Nora Roberts speaks to RWA conference on surmounting difficulties in getting published

Participants at the 2010 Romance Writers of America's annual conference heard Nora Roberts deliver the meeting's keynote speech yesterday at the July 29, 2010 luncheon. Roberts addressed the popular impression that getting published is more difficult today than ever before.

Nora Roberts photo by Devillibrarian  modified  by
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Roberts, who has been writing for over three decades, told her audience that it is indeed hard to get a publishing contract now. She pointed out, though, that it was equally difficult in the past.

In Roberts' audience were many writers who subsequently commented on her speech in their personal blogs. Among them were Gina Ardito, who recorded her thoughts on Flights of Fancy, Sara Ramsey, who wrote down her impressions for her Sara Ramsey blog, and Elaine Burroughs, who described her response to Roberts' address in The Writers Canvas.

Gina Ardito, who also writes under the name Katherine Brandon, was impressed by Roberts' advice to "ride the hard."  Roberts, Ardito said, "told us all to stop thinking about the good old days when it was 'so much easier' to get a publishing contract and 'ride the hard.' Because as hard as it is now, it was just as hard ten years ago, ten years earlier than that, and it'll still be just as hard ten years from now. "

Sara Ramsey, a 2009 Golden Heart winner, concurred with Ardito that "the main message of her [Roberts'] speech is that writing has always been hard, that publishing is no easier or harder than it ever was, and that you can either shut up and write, or waste your energy wishing that things were different."

Elaine Burroughs was another listener to be inspired by Roberts' speech, particularly by Roberts' contention that "writing is hard. It's supposed to be hard. The fact that it's hard is what makes it special, makes it worthwhile to keep going. Embrace the hard work, she [Roberts] said, for doing so makes writers special."

In addition to delivering the keynote address at the RWA conference, Roberts will conduct a "Chat With Nora Roberts" session, Friday, July 30.  On Saturday, July 31 she will attend the RITA Awards presentation ceremony, where her 2009 In Death series novel Promises in Death is in contention for the 2010 Best Romantic Suspense RITA Award.