Great article in USA Today about the romance genre and the RWA National conference.

Romance University has an excellent series of posts about WordPress for non-techies. Though the advice is given to help the reader set up a WordPress blog, it’s also applies to WordPress websites. The RWA-WF website uses a free WordPress theme. Here’s the first post, the second, third, and fourth.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos talks about authors, readers, Kindle, the market, and more.

Book editor Tom Dupree compares the Kindle and the ipad.

“If my main objective is to read or hear e-words, Kindle is the winner — and it’s still the best dedicated e-reader by far, even with all its new competitors, especially since we’re getting into mass-market pricing territory. $139 (for a new-generation, wi-fi-only Kindle) isn’t all that far from $99, and that’s where Santa tends to get involved. But if I want something closer to my laptop, or netbook, something in between it and an e-reader, I have to go iPad – and man, they still cost hundreds of dollars.”

I found two interesting posts on Barnes & Noble. The first says Barnes & Noble will be giving Kindle serious competition soon.

“In September, the chain will begin an aggressive promotion of its Nook e-readers by building 1,000-square-foot boutiques in all of its stores, with sample Nooks, demonstration tables, video screens and employees who will give customers advice and operating instructions.

By devoting more floor space to promoting the Nook, Barnes & Noble is playing up what it calls a crucial advantage over Amazon in the e-reader war: its 720 bricks-and-mortar stores, where customers can test out the device before they commit to buying it.”

The second says Barnes & Noble “put itself up for sale Tuesday, succumbing to pressure from shareholder activists as digital books erode the traditional business of the nation’s largest bookstore chain.”

They aren’t the only chain in trouble. Borders is laying off 100 employees at their main distribution center and stocks are down.

Time for good news and thanks to agent Kristin Nelson, I have some. She says that editors are looking for heartfelt emotion. Isn’t heartfelt emotion what WF is about?

There’s an interesting article on multimedia e-books about publishers “enhancing” digital books with videos, photos and other media.

CEO of Ingram Book Company, Skip Prichard, is embracing the changes in publishing.

“I think this is the most exciting time to be involved in the book business. Not only are books receiving more media attention, the new technologies offer an unprecedented opportunity to engage readers. Audio and video enhancements offer authors the ability to reach a reader like never before. Social networks allow readers the chance to discover books they would never have found. Touch screens let children interact with books or play games related to the story. Educators find that reading assignments come alive as all learning modalities can be engaged. Three-dimensional graphics and spoken text transform plain words into dynamic new worlds. The book itself is being reinvented. The future is here.”

Even Jeff Bezos is stunned by the success of Kindle books sales.

“I predict we will surpass paperback sales sometime in the next nine to 12 months. Sometime after that, we’ll surpass the combination of paperback and hardcover. It stuns me. People forget that Kindle is only 33 months old.”

In response to “literary agent Andrew Wylie’s exclusive agreement with Amazon.com to publish Kindle editions of 20 backlist titles by notable writers,” Random House has said it “will not be entering into any new English-language business agreements with the Wylie Agency until this situation is resolved.” Apparently, Wylie is rethinking his decision. I’m sure we’ll hear more on this soon.

Three new ebook platforms are nearing their debut. One of them, Copia, is in color and connects you with social networking groups, like Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads. It will be only $99. But from the comments, I see they aren’t ready yet and there might be technical problems.

I’ll end with a great NINC interview of Smashwords Founder Mark Coker, who says:

“Readers typically don’t pay attention to the name of the publisher on the spine of the book. They pay attention to the author and the story.
Self-publishing is all about the author being their own publisher. Self-publishing is a process of liberation. It’s the author taking control over their own destiny, and accepting personal responsibility for their own success or failure.”

On the IPS news site, writer and critic Louise Doughty talks about gender bias in awarding prizes. She says this and more:

“Things are definitely improving. But the improvement is still very slow. I think we’ll all know we have reached equality in literature when nobody thinks it is remarkable when a woman wins a prize. But at the moment, when a woman wins a prize, it is still a story.”

In the same vein, Charlotte Abbott at Follow the Reader blogged about How to Elevate Women Writers? A #FollowReader #FemBook Recap. This was a Twitter topic started by Follow the Reader blog. I missed the party! If you missed it, the blog contains highlights from the Twitter discussion.

If you’re looking for an agent, Sara Megibow from the Nelson Literary Agency blogged about TIPS FROM THE SLUSH PILE. I thought I knew it all, but she had one tip on resubmitting a query that surprised me.

Happy writing! I’ll be back next week with more news.

Kristin Nelson at Pub Rants has many great blogs on the writing business, but I restrained myself and linked to only two. One on e-book percentages. Another is An Argument For The Midlist.

Bravo! to NY Times bestselling writer Lynn Viehl. Lynn posted the link to her royalty statement for Twilight Fall, and shared “some thoughts on how the book performed in the eleven months since the initial release.”

No Bravo for this announcement about the closing of approximately 200 Waldenbooks stores. According to CEO Ron Marshall, Borders Group is “right-sizing.”

Another “non-Bravo” link is a blog about the omission of women writers on the Publishers Weekly Top 10 Book List. All the more important to have a group like RWA-WF.

That leads me to a Romance University blog by our group’s founder, Therese Walsh, on Romance University. She answers the question: Is it Romance or Romantic Women’s Fiction?

For WF writers looking for agents, there is hope! At AgentQuery, 328 agents list Women’s Fiction as one of their genres of interest. QueryTracker lists 295.

Harlequin launched Carina Press, a digital-only pub. You can read more here. This is lifted from their submission guidelines: “We expect to publish a majority of romance and erotic romance but are also very interested in women’s fiction, science fiction, fantasy, futuristic, mystery, thrillers, horror, and niches. If you have something new and fresh we would be happy to read your story!”

I’m ending with a link to the video of a 2007 interview of Wise Woman Barbara Samuel at the Women’s Fiction Festival. Enjoy!

I wrote a blog post sometime in early summer of 2009, in which I complained a little. (I know, not a good-karma thing.) I complained that there wasn’t a place for me within RWA, even though it’d been the only writers’ organization I’d been part of for years. See, my writing journey began when I put pen to paper for what I thought would be a romance. But the road dipped and curved and took me elsewhere, as roads are wont to do. It wasn’t until years later when I realized I would and should write women’s fiction—a cousin to romance in many cases and certainly in mine. But there wasn’t a women’s fiction group in RWA.

Why didn’t RWA support women’s fiction authors whose works were, well, romantic? Whose stories would appeal to romance readers craving something…more?

Some who read my post agreed with me. More still emailed privately to agree with me. But my critics really caught my attention: Stop complaining about it and set something up, they said. Who’s stopping you?

They were right, of course, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

I didn’t have time. I had a debut novel coming out.

I didn’t have time. I was busy with my blog and publicity, and I had to write another book.

I didn’t have time. I had two kids and a husband. I had a Jack Russell terrier, come on!

I didn’t have time.

I’m not sure why I did it—took the step and contacted National to see if this chapter, whose boundaries would exist outside the scope of romance, would even be considered. What a surprise! They responded to my request and sent preliminary paperwork. I filled out the section regarding the chapter’s purpose:

…to support authors (published and not-yet published) of romantic women’s fiction. All authors will write in the women’s fiction genre but will adhere to RWA standards re: a satisfying resolution of the romantic storyline.

I waited and was again surprised when the chapter was approved. Next came more paperwork. We would need chapter bylaws and to become incorporated, and we would need members—at least 15 in order to proceed. Oh, and officers—some people willing to stand beside me and work like crazy to get things done.

Weeks and months passed, and these things were accomplished. I worked on the bylaws and becoming incorporated, and added Leslie Scantlebury’s phone number to my speed dial. Several helpmates rounded up the names of interested parties within RWA. Our numbers climbed: 20, 30, 50, 70, 90. Ninety people who were interested in becoming charter members of the chapter. I was astounded by the support.

And we had officers. Great officers. A Vice President of Communications, Michelle Diener, who would establish a website and newsletter, and manage a staff of volunteer helpers. (A special and sincere thanks to Mica Stone for her amazing work with this website.) A Vice President of Programs, Maggie Marr, who would establish our workshops and experiment with new technologies and create a slew of forward-thinking plans for our chapter. A treasurer, Barbara Braun, who would keep track of our dues as they rolled in and would be hard to overwhelm. A secretary, Susan Crandall, willing to share her organization skills, take mountains of notes and brainstorm with the best of them.

There was another: A Wise Woman—a position I added to the bylaws to ensure our chapter would always have someone on the board published in women’s fiction and willing to lend her advice to our unique group of writers. If there’s any doubt that Barbara Samuel O’Neal is not perfect for this position, please read her welcome letter. You’ll see what I do.

So, finally, here we are.

Thank you, my dear critics, for advising me to shut up and ACT. And thank you, RWA, for making room for us.

Tenacity can be a weakness, a fault, but it can also be a good thing. I’d like to think that in this case, the tenacity of all of our officers, who worked to create the foundation for this new chapter, was indeed a great thing. We have a home now, and isn’t it lovely? Please explore, settle in, join the conversation.

Welcome.

Therese Walsh