My daily news feed is full of all kinds of random information and, if it’s a Tuesday, more than a few #BadJokes. One of the items that caught my attention today was a post about the upcoming 2020 RSJ Virtual Romance Book Con. Normally I would have just skipped past the link, but I must have had training on the mind, thanks to Jeanne’s post yesterday about her takeaways from a recent deep POV class.
For those who are unfamiliar with RSJ, it stands for “Romance Slam Jam.” According to their website,
“Our book lover events celebrate diversity in publishing with a focus on romance and women’s fiction and the readers who love them.”
The upcoming virtual event takes place June 24-28th (from the comfort of your own living room) and unlike other book related events, this one includes both readers and writers. There seem to be a number of interesting workshops planned including:
- Self-Pub: Ins & Outs
- Economics of the Publishing Industry
- The Importance of Editing
plus
- Games
- Giveaways
Although I’ve been steadfastly avoiding taking any writing classes for quite a while now, I have gained an appreciation for virtual conferences while sheltering-at-home these past few months. With no RWA summer conference on the horizon, and needing a bit of a writing-pick-me-up, this event seems like it might just fit the bill. Plus, it sounds like a fun distraction and I can definitely use one of those.
Enjoy this year’s conference online! Pajama Cafe Cliffhanger Night, Reader and Writer games, craft workshops, interviews, and pitch sessions with Entangled Publishing, Harlequin Books, author engagements, and other industry professionals as well. You’ll also be centered around the love of romance and women’s fiction books with book lover swag, prizes, drawings to win, and more. BONUS: We’re also debuting the Unlimited RSJ Digital Magazine so we can stay apart together.
So, has anyone attended one of these events in the past or do you know anyone who has?
Do have any recommendations for other virtual book / reading / writing events?
Eight Ladies Writing 
Informative thanks for sharing
Stay safe and healthy
I’ve never done a virtual conference, so I’m interested to hear what others have to say.
I’ve never done a virtual conference either, and kudos to any organization that tries to serve its audience or members during these times. Although I have to say, I have my doubts. One of the best things of going to one live is the energy you get from meeting with people. A virtual conference sounds a bit like a webinar to me—managing time zones for live events would be…impossible? That said, I’m very interested to hear of the creation of the RSJ Digital Magazine. The loss of RT Magazine a couple of years ago was a blow for romance readers; this proposed publication might pick up the slack.
I’ve “been to” a number of virtual conferences recently and some have managed to pull off the human-interaction aspects fairly well. One even had a virtual exposition hall area where you would “walk” through and “talk” with the people there. It was actually kind of fun. The event I attended last weed included a lot of interactive polls and small break-out sessions where attendees could talk face to face. That worked very well and the lack of live energy was definitely made up for by my not having to take a plane and stay in a hotel to attend.
The whole virtual conference thing is getting ramped up, I think, because so many organizations have had to rethink their plans. I just read an article in an (online) magazine about how to organize virtual conferences and make them successful. It sounds like the conferences you’ve been to have worked out the issues. So glad to hear they were worthwhile!
This does sound interesting. I hate to be a pessimist, but I think we’ll probably still be doing this next summer (although, I would predict a reasonable vaccine around August 2021? 18 mos. after the big breakout). So, I hope if you attend, you’ll write up something about how it went!
I really ought to crawl out of my shell and attend some virtual events — there have been a few with Neil Gaiman that I’ve been interested in.
Pingback: Elizabeth: The Dominant Narrative – Eight Ladies Writing