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 […]

Ross Grayson Bell – Writing for a Screenplay versus a Novel (pt 3)

The Hero’s Journey One way of telling a story. Stage 1 – The Ordinary World  Stage 2 – Call to adventure  What is the call to adventure?  What new force appears to challenge hero?  How is hero’s flaw tested?  Stage 3 – Refusal of the call  Heroes initially reject the call to adventure  Stage 4 […]

Ross Grayson Bell – Writing for a Screenplay versus a Novel (pt 2)

7 ways to engage an audience 1. Premise  Your point of view and how to live it.  Eg romance writers have a perspective on love  Eg in Fight Club, the only way to evolve was to break yourself apart to move on. Not the same as the book, where he ends up in an asylum […]

Friday workshop: Ross Grayson Bell – Writing for a Screenplay versus a Novel (pt 1)

Ross Grayson Bell is a screenwriter, producer and story consultant with over twenty-five years of international experience in story development and film production. Having started as a creative executive for legendary, Hollywood producer Ray Stark, Ross developed and produced Fight Club for Twentieth Century Fox and executive produced Under Suspicion with Gene Hackman and Morgan […]