ROSACon2020 - Annual Conference of Romance Writers Organisation of South Africa

2020 has been the year of the parties that weren't. Weddings canceled. Theatre shows. Dream trips. Family reunions. 

But there's one show that is going on, and it will, as usual, bring all the feels: the love, the excitement, the joy, the camaraderie, all the good stuff you know you need right now. 

Of course the party I'm talking about is The Romance Writers Organisation of South Africa's annual conference.  And you don't even have to but a plane ticket or book a hotel room. 

Because #ROSACon2020 is a virtual event, and it's open to all levels of writers.  

Wait, wait. Don't log off. We know you've done a huge amount of virtual things in 2020.  We know you might have digital fatigue. So, we have prepared a programme for #ROSACon2020 that has such an intriguing array of speakers, topics and events, it will only leave you inspired and empowered. The conference will flow from local speaker to international, from workshop to presentation, from pitch to writing sprint with space in between to relax, or fetch a coffee or network, depending on your mood. 

Are you a beginner writer?  Have you started your first manuscript ever? Or are you a fledgling? Do you have a manuscript that is ready to fly the nest? Are you already down the road, manuscripts out and about, but the road has a few potholes? Are you a seasoned writer, with contracts and bestsellers? 

Each conference day includes a writing sprint or a writing exercise to keep out reason for being in focus. But, this time, you won't be alone at your desk. Find the full program HERE

Kickstarting the conference on a high note is international guest speaker, Julia Quinn, the bestselling author of the Bridgerton historical romance novels, which is coming soon as a Netflix series. We are so excited to hear what Julia has to say in the Keynote Address on Day One.

Are you writing YA? Or a high concept novel? Then make sure it's not your turn to cook dinner on 20 October 2020 because those two genres are on the programme between 17h30 and 19h30 at #ROSACon2020.

Interested in pitching your manuscript? There are six opportunities over the course of #ROSACon2020 to pitch to editors and publishers. (You need to pre-book for these.)

What about marketing? Is that your nemesis? Then Day Two is for you. In one of the presentations, Skye Warren, bestselling author and marketing maven, will share cost effective marketing strategies that work.

Stephen King said, 'To write is human but to edit is divine.'  Editor Joanne Grant will tell you more about editing, what editors expect from authors and what authors can expect from their editors. 

How about writing romance in South Africa? Do you set your books here? Do you write Afrikaans?  If you said yes to either of those, then please join us early on Day Three to hear a number of guest speakers, including Izak de Vries, who will share data about current local book sales and marketing trends.

Indie Authors, Day Four is for you, from Cover Design to Self Publishing tips. Don't miss it. 

On Saturday, we have the wonderful experienced local writer, Elsa Winckler, sharing her wisdom at the start of the day. Later on we have a talk by New York Times Best Selling author, Shirley Jump, on scenes and sequels, and then the inimitable fountain of knowledge, Jane Friedman, will talk about the thing that plagues most writers: self doubt. 

On Saturday evening all the writers who entered the 2020 Imbali and Strelitzia Contest will be on the edge of their seats at the Awards Ceremony, when the winners will be announced. Have your bubbly ready to celebrate all our published and unpublished authors at the event. 

Sunday will include a session about writing the male point of view, and #ROSACon2020 will close with an inspiring talk by bestselling author and Entangled Managing Editor, Candace Havens. She will help us to keep on dreaming big. 

Please join us. Even if you don't write romance. Yes. You. The person in the back writing Cozy Mysteries. Or Fantasy. Or Crime. Whatever you write. There is so much to learn about the craft of writing at #ROSACon2020.

But you know what the best part is? Love is not just a genre. You will find it in this tribe. A tribe who will support you, cheer for you, push you, advise you and most of all, be kind to you, throughout your journey as a writer. 

Wouldn't you agree, in the year 2020, that this is what all of us need?

#Writertip Indie Publishing for Beginners

We've all heard the headlines: self-published author becomes overnight gazilionaire. And of course, we want in!

Stop right there, and read beyond the headlines to the true story.

First up, I'm going to de-bunk a few of the myths in that attention-grabbing headline.

Myth #1: Self-published means different things to different people. In this instance, self-published does not mean 'I paid a shitload to a vanity publisher to give me several boxes of printed books I have no idea how to sell'. In this instance, self-published actually means Indie Published. As in: an independent publisher. As in, the author has now become the publisher.

Myth #2: There is no such thing as 'overnight'. The most successful indie authors have been doing this a while. They've learned the craft of writing, learned about the publishing business and book marketing, and they've invested hard cash and even more time in building their successful careers.

Myth # 3: There hasn't been an indie published gazilionaire since Amanda Hocking and EL James sold their souls to traditional publishers back in 2011/12. Sure, there are lots of indie writers making a good living at it, but the golden age is over. Everyone and their mother-in-law is now self-publishing, and because of this complete explosion of content (without a corresponding explosion of readers) it means everyone is getting a little less of the pie than back in those golden years.

But enough with the doom and gloom. As I said, a good living can be made from self-publishing. After all, on the plus side, indie authors have content, marketing and pricing control of their work, so they can adapt quickly to changes in the market and hop on bandwagons before the big traditional publishers have even realised there is a bandwagon. If, like me, you're a control freak, then indie publishing is made for you! And finally, being an indie publisher means you get to keep all the profits. That's a pretty big incentive.

So what do you need to get started as an indie publisher?
There are just 3 things:

1. Computer savvy. Don't even think about becoming an indie publisher if you can barely navigate your way around a Word document. Most indie publishing is digital. Unless you outsource absolutely everything (at major personal expense) you will need to be able to format your work correctly, upload it to any number of retail websites, create your own online profiles,  create your on teaser graphics, have a presence on social media, send out digital newsletters, preferably manage your own website, and a host of other online activities that require at least a little technical savvy.
2. Start-up capital. You're no longer just an author. You are now a business. Which means you will need to invest at least a little start-up capital to launch your indie career. At the very least, you will need to hire a professional cover designer and a professional editor. Those are non-negotiable costs. Even if you are a graphic designer in your day job, if you do not also have a good grasp on digital formatting for book covers, book retailers' rules and restrictions, and an awareness of market expectations, you are still not a book cover designer. You may also need to pay fro website design, budget for advertising etc.
3. This last requirement is the most important. You need to have a head for business. If you cannot balance your own cheque book, and terms like Reader Magnets, Return on Investment, domain names and web hosts, Profit & Loss Statements and Business Plans turn you cold, then maybe you're better off in traditional publishing where other people manage all those kinds of things. When you are your own publisher, you need to be your own business manager, accountant, and marketing guru (without neglecting your job as the business' resident author) - at least until such time as you're earning gazilions and can hire people in to do those jobs.

For me, my indie published books have yet to earn me as much as my traditionally published books. But the huge amount of satisfaction they have brought me is priceless. Along my (continuing) journey as an indie author, I have learned so much, and met some incredible people, and I am incredibly grateful for the experience. I may not have achieved gazilionaire status yet, but every single book that sells feels like a huge accomplishment because I did it.

Carlyle Labuschagne on Branding for the Brave

Image credit: Marie Dry

At ROSACon2016, successful local YA author Carlyle Labuschagne presented a talk on Branding for the Brave.

She opened the session with an exercise, getting us all to think about our own brands: what is the end result we desire from our branding? What are our core values? Who are our role models, and why?
Only once we have a grip on who we are, and what we stand for, can we establish our author brand.

Carlyle shared some excellent advice for author branding:

• offer value to your readers
• Put out a clear, simple message
• Be consistent across all media and platforms

She also shared concrete, specific tips on how to run giveaways and contests, use graphics and teasers, and how to use social media features such as Teaser Tuesday. She recommended collaborations between authors and bloggers as a great way to spread awareness of our brands.

But perhaps the most valuable piece of advice she shared was that authors must show passion for their own brands. If you are not enthusiastic and excited about your own work, and your own brand, how can you expect anyone else to be?

Conference Report: Rachel Morgan on Self-Publishing

ROSACon2014 closed with a chat with Rachel Morgan, possibly South Africa's most successful self-published author to date. Thank you to author Kathy Bosman for this report back on Rachel's talk.

Report by Kathy Bosman

Rachel was truly inspiring. She’s a successful author who has self-published several series of books and is able to live “comfortably,” as she put it, off of her sales. Many of us aspire to reach this point.

Her talk was given in the format of question and answers, and Rachel was thorough in answering the questions forwarded to her.

To start with, she stressed the importance of investing in a good cover design and how that’s essential to selling a book on Amazon. Series are also vital to attract readers. Publish quickly – don’t leave long periods between books. The good thing about being self-published is you have control over the time periods between your releases.

If you self-publish, you must be flexible and open to change as the market and rules are always changing. You have to be able to format or hire someone to format your book for several platforms. She suggested using Sigil (which is free and makes Epub files) and Jutoh where you don’t need to use code and is the easiest for Amazon and Smashwords.

A participant asked where she gets her editing done. Rachel sends her books to trusted beta readers before she publishes them so she doesn’t lay out large amounts on professional editors.

She said the best way to do promo is to advertise on email subscription services like Booksend, Best Bug, The Fussy Librarian, Read Cheaply and Free Booksy. Putting her books for free gains exposure and having the first book of a series for free helps gain readers.

She uses social media to promote and only sends newsletters out to those who are her genuine readers. There’s nothing more off-putting than sending a newsletter out to those who didn’t subscribe or don’t want to receive it.

To obtain reviews – she asks those who liked her previous books to review for her. She finds them on Goodreads.

Another good promotion opportunity is to combine events with other authors like Facebook parties and blog tours. Put a free book on Wattpad – it helps to improve sales as people read it and then want her other books.

Rachel Morgan

She spoke about tax and how you have to keep a record of your sales and expenses and also how you have to organise an ITIN number with Amazon so you don’t have to pay tax with them although that seems to have fallen away now. You can claim for some of your expenses from SARS as a business would.

With her print books she works with independent bookstores as they’re more open to selling her books. Most of the time, they sell her books on consignment. To sell to the major bookstores requires an expensive distributor.

It was a great session to listen to as it inspired us to work toward that goal of living off our passion. It was very informative for those aiming to go the self-publishing route. I don’t think I managed to get down half of all the information she gave us.

Publish Your MS Online and Start Earning Royalties Today

Do you have an unpublished manuscript floating around?

Why not publish it online as an ebook? You never know, the readers out there may love it. Online sales are currently outstripping hardback sales and the trend is only set to increase. Plus, I’m sure you could do with an extra couple of hundred bucks in your pocket each month?

I am not a traditionally-published author. I currently have three titles out on Amazon Kindle. Some sell better than others but on average I’m making an extra $60 per month. That’s without marketing - solely relying on the ‘foot traffic’ from Amazon.com users. Imagine if your ebook sold twenty or even fifty copies a month? With proper marketing (PPC, Ad Swops, Link Exchanges, Newsletter Mentions etc.) that is not entirely unfeasible.

eBook publishing is in fact relatively simple. All you need is a complete manuscript saved in a Word document. Most ebook sales sites (like Amazon.com, Smashwords etc.) require your ms to be in some type of format before you can upload it to their servers. That’s where we at www.yournovelonline.net come in. Our editors know how to format your ms for eReaders across all platforms, from Android, to iPhone, iPad to Kindle, so all you have to do is upload the formatted document. What this actually means is that it will display accurately on any eReading device. Poorly formatted ebooks can damage an authors reputation as readers will simply delete the ms from their device and not bother buying another one. It’s worthwhile to make sure your ebook is properly formatted.

The same goes for cover art. Although we all know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, research shows that in fact, we all do. The cover image of your book on Amazon.com can influence the buying behaviour of readers. A well designed, appropriate cover will maximise your online sales and contribute to your professionalism and reputation. At www.yournovelonline.net we specialise in ebook covers which are formatted for screen resolutions, printing and reading on all eReader devices.

So join the online revolution and start making money on your ebook sales. What have you got to lose? And with www.yournovelonline.net you are already ahead of the game.

Here’s to your online success!
Louise Rose-Innes
www.yournovelonline.net
Email info@yournovelonline.net if you have any queries.