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| Lots of players and itchy trigger fingers in today's romance world. |
When people ask me how long I’ve been
writing, I often answer, “All my life.” I think it’s that way for most writers;
we can’t remember a time when we weren’t creating stories and putting them to
paper (or screen). Writing isn’t just something we do, it’s something we are.
And yet so many of my fellow authors are
experiencing a kind of existential crisis right now. After five or ten or
fifteen years of professional publication—either through traditional means or
self-pubbing—they are giving up. Those who went the trad route made it through
the gauntlet of contests, querying, rejections, the thrill of “the call,” more
rejections, winning the contract at last, cover squabbles, revisions, release
day, and anxiety over sales—sometimes multiple times. Those who went the
self-pub route had to find an editor, find a cover artist (or do it
themselves), format the manuscript, pay for all that, pay for promo and agonize
over sales—sometimes multiple times. But despite overcoming all those challenges many authors are realizing the gain is
no longer worth the pain. From author after author, the publishing world is
hearing, “I quit.”
You can’t blame them, really. Institutions
that used to encourage newbie writers, indie authors, niche genres and slow,
but steady performers are drying up like ponds on the African
savannah. RWA® is eliminating the Golden Heart® contest for unpublished
manuscripts after having tightened requirements for membership in its
Professional Authors Network to the point that only high-performing pro authors
need apply. We almost lost the most comprehensive website for SFR book
listings, SFR Station, until a “retiring” SFR author stepped in to take over
from its founder.
RT Reviews, a digital romance magazine that
was a trusted source of reviews for SFR and other romance novels, folded
without notice this summer, taking with it the RTBooklovers Con. That
convention’s “replacement,” the BookLovers Con, which still focuses on romance,
limited author participation in next spring’s event in New Orleans to “invited”
authors only. As you might guess, those invited authors are the big names who
can post the big sales numbers.
But even more discouraging is the kind of gold rush mentality that has overtaken the self-pubbing world in general, and
the romance community in particular. It's common knowledge that you
can use certain skeezy techniques to manipulate the sales and promo algorithms on
Amazon, especially as relates to Kindle Unlimited. Scamming the system is
apparently easier and a lot more profitable than actually writing decent books
and trying to promote and sell them legitimately.
With the encouragement of
certain “gurus” like John Konrath, who promise untold wealth via self-pubbling,
and the meteoric rise of new adult erotica in romance bringing in hordes of wannabes
hoping to cash in on the latest craze, self-published romance on Amazon is the
Wild West right now. Gunslingers, card sharps, scalpers and carpetbaggers of
all descriptions abound, and it’s damn hard to find a place at the bar with all
the bullets zinging past your ear.
So, what to do? Well, there are only two
ways to go. Get the hell out of Dodge. Or keep your head down and write. Me, I
don’t have a choice. I’m a writer. I’ve been doing this all my life.
Cheers, Donna
RWA loosened the PAN requirements. They didn't tighten them. It's now $1,000 in royalties on a single title. AND you can apply for PAN even before you hit the $1,000. It's called provisional PAN. You have full access to PAN resources, you just can't vote for PAN adviser until the provisional tag is removed.
ReplyDeleteI'm PAN provisional. I just had to submit my ISBN's when I filled out the application. When I hit the magic number, all I have to do is submit proof one book hit the threshold.
Super easy. RWA is currently the most indie friendly--and accepting--of all the major author groups.
What proof would they accept? Not that I can afford membership any time soon or think it'll help me but I know my debut novel has made more than that.
DeleteCorrect me if I'm wrong, Rachel, but I believe PAN requirements used to be for sales on all titles, but now are for royalties on a single title, though granted the minimum amount was larger. And, yes, you can be Provisional PAN, though I haven't quite seen the advantage of it.
Delete"...self-published romance on Amazon is the Wild West right now."
ReplyDeleteYou said it, Donna. It isn't easy to "survive" in this environment, and many authors are barely holding on, but they are hanging in there because of their love of writing. IMHO, it's a "business" for so few anymore, and many of those making big bucks are doing it via scamming without any regard for the damage they're doing to readers' trust...because, quite honestly, they don't care if they're selling grossly inferior "filler" products as long as they sell a ton of them.
As for RWA, well, also IMHO, they seem to have lost sight of what built them into a premier writers organization, the care and feeding of the up and coming writers and authors. If they want to eliminate the Golden Heart and become a "club" that caters to the elite authors (like the new Booklovers Convention, apparently) that's their choice. Personally, in this new Wild West, I think turning a deaf ear to the collective voice of their membership is the equivalent of shooting themselves in the foot.
Time--and this wildly changing industry--will tell.