Elyse: RT 2017 is over. We’re tired, happy and still have most of our voices left.
For the past two RT’s, I was adamant that I attend everything. This year I was a little more relaxed, and I found my favorite part of the convention was just hanging out with the other Bitches, readers of our site, and romance lovers. I had a lot of great conversations at the bar and at dinner, and I felt like I made some new and super awesome friends. I swear, if you told my mom that my favorite part of anything was “making new friends” her jaw would hit the floor–and she would channel memories of my sniffling phone calls from summer camp circa 1992. I’m an introvert, but it’s soooo easy to talk and hang with the people at RT because they are my people, and common interest makes for easy conversation.
Aside from our live podcast (which was hilarious) and our Reader Recommendation Party (which was expensive), my favorite panel was the Romance, Bollywood Style Panel with Sonali Dev, Amalie Howard, Shaila Patel, MK Schiller, and Sienna Snow. We watched trailers for Bollywood romances and then the authors and model/actor Vikkas Bhardwaj (who is honestly, preternaturally handsome) acted out the tropes for us to guess. Included in the panel was a gorgeous bag from Sonali Dev (now my new knitting bag) as well as books and swag.
Many of the parties, including Kensington’s, offered champagne and snacks. I’m fairly certain I ate bar nachos every day (and they were amazing), but my snacking needs were met by the convention in general. Also a lot of bottled water was handed out.
There were lots of restaurants within walking distance which was great. I ate actual food this year! There was no Guy Fieri in sight. Best meal? Probably my dessert and drink (it was called Love is Like a Bottle of Gin) at the White Oak Kitchen and Cocktails.
I also hung out in the lobby knitting and drinking my coffee one morning for a full thirty minutes, not realizing Elizabeth Hoyt was sitting next me. So I got to breathe the same air as her for half an hour.
My biggest disappointment was the Avon party. Normally this is a huge event due to the big name authors and the fact that Avon gives out lots of books. Unfortunately this year the party didn’t open until over 30 minutes after its scheduled time. That means I hung out in line for an hour and a half and had to bail to attend our podcast recording. I’m pretty spoiled in terms of getting the books I want, but I had hoped to grab a few authors’ signed copies for friends of mine. I was super bummed that I waited that long and didn’t get anything, but, to be fair, I don’t know why the party was so delayed or the organization was so poor.
Also I went to Eat Sleep Knit with Carrie and RHG and got a lot of yarn. It was both glorious and expensive.
I tallied up the value (list price) of the books I brought home for myself and my friends/family and the total was $425. I managed to get my checked luggage to weigh in at exactly 50 lbs (like a fucking boss, y’all). Now I’m fairly discerning regarding what I bring home, so I think it’s totally reasonable that a reader could come home with over $500 worth of books and swag.
Best swag? Sonali Dev’s purse, hands down. Most useful? Probably the earplugs that saved me on my flight home.
Dewey is happy I’m home, but I’m ready for Reno, baby!
RHG: Having done large scale annual events like RT in other aspects of my life, I’ve found that the pattern tends to be: First one is GREAT, and the second one is inevitably a let down because it can’t compare the the first one. Last year, Vegas was kind of a mentally and physically exhausting place to be (my mom, last year: “This will be the trip of a lifetime!” me: “We’ll see.”) but the third and subsequent times going to the event things regulate to a level that is sustainable.
I had a frickin’ blast this year. The hotel was nice and the food options were plentiful and varied. Atlanta is a fantastic convention town where there’s a lot of things to go and do in a reasonable distance (and the weather was pretty good most of the time for walking around purposes). The convention space was easy to get to (despite some elevator congestion, which most of the time was handled with patience and good humor).
I loved being able to hang out with friends (new and old) and talk to people about the site- many people talked about how much they loved the historical cooking posts, which makes me happy! Like Elyse said, the Bollywood panel was EXCELLENT and we will be adding some Bollywood titles to the Movie Matinee list in the future. The Bollywood panel also did have the best swag, with the bags and books and a body candle and also a very smoking hot Bollywood actor who was not swag, but man, was he pretty.
One major highlight was meeting Beverly Jenkins! She’s a delight!
I met Melody and Julia, the ladies behind Romance Podden, a Swedish romance podcast. They did about a million and a half interviews, and they’ve told me to get my ass back to Stockholm as soon as possible.
Other highlights: helping Elyse and Carrie spend money at Eat Sleep Knit, and explaining to Carrie what all the green stuff on the trees was, and how a pond worked. Breakfast at Cafe Intermezzo (and the random Japanese Duolingo lesson happening in the bathroom), giving our waitress at dinner a million and a half book recommendations. Hearing the inhuman noises when people got their hands on Alisha Rai’s Hate to Want You (or saw that people had it) (and I finished it, and it is worth all of those noises). Seeing so many happy readers all in one place.
Carrie: Keeping this short because my thoughts have already been stated by RHG and Elyse. I’m less interested in parties and panels now and more interested in friends – and I’ve made such wonderful friends at RTs! Also I’ve learned valuable lessons about being myself. At the first RT I didn’t actually make friends because I was all dressed up and super nervous. In the last two RTs I went back to my geek tshirts and comfy shoes and suddenly was making friends for life like crazy. So happy to be part of this community!
Amanda: I think this RT might have been my favorite. I didn’t attend a ton of events, but I had a lot of one-on-one interactions with people that were so much fun, and it really made me realize how sweet and thoughtful the community can be.
I don’t usually attend the big book fair on Saturday, so I made it a point to hunt down the authors I wanted to see most to goad them into signing my books. I met Amanda Bouchet over drinks and she was so lovely, despite being severely jetlagged I’m sure (she flew from France).
I also desperately wanted Christina Lauren to sign my copy of Dating You/Hating You, and I then proceeded to lose my house keys at their Meet & Greet table.
@_ImAnAdult we have your keys. Bring wine and no police. pic.twitter.com/0TvBP45Ew6
— Christina Lauren (@ChristinaLauren) May 5, 2017
Elyse and I poked around the Petticoat & Pistols event, which had some lovely champagne. I found out that Joanna Shupe is a listener of My Favorite Murder. It was so funny to see her all dressed up in historical garb, talking about being a murderino.
Elyse and I met some super tall cover models. Later on at RT, I spoke again to one of them and they have a blog where they review the romances on whose covers they’ve graced. How cool is that!
But as I mentioned before, meeting people was the best part. I was talking to a first time attendee in the Avon party line, who was there with her mom. I mentioned how I was only in line to get Ilona Andrews’ signature, but had to leave to attend our live podcast taping (which was awesome!). She emailed me later, telling me she’d managed to get me a signed copy of Burn For Me. I’m going to cherish it forever.
Since returning to Boston, I know all of us have been bombarded with emails, tweets, and other messages from people we met at RT and it makes me feel so warm & fuzzy in my Spring-allergy haze. Seriously, you all are amazing and meeting romance fans, SBTB readers, authors, and all the other people behind the scenes of my favorite books was the greatest thing about the convention.
Sarah: We all had a pretty great RT experience, but obviously our opinions aren’t the only ones. Reader Katie C. and her mother were both first-time RT attendees, and while they had some great moments, their overall experience wasn’t optimal. Katie and her mother both gave us permission to share their review and comments.
Amanda: Ah! Katie is the lovely reader who grabbed Burn for Me!
Reader Katie C: I thought the Bitchery might be interested in my take on RT – I am not an author, industry insider, reviewer/blogger, or aspiring author – “just” a reader. My mom and I both attended the conference last week in Atlanta and I have so many thoughts!
What goals did I have at RT and did I accomplish them?
1. Meet and talk to other readers about books – goal accomplishment level: kinda sorta – I have to admit I was surprised at how many “readers” at the conference were actually aspiring authors. At the YA Spooky Slumber Party on Tuesday, out of the nine people at my table, I was the only reader – everyone else was either an author or aspiring author. I was hoping to find other “just” readers to discuss books with – a give and take, what people liked and what they hated. Kind of like the Smart Bitches comments section, only in person. Instead, RT seems more like a fan club – where only positive comments about books are welcome. At the same party, I won a book about a failed suicide attempt which looked dark to me. I made a comment about that and the whole table got silent and stared at me. Finally, one person said I know the author is here and she can sign it for you. That’s when I got the message (and I certainly could have been interpreting it incorrectly) – most people here know most people here and only positive comments are welcome. This was not the only time during the conference I got this feeling – it happened in multiple places. I think I was looking for more of a giant book club when RT is truly a fan event. That is great if that is what you are looking for, but disappointing when it is not.
2. Get lots of “free” books – goal accomplished: yes – I know they aren’t really free since I paid for the registration, hotel, etc. but I walked away with 102 books and my mom with 34, so mission accomplished. However, the work to get the free books was not something I would care to repeat – see lines and crowds below.
3. Learn about new-to-me authors and books: goal achieved, so many books to look up, so little time.
4. Meet the Smart Bitches, let them know how much I admire their work and what a fan girl I am: Got this one mostly checked off – met SB Sarah, Elyse and Redheadedgirl. I had a great discussion in line for the Avon party with Amanda about Ilona Andrews and Tessa Bailey books. Unfortunately, while I saw Carrie S. at the SBTB Recommendation Party, I didn’t get a chance to say hi and tell her how much I love her – especially on the podcasts.
The highlights:
– The Bollywood Party on Thursday afternoon – my mom got to meet Sonali Dev and get her to sign A Bollywood Affair, making her week. We watched great Bollywood clips, laughed at the authors performing charades and got beautiful bags from India as our attendee gifts.
– SBTB Recommendation Party: Great to hear from other readers of the site about books they love.
– Sweet Romance Breakfast and Chocolate, Books, and Authors events: These two events were put on by Christian publishers – I wouldn’t have attended as I haven’t read Inspies in 15-20 years when my grandma would loan them out to me, but my mom wanted to go. And these events were great. They started on time, were in large rooms so they weren’t overcrowded, and had plenty of books to give away. As a result, I think I will give some of them a try – who knows I might like them and if not, no big deal. My mom got lots of books to try too!
The lowlights:
– Lines, lines, so many lines: I was shocked at how long the lines were at each event and how early people got in line. Some lines started three hours before the actual party or event. Sometimes the lines were well organized and sometimes not.
– Disorganization: In addition to waiting in line, I was disappointed in how off schedule things were. Out of all of the events I attended, only four started within five minutes of the published time on the schedule – the aforementioned Inspie publisher parties, the Canadian authors trivia party and the SBTB Recommendation party. The award for most behind goes to Avon who opened their doors 35-40 minutes late.
– Too many people in too small spaces: multiple events were held in spaces way way way too small for the number of people admitted. It started at the pre-con party Naughty and Nice which was in a tiny conference room and at points I couldn’t move. The absolute worst again goes to Avon where I witnessed one poor lady frozen in place having an anxiety attack and at multiple times I literally couldn’t move because it was so crowded.
Bottom Line – Would I attend RT again?
No I would not attend again unless the conference was in my hometown or within a couple hours drive. I am sure others have very different experiences, but I would have much rather taken the money I spent on registration fees, hotel room, parking, and travel and just spent it all on books. I am glad that I got to try RT once so I would know what it is like, but due to the crowds, long wait times and “fan-dom” of the event, it just wasn’t for me.
My mom and I discussed RT and the Hyatt on the 9+ hour road trip home, among other things of course, but I asked her tonight what she would want to share with you all. Please note this was her first RT conference too. Here is what she said:
– Everyone was very nice and certainly friendly, but there still was a palpable sense of cliquishness during the entire conference.
– Some events were well thought-out and well run like Maple Syrup and Mounties (Canada trivia with Canadian authors), the SBTB Rec Party, the two Christian publisher parties (she wanted me to mention how good the chocolate was at the Books! Chocolate! Authors! event including a chocolate covered strawberry on a stick that she loved) and the Bollywood Party. But there were an equal number, if not more, where the events were excellent ideas, but poorly executed including Cinema Craptastique (Damon Suede was hilarious and really made my mom laugh, but we couldn’t see or hear the movie so we left only about 1/4 of the way through the movie), Nice and Naughty Party, and Avon Party.
– The Avon party really made her mad so I will give it a special bullet – it ran very behind schedule and as I stated below the crowds were dangerous for such a small space. Seriously, the other events that were late or disorganized were disappointing, but Avon really made her mad – she felt like she was going to be squished or trampled and that it was a serious fire hazard.
– Her highlight by far was meeting Sonali Dev and getting to tell her how much she loved her book (A Bollywood Affair) and how beautiful she thought the writing and story were. Sonali Dev was super sweet and super kind – it really made my mom’s day.
– My mom said she would not go back and by Saturday was ready to get the hell out of there (we had originally planned to stay until Sunday, but we were so done with all the people that we left Saturday).
Did you attend RT this year? What were your highlights? Any letdowns this year?
I haven’t attended RT, but I enjoyed this overview, especially Katie C. and her mom’s review of the event. I love reading romance but I’m, well, a picky bitch. So I’m pretty sure that my desire to analyze and criticize would not be super welcomed at a fan event like this. I am more the book club type. I want other readers to make me THINK about what I read and see it in a different light, agree or disagree with me. Also I’m mostly an ereader now so autographed copies would not be a thing that stay in my house as the bookshelves are full. Unless it were Sarah Addison Allen or Courtney Milan. Then I’m so torching my husband’s extra copies of Dune, no lie.
@lora96: Maybe it’s just because I’m short, but it seems to me there is an awful lot of wasted space between the top of my head and the ceiling that could be filled with suspended bookshelves. Just sayin’, if you’re “out of room” for books, consider how much space in your home is being wasted by air (phlbbbt, who needs it?).
@Ren Benton: I knew someone many yrs ago whose motto was ‘If you can walk across the floor unimpeded you still have room for books’. I was at their house once; every room had boxes of books, including the bathroom. The hallways were lined with books. And all this aside from the one room that had nothing in it but boxes of books.
Please, please explain to me too, how a pond works!
And I am writing another comment to ask this: since I saw the Bollywood panel mentioned a lot, and you have plans to watch more Bollywood movies, could you please make another post with recommended Bollywood romance movies? I sooo loved the last one!
I saw SB Sarah at the book fair and got SBTB sticker/button swag. A friend and I drove over for the day to Atlanta and we only attended the book fair, which was noisy, very crowded, and definitely peoplely. We amused ourselves in line reading people’s t-shirts.
My main goals were to see Sarah and get my original Loose Id editions of Tere Michaels’ “Faith, Love, & Devotion” series signed. I accomplished both of those things, and also purchased books by new-to-me authors – most notably “And It Came To Pass” by Laura Stone, which was so lovely.
It was fun, but if I get the chance to be a full attendee one day, I would definitely pick and choose what I would attend and retreat to my room for peace and quiet regularly. The noise and crowds can definitely be exhausting. We were only at the fair for about an hour and we were on the verge of being peopled out.
This was super great to read! Every time RT rolls around I get wistful and sad and firmly ignore the voice that says, “Allie, you hate crowds and conventions and listening to panels,” (my hearing and ADHD are just bad enough that I miss a lot of what is said at panels/lectures/podcasts/everything, reading transcripts is so much easier for me if I want to actually know the content of what’s said).
It sounds like RT is amazing for a lot of people, but reading Katie C’s comments helped me realize it’s probably not for me (unless it happens pretty close to where I live so it wouldn’t cost like a whole paycheck for me to go).
This was my second year at RT. After attending solo last year, I went with a friend which definitely increased my enjoyment. I agree with Katie and her mom, who I talked with in the Bollywood line.(Thanks for the Gus’s recommendation, Katie’s mom!) I wish there was more opportunity in some of the panels to chat with authors and readers about books. That’s what makes the SB rec party so much fun. In some panels, the authors would chat about their favorite trope or heroine, I would be wiggling in my seat like “I have one too!”. The best events were when readers could chat with other readers about books. There just weren’t a lot of those events.
I was a first timer and only flew down for the weekend. I got in Thursday night. A lot of firsts for me, including flying by myself and a new city. RT did a great job of notifying everyone of the MARTA station being right there next to the hotel.
As I avoided a lot of the heavily attended events, I didn’t have too much trouble with the lines. There was one gentleman that did a fantastic job keeping people in line. I think Arthur was his name. he usually worse suspenders.
At the Book Fair, I noticed they were very intent on keeping all the lines very orderly. I could only assume that was because the fire marshal had something to say about the Avon party. I was super pleased with the Book Fair. Rather overwhelming, but the wristbands helped a lot. I made new friends in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s line, who I hung out with for the remainder of the day until dinner. The YA authors were incredible with helping me find an author and books that would interest my daughter. I did find a few new authors there, too.
I actually didn’t venture from the hotel for meals. But, I did fairly good. Though, Friday, a new friend and I realized at one point that it had been 8 hours since we had something other than granola. Btw, thank you, Smart Bitches for the tip to bring snacks.
I did end up at a few smaller workshops and got to meet some great authors before the Book Fair, which actually made it less insane. The podcast was freaking hilarious and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I ended up having fewer books than a lot people, but I still worried about my bag being overweight and carrying it to the train station and airport. I got there, though! My daughter was impressed with my haul.
I got off the plane and met my family. The first thing my husband asked was if I was planning on going next year. *grins* There were a lot of people there that went in a group, I found several that went by themselves, including me. I typically didn’t have a problem finding someone to talk to, but I will make the effort to exchange phone numbers with my internet friends prior to going next time to make it easier to hook up. I totally stumbled on Angela and Francesca from Under the Cover book blog. Francesca and I ended up being in line together at the Fan-tastic Day party. I, also, wish that I felt more comfortable about approaching the models. I missed a couple of chances of meeting Stuart Reardon. I did meet a new model and author who had been at the Linda Lael Miller party. I was happy to find books and authors that interested me prior that I hadn’t had a chance to get to, yet. Or, well known names, that I was able to discover that really interested me.
Overall, I would give it two thumbs up. But, I have to say that my EMS conference experience really helped me. Yes, I’m already considering Reno next year.
I didn’t arrive at RT until later on Wed afternoon, so I missed the SBTB reader rec party. 🙁 But otherwise I had a great time at RT, especially at the Bollywood event and the SBTB live podcast recording. If anyone is interested, I wrote up my postmortem here: https://www.facebook.com/beth.pickett/posts/10155180008503418.
Everyone talks about RT being expensive, and I agree that it is, but few people supply actual total dollar numbers. I’m a scrupulous budget planner and tracker, so for anyone who wants to know (especially if you’re budgeting for a future RT), here were my RT total costs for the two I attended:
–RT 2015 in Dallas (no airfare, no roommate) = $1,446.05
–RT 2017 in Atlanta (airfare, 1 roommate to split hotel cost) = $1,369.05
Costs include transportation, hotel, registration, meals, etc., but no book purchases. I don’t buy books at the giant book signing since I purchase almost exclusively e-books these days and I don’t include one-clicks, pre-orders, TBR adds in my event costs.
Reno for next year? As in: where I live? This is fabulous news!
@Diana: we absolutely can! Stay tuned!
I’m super curious about those Bollywood film titles as I’ve been watching them since I was kid (I’m Indian, so go figure)! I’d be happy to offer my unsolicited advice about which ones are essential to watch immediately 😛
Thanks very much to Katie C and her mom for writing in their impressions as “non-industry” attendees. I’ve never been to RT and have thought about going a few times, but one of my concerns was what she wrote about: the clique-y nature of some of the events and the somewhat closed off air (no criticism allowed!). My friends and I are “readers only” (unless you count the time we half-heartedly plotted a medical Harlequin for funsies), and were thinking of going for a single day at RT Reno, and then going to Lake Tahoe for our own vacation after that, instead of making RT the only reason for travel.
I did about half librarian/bookseller track (being that I am a librarian) and half regular panels (I tended to choose the smaller ones that looked interesting to me, rather than the big ones that had big name authors). That worked really well for me in terms of attending useful stuff and still having fun without being overwhelmed. I also found that for the events, like the Avon party, if you waited, you didn’t get the goody bag but the crush cleared out of the room and you could *move* and breathe and actually interact with people without having a panic attack on the side. But I agree, several of those events were in spaces that were FAR too small. I’ll probably go to RT again, but due to the expense (I fund it entirely myself, work contributes nothing), it’s an every other year trip for me.
And I forgot to say: yes, Sonali Dev’s Bollywood party was super fun, and that was one of the highlights for me along with getting to meet Beverly Jenkins.
@Beth I love that you added total costs! I decided to be lazy and not do one for RT, giving myself a free pass with money as RT was *the* vacation of the year. After the cost of shipping 2 boxes of books and swag home, it’s probably better that I don’t look too closely, haha. Also a note about shipping…so the FedEx office in the Hyatt apparently charged $20 extra for putting your stuff into a box for you…which they did without asking you first, to mention that it’ll cost you $20 in labor costs. The labor involved someone randomly slinging your beautiful books into a box. I didn’t realize this at first as I’ve never had a FedEx office do that before, and it makes me MAD, FedEx, MAD! As I’m from California I’m used to customer service being…not always super friendly…but seriously, some of the people in Atlanta took the cake for poor customer service, and not just at the FedEx.
Shipping rant over, this was my first RT and it was awesome! My main mission was to just enjoy, meet other book lovers, get lots of good books and recommendations, and meet the Bitchery. All goals accomplished and my highlights were everything SBTB, meeting Natasha and Jaclyn and Dawn, new romance buddies yay! Also the panel with Alisha Rai, Alyssa Cole, Tamsen Parker and SECRETLY APPEARING Courtney Milan. Yes. So awesome. Also, I won a gorgeous scarf knitted by Carrie’s mom and I love it. So much.
@RHG Melody and Julia of Romance Podden were so fabulous, I can’t wait to listen in! We have family in Sweden and just visited last year so I was all kinds of excited.
@ Katie C I agree some parts of RT felt cliquish. To some extent I expected that, since people have their groups of preferred friends and whatnot…maybe they just need to add more panels like the SBTB reader rec party, and make them longer so people have more time to hang out and chat. Sometimes the scheduling felt frenetic, like just when you’d make a friend suddenly the session ended and you needed to run off somewhere else.
@Floating Lush
totally agree about waiting for the crush to clear on some of the big events. Goody bags are exciting, but sometimes not worth the craziness of the first 30 mins or so of the event. I missed a number of goody bags myself, but still came away with a ton of new reading material that I’m excited about.
Also, Cora Carmack is a total fangirl and was one of the most fun authors to meet, along with Samantha Chase!
This is my first RT that I attended, I went on a day pass on Friday and the giant book fair on Saturday. It was fun to meet a lot of authors I like, especially since it was held in my best romance loving friend lives in. We ate good southern food, did some of RT, but also explored the city. I realized after the discussions, I am horrible at remembering titles when I want to talk books… I needed to have my goodreads account open. I won a ridiculous amount of books from events, luckily my friend is sending most of them to me through media mail.
This was my first RT and I think I may have had different expectations, partly because I was going as a writer and also seeing as I am used to massive SF conventions I pretty much expected the crowds and the lines. Admittedly a lot of it could have been better organized, especially the large parties. (The Avon crush would have worked better if they had routed it like a traffic circle instead of letting people go any which way and forming signing lines that got in each other’s way.) I also did not feel it was cliquish (I had conversations in lines with booksellers and librarians about authors we did and didn’t like) and everyone was super friendly (I met only one rude person, a writer in line ahead of me for one of the events, who was proclaiming loudly about how she was winning all the things at all the panels. I mentioned that I was satisfied that the only thing I had won were my pitches and a first-chapter critique, at which she glared at me and said “You’re wearing a reader’s badge! You shouldn’t even be allowed into those panels!” At which I pointed to the “Aspiring Author” label on my badge and replied “Just because I’m not published yet doesn’t mean I’m not a writer.”)
The panels were kind of uneven as well. There were some panels that were full of excellent and well-organized information and others that I was left wondering why I bothered (for example, the panel on writing sex scenes; I stink at this, so I was hoping for some good advice, but what I got were a bunch of authors reading excerpts from each other’s books and not explaining why they were good or what made them work. Fortunately the following panel on sexual tension more than made up for it.) I agree, the most fun I had was the Bollywood panel, and they also had the best swag! I also had a lot of fun at the Pistols and Petticoats party and the cover model meet & greet. Loved meeting you all at the Smart Bitches Book Rec!! And I got to fangirl all over Julia Quinn and get some of my Bridgerton books signed. (And then promptly lost them and had a panic attack. Apparently they got mixed in with the new books Julia was signing and she found them when she got home, so all’s well that ends well.)
All in all I was looking at this as a bucket list, once-in-a-lifetime event that I went to just because it was in my backyard and I could go home every night, and don’t expect to attend again (unless I sell the damn book, then all bets are off.) But on the whole I had a whopping good time and got enough swag and books to keep me happy for a very long time!
@Ash: I would welcome your suggestions! You can email me – sarah AT smartbitchestrashybooks DOTTY com. Thank you!!
It was my first RT and I really had a great time (though I am also able to recognize some of the shortcomings that Katie C mentioned). I’m not sure if I’m just too lazy to function or have a naturally occurring self-preservation that kicks in, but I’m never one to over do it with events. I think that really helped with RT. I always made sure to have a block or two in the day where I had nowhere to be, so I could chill in my room or eat actual food. Definitely recommend.
Highlights:
-the Historical Greeting Card party where my card featuring a syphilis joke won me a prize! It was a great way to start RT. I was worried about reader events being too goofy for me (cynical millenial over here) but they are such a great way to meet people. So suck it up and go!
-SBTB Everything! Seriously, you guys were the best. And thanks your events are the best way to meet rad people (shoutout to Demelza and Natasha!). On top of all the free books I brought home, I also have a LONG list of recs from your event.
– Dinner with Elizabeth Essex, Valerie Bowman, and Erin Knightley!!!! Thanks to the aforementioned syphilis card, Elizabeth Essex and I kind of became friends and I got to have dinner with three awesome women/authors. Honestly, RT could have ended right then and I would have been happy.
-Super Smart Panels. I’m a huge dork, so I love just sitting down and listening to smart people talk about things they love/know a lot about. I was a little bit worried that I would feel out of place as “just a reader,” but the panels were some of the my favorite parts of RT. So if that’s something you’re into, you should go for it. A couple of my favorites included the panel on Beta Heroes, Sex Positivity (with secret guest COURTNEY MILAN) and the historical panel with Julia Quinn that included a delightful (no sarcasm, it was great) lecture on public health.
Lowlights:
-lines. I’d say I probably spent over 10 hours in lines the entire week, conservatively. The waiting isn’t so bad, especially when you’ve got multiple podcasts queued up and friendly neighbors, but the lack of sustenance and growing tension in the crowd is very stressful. I’m a hyper-sensitive person, so other people’s emotions tend to make me start to lose my mind, and I almost had to leave the Avon line for fear of having a meltdown.
-I really hated when they made us work for the books/swag. I get raffles, and winning a contest, but a task to enter a raffle? a task on top of a game to enter a raffle you did not know was happening? It got old. And if you tried to opt out, people seemed to get offended, or there was no reason to even be at an event. If the event was interesting/fun enough, I left feeling satisfied without books (like the clinch it game by avon, which was hilarious to play even if we didn’t win anything).
All in all, I’ll definitely be back for RENO. And I’m glad I went to Atlanta, which was so close to home I probably wouldn’t have felt too bad even if it was a bust.
I want to second Katie C’s comments about the Chocolate, Books, and Authors event. I’m not a print reader nor do I read many “clean” romances but my mother does and she’s given me all kinds of crap about not bringing her home many books from the last couple RTs so finding her some books was one of my main goals this year and prior to that event I was failing miserably. I was actually planning to stop by a B&N and buy my mother some books on the way home. But I had just finished with one panel, had 30 minutes before I had a meeting, and I was starving. As I was speed walking past the door to the event, one of the organizers (I assume) was outside waving a flyer and I heard the words “free chocolate.” She may have said something about books, I don’t know, but I went in to eat the chocolate. But as I was shoving chocolate covered strawberries in my face, I realized there were TONS of books, without insane lines. I think I ended up with 12 books total for Mom and all the authors there were lovely and kind.
And the best part, when they started to run out of books, they let people know. Almost every other event I saw (especially the pop up signings) allowed people to keep lining up for books when the staff had to know there wasn’t enough for everyone and wasted everyone’s time.
The best part of RT, as always, was hanging out with friends and dishing books but at this point I’m not sure it’s worth the $1000+ I paid just for my badge and 3 nights at the hotel.
I really appreciated the review and wanted to share my experience last year. I went to RT last year for the first time and I agree the crowds were crazy. They also had the same problem that it sounds like this one had – rooms that were too small for the event. I am not sure if that is the RT planners or the hotel. My friend and I were peopled out by Friday and so we left Friday night instead of staying for the book fair on Saturday.
One thing that I liked about the Avon event last year is that all the authors had postcards with instructions on getting the eBook that they were signing. I had the author’s sign those for me rather than a book since I read on my Kindle almost exclusively.
I did get to bring home over 50 regular books and about 40 free eBooks, which was nice. I would like it if they all had the postcards with the free eBook available like Avon did last year then I might think about going again. Also, I would be more choosey about the panels I chose – I think I might go to the ones for writers just because they seemed calmer (we attended one while in Vegas). I also felt like you got to know the authors a little better in that one.
I also learned about SBTB when I was at RT last year so even though it was very crowded, I did get some good stuff out of it!
Elyse- Do you have a picture of the knitting bag from Sonali Dev? It was liked so very much!
This was my 3rd RT (2nd with my mom in tow), and we had a great time as usual. I went to a lot more game events this year, which was fun (cards against humanity and apples to apples are a must for me), but I think I’ll be back to more panels next year. The sex positivity panel was GREAT! I cried a little. I knew to expect lines, so that didn’t bother me, but I hated the layout of the hotel.
Oh, and the SBTB events are a must too!
Well, it’s good to know I’m not dead yet…as evidenced by the way my eyes bugged out at that picture of Vikkas Bhardwaj. 🙂 Thank you for that. And thanks to for the great overview by the SBTB ladies and commenters.
I attended the full RT 2014 in New Orleans but this year I only attended the FAN-tastic Day and it was fun but definitely not as well organized. In NOLA all the events I attended were on time and the rooms were great sizes for the amount of people. FAN-tastic Day is limited but even I had an event (Southern Affair by Penguin Random House) that started about 10 minutes late and was set to end at 3:45 with a raffle drawing. They were still letting people in the room by 3:40 and had to delay the raffle. The FAN-tastic party which is always fun was super crowded and the room waaaay too small. Someone was certainly off when it came to organizing and logistics this time around.
All that being said I love the RT convention and plan to attend the full convention again at some point. But it’s true: it’s crowded, exhausting, and clique-ish. However there are lots of friendly people and I often find that the “just” readers are the ones in corners or lines wth their faces in books and that’s why you’re not finding them. At least, I know that’s the way I am 🙂
@Jacyln YASSSSSSSSSSSS the Clinch-it party by Avon was definitely a highlight. If that’s the one where you and I reenacted a romance novel cover, and there was karaoke, and women read awesome sexy excerpts, and Lenora Bell was our Team Leader.
So I’m new to this whole scene, and I’m wondering – what does RT stand for? Is it Romance …something that starts with T? Am I just being really dense?
Thanks for this post and all the comments. I’m thinking about attending next year…
I agree that RT did not feel very readery and I met more authors than I wanted to. However I met RHG and Sarah #winning! and I said hey to people I met online and met some new people. Yes some people are cliquey and ignored me but you find that anywhere. I got to go cheek to cheek with Linda Lael Miller-who I adore and feel very accomplished considering I went to work everyday except Thursday and Sunday and then came to RT before or after work. But at the end of the day,the lines were ridiculous, the events were great but the cost and lines mean I prob would not go to another RT.
Hello all – this is Katie C. and the reader comments included in the article are from me!
I did want to mention that my mom and I had a blast in the city – it is so vibrant and everywhere we went there seemed to be new construction. It was great to see such a vibrant, growing city compared to where I live where the urban core is not in great shape.
Our very favorite part of the trip by far was touring Atlanta on the Monday and Tuesday before RT. On Monday, we visited the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, Atlanta History Center (which has a huge civil war exhibit and several historic homes on the property), ate lunch at the History Center at the Swan Coach House – so yummy, toured the Margaret Mitchell House (which made me want to read Gone with the Wind again – I read it in 5th grade and I am sure I would take away something very different as an adult) and the independent bookstores Book Nook (so so so many romances) and Eagle Eye Bookshop (tiny romance section). We ate dinner at a wonderful pizza place called Shorty’s.
Tuesday we went to the Martin Luther King National Historic Site where we visited the Old Ebenezer Baptist Church which has been restored to the way it looked in the 1960’s when MLK preached there and the house MLK was born in and lived in until he was about 12. Then we had lunch at Mary Mac’s and holy Southern food – that place was amazing. Seriously, everything we ate (and we ate a lot) was delicious. Then we toured the Wren’s Nest which was home to the author who wrote the Uncle Remus tales. We had an 86 year old tour guide who was just the best and we were the only two people on the tour! Every place we visited was great and we really enjoyed it.
@DeanaCal RT stands for Romantic Times Booklovers Convention
@DeanaCal: Romantic Times.
@Elyse Re: The Avon Party. I stopped an RT volunteer while I was in the line for the Avon event and asked her why it was running so late. She said there was a small catastrophe going on. I asked her what that meant as I was picturing like a flooded room or power outage or something. She told me that RT and Avon were fighting over how the room should be set up because Avon wanted it one way and RT another. That was frustrating because while they fought we just had to keep standing in line. Not sure how good this information is, but I got it directly from a volunteer that I had seen often during the conference.
This was my first RT. I’ve been to a few other conventions before. So I kinda knew what to expect. But it was a lot more fun than I was expecting! Made some awesome friends (Hi Demelza, Jaclyn, Dawn and Peggy!). Everyone I met was super nice! The closest I got to grumpy people was in the Avon line.
Highlights:
– One of my goals going into RT was to make book buddies. I’m happy to say this goal was a success!
– SBTB anything. My schedule was pretty much planned around the SBTB panels. They were all super fun! The bitches are super sweet! My friend Demelza and I had a nice spontaneous chat with Carrie after the reader rec panel.
– As others have mentioned, the Bollywood panel. This was a hoot! I love Sonali Dev. Speaking of…
– Meeting Sonali Dev. She is so nice!
– Damon Suede. I have to admit I did not know he existed before RT. But he was everywhere and he’s such a great human being! The cinema craptastique panel was badly setup. The screen was too low for majority of the room to see. But Damon made it all worthwhile! I found the movie on YouTube and my friend and I were basically watching my phone and listening to his commentary. Worked out really well.
– getting ARCs of authors I love!
– Getting exposed to new authors (Alisha Rai – she is a sweetheart!, Alyssa Cole to name a few) and getting recs from people while waiting in line. My TBR list has grown significantly.
– Volunteering. It was interesting to get a behind the scene look at how much work goes into prepping all those goody bags and organizing the book fair.
The terrible:
Lines – the people made it bearable. But it was still a lot of wasted time standing in lines.
Avon party – I had to give up on the event after waiting in line because I wanted to make the podcast panel. But my friend Jaclyn, who is awesome, got into the event and got me some books!
Events that required you to stand in lines to get a signature or “thing” from about 10 to 15 authors before they would give you swag. I found these pointless. It felt like it sucked for the authors too. They didn’t get a chance to properly talk to readers. Everyone had an ulterior motive for visiting them and just wanted to get the task done. I had a lot more fun at the smaller panels where I heard authors talk and the audience got a chance to ask questions (sex positivity panel with Alisha Rai, historical panel with Julia Quinn)
Not many people have mentioned it and it wasn’t super packed, but the St Martin Press Pics and Pies event was really well done. There was a lot of mingling with the authors. I had a nice chat with Darynda Jones and Kristen Ashley. I, actually, fangirled all over Kristen. She was as fabulous as she seems on social media. She allowed me to make a car sticker for one of her series and I sent her a copy. She said that she wanted to sell versions of it, but didn’t want to steal it. I kept telling her to go ahead and sell them! Heck, I would fine with attribution in her shop! *laughs* Sherrilyn Kenyon’s author chat was completely fabulous, too.