As for Hugh Jackman the movie was called Paperback Hero!! And he is in Oz with Nicole Kidman filming an Australian epic. Go Aussie!!!

Kelly Ethan

One of our policies this year (besides “keep it short” and “keep it funny”) was the concept that you couldn’t have too much Hugh Jackman.[/quote]

Thank you so much Laura! Yes, shortly after my initial post, Michele posted the movie title. I have been searching it out ever since . . .

Loved the short, loved the funny — LOVED HUGH! You’re right, you CAN’T have too much Hugh Jackman!

Bravo to you! It was a wonderful ceremony!

One of our policies this year (besides “keep it short” and “keep it funny”) was the concept that you couldn’t have too much Hugh Jackman.

Glad you enjoyed the program.
Laura Hayden

Fabulous idea!

I was very frustrated for the booksellers who didn’t have name tags and booksellers who had never been to a conference before. I’ve been to enough conferences and events that I’m known and recognized by authors. But booksellers who live in the area or who are just starting to make connections lost out on meeting many authors. In fact, many of the authors I talked to asked ME who the booksellers were. Unfortunately, I didn’t know many.

Exactly. It was very frustrating for new authors too. It was my first bookseller event, and with two releases in July, my first single title and my first novella in an anthology, I was very eager to go out and network, but I didn’t know who anyone was. Not to mention the fact that I live in Northern Canada and the one conference I go to a year inteh US is my only chance to do so.

Maybe for next year I’ll host a tea myself. :)

I was very frustrated for the booksellers who didn’t have name tags and booksellers who had never been to a conference before. I’ve been to enough conferences and events that I’m known and recognized by authors. But booksellers who live in the area or who are just starting to make connections lost out on meeting many authors. In fact, many of the authors I talked to asked ME who the booksellers were. Unfortunately, I didn’t know many.

Most RWA national conferences have only the local booksellers in attendance, because it’s so very expensive to attend the full conference. Just a few years ago there was a $25 fee to attend a day of workshops and a luncheon for booksellers in which authors could attend. Today a bookseller has to pay regular conference fees to attend. Although the bookseller’s tea was free this year, the RWA didn’t expect a big turnout from area booksellers. And why should they? They didn’t advertise it locally and made registration difficult.

As for conference badges, well, again a bookseller would have to pay the conference fee. For many booksellers it’s just too expensive. And since there aren’t any workshops geared towards booksellers – without a bookseller’s day – it’s just not worth it.

LOL! I’m so cynical about this, but I’m going to stick my neck out anyway. RWA doesn’t care if booksellers attend ANYthing. So no, we don’t get seated in special locations honorary or otherwise at the luncheons. I sound like a broken record, but back when they had the bookseller’s day, the luncheon was something authors could attend. It was a great opportunity for authors and booksellers. It’s unfortunate that RWA did away with that and replaced it with the bookseller’s tea.

Did I get to mingle with ALL authors? Absolutely!! I make a point to make myself available to any author who thinks I can help them in anyway! In fact, I spend most of my RWA conference talking books – what’s hot, what’s not. I can be found hanging out with fellow booksellers, readers, authors and anyone else who likes to talk books.

I’ll also tell you that Vampires are still HOT! I don’t know who told you they’re dying, but that’s FAR from the truth. Paranormals and Erotic Romance are still increasing in sales at an ASTOUNDING rate! Neither has hit their peak, nor do they show any signs of slowing down! How do I know this for a fact? I work for one of the large chain bookstores and I get information about romance sales.

I can really appreciate the fact that many events for the RWA are run by hard working volunteers – I’ve volunteered for conferences and the like and have worked my tush off!! I’m not sure that was the case here. Having “registeredâ€Â? for the event, I was basically told nothing but to show up.

If you’re thinking about sending comments to the RWA Board, I would also encourage you to include your complaints at having bookseller access. As you said, if you had know where to find us you would have made a point to be there. You have a double reason to make this complaint as you weren’t allowed access to the booksellers who attended the tea!

Total aside here – why isn’t NCP authors recognized by the RWA yet?? That seems absurd! Especially since NCP is one of the e-pubs going print these days. If fact, I sell just as many NCP as I do EC. Is EC recognized? This just blows my mind! I would guess that if you aren’t recognized by RWA you aren’t a PAN member either?? Are there EC authors who are members of PAN, anyone know??

As for my input, appreciated?? Sorry, I have to disagree with you. RWA doesn’t appreciate booksellers at all. Why would they be interested in my input?? If you think you’re low in the food chain, I’m not sure I rank any higher!

That’s not to say that I don’t know my worth. I’ve worked with a ton of authors who value what I do each and everyday. Attending both the RT and RWA conferences this year, I was treated to many a lunch and dinner, by both publishers and authors. So I’m not saying all this to sound like I don’t feel appreciated – I am absolutely appreciated – by authors, by readers and by my company!

Monica, at next years’ RWA event, I’ll make it a point to come find you and introduce myself. I would very much look forward to meeting you! As I posted to Sasha here on this site – maybe next year someone can blog a plan to bypass the RWA and make plans to meet in the hotel lounge! That way any author and bookseller wanting to make connections can do so without having to rely on the RWA to make it happen!

Hit Reply — yes! Once I got back from the conference I picked up the first two Bullet Catchers and discovered that she wrote under the name Rocki St. Claire. While I’m normally don’t like chick lit, a good book is a good book!

I would have loved to have been at the bookseller tea, but as an erotic romance author for New Concepts Publishing, I didn’t have that privilege because NCP isn’t an RWA-recognized publisher. *shrug* Booksellers are my connection to gaining new readers. I usually get myself into hot water when I speak out over issues like this, but not having name tags for an event like the bookseller one shows a lack of organizational skills. Did you also have conference name badges with Bookseller on it? I only met two individual booksellers, which was at a workshop and there were too many people to actually talk about the business of selling books. If I had known where to find booksellers to talk to them, I would have been there.

What about the luncheons? Did you get to mingle with ALL authors or were you guided to honorary, reserved tables? Naturally, I want to pitch my books to booksellers, BUT I also like knowing what they see going on in their stores. I’ve heard from a lot of people that vampires are dying out, and yet one of my local booksellers tells me she can’t keep them on the shelf. These are the type of things I need to know. So as an author, I believe talking to booksellers one-on-one is still the best way to learn what’s hot. I also happen to be a reader (when there’s time – 80hr work weeks make that hard) so I pop in to my local bookstore for my usual $200 spree every couple of months. Actually I’m due this week. LOL

As for the bookseller tea, it’s quite possible the event was organized by a wonderful volunteer, and that could be part of the problem. Not all writers are organized, nor have most of them ever organized any type of event before. RWA relies heavily on it’s volunteers for the majority of its work. I’m not sure how much or how little direction there is from the small staff at the National office.

I plan on sending in my own comments to the Board about what I think could be done to improve things, and I’m sure they’d appreciate your input as an industry professional. They’re more apt to listen to you than to me as I’m low on the food chain (although I don’t intend to remain there. *grin*)The Board is listed on the RWA site if you wish to send a letter.

Hopefully, we’ll meet sometime in the near future.

Best, Monica Burns

However, I wanted to comment on Roxanne St. Claire’s Bullet Catcher series. It should be a must read for you. Kill Me Twice and Thrill Me to Death are incredible books and I can’t wait for Take Me Tonight. The series is wonderful, so good i firmly believe they could be a TV series and I’m hoping someone will pick up on this! And if you haven’t read Hit Reply, I highly recommend tat as well.

I’m all for trying to get children to use their own imagination instead of relying on being spoon fed their entertainment.[/quote]

Jayne that’s fantastic! Let those imaginations spread their wings, and enjoy what comes out [and the world will have one less uptight adult in it's future]. Look at John Lithgow books as well, what he does to Micawber, a squirrel in the park, is wonderful. One simple thing opens a whole new magical world.

Monique Felix [a children's picture book illustrator who uses no words just pictures for kids to make up their own stories],

Tilly, this just sounds so cool. I’m all for trying to get children to use their own imagination instead of relying on being spoon fed their entertainment.

The ironic thing is that Jolie wants to be entranced by authors so that she can be excited about selling them.

Now that’s the kind of bookshop I like…be I wearing the reader or author hat. If only those higher up [RWA in this case] understood this premise and properly hosted an event to make it happen!

When I read Nalini Singh’s book and loved, I called Jolie right away and told her to read it because I knew if Jolie liked it, she could have a major impact on sales. Because Jolie is pretty well connected in the biz. That’s the other ironic thing. Most authors don’t realize it, but Jolie and other booksellers help to make buying decisions for their national chains. It pays to suck up the bookseller, seriously!

I think it’s the readers who keep authors working.

Jolie – To a certain extent I agree with you in that it’s my purchasing the book that pays the author. However, for me there is more to it than that. I travel and the first thing I do when I hit a new place is find the local independent bookshop [big box shops are the next choice but they are often to invested in the latest big sellers] and head out to for a looksee. If the shop doesn’t carry what I want to read, then I walk out with nothing. But if they do, then I’ll look around and see what else they have on the shelves, and usually come away with a bag filled with hopefuls.

So, you see, for me its the bookshop that sells the unlooked for book. I found Jacqueline Carey, Monique Felix [a children's picture book illustrator who uses no words just pictures for kids to make up their own stories], Juliet Marillier…well, I won’t go on, let’s just say there are many automatic buys I’ve found in shops that maybe carried the latest MC Beaton book and so I looked around to see who else they had.

[Shrug] For this reader, I celebrate the bookseller who unearths a gem and puts it on their shelves for me to find and enjoy, then I support the author by buying the next.

Tilly — While I thank you for the wonderful compliment, I think it’s the readers who keep authors working. I’m just the tool that connects the two together!! Although, working with authors makes it that much easier to accomplish. That’s why I attend as many events as possible. I’m a reader at heart who just wants to make other readers happy. Of course, I could shamelessly tell you that the entire reason I’m in bookselling is to keep MY favorite authors writing. I figure the more I sell of their books, the longer they’ll keep writing!! ;-) And of course, the ARCs I get ARE a BONUS! :-D

Jane, Jane Jane, you are a TRUE friend! I may be a lady, but there are some authors out there that I could REALLY dish about! And, yes, I was at work and unable to respond.

Lynne — LOL! Since I knew that I would actually be seated and watching Nora’s opening monologue, I wore something much nicer than PJs! But had you seen me last year, peeking my head in periodically, I was wearing what looked more like lounge pants and a long sleeved cotton shirt in black and white. I would have worn my Nick and Nora duckies, but I figured that was pushing my luck (pun intended!) walking through the casino!

Hugh Jackman, writing a romance novel — I think I’m still in my PJs dreaming!!!

Karen — Jane is such a good friend she would never throw me to the wolves! LOL! That doesn’t mean I won’t dish . . .

Sasha — I would have LOVED to have met you! Maybe next year someone can blog a plan to bypass the RWA and make plans to meet in the hotel lounge! That way any author and bookseller wanting to make connections can do so without having to elbow our way past the crowd of authors who just want the free desserts and books!

By the way, congratulations on the Romantic Times review – 4 ½ Stars for Bound!

It’s a shame RWA isn’t doing more you, as I know many of us authors would love to have a chance to meet and talk to more of you.

I wish I could :( but I have to abide by the accursed ethics of my good friend. Sorry.

Jolie is much too much of a lady (unlike moi) to out publicly the authors who have been dismissive of her and other booksellers at these conferences.

OK, what are you waiting for, dish the dirt already!

Jolie, I’ve got to ask — hopefully without sounding like “What are you wearing?” — what kind of pajamas did you wear?

It’s kind of an epidemic, I think. Jolie may be at work and not able to comment, but from what she has told me in the past years, booksellers are often kind of a forgotten wheel of the romance machine. I think, too, authors tend to forget that. Jolie is much too much of a lady (unlike moi) to out publicly the authors who have been dismissive of her and other booksellers at these conferences.