Every year, Romance GenreCon brings together authors and readers for a deep dive into the heart of romance publishing. This year’s sessions were packed with insights that every author—whether indie or trad—can use to grow their career and community.

Here are my top-three takeaways:

Your most loyal readers are your loudest megaphone. A small, committed street team can boost visibility, credibility, and turn your book into a movement. First, you must define your ideal reader and find where they hang out (BookTok, Instagram, podcasts). Then get personal and start small. Once you have selected your street team, offer exclusive content and meaningful incentives like early access and personalized merch. Keep your team engaged with clear roles during launches and ongoing connection beyond release day. This class was super helpful to me! Despite having a large newsletter, I’ve never tried to organize a street team. Now it’s definitely on my to-do list! Thank you to Angela Anderson for such a fabulous class. 

Copyright, fair use, plagiarism, and AI can feel like a maze. Granted, I work in art rights in publishing, so I already know a lot about how AI is affecting the business. But I knew I had to hear what author (and lawyer) Lisa Rayne had to say about it. The most fascinating point to me was making sure we are differentiating between the types when we discuss them. Assisted AI has been around forever: spellcheck, Grammarly, etc. Agentic/Autonomous AI helps with decisions. Think self-driving cars vs navigation software. Generative AI creates new content (ChatGPT). There was a lot of consensus that using AI as an assistive tool is okay (brainstorming, research, editing, etc.), but generative is the most damaging. It’s also not protected by copyright law. Granted, this was being discussed without factoring in environmental impacts. Honestly, I could write an entire blog post about this class. I particularly enjoyed the discussion of the rise of fan fiction being traditionally published (and how authors had to cut out all original references in order to do so). There is so much nuance to all of this, so if you want to see more takeaways, let me know in the comments.

Genre mashups are tempting, but clarity about your book’s core identity helps you market it better and reach your true audience. This was hard for me! I love genre mashups. All of my critique partners know how much I love exploring how magic and technology (or fantasy and sci-fi) can be the same. But I also understand the importance of making sure your themes and emotions are clear. Hence why I do “the difference between rivals-to-lovers and enemies-to-lovers” trope posts. Clearly defined boundaries drive your narrative and make your story more impactful. 

Ultimately, the best advice came at the end of the day on the large Q&A panel: write what’s in your heart, not what others expect. Be brave enough to ignore the noise and stay true to your voice. Every reader and every book is different. A bad review actually says more about the reviewer than the writer. It just wasn’t for them. Your story matters because it’s yours. So take these lessons and make them your own. 

Your readers—and your future self—will thank you.

What was your favorite takeaway? Did you attend Romance GenreCon?

~SAT

P.S. September’s blog schedule is changing due to the Labor Day holiday. My next post will be on September 8. 

P.P.S. I’m teaching a free webinar on Using Tropes Effectively tomorrow, August 19 at 7 PM EST. Learn more here.