RNA Conference 2018 – Sessions and Speakers Please see the timetable for details of times and choices Friday 13th July Sue Moorcroft & Juliet Pickering: Building a Bestseller After eight novels with a variety of publishers, and a host of short stories, serials, articles and a writing ‘How To’ on her CV, Sue Moorcroft felt she had a respectable writing career. Then she became a client of literary agent Juliet Pickering and the magic began. Sue is now writing two books a year for Avon (HarperCollins), is a Sunday Times bestseller, an international bestseller, and has had a Christmas #1 on Amazon Kindle! Sue and Juliet discuss their path to success - and how to best adapt to the ever-changing publishing landscape. Juliet Pickering is an agent at Blake Friedmann Agency, representing a broad list of fiction and non-fiction. She enjoys thought-provoking novels with a big heart, and multi-dimensional characters. Sue Moorcroft is an international bestselling author of contemporary fiction. She’s won the Best Romantic Read Award, the Katie Fforde Bursary and her books have twice been nominated for RoNAs. She has edited two short story anthologies for the RNA. Sue was born in Germany and lived in Cyprus and Malta before settling in the UK. Her latest book is ONE SUMMER IN ITALY. https://www.suemoorcroft.com Freda Lightfoot, Lizzie Lane Sagas! Jean Fullerton (chair), Diane Allen: Ignored by critics. Loved by thousands. A few years ago ‘clogs and shawls’, as they were called in the publishing industry, were regarded by editors and agents as having had their day. Oddly, given the huge number of Sagas on the market, writers of these all- encompassing stories struggled to be published. However, readers know what they want and the last decade has seen a resurgence in the genre to such an extent that saga writers’ backlists are hot commodities and many writers are turning their hands to the genre. But what makes a good saga? Are there elements which are essential? Anything you should leave out? And just what makes them so popular? Lizzie Lane is a best selling author specialising in World War Two novels, her titles regularly appearing in the top thirty best selling paperbacks. She has had over fifty novels published under various pseudonyms, won the BBC New Writers Award, and written a column for the Western Daily Press. Her HONEY DRIVER cosy crime series (w/a Jean G Goodhind) was a best seller in Germany. First published by Black Lace, she has ghost- written for a number of celebrities. Books from her historical backlist are currently being published as Erica Brown by Canelo and she is branching out with a 1950s series CONNOR’S LOT for Head of Zeus. She lives in Bath but is often to be found in Bristol. Jean Fullerton is the author of eleven novels all set in East London where she was born. She is a retired district nurse and university lecturer. Her first two East London series were set in the mid-1800s and the immediate post-war years respectively. Her current East London series featuring the Brogan family is set during the dark days of WW2. She regularly leads workshops at RNA and Historical Novel Society conferences and has undertaken hundreds of speaker engagements to WI groups, U3As and on cruise ships. Diane Allen was the manager and rights buyer for twenty years at Magna Large Print until she decided to turn from gamekeeper to poacher and become a full-time author. She now has seven sagas set in the Yorkshire Dales, all published by Pan Macmillan. She is also published under the name of Gracie Hart by Ebury with two titles set in and around Victorian Leeds. In her spare time, Diane goes walking in the Yorkshire Dales and researches local history. Sunday Times bestselling author Freda Lightfoot was born in Lancashire, becoming first a teacher, then a bookseller in the Lake District. She wrote over fifty articles and short stories for women’s magazines before writing novels for Mills & Boon, then Hodder. When sagas fell from fashion she wrote historicals for two other publishers, reclaimed her backlist and self-published them as ebooks! She has written over forty-five novels and now writes for Amazon Lake Union. She spends warm winters in Spain and rainy summers in Britain. - 1 - Janet Gover: Image Manipulation At last year’s conference, Janet Gover’s workshop on basic image manipulation for authors was met with a resounding ‘more please’. This follow-on workshop is for those who already know what a pixel is but want to know more about working with layers, combining images, highlighting text, colour changing, and using a magic wand (not the Harry Potter variety). Basically – she’s getting to the really interesting bits she didn’t have time for last year. If you are looking to improve the images on your social media and website, want to make prettier promo materials or feel like having a go at making your own covers for self-publishing… this is the place for you (wizarding cloaks optional). Janet Gover is a self-confessed ‘bit of a geek girl’. When not writing novels she works in IT – in really dull places like Pinewood Movie Studios, Puerto Rico and Iraq. When her cat lets her actually sit in her chair, she writes novels, high-end technical manuals and develops IT training courses. Her novel LITTLE GIRL LOST won the 2017 Epic RoNA, and she has three (possibly four) books out this year. She writes mostly Australian set romance under her own name. As Juliet Bell, in collaboration with Alison May, she rewrites misunderstood classic fiction, with an emphasis on heroes who are not so heroic. She also reads for the NWS, teaches at writing retreats and conferences and provides private mentoring for new writers. www.janetgover.com https://www.facebook.com/janetgoverbooks Twitter: @janet_gover Nicola Cornick, RNA chairman: WELCOME! plus conference notices from Jan Jones Nicola Cornick‘s bio is on page 5 Award winning, multi-shortlisted RNA stalwart, Jan Jones writes all lengths in several genres. Her only rule is to make the reader believe in the worlds she creates. Her most recent Regency is A RATIONAL PROPOSAL, romantic suspense is ONLY DANCING, contemporary is A QUESTION OF THYME @janjonesauthor http://jan-jones.blogspot.co.uk Julie Cohen (chair) All You Need Is Love: Inclusion and Diversity in Romantic Fiction Gillian Green, Emily Yau Rhoda Baxter, Rachael Lucas Love is universal—but how friendly is romantic fiction to diverse stories and points of view? Two editors and three authors talk about how the industry and the RNA can be more welcoming to authors and stories reflecting the full range of human experience, regardless of race, religion, background, sexuality, gender, age or disability. How can we write books that reflect our truths and the wider world around us? Julie Cohen has written twenty-two books across the spectrum of romantic and literary fiction. Her novels DEAR THING and TOGETHER were both chosen for the Richard and Judy Book Club; TOGETHER won the 2018 Contemporary RoNA. She has taught creative writing for The Guardian, PRH, Literature Wales and the V&A among others, as well as running an oversubscribed literary consultancy, where she has helped many clients to publication. Her next novel, LOUIS & LOUISE, will be published by Orion in January 2019. @julie_cohen Gillian Green oversees fiction on Ebury Press and Del Rey (PRH). More on Industry Appointments page. Emily Yau is currently Editorial Director on Quercus’s commercial fiction list, having previously worked at Penguin Random House. More on Industry Appointments page. Rhoda Baxter/Jeevani Charika writes multi-cultural women’s fiction featuring British-Sri Lankan protagonists Rachael Lucas writes romantic comedy and YA. THE STATE OF GRACE was recognised by the National Autistic Society as a supportive guide for newly diagnosed autistic girls. Anna Baggaley, Katie Barnes-Wallis: Falling in Love… With Mills & Boon An iconic brand. An exciting future Anna Baggaley is a Senior Editor at Mills & Boon. She began her publishing career with the company over ten years ago, has since worked on the commercial fiction imprint HQ, and now looks after the M&B reprint collections, the North American acquired series and the new M&B Trade list for longer romance titles. Katie Barnes-Wallis joined the Mills & Boon Marketing team in 2013 as Marketing Executive. She has worked on the M&B Bookclub, manages the ecommerce website millsandboon.co.uk and looks after brand and trade release marketing campaigns such as those for New York Times Bestseller Tessa Dare and Eva Leigh - 2 - Followed by... Sareeta Domingo, Nic Caws, Sara Jafari: M&B Editors’ Workshop Join the editors for an introduction to the various UK-acquired M&B series. This interactive workshop focuses on showing your characters falling in love, and how to use conflict as the key to a truly successful love story! Sareeta Domingo is the Editor on the M&B Modern team, working with authors across all the UK-acquired series. Having worked as an editor in children’s fiction for several years, Sareeta made the transition to romance fiction, joining Mills & Boon just over a year ago, and she hasn’t looked back! In her spare time, Sareeta is also an author, with her debut coming-of-age romance THE NEARNESS OF YOU published in 2016. Nic Caws is the Associate Editor on the M&B Historical team and works with authors across all of the UK- acquired series. Her voracious appetite for books led to her BA in Eng Lit, after which she fell headlong into a whirlwind love affair with Mills & Boon.