Organizations for Writers
I'm not much of a joiner, but…
Today marks the second anniversary of my publishing "What Do Romance Writers Think About?" on Substack! I'm excited to have reached this milestone with all of you. As I reflect on this journey, I'm considering a slight change in our publishing schedule to keep our content fresh and engaging. Perhaps moving to a twice-monthly schedule could help maintain the relevance and excitement of our posts while also boosting my own fiction production.
I'm pleased that our open rate has held steady at 38.9%, and I'm grateful for your continued interest. However, I sometimes find myself uncertain about the topics that resonate most with you. I understand how busy life can be, and I appreciate every moment you spend with my posts.
Your feedback is invaluable to me. If you have any suggestions on what you'd like to see in future publications or thoughts on the potential schedule change, I would love to hear from you. If you feel you’d like to continue weekly posts I’d like to hear that. Again if any of you would like to guest post, please comment. Together, we can make this community even more vibrant and inspiring!
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of participating in the Contemporary Romance Writers' yearly virtual writing conference and also attended another workshop on Saturday evening through Passionate Ink. These experiences reminded me of how crucial these organizations are to my growth as an author. I genuinely doubt I would have embarked on this journey without their support. For instance, without Romance Writers of America’s RAMP program, I might not have written a single book, let alone published seven.
During a Q&A session at one of CRW’s events, a participant asked which organizations other participants would recommend they should join. This question inspired me to dedicate today’s post to this topic. While I may have touched on this subject before, today I’ll delve deeper, starting with general author organizations and moving to those specifically for romance authors. If I’ve missed any, please share, by pushing the comments button.
Alliance of Independent Authors.
This organization is not exclusive to romance authors and offers numerous services for Indie authors. Some of their more notable offerings include an annual self-publishing services directory, which ranks companies providing services to self-published authors worldwide (there is a fee for this). Additionally, they have a dedicated literary agent available for contract advice. They also offer a blog and podcast covering various topics important to self-published authors and publish their own magazine. Moreover, they produce books on a range of subjects to assist authors in their publishing journey. They also offer sample contracts as well.
There are some eligibility requirements for this organization. If you are self-published, you need to have earned at least $5,000 in the past 18 months. They also offer an associate membership for those who have sold $500 in the same timeframe, which is great for authors who are just starting out. If you are traditionally published, you need to submit a signed contract.
The benefits include contract reviews, legal advice, website building and hosting. They also provide access to member workshops, seminars and exclusive discounts to products.
Women’s Fiction Writer’s Association
Their mission is to come together to support each other and refine their craft of writing layered stories in which the plot is driven by the main character’s emotional journey. They offer retreats, workshops, critique programs and contests
International Women’s Writing Guild
They offer monthly e-newsletters, a yearly summer conference, regional events, and anthologies. They also offer online workshops, free writes and a member’s bookstore. I did not find any romance writers in their bookstore.
A much smaller organization than years past and hopefully, it can weather the latest storm. It offers RAMP, Pen to Paper and Paper to Polished programs for new authors. They offer many online personal development courses and Power up sessions, conferences and award opportunities.
Romantic Novelists’ Association
The Romantic Novelists’ Association exists to raise the prestige of romantic fiction, and to encourage romantic authorship. “We champion the quality and diversity of romantic fiction.” This is a UK based organization that offers a variety of online courses and programs.
As their name suggests they promote Contemporary Romance through articles and programming. They provide networking opportunities for all members – published or not, workshops and a yearly conference. They offer a yearly contest as well.
“Passionate Ink is a special interest organization for authors of erotic fiction. This is the place for erotic writers to be heard, understood, supported, encouraged and promoted.” When I first started writing and I had an ex-Harlequin editor tell me she didn’t want to work with me because I wrote porn I wish I had known about this group. It took me several months to pick myself off the floor and understand that H&H (Harlequin and Hallmark,) do not run the romance world and that there are a diversity of both romance readers and writers in the world. Passionate Ink offers workshops that include both marketing and craft. They offer a yearly contest, called The Passionate Plume and have a virgin category for the unpublished author. They also publish a yearly anthology.
The promise of Author Ever After is that you will learn writing and publishing skills, build relationships with other early career romance authors and become a published romance author. With weekly office hours and masterminds, and daily co-writing sessions, Author Ever After is a community designed for writers who thrive having real-time, face-to-face support—but don't have a budget for one-to-one coaching. They offer both a monthly and a package price. I have not used their services but they come recommended through another editor that I trust and love. If I’d known about their services before self-publishing, I probably would have checked them out. It would have helped me, no doubt.
That’s all for this week folks, have a great week and please don’t forget to comment above.
Thank you so much for the great shout out to Passionate Ink. I'm so sorry your early work was mis-categorized by these editors in need of education. Sadly, we still run into this uneducated opinion about the industry. And while Passionate Ink advocates for erotic romance and erotic fiction particularly, we welcome writers of all genres and heat levels. Our basic approach to everything is inclusion.
Thank you, Ellen! Hope all is well with you!