ARRC And Getting The Most Out Of Conferences

The Australian Romance Readers Convention was last weekend (the 24th, 25th and 26th) and I flew down to Melbourne to attend. It was at Rydges, Melbourne, so that's where I stayed, flying in Friday and flying out Monday morning.

It was a fantastic event, I had such a good time and it made me even more pumped for the conferences I am attending later in the year: Genrecon and RWA.

The best thing about ARRC, for me, was the people. Everyone was so friendly. You could approach literally anyone, introduce yourself and instantly feel welcome and have a nice chat. And, if I stood still, even for a second, someone would come over and say hello and I would be in the middle of another fantastic conversation. There was zero snobbery, zero tension and no one was rushing or flustered because of a tight schedule.

The seminars were great too. Bronwyn Parry's session on regency etiquette was fascinating and I would have happily done a whole weekend workshop just on that. It is a READERS conference though, not a WRITERS conference. So there weren't many technical 'how to' topics. Mostly it was discussions about things we love (romance novels and shirtless men).

Someone said to me they rarely go to the panels, they just enjoy walking around talking to people and I think that is an entirely valid approach to many conferences. Networking and talking to people is the highlight for me too.

People who don't attend conferences often ask me why I go with a genuine sort of confusion. I suspect some people think they are like university classes, you go to get some sort of training or education. That's not necessarily untrue, but it's only a fraction of the whole.

Here are the reasons I go to conferences:

1. To network, make new friends and meet people.

2. To learn specific things.

3. To catch up on industry news that is still on the down-low.

4. To find out who and what is popular in genres I don't track very closely.

5. To hang out with my friends, who are often REALLY busy or in other states, so I often only see them at conferences.

6. To increase my own visibility and public profile.

A lot of people also go to conferences to get new books, get books signed, pitch to editors and agents, learn how the industry works, or learn about writing in general. All of those are equally valid.

So if you are going to go to a conference, here are my tips for getting the most out of it:

1. Know what you want.

Out of those reasons I listed, and any others you may have, what is important to you? If you go in with a focused list of goals, you're less likely to just drift from seminar to seminar, awkward and alone.

2. Be friendly.

If you make eye contact with someone, smile. If someone comes over to you and says hello, SMILE. Make them feel welcome in your space. Use open body language. Be polite and don't barge into conversations, but don't be shy about introducing yourself either. Depending on the convention, have a mental list of relevant questions. At ARRC it was:

- Are you a reader or an author?

- What genres do you read?

- What genres do you write?

- Who are you published with?

- Tell me about your blog? (Authors love bloggers)

- Are you enjoying the conference?

- Where are you from?

- What seminars are you excited about?

- Are you going to *insert various extras like dinner event*?

- Wasn't *keynote speaker* fantastic?

A light discussion about those topics will take at least 15 minutes, which is when one of you will usually flit on to someone else.

3. If you are coming to learn, have questions prepared in advance.

Meg and I are working on a sport romance so naturally I went to the sport romance talk. I knew before I even got to Melbourne what I wanted to learn in that session. Several of my questions were answered by the talk itself, and then I was ready to ask the others in the questions portion of the talk. I went away very happy.

However Bronwyn Parry's regency talk was just something I thought sounded interesting and the things I learnt in that session were far more interesting than anything I would have thought to ask about.

4. Wear appropriate clothing. Particularly shoes.

The hotel was air conditioned, which sometimes meant it was fine and sometimes meant it everyone got hypothermia. So a light jacket was a must. You also spent a lot of time on your feet, so comfortable shoes will save you a lot of pain.

The dress code for these events is almost always smart casual. You need clothes you can sit AND stand in for long periods comfortably. And since you are networking with other professionals, you need to be clean and semi presentable.

Conferences are often perfume free events too, since a lot of people have allergies. So plan accordingly. I ended up having to change shirts twice a day and ran out of clothes and had to wash a shirt in the sink for Sunday. I failed at planning.

Also don't wear your favourite pair of jeans which have started ripping all the time, or they will rip at the awards dinner and your editor and a famous author will have to check how much of your ass is hanging out at what is essentially a black tie event.

True story.

5. Remember it's a professional event.

Don't be rude. Don't talk behind someone's back. Don't get drunk. Don't make a mess. Don't be smelly and dirty. Don't cry to strangers about your divorce. Don't disparage the theme of the convention or subsections of the attendees. Don't talk during seminars. Put your phone on vibrate.

Even if you think people won't remember you, they do. I met an author a few years back and saw them again at the conference this weekend. We were introduced by a mutual friend and I said I didn't expect them to recall, but we had met before. Despite me being 15kgs lighter, having 2 feet less hair and different glasses, they still recognised me and recalled the conversation we had.

I know the idea will make some of you very nervous. However if you are friendly and nice to everyone, you don't have anything to be nervous about. If you want to be an author, you WANT people to remember you. That's part of the goal.

Australia has a fantastic writing community. For the most part, people are supportive and open minded. Anyone who is rude or judges you is in the minority and for the most part, can be ignored completely.

Go to conferences, have a fantastic time. I'll probably be there too, though hopefully without a giant, gaping hole in the ass of my jeans.

Romancing The Book Lover

Romancing The Book Lover

You see them across the room. They might well be your soul mate, but it's hard to tell because they spend most of their time reading. Maybe you've known them for a long time, but beyond having their favourite author write you into their next novel, you don't know how to get them to notice you.

In this article, I will tell you the secrets--I will tell you how to romance the mysterious creature known as the book lover:

- Find The Best Book They Haven't Read

We're starting with the trickiest one first, because if you pull it off it will be magical. Find out what your book lover likes and what they've read, and introduce them to something completely awesome and amazing they've never heard of before.

It's going to take a little research--ask friends, ask booksellers, ask online, ask librarians and stalk review websites.  However a new literary love is the best kind of romance a book lover knows. Plus, they'll think you're a super genius.

- Go On A Book Date

You, them, a blanket under a big shady tree, picnic food, something to drink with bubbles or caffeine. You both have a book and you lie quietly side by side, reading. Is there anything more romantic? Possibly to people who don't like books there is, but those people don't matter!

The only thing better than a blanket under a shady tree is a crackling fireplace, cosy quilts and a rainy day with no TV, no radio, just the pages and the quiet company of someone else who is as lost in another world as you are.

Showing a book lover that you can keep them company while they read without bothering them will give them a very good reason to ask themselves if you are 'the one' (the one who can shut the hell up when they're reading).

- Book Fairs

Are you familiar with the wonder that is a book fair? If not, let me dazzle you. Book fairs are held year round, in varying locations--often in association with trade fairs. They are usually held in large spaces, like halls and warehouses, and allow publishers and retailers to show off that season's book releases.

A whole warehouse, stocked full of new releases, publishers and book retailers. All the best of the fresh and shiny books. If I didn't just describe heaven, you and I are very different people. You should be able to look them up online and it's the perfect place for a date, but remember to take a backpack or granny trolley or you'll kill your spine.

- Word Gifts

Do you know what book lovers have? Too many books to read. There is a pile, a big one, one that is both beautiful and endless, because for every book they read, another two come along. Book lovers do love new books, but sometimes the pile becomes daunting.

But do you know what book lovers do need? Bookmarks. Reading lights. Book themed key-chains and shirts. Designer covers for their e-readers. Their favourite reading snacks. And most critical of all: very soft fluffy socks.

The right bookmark or e-reader cover will be with them all the time, for hundreds of good books. What an awesome reminder of you whenever they read.

- Read Their Favourite Authors

This one is the simplest, and still one of the best: read your book lover's favourite books. Not only will it give you an insight into them and the things they love, but it will give the two of you plenty to talk about. Hopefully the two of you share tastes and if not, you will undoubtedly experience new worlds and ideas.

Turn around is only fair, and once they see you taking an interest in the things they love, they will probably do the same. There are few greater joys in life than sharing literature with the people you care about.

- Tell Them How You Feel

Book lovers can be a little lost in fantasy worlds. That means that sometimes your very best efforts to get their attention may go unnoticed.

I once wrote a love note to a young man, and stuck it in the middle of a book he was reading. I knew when he found it, because he called me in the middle of the night, rather flustered, to tell me he felt the same way.

Don't be afraid of the direct approach. Our heroes and heroines are brave and bold, you can be too.

Suggested Reading

When I went begging on facebook for blog post ideas, my dear friend Mel bravely proposed a reading list of books I recommended for writers. Obviously this list could be many pages long, but having too many options tends to lead to inaction. I’d prefer to just give you a small handful of really good ones that you might actually chase up.

First of all, let me preface this by saying I think writers should read all the books on how to write, how to get published, how to market, how to self publish, sociology and psychology they can get their hands on. However, as all these areas are developing at a mind-boggling pace, I suggest you focus on the ones published in the past 5 years.

I also recommend starting with the people you respect, who have vibrant careers, because there is also a lot of misinformation out there. However the more you read, the more you can compare different ideas, theories and tactics. Yes, you end up reading a lot of the same stuff phrased slightly differently. It’s worth it, in my opinion, to actually feel confident about the subject.

That said, here are my very top resources that I regularly refer to:

- On Writing – Stephen King

A classic and one I have re-read dozens of times. He gives fantastic stylistic advice, though I don’t support all of his beliefs RE: talent. A great ‘where to start’ guide when it comes to improving your style.

- Breakout Novelist – Donald Maass

Some of the information in this one is outdated now, and Donald writes very much from the perspective of an agent, when agents were critical to publishing and the literary process. Lots of good advice, but remember when and who it’s coming from.

- Million Dollar Outlines – David Farland

Just keep reading it every single month of your life until you can repeat the whole thing verbatim. Probably more of an intermediate read, rather than for beginners, but there is no one who couldn’t benefit from reading this book.

- 2k to 10k – Rachel Aaron

Short and a little disjointed, as its made up from a heap of blog posts, but an interesting method to try if you want to vastly increase your word count. For best results, commit to doing it 100% her way for a month.

- Make a Killing on Kindle – Michael Alvear

This book comes across as really sleazy, however the advice for marketing and optimising sales on Amazon is practical and effective. You do feel oddly like you are being scammed by a telemarketer while reading it though, which is a shame.

- Happiness by Design – Paul Dolan

A lot of you are already planning to skip this one, because it’s not about writing. Maybe you think you’re already happy, or maybe you hate self help books. However this isn’t a self help book, nor is it promising to make you happy if you read it. This is one of those sociology/psychology books I was talking about, which aims to teach you to understand happiness.

Contrary to the ‘tortured artist’ trope, it’s virtually impossible to have a career as an author if you are unhappy. Those romanticised tortured artists? Most of them only produced a handful of works in their time and fewer still made enough money to survive off those works. To have a career, you need to produce work quickly and confidently. Being stressed, depressed, anxious or overly dramatic makes that very unlikely.

I consider my physical and mental health to be about 50% of my production. The rest is discipline and planning. So I consider understanding happiness to be AT LEAST a quarter of my work. To make up the other 25% of that equation, I also recommend:

- The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet – CSIRO

Which lists the foods, portions and exercises you should do to maintain optimum health. Not to lose weight, not to feel good, not to look amazing, just to be the healthiest you can be. There are also five recipe books, so you can never, ever possibly be bored with the options. Because my diet is stupid limited, and I like to cut out unnecessary decision making, I just have 2-3 lunches and 2-3 dinners I eat every day that meet the dietary requirements outlined.

Don’t think of happiness and health as being part of a separate system to writing.  Happiness, health and writing are all brain things and as much as we think of ourselves as being more than a lump of meat, the brain is an organic organ, literally just meat tissue, and it is bound by the same physical limits as, say, your lungs and colon. Since we’re on the topic, it’s worth noting, any deprivation of calories, is going to mean energy is redirected to critical systems like running the heart and muscles, so you will have less thinking energy. Diets are bad for writing. Empty calories in junk food are even worse for writing. EAT HEALTHY. (Literally just had soda and chocolate for breakfast. Do as I say, etc)

I’d also like to list about 8000 psychology and sociology books, but they can be tricky to track down. So instead, just go to your local library and read everything they have, starting with the newest titles. Also buy copies of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – Oliver Sacks & The Naked Ape – Desmond Morris because everyone should own those two, despite their age.

In a few more weeks, I’ll be getting back to my character series. Then I may do an extended series on productivity. However, before then, is there any one-off topics you would like me to cover on the blog? Hit me up on facebook or post a comment here with suggestions.

Know Your Genre

WRITING TIP OF THE WEEK:

- Know your genre.

Genres change.  Romance is still mostly about love and horror is still mostly about people being terrified or killed, however in recent years, some genres have boomed, evolved mutated and developed in vastly unexpected ways.

Many genres have grown up and become sophisticated—that’s not to say there weren’t great books in the past. However a lot of those great books might not pass the bar today—they’d be considered too cliché, to slow and too unimaginative.

I think this is due, in part, to computers and the internet allowing publishers and the rest of the world to really see what is selling and where the money is going. The best selling genre in the world is romance—and it has been for a very long time. However now everyone is being forced to admit this and can’t claim the intellectually ‘superior’ books are also financial superior, everyone is starting to take these previously dismissed genres seriously.

Too often, writers tell me they write ‘X’ genre, but don’t read it because they’re all the same. If it’s fantasy, they say they’re all about dragons, wizards, elves and princesses. Maybe they are, I mean, assuming we’ve been sucked back to the 80s and we can’t get home.

Another issue is people writing manuscripts that follow a plot that has been done to death. Vampires, for example. There is probably some way you could still write an original novel in this genre. However I don’t read them and I still know many of the plots unpublished writers are working on are exact copies of what is already out there.

Know your genre. Know what came out this year in your genre. Know what is coming out next year in your genre. And know what came out last year. Be familiar with the competition—and what is and isn’t expected of you.

I’m not saying not to write something if you’re passionate about it, but do know what it’s up against and what you need to do to rise it above the competition.