It Was My First Time....
(And there was hardly any blood.)
So I've been thinking quite a bit about the experience and what I liked and what I expected and what I might do differently if I had to do it all over again. So please forgive the length, this is a bit of a brain dump. I'm
processing.
There are a number of different types of events, which I enjoyed to varying degrees. I'll ramble a little on them here...
Educational Sessions
I was pretty keen on the sessions. (I was always the teachers’ pet in school.) On the first day, I went to four sessions on blogging and social media. Most were directed at authors or aspiring authors on how to use it, how much to use it, etc. There was another one on the second day that I had planned to go to, but I ended up changing my mind.
The best session I went to on Social Media was actually billed as a Marketing track workshop, with reviewers from
Literary Escapism,
Happy Ever After,
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and of course,
RT Magazine, who are the sponsor of the conference. I should say, it was the session I enjoyed the most, because the other ones I went to were all fine, but weren’t quite what I wanted.
The problem with getting what I wanted is that I didn’t know what I wanted. I’m still not completely sure what I expected or hoped to get out of the RT Conference as a blogger (specifically, a “boutique” blogger that has sort of plateau’ed.) What I decided, after that first day, was that I’d rather follow around authors and people that I knew of than treat the workshops like a class. To be honest, I didn’t really hear much at the sessions that I didn’t already know.
Reader/Fan Sessions
Within the scheduled workshops, there were a number of different specialty tracks aimed at different pieces of the industry, and then there was the reader track. I think the reason that I liked the reviewer panel the most is because it was closest to what I do. There wasn’t much in the way of formal programs for bloggers or reviewers. If you are a publisher, a publicist, an editor, a bookseller, or an author, you have a distinct place in the RTCon world.
While they invite readers, the reader track was spotty in terms of “worth it” as far as I’m concerned. Some of the reader sessions were great – JR Ward was fantastic, as mentioned above, but many were very… I don’t know, featherweight. “Bling Your Badge” – really? No offense to those who enjoyed this, but I didn't pay $400-plus to put stickers on my nametag.
I pretty much changed tactics on the second day and just wallowed in the fangirl fun of hearing famous and favorite authors speak, and bumping into them in the hallways. I went to panels on historical and Scottish romances. I took a scrapbook and got it signed by all my favorites and will add in some photos and bookmarks and stuff later. (It went missing for one very anxious evening but the fabulous
Circle of Seven people found it and got it back to me. Whew!)
I had a lot more fun at the sessions where I wasn't really expecting much other than a shared enjoyment of romance novels, like the Scottish themed panel, "Under the Kilt: The Naked Truth About Scotland." To tell the truth, the audience sort of hijacked the agenda in this session but I still thought it was fun, because everyone in there was just dying to talk about the books they love.
Scheduled Parties and Mixers
I totally did not get how these worked, and nothing was said in the orientation to clue me in. Based on the descriptions in the programs, most of them sounded like open-house sort of events, like, you arrive any time during the 2 or 3 hours that are scheduled, mingle a little, see who's there.
As it turned out, most of them had distinct starting times, and if you weren't there when the doors opened, you pretty much missed out on whatever they were offering -- freebies, food, what have you. Now, since I wasn't really expecting to get stuff at these things (because I didn't know any better) I wasn't particularly disappointed, but it was a little bit of a bummer to show up to what you thought was a stand-up-and-mingle thing only to find out that everyone was already sitting, you missed half a presentation, and all the goodies were gone.
There were exceptions though. The Avon party was extremely well-organized, with tons and tons of books from Avon authors and a chance to get them signed before the madness of the book signing event on Saturday. I'm not just saying that because I'm being treated so nicely by Avon as part of their Addict program, honestly (though I will forgive you if you have suspicions). It was a wonderful event, and I think it was one of the only ones that had giveaways for the conventioneers that did not run out. Yay for good planning.
The other one that stood out to me was the Circle of Seven party. This group does book trailer videos. I think their success was in that it was relatively small, the authors were accessible, and instead of having inadequate numbers of giveaways, they did a fun interactive raffle that kept the energy high and kept everyone engaged. I thought it was really fun and no one walked away miffed because they didn't get the freebie.
Of course, I didn't go to all of them (not possible) so maybe I just had bad luck. Hard to say.
Of the major parties in the evening, I didn't go to many of them, and since I didn't stay in the hotel, I didn't go to any of the late late ones. One of the reasons I decided to go to this conference is that I have family in the Chicago area, so I had non-conference plans on a couple of the evenings. I do sort of feel like I missed out on some of the good stuff, not least because I had to keep a clear enough head to drive home each evening. I might opt to stay in the convention hotel one or two nights at least, if I did it again.
Book Signing -- Heaven and Hell
Yes, there were over 300 romance authors in one room, including big names like Anne Rice, Charlaine Harris, Kelley Armstrong, and JR Ward, and at least twenty authors that I love and read regularly, which is HEAVEN... but there were also just ENORMOUS amounts of people in one room, and because I was tracking down my lost autograph book, I didn't grab much to eat or a water bottle ahead of time. I mean, that's all on me (#bloodsugarfail) but it would've been nice if there had been a water fountain or bottled water to purchase. I tried hard to enjoy it and I did go see and talk to dozens of my favorite authors but jam-packed crowds are just not something I enjoy.
BarCon
I love this idea, as it plays to my strengths (drinking and talking). I had a really nice time with Jackie & Casey from Literary Escapism, Danielle from Entangled Publishing, Chloe Neill, and Shiloh Walker {/shameless name dropping} but I wish I had been better about striking up conversations with folks, mingling more, and just been able to hang out longer. A few things I would do differently next time: stay at the hotel to avoid needing to drive; and study up on author photos so I could recognize people.
Thinking About What I Want
I don’t know if I would do this again, to be honest. I'm feeling a little guilty about the amount of money that went into this experience-- and it was great, and not terribly much money if you look at it purely as a vacation. I think I was somehow expecting some kind of "payoff," only I don't know what exactly it could be. My blog isn't any kind of a money-making proposition or a career choice, so I can't write anything off, nor are the contacts I've made likely to "pay off" in my real career.
So, what was great, and what was missing? If it were *my* conference, what would be different? Well, besides meeting and chatting with authors, I would really like to just find other bloggers and hang out. I don’t enjoy being talked at all day long—I like to talk too. (If you know me, you are saying something like “Haha, no SHIT!” right now.) So this can totally happen in the BarCon, but it would have taken a little more planning on my part to at least contact the bloggers ahead of time and get contact information to make meetups easier.
What would be even better, would be a track for reviewers. What makes a good review. The ever-popular debate on negative reviews. How far do you go (with a bad review or controversy). Should you worry about copyright protection of your own content and that of the comments that other leave. Should you have a formal review policy, and what should be on it. What are the pros and cons of accepting review copies from publishers and publicists. I could easily come up with plenty of topics that interest me on review blogging (or just reviewing). And I'd want discussion sessions--small groups where everyone participates. I'd love to have a mixer room for reviewers and maybe publicists - no scheduled events, just an easy meet-up place.
Here’s a thought – I wonder if RT Magazine specifically downplays the role of bloggers since they are sort of – at least as a group—competition? Am I so dense that I’m the last one to figure this out? Hmmmm.
ps, I really enjoyed the sequel to Santa Olivia, called Saints Astray, released last November. I mean, how do you not love a book with werewolves, rock stars, a Vegas kidnapping, diplomatic immunity, and, well, a small revolution? Plus, Charlie's Angels cover. Excellent!
