The RWA Thing
However -- this is the point that bothered me the most -- people are saying that the Board isn't intentionally showing disrespect to e-published authors and I am forced to disagree. The moment Jill Limber said that I didn't really write a book because I didn't get enough of an advance, that's when I lost all respect for them.
They earned my scorn for that. She didn't try to backpedal, either. She said what she meant and she meant what she said.
I didn't write a book.
I'll continue to belong to RWA because I enjoy both my local chapter and the national conference. I'll continue to try to help them understand e-publishing. I'll even consider entering the RITAs next year.
But I won't let anyone forget what they said. They don't get to have their opinion forgotten, dismissed, and brushed under the rug. They won't recieve any leniency from me. They don't deserve it.
Labels: Writing
5 Comments:
I agree with you Sela. I've been battling my own demons that since I don't get an advance, I'm not on paper, yada yada yada, that as e-published, the "published" is still suppose to mean something and that I can say with pride, I wrote a book. It's a hard mental image (and it's my problem, not one caused by anyone else's ideals) to break. What makes it worse is when our peers, who we aspire to emulate, don't recognize us as this generations "new" status, where they were 30 or 40 years ago.
I write novel length. That's a book. I go through edits... Still considered a publishing facet of due course. I get to pay oodles for promotion. Yay me! (Just a touch of sarcasm there, another touchy thing for me.) And they don't consider us published because of the advance???
And I'm rambling, but the point is, we WANT to be respected. They say the hardest thing is just to write the damn thing. They aren't kidding. But when do we to respectfully call ourselves authors? When we get the advances that the NY houses get? Not going to happen.
I can tell people to their faces I'm published. And that works for me. (Sorry I rambled) Kind of.. Okay, I AM multi-tasking. :)
By 
Diana Castilleja, at
5:22 PM
I know exactly how you feel. It's going to take me a long time to forget the comment about me, as self-published author, sitting in a basement and hating every publisher who has rejected me. No, the author of that comment didn't direct it at me personally, but by making a blanket statement, she encompassed me. BTW, I don't have a basement, and I don't hate anyone. What I do, I do by choice, and I have no illusions about it. Can't we all just live and let live?
By L.K. Campbell, at
7:37 PM
The "vanity" label was truly ignorant.
"I didn't really write a book because I didn't get enough of an advance"
What an arrogant load of crap.
By Lift Heavy Rock, at
8:18 PM
Yeah. It wasn't one of their shining moments, that's for sure. It sounds as if there were others on the board who disagreed with her, but as far as I can tell, they haven't done so publicly. Which makes their disagreement fairly useless, imo.
By Sela Carsen, at
9:20 PM