Stacia Kane

So today, in my final RWA post for the week (but I’m sure not ever), I want to talk about what the RWA does and does not do, and how I think and feel about it. And stuff. Actually, I just woke up and my mind is still a little fuzzy, but we’re going out today and I don’t know when we’ll be back, so I want to get this in before we go. (Plus, I have had a pork roast in the oven since last night, slow roasting, and it smells so good and I can’t wait for dinner, but it means that when I get home I’ll be chopping potatoes and parsnips to roast and making gravy and all that stuff. So busy. But I’ll have time to read and reply to comments.)

Anyway.

Smart Bitches posted today about the RWA again, and the good things they do. It’s quite an interesting post, and the comments trail is even more so (it’s all here for your reading pleasure).

I have some thoughts on why it is that RWA, an organization run by and largely peopled with women, seems to worry so much more about inclusion and who’s in and who’s out than, say, the SFWA which seems to be largely a male organization. (Just from what I see, don’t kill me if I’m wrong please.) Writer Sandra K. Moore has an excellent post about the RWA, inclusion, and gender here; it’s definitely worth a read, as is the post she links to in the beginning.

But my issue at the moment is more on the RWA as a professional organization, specifically as the only one for writers which allows unpublished writers to join. (Again, the post Moore links to is about that subject; she says it better than I could.)

The thing is, as I said before, I really get nothing from my RWA membership. I don’t go to conventions (and if I wanted to, I wouldn’t have to be a member to attend.) I don’t have a local chapter whose meetings I attend. I’m not really a joiner (big shock) anyway, so even when I did have a local chapter I never bothered to go. So perhaps I am not one to be making a judgment–but then, I’m exactly the right one, too.

Because none of this stuff ever seemed to have any real value to me, and that’s why I didn’t go. I didn’t bother because I didn’t see any value in bothering. Networking is all well and good, I guess, but ultimately there are only so many lectures you can hear or articles on writing good queries before it all becomes gibberish.

That I didn’t get involved is my fault, but that RWA didn’t make me want to get involved is theirs. I’d been told that RWA was invaluable to the unpublished writer; maybe at one point it was, but with the advent of the internet, that value is dissipating. I can learn more about publishing from the blogs I link to than from an issue of the Romance Writer’s Report.

So RWA needs to change its focus. I keep hearing it does so much for romance writers…but aside from its recent serving of a cease-and-desist order on copyright theft site eSnips, I haven’t seen much of it. I think once or twice they’ve stepped into a publishing dispute and done something about it (like sponsoring audits or putting pressure on publishers to change a particular clause in a contract, or whatever).

Compare that to The Authors Guild. Check that website out, seriously. They offer health insurance plans. They offer contract advice and legal services. They even offer web design services.

Tell me which one is more worth joining?

My point isn’t that RWA isn’t any good. They are. But they should be better. They could concern themselves less with helping newbies–not that it’s not important–and more with helping published authors. I’d be willing to pay an extra $50 a year to get some of the services offered by the Author’s Guild (although they charge less.) (By the way, see the difference between that website and RWA’s homepage. Seriously.)

See, again, so many people seem to imbue the RWA with some kind of authority, and frankly, it’s a waste of time and energy. So you write m/m and the current RWA environment doesn’t care for m/m? (Although I think that’s more to do with the old regime than the new.) So what? Why does it matter to you? Is your work less valid because the RWA doesn’t recognize your publisher? Who cares? Why do you care? Why do you need to set up this straw dog to fight, instead of just working as hard as you can, as best as you can, and making your own way?

Seriously. Do you care about being a good writer, or do you care what RWA thinks?

And it’s this kind of silly argument that keeps the RWA from being everything it could and should be. Why don’t we worry less about why RWA doesn’t like books with ass-fucking in them, and more about why RWA isn’t organizing some kind of health plan for its published members? Less accusing them of being mean because they don’t recognize a start-up publisher without seeing some proof that they can actually help a writer’s career, and more of demanding they provide free contract help so unagented writers aren’t being fucked in the ass themselves?

Maybe, if we want to know why our genre doesn’t get the respect we think it deserves, it’s because our professional organization seems to be largely devoted to self-esteem issues instead of being a real help to its members.

Standards for publishers grow and change, editorial needs and trends come and go…but an organization that offers its members nothing to help them grow as professionals offers nothing at all, and will become irrelevent and die.

RWA Romance publishing authors guild

Note: I still want to hear any thoughts you have on the RWA standards, please. But I didn’t want to put the ads up and not make some sort of statement about them.

Yep, I’ve got them. If they bother you, let me know, and please don’t just start clicking indiscriminately because I can get kicked out of the program for that.

But seriously. If they interfere with your experience here, if they make my blog a less inviting place, if they make you not want to come back and participate…tell me. They’ll go bye-bye. Keeping readers and friends is far, far more important than making a few £ from Google.

But the ads won’t change me, oh no! I’ll still be my crazy self! And while I’m thinking of crazy things to blog about, I like to curl up with a good Mills and Boon romance! For real romance that makes your heart sing! And drink PG Tips tea! It’s delicious! It’s the only tea cool people like me drink!

(Please tell me you know that’s sarcastic!)

Seriously. My email is in my profile. If it’s a problem for you, it’s a problem for me.

And a MAJOR by the way: I have banned a certain author mill/scam “traditional” publisher from advertising here. If you see na ad by them on this site, please tell me, because they shouldn’t be allowed to.

I’m sure you follow the rest.

Yes, in my second post on the RWA (that’s Romance Writers of America, btw *wink*), I’m going to bore all you non-RWA people by discussing publisher recognition. Because I’ve been hearing a lot about this, and (surprise!) I have some opinions on it.

These are the current standards for publisher recognition (to view them in situ, as it were, in the issue of RWA E-notes I took this from, go here and scroll down a bit):

To be an “RWA-Recognized Publisher,” a publisher must be a royalty-paying publishing house that (1) does not offer is not a subsidy or vanity publisher contracts to RWA members, (2) has been releasing books on a regular basis via national distribution for a minimum of one year, and (3) has sold a minimum of 1,500 hardcover or trade paperback copies or 5,000 copies in any other format, including print on demand, of a single romance novel or novella or collection of novellas in book form, in bona fide arms-length transactions, and continues to sell a minimum of 1,500 hardcover or trade paperback copies or 5,000 copies in any other format of a subsequent romance novel each year.

That’s it. Those are the standards. What this means, my lovies, is that many epublishers are not recognized (among them one of my own publishers, Whiskey Creek Press-Torrid).

What that means to the authors who write for those publishers is that they cannot join PAN, RWA’s Published Author’s Network. PAN benefits include things like first pick at editor/agent pitch meetings at RWA conventions, being able to attend the PAN retreat (which I envision being a bit like a summer camp, with lots of pillows and a fireplace, and a bunch of ladies in pajamas toasting marshamllows and discussing passive voice), co-op promo activities, and, according to the PAN page on the RWA website, “other activities designed to adavcne the professional interests of PAN members.”

All of which sounds pretty good, right? But hardly stuff worth losing sleep over.

I’m not a PAN member myself, although I’ve been provisionally eligible since April of last year and fully eligible since December, when Black Dragon released. So perhaps my view is biased. I am eligible. I’ve not bothered to send in the form to become a member. Which makes me lazy. I readily admit that part of my general contempt–or rather, my disregard–of RWA is because I haven’t bothered to get all I can from it. I never joined my local chapter in Florida, for example, and apparently it’s the local meetings that most members find beneficial. I am a member of Passionate Ink, which is the online erotic romance chapter of RWA.

And that’s where this is coming from, really. RWA is currently not accepting any more publisher applications for recognition, while they decide if the standards need to be changed (read: should it be harder for publishers to get recognition?).

Yes, it should.

See, a lot of epubbed writers feel really hurt by RWA’s refusal to “acknowledge” them as published authors. And to some degree, I’m with them. It hurts to work hard for something and think you’ve acheived it, only to have the professional organization to which you pay not-inconsiderable dues every year doesn’t think your publisher is good enough for them to send you a little gold pin and let you into the slumber party.

But this shouldn’t be about feelings. It should be about careers. It should be about A) reaching a certain level of proficiency; and B) making sure the publisher you’re selling your work to is really going to allow you to make any money. Seriously, y’all, I’ve read some books from smaller, newer epublishers. They are not all the same, and the books are not all what I would consider ready for publication. Should we start allowing anyobdy to say they’re a publisher, and get recognized? Should we start allowing Publish America authors to join PAN? Should RWA, one of the largest professional writer’s organizations, start recognizing fly-by-nights and scammers, giving author mills their approval, just so the scamees can feel good about themsleves? No matter who else is hurt by that recognition?

1500 books or 5000 ebooks is all well and good…for one title. Just because a publisher is capable of selling that many copies of one title doesn’t mean they’re capable of selling that many copies of all their titles, though, or even a decent percentage of their titles. Selling a book to an RWA-recognized publisher should be a big deal. It should mean the writer can have some expectation of decent earnings. It should mean that the publisher will automatically:
–Make the book available on time
–Make the book easily available to potential customers, either by adding it and the author to all search engines on its website, or by putting it in the print catalog and working to make sure bookstores order that book
–Provide royalty statements
–Provide professional editing, not just copyediting and spellcheck
–engage in at least some form of promotion, even if that promotion is simply announcing releases on its site and Yahoo group and sending copies for review.
It should mean that an author can reasonably expect that the publisher has the clout, either online or with bookstores, to sell a reasonable number of copies of the author’s book. An average, if you will. Not just one book that managed to meet the goals, but a lot of books.

Those standards are there to protect authors, not to denigrate them. No publisher should be RWA recognized if it’s publishing books that sell copies in the single digits. It simply shouldn’t happen.

See, this is where I think making RWA recognition such a big deal, such a be-all end-all in people’s eyes, has seriously backfired. Publishers are now so eager to get the recognition that they focus on meeting that goal, and on no other (IMO). And a lot of books, a lot of authors, are getting screwed, either by being ignored so the publisher can focus on those books, or by simply thinking they’ve got a shot at making real money, finally–at least enough for a really nice pair of shoes, if not more–only to discover that their publisher is not what they thought. That the hits aren’t there, the interest isn’t there. It’s not always the fault of the publisher. Some books are hits, some are misses. But an RWA recognized publisher should at the very least be giving each book an equal shot. They should have the juice to do that.

Because if they don’t, being recognized means nothing. And it should. Because if it doesn’t, the writers whose feelings are hurt are right–it’s just a way to be mean to them and exclude them.

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You shouldn’t.

Really. Why the f*** should you?

See, this all started a couple of weeks ago (of course, thanks to delays and laziness, I’m once again blogging well after the excitement has died down) over at Romancing the Blog. This post started a kerfuffle about the Ritas, which, for those of you who don’t know, are awards given every year at the RWA National convention. Best Long Historical, Best Paranormal, Best Contemporary, etc.

The awards are judged by volunteer RWA members, who I believe need to also be published (by an RWA-recognized publisher. More on that another day. I probably don’t think about publisher recognition the way you think I do, just a warning.)

So there you go. The Ritas are awards given by authors, to authors, at a private ceremony. And readers are supposed to care about this why?

The wonderful Smart Bitches did a post the following day, entitled Why I don’t Care About the Ritas. Which has some excellent points. In general, the taste of the RWA membership tends to differ from that of many romance readers and other writers. With all due respect, a lot of the Rita judges are ladies who prefer not to have some elements–like, for example, lots of graphic sex–in their books, and enjoy elements–like, say, amnesiacs or secret fucking babies or whatever–which make the rest of us want to throw up.

They did another post about fixing the Rita, cleverly titled How do you solve a problem like the Ritas? More good comments are made, more excellent suggestions, particularly, I think, mine (what a shock) about making the judging less subjective. All judging is subjective, yes, but breaking the book into elements and giving individual scores based on those, rather than an overall 1-9 with no explanation given, might make a difference.

But ultimately…who cares?

See, I think there’s three great misconceptions at work here: One, that most readers are even aware of the RWA; two, that most readers give a shit about the RWA or their politics/policies if they are aware of them; and three, that the RWA really matters to anyone in any way, aside from holding what I hear is a pretty good convention once a year and publishing an intermittently interesting magazine for members once a month (the only reason I’m still a member.)

Before I started writing romance, I read it. I’ve read it all my life. But not once, as I sat down with a juicy Connie Mason or Catherine Lanigan or whomever I was reading at the time, did I think, “I wonder if other writers find this book good enough to give it an award in a private ceremony in Texas?”

Maybe the Ritas are like the Oscars. Maybe. But you know what? I don’t really care that much about the Oscars, either. And the only reason why anyone does care about the Oscar is because they’re on TV, and we get to wait eagerly for someone to wear a terrible dress or make an outrageously offensive comment about Zionists or something. We don’t really care that much about the awards, because they’re usually so predictable and lame. Maybe we’re excited to see Scorsese finally win (yeah, I admit I totally was), but that’s the extent of it.

The problem is, when you’re a member of the romance writing community (or a publisher or agent), this stuff seems important. What RWA does and thinks, ooh! The Rita or the Golden Heart (unpubbed writers), wow!

But if you’re a reader? You have your own life, your own stuff you care about. Internal squabbles about artistic standards for covers or whatever mean nothing to you, absolutely nothing. Just like the deal-making behind the scenes that gets the movie made means nothing.

The fact is, the RWA membership and readership is too wildly disaparate to effectively judge an award. And the fact is, readers just like to read. None of this matters to them if they have a good story in front of them. And all of this business about why we should care about the Rita feels to me like writers and RWA memeber getting in a snit because nobody’s paying attention to them, frankly. You’ll care about what they TELL you to care about, damn it!

(Note: Of course I want a Rita. That still doesn’t mean I think you should care about them. But when I win an Eisner Award, the whole world better care!)

And by the way…this does NOT alter or make less my heartiest congratulations to the finalists. Seriously. They worked hard and they deserve to feel good. I just don’t think the readers should be forced to care about the awards as a whole if they don’t.

Edit to add: One, if this topic interests you at all, you should go read Susan Wilbanks’ posts about the Golden Heart. Very interesting.

Three, that leads me to ask again if you guys would bother to occasionally click on ads if I had them, or would you ignore them? I’m thinking about getting them, but I don’t want it to be a waste or disruptive. Maybe this should be a separate post? I’ll see how comments go.

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