The Romance Writers of America (RWA) Board has acted and stated that Harlequin, the biggest romance publisher around, no longer qualifies as a non-vanity, non-subsidy publisher after announcing yesterday that they had launched a self-publishing business. And this on the heels of announcing their new Digital Press. I think they really blew it.

If they wanted to go into e-publishing – without the identity of their HQN name (automatically not that attractive to authors) – they should have launched that successfully before announcing they would also publish your novel for app. $600, aligning themselves with “vanity” publishers.

I support RWA’s decision, as do the many, many writers on twitter indicating their own support. You’ve got to stand for something as I was trying to say in yesterday’s blog post. Trying to be fair and understanding and supportive while still saying if anything goes – there go the standards. And, like any profession, if you want to pursue a professional career as an author, more than likely you will join and support a professional organization. For most writers – at least romance and women’s fiction – that means RWA.

I think the e-publishing world is still rather murky because some e-publishers are identified as “non vanity” – receiving certain privileges, such as announcing your first sale in the RWA newsletter -  but not allowing you to move forward in the Published Author’s Network (PAN), which is confusing I think.

Anyway, after agonizing over this all day yesterday, feeling discouraged and lost and wondering what kind of a future there was in the writing world. I was pleased to see this decision announced so quickly. I’m sure it wasn’t easy. After all, I feel for all of the HQN authors. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next. I can’t imagine things will stay as they are. Something else has gotta give.

Comment Spam

Wondering why I was suddenly getting a surge of spam comments, I asked about it on Facebook and Twitter and author Wendy Nelson Tokunaga pointed me to this link about this new hideous way to promote your blog – buy spam comments. So this new venture goes out there and spews spam comments everywhere. I don’t quite understand the buy portion of this ridiculous gimmick, since I’m getting them for free, but ick! I tried turning off comments for awhile and that worked – but that’s no fun. But that should be the point of having comments – not to get a high ranking.

Besides, evaluating the worth of your blog or Facebook content based on how many comments it receives is Barbarian – it’s the old-world, old school hierarchy structure that Steven Pressfield discusses in The War of Art. Which brings me to my next rant and the “dumbing down of America.”

HQ Launches Digital Press and Self-Pubbed Press

First, respected romance publisher HQ launched Carina Press – a seemingly respectable e-publisher with the HQ name behind it – only to find out HQ doesn’t plan on marketing their books with the HQ powerhouse name behind it. But now the big news is HQ is launching a self-publishing company – Harlequin Horizons – where you can pay them a hefty sum and they will publish your books and you can proclaim to be a Harlequin author. I think their timing is off – and jeopardizes the launch of their digital publishing venture.

Now, as I mentioned in earlier posts, there’s nothing wrong with self-publishing or e-publishing. I’ve been agented, I turned down an e-pub contract to self-pub, but I may accept the next e-pub contract, while continuing to pursue my dream of traditional publishing. But it does seem that the dream and the opportunity to pursue a professional career by being published with a major publisher is dwindling – if not disappearing. The waters are muddy, indeed. And many who self-publish or e-publish treat it like they’re “best-selling” and just as fabulous as long-standing queen of romance, author Nora Roberts.

They’re posturing like their so-called fan base on Facebook is living and breathing just to hear how amazing their daily words are, that they can’t wait to get their hands on their latest book, and that they’re sitting at their feet waiting to hear writing advice dispensed – never considering that most of their Facebook “fans” are fellow writers offering support to the writing community. They’re not fans – they’re not their readers – they’re not their audience. Their audience is “out there.” These writers are delusional.

Dumbing Down of America Rant

But why shouldn’t they be? Society these days is so delusional and so greedy to have everything right now and to be seen as so perfect that what was once a clothing size 8 (before that, it was a 10) has become a 0. Colleges offering accelerated or online degrees are fooling people into thinking the MA or PhD they’ve just “earned” is the same as what it was in yesteryear (some may be – just choose wisely). And e-publishers and self-publishers are offering desperate people a way to be published right now – just fork over your money – instead of building a real career where your publisher pays you. But, then, that’s pretty much the state of writing all over with blogs replacing real journalism. And the writing quality is suffering – but nobody cares because it’s free or practically free.

True, great novels have started off by being self-published – there are not enough top spots for the number of books deserving to be published. And there are probably books being e-published that are just as good as those published in print by major publishers. But by opening these doors, the publishing waters become even more muddy, and the dream starts to fade just a little bit more.

Because you know the problem with delusion? You may think you’re fooling the world and have fooled yourself just enough, but the truth is – you know the truth deep inside. And that eats away at you. So then you try harder to fool the world – and to fool yourself. And when you look around and see how that dream of publishing has become so commonplace, therefore, losing its value, you realize how meaningless that pursuit has become and you have to continue to lie to yourself to keep that dream alive. Because one of the saddest things in the world is to live a life of unmet dreams. Even sadder is when you killed the dream yourself – not by not pursuing it – but by dumbing it down so that it becomes practically worthless. And then how are you going to feel, claiming your phD, your size 0, and your publishing status – but inside knowing it’s all a lie.

I tried to watch a movie called Idiocracy because I knew there was some truth to it, but it was so hideous, I couldn’t watch the entire movie. But that’s exactly what I see happening in our society. And it starts with our kids in school. It’s well-documented that the grading curve has been lowered to accommodate the lower-end students because the parents don’t want their kids to look bad. And it continues through high school when students, hoping to make a grand entrance into the college of their dreams, are desperate to publish. Just the idea of using publishing to get into college sickens me. It steals from me and my dream to have a career as a novelist – not as something I do on the side to impress people.

Power to the People or Quality and Standards

But we seem to be on this downward spiral. Maybe I lean toward being an idealist but I’m definitely a positive thinker – a problem solver – somebody who looks for ways to turn something negative into something positive. But I’m having a hard time putting a positive spin on this one. Maybe it’ll turn publishing upside down and a lot of fabulous books will see the light of day and new authors will launch – we can only hope.

But one thing I’ve consistently seen in my lifetime is the “diminishing of quality” in America. First, it was Carnival Cruise Lines and then it was WalMart – reducing quality, allowing for more to participate in an experience or product, and for stockholders to make money. And now this business model is being used in publishing. If you believe in (a) power to the people, then we’re right on target. But if you believe in (b) standards and quality, well, they can’t help but slip. I know – I’ve been working in some form of publishing since my 20s.

Because quality costs money, corporations redefine what is good enough all the time. So, in the name of making money, do we throw out all the old standards because they don’t work with our life today? I can understand that. Who doesn’t want to see people accomplish what they can – especially if they can make money doing it. But who’s really making the money?

So torn between the choices. And, in the middle of editing a manuscript I worry will never be good enough to play with the big boys, I’m tempted to find the place “that’s good enough.” And maybe that’s okay for now. Or maybe not.

Check out my post on the role of professional writing organizations, such as RWA, that are there to guide you to a lucrative, long-term professional writing career.