The Business of Romance

I recently attended a lunch sponsored by the Museum of American Women Writers. It was a fabulous experience.

The panel was moderated by Janice Law and the theme of the lunch was The Business of Romance. The speakers were Janeen Solberg, manager of Turn the Page bookstore (that's Nora Roberts' book store in Maryland), Joyce Lamb, blogger at USA Today's Happy Ever After blog (one of my favorite romance blogs), and writers Avery Flynn (always a great presenter) and Ruth Glick.

The lunch was at the National Press Club, a very distinguished venue, and the presenters had a lot of good advice for us. Here are the highlights.

* Those writers that are putting themselves out there are the ones that are going to create fans.

*Personal touch is important. Enthusiasm is important.

*This all takes energy.

*People want interaction.

*Fans build friendships with authors online and want to connect in person.

*Connect to other authors.

*Readers appreciate reading about you more than they like hearing about your book.

*Blog posts should be personal. Personality should show through.

*Find avenues and build relationships.

This was a good chat. I must confess that I hate most of the book marketing advice that I see out there. A lot of it seems gimmicky and insincere. This was different. The theme was: be yourself, get yourself out there, and make connections. I liked that. It was very authentic.