I have been very remiss in not blogging about our New Zealand Romance Writer's conference, which happened last weekend.
Our conference is tiny compared to the American one with around 120 attendees. The beauty of this is lots of possibilities to talk to the guest speakers as they mingle with us during the breaks and meals.
We were very lucky to have Margie Lawson (that's her in the photo) as our major guest speaker and she did a splendid job of inspiring us on to greater heights with many tips on how to lift our writing to the next level. I attended a published writers workshop of hers and as there were only five or six of us, we were able to all have a very informative chat with her.
Jenny Hutton came over from Mills & Boon and was very generous with her advice. When I pitched to her, she discussed my manuscript for the new Young Adult line at length and seemed genuinely interested in it. I have already sent off the partial she requested. By the way, soon we'll be able to submit to Mills & Boon by email. They already have a link for it but it doesn't work yet. It can't come soon enough.
Editor Cindy Hwang from Berkley was also there and more than willing to give us copious amounts of information about the publishing world and what was hot and what was not. Paranormals and Historicals are both hot but Historical paranormals are not. Odd, but there you are. Chicklit is dead but rename it Women's Fiction and you're in. Young adult is becoming a hard sell. A few make it really big but then there's an enormous gap down to those who make very little money from them. Their Young Adult line is on hiatus at the moment. I pitched a mystery series to her and have emailed her a requested partial and other story ideas for the series.
We also had representatives from Samhain and Wild Rose Publishing, who filled us in on the epublishing world.
Our annual conference is such a great opportunity to catch up with other writers and to get a regular dose of inspiration. Can't wait for the next one.
Our conference is tiny compared to the American one with around 120 attendees. The beauty of this is lots of possibilities to talk to the guest speakers as they mingle with us during the breaks and meals.
We were very lucky to have Margie Lawson (that's her in the photo) as our major guest speaker and she did a splendid job of inspiring us on to greater heights with many tips on how to lift our writing to the next level. I attended a published writers workshop of hers and as there were only five or six of us, we were able to all have a very informative chat with her.
Jenny Hutton came over from Mills & Boon and was very generous with her advice. When I pitched to her, she discussed my manuscript for the new Young Adult line at length and seemed genuinely interested in it. I have already sent off the partial she requested. By the way, soon we'll be able to submit to Mills & Boon by email. They already have a link for it but it doesn't work yet. It can't come soon enough.
Editor Cindy Hwang from Berkley was also there and more than willing to give us copious amounts of information about the publishing world and what was hot and what was not. Paranormals and Historicals are both hot but Historical paranormals are not. Odd, but there you are. Chicklit is dead but rename it Women's Fiction and you're in. Young adult is becoming a hard sell. A few make it really big but then there's an enormous gap down to those who make very little money from them. Their Young Adult line is on hiatus at the moment. I pitched a mystery series to her and have emailed her a requested partial and other story ideas for the series.
We also had representatives from Samhain and Wild Rose Publishing, who filled us in on the epublishing world.
Our annual conference is such a great opportunity to catch up with other writers and to get a regular dose of inspiration. Can't wait for the next one.
7 comments:
Suzanne, what a GREAT conference you had. WOOT on your partial request!!! I do believe I should finish the edits on that women's fiction. :D
Was going to email you butI can tell you here. Lightning hit the house today and my computer is fried. Jeff's at least works but his modem has bit the dust too. Tomorrow we'll try buying a new modem for his computer, and he'll loan it to me until mine is fixed. I'm on an old laptop now that is acting screwy too and it wasn't even plugged in. The lightning strike happened while we were at his parents in town.
Hugs, Nancy
Oh my golly gosh, Nancy, fried computers are a disaster. Have you lost any of your work or do you always diligently back up every day?
Suzanne
Suzanne, a small conference sounds pretty nice. Less pressure, more one-on-one.
Best of luck on the submissions. You are so good and SO due! ;)
{{{Hugs}}}, Nancy. Glad you weren't home.
Raine, I think your American conference would be overwhelming so I won't be going to that unless I get print published and can sit at those desks and sign books. Now that's an ambition and a half. LOL.
Suzanne
What Raine said!And double it!
Suzanne, my work is double backed up. :D I learned that lesson the hard way once.
What a lovely photo you posted. That didn't load on for me the first time I read this post.
Raine, I'm glad I wasn't home either. The neighbor heard the lightning crack and said it was loud.
Hugs, Nancy
Bernita, we'll all have to meet up at an American conference one year.
Suzanne
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