Last week, RWA, MWA, and SFWA all issued official statements condemning Harlequin Enterprises’ new self-publishing division, Harlequin Horizons. Now Novelists Inc. has weighed in, with a position statement on vanity publishing and the risks that arise when brand name publishers add vanity publishing divisions.
A good article about the difference between self-publishing & vanity imprints. Plus, Paolo Bacigalupi’s novel Windup Girl was just named in Library Journal’s Best Books of 2009!
As part of her continuing series on How Linguistics Can Help You, Juliette Wad discusses that ubiquitous genre activity making up words.
Welcome to new members Terence Taylor, Sarah Rees Brennan, Katherine Allred, Kristen Painter, Tim Stretton and Heather McDougla, plus interesting links about vanity and self-publishing from around the web.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin has granted preliminary approval to the revised Google Book Settlement, which was filed on Friday. He has set the date for the fairness hearing on February 18th, 2010.
Until such time as Harlequin changes course, and returns to a model of legitimately working with authors instead of charging authors for publishing services, SFWA has no choice but to be absolutely clear that NO titles from ANY Harlequin imprint will be counted as qualifying for membership in SFWA.
Today, Mystery Writers of America (a sponsor of Writer Beware, along with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) issued this announcement to its members:
Writer Beware’s Victoria Strauss analyzes Harlequin Horizons and the trouble it presents for authors.
Paul Di Filippo and Sheila Finch have accepted appointment to the jury for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best SF novel of the year. In 2009, Paul A. Carter retired from the jury after having bravely served for many years, almost since the Award’s inception.
Yesterday, PW reported on the launch of AgentInbox, a new service from collaborative writing website WEbook.
“AgentInbox is a service that connects publication-ready authors with reputable, vetted literary agents,” says the service’s FAQ for writers. Writers enter their book’s “vital stats,” including title, genre, query letter, and all or part of the manuscript (there are several tutorials to help with the polishing process). They can then check AgentInbox’s roster of participating agents and choose which ones they’d like their submission to go to. WEbook staff pre-screens submissions, then forwards them on to the agents chosen.
What does a missing boy have to do with a breeding program for magiels, or war simmering on a contested borderland? Gathering of Ghosts completes the epic tale of three sisters and their family saga of addictions, survival, revenge, and redemption.
Tlotlo Tsamaase is a Motswana author. Tsamaase’s debut adult novel, Womb City, comes out in 2023 from Erewhon Books. Tsamaase’s novella, The Silence of the Wilting Skin, is a 2021 Lambda Literary Award finalist. You can find xem at tlotlotsamaase.com
