RWA Conference 2014 - Lessons Learned

~ Post by Suzanne Rock/Ava Conway

Whew, what a week. As many of you know, I attended my first RWA (Romance Writers of America) conference in San Antonio. 

It was...amazing. And overwhelming. And exhausting. LOL! I learned a lot about the industry, the craft of writing, and how to be better prepared for conferences. Below, I share a few tips on how to make writing conferences (or any other type of conference) a little less overwhelming.

1) Accept that you will not be able to do it all. There simply isn't enough hours in a day. Even writers who brought their assistants, couldn't see and do everything that they wanted to do.

2) Go with a clear goal in mind. For me, this was networking. I accepted the fact that I wouldn't be able to attend a lot of the workshops or book signings. Instead, I spent a lot of time in the lobby and met a TON of writers. I re-connected with old friends, strengthened acquaintences into friendships, and met some amazing people who are at the cutting edge of the industry.

For me, this was where I needed to be to strengthen my business (and let's face it, writing is a business). Your goal might be to attend workshops, get signed books from your favorite authors, or pimp your latest release. The goal itself doesn't matter, but it's important to have one. Otherwise you might leave the conference wondering if the entire trip was worth the investment.

3) Bring an empty suitcase. This tip was given to me by another author. She is an RWA veteran and always brings an empty carry-on suitcase to fill up with books and swag. Genious! By the end of the conference, I had collected so much stuff that I had to pay extra to cart my suitacse home on the plane. Not cool! Next time I'll plan much better. :)

4) Stay kind and keep it classy. Two of my most vivid memories of RWA happened in the lobby. In the first instance, I was alone and waiting for friends. Kate Douglas saw me and recognized me from a publisher event. Despite her busy schedule, she sat down and kept me company until my friends arrived. Such kindness! The second memory is of a similar thing happening again two days later, although this time the author was Virginia Kantra. It took only 5 minutes, but it made a huge impression on me. They are both classy ladies and I've become thier forever-fan. 

5) Bring pants with elastic waistbands. I'm not kidding. Everything at RWA seemed to revolve around food, and everything is bigger in Texas. Make sure to keep the constrictive clothing (and the diet!) at home. ;)

6) Make time for sightseeing. Let's be honest...when are you going to be in that section of the country again? Be sure to take some time to see the local sights. Not only is it fun, but it's nice to take a break from the conference craziness and relax with friends.

Well, I guess that's it. Hope you enjoyed my lessons. Have you ever been to a conference for work? What lessons/tips did you take away?

Below is my upcoming release, which you can preorder now. It will be available everywhere on August 11th. Enjoy!

Girl, Interrupted meets Beautiful Disaster in this thrilling and sexy debut novel, in which a college student learns her perfect life is a lie and finds new love where she least expects it—a mental institution.

Freaks, misfits and psychopaths. Those are the kinds of people found at Newton Heights Psychiatric Hospital, and high-society girl Lucy White’s new home.

Freaks, misfits and Jayden McCray. Jayden has his own set of rules for life at Newton Heights, and in this contradictory guy Lucy finds a way to live with the events that left her cheating boyfriend and best friend dead and Lucy in the middle of the investigation into their demise.

The problem? Jayden makes her want things she’s not supposed to have, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality and making Lucy feel more at home in Newton Heights than she ever did at home. But this isn’t how her life is supposed to be.

Or is it?

Preorder while it's on sale for $1.99 from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or ibooks.

Spicy and Sweet, Mixing Up the Heat - #Hollow Free Esampler

So much has been going on with me in the writing world. Most of it only impacts things behind the scenes, so I wouldn't bore you with it here. What I will tell you about is something very exciting that I learned only a few, short weeks ago.

My mainstream romance alter-ego, Ava Conway, is going to have the first three chapters of her debut, new adult novel, Hollow, in a FREE esampler. This esampler will also have some chapters from other popular new adult authors. At the end of each book sample, links are provided so readers can purchase the rest of the story if they want to learn what happens next. (Hollow won't officially go up for sale until August, but you can preorder it here.)

As you can imagine, I was very excited about this opportunity. There are so many great authors in this sampler! I was a little star struck by some of the names, lol. Unfortunately,  it meant that the editing timeline  for Holow had to be condensed so I could have my part of the esampler ready on time. As a result, I've been doing a lot of editing behind the scenes, hoping to get things ready for the big release day May 1st. (That's tomorrow!)

Are you curious about the esampler? You can check out TORTURED LOVE here. As you can see, I'm with some great new adult authors who write a wide variety of heat levels. This makes me wonder...will the esampler go over well with readers? My story has a sex scene, but it isn't very explicit (hence the different pen name). Other authors are much more graphic, and would probably be more in line with what Suzanne writes.

This topic hits a little close to home for me, because I've been talking to other authors this past week about possibly putting out a boxed set that has multiple heat levels. While none of the stories would have closed door sex scenes, some would be much more explicit than others.

Would something like that interest readers? The authors I spoke with aren't sure. Heck, I'm not sure, so I thought I'd bring the question here to see what readers think. So, let me know...are multiple heat levels okay for boxed set releases? How about esamplers? Tell me about it in the comments section. I'd love to hear from you!

And here's the blurb for Hollow, in case anyone is interested:

Girl, Interrupted meets Beautiful Disaster in this thrilling and sexy debut novel, in which a college student learns her perfect life is a lie and finds new love where she least expects it—a mental institution.

Freaks, misfits and psychopaths. Those are the kinds of people found at Newton Heights Psychiatric Hospital, and high-society girl Lucy White’s new home.

Freaks, misfits and Jayden McCray. Jayden has his own set of rules for life at Newton Heights, and in this contradictory guy Lucy finds a way to live with the events that left her cheating boyfriend and best friend dead and Lucy in the middle of the investigation into their demise.

The problem? Jayden makes her want things she’s not supposed to have, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality and making Lucy feel more at home in Newton Heights than she ever did at home. But this isn’t how her life is supposed to be.

Or is it?