 Maybe my RNA colleagues were being polite at the annual conference this last weekend, but I didn’t get one remotely pointed remark about my self-published debut novel, INCEPTIO. That sounds defensive, I know, but what a change from even 12 months, let alone 24 months ago.
Are we all now ‘published’ rather than self/independent/mainstream/traditional? Have we reached that Nirvana? Probably not, but we’ve travelled a lot further along the path in the last six months than in the whole five years before.
Freda Lightfoot pounced on me at the conference to contribute to her talk on independent/self publishing and asked me to give the audience my experience of assisted publishing in both print and ebook. I spoke a few words about how I wanted to have a shiny physical book to show and sell to people as well as have the ebook available online to the world. I wanted mine to be the best of novels.
It’s been extremely successful – the glorious purple and gold eagle design for INCEPTIO has been much admired by readers, fellow writers, bestselling writers, agents and media folk. And there’s nothing like the pleasure of putting an attractive, well-produced book into a reader’s hands.
Freda’s session was very well attended, so much so that the plenary room was used. But so many people approached me for information afterwards or took me aside for a few minutes in one of the coffee or meal breaks that I lost count. Oh, and I signed a lot of books that Blackwells kindly sold for me!
I saw for myself the self-publishing buzz at the London Book Fair in April where Amazon were showcasing only their self-publishing arms – KDP and CreatSpace. They would, of course, but you could almost touch the excitement flowing round that section of the fair.
When I returned home after the Sheffield conference and caught up on the message and email mountain, I saw that the Romance Writers of America were opening therir famous RITA awards to self-published work “ensuring the RITA contest remains viable in light of industry evolution“. The guidelines will be strict and no cheap or sloppy work will stand a chance in this fiercely competitive contest. But the playing field is levelling out…
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 The Edge accommodation Fun, friendship and some serious talk – these were the keys of this year’s conference at the University of Sheffield’s The Edge campus. We’ll take it as read that the evenings were convivial, that was much exclaiming of “How lovely to see/meet you in the flesh!” and comparisons with previous conferences.
Two hundred women and men met to learn about and discuss structure, agents, time-keeping, motivation, media handling, independent publishing, research and much more.
One of my favourites was Melanie Hilton‘s (Louise Allen) beautifully illustrated talk on Jane Austen’s London – a universe away from the alternate world of Roma Nova. Apart from the breadth of her own knowledge, What Melanie demonstrated was the depth of research needed to bring authenticity to any novel.
 The goody bags Nina Harrington‘s accomplished talk on procrastination and motivation was skillful and very relevant for me as I’ve been suffering from the time push-pull of promoting one book while writing another.
Along with Talli Roland, the well-known chicklit writer, I was pounced on to contribute to Freda Lightfoot‘s very well attended talk on independent/self publishing. This is such a wide subject area that you need a whole conference to explore even the basics. Freda asked me to tell the audience my experience of assisted publishing in both print and ebook. The key messages of the session were that publishing choices continued to grow, that rights retention and control were the author’s closest assets and that an outstanding cover and professional edit were crucial.
 Agent Carole Blake and media tutor Janet Gover keeping cool Media was a key theme for me and I loved Maggi Fox‘s talk on getting your message across, i.e. writing materials and getting the media to use them. Janet Gover‘s session on radio and television gave us ten top tips for appearing on each medium. I volunteered to be a victim guinea pig. Never at ease being filmed, and squirming at a large version of myself projected onto the classroom wall, I was extremely pleased to have had the experience of answering questions put by a professional journalist.
And I was in the spotlight again when Jane Wenham Jones interviewed a random number of people in a lively and quick-fire session on her “sofa”.
 INCEPTIO on the Blackwells booktable Blackwells University branch ran the conference bookshop on Friday and Saturday and members could sell their own books on Sunday. I have to say I was pleased with INCEPTIO’s good performance on both days!
But the best part of the conference is networking with other writers, sharing experiences, swapping tips, arranging further meetings and events.
Roll on RNAConf14!
More photos here
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I’ve just received this scanned report in ROYAL magazine of the INCEPTIO launch at Waterstones Tunbridge Wells. What a superb write-up. And yes, we had fun! Deepest thanks to Sarah Bond who wrote it, Gaynor Edwards who masterminded the PR for the evening and the Kent & Sussex Courier ROYAL team for the beautiful production. And to Steve Morton, of course, who took some of the photos.
Updated 2023 as part of #10YearsINCEPTIO: Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA, a new Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, is now out.
Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. You’ll also be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.
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Maybe my RNA colleagues were being polite at the annual conference this last weekend, but I didn’t get one remotely pointed remark about my self-published debut novel, INCEPTIO. That sounds defensive, I know, but what a change from even 12 months, let alone 24 months ago.
