The Last Day of the RWA 2012 Conference

The last day of the RWA 2012 Conference

Today my first workshop was: The Editing Waltz. Category Craft.
Speaker Shelley Coriell
Coriell commented  that there were so very many workshops on social media and branding etc but her workshop was the only one dealing with editing.
She said that she had two important messages for us to take home and if we did that then she would have considered her workshop a success:
1. Having a good editor makes me a better writing technician.
2. Having a good editor makes me a better storyteller. 
She discussed the steps in editing:
1. Content Editing
2.Line Editing
3. Proofreading.

The next workshop I attended was: Slaying Your Inner Slacker 
Category (Writer’s Life)
Speaker Juliet Blackwell and Sophie Littlefield
These authors have been writing 4 books a year. They gave us a worksheet and the first question was: How badly do YOU want to write?
The next discussion topics were:
What is my true writing goal?
How important is this goal?
What am I willing to give up?
Getting to the chair? (Another author who has a separate computer in another space for emails and SM).
Stop sabotaging yourself.
The large discussion here was conquering fear. 

After this I took a break and walked outdoors and breathed fresh air. I returned for Marketing 101 for Self-Publishers: 10 Tools and Techniques to Maximize Sales.
Career category
Speaker: Florrie Binford Kichler.
Since I have two publishers, XoXo Publishers ™ for Moving On and Soul Mate Publishing for Woman of Substance TBR, Fall 2012, I attended to glean any tips and tricks to help my own promotion. 
I am after all in charge of my business.

 Tool #1 Plan. A book recommended is The One-Page Business Plan by Jim Horan. Since I should have time for that it is something I will look into. 
Tool #2 is all about studying the data.
Tool # 7 is all about finding our Niche. 
Again, I have a great deal of work to do.

I have just returned from the 2012 RITA and Golden Heart Awards Ceremony. There are very many talented, hardworking writers in this romance genre. The amount of books some of these authors have written is humbling. Again I have work to do when I get home. 

Although conferences are an opportunity to network, gain knowledge and be surrounded by like minded writers, it is also a chance to re-evaluate and begin again. 
As Littlefield-Blackwell said in one of their bullets: “Respect yourself–do yourselfthe honor of high expectations. If you aren’t ready to do that, then we have nothing to talk about (yet).
Time to copy and paste and pack. The work begins tomorrow. 
Goals to set. Business plans to evaluate. And books to write. And promotion to do. 

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