***
I’ll fess up – I had no idea who Jane Porter was. I’d never read her romances, watched any movies based on her romances, or dipped into the advice she serves up in her ‘how to’s. I had heard of Tule, but was damned if I knew how to pronounce it (rhymes with Julie, who knew?). Yes, she’s an international bestselling author, and a publisher - that you can get from a quick Google trawl. But, stats tell you nothing about the person, Jane Porter. What I didn’t expect was to find someone who stripped me straight to my emotional bones in her frankness, her willingness to share her story, and her reassuring quiet strength; aye, she may be small but she is mighty.
Laying your guts out to the public is probably why writers are such ‘crazy cats’ (to use Jane’s expression). But it’s not often that a writer stands up and says it – no hiding under the covers - to a room full of strangers. Raw, unadulterated, 100% honesty. Is it easy to hear? No. But, for this writer here, it was a turning point. If I can’t be honest about who I am, where I’m from, and the experiences that have shaped me, my stories are probably going to lack authenticity. They won’t reflect ‘me’. For that alone, I’d pay over the odds a million times, to hear Jane speak again.
In both her talks, and in conversation with her, she offered priceless insights into romance writing as a career. A career option, that, let’s face it, is not offered by guidance counsellors. And why shouldn’t we be thinking of writing as a career? How many other careers let you research hot men on the Internet? Not accounting, that’s for sure.
These were some of the biggies:
- Grit. Hanging tough. Getting knocked down and getting back up again. These are the things that make a writer. Not talent. Or fancy degrees. Honest to goodness perseverance. How many books till Jane got a ‘yes’? Fifteen? How many of us would give up after one? Two? The publishing world is dark and full of terrors; houses closing down, editors disappearing mid-revisions, unrenewed contracts, books that don’t sell. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and head out there again – that’s how writing careers are forged. Blood, sweat and tears.
- Why write a standalone, if you can write a series? Think in threes, in fives, in sevens. Find a theme, a family, a geography, a ‘something’ that can link your stories together. Publishers love this. Heck, as a reader, I love this. I’m still excited at the prospect of another Black Dagger Brotherhood novel – and she’s on what?, book twelve or something? Ditto Gena Showalter.
- A publisher would prefer to get more buck for their bang…so maybe stretch those words counts to the forties and fifties. They (the publisher) can charge more. Happiness and beams all round. It also means you might get a few more dollars too. So, if you can write to 25,000 words, extend extend extend.
- Pick a genre. Contemporary, paranormal, historical, whatever floats your boat. Don’t start up in contemporary, then drift over to historical, and then maybe a scifi. Romance readers don’t drift – you shouldn’t either. Maybe two at the maximum.
