Time For A Wake Up Call Or… A Smackdown
Just when it appeared some romance writers had hit a low - well, look at that - they dug a little deeper. Apparently the constant bickering between the authors of sexy books and the authors of tame books wasn’t enough to make us look small and kind of silly. The idea of blackballing authors we don’t like or who we think have done us wrong wasn’t enough of a journey into childishness. The yapping and complaining whenever anyone has the nerve to say anything negative at all about romance writing, well, isn’t it normal to attack anyone with a contrary opinion? Now, this. Hmmm, hair pulling on the playground at noon anyone?
I don’t know Lori Devoti but from her blog entry I’d say she’s not impressed with this behavior. I’m with her. Jealousy is normal - not attractive - but so long as it doesn’t tiptoe across the line into complete pathology, it’s normal. What Lori describes is something else. Something juvenile and ridiculous. Here’s the scoop straight from Lori. I’d rephrase it but then I’d probably use profanity and engage in some serious name calling, so I’ll pass. Lori took the high ground so I’ll go with that:
Some of my e-pubbed friends were dressed down in the elevator one year at RWA National. Told something like, “You know you aren’t as good as us. So why don’t you quit pretending?” not an exact quote, but you get the drift. On a loop last month an author pubbed by one of the smaller NY houses said that bigger houses looked down on authors pubbed by the smaller houses–she actually said they thought we reeked of dog doo.
Isn’t that attractive? I’d ask how dumb we can be but the answer to that question is kind of obvious, isn’t it? Pretty damn dumb. Seems to me bad and boring writing knows no boundaries - large houses, small houses, literary, popular fiction, e-pubbeds - it’s an equal opportunity crap pile out there if you’re not any good. The idea that some authors think they’re better than others just because they write for a certain publishing house versus another - well, isn’t that the kind of stuck-up nasty behavior romance writers accuse literary writers of? I guess it’s okay when we do it. At least some folks seem to think so.
May 19th, 2005 at 9:11 am
Perhaps this authors feel threatened by e-publishers and the small presses. And they should feel threatened. I’ve been reading romance for over 20 years, since I was 14 years old and sneaking Kathleen Woodiwiss in my pillow cover. IMO, the books being published today are the same old/same old. I’ve just discovered the “small presss.” As a reader I am looking for innovative, out-of-box romance and adventures. And I am not finding it with “major” publishers.
May 19th, 2005 at 9:23 am
Sigh. Romance writers are their own worst enemies. We don’t need outsiders to make us look bad; we do it all on our own.
May 19th, 2005 at 10:20 am
I think some writers definitely feel threatened by anyone who hasn’t “followed the rules’ as they see them, who’ve chosen to epub or go to a small press. It is very much an attitude of stamping their feet and going “it’s not fair!”, then turning around and being nasty to those they don’t like.
It’s really not very pretty when people trot out their insecurities and display them for the world to see. A few weeks ago, people were talking about whether or not an author’s personal opinions could or should cause you to not buy their books, and that has happened to me in precisely one instance — where the author seemed to feel the only way she could raise herself up was by tearing other people down.
May 19th, 2005 at 5:31 pm
Seems to me if people tell me, “my publishing house is real and yours isn’t” I either hit them or laugh in their face - in both instances I am likely to call them nasty names. Really, are folks out there looking for the publishing house listed in a book before they buy it and saying “gee, I’d like to buy that but it’s from St. Martin’s and I only read Berkley because only Berkley has real authors.”
May 19th, 2005 at 8:11 pm
Well, I like her attitude:-). I happened to buy Ms. Devoti’s book in Wal-Mart the other day because I’d seen her blog once or twice, and now I’m glad I did. A nice attitude like that wins my royalty loyalty!
May 19th, 2005 at 8:53 pm
I don’t understand this either. I spoke about this in my own blog yesterday after a couple instances I saw of this very thing. We’re all writers. We don’t need to be putting each other down. We’re all doing the same thing, and their are enough readers out there for all the books out there as well.