CR Spring Blog : Just another WordPress weblog

As authors you want as many of your fans, and potential new fans, to attend CR. We do our best to get the word out, but as attending authors you have far more power. This is how you can help us help you…

1) Add one of the CR banners (scroll down to find them, this is so simple all the code is there!) to your website, blog, or newsletter.

2) Print out CR flier in word format or pdf format, and pass them out wherever you go. Leave them at your local book stores. Stick them in all your shelved books at those book stores. Flier can be found at crspring.com

3) Be sure to include us in your newsletters and blogs. ALL OF THEM. Telling everyone you are attending and that they should come.

4) Spread the word anyway you can. Authors tend to talk to authors which is great. We love getting authors, but the fans are what this event is about so be sure to tell them to come too!

If you need any help contact csolyn@rakehell.com :)

Now is the the time to promote CR on your website before the holidays are upon us, and before you know it spring is here. I’ve put together a couple banners that you can put on your website using the code below:

<a href="http://crspring.com/" title="CR Spring Website"><img src="http://crspring.com/banners/crspring_half-banner.gif" width="180" height="60" alt="CR Spring: celebrate romance, Feb 29 - Mar 2nd Columbia, SC" /></a>

<a href="http://crspring.com/" title="CR Spring: celebrate romance, Feb 29 - Mar 2nd Columbia, SC"><img src="http://crspring.com/banners/crspring_micro-banner.gif" width="88" height="31" alt="CR Spring" /></a>

Or, if you think the violet is going to clash with the colors of your website (I wouldn’t be surprised), here’s a black and white version that only changes to color when a visitor puts her cursor over it.

<a href="http://crspring.com/" title="CR Spring Website" style="display: block; width: 180px; height: 60px; background-image: url(http://crspring.com/banners/crspring_half-banner.gif);" onmouseover="document.getElementById('crbanner').style.visibility='hidden';" onmouseout="document.getElementById('crbanner').style.visibility='visible';"><img id="crbanner" src="http://crspring.com/banners/crspring_half-banner-bw.gif" width="180" height="60" border="0" alt="CR Spring: celebrate romance, Feb 29 - Mar 2nd Columbia, SC" /></a>

In case you missed this week’s newsletter, here are some of the highlights:

TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

CR is such a great conference – I was a fan and attendee for many years before I started helping out, and every year I have a great time.  I think you all know how special CR is!  But we need your help to spread the word, especially to readers.  A lot of authors learn about CR through their writing groups or from other authors, but it’s harder for us to reach readers, since there are so many web sites, blogs and message boards out there these days (not to mention those readers who aren’t online.)  We will be publicizing CR on some of the romance web sites, but we need you to help!

If you are an author, please try to mention us on your web site, blog or mailing list.  If you are attending CR, your fans want to know!!!  If you’re a reader (or an author) and you participate in a romance blog or message board, please mention CR!  If you live within driving distance of CR, and you know a great romance-friendly bookstore, library or reading group, please drop me an email and let me know.  We will be sending out flyers in a few weeks and want to make sure they reach all the great bookstores in the area.

I know there are a lot of readers out there who would love to attend CR, but just don’t know about it yet.  I first heard about CR from another reader, and I’ll bet many of you did too. Spread the joy!

REGISTRATION

Registration is already open, and we have some great people signed up already!  I’ve gotten a few questions about the registration fee, so I thought I’d let you know what your registration fee covers.  Everyone (both authors and readers) pays the same registration fee, which is $150 this year.  (We also have day rates if you can’t come for the whole conference.)  The fee covers all the events at CR except for dinner Saturday night (when we usually go out to local restaurants).  It includes dinner on Friday, breakfast and lunch on Saturday, and breakfast on Sunday.  It also covers the other conference costs, like renting the meeting rooms and service from the hotel.  CR is run by volunteers, so all of your conference fee goes to covering our costs.

The meals are going to be great this year – one reason we picked this hotel is because it had such delicious menu offerings!

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

Some of our authors are really on their toes!  They have already registered for the conference – aren’t they great?  A big round of applause for our early sign-up authors:

Our two keynote speakers, Sabrina Jeffries and Stephanie Bond

Karen Hawkins
Cindy Holby
Elizabeth Hoyt
Isabo Kelly
Rosemary Laurey / Madeleine Oh
Jade Lee / Kathy Greyle
Linnea Sinclair
Julia Talbot
Vicki Lewis Thompson
BA Tortuga
J.C. Wilder
If you have questions or comments, please email me any time, at karen@crspring.com

So far, I’ve been asked by members of the organizing committee at least 4 times what the room rate is.  The latest query prompted this blog so I can say that it’s up at the website :)  Our room rate for the conference is $125.  You may wonder why we can’t it any lower.  One of the reasons is the size of the conference.  Another is that it’s getting harder to get a rate much below $100 even on weekends these days.  Remember, the rate is the same whether you have one or two people in the room so finding a room mate can be a good cost saving measure. 

 Karen and I met up in NJ last weekend for the NJRW booksigning and passed out CR flyers to a lot of people.  While there we visited with Mary Lynne, during her son’s birthday party of all things:).  Do I have good timing or what? We brainstormed ideas for our Friday night activity and we came up with some good ones ( patting myself on the back). 

You’ll have to come to the conference to see what they are or what they may evolve into.  We already have some good authors signed up.  Check out the newsletter that Karen sent out today for a list. 

 Have a great weekend!

 Leanne

Be sure to fill in the author bio section on your registration. If not be sure to email your bio to Cybil csolyn@rakehell.com so that we can include it on all CR materials! Your bio must be 100 words or less!