BEST ENDEAVOURSJane Cable’s blog about what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag continues.
BEST WELCOME
For those of you who are really paying attention and haven’t yet lost the will to live with my burblings, last week I mentioned that one of the tasks on my list was to get to grips with my shiny new membership of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. I had, of course, been aware of the organisation for years and joining was one of the first things that Agent Felicity advised me to do but I needed publishing contract to be admitted to their hallowed halls as a full member.
As soon as I had the contract I filled in the application form and sent off my cheque. In due course a membership pack thudded through my letterbox (not its fault – everything thuds onto the chunk of slate behind our front door) and I eagerly scrambled my way through the papers to find out all the ways I could fully engage with the association.
So I fired off some emails; to the website co-ordinator, the libraries’ liaison officer, the named contacts for the Cornish and South chapters (having feet in more than one geographical camp). And with some trepidation sent another cheque for the winter party. In London. With crowds of people. People I didn’t know. Gulp.
Very soon my inbox was filled with emails welcoming me to the RNA, and before long I was sharing online conversations and writing experiences with authors I knew only from their Amazon profiles. The genuine warmth left me feeling as though I was snuggling into a very large and fluffy (in a not remotely Barbara Cartland way) blanket and joining a group of writers who believe in co-operation because they know it works. And, well, because they’re positive, interested, interesting and overall friendly folk.
The emails gave me the courage I needed to venture towards Twitter with the #TuesNews hashtag and @RNATweets handle. Nervously I tweeted about a lovely review I’d received for The Cheesemaker’s House. Within minutes the retweets had started and within hours reached a level I had previously only dreamt of. New follows and followers, my online network expanded in directions which are perfect for me. And what’s more I will actually meet some of these lovely people; both in London next month and at the chapter meetings in Cornwall and in Southampton.
Throughout my business life I’ve believed in the value of networking and although it sounds sexist I also think women understand the process of giving your time and energy to virtual strangers better than men. Not all RNA members are women by a long chalk, but most of us are, because that’s the way the cookie crumbles in the writing world.
There’s also something about the genre of romance itself; those who write it, write about people. So we’re interested in people. We like people. And that attitude shines from the RNA like no other organisation I’ve ever had the privilege to belong to.
Jane Cable is the author of two independently published romantic suspense novels, The Cheesemaker’s House and The Faerie Tree, and a sporadic contributor to Frost. The Seahorse Summer tells the tale of how two American soldiers born sixty years apart help forty-something Marie Johnson to rebuild her shattered confidence and find new love. Discover more at www.janecable.com.