2019 Wisconsin RWA Conference

Hi everyone! 

I am Young Adult and Middle Grade author Barbara Binns, writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for adolescents and teens. As my tagline says, I write Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them.  

This month, I want to talk about my trip to a writer's conference and the current issues with RWA, diversity and the Ritas/Golden Heart.

I spent the first weekend of April in Milwaukee, at the 2019 Wisconsin RWA Write Touch writer’s conference.  I began by attending the writer's intensive, a Friday session presented by Lisa Cron (http://wiredforstory.com/) on what readers really want. I don't know how she found the energy and stamina to lead us through an entire day.

Lisa talked with us about the importance of story to humanity. Storytelling is a part of every culture around the world. Story, she said, is the difference between what a character is willing to say out loud, and what they are really thinking about things they don’t say. As humans, we come to story with a question, what will this story teach that will help me survive. We want clues that will help us in both the physical world, and the social world, the land of interacting with other people. We search story for clues that will help us see ourselves and live our lives successfully.

Listening to that made me consider the lack of discussion about the RWA’s recent revelations about continuing problems in the Rita contest. When I arrived at the conference, I expected to hear gossip  on the subject. Mostly I heard loud, resounding silence. If attendees did talk about #RitasSoWhite, no one did so when I was around. Note, I saw only two other African American attendees and they were only signed up for the intensive. Once that ended, I found myself the only black person in the room. I can't help wondering if that was behind some of the silence on the subject. The one exception came during the final keynote address of the conference.

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, (https://writershelpingwriters.net) authors of the Emotional Thesauraus and a variety of companion books for writers. They discussed Emotional Wounds, the kinds authors inflict on our fictional creations. One kind of emotional wound they discussed with us is caused by a person being faced by an ongoing detrimental situation. Authors of color in the RWA have faced problematic ongoing situations for years. If this were characters in a romance story, the authors would be seeking ways to heal their emotional wounds.

The conference's keynote speaker Maya Rodale (http://www.mayarodale.com/) showed us the "formula" for romance novels. We all laughed at the reminder that too many outside the industry looked down on the romance genre and say the authors merely follow a formula, and therefore less than "real writers."

At the end of the final day, Maya gave a keynote address, that reminded us that we romance authors have superpowers. Other authors, largely male, of other genres may put our product down or claim romance authors don't really know how to write well. Those belittleing words get white RWA authors up in arms.

Unfortunately, when you exchange race for gender, too many are silent when romance writers of color, especially black authors, are downrated or ignored in the Golden Heart and Rita contests, the major awards for romance writers. When the issue is race instead of gender, numerous white RWA authors have said their African American counterparts couldn't cut it in the Ritas because they can’t write. Or maybe its because their black characters "aren't realistic." I have rarely seen assertions like those challenged by their fellow white RWA members, no matter what the statistics collected by the RWA organization say. The numbers are just a bleak for LGBT authors.

Maya Rodale reminded those present of the contract authors make with readers: to give them a chance to see themselves in a romance. We should use our power to ensure there is romance for everyone. That includes those who don't usually get to triumph in real life. People of color, the disabled, and those identifying as LGBT deserve to see themselves on the page, experiencing joy and getting a happily ever after.

It's not just about everyone rushing to write those characters their books. Especially if those characters is not authentic to them. Maya said, if authors do one thing, it is to read more books written by these authors. Read them with an open mind and see what the Ritas have been missing. Let yourself get swept up in stories about people who are different from you, and then, tell your friends about them. Then, everyone wins.

Here are some black romance authors you might want to try, in addition to the supreme Beverly Jenkins:

• Alyssa Cole -  Be Not Afraid, a  Revolutionary War novella 
• Farrah Rochon; if you like football players, try Field of Pleasure
• Rebel Miller writes about a futuristic dystopia in Awakening
• Piper Huguley wrote  A Virtuous Ruby – the first in an inspirational series set in the early 20th century.
• Kiru Taye - Keeping Secrets  features an amnesiac falling in love with the woman he married in name only
• Christiana Harrell wrote Cream, the Lammy nominated story of an androgynous young woman in search of her true self
• Kianna Alexander - This Tender Melody – He’s taken her spot at the helm of her family’s software company, and she’s not happy about it. Also, he’s a musician.
• Kayla Perrin (one of my personal favorite authors) - One Night in Paris, about an older woman who accepts a younger man’s proposal to travel with him to France. 
• Brenda Jackson - Bane – He’s a Navy SEAL with a ranch and a cowboy hat to go with it. She’s a chemist who needs his protection. 
• Rochelle Alers - No Compromise – The director of a program for battered women finds herself in danger. Her new Army boyfriend is out to fix it.

This is only a tiny list of everything that is available. Let's do what we can to spread more love and joy in the world.  We can play a part in making the world a better place and expanding the boundaries of Romancelandia by seeking out a a wider variety of romance authors to read.

My book Courage (https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Barbara-Binns/dp/0062561650) played the "one of these things is not like the others" game at the conference bookstore. Several hotel guests bought copies of the book with the black boy on the cover and asked me to sign. One conference attendee also purchased a copy.

See, there is something for every reader.

#RWA2018 and Inclusion

Hi everyone! 

I am YA, and now MG author Barbara Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for adolescents and teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them.  My debut middle grade novel, Courage, was recently published by Harper Collins.

Romance circles are going crazy discussing the Romance Writers of America's 2018 conference. Many of the comments centers around the speech on Inclusion given by Suzanne Brockmann as she received a Life Time Achievement Award from RWA. She spoke of things she had kept inside her heart for years under the direction of industry professionals and earlier RWA leadership. That left her torn inside by the internal strife silence had on herself and her conscious.

A lot of people have been saying, Me Too.

So have I.

Racism, classism, homophobia and other isms are rife in the world, and in the romance community. The place where love is expected to conquer all, remains one of the last places in the publishing industry to embrace what "all" should mean. The number of people who walked out while Ms. Brockmann talked about love provides a perfect illustration. Many others refused to applaud at the end of her call to action. Detractors described her words as "out of place" and "political", as if remaining silent in the face of injustice is not in itself a powerful political statement.

A white, bestselling author using her place of privilege to be a true ally and advocate for real inclusion. For an RWA where differences are not just tolerated, they are embraced. For a world where every lover of romance, from any and all walks of life, can find love and romance on the pages of a book.

I first heard of Suzanne Brockmann almost ten years ago when a group of white women readers were talking about their favorite books. Several eagerly informed me and anyone else who would listen, that we absolutely had to read Suzanne’s latest book and the love interest of her gay character.

Say what!?!

Yes, these typical romance readers read about a gay hero finding love, and found that awesome enough to spread the word to anyone who would listen. Meanwhile the author had to deal with industry “professionals” who feared even the mention that her book contained a gay hero would alienate readers.

We are told books with characters outside the mainstream don’t sell. That might have been true in the days when they were shoved in the back corner of a bookstore, a place where most romance readers never ventured. I remember years spend wandering the romance shelves, subconsciously accepting the idea that people of color like myself were unworthy of being written about. I felt forced to either read about heroes exalting heroines with “alabaster skin” or not read romance at all. Eventually I chose the latter.

The industry's decision to segregate romance books by race led me to miss out on many good books. Publishers and bookstores lost a lot of business. Thanks to social media and Amazon, those books are nolonger gathering dust in a dark corner.


Kristan Higgins, the RITA® Award winner in the category Mainstream Fiction with a Central Romance, said it well during her acceptance speech.

“The absence of a single African American finalist has shown us more than ever that we have a problem in RWA … Let’s carry the message of inclusivity and openness in our hearts and in our works, because we are Romance Writers, our lives are devoted to imagining a better way and bringing joy to our readers.” 

She added that we can all keep our hearts loving and full of light by reading from a variety of writers of all backgrounds and all experiences. Her words, and the message in Suzanne Brockmann’s speech, is that inclusivity is not about quotas or being “pc”, but about truly representing humanity and reflecting the real-world.

Had a gay or lesbian or author of color made either speech, even more people would have been incensed. I know, because it happened to me recently. I mentioned there was value in including different people who look at the world differently in our stories. That’s a direct quote, (since we conversed via facebook I could go back and check my exact words). Somehow, an author apparently looked at those words and decided I was really saying was that she had to write about repression and segregation. 

Reading fiction is one way people learn empathy. Mirror books let us see and understand ourselves better. Window books give us insight into other people and possibilities, and show us that “the other” is really just like us.

We need BOTH window and mirror books in our to be read piles.

And in our finished piles. Our world is not all white, all cis-gendered, all able-bodied. Neither should the books we read.

Below is a link to a YouTube video of the Awards ceremony. Suzanne's speech starts at the 56 minute mark. To get the hole effect, start at 46 minutes with her son’s introduction.  Kristen Higgins' acceptance speech begins at 1 hour, 56 minutes.  



(I didn’t attend this year's conference, but watching those speeches left me tearing up.)

Bonus: Award winning author Sonali Dev gave the Librarians Day Luncheon Keynote Speech (Click HERE for the audio file) She called for librarians to think about the voices which have been silenced and pledge to help them be heard. Librarians have power when they make decisions about which books to order for their libraries.

Finally, in keeping with the themes of diversity and inclusion, Avon has announced the creation of "The Beverly Jenkins Diverse Voices Sponsorship to cover the costs for an #ownvoice writer to enter the RITA® and/or Golden Heart® Competitions and to attend the RWA conference (registration fee, travel and lodging) in coming years. The application deadline for this sponsorship is February 22, 2019.

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PS, I am once again offering my six-week online class on inclusive writing this October. If you are interested, take a look at http://www.babinns.com/spice-class/ for more information on class content, and how to sign up.

Indie Publishing via Amazon: Bits, Bytes and Bucks

by Madelle Morgan

I learned a few promotion-related tidbits important to indie romance authors (and readers) at the Romance Writers of America conference in San Antonio, Texas last month.

When I wasn't having fun with a couple of cowboys, that is...

www.facebook.com/kindlelovestories 

At a two hour workshop, Amazon representatives described how Amazon continues to evolve its services to support indie authors. Why? Simply put, self-publishing is profitable. Latest figures available show that a third of the top 100 e-books on Amazon.com were indie-published. One hundred fifty (150) authors publishing via Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) sold over $100,000 worth of books in 2013 on Amazon. That's not the total. That's the amount each author earned.

Other pluses for KDP authors are global distribution and sales data. Amazon distributes to 246 countries. KDP offers real time sales reports. Bookscan data is available describing where, geographically, books are selling for a specific period. This provides valuable, timely feedback on the impact of specific marketing initiatives. On the print side, CreateSpace is going to be offering professional services for editing, cover design and marketing indie-published print books.

Amazon's Discovery Options for Readers & Authors

KDP Select
When an author puts an e-book into the KDP Select program, the book is sold exclusively on Amazon for up to 90 days. While the author's book is in that program, the author can make it free for up to five days within that 90 day period. When not free, that book can be discounted via the Kindle Countdown Deals for up to seven days. You are probably familiar with Kindle Daily Deals. As well, a KDP Select e-book is automatically enrolled in the new Kindle Unlimited "loan" program. See below.

Stay Up To Date
This feature on the right menu on an Amazon Author Page allows readers to subscribe to an automatic email when the author has a new release. I'm absolutely loving this alert option, because when the next books in my favorite series are published I'm automatically notified.

Series Promotion
A new feature (or at least new to me) allows an author to set up a Series Landing Page - a list of all the books in a series. When a reader searches for an author and gets the list of all the author's works, she'll see a link that takes her to a page with a list of all the books in the series, in order, as well as any connected works such as box sets and short stories. If the author sets up a page for each series, that is!

Here's Marie Force's Amazon page for her series "The McCarthys of Gansett Island."

Hot New Releases
To my surprise, the books on this coveted list are chosen by the Amazon merchandizing team! It's a curated list. The books on it are not selected because of some mysterious algorithm magic.

Amazon is Enabling Readers to Read a Lot of Books Cheaply

Kindle Lending Library
This is available exclusively to Prime members. Readers have to read at least 10% of the book before the author receives any money (currently approx $2 per book loaned).

Kindle Unlimited - NEW
This service for U.S.-based subscribers has just launched. They pay $9.99 per month for unlimited reading and listening on any device. Books in KDP Select are automatically added to the Kindle Unlimited library of over 600,000 works for the duration of the time the book is in the KDP Select program. This is a wonderful way for readers to discover new authors without a financial commitment. Readers, as I understand it, please note that the book will disappear from your device the moment the audio or e-book is no longer in the KDP Select program.

Kindle Daily Deals
This has to be one of your go-to pages on Amazon.

Match Book - NEW
Purchasers of a print copy can buy the digital version for a discounted price.

Please note Kobo offers promo support such as pricing strategies along with its self-publishing platform Kobo Writing Life. Unfortunately I couldn't attend the Kobo workshop due to a conflict, but will listen to the audiotape. With promo strategies offered by innovative distributors like Amazon and Kobo, indie authors are sitting pretty, darlin'!

Any factual errors in the above descriptions are my own, not Amazon's. Blame it on these frosty delights I enjoyed while relaxing beside the beautiful Riverwalk canal.

And Finally, the RITA Goes To...

The annual Romance Writers of America RITA Awards recognize outstanding published romance novels and novellas. At this year's gala ceremony it became crystal chandelier clear to me that indie publishing has reached a tipping point. A self-published novel won the RITA in the Romantic Suspense category! Several other indie novels were nominated.

I walked onto the plane at the San Antonio airport after a great conference convinced that it's a no-brainer for an author to try self-publishing.

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Madelle

www.MadelleMorgan.com