Last year I was the newbie to the Romance Writers of America National Conference. So now that I know what I didn’t then, I’m going to help you figure out a plan of attack for attending. Answer a few questions, do a little web browsing, and you’ll have a strategic plan of attack worthy of any military assault!

Why are you going? This basic question is your objective, what you hope to achieve by hanging out with 3,000 other authors. Are you going because you’re having trouble writing and need advice? Do you want to meet agents to see if there’s one out there for you? Or are you there to pick up free signed books? I think of RWA in terms of three levels: improving your writing (novice), getting your book published (intermediate), or becoming a business professional (professional). You can target more than one area, but focus will help you get the most out of RWA.

Who do you want to meet? Networking is an essential part of national. Whether you’re meeting with your local chapter, meeting your editor for the first time, or trying to find out what the key to Nora Roberts’ success is, you should have a mental list of people you want to contact. Plan or arrange to meet them at the workshops they’re presenting, at one of the meals that comes in your package price, or during book signings. However, no stalking or gawking please! You won’t look professional, and this is, foremost, a business conference.

What do you want to take away? Takeaways are both physical and mental. Free books, pens, bookmarkers, and notepads are some of the physical items you can pick up in the Goody Room. Use these for ideas of how you can market your book, or to give away to readers and other authors back home. Many workshop presenters will have handouts. Take copious notes on those that benefit you most. The major publishers will have signings, their authors autographing free books for all who wait in the lines. Besides the obvious books for reading, you can also give these away for personal or chapter promotion. As for your mental takeaways, the workshops will give you much to think about and help your writing business, and the inspirational and humbling speeches given by the speakers may give you that psychological boost to get your writing to the next step.

Using the answers you’ve given to the questions above, you’re ready for what we military types call a course of action (COA). You may have more than one COA, which is fine. You’ll need to refine your plan on arrival. Get on the RWA website early. You can start downloading handouts off the conference page to see which workshops you’ll want to attend. They fall into several categories: career, craft, research, chat, special (tends toward the philosophical/insprirational), publishing, writer’s life, and Publisher’s Spotlights. Shortly before the conference, RWA will upload the entire schedule. This is when the real work begins.

I used the Outlook calendar feature next, but you can simply write on a day planner if that’s your preference. Write down all the workshops and events you’re interested in and when they are. Why? Because you will change your mind about which ones you want to attend as the day goes by. Maybe one workshop gave you what you wanted and going to another similar one would be a waste of time. Or maybe you met someone who is attending a different workshop, but is turning out to be your best resource (or just fun to hang with). But since you have a backup plan, no need to read the entire catalog you’re given at registration.

If you’re directionally challenged, you’ll want to study the hotel map as well. Though there’s plenty of time between workshops, you don’t want to get lost trying to get to one that is standing-room only and end up trying to listen over the crowd squeezing in at the door.

If your goal is to snag an agent or editor, don’t miss your opportunity to sign up for appointments. Last year RWA posted a table of editors and agents and what they were looking for. Print this out—because they don’t have copies at the conference. Although you’ll only be given one agent/editor appointment, be prepared to hit up all agents and editors you’re interested in. You are allowed to sit in the waiting area for appointments, and if someone doesn’t show up, you can step into their slot. But do your research. It does little good to pitch your 150,000-word paranormal romantic saga to Harlequin.

Because you’re a first-timer, be sure to mark that on your registration. You’ll get a sticker for your badge saying “Newcomer.” This is an open invitation for agents, editors, authors and veteran attendees to strike up a conversation with you. Be prepared to talk about what you write and be proud of your status!

A good attack plan will help you reach your objective, and of course, result in that happily-ever-after ending we all strive for!

We are the new kids on the block and we have attitude but we back it up with years of inside information collected from both sides of the publishing table. Our sole purpose is to introduce books that make a statement with their unique voice, strong plot lines, and complex, well developed characters. At Accomplice Press our excellence shines through in the tiny details and this produces polished literary works.

After doing extensive research we know what the readers want and we are going to give it to them without worrying about selling millions of copies out of some mammoth warehouse. We are an independent, boutique style publisher and our focus is on the skilled authors and their target audiences, you the readers. The Partners at AP have decided to launch a series of specialty lines to answer the growing demand for something innovative and new. Curvalicious is our first endeavor and it will be a romance line spotlighting plus-size heroines but their size will not be the focus of the plot line. As publishers and women we feel that there are countless romance lovers who don’t see real life females, like themselves, portrayed in the books they read. We plan to change that with this specialty romance series.

Curvalicious women are voluptuous, beautiful, strong, sexy and intelligent. These inspirational main characters will always get the man of their dreams without losing weight or changing who they are on the outside. Romance is all about fantasy; our stories will keep the home fires burning even on the coldest night of the year. We are offering two different heat levels for our reader’s pleasure. Curvalicious Sweet is romance with sweet or sensual love scenes, but no explicit language or sex and Curvalicious Spicy is erotic romance containing explicit language and sex scenes. The stories will be available in e-book format with periodic print anthologies.

Accomplice Press is shaking up the publishing world one book at a time and you can be part of the revolution. We are holding a Curvalicious writing competition which began on Valentine’s Day and ends at midnight on May 14, 2010. We’ll be accepting stories for both Sweet and Spicy heat levels and on May 28, 2010 two winning entries will be contracted to be published in ebook format. The top three submissions of each category will also be included in the first Curvalicious print anthology. The specific guidelines for Sweet and Spicy submissions, word count and formatting requirements are all available at our website accomplicepress.com. All contest entries must be sent to curvecontest@accomplicepress.com. We are also holding an “open call” to all authors, so this is the perfect time to submit that manuscript you have written. Just remember Accomplice Press is NOT a self-publishing company.

It is an exciting time at Accomplice Press and we will be releasing more lines as the year progresses. There will be Silver Sirens, which will be romance about female characters over the age of 40, a Young Adult line called Fierce and a line dedicated to “men in Uniform”. Please check out accomplicepress.com for more information. Also we will be attending Romconinc.com in Denver this July, please look for us there.

Good luck authors!
Karen Jones
Public Relations Manager for Accomplice Press

In 2004, I began writing a novel about a lieutenant in the fictional APLA – All People’s Liberation Army. Since I’d been in the Navy, I knew the basic ranks there. I’d seen enough Star Trek episodes to know Navy ranks were used on the Enterprise. That was good enough for me.

The book was rocking right along, and I was more than halfway finished. I mentioned at dinner one night that I was using Navy ranks for the officers aboard the ship.

Did I mention that I have a rather opinionated son who happened to be in Junior ROTC – USAF?

My youngest son Joel is a stickler for details. He held a perfect score in ROTC, and was the pride of the colonel who taught the class.  

Joel informed me that the Air Force is in charge of the air, and by extension space, Star Trek notwithstanding. He suggested I change the ranks of my officers and offered to help with the conversion. We made them close approximations fitting with the work they perfomed.

My lieutenant became a captain. The character once designated captain now became a colonel (and in later books, a General). Joel gave me a print out of Air Force ranks to use for reference, and is still (six years later and post USAF service) my go-to guy on anything related to the military when I don’t know myself, or can’t ask a fellow member of RomVets or one of the authors here. Now you know how the APLA ended up with its current ranking system.

The book was At the Mercy of Her Pleasure, which is being rereleased 3/23/10 at Loose Id.

This week, the New York Times announced the recent death of Major General Jeanne Holm. Major General Holm’s contributions on behalf of women in the U.S. Air Force as well as women in all our U.S. Armed Forces are well documented. Her biography has a permanent place on the Official U.S. Air Force website. She is also a member of the National Women’s Hall of Fame. I won’t attempt to offer you a biography or an obituary of General Holm because they have both been done. What I would like to offer you is how General Holm, though never a personal acquaintance of mine, had a significant impact on my life.

When I joined the U.S. Air Force in 1991, I had every intention of becoming a linguist. I had the ASVAB & DLAB scores and the written job guarantee to prove it. As so often happens, the needs of the Air Force superseded my desire to travel the world as a brilliant linguist and I was given a career that needed bodies. It had only been six years since women had been allowed into the U.S.A.F. Security Police. They had been doing Law Enforcement duties prior to that but the Security Police (now Security Forces) were the infantry of the Air Force. They needed bodies and it didn’t matter what sex they were so I found myself in the Security Police. A “tread” or a “droid” as our Law Enforcement brothers and sisters preferred to call us but they always called us when the job was too big and they needed backup.

General Holm raised the female numbers in the Air Force. She also made it possible for women to be more than nurses. Security Police was one of the few holdouts when it came to women joining because of the combat nature of the job. We were trained in what was politely called “Air Base Ground Defense”. Over the years, the fluff has been removed from the title of our training and it is now simply called “Ground Combat Skills”.

It was because of General Holm’s work that I was able to do the many things I did to distinguish myself in the Air Force. I was a dead-on shot with an M-60 and frighteningly accurate with the Mark-19 and M-203 grenade launchers. I was also handy as a Fire Team Leader and Security Controller. I worked every facet of nuclear security during my eight years in the U.S.A.F.

I hardly think General Holm even considered me when she joined the Army Air Corps but the fact is that my personal history would be far less interesting had she not gone before me to pave the way for women in the U.S. Air Force. She will always have my undying respect and gratitude.

General Holm, I salute you.

That’s the unofficial motto at the Infantry School at Ft. Benning.  The statue of Iron Mike outside Building 4 is supposed to symbolize that.

It’s also my motto for the current state of publishing.  My mantra lately has been:

Authors produce the product.

Readers consume the product.

Everyone else is either helping or in the way.  So lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.

This is my first post here so I’ll ramble a bit and I’ll get back to my view of the state of publishing.

First, the military is always a great backdrop for a story because it’s high stakes and people are under extreme pressure.  Want to find out who someone really is?  Put them in a crisis.  That’s the reason Ranger School, Special Forces Qualification Course, Delta Selection, BUDS, all of those schools are so stressful.  They want to find out if you just want to wear a Green Beret or be a Green Beret.  Big difference.

All my books, across a variety of genres, have had a military hero/heroine.  Psst, BTW, the hero in my next collaboration with Jennifer Crusie, WILD RIDE, due out 16 March, is a retired Green Beret, medically discharged with a bullet resting right next to his heart.  So, of course, he ends up in an amusement park that’s a prison for demons.  Can’t catch a break.

If you don’t want to go get shot at, some good resources for the military:

Blackhawk Down.  I knew the Delta CO and the TF-160 CO on that op.  Book and movie both very good.

Inside Delta Force by Eric Haney.  A lot of little ‘real’ touches in there.

The Commandoes.  A good book about training for all the branches Special Ops.

Now, back to publishing.  I really think things are changing much faster than most people anticipate.  Most people are reacting, rather than acting.  A tenet of my Warrior Writer program is to be successful we must act, not react.  As part of that, I started bringing a bunch of my backlist into print.  Mostly military thrillers or military type science fiction. Somehow, that evolved into starting my own company:  Who Dares Win Publishing.  The key to success in the future market is to find a niche and become known as the person who does THAT thing.  The internet is making things narrower rather than broader.  So I’m specializing in military fiction and non-fiction.  Even that’s a little too broad and we’re in the process of narrowing it down.

Publishing is currently working on a business paradigm that is over a century out of date.  If we want to avoid what happened in the music business (grossing 12 Billion 10 years ago– grossing 6 Billion now, even though more people are listening to music than ever before) we need to wise up.  Publishers trying to hold off eBook pub until four months after hardcover are fighting a losing battle.  Saying the eBook market is only 3% is sticking one’s head in the sand.  Things are changing exponentially, not linearly.  Laugh at the iPad.  But remember, it’s only the device.  When Apple opens it’s online bookstore, can we say iTunes for books?

I predict the big 6 in NY will go more toward a Harlequin business model, breaking down their imprints even further to become brands for certain types of book.

I also predict a key tipping point when a major fiction author (Steve Covey, a non-fiction author has already done this) goes direct to Kindle, and all the other ebook platforms, skipping a publisher altogether.  This is happening in England already.

Because in all the furor over MacMillan-Amazon, no one was talking about increasing royalty rates for authors.  In fact, Random House was trying to reduce electronic royalty rates for authors.

Ok– and looking at the categories here, how come SEALs have their own but Special Forces doesn’t?  Hmm.