Romance Writers of America Conference — San Francisco, July 2008

RWA SFArmadas of publishing house execs, editors, and marketing staffers, agents working and being worked, 500 or so published authors, even more wannabes, and lots of book-toting and book-buying fans converged on SF’s Marriott Hotel for the RWA’s yearly conference.

Romance books account for more than half of all paperback sales in the U.S., and according to Business of Consumer Publishing 2006, net revenue for romance book sales in 2006 from U.S. retail sources accounted for an astonishing $1.37 billion or 21% of overall book sales of $6.31 billion. Religious/inspirational sales, including Bibles, is first at $1.68 billion.

I strolled into the RWA Conference to see three of my daughters in situ.daughters

Julia Quinn is a successful romance novelist. Her last eight (seven? nine? twelve? I’ve lost count) books have all made The New York Times best-seller list. She, one of the new breed of educated, erudite romance writers, was the focus of a full-page article in Time entitled Rewriting the Romance.

Emily Cotler is the proprietrix of Waxcreative Design, Inc., a graphics design firm that specializes in authors and other creative types. She is also co-writer of Web ReDesign: Workflow that Works, a critically acclaimed book that explains how to manage the planning and development process. It reached #8 on amazon.com and has been translated into many languages, including Spanish, Japanese, Russian, and Finnish.

Tech genius Abi Bowling, Waxcreative’s VP of Everything Else, is a former entertainment agent, and Wax’s computer/internet expert.

JQ signingI walked around the Marriott’s gigantic ballroom for an hour during the RWA’s open-to-the-public, all-proceeds-to-charity book signing.

The estrogen crush was palpable.

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2 Comments on “Romance Writers of America Conference — San Francisco, July 2008

  1. Ha ha Dad! The funny thing is that I performed Gilbert and Sullivan in high school. Never The Mikado though….

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