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("RT History" Continued)
"It is the readers who drive the industry," says Carol Stacy, now
Romantic Times BOOKreviews publisher. "We took the position of a
knowledgeable fan, creating some of our most popular columns -
Theme Spotlight, Readers' Forum, How to Write, Pseudonym Search,
Cover Art, Classic Authors, Recommended Reads - on the basis of
their requests."
Beyond just content, however, Kathryn and RT BOOKreviews also
catered to other aspects of this fantasy-oriented industry - with
explosive results. As publishers were busy forming new lines and
searching for new writers, RT's first major
role was to serve as an important resource for both new and
established authors, giving them the inside scoop on New York
publishing trends and events that they otherwise would have
missed.
In the "good old days," Kathryn and her cohort, publisher, Carol
Stacy, were virtually on-call for writers, giving them direction
as to how to get published and, more importantly, how to promote
their book once it was published! "First you write a good book
and then you have to know how to sell it. Don't depend on your
publisher doing everything," was the RT motto. And they were so
right.
Consequently, authors cultivated their own will to succeed, and
eventually became more savvy than their publishers about
promotion. It's no surprise that the authors soon out-promoted
most other genres. They became marketing geniuses: got to know
the booksellers, their distributors, their company's sales force
and conscientiously attended autographings to interact with their
readers.
"Women writers, from Barbara Cartland to Jacqueline Susann and up
to present times, have always been better at meeting the readers
and promoting books than most of the male authors," says Ms.
Falk. "Today's women's fiction market is due in part to the
fierce determination of the writers and the independent
booksellers in spite of most publishers' Neanderthal marketing
methods."
Despite the oft strained relations between New York publishing
and RT in the beginning, the two agreed on their lowest common
denominator: boosting the romance industry. Considering the
dynamic relationship the magazine has with publishers now, it is
fascinating to look back to those early years when the
publication was perceived as taking control away from the
publishers and "telling the authors too much." In the old days
Romantic Times would regularly contact the publishing houses -
which often had no system in place to deal with the readers'
requests - to give them information to pass on to the readers.
Later on, in response to its readers' increasingly wide-ranging
tastes and healthy appetite, the magazine also influenced the
publishers to foster the various sub-genres such as time travel
and "Jane Bond" adventures (aka women in jeopardy), including,
more recently, African-American and inspirational romances. RT
was also instrumental in giving readers a voice to express their
opinions concerning the type of covers they preferred (e.g.,
"clinches not flowers" and "no more nursing mothers") as well as
other pet peeves ("larger and more readable type-size" and "put
new covers on the reissues of old titles").
In 1982, Romantic Times hosted the milestone event for both the
magazine and the genre - the first annual Romantic Times
Booklovers' Convention, in New York - and the national media
enthusiastically greeted the bevy of published and aspiring
authors that signaled a new women's movement, providing an
opportunity for women to speak to women through fiction. The
following year, the movement was empowered still more by the
arrival of Barbara Cartland at the 2nd New York convention and
the "Love Train," a cross-country bunny hop of romance writers
that travelled from the west coast to the east coast to reach the
event.
Every national magazine and newspaper covered the event. This was
the year when every major New York publisher presented a new
romance line. Romance novels flooded the market and soon the pie
was sliced into many pieces. But the industry was to level out.
Harlequin bought Silhouette, several lines faded and others
blossomed. Many stars were born.
By the late '80s, the RT conventions moved to cities outside of
Manhattan, signaling a less regional atmosphere. They began to
include both booksellers and readers, illustrators and models, as
well as authors and aspiring writers. This "coming together" each
year caused ripples of comaraderie to spread across the United
States, which enriched thousands of personal and professional
relationships. A Romantic Times convention is now a gathering of
old and new friends and has become an extended family of
thousands. With the conventions, Carol Stacy says, "we became the
only industry organization that brought everyone under the same
roof, allowing the synergy and enthusiasm of the readers to take
hold. The very idea of networking started with Romantic Times."
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