantic novelists. (Note: she separated herself from us at the end by saying that we wrote about romantic relationships whereas she wrote about relationships – which made me smile because I was then left with the impression that she too had fallen foul of the pink fluffy jackets she complained about and not had not read many of the writers sitting in front of her)

No one over the weekend including the JT denied that romance sells, but the clear message was that everybody even those writing it are afraid of the implications of romance. It has been downgraded by society in general – possibly over loaded by images of superficial sides of romance. JT spoke of the cartoon covers put on books that degraded not only the contents but most importantly the reader. My brain immediately jumped to David Shelley’s comment about how books which as essential romantic novels are been rebranded as inspirational lifestyle books (I heart Paris for example) or vampires (The Twilight series). This then led me to the session with the Mira editors who were talking about their new young adult line and the need to bring these readers to romance but please let’s not call it romance... but cover it with paranormal or whatever works.

Then JT spoke of the snobbery and a fear of emotional display which in effect dismisses a whole genre that has something to say to us all - I wanted to stand up and cheer.  I have read romance all my life from Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer (yes it is an adventure story but I loved Becky’s part), Harlequin/Mills & Boon, Georgette Heyer, Jane Austin, Anya Seton....to my favourites of today. They have carried me through my worst days and continue to do so. My life would have been so much less without them. I would dreamed less and aspired to less without these romantic books.

She spoke of how ground breaking Brigid Jones Diary and Sex in The City had been and how in an overcrowded market the consistent cloning had brought romance down and lost the important message in the hearts of woman.

So JT’s talk and the industry have fired me up. I’m not yet facing deadlines, editorial demands, and pink fluffy covers so I have time. At this stage I can still write the book of my heart which is my unique selling point and that can’t be found anywhere else...in JT’s words roughly – offer something that can’t be found anywhere else...the quality of hope...engage with the complexities of the heart...write with your voice...think of your reader(which came from every speaker)...lift the imagination out of the habitual and reboot the soul to the possibility....your readers know that this is fantasy but need to believe in the possibility...

So the conference’s industry day and JT’s bracing talk gave me the courage to continue to write the books of my heart and not chase publication at any cost (ie the latest trend in publishing ie paranormal if that is not me) and through the craft sessions the conference gave me the tools to lift my writing to the level that will make my readers believe in the possibility of the world I have created. I simply could not have asked for more.

The York Festival of Writing

I’m not sure where to begin. The weekend was fabulous on so many levels.

I went to York at a bit of a cross roads. I’ll own up to the fact that I am a perfectionist and that this is quite frankly a pain in the back side. I have been told by many that I stress too much or think too much about the writing. I have been told by some that I am ready. I have smiled and said no, but they thought I was fussing. This weekend reconfirmed what I knew in my gut. I write well and to a publishable level, but that isn’t good enough anymore and it’s not what I want. Yes, I want to be published and I really want people to read my stories – the later really drives me. But I want to do it right and well and I don’t want to do it too soon. As the wonderful Katie Fforde confirmed you only get one shot at your debut.

My gut has been saying that I have a few more notches to climb and this weekend did two things or maybe even three. The one-to-one chats with the agents confirmed my feeling that my writing is good but they can see these is more there. One was most delightful and helpful – really thinking hard about the work and how to lift it – I am grateful. It is a joy to have someone study your work – to think about it hard and give you their thoughts even if they are not what you want to hear. Everything I heard I knew already which some may say was a waste of an opportunity, but it wasn’t for me as I hadn’t trusted me instinct. I needed to hear it from the pros who were kind enough to give me their time. So with the validation I needed I can now dig deep to lift (if that makes any sense) my writing the next two or three levels. Maybe the dig deep means mining my heart for the emotion and the dark underused recesses of my brain for the craft that has been lost since university. Don’t know but I do know I have a clearer picture than I have ever had of what type of writer I am and what I want to produce.

Now off of the quite so internal thinking to hard core tangible learning. The workshops i attended were superb – and touched and ignited so many things. I’ll give a brief summary of some of them:-

First up was Jeremy Sheldon’s – A Sense of Place. I will confess to some apprehension that I had chosen the wrong thing. If anything all of my book are dripping location. Cornwall is tangible on the page. Boy I am so glad that I went to this. Jeremy is a brilliant teacher and what he did was beautifully demonstrate what description can do for you.

He began with a quote from the Great Gatsby – a description of the Manhattan skyline. He asked us what the character was feeling – it was clear yet not a single internal emotional thought had been uttered. He then quoted Henry Miller (don’t remember the book) and it was a description of the same bit of skyline yet the emotion conveyed was completely different.

His task for us was to describe a journey in third person without using any words to tell the character’s emotional state.

So I wrote a scene from Pilgrimage where Pru is leaving Dubai –

Her sunglasses fogged with her first step outside. The taxi was there but between the film of moisture on her glasses and the textured wind of the shamal it was just a sand coloured shape in front of her.

Pru handed the driver her bag. Only one bag and that was a first. She forced the door open against the wind. The air con in the taxi did nothing to disguise the unwashed odour of the driver or maybe now that her glasses had cleared her sense of smell had returned with her vision.

She ferreted inside her Birkin checking for her passport and boarding pass. Finding them she pushed the bag onto the seat beside her. She looked out the window and let her hand cover her nose. The palm trees that lined the road had soft edges today unlike yesterday when they had been crisp against the cloudless blue sky.

Yesterday on the train back I looked the opening paragraph of A Cornish House

The car coughed, lurched and died. Maddie’s fingers clenched the wheel. The trailer’s momentum nudged it further along the dark lane. The moonlit sky silhouetted the twisted trees. Their tortured shapes rose from the hedges, forming a tunnel, which seemed to enclose the car.

It doesn't need the sentence in italics because the description says it much better. You know her state of mind. I need to trust my descriptive passages and enjoy them.

The next session was also with him and this was Show Not Tell. Again brilliant. For an exercise we had to take a noun like passion and say – passion tastes like or sounds like or smells like. The woman who read out her responses said passion smells like sulphur and my nose instantly reacted. Jeremy said this is what you want – you want to evoke a reaction and better yet a physical one in your reader.

Moving quickly along to the afternoon – Julie Cohen gave a character workshop. Now I couldn’t stay for the whole session because of a one-to-one, but recently I have been doubting that I am a writer - well I am. If you can create a character out of two letters and a number with the flip of a coin then you are a writer at heart. I love Julie but at the moment she is not my favourite person as I now have a fully fledged character with yellow eyes who is a conductor waiting for her story to be told......she is the type who I know will not now leave me alone.

Sunday provided me with tools to deal with many characters and how to look for the right hero. My head was bursting with ideas.

There was a good contingent from the RNA there – Katie Fforde who opened the festival with a stirring calls to write and keep writing. She gave us the ten tips to guaranteed publication and I believe she is right. I mentioned Julie but there was also Adele Geras, Sue Moorcroft, Veronica Henry and one of the organizers Kate Allen. There were six if not a few more aspiring members too. As always we were the first to the bar. Also knowing less people at the conference I could spend more time with those I did know - bliss.

The festival was brilliant for all the industry people who were brave enough to be there. I queue jumped at the bar for agent Peter Buckman, discussed Andrew Lownie’s newsletter with him, lusted after Jane Johnson's beautiful coat (and found a parallel live of sorts – she lives half time in Morocco and Cornwall), led wonderful Jane Judd astray plying her with white wine, had breakfast with a lovely editor who rejected me beautifully a while ago and then planned a handbag trip to Dubai with her, and had dinner with the gorgeous Barry Cunningham and thanked him for publishing JK Rowling for the hours of pleasure he had helped bring to me and my kids....I could go on....

They were all so generous with time and their thoughts. I watched them tactfully handle the full manuscripts shoved under their noses at breakfast or past rejections letters revisited. They kept the smile on their faces. As RJ Ellory summed it up at the close – they are passionate about books and it is why they do it. Writers are passionate about writing and that’s why we do it. Passion is the only reason to be in the business even if to some it smells like supher.

Privileged

Yesterday I was out shopping with DS1. He needed a book to read and I don't need any encouragement to go to a book shop. So we had lunch at the Dubai Mall and then went up stairs to Kinokuniya, which is massive to say the least. However they didn't have the two books that are hot on my must buy now list - Cally Taylor's HEAVEN CAN WAIT and Allie Spencer's TUG OF LOVE. However I wandered the store with DS1 and kept saying - she's a friend as I saw a row of Katie Fforde's books and then came across another row of Jill Mansell and so it went...Eventually he said, "Do you know everyone?" and I replied, "No." However the next shelve we stumbled upon made me sound a bit of a liar and very privileged indeed.

As I looked across the middle shelf... I had to say that Nell Dixon, Veronica Henry, Julie Cohen and Phillipa Ashley were all friends. In fact in JUST SAY YES by Phillipa there is actually a thank you in the acknowledgements to moi....

So we ended up buying him a ton of Bernard Cornwell books - six to be precise.

I also decided to be brave and probably foolish when we came across another one of Katie's books on a bestseller shelf and I pointed to a spot on the shelf and said to DS1, "One day my book or books will be right there." Bless the child, he rolled his eyes and said, "I know that Mum but could you just hurry up and do it." Don't you just love kids...

Diversity

I have the fun task of compiling the the monthly list of publications for Romantic Novelists' Association (RNA). I was late doing this moths list because of netbook problem (ahem). So as I did this moths list I was struck by the diversity of the list. On it you have some big names - Jill Mansell and Katie Fforde and you have some newer writers as well. You have international publishers, US , e -pubs cover the light to the gritty. So I thought I would publish this months list here......enjoy the diversity :-)

June List 2009


Anna Louise Lucia – Dangerous Lies
1934755087,9781934755082 Medallion Press
June 2009 US$7.95, CDN$8.95Marianne Forster was only spending time with a gorgeous man in the hot sun of Morocco.It wasn't anything more than that - until she was kidnapped on the way home.

Susie Vereker - Tropical Connections
ISBN 9780 7278 67872 - Severn House
1st June £18.99
Love, art and intrigue in the Far East. Claire finds more than she bargains for.

Katie Fforde -Love Letters
978-1-8460-5447-1 Cenutry
4th June, £12.99 (on offer in Waterstones)

Catherine King - Without a Mother's Love
9780750530415 Magna Large Print Edition. Hardback.
June 2009. Price £19.99p.
'Abandoned and alone, they must find the courage to survive'
Another gritty saga set in 19th Century Yorkshire.

Victoria Connelly - Molly's Millions
Allison & Busby
£6.99
A fast-paced love chase about a lottery winner who gives it all away.


Monica Fairview - The Other Mr Darcy
0709088116 Robert Hale
June 30 - £18.99 (now on discount for £13.99 until the end of June from Robert Hale)
An Austeneque romantic comedy: Caroline Bingley is heartbroken at Darcy's wedding -- and caught in an embarrassing situation by Darcy's American cousin.


Sheila Newberry - The Watercress Girls
978-7090-8798-4 Robert Hale
30th June 2009 £18.99
In August 1914 Mattie dances in the stream with her sister, unaware that
their idyllic childhood in Suffolk is almost at an end.


Benita Brown – The Promise
978-0-7553-3476-6 Headline
June £5.99
A powerful story of two young sisters caught up in an underworld of corruption and deceit.


Kate Jackson - Reach for the stars
People's Friend June 13, 2009
78pHannah has no idea what to expect when she accepts Jack's strange invitation.


Julie Cohen - Girl from Mars
978-0755341399 - Little Black Dress
11 June 2009 - £5.99
"I, Philomena Desdemona Brown, do solemnly swear to forsake all romantic relationships. There. Now do I really have to say it in Klingon?"



Cat Marsters - Sundown International
978-1-60521-171-8 - Changeling Press ebook
26 June - TBC: approx $8.99
Collection of four previously released novellas in the Sundown series of paranormal erotic romance. Includes the award-winning Never Leave Me.


Louise Allen-The Society Catch in Regency High Society Affairs vol.4
978-0-263-87551-5 Harlequin Mills & Boon
June 2009 £6.99
Rather than face a loveless arranged match Joanna flees, and it is Giles Gregory, whom she has always loved, that her mother asks for help to find her.

Nicola Cornick - The Confessions of a Duchess
ISBN 13: 978-0-373-77377-0 Harlequin HQN Books1st June 2009 $7.99 or £4.73First in the Brides of Fortune Regency trilogy


Janet Woods - The Coal Gatherer (LP)
9780727877406
June-£19.99
1884 Callie Ingram is the daughter of a fisherman who defies her father to obtain her heart's desire.


Jill Mansell - Rumour Has It.
ISBN 9780755328192 Headline Review
25th June £6.99
Cotswolds-set rom com


Georgia Evans - Bloody Good
978-0-7582-3481-0 Kensington Fantasy
June $6.99
Vampire spies infiltrate the Surrey countryside during 1940.


Susan Palmquist -A Sterling Affair
1-60154-367-0 The Wild Rose Press
Date-June 5th, 2009 $12.99
Can Sir Ian Ashby, who just happens to be over 200 years old and returned from the grave, give Deana Adams a second chance at love?

RNA New Writer's Award and Not Writing

Okay, things have gone terribly wrong on the writing front. I was so pleased I wrote on the plane and then wrote more in the past few days - maybe 2000 in total. Well something happened with the little notebook and the screen wouldn't come on. So I had to resort to removing the battery and beginning again. When the thing powered up no document - this i know was my fault and reflected how I felt about the words. You see I hadn't saved it. The other parts of the book were saved under my old working title and I dithered about what to save this under and if truth be told I knew the words were crap and just filling the space on the page. So they are gone forever. However I am at a real cross roads. I know how the story ends but this second half of the book doesn't seem ready to come out. I am going to take a few more days of not writing and hit the Donald Maass book which always sets ideas going and hope for the best.

Below is the official announcement of the award that was given last Wednesday. I can't wait to read it in October when it comes out!


Ex-Barrister Wins New Writers’ Award
with Romantic Novel set in Chambers


The winner of the Romantic Novelists’ Association Joan Hessayon New Writer’s Award has clearly taken the adage “write what you know” to heart. With Tug of Love, published by Little Black Dress, Allie Spencer plumbed her career as a specialist in matrimonial law.

Her heroine is divorce lawyer Lucy. When Lucy meets Mark, it is love at first sight and would be the perfect match if his scary ex-wife, the PM’s divorce and an old flame don’t all get in the way.

Announcing the winner, judge and Chairman of the RNA, Catherine Jones, commented: “Laugh-out-loud funny, clever, and set in chambers by someone who obviously knows what she is talking about, this novel is sassy and believable with a wonderfully flawed heroine and a great supporting cast. It was a joy from first to last.”

The award was presented by bestselling author Katie Fforde at the RNA’s summer party on 13th May.

Allie felt “completely overwhelmed” and said she first got the idea for Tug of Love when she was a pupil barrister sitting outside a court in London in a very cramped waiting area. At the time, Allie had no idea she would abandon law for marriage and a career as a romantic novelist. Nor did she imagine her second full-length book would be snapped up by a publisher and go on to win an award.

Allie lives in Salisbury with her husband and two young sons. Her idols are authors PG Wodehouse and Douglas Adams and she nurtures a secret desire to be a stand-up comedian.

Meanwhile, Allie is thrilled to have won her award. “The RNA has been supremely supportive and nurturing of me, so this is extra special. Also the judges are both very experienced and successful writers so their vote of confidence counts for a lot.”

The RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme, which is generously sponsored by Dr David Hessayon in memory of his late wife Joan, who was a longstanding member, gives unpublished authors of romantic fiction the opportunity to join the Association and submit a full-length manuscript for appraisal. Promising manuscripts, if deemed ready, are passed to a suitable professional. The Joan Hessayon New Writers’ Scheme Award is given to the best of the novels accepted and published that year.

For more information please contact the RNA’s Press Officer Liz Bailey at eabailey@tiscali.co.uk or on 01342 323991.

Romantic Novelists' Association Summer Party

The Library at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers

What can I say - except it was fab! I love the RNA. Not only does it have the New Writers' Scheme and the MOST supportive membership they throw one hell of a party. The Summer Party is when the winner of the Joan Hessayon Award is announced. This award is for a writer who has come through the scheme and is published. It is a celebration of all the excitement and hard work that it takes to cross that hurdle to be published. Katie Fforde said each and everyone of the woman up for the award had won. So a huge congratulation to all of the seven worthy writers but a special shout for Allie Spencer for her Little Black Dress Book Tug of Love.

Speaking of Katie Fforde, she is now the chair of the RNA having taken over from the wonderful Catherine Jones.

As with all these parties there is never ever enough time .....Oh and we had three of the nominees for the Melissa Nathan Comedy Romance Award in attendance - Trisha Ashley, Kate Harrison and Julliet Archer (who was one of the nominees for the Joan Hessayson Award).

Sorry for no names to the photos - connection is not brilliant so I will try and amend when I am at the airport.

I head back to Dubai today having done no writing since I left the plane. I am hoping this means my subconcious will have had the needed break to catch up with where I am going now that I chopped and changed scenes....

Romantic Novelists' Association Winter Party

More photos at last!

Melinda hammond, lovely lady from Midas PR and Kate Allen

Mary DeLazilo and Freda Lightfoot

Editor Maddie Rowe with Melanie Hilton (aka Louise Allen) .

Here is Jean Fullerton with Elizabeth Hawksley.

This group is Philippa Ashley, Janet Gover, Judy Astley and Katie Fforde.

Catherine Jones (aka Kate Lace) our chairman address the party in the Library of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.

Jan Jones and moi.

Debbie Holt with her agent Teresa Chris.

Suzie Vereker and Pia Tapper Fenton

Jenny Haddon and Emma Dunsford

l to r Jane Gordon Cummings, Teresa Chris and seated Allie Spencer

Editor at Sphere (Little Brown) Caroline Hogg and Catherine King

Moi and Biddy Coady

Kate Harrison

Liz Baily, Evelyn Ryle, Anne Ashurst and Katie Fforde

Fighting internet connection at the moment - have great photos but can only seem to post one. Here's Giselle Green and I. What can I say except that it was another wonderful party and I behaved! I caught up with many friends and unfortunately only had a chance to just wave across the crowded room at others. As usual the room was filled with fantastic writers, agents and editors.......well worth the flight.

Romantic Novelists's Conference Day Two

Saturday was an example of how my life can be divided. I needed to be in two places at once. DS2 was celebrating his last day at prep school and there were all these wonderful sessions at the conference.........I may it back to the conference in time for Jill Mansell's talk which was the last session of the day.

Jill had us all laughing which did make it tricky to take coherent notes but here is what I can make out of mine (Jill if I have my facts wrong please please correct me - otherwise it might be embarassing!):

-she writes feel good fiction with nice people in it
-her characters are much wittier than she is (so she says)

-she writes by hand sitting comfortably on her sofa with tv going in the background

-she doesn't break the work up into chapters until she has written the whole book and can see where the breaks need to be

-she uses a time line

-she gets here ideas from being nosy, eavesdropping, watching tv while writing, problem pages in magazines, asking people pertinent questions

-sparks of ideas do just come

-she adores the Internet and has found that looking oneself up is like being in the a loo cubicle and having people just outside talking about you

-the biggest compliment is that she made a reader laugh or cry and helped them come through some hard times
-she collects embarrassing experiences
-she writes one book a year/ roughly 1000 words a day


Now Fortunately I can send you and me in the right direction for some brilliant reports on the the sessions I missed. Debs Carr has written up her day at the conference here. The notes are brilliant in their detail. Ray-Anne is working her way through her notes and thus far written up the Midas PR session here. We were lucky enough to have the independent book seller Mark Thornton of Mostly Book in Abingdon providing the conference with the book stall and a talk on Shelf Secrets. His account of the conference is here.


So the one successful thing I did do was have my camera handy to capture everyone dressed for the gala dinner........... So here is a selection of Romantic Novelist's in the bar of course

Here is Anne Ashurst and Giselle Green

.

Nell Dixon and Fiona Harper.

Here's Bex Leith and Lesley Cookman.

Jane Wenham-Jones and Katie Fforde

Kate Harrison and Sarah Duncan

Julie Cohen and Pam Brooks aka Kate Hardy

Janet Gover and Ray-Anne (see above)












Fenella Jane Miller, Anna Jacobs and Jean Fullerton

Jill Mansell and Moi

Beryl Kingston

Kate Johnson

and her shoes!