Nalini Singh – beyond the first draft

Advanced Craft: Beyond the first draft – polishing your manuscript.  How do you refine that initial draft to make it the best it can be? Nalini Singh talks detail-oriented editing tips and strategies, as well as big picture things such as point of view and how best to utilize secondary characters. From breakout session 1 […]

Day 1: Harlequin Presentation

Sue Brockton – Publishing director  Jo Mackay – head of local fiction, HQ, Mira, Escape  Kita Kemp – Publisher Mills and Boon (ANZ)  Nicola Caws – Editor Global Acquisition Mills and Boon (UK)  Relaunched every series line with new look last year  Publishing, design, retail operations run in Australia (editorial run from overseas)  Jo Mackay […]

Slushpile readings – Professionals panel

Concept: Moderator reads a manuscript until all the panel signal they are out. Panel then give reasons why they would stop reading. Kelly Hunter (Tule), Hailee Nash (The Nash Agency), Alex Adsett (The Adsett Agency), Kathleen Scheibling (Harlequin US), Moe Ferrara (Bookends Literary Agency), Rachael Donovan (Harlequin), Kate Cuthbert (Escape Publishing)  Reading 1:  Warzone, terrorists, […]

Major Sponsor Keynote: Harlequin

James Kellow, Kathleen Scheibling, Sue Brockman, Adam  Sue – Australian market  Dedicated space in Big W and Kmart for category  Now in amazon – small, but long tail  Independent sellers – more single title   Sweet is getting stronger and stronger  Booktopia is strong online seller  UK – romantic suspense, domestic noir  20th century historicals becoming […]

Breakout 2: Lana Pecherczyk – Sell more books with graphic design

Lana Percherczyk is from Western Australia. She self publishes, does her own marketing / PR, and designs her own covers. Your cover is your first message to readers. What message do you want to send them? What is in it for me?  Entertain me  I want to escape  Tell me a story  Do these well, […]

Breakout 1: Kelly Hunter – 10 tips for character development

Kelly Hunter is an Australian author who is a USA Today bestselling author, a three-time Romance Writers of America RITA finalist and loves writing to the short contemporary romance form. She is also Editorial Director at Tule Publishing. I missed the start of this due to a scheduling conflict, so I’ve done a summary of […]

RWA Keynote address – Kate Cuthbert: Consenting adults

The romance novel and representations of sexuality after #MeToo Kate Cuthbert, at the time still managing editor for Escape Publishing (and now at Writers Victoria) presented this on the first morning of the conference. I had a severe migraine and unfortunately missed it. I say unfortunate because it was by all accounts a showstopper, and […]