Last week we had the pleasure of attending NY Comic Con to represent Carina Press and “The Other Worlds of Harlequin.” To pay tribute to our fabulous collection of Steampunk (including our upcoming anthology, A Clockwork Christmas) Sunday was “steampunk yourself” day—booth staff dressed up and invited Con attendees to our tickle trunk.
(L-R: Elizabeth, Giselle, Julie, Drew, Carly)
We fully expected Sunday to be good times, but were still impressed by just how many people took part! And they were only too happy to strike a pose…
A few folks who visited us were already in full-on Steampunk attire. These two blew our minds:
The kids of the Con also got into the Steampunk spirit. Behold the cuteness!
Yes, Steampunk was big at Comic Con this year, and our collection is growing. Check out our Steampunk titles at CarinaPress.com.
On Sunday, September 25, 2011, Toronto will hold its 21stWord on the Street festival. This annual event takes place in Queen’s Park every year and celebrates everything literature! This year Word on the Street will feature something extra special…
A chance to meet some of your local Carina Press Authors!
If you’re in the Toronto area please make the trip to booths 219 & 220 – located in the Toronto Star Exhibitor tent. You’ll get to meet J.K. Coi and Christine D’Abo (at 12pm) and Elyse Mady (at 3pm), all of whom will be doing signings and giving away treats. Needless to say they are very eager to coerce (er…tempt) new readers to try a book by Carina Press!
Created to promote Canadian authors, books, magazines and literacy, Word on the Street has grown from a small event hosting 40,000 booklovers to become Canada’s largest annual book and magazine festival.
J.K. Coi
I’m excited for Word on the Street because it celebrates literacy, books, reading, authors, and all things wordy, which my mother definitely approves of! I owe my joy for reading to my mother, who didn’t yell at me when she found me with a book and a flashlight under the covers in my bed at night, and who always made sure I had the book I wanted to read—even if it meant that she had to wait longer to afford her own books. (I didn’t realize she made such a sacrifice until I was much older.) Her love of words inspired me to write so that one day she might read something of mine.
J.K. Coi is a multi-published, award winning author of contemporary and paranormal romance and urban fantasy, including FALLING HARD released this July, and FAR FROM BROKEN, one of four steampunk novellas in A Clockwork Christmas, a holiday anthology coming in December from Carina Press. Find her at www.jkcoi.com and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jkcoi.
Elyse Mady
I have always been a big book lover, so of course I’ve been telling *everyone* about this year’s Word on the Street! There really is no better place to be if you’re a reader, a writer, or just a fan of books, period. What I’m most looking forward to is meeting current Carina Press readers, and hopefully some new ones as well! My favourite memory about learning to love books happened when I was seven and my father read J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” out loud to me before bed. He was a huge fan of the English writer’s novels and he had a beautiful leather bound edition of the book, with gilt edges and a gold spine. It had its own case and I still remember the sound the book made when my father would slide it out. I’d sink down in my bed, wriggling ‘til I was just right, and listen to my father as he read the story out loud, a chapter at a time. I owe my father a great debt for that and only hope I can repay it by giving the same gift to my own children, too.
The idea of an event dedicated to reading and literacy is like candy to me. An opportunity to meet readers, talk about books, writing and my favorite authors without coming across as weird is a chance I couldn’t pass up. Growing up, I drove my parents nuts. Living in a small town, I had limited access to things though my parents got me into whatever they could. One of my fondest memories was our weekly trips to the local library. Every Friday night, my parents would throw me and my sister into the car and we’d head down. It didn’t take me long to tear through the “children’s section”, leaving me with a hunger for more. We didn’t have a large bookstore and Amazon wasn’t even a thought in someone’s mind. My parents didn’t want to slow down my love for reading. After speaking with the librarian, they gave my permission for me to access the “adult’s section”, and I was off!
Christine’s Long Shot series debuts October 3 from Carina Press. She is also published with Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing, and has a future release with Berkley Heat. She can be reached via her website at http://christinedabo.com/
This weekend, Saturday, April 16th, I’ll be doing a presentation for the Nashville (Music City) RWA chapter. The presentation will be three hours (lots of speaking from me!) and we’ll be talking about Carina in particular for the first 45 minutes or so, and then the other 2+ hours will be spent talking about publishing in the digital age: DRM, contracts, royalties, self-publishing…you name it and we can talk about it.
The presentation will be at the DoubleTree Hotel off Briley Parkway. The business meeting starts at 10:00, my presentation will start around 10:30 and they tell me we should wrap up around 2:00 or so, with a 30 minute quick buffet lunch in there.
There will be a cost of $17 at the door, which covers your lunch (the chapter is not making any profit from this).
DoubleTree Hotel
2424 Atrium Way
Nashville, TN 37214
(615) 889-8889
If you have further questions, please visit the MCRW website (www.mcrw.com).
I realized I haven’t done this in a good bit, so I thought I’d give you a head’s up on where you can find me (and Carina Press) for the next two months.
This weekend I’m at Liberty State Fiction Writers Conference. I’ll be taking editor pitches, doing an editor panel and giving a TWO hour presentation on author brand and website development to support that brand.If you live in the New Jersey area, they do have a booksigning on Saturday night @ 5:30pm.
April 4th-10th I’ll be at the Romantic Times Convention doing a whole lot of presenting. I have several panels on Wednesday, including one on Publishing in the Digital Age, the Carina Press spotlight and a third that slips my mind right now. I’ll be doing the editor panel on Thursday, and on Friday I’m giving a workshop with Jane Litte of Dear Author and Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches on digital devices (and there might just be a device giveaway in that workshop!) If you live in the Los Angeles area, but aren’t registered for the conference, you can plan to attend both the huge (massive) booksigning on Saturday April 9th as well as the young adult booksigning. If you love digital books, you can check out the Digital Book Expo, open to the public, Friday evening.
April 16th I’ll be appearing at the Nashville RWA chapter’s local conference and giving a presentation on digital publishing and answering a ton of questions. You can find more information here if you live in the Nashville area.
And to cap off my April, the last weekend I’ll be at the Washington DC RWA chapter’s retreat. I’ll also be giving presentations there (sheesh, sounds like I’ll be quite vocal in the month of April)
If you live near any of these reader and author events, and plan to attend, I hope you’ll let me know and look me up so we can say hello!
I’ve had many inquiries about when the next installment of Before You Hit Send, my self-editing workshop for authors–both aspiring and established–will be held again. That time is here!
January 10th-30th, I’ll be holding a three-week session of Before You Hit Send on Savvy Authors. You can go here to register. And for more information.
Here’s the basic info:
Join Angela James for a three-week workshop as she shares some of the common pitfalls she’s seen in submissions and contest entries. She’ll give you ideas, tips and tricks for polishing and self-editing your manuscript. Discuss things such as dialogue tags, whether all forms of “to be” are really evil and just what you’re doing to your life expectancy with your use of that exclamation point. The course will guide you from the basics of self-editing and grammar in a clear, conversational manner with examples, to more advanced topics such as show versus tell and passive voice. Through it all, she’ll be available for clarification and questions in order to help you on your way to a cleaned-up manuscript and understanding the basics of editing your manuscript.
I took a few months off from running the Before You Hit Send workshop but SavvyAuthors.com is hosting it for all authors starting August 2. This is a good post-RWA workshop to take before you send your manuscript off to all those editors and agents you met!
Instructor: Angela James. Join Angela James for a 2 week workshop as she shares some of the common pitfalls she’s seen in submissions and contest entries. She’ll give you ideas, tips and tricks for polishing and self-editing your manuscript. Discuss things such as dialogue tags, whether all forms of “to be” really evil and just what you’re doing to your life expectancy with your use of that exclamation point. The course will guide you from the basics of self-editing and grammar in a clear, conversational manner with examples, to more advanced topics such as show versus tell and passive voice. Through it all, she’ll be available for clarification and questions in order to help you on your way to a cleaned-up manuscript and understanding the basics of editing your manuscript.
What do participants who’ve taken the workshop have to say? “I’ve been writing for over 15 years and published 8 novels. Angela’s online class on self-editing was packed with information and suggestions designed to improve your writing whether you’re a beginning or an advanced author.” Donna MacQuigg www.donnamacquigg.com
“Taking the self editing course was like pulling the blinders off. I was given the tools to see the common mistakes in my first drafts. I highly recommend this course to any writer who wants to make their writing tighter and more polished.” Amy Ruttan www.amyruttan.com
“Angela’s Self-Editing Workshop gave me many tools and tricks to apply immediately and things to consider while writing. The information presented is clear, concrete, and practical.I can’t recommend it strongly enough to anyone who want to strengthen and polish his or her writing.” Sara Nash
WHEN: Aug 2 – Aug 16
COST: $10 for Premium Members
$15 for Basic & NON-Members
REGISTRATION: Click here to Register for $15 (Non-Savvy Member Rate.)
JOIN TODAY to take this workshop for only $10! If you are a current Premium member of Savvy Authors, please log into the website before registering for this workshop.
I’ve been working on another post I thought I’d be putting up today, but it’s taken on a bit of a life of its own so I need more time to get it done! Hopefully by next week I’ll be able to share it.
In the meantime, I know some of you will be at RWA Nationals and I wanted to share with you the Carina Press schedule, so if you’d like to meet up with either me, or other Carina Press team members (both Malle Vallik and Jenny Bullough will be in attendance as well) you have a fair shot of hunting us down!
Wednesday July 28:
Digital Clinic–this is for Harlequin and Carina Press authors only. But it doesn’t hurt to let you all know what future authors have to look forward to. We’ll be holding an all-day drop-in clinic on topics like social media, websites, digital reading devices, and other topics.
Thursday July 29:
PRO Retreat panel–Time: 3:45 PM – 4:30 PM
Title: PRO Retreat – Small, Independent and New Presses
Angela James joins other small press executives for discussion and Q&A
Friday July 30:
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM in Americas Seminar Room: Angela James workshop with author Jaci Burton. Q&A: Inside Digital Publishing–we’ll do a candid Q&A about all things publishing digitally–both small and large press
2:00-3:30: Carina Press Cocktail Party in Europe 8
Come and enjoy wine, cocktails and snacks while meeting the Carina Press team members. Enter to win a doorprize of a Sony Pocket Reader!
3:30-5:00: ESPAN tea
Angela James will be guest speaking
Saturday July 31:
2:00-3:00 Carina Press Spotlight
Come and find out more about Carina’s current books, what we’re looking for and some behind-the-scenes marketing info!
Come to Southern Magic’s June 26 meeting at the Homewood Publc Library to hear Angela James, Executive Editor of Carina Press, talk about e-publishing.
It doesn’t matter if you’re published or not, or if you ever plan to be e-published, you need to listen to what she has to say. This is the future and you need to be informed and aware of what’s happening around you.
What: E-FACTS ABOUT E-PUBLISHING
When: June 26, 2010, from 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Where: Round Auditorium at the Homewood Public Library, Birmingham, Alabama
Southern Magic will provide a dessert table and coffee.
Registration is mandatory by contacting Callie James at calliejamesbooks@bham.rr.com. Otherwise, we cannot guarantee you a seat.
Attendance is free for Southern Magic members, $5 for other RWA chapter members, and $10 for the public. Pay at the door.
PROGRAM: Angela James discusses the ins and outs of e-publishing, including what to expect from an epublisher, how to distinguish between unfunded or under-funded epubs, the real sales figures, what constitutes good distribution, covers, promotion, and more. We will have Q&A time available throughout the program.
More about Angela James:
Executive editor of Carina Press, Harlequin’s digital-first press, and veteran of the digital publishing industry, Angela James is a well-known advocate for digital publishing. James has enjoyed a long and varied publishing career that has included ownership of an independent editorial services business, work as a copy editor for electronic book and small press publisher, Ellora’s Cave, and executive editor for Samhain Publishing. James frequently travels to regional, national and international writing conferences to meet with authors and readers, and present workshops on digital publishing for both authors and readers of all genres of fiction.
Carina Press is a new digital-first publisher that combines editorial and marketing expertise with the freedom of digital publishing. With a long history of digital marketing and editorial experience, the Carina Press team is committed to bringing readers fresh voices and new, unique editorial.
Our philosophy is: no great story should go untold!
Carina Press will publish a broad range of fiction with an emphasis on romance and its subgenres. We will also acquire voices in mystery, suspense and thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, erotica, gay/lesbian, and more!
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Southern Magic is the Birmingham, Alabama, chapter of the Romance Writers of America.
Meetings held at Homewood Public Library
1721 Oxmoor Road, Homewood, AL 35209
Aideen and I attended Romantic Times at the end of April and really had an amazing experience. The staff of RT was wonderfully supportive of us and excited about the launch of Carina Press. Everyone from Kathryn Falk and Ken Rubin to Carol Stacy, Jo Carol, Liz French, Morgan Doremus, Elissa Petruzzi, Faygie, Whitney and all of the other staff members and volunteers we spoke with over the course of the week were enthusiastic about this new venture. Every time I turned around, there was another RT staff member telling us they couldn’t wait to read the Carina books.
And not only were they graciously enthusiastic about Carina, but they put together a fantastic conference. This was my fifth RT and by far the best I’ve ever attended. The Hyatt Regency Columbus was the perfect conference hotel–the staff there was ultra-efficient and the hotel itself has a very savvy person behind the @HyattColumbus Twitter feed, so huge kudos to them. Beyond that, Jo and Carol have much to be proud of in all the hard work they put into bringing this conference together. I know Jo didn’t get much sleep for many, many days but from my end, she made it look effortless at times.
So what about our conference experience itself? Poor Aideen spent much of her time at Club RT manning the Carina Press and Harlequin tables, sneaking out when she could to attend workshops (next year we’re bringing extra staff so she has help!) She was the friendly redhead many of you met, and the whiz behind organizing the Carina presence at RT, including the brochures, the awesome portfolios that were in the registration bags, the banners, and last, but not least, the Carina luncheon. Compared to that, my part was easy!
I arrived early in the week and, as I have for the last four years, gave the closing session at Judi McCoy and Bobbi Smith’s pre-conference writer’s workshops on Tuesday afternoon. I love closing their workshop off, because they have so many enthusiastic new writers with questions to ask. Right after this, I ran up to registration where I got my badge and a copy of the June RT magazine. And this is what I saw when I flipped to page 12:
Of course I knew there was going to be an article, because I’d done the interview with the fabulous Elissa Petruzzi, but I had no idea I was going to have my picture front and center–and in a Kindle no less! I immediately danced around the registration area announcing that I had “arrived” (pictorial proof of that can be found via this tweet). Thanks so much to Elissa for an incredibly flattering article about both me and Carina.
On Wednesday I did a two-hour session with very business-smart author Lauren Dane. We ran a workshop on being an author in the digital publishing age. If ever you’re an author with questions, wondering what it’s like to write for both a digital-first press and a traditional press, Lauren’s a fantastic person to ask. For those who are interested in that workshop, I’ll be doing a similar version (though only one hour) at RWA Nationals with the also smart Jaci Burton.
On Thursday, I sat on the editor panel. That’s always an interesting experience because there’s a short amount of time (an hour), a lot of editors (at least 12?) and everyone wants to speak up and get the word out about the fabulosity (yes, I made that word up) of their publisher. I didn’t speak much because others had more to say, but I hope that didn’t lead any authors in the audience to believe I wasn’t interested in their questions. Also, anyone in the audience will probably tell you my sense of humor is fully intact. Editor panels tend to bring out my wicked humor for some reason!
Friday was a busy day for us. First, Aideen and I ran the Carina Press spotlight. We were thrilled to have two guests in the audience to support us: Harlequin CEO & Publisher Donna Hayes and Loriana Sacilotto, Executive Vice President of Global Publishing and Strategy (no, no I wasn’t nervous about that, why do you ask? Heh). We had a full room and a lot of fantastic questions.
From there I was off to a one hour session with Jane Litte of Dear Author and Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. We did a session on reading digital that included an eight-question process to buying an ereader, as well as an opportunity for everyone in the audience to get their hands on the Kobo Reader, a Sony Pocket Reader and Sony Touch, an iPad, a nook, a Kindle, an iPhone and a netbook. And I need to give special thanks to both Kobo and Sony, who sent me devices so I would have demo models for not only RT (where Aideen was also able to demo them at Club RT), but at future conferences. Up next, I’ll have them at the Lori Foster Get Together and my Birmingham RWA Chapter appearance! We were also fortunate to have a Sony Touch to give away, compliments of All Romance eBooks/OmniLit (they also had some of the coolest stickers as swag that said “ebook addict”). I tell you, we have some very generous partners in the digital space and we’re grateful to them for helping us spread the digital love (or, as I always say, drag people to the digital dark side). If you’re interested in more about that session, Jane did a blog post based on some of our information here.
After this session was what Aideen has been working up to for month’s: the Carina Press launch lunch. Our goal for this lunch was always to use it as an introduction to Carina Press without doing a hard sell. We know that people like free food (and goodies) but also appreciate the opportunity to enjoy the free food without listening to a lengthy speech. Especially when they’ve already been attending workshops all morning and would be going back to them again. Thanks to the people at Barnes and Noble, we had a nook to give away at the luncheon. The winner was actually a bookseller (who assured me she planned to use it and had plans for what books she’d be buying–I hope she meant Carina books! ) In addition to the nook giveaway, and keeping in mind our goal of not holding people hostage with a long speech, I gave a short welcome speech:
At the end of the speech we introduce a video. Rather than watching it on the blurry, bouncy (I swear Aideen wasn’t drinking) video, you can view it here:
Whew! It was pretty thrilling to get to introduce Carina Press to the RT attendees, and I’m still coming down off that high!
Friday, as I said, was a busy day for me and I left the luncheon and ran over to take pitches for a few hours before the digital book fair began. I was able to end my conference with a day of “rest” on Saturday, and enjoy both the book fair and time spent with readers, authors and other industry professionals. I gathered a metric ton of swag, which will be part of the Carina Press Countdown giveaway (participate on Twitter, Facebook and here on the blog to win!) and also got a huge bag of signed books from authors, which I’ll be giving away on my personal blog in honor of Carina’s launch at the beginning of June.
Overall, though I had to spend quite a few hours in my hotel room working in order to get the Countdown going and to meet production deadlines for the books, I had a terrific time. As I said, I thought this was the best RT yet, both in terms of my experience, the hotel and the RT staff’s energy and dedication to making it the best. I appreciate everyone who showed us support, stopped me to tell me how excited they are about the launch of Carina and that they can’t wait to read the books. I can’t wait for you to read them either!
Just to be clear up front, the only way to join in this contest is via Twitter. This blog post is only intended as an explanation and to provide rules for those following along on Twitter. Commenting on this post will not enter you into the contest, you must participate on Twitter. Other legal terms/rules can be found here if you have some extra time on your hands.
This week, I’ll be attending the Romantic Times Convention in Columbus, Ohio and if you’re not able to attend, this is your chance to win a signed book from one author of your choice attending the huge booksigning on Saturday, May 1st. There will be over 300 authors attending, so browse the list and choose just one! In addition to the signed book, you’ll also win your choice of one of the Carina Press launch titles in digital format (list of launch titles to be released Thursday!) Two prizes per winner, an old favorite and a potential new favorite!
You can get two entries per day, from Monday April 26th to Thursday April 29th. Winners will be contacted Friday April 30th.
You must be following @CarinaPress to be eligible to win so we can contact you via DM about your prize and to get your contact information
To enter:
1) Tweet this: Win a signed book from 1 of 300 authors at RT2010 from @CarinaPress. Visit http://ow.ly/1DhJc #CarinaRT
2) Tweet this: Hey @CarinaPress I want to win a signed book from [author name) #CarinaRT http://ow.ly/1DhJc
example: Hey @CarinaPress I want to win a signed book from Kelley Armstrong #CarinaRT http://ow.ly/1DhJc
–in each tweet you must remember to include the hashtag #CarinaRT so we can track your entry, as well as the link to this post so your tweet is eligible!
On Saturday, May 1st, I’ll attend the RT booksigning and get signed books for SIX winners from the author of their choice. The book will be signed to you and mailed out by May 12th. And, yes, I will mail internationally.
) In addition to the nook giveaway, and keeping in mind our goal of not holding people hostage with a long speech, I gave a short welcome speech: