Good morning, fellow writers! I am thrilled to be here today to talk about Romance University (www.RomanceUniversity.org).
Thanks to my partners in crime, Kelsey Browning and Tracey Devlyn, forming RU has been a wonderful learning experience. Not only have I gained knowledge, but I have experienced a level of trust and kinship with two women I hope to keep as lifelong friends.
The commitment to blogging, for me, was a scary thing. I knew I didn’t want to talk about myself. I’m really not that interesting. I also knew becoming part of a blog would take time. In my utopian little world, I wanted my blog time to help me grow as a writer. Sounds selfish, I know, but like many of you, my writing time is precious and I need to make every minute count.
Tracey, Kelsey and I all agreed if we were going to put our names on something, we wanted to be proud of it. If an editor or an agent Googles me, I want to be sure I’m comfortable with what they see. Six months and many discussions later, we had our concept of offering writers (and readers) a learning resource.
Great! We had a concept. Now all we had to do was figure out what to do with it. We worked with the educational theme and came up with a three day schedule. Mondays would be career day, Wednesdays “guy” day and Friday craft day. Now we needed guest bloggers. Experts. We made a wish list of authors, agents and editors we wanted to invite to blog with us, but we didn’t know any of them, so how would we contact them? We came up with the novel idea of visiting their websites and emailing them. Insane, isn’t it? 
We reached out to authors like Brenda Novak, CJ Lyons and Bob Mayer for help. We also contacted agents and editors like Holly Root and Leah Hultenschmidt. These and many other professionals have “lectured” at RU, and we are profoundly grateful to them for sharing their experiences and knowledge.
As we embark on our one year anniversary we are still striving to come up with new ideas. So far, we’ve added “Lab” sections that include: Ask an Editor with Theresa Stevens, Managing Editor at Red Sage Publishing; Query Writing 101 with C.J. Redwine, urban fantasy author; and Wayne Wednesday with Wayne Levine, Director of the West Coast Men’s Center. Just last month we launched a monthly sub-genre column where authors, agents and editors join us to talk about the state of a particular sub-genre. Join us on February 15 for part two of the historical romance market.
Keeping Romance University running is a lot of work. I spend time working on the blog almost every day and, last summer, I realized I needed to cut back on some things to keep my writing schedule intact. Is it worth it? You bet. Each post offers new friends, more learning and a few laughs.
As we all know, getting that coveted book contract can be a brutal journey. Kelsey, Tracey and I sincerely hope that Romance University might offer help with improving the road conditions.
For those of you on this journey, is there something important you wish you’d known earlier in your writing career? We’re always looking for fresh ideas at Romance University, and would welcome ideas on the types of lectures you would like to see.
Adrienne, thank you for sharing this with us. Romance University was a brilliant idea! I do know it’s a lot of work. We’ve had agents and editors guest blog at Magical Musings, and I can remember how pleased and kind of surprised we were in the beginning when the agents said yes.
Romance University is on my Google Reader. I comment once in a while, but I’m usually a lurker. You’re already covering just about everything I can think of. When I started, I didn’t have Internet or access to places like RU. It makes a difference.
Hi Edie. Thank you for inviting me to blog with all of you today.
I’m glad you enjoy RU. It’s always nice to hear positive feedback.
So fun having you at Magical today, Adrienne! Romance University sounds wonderful, and I’ll definitely be “lurking” over there.
I know the joy involved in sharing a blog with friends, and it really is infectious taking this journey together. I wish all of you at RU well, and from the sounds of it you’re truly on your way. Sharing information and having fun with writers is what it’s all about imo.
Good morning, A!
Based on what I now know about what you do on Thursdays, I’m glad you pre-wrote this post
.
Of course, one of my favorite things about running RU (besides hanging out with amazing friends, readers and blogmates) is coming up with new ideas to make Romance University better and better.
I’d be curious to hear from the Magical Musings group what they feel they’ve gained from their group blog.
Hugs,
Kelsey
Thanks for having me here, LaDonna. And you’re right, it is infectious. I think it’s important to have the right group of people though. I honestly can’t imagine doing this without Kelsey or Tracey. They’re easy to work with.
Although, that Kelsey, she has a smart mouth!
And don’t forget my potty-mouth, Adrienne!
Off to my Thursday evening activities – LOL.
Kels
I’d be curious to hear from the Magical Musings group what they feel they’ve gained from their group blog.
People know us! LOL When I was at the RWA conference in Dallas a couple years ago, people would stop me and say they knew me from Magical. It’s given me a presence on the Internet. And I would never have written so many blogs without Magical. It’s given me confidence.
We’ve also contacted agents and editors to be our guest bloggers. I was doing researching agents on Agent Query last fall, and one of the agents linked to her blog with us. That was cool. And not only agents, but writers too. From best-sellers to non-published writers, they’ve all had something interesting to say.
It does take work. We do book reviews on Saturdays and on Sunday the “week ahead,” about that week’s guest blogger. But in the end it’s well worth it.
Hi Adrienne and Edie!
I never really knew what “labor of love” meant until RU. I LOVE everything about it. Are there hard parts? Yep. But there are far, far more good parts.
Plus, I get to act as a referee when my blogmates are acting up! Highly entertaining.
I can’t wait until Nationals. We’re really looking forward to connecting with our Visiting Professors. They’re are amazing.
Like Kels said, we love our readers too. They keep us motivated.
Kels, don’t forget I inspired Adrienne’s Thursday night activity this week.
Hugs, Tracey
Hi, Tracey. Thanks to you and Kelsey for joining in the discussion. I forgot to say how much we love our readers at Magical, too. People I’ve met through this blog have become friends. I would never have known them if I weren’t doing this.
Now I’m wondering about Adrienne’s Thursday night activity. lol
It appears both my girls are feisty today! LOL.
Edie, that is wonderful about the agent linking to Magical. I’m not sure there is a better form of flattery.
Adrienne, so lovely to have you here, and Kelsey and Tracey
. I know the work involved in setting a serious group blog up, but as Edie says, it was been well, well worth it.
Some of the agent interviews we’ve had are the ONLY interview that agent has ever given, and we get enormous traffic to our site just from that alone. It is fun thinking of new ways to make things better, and Adrienne you are so right, the right people are absolutely essential.
Dealing with Edie, LaDonna and Liz is a pleasure and we are now friends for life. At Dallas, like Edie, people stopped me to say they knew me from MM. That was the biggest compliment ever.
Adrienne, I’ve enjoyed the RU posts, too, and know there are several interviews/essays there that I haven’t yet read that I’m looking forward to getting to soon…
I think one thing writers are often unprepared for (certainly true for me!) when they transition from aspiring to published is the new relationship a debut novelist has with “the public.” It’s not a “fame” thing so much as a “boundary” thing. You become more visible in every way (in person, online, etc.) while, at the same time, needing to re-draw lines between yourself and some others in order to protect your privacy and your writing time. I think some of those Realities of a Writer’s Life would make interesting future lectures.
Thanks to the MM gang for another great guest!!
Hi, Marilyn. Thank you for posting. Excellent idea. I would love to have a best-selling author do a post on this topic. I think it would be interesting to hear their perspective considering the popularity of the social networking sites.
Hmmm…we’ll have to get to work on this one!
Boy, does that sound familiar, Adrienne. When I was invited by the other MagicalMusings ladies to form a blog site, I was as nervous as hell. What did I know about blogging? What is this new fangled internet tool? I quickly caught on and haven’t looked back since. As a tool to advance my career, I think it’s come in handy … if not priceless.
What did I wish I’d known at the beginning of this journey? Where to start?
There is so much that I’ve learned over the years and I wish I’d had someplace like the Romance University to go to. Now? While I’m nowhere near being an expert, I’m comfortable that I know the necessary basics and will continue to pick up new information.
Thanx for joining us here at MM, Adrienne. Sorry I’m so late in chiming in. It’s that busy, busy, busy work/writing scheduling that keeps me running late.