Sad Day For Romance

Why, oh why, did I choose this particular time to start paying attention to what's going on in the romance community again? Today was a train wreck and, as usual, I couldn't stop looking. Today, Harlequin--the grand old dame, the backbone of romance--was stripped of it's publisher eligibility by RWA. And rightly so. But what a nightmare for all the Harlequin authors, past and present. My heart goes out to them tonight and I hope RWA can find a way to keep their priveleges intact.

I'm not going over all the points of what's happened. It's already being talked to death on all the loops and the popular blogs. Speaking as an author who still has the dream of being published with one of the big, mass-market publishers, this is the last thing we needed. Romance writers already take enough hits. The literary world will have a field day with this latest drama. It's days like this that make me yearn for the days before the internet and all the yahoogroups and blogs came into being. There wasn't very much drama back then. Only us writers and our stories. It's days like this that make me think anyone must be out of her mind to want to be a published author.

The big media is already picking up on the story. Here's a link to a very demeaning little article in The New Yorker.

I hope tomorrow is a better day.

Devon

Just When You Think You've Seen It All

I've been a member of the romance community for many years, but never dreamed I would see anything on the scale of this. Harlequin is now listed at Predators & Editors as a vanity publisher because they've joined forces with and intend to put their brand on books to be published by Author Solutions, a vanity publisher. What a slap in the face to all the authors who've worked long and hard to build careers at HQ. What a slap to all the people who've written and submitted to Harlequin for many years, trying to break in with their "dream" publisher when all they had to do was wait a while and simply pay the price of admission. I don't see this ending well for anyone.

If you want to read more, or learn the particulars, it's all over the blogosphere. Or.. here's a link to the Harlequin Horizons site. That's what they're calling this new vanity imprint. Today has seen another giant leap toward the demise of the traditional publishing model. And Harlequin of all places! I'm still in shock.

Devon