The HEA Cafe

What could be better than bringing romance readers and writers together? Just like ComicCon and other fan conventions, the upcoming RomCon in Denver next year will be an exciting venue for readers and industry professionals alike.

According to Tiffany James, one of the founders of RomCon 2010, the convention’s focus will be on readers. To draw them in, all workshops and events will be geared toward educating and entertaining them. “One of the big events we’ll be hosting at RomCon is the announcement of winners of our new contest–the Readers’ Crown,” says Tiffany. “We have a vetting process in place to ensure, to the fullest extent possible, that our contest judges are readers.  And, we’ve partnered with Borders to bring a true market impact to our entrants with things like end-cap placements, invitations to be interviewed on Sue Grimshaw’s True Romance program, listing of winners on her site, and much more.  Plus, winners will get airfare, hotel (2 nights), and RomCon registration paid for the next year’s RomCon event.”

How will RomCon bring authors and their readers together before and after the convention? Check out the new website Tiffany and her partners have built www.romconinc.com (the site goes live this month, so if it’s not up yet today, please keep checking.) They’re pulling together the huge amount of information that is available on the internet about the industry to really connect authors with readers. 

What’s there for authors?

·         Authors with syndicated blogs can repost headlines and/or excerpts of them with links back to their blogs. 

·         A shared calendar of literary events capturing author book signings, lectures, blog tours, charity events, etc. 

·         Forums where live chats and on-going discussions can take place. 

·         Twitter ticker tape feed that updates continually with tweets from subscribed authors

What’s there for readers?

Registered users can rate author sites, romance friendly bookstores (where are the friendly stores, do they pass out author promo items, etc.) and review sites.  That will build a knowledgebase of information that authors can use to target book tours, submit books for reviews to the highest regarded review sites, and know better what readers like in an author web site when they go to build or overhaul their own site.  And readers get to know where they should shop, what sites have the best reviews and what author sites are fun and should be in their hotlinks.

A win-win situation in my book (pun intended) and I can’t wait to join in and participate. I love to meet new readers and this website and the romance convention will provide great opportunities to for me to find new authors to read as well as new fans!

Please stop by on Thursday, October 29^th for my debut guest blog on www.romconinc.com. I’ll be talking about my super agent series and giving away a free copy of one of my books to a lucky commenter. The whole kick-off month of October will be filled with guest bloggers, like me, so visit often and enjoy!!

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