Rhetoretician -- Fiction etc.

Harlequin Horizons vs. RWA

rhetoretician

11/21/09 10:05 am

Dunno how many of you saw this, but I'm curious as to what my romance-writer friends think of it:

Jackie Kessler's run-down of the Horizons development.

SFWA's public statement on Harlequin Horizons.

• Current Location: Autumn
• Current Mood: curious
• Current Music: "Good Vibrations"
• Tags:
  harlequin, romance, rwa, sfwa

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• girlspell

  11/21/09 03:25 pm (UTC)

  

  I don't read any romance novels. I usually avoid them. Interesting though was the comment that Harlequin books were the gateway for new writers. Sort of a testing ground, before moving on to "better" things. Does make sense though. As for the selfpublished ones.... At the ALA convention in Washington, I got dumped on with a ton of paperbacks, mostly Romances. Mostly new authors. They're still strewn around my desk. I tried to read some of them, but I'm prejudiced over the subject.
  
  There have always been self publishing houses (Vanity press, etc), so this is another way for new authors. If you're in print, you have a chance.

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• bandcandy

  11/21/09 07:02 pm (UTC)

  

  I'm with girlspell in that I don't read romance; my mother once tricked me into reading a romance by claiming it was sci-fi because there was a time-travel element. I was sorely disappointed, although the book wasn't badly written.
  
  I really despise the whole vanity-publishing industry; they prey on writers who aren't very good and can't or won't improve, and give a pseudo legitimacy to those writers which makes it harder for "real" writers to stand out. I've also read in a couple of sources that self-publishing makes it harder to succeed if you ARE a good writer, because real publishing houses see you as tainted if you've self published.
  
  Mom's new husband has a best friend who writes romance novels; I'll have to ask her at Thanksgiving what she thinks of all this.

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