Category: Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston

RWA National Retrospective

I’ve been going to the RWA National Conferences frequently for quite a few years now. They always seem fun and informative. These days, there is so much to learn about changes in how to publish as well as the entire publishing industry. The largest traditional publishers keep merging. Smaller publishers appear frequently and some are quite successful.

Then there’s the whole nearly-new world of successful self-publishing. Plus, the term “hybrid” was used a lot at the conference, meaning it’s good and potentially helpful for an ongoing career for a writer to both traditionally publish and self publish.

So, I attended workshops and panels, including my own panel with other mystery authors who also write romance, about how our careers pre-writing helped us with our writing as well. I saw my agent and my Harlequin editor. I went to the Meet-and-Greets for the two Harlequin series I write for and learned about what was going on. And I of course attended the always delightful Harlequin party.

I wound up staying in an overflow hotel rather than the main conference hotel, and the one I was in was horrible, unfortunately. It was being remodeled. My room was dark at night with inadequate lights. Cleaning was iffy. But at least it was near the conference hotel.

Next year RWA National will be in our backyard: San Diego. Will I attend?

Sure!