Take-Aways From RWA 2018

RWA 2018 is wrapping up and I wanted to take some time to look at the take-aways I had the chance to hear and see in the last several days.

• The entire market is struggling but clearly on a rebound. I know a lot of people believe that it is only one market or another, but the struggles seem to be across the board. Most of this stems from the struggles authors have of being seen. A lot of this comes from the number writers out there who are simply flooding the market. Too many books and not enough readers.
• The positive note is that people are trying new approaches to get that focus. 
• Authors are blaming publishers for all of the problems. This is a big one and, unfortunately, the blame is placed on the wrong people. Publishers are trying to figure out solutions and are making valiant attempts, but the one issue that cannot be fixed is the lack of readership. People are spending too much time binge watching shows on Netflix and Hulu and not reading.
• The positive note is that publishers are looking to reach those markets in different ways, including hooking readers through other forms of media.
• Writers are lacking craft skills. I really saw this a lot during the pitches and hearing people talk around the lobby There are simply a lot of authors who have not an are not taking the time to understand "how" to writer, or the ins and outs of the publishing world. 
• The positive note is the RWA had a lot more craft sessions this year. My compliments to the conference for doing this.
• New authors had a desire to learn. I loved hearing this, but there is a huge downside of this. Although this population of writers wants to learn, I also heard that many simply did not have the access to the learning. The told me of writing chapters that were not bringing people in as well as the struggle of finding quality educational opportunities out there. I would also add that this year, I was very disappointed at the lack of a lot of the "Big Names" in publishing at the conference. I don't know what happened, but I will tell you, those people were missed. Those new authors look to you for inspiration and the absence was noted. If this was a political statement for something, the group it hurt were those new readers and not the organization. 
• The positive note is that those new authors were not going to give up finding that information and education. 
• Writers who tried the independent approach are finding out it is harder than they thought. There were a ton of authors I met who were realizing that the self-pub approach just was not successful. They had heard of successes and were finally realizing something I have said here for some time - the success came primarily from those who were already in traditional publishing. Those new authors were just not making it.
• The positive note is there were many who were making the attempts to get that writing back into traditional publisher's hands.
• RWA was making great strides to improve. OK, I know I heard a lot of authors nit-picking over small things. Again, these complaints were poorly placed. I commend the staff of RWA (Carol Ritter, Erin Fry and the so forth) for the work they were doing. Were things perfect? No. Were there things that might have worked better? Yes. Did I want coffee (that was my wish) - Yes, But, I honestly saw some great effort.
• The positive note is this is the FIRST YEAR since started working with the RWA that they were actually asking us for feedback, and even more importantly, wanted not just the feedback but wanted ideas to consider.

I'll be back next week with those regularly scheduled posts. Until then...

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