Interesting Trip

I thought for the two or three people who read my blog, they might find interesting some stuff that happened to me as a newbie published author at the RWA conference. An aspect of the conference I never experienced before.

1)      It's amazing the different people who come up to you to offer their services. Such as audio services (change your book to an audio version) and promotions (e.g., blogging tours). Really wish I could afford to do stuff like that, but no.

2)      The agents and editors that have rejected you are so much friendlier.  I like this aspect and I know it’s part of their networking for future business, but it is so much more relaxing.

3)      Every RWA conference (chapter or national) I’ve been to have friendly and welcoming people, but I experienced a shift. It’s hard to explain. You still have friendly people, but the published authors are not all inclusive and the unpublished are a little leery. Then again, it might have been me. Not many of my buddies were there and I had so much drama going on with my laptop and my deadline.

4)      That leads me to the next thing. Before I was published, I could talk and people would ignore me and talk over me. Now, the unpublished authors listen intently. That’s a double edge sword. I would hate to lead someone down the wrong path or give them bad or old advice. Presently, I’m not as up-to-date on what each publishing house is doing as I’ve been concentrating on writing and that truthfully is what I prefer.

5)      Something that is obvious and we think we know as we’re going into this is, though we moved from a humungous ocean of unpublished (includes the self-published who’ve never been published elsewhere) authors to published with a known (in my case a Big 6) publisher, we are still a small fish in a large lake. Personally, I’m happy to be that minnow.

6)      When it comes to sales, an author can do very little to improve them by promotions. This is a whole post in itself. So let’s say the best advice I’ve gotten on this is so true, write another book and make sure it is the best you can write. Improve on every book you can get a contract on. Your newest book will help you sale your older ones.

     Oddly, DESIRE is now out selling DANGER. The reason I think it's odd is that, well, I thought people who've bought DESIRE would share with friends and then everyone would want to buy DANGER as soon as it came out...anyway, I'm obviously wrong.  LOL!

I probably will think of more and may write up a new post then or place them in the comments section. We’ll see.

Bottom line of this whole post is, I’m determined to enjoy every minute. I’ve never had a dream of mine to come true like this. I’ve had desires, like a job at my current workplace, a certain car, a husband and family, but never what I felt deep down inside for years and years that might not be obtainable – not smart or talented enough to achieve. So no matter how different it is from my dream it is, I’m enjoying everything good about it and ignoring the . . . unexpectedly grim aspects of it and moving on. Life is too short and becoming shorter with each birthday.

I love that my books are out there for people to read. Thankfully more love them than don’t and that makes me happy. I write for entertainment and not to change the world. Each book to me shows a small piece of humanity, and how no matter what, everyone can find someone to love, even if it is for the few hours it takes to read my book.