Read with Pride Northwest discussion
GRNW Meet-Up 2014
>
GRNW 2014 - Call to Action! - Ways to Help
date
newest »
newest »
Just spotted this thread Tracy. There's also the Rainbow Book Awards which just opened up: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwid...They're in the first round of readings right now.
;-)
So I'm browsing Amazon as you do and when I saw the title Recommended in Historical Romance I was surprised to see that most of the books recommended were gay historical romance. I think they've tweaked their suggestion engines a bit.
Because we have Jeff Bezos email!!! Victory!
Mod
Keeping fighting the good fight!! :D
There are lots of different ways to engage, and we’re finding new ways all the time.
Some ways include:
1- Hold Events around the genre
There are lots of ways to do events, and they don’t always have to be big like GRNW. (Although attending GRNW is a great way to ensure there will be future GRNWs!)
Other events include:
Work with book stores and library spaces: Talk to book stores and libraries about the potential of doing an author event. This is especially easy if you can gather a few authors together to do a shared reading event.
Libraries especially love highlighting local authors, and working with them is a great way to encourage the library to add your books to the collection.
For GRNW, besides the Meet-Up at the Seattle Central Library (with 120+ attendees), we held three free public reading events on at the University Book Store on July 25, Sept. 5, and Sept. 13 that featured 12 GRNW attending authors.
And for many of the participants, this was their first public reading event, so we were really happy to help host that experience.
Increasing access to book stores, libraries, and public readings is just another way of promoting “normalization” and mainstreaming of the genre and its writers.
Also, if you’re planning an event, and you have a publisher already, talk to them about it. They might be able to help defray any event costs, like if you had to rent a space or if you want to have some light refreshments.
Or if you’re organizing an event for writers, reach out to their publishers. They might be able to help, especially if the costs are low. You are doing free advertising for them, so many will be interested in learning more about how they can support. :-)
2- Work with Libraries
Besides events, there are other ways to work with libraries to encourage engagement:
- Use your library book request system to request that your library purchase books. This option will have different results depending on how open your region is to something like LGBT romance, but it’s definitely good to try, especially if your library is very welcoming to diversity.
- If your library has a blog, and they already have some LGBT romance books, contact them and ask if you could do a blog post highlighting these titles.
We did this, it was a great chance to point to a lot of different books at SPL.
If you love reading and talking about books, it’s definitely worth trying and seeing if your library is open to guest posts.
3- Reaching out to community organizations that have common interests
We had 11 Community Partners, most of which are nonprofits, and focus on things like the arts, writing, or the LGBT community.
Community organizations can have lots of opportunities for engagement, especially if you’re willing to volunteer. Having excited and active volunteers will take a lot of the work off of very-harried nonprofit workers, and they’re more likely to participate because they won’t have the burden of that extra work.
And the bonus is if it goes well, your community partners will be much more likely to sign on to other ideas.
Also, a lot of writing nonprofits promote regular reading events or open mic events. They're definitely something to check out, and even see if you could be one of those events or you could participate in an open mic.
4- Donating Books
Some public libraries, especially smaller ones, allow book donations. Also, community LGBT library resources like Seattle’s Gay City LGBT Library allow donations. So donating books is another great way to support and spread awareness.
5 – Start a reading group
Reading groups provide fun ways to meet people and talk about books, and also you’re providing a support system that promotes a safe, welcoming, shame-free environment to others. It also increases community connections.
To help with this, we’re looking at starting local reading groups in Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver! Come check them out and see what you'd like to do! http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...
6- Submit your work to Awards
I know there’s disagreement about whether submitting to awards is useful, but the reality is, if people don’t submit, there is no engagement over the topic (and the award committees never have to deal with topics that some might find “uncomfortable.”)
Lambda Literary expanded their submission guidelines this year. You can check them out here: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/2013-aw...
I was told that there were only 16 LGBT romance submissions to the RWA Rita Awards for 2013, out of the thousands of entries. I know some are not fans of the Rita award process, but submitting your work here is one more option for promoting engagement: http://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=528
These are just some ways to promote engagement.
There are lots of other ways to. What works best with you? What would you like to try?
And do you have questions about how to do it? Do want more local support?
Come leave your comments, ideas, and questions here. We can use this thread as a resource for anyone who wants to try and spread the love about LGBT romance (and its many wonderful writers and readers.)
Who’s in? :D