ravenna_c_tan: (slytherclaw)

Here I am at my first RWA national conference and the keynote speaker is a writer I feel passionately about: Sylvia Day. Turns out the more I know about her, the more I love her. We have so much in common already and I keep finding out more! I just learned, for example, that she’s part Asian like me. But the most important thing that drew me to her initially was what a strong advocate for erotic romance she is. I didn’t realize she actually founded the Passionate Ink chapter of RWA. Being a longtime erotic writer myself (is it really 23 years since I wrote Telepaths Don’t Need Safewords??) I appreciate very highly the pathway in the romance genre pioneered by Sylvia Day. E.L. James has benefited from that pioneering, and so have I.

Sylvia’s speech opened with a look back at her first RWA conference, ten years ago. She listed off some of the major changes between then and now. Look at all the retailers who are gone–Borders, B. Dalton, Waldenbooks–not to mention publishers like Dorchester. In those days the RWA had a list of approved publishers and agents to steer writers to the “right” places. These days, that’s gone, too, and writers, she said, must make their own decisions about who to publish with or even whether to self-publish.

“It was easier to be a writer ten years ago,” she said, for many reasons. For one thing, we didn’t have social media demanding so much of our time. Nowadays retailers and publishers are “struggling to survive, while one is struggling to dominate.” (I believe she means Amazon, though she didn’t say so by name.) “We’re in the middle. We have to be proactive. It’s not just about writing anymore. It’s about being a businessperson.”

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Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.

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My photos from my BookExpo America are compiled below the cut. Yes, I met the actual Grumpy Cat (aka Tardar Sauce) and R2D2, and got a Smaug “The Hobbit” tote bag (because Harcourt/Houghton is on Tumblr and they had pre-announced what times they’d be giving them out!), and got a signed print of new Harry Potter art by Kazu Kibuishi. Yes, all the fannish things, because my professional obligations this BEA were small, so when I wasn’t in sessions on digital marketing or having meetings, I let my inner fangirl take over. :-)

Speaking of fangirling, I also met Sylvia Day, who is awesome, not just for writing BARED TO YOU but also the great work she does with RWA.

I went to some BEA parties, too, including a reading at Happy Endings Lounge where Laura Antoniou, Molly Weatherfield, and DL King all read BDSM fiction and there were very delicious cocktails, a Kobo party where there were glowing things galore and an open bar(! classy!), and the BenBella Books 10th anniversary party at a bowling alley in Brooklyn. (I did not bowl—I don’t think my RSI would appreciate it.)

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