The Great Hunt for Readers

Some of the Plotting Princesses attended the RomCon Convention, and have been talking about what a great experience it was spending three days with readers. For those who don’t know, RomCon is a romance readers convention. A place where women who love romance novels get together for a weekend. There were silly games, contests, meeting authors and a book signing. Mainly there was just a lot of fun attending events.

As a writer, you want to interact with readers, but sometimes they’re hard to find. I’ve done book signings where there were a few readers lined up, and I’ve done them when I sat there all alone and smiled thinking I’m so uncomfortable, I just wish this hour would end. People will walk by gaze at you and think, oh my God, she wants me to purchase something from her. You can see the panic in their eyes, right before they run.

Look, I’m a writer, I tell stories, but I’m also a reader. We probably share some of the same favorite authors or books. Yes, I hope you will try my stories out, but if you don’t its okay. We still have a lot in common with our love for books and stories.

The reason RomCon worked for me was that we were able to interact without the sales pressure. We could just be friends who have met and are enjoying our love of reading. The games, the speed dating – oh my God, I loved the speed dating. For two minutes, we could sit and talk about books. Playing cover bingo at lunch, gambling (fake money) and the cocktail parties. We hung out together, talked books and had fun.

Sure there was a book signing, but I didn’t feel the pressure to sell, sell, sell. There were quite a few authors there for you to choose from and if you decided to purchase my book, I felt grateful.  I hope for a few hours I was able to entertain you with a great story. But if you didn’t purchase my book, it was okay. It’s hard to compete against Gemma Holiday, Darynda Jones, Allison Brennan, etc. (Though, I did sell every single book I took.)

Please remember, I get up every morning just like you and put my panties on, one leg at a time. I love what I do. I love writing stories, and I know that not everyone is going to appreciate my small-town family stories the way I do. But even if you think I can’t string together a coherent sentence and I haven’t met a comma since sixth grade English, we still have that common thread of loving books, of loving great stories, of loving reading. And it’s fun to hang out together and learn there are other areas in our life that we probably have in common.

So have you ever attended a reader’s conference? Contact me if you’d like a list of Readers events. I’m trying to compile a list for next year because I want to attend as many as I can.  If you’re looking for a girl’s weekend away, try one of these events. Maybe I’ll see you there.