Emerald City Writer's Conference : Opening Day

 

It's opening day at the Emerald City Writer's Conference, and there's tons going on! After Bob Mayer's master class this morning, it was time for registration...and that means goody bags! ECWC collects the best swag. Between the goody bag and the swag table I wound up with a dozen books, candy, bookmarks, pens, pins, nail files...but the swag winner of the conference has to be Jayne Rylon's Kissin' Tonic. (It's gummy lips in a sour liquid candy...and wins for creativity)

We all have different swag preferences, so swapping items is a great way to make friends fast. Especially if you are willing to trade Milky Way bars for M&Ms.

There was just enough time for everyone to find raffle tickets and jot their name down on the back before selecting the baskets they'd like to win. The raffle baskets are legendary at ECWC. Everything is donated and all the proceeds go to charity, so we can all feel great about buying tickets and hoping our name will be called.  

Dianna Love was the keynote speaker for dinner, and she was insightful and funny and a true heroine we can all look up to. However, I'm now going to think of her everytime I hear that country song, My Baby Likes To Fish.

After our conference chicken it was time for Cherry Adair to celebrate the winners of her Finish The Damn Book Challenge.

Every year at Emerald City, Cherry encourages writers to set aside their excuses and just finish the damn book. She gives everyone an entire year to commit to themselves and the rest of the conference that they will meet the deadline. For those who win, not only do they have the glory of a complete manuscript, but they get special gifts from Cherry. This year, she arranged for a select few of the winners to have their manuscript read by an esteemed editor or agent and get a response in 2 weeks. 2 weeks! Unheard of turnaround in publishing.

The best part? My friend Mary is one of the winners! Mary is a breath away from getting 'the call'. I just know this is the boost she needs to see her dream come true.

Finally, it was time for Shelli Stevens to work her magic on the raffle baskets. My friend Jessie is a raffle expert, and buys enough tickets to assure she never goes home empty handed. Tonight Laurel won a Halloween basket.

And I won this huge basket of bathroom decor! To decorate the bathroom I haven't been able to fix up since we moved in! Huzzah! Cherry Adair donated it. I think she may be my fairy godmother.

Emerald City Writer's Conference : Publishing In The Digital Age with Angela James

Carina Press Executive Editor Angela James did a great overview of the history of digital publishing for us, and then opened the room to questions. Quite brave of her! Here's my abbreviated notes ::

Digital Publishing Timeline

1^st ebooks published in 1971. The Declaration of Independence was the first ebook, and that is how Project Gutenberg began.

In 1998 the first ISBN was issued, to an ebook. ISBNs individualize a book on search engines and for retailers. The first dedicated ebook devices came out that year – Rocket Reader and ebookwise.

1999 – Bane Free Public Library A pioneer science fiction publisher, provided some of their backlist for free to encourage readers to pick up their new books.

2000 – Steven Kin self-published his first book, make $500,000 and declared it a failure. Ellora’s Cave was founded, allowing women to access different kinds of content and paved the way for a lot of different publishers.

2006 – Sony Reader hit the market.

2007 – Amazon launched Kindle. 

2009 – sony released a new edition, as did Kindle. JA Konrath self-published his first book.

2010 – ipad changed the scope of reading. Apple introduced the ibookstore and the agency model.

• Over 70% of all digital piracy happens outside North American borders. They are pirating because they can’t get legal access to the books because of rights issues.
• How do sales differ with length. Best selling length at Carina is 70K+ @ $5.99, though some of the best-selling titles are novellas.
• Carina looking for erotic novel length books because of Spice dissolving, there is a need for those stories in overseas partners of harlequin. Contemporary romance and romantic suspense sell well. Looking for steam punk and space opera. No YA or inspirational, hard to market alongside erotic content.
• Bloom of digital publishing in a decimated economy in a world without Borders. A huge hit to the mid-list author. There was a lot happening in a bookstore beyond the bottom line sales of books. It is harder for publishers to take chances because book buying is a luxury.
• Google developed an algorithm to see how many books were published ever. 130million books. In 2010 3 million ISBNs were issued, only 316000 to traditionally published books. For 2011, closer to 6 million. Standing out from that kind of crowd is the biggest challenge, which is why building a brand is so important.

Emerald City Writer's Conference : Master Class

I woke up early to make it to breakfast with Paty Jager before we headed to the pre-conference master class. We hustled to the ballroom to find...we were an hour early! We'd both written down the wrong time.

After we chatted, somehow it was time for the class. Paty has started self-publishing her stories and her success is fabulous and fascinating. M.O. couldn't sit with us for class because her pesky day job decided to schedule a meeting. Drat.

 

Bob Mayer's One Day Novel Writing workshop was condensed into 3 hours. Hmmm. I have decided I need to take a Mayer workshop in the time they're designed to be given in. He's always asked to do 3 hour workshops in 1 hour slots...and this was obviously a 5-6 hour one in 3. So much information, your head starts to buzz a little bit, and not in the fun way!

Aside from the point-by-point of how to put together a novel from the original idea to resolution, I had some great takeaways ::

• It gets more difficult to write the more you know.
• Distribution used to be the choke point in publishing. Now it is placement. If readers cannot find your title, they cannot buy it. You need to get on a top 10 list @ Amazon, B&N, etc
• 90% of 1^st novels fail because authors think the publisher will do things for them. You have to do the same amount of promotion whether you traditionally or self-publish.
• To become a brand author, you need to be read by people who don’t read – who read 5 books a year only when they are stuck at an airport or on the beach. People who don’t read much, don’t have Kindles.  The biggest mistake publishers are making right now is pricing. The sweet spot is 2.99-9.99. Opening books in a series at .99 brings higher sales throughout the whole series.
• Whatever you are weakest at, is what you must work the hardest at. Your book is only as good as your weakest writing.

Pikes Place with the Samhain Set!

Lots of people are heading to Seattle this weekend for the Emerald City Writers Conference. There's lots going on, but most of it within the walls of a hotel in downtown Bellevue. These events often roll like that - you see the inside of airports and hotels...and not much else!

In order to share her love for her city, Shelli Stevens (who happens to be a New York Times best selling author, natch) offered to play tourguide for a few of us. She took us to lunch at Cutters, a fantastic restaurant next to Pike's Place with amazing views of the water. The weather even cooperated -- maybe too much! Tera Kleinfelter (who happens to be the assistant managing editor of Samhain, ha!) wound up blinded by the sun and had to wear fancy schmancy shades throught the meal.

Lunch was faboosh. I think we all orderd something with crab on it. When in Seattle seafood is a must!

Next it was on to Pike's Place for some exploring. The artistry showcased at the market is amazing...and so is the food. I grabbed up some grapes to munch on while I'm in my hotel room writing...and coerced everyone into getting cheesecake at The Confectional. We were all full from lunch, so we got them to go. I know they'll all be thanking me tomorrow.

Karen Erickson had a change purse full of quarters, so we all took our turn at the fortune teller. Mine warned about gossip (fitting for a conference weekend, me thinks) and Shelli's needed a dictionary to transalte. Seriously...none of us knew what it meant, and we are professional wordsmiths!

We snagged a dozen of the famous mini-doughnuts...which are good, but not as great as when they are warm and the sugar is melting off them.

Shelli made us check out the gum wall (ew) and I found a friend in Marty Matthews (Samhain's author liason extraordinaire) because she was as grossed out by it as I was! That thing gives me the creeps. I want to get out my UV wand and decontaminate it...but I don't think it is possible.

After that...Shelli was stuck with the bag of doughnuts! No one wanted to eat!

The magic shop had a a different fortune teller - and this one seemed to have more experience so Tera tried for a different fortune. AND... She got the same thing. Beware of Friday the 13th! Freaky!


I wonder what other trouble we'll get into this weekend?

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

People often ask this of writers...right before they tell them about an idea that they have to write. It's the cutest thing. And then I explain that ideas are not the issue, time to write the story is!

Today was a fieldtrip with HappyBoy's class to a Forest Center. As we were hiking around enjoying the nature (and the Oregon drizzle) I kept noticing something.

MUSHROOMS!

They were everywhere, dozens of different kinds. Fascinating. And that, my friends, is where I get my ideas. They usually spring up from nowhere.

At some point, I'm going to have a character who knows about mushrooms, because now I'm curious.

Foodalicious : Goat Cheese Pizza

beer crust

goat cheese

carmelized onions

pecans

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