2011 Australian Romance Readers Convention (showing 1-3 of 3)

[Kat at Book Thingo comment history]

I promised to post a summary of the Australian Romance Readers Convention (ARRC) so I thought I'd get my thoughts out now, while they're still fresh.

It was a fantastic weekend conference at Bondi Beach. The event started with a welcome reception on Friday night. The numbers were noticeably less than the first convention, but the upside to this was that it was far easier to corner an unsuspecting author and keep them away from other readers. :D

ARRC officially started on Saturday morning, and the event kicked off with a keynote speech by historical author Anna Campbell, who spoke about the Australian authored romances she read in her youth and was hilarious as always, followed by the launch of Helene Young's second book, Shattered Sky.

There were 6 sessions per day, with 3 running concurrently at any one time. Here's a recap of the sessions I chose for Saturday:

Outback & In Love
Is rural lit the next big thing?
With authors Karlene Blakemore-Mowle, Amy Andrews,Bronwyn Parry, Fiona McArthur and Michelle Douglas, and Harlequin Marketing Director Cristina Lee.

Lots of interesting ideas came up. The panel talked about the popularity of outback romance (growing) and romance doing well in Australia. There was a bit of discussion about changing words and details to suit overseas markets. The general feeling was that the big publishers are risk averse and underestimate their readers. We talked about territorial rights, especially for ebooks, and readers' frustration at not being able to buy the books they want. Authors mentioned that there's something about the Australian setting that's hard to copy if you haven't lived here. ('The Americans miss the flies.') Lee predicted that we'll see more innovations in digital publishing, such as enhanced ebooks that provide a more interactive experience.

Authors talked about shelving issues. It's difficult for booksellers to categorise Australian romantic suspense, because they don't fit comfortably in romance, crime or women's fiction. They have elements from all of them.

Publishing Ins & Outs
With authors Melanie Milburne, Anna Campbell, Amy Andrews, Kandy Shepherd and Fiona McArthur, and Harlequin Marketing Director Cristina Lee.

Harlequin is publishing Paycheque by Fiona McCallum next month.

There were lots of authors in the audience, which was no surprise. Much of the discussion was really more for writers, but it was interesting to hear.

The panel spoke about timelines for publishing. It depends on how much editing is required and the publisher's schedule. Publishers don't always get it right when accepting or rejecting books (think JK Rowling). It depends on who gets your book and who will feel passionately enough about it to champion it. Shelf lives are up to booksellers, not publishers.

They were asked about the impact of the REDGroup collapse. Lee replied that the impact was worse for big publishers, but that it didn't really affect Harlequin. The authors talked about social networking and how to use it effectively to promote their work. If publishers manage the review copies, sometimes the author won't know who got them until the reviews come out. Campbell said that promotion is a different skill than writing.

Lee pointed out that traditionally authors/publishers sent information to readers via ads. Now readers get the information they want via Google. This changes how marketing is done. Some publishers have guidelines on authors' web presence. (Spitting the dummy is not advised.)

The authors talked about how they do their research. Most agreed that people are happy to talk to them about what they do or are passionate about.

There was a long discussion about pseudonyms. Most of the authors use one. For Harlequin, and especially the sexier lines, they recommend using a pseudonym as there can be some creepy fan mail. They keep their personal and public personas totally separate on social networks.

Regarding the Mills & Boon formula: There is no formula. If it were that easy, everyone would be published.

After the panel, Nalini Singh made a keynote speech. She talked about her writing process and how she keeps track of her world building. Her speech was followed by a book signing and an opportunity to browse the silent auction items at leisure.

The auction raised over $6100 for the Queensland flood appeal.

ARRA Awards
Saturday night featured one the highlight of the convention--the Australian Romance Readers Awards. The winners were:
Favourite Paranormal Romance – Bonds of Justice by Nalini Singh
Favourite Sci-Fi, Urban Fantasy or Futuristic Romance - Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh
Favourite Short Category Romance - The Billionaire Baby Bombshell by Paula Roe
Favourite Historical Romance - My Reckless Surrender by Anna Campbell
Favourite Erotic Romance - Raising the Stakes by Jess Dee
Favourite Contemporary Romance - Home is Where the Bark Is by Kandy Shepherd
Favourite Romantic Suspense - Border Watch (now called Wings of Fear) by Helene Young
Favourite Continuing Romance Series – Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh
Favourite Australian Romance Author - Anna Campbell

Sunday morning began with a keynote speech by NY Times bestselling romantic suspense author Cindy Gerard. Her speech was very inspirational and just the thing for the morning after a big night!

Up & Coming Authors
With authors Jennifer Brassel, A. B. Gayle, Heather Boyd, Helene Young, Maggie Nash and Shannon Curtis.

This panel was very well moderated by Jennifer Brassel. Authors talked about why they chose to wrote in their particular genres. Many originally submitted to Mills & Boon and rejected before finding the right fit for their voice. All were readers first. Nash started writing because the local bookshop was too far to walk to. Some weren't very good at English at school. Most had to *learn* to write after they began. The authors talked about the genres they have no affinity with (in terms of writing), what they might be writing if not romance, and favourite books. They also talked about their latest projects, where they'd like to be in 5 years' time, and the best response they've received from a reader.

Towards the end, this panel became much more interactive. The authors started asking us questions about how we buy books.

Historical
A conversation with Anna And Anne
With authors Anna Campbell and Anne Gracie, introduced by Jennifer Brassel.

This panel was really very chatty and off the cuff, so it's difficult to summarise. The authors spoke about their inspiration for their various novels and anecdotes about book covers, titles and research experiences. There was a discussion on historical accuracy. Both agreed that they aim for plausibility rather than accuracy, and that for the most part that's what their readers are after. They gave away a whole bunch of prizes, and Gracie acknowledged some readers in the audience who have supported her work for a long time.

Afterwards, ARRA held its AGM. I won't go into that because unless you're a member it wouldn't be of interest.

By Invitation
The last panel was by invitation, based on feedback from ARRC delegates. The authors were
Anna Campbell, Nalini Singh, Cindy Gerard, Keri Arthur, Lexxie Couper and Helene Young.

This was a general Q&A with a lot of anecdotes and quips and generally much merriment. They were asked about their dream jobs, what types of books they can't write, whether or not they read the back of the book first, book reading rules, being recognised, how to be a bestseller (luck, fairy dust and a publisher willing to market your books), epublishing, social networking, and what they read.

Pamela, the convention coordinator, closed the convention with a round of thank yous.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. The smaller number was disappointing only because as a reader I want ARRC to keep going, but from a purely selfish perspective, it was awesome to have a much better chance of having long conversations with authors.

The next ARRC will be in two years' time. The city is still to be decided, but if you're a romance reader, I would strongly urge you to start saving and planning because it's definitely worth it.

For more detailed posts on ARRC, I've set up a page with links to our posts on the event. Eventually I'll link to other blogs and author recaps as well, but they're still just trickling in at the moment. (I think we're all still trying to recover!)

For more information on the Australian Romance Readers Association, visit their website.

[[deleted user]]

Oooooooo! Nice :D

[Brenda, Prolific Reader!! comment history]

Kat at Book Thingo wrote: "I promised to post a summary of the Australian Romance Readers Convention (ARRC) so I thought I'd get my thoughts out now, while they're still fresh.

It was a fantastic weekend conference at Bondi..."

Wow!!! Absolutely fantastic Kat!! Lots of relevant information for lots of people there! :)