“Selling the Hard Sell” at RWA conference

Our workshop “Selling the Hard Sell” was approved for the RWA national conference in July. I’ll be speaking with partner in crime, Kristina McMorris, debut author and fellow Golden Heart® finalist.

We came up with the idea because, as new authors, we may not have tips to offer in regards to long-term career and craft, but we know how it feels when no one wants that book of your heart because the writing is good, but it’s a “hard sell”. Kristina’s background is in marketing and her WWII set debut novel, Letters from Home, is scheduled to be released in February 2011 after a long journey through contests and queries similar to Butterfly Swords.

After some discussion,  we reflected on how we had kept a keen eye on the market, despite having “unmarketable” proposals. The workshop will outline our query and submission process and the very specific approach we each took. Beyond the tips and tricks, Kristina and I might have some war stories under our belts that writers in the query war might find heartening as well. It’s going to be an exciting conference.

I hope I don’t forget my lines. I hope the room isn’t empty. *crickets chirping* I also hope we get to speak early so I can get the butterflies over with and breathe easy!

5 Comments

  1. Victoria Dixon
    Feb 13, 2010 @ 06:31:53

    When are you delivering this talk? For obvious reasons, I’d love to hear it – and meet you in person. 🙂

  2. Jeannie Lin
    Feb 13, 2010 @ 06:53:55

    It would be great to meet you in person! It’s in Nashville at the RWA conference July 28-31. It’s the biggest romance gathering of the year. Here’s the info:
    http://www.rwanational.org/cs/conferences_and_events

    RWA conference can be a bit steep. I’m actually doing an expanded portion of my half of the talk at the New England conference on March 26-27 and again in Barlett, TN on September 18. My portion focuses on the submission.

    Wow, I should get an “Appearances” page together for this year!

  3. Dara
    Feb 13, 2010 @ 19:52:50

    Yes, you should put together a page for appearances 🙂 It would be nice to meet you too, although RWA is a little on the pricey side…Maybe at another one of your appearances?

  4. Dara
    Feb 13, 2010 @ 20:09:22

    I was just checking the RWA site and I really want to go…it’s within driving distance (about five hours). Sigh…it would be a dream to go.

  5. Jeannie Lin
    Feb 13, 2010 @ 22:39:57

    Maybe we need to organize a get together of the Asian novel group sometime.