“Having a website is a lot like having a child,” Wendell suggested, and one of her first bits of advice came from a parenting guide, Wendy Mogel’s The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: keep two pieces of paper in your pocket at all times; one says, “I am but a grain of sand,” while the other reads, “The world was created for me.” Along with that balance of humility and self-esteem, Wendell identified three other traits–authenticity, consistency and generosity–as crucial to any successful blog, and also noted that while praise from online reviewers might be viewed with skepticism, criticism can catch readers’ attention: “If I say something smells bad,” she quipped, “you’re totally going to sniff it!” When readers discover a shared breaking point for what constitutes bad writing, she explained, it helps bolster the reviewer’s credibility.

Giving that speech was a terrible amount of fun, and I’m honored that I was asked to do it.

Rochelle Alers said something to me afterward that was very wise, and I’m still thinking about it: she never worries about the romance genre not receiving respect. She respects herself and she respects her work, and she doesn’t worry what anyone else says. Me personally, I spend a lot of time being asked why romance, aren’t I too smart to read romance, and (my favorite) “don’t you read… other things?” I’ve long stopped being embarrassed about romance reading, and while I meet many authors and readers who are still shy of speaking out about it, it’s refreshingly awesome to meet a savvy successful author who thinks so differently.