Quick Updates for 2009-12-04
Resources, Member News, and Industry News for 2009-12-04
Resources, Member News, and Industry News for 2009-12-04
The Board of Mystery Writers of America voted unanimously on Wednesday to remove Harlequin and all of its imprints from their list of Approved Publishers, effective immediately. Harlequin remains in violation of their rules regarding the relationship between a traditional publisher and its various for-pay services.
The Google Books Settlement has released a Supplemental Notice that has a summary of the changes between the original version and the 2.0. It is only six pages long and worth looking over, though it is not comprehensive.
Robert Holdstock
1949-2009
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware True to its promise, Harlequin has ditched the Harlequin Horizons name. It’s now DellArte Press.
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!
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.