Bitchin' Blog Posts
: RWA National - DC 2009
by SB Sarah | July 23, 2009 | Thursday at 12:52 pm | 22 Comments
ETA: one more- from Wired Magazine’s Geek Dad!
Top Ten Geeky Things You Don’t Know About Romance Writers, written by Corrina Lawson, reveals the inner geek of many writers at RWA:
6. They Take Their Kids on Research Trips to the Spy Museum.
New York Times bestselling author Alyssa Day had her two children with her in D.C. Her ten-year-old son was so thrilled with the International Spy Museum that he not only told me how great it was inside but gave me memorized directions on how to get there.
7. Their editors Have Geeky Weddings.
A certain editor, who shall remain nameless, ended her wedding reception with a guitar hero duel. And during the weeks leading up to the duel, the husband and wife to be kept sneaking home to get in extra practice time before the big day.
From Angela James, Executive Editor at Samhain Publishing:
When Passionate Ink asked me to speak to all of you about digital publishing, I didn’t know how I could possibly do justice to the topic in five to ten minutes. Where do I begin to explain why I think readers and…
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by SB Sarah | July 22, 2009 | Wednesday at 7:57 pm | 8 Comments
Thanks to Shiloh Walker, Katiebabs, Julie James, Jane from Dear Author, Barb Ferrer, we have seven Harlequin bags to give away in our Bags! Big Huge Romancey Bags! contest.
So, thanks to the random number generator, here are our winners:
11 DianaQ
37 EmilyW
92 Kym
181 Calila
218 Sarah @10:59 am
358 Sarah @4:43 pm
420 Leslie H
Please .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with your mailing address, and we shall send you the bag!
Thank you again to those who volunteered their bag, and thanks to everyone who played along.
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by SB Sarah | July 20, 2009 | Monday at 11:33 am | 433 Comments
This year, the conference bags for RWA 2009 were provided by Harlequin, which was awesome for two reasons. First, they had vintage cover art. Second, they were BLOODY HUGE. I mean, there could not have been a bag better suited to the book signings and the massive influx of books provided at RWA. You could put a Yugo in there.
I don’t have the books that came with the bag because I gave them to a teacher from Omaha. The AFT was ending their conference the day I arrived, and one of the teachers shared an elevator with me. You should have seen her face when she realized that OUR conference bags came with ROMANCE NOVELS. She was not pleased that her conference bag was not so well equipped!
I know many people expressed drooling envy over the bags - which is understandable because they are Teh Coolness - so I’ve got two for you. Leave a comment and I’ll pick a random winner. If you were at RWA, what was your favorite part? What part did you get the most out of? And if not, are you…
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by SB Sarah | July 18, 2009 | Saturday at 8:57 pm | 8 Comments
Join in with your own - no sources, though. Totally anonymous.
“My bling is getting smelly.”
“I’m pitching Leprechaun shifter romance. Just the right height for gettin’ lucky.”
“I need a picture of your tits!”
“Excuse me, would you scowl for Twitter?”
“Your shoes are orgasmic.”
“I see your books next to my mom’s books, Ms. Roberts. You must be doing really well!”
“They want a partial!”
“I love to work on my creative process.”
“Taking into account his height and the breadth of his shoulders, I was wondering how thick it was.”
“I want my first sale ribbon. Now.”
“Why does my tequila taste like cigarette smoke?”
“How did I lose a pair of shoes? In one room?”
“Oh, yeah, that nipple was way too big for the cover.”
“I HIT THE TIMES!”
“Watching her fuck was disturbing.”
“My characters tell me what to do. I have to listen to them.”
“Why does this Jelly Belly taste like gasoline.”
“I kid you not, mother fucking Corn Nuts.”
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by SB Sarah | July 17, 2009 | Friday at 4:18 pm | 6 Comments
- Best Bitches Moment: Our Bootleg Booksigning yesterday raised, in one hour, over $600 for First Book. We had more beer than I knew what to do with, and a crowd of people were streaming in the door to buy a book, have it signed by both Candy and me, and hang out in our room (did we mention the presence of beer? Nothing like it as a social lubricant).
- Best Digital Moment: Our Digital Rogue Seminar was standing room only. We had to ask for more chairs twice and over 90 people were in the room. In addition to Books on Board and Red Sage, who helped sponsor the costs of the seminar along with Sony USA, folks from Sourcebooks, Wild Rose, and LooseID attended and participated in the Q&A.
Kassia Kroszer’s presentation focused on contracts and digital rights, and Jane Litte, armed with a complete print out of the Google Books Settlement, decoded the settlement’s advisory panel, which she described as “scary.” I presented some numbers on costs in developing a book—and the costs between distributing print and digital copies. While it may look deceptively easy to start your own digital publisher, the business and…
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by SB Sarah | July 15, 2009 | Wednesday at 3:45 pm | 5 Comments
A few pieces of news from RWA:
- RWA registration comes with a thumb drive from Harlequin preloaded with three books: Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch by B.J. Daniels, Slow Hands by Leslie Kelly and My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent, plus the complete Heart of a Woman art exhibit. HOW COOL IS THAT?!
- There’s a new session on the calendar! 4:30 on Thursday 16 July:
Digital Initiatives with Malle Vallik, Rachel Chou, Rachel Vincent and moderator Sarah Wendell
How are authors and publishers innovating and using technology to connect with readers? Come to this session to hear from Harlequin’s Director, Digital Content & Social Media, HarperCollins’ VP, Online Product Development and Operations, an author using technology to reach her readers and a blogger that excels at online marketing.
Details on location are available on a flyer at the RWA Conference registration desk. Hope you can make it.
- Yes, the Digital Rogue session is still on: 8:30am on Thursday morning in the Harding Room. NEW: We have a Most Awesome Doorprize, and you have to be in it to win it—meaning, you have to present to win.
- The Smart Bitch Bootleg Booksigning is…
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by SB Sarah | July 13, 2009 | Monday at 3:32 am | 23 Comments
Despite my best efforts, we were not permitted to sign Beyond Heaving Bosoms at the Literacy Signing on Wednesday Night at RWA national in DC. I am so incredibly bummed about that decision, not only because it would have been one of the few events that we would both attend but because we know there are a ton of DC Bitches readers who would have come out and thereby raised a pretty good amount of money for literacy.
So, we’ll do it anyway. The Smart Bitches Bootleg Booksigning - with Beer - will be at 3:00 pm on Thursday 16 July, Location TBA.
There’s a widget below to register for a text-message group that will alert you when the location is determined, or you can text the word “BOOTLEG” to 68398 and I’ll hook you up with the details as soon as I get them. It’ll be in our room, and there will be Bosoms, Bitches (two of them - a rare event!), with Beer.
Cost per book: $15 - CASH OR CHECKS ONLY PLEASE. We purchased the books using our author discount but we will be…
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by SB Sarah | July 09, 2009 | Thursday at 8:59 pm | 6 Comments
We've got a time: 8:30 AM On a date: July 16 And a Room: The Harding Room
While we have some great sponsors including: Books on Board, Red Sage Publishing, Samhain Publishing, Quartet Press, and Smart Bitches, this is a streamlined event and we would ask you to bring your own tea, coffee, hashbrowns or donuts. That's right, it's BYOTCH-D.
For the Rogue Digital Conference
Kassia Krozser of Booksquare.com and a frequent speaker on the publishing circuit and the head of a new romance epublisher, Quartet Press, will start us off by focusing on digital issues, particularly the contrasts between traditional print publishers and digital publishers. She will be highlighting the efficiencies of the latter, challenges (and strengths) for the former, and questions authors (and maybe readers) should be asking. Kassia will touch on timing of reversion of rights, territorial rights in the worldwide digital audience, chunked content, and the spectre of being paid on the net.
I will discuss digital promotion and some self publishing numbers shared by authors as well as the results of the Smart Btiches eBook Reader Olympics.
Jane Litte…
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by SB Sarah | July 06, 2009 | Monday at 11:49 pm | 5 Comments
First up, if you’re looking for a room for RWA, Alyssa may be able to help you, or, you might be able to hook her up with some help. She can’t attend RWA but her plans changed too late to cancel her reservation. Details at her site.
Second: Cake Wrecks gives you another hero possibility, those of you who are looking for heroes and plots and really erect inspiration.
Hell, why not a romance hero who loves cupcake cakes and works in a bakery with crazy cake orders that require scaffolding? Hot men plus buttercream icing plus knowledge of pastry? WIN!
[Thanks to Janet Mullany for the link.]
Third, I’m a tad late on this one, but Hachette is offering a set of five books, including two new releases, for $1.99 for July 2009. At sites like Books on Board, with discount they’re often a little less than $1.99 - which is just crazypants, right?
Images are to Amazon Kindle, and individual links are to Books on Board.
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by SB Sarah | January 20, 2009 | Tuesday at 5:03 pm | 21 Comments
Registration for the 2009 RWA National Convention just opened. My phone just buzzed at me - Go register! and the site’s not loading. How many people want to go to this conference, anyway? Get outta my way!
How long until actual registration is possible?
ETA: “We are experiencing technical problems. The site you requested will be back up soon.”
RWA Conference Registration : it’s almost like being FARKed or slash-dotted, only not.
ETA: I’m in! But actually selecting the conference was a challenge for me. I had to go to “Store” then “Events” and then select the conference (the one with the really big price tag - heh heh, You can’t miss it).
ETA: DANG. Now I’m being told I have to select an event fee, but there are none available to me. Gah! This is frustration, and I can’t imagine how much it must suck to be the switchboard operator at RWA this morning. I have so been there.
ETA: Ok, not enough caffeine. I had to tell the site I was a “member” (huh huh) and then wait for it to reload with the event option. That was the hold up - the…
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