
Hi all,
There's been some controversy about what happened this past week with Harlequin Enterprises, the biggest romance publisher in the world.
For those of you who didn't hear, Harlequin's CEO decided to add on a little venture to the company's pasture. It's a vanity publisher that seems to be luring in authors (Harlequin Horizons). The name of the company might change, but the intent will probably stay the same. At the Harlequin Horizon's web site, there's a posted implication that if you pay to have your romance novel published - the same one that may have been rejected previously by Harlequin or a brand new one - Harlequin MIGHT pick up that vanity title for publication with one of their regular romance lines.
Harlequin isn't promising anything, but they're more than willing to take a lot of money from the would-be romance authors - authors who're willing to throw the dice. Nothing at the Harlequin Horizon's site is saying that practically every reputable agent, editor and writing organization has come out this week against Harlequin Horizon's vanity publishing model; Harlequin isn't telling the would-be authors that 'some' writing organizations won't even let authors published this way join their organizations.
You might say, why not let everyone get published like this? Why punish those who want to take the chance that their novel might be good enough to eventually be contracted as a Harlequin Romance? This is just elitism at its worst, you might say.
Really? Think about it...........
What happens if every publisher, editor and agent starts charging money to get all kinds of books published?
Answer:
Only the wealthiest of us will ever be able to see our stories released to the public.
That's right folks! If publishers follow this trend...only people with money will ever be able to get their books into the market. Publishers will start charging authors whatever the market will bear and every single author will have to pay that price if any of us wants to see romances published. Indeed, imagine a world where only folks with a lot of dough can release any fiction novel...non-fiction too.
Publishing is like any other business folks. If you wouldn't want to pay your boss for the privilege of coming to work everyday, then why would writers want to pay publishers? If you want books to keep coming out; books by your favorite authors...then the publishers should pay the authors to write. Simple enough.
Just think about it...that's all I'm asking.
The blog is open...what's your opinion?
Thanks all,
Candace Sams (aka C.S. Chatterly)
www.candacesams.com (paranormal titles)
www.cschatterly.com (erotica titles)


