Sometimes the SFWA gets it exactly right - their response to the Harlequin Self-Publishing project

[Gbondoni]

I'm not an SFWAmember, but I have to say that they do look out for writers. Rumors have it that Harlequin, after every single association of real writers smacked it down, is backing off. Here's the link:

http://www.sfwa.org/2009/11/sfwa-sta...shing-imprint/

Visitmy livejournal! http://bondo-ba.livejournal.com/
Or my Homepage! www.gustavobondoni.com.ar

[erazmus]

Thanks Gustavo. Where are the rumors circulating?

Mike

Michael D. Turner
'Psyched Up' in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
'Dutchman Rescue'in Continuum SF #6
www.continuumsciencefiction.com/orders.htm

'An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern' in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises:

www.fantasistent.com/books/anthologies/BASH.php
'Pink Plastic Flamingos''What Smitty Saw' 'Elvis's Space Alien Lovechild' 'Two Ravens''Rejection' (forthcoming) in Big Pulp
www.bigpulp.com/index.html
'Stains''Two ravens''Job Security' 'Yeti Yet' 'Characters in Flight'(forthcoming)in Tales of the Talisman 3-1 www.zianet.com/hadrosaur/index.html
'Morning Coffee''Happy Landings''Teller of Tales''Silver Shells''I'm tired of Bombs, and my dog is dead' 'One Dark Night'in Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com
'The Jewel Below' 'Mo the Mountain' in Flashing Swords
flashingswords.sfreader.com
Read 'Silver Shells' In The Best of Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/features/the-best-of-every-day-fiction-2008/

[Gbondoni]

All over the blogosphere, but most of them seem to be coming from different RWA chapters and the forums there. This one hits RWA members especially hard.

Visitmy livejournal! http://bondo-ba.livejournal.com/
Or my Homepage! www.gustavobondoni.com.ar

[darkbow]

Yes, several writing groups have publicly weighed in against the new Harlequin Horizons. Will it have any affect? I don't know. The Web site for Harlequin Horizons is still up, though I've read Harlequin at the least is planning to change the name so 'Harlequin' isn't tied so closely with 'Horizons.'

And Harlequin publishes more books than anybody. Literally into the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands each year. They're always looking for writers for one or another of their various titles. If all you want to do is write and you don't particularly care what genre, I'd think Harlequin would be one of the easier publishers to break into. Heck, I've even thought about trying my hand at a supernatural romance for their Silhouette line of such, but then I read one of the books. Just couldn't find myself doing that. At least not now.

The Kobalos Trilogy
City of Rogues, available for the Kindle and at Smashwords
Road to Wrath, available for the Kindle and at Smashwords
Dark King of the North, available for the Kindle and at Smashwords

Non-fiction
An Amateur Beer Snob's Guide to Beer, for the Kindle and at Smashwords


Short stories
"Forlorn" at Deadman's Tome, "Beneath a Persian Sun" upcoming in Carnivah House's "Infinity Swords" anthology, "Zombie Tears" at Dark Fire, "Devil and Devil Damned" at Flashes in the Dark, "The Death of Lester Williams" in the anthology Deadlines, "Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow" in "The Return of the Sword" anthology, "The Way the Sunlight Lies Upon Her Hair" at Every Day Fiction

For more, check out my blog at www.tyjohnston.blogspot.com</A></A>

[Gbondoni]

Huge or not, they do seem to be backpedalling. The thing is that what they publish might not be to everyone's taste, but at least it was considered a serious publisher.

The problem here seems to be one of a publisher being part of the scam against starry-eyed newbies.

Visitmy livejournal! http://bondo-ba.livejournal.com/
Or my Homepage! www.gustavobondoni.com.ar

[darkbow]

Oh, I agree with the scam part. It just kind of baffles me that any writer with almost any talent at all would even consider vanity publishing with Harlequin since it should be (relatively) easy to break into that market. I guess Harlequin was targeting those with the dream but without the skills. The whole thing sounds rather banal.

The Kobalos Trilogy
City of Rogues, available for the Kindle and at Smashwords
Road to Wrath, available for the Kindle and at Smashwords
Dark King of the North, available for the Kindle and at Smashwords

Non-fiction
An Amateur Beer Snob's Guide to Beer, for the Kindle and at Smashwords


Short stories
"Forlorn" at Deadman's Tome, "Beneath a Persian Sun" upcoming in Carnivah House's "Infinity Swords" anthology, "Zombie Tears" at Dark Fire, "Devil and Devil Damned" at Flashes in the Dark, "The Death of Lester Williams" in the anthology Deadlines, "Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow" in "The Return of the Sword" anthology, "The Way the Sunlight Lies Upon Her Hair" at Every Day Fiction

For more, check out my blog at www.tyjohnston.blogspot.com</A></A>

[lin]

That's the situation, I would assume, darkbow.
Romance is the easy break-in and has all those jillions of readers who will read about anything and supports hundreds of small presses...

but there are still way more hopefuls than workables out there. Almost any town has big groups of romance writers and they are motivated. They all want to be a big star and romance a stone. I knew a woman who was the guru of one such group. Great gal, very smart, worked tirelessly on her writing and critiquing others' work.
Her writing was just wretched. I think you could mulitply her by several thousand.

LINTON ROBINSON.com</font>

MAKE YOUR OWN BOOK PROMO VIDEOS FOR FREE</font>

[SilviaMG]

'It just kind of baffles me that any writer with almost any talent at all would even consider vanity publishing with Harlequin since it should be (relatively) easy to break into that market.'

I don't think it's relatively easy. Sure, the market is a lot bigger (I think some 65 per cent of all book sales are romance), but the talent pools is that much bigger. Picture the slush pile at any fantasy or sci-fi publisher and multiply it by ten. That's the size of the competition.

As for who would go for a vanity press ... well, lots of people under the mistaken impression that publishing your own book is easy and success is just a matter of doing a few on demand copies. Oh, and that they have the next big thing since Twilight. Dreams of striking it rich and famous.

Silvia's online at silviamoreno-garcia.com



Innsmouth Free Press

[lin]

...and loved and cherished and satisfied.

I tend to see self-publishing as a valid tool that can work for the right book, right author, or right circumstances.

But actual vanity publishing like this is messed-up and I think the more people who are educated to the difference the better.

But this is pretty unique--that pay to publish would be associated with a standing publisher name. And many who would be to smart to pay iUniverse or whoever might be more easily beguiled at the thought of having a book out on Harlequin.

I think if people here are honest, most would admit that if somebody came to them and said, 'For a thousand dollars I can get your book published by St Martins (or Tor or Schuster or whoever)' they'd have to really think about it. And some might go for it.

So the real damage is prostituting the name of a real publisher. And they will suffer from that and should.

LINTON ROBINSON.com</font>

MAKE YOUR OWN BOOK PROMO VIDEOS FOR FREE</font>

[SilviaMG]

I agree. Putting the name Harlequin (or of any other publisher) in front of the title seems to give it a validation that does not really exist. Sending rejection letters that encourage rejected writers to use their Harlquin Horizons services is just ... so wrong.

Silvia's online at silviamoreno-garcia.com



Innsmouth Free Press

[erazmus]

Here's the thing, too me.

If the largest publisher in the world starts a scam operation, then they are a scam operator. The brush paints over the whole operation. They aren't a legitimate publisher with a scam division. Uh-huh. They are, with a stroke, scam from top to bottom. Either you are an ethical (stop laughing about a publisher being ethical, guys. I'm serious!) publisher with a legitimate business or you are an association of crooks.

You can tell this is an act by boardroom weenies, accounting majors who toiled their way to the top by figuring how to hold on to royalty payments an extra day to collect interest and who just skimmed by business ethics in school by copying their neighbor's answers. Its publishing turned on its head and only an accountant with the soul of an abacus could think this was the way to go. The persons who pushed this through would have had no trouble shilling investments for Bernie Madoff or hustling stock for Raj Rajaratnam.

Mike

Michael D. Turner
'Psyched Up' in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
'Dutchman Rescue'in Continuum SF #6
www.continuumsciencefiction.com/orders.htm

'An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern' in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises:

www.fantasistent.com/books/anthologies/BASH.php
'Pink Plastic Flamingos''What Smitty Saw' 'Elvis's Space Alien Lovechild' 'Two Ravens''Rejection' (forthcoming) in Big Pulp
www.bigpulp.com/index.html
'Stains''Two ravens''Job Security' 'Yeti Yet' 'Characters in Flight'(forthcoming)in Tales of the Talisman 3-1 www.zianet.com/hadrosaur/index.html
'Morning Coffee''Happy Landings''Teller of Tales''Silver Shells''I'm tired of Bombs, and my dog is dead' 'One Dark Night'in Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com
'The Jewel Below' 'Mo the Mountain' in Flashing Swords
flashingswords.sfreader.com
Read 'Silver Shells' In The Best of Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/features/the-best-of-every-day-fiction-2008/

[lin]

>Sending rejection letters that encourage rejected writers to use their Harlquin Horizons services is just ... so wrong.

Ooooo, I missed that part. Yes, that's pretty much unalloyed evil. Next step, Google Adsense spots soliciting authors?



LINTON ROBINSON.com</font>

MAKE YOUR OWN BOOK PROMO VIDEOS FOR FREE</font>

[erazmus]

lin said...
>Sending rejection letters that encourage rejected writers to use their Harlquin Horizons services is just ... so wrong.

Ooooo, I missed that part. Yes, that's pretty much unalloyed evil. Next step, Google Adsense spots soliciting authors?

Almost has to be part of the plan.

Mike

Michael D. Turner
'Psyched Up' in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
'Dutchman Rescue'in Continuum SF #6
www.continuumsciencefiction.com/orders.htm

'An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern' in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises:

www.fantasistent.com/books/anthologies/BASH.php
'Pink Plastic Flamingos''What Smitty Saw' 'Elvis's Space Alien Lovechild' 'Two Ravens''Rejection' (forthcoming) in Big Pulp
www.bigpulp.com/index.html
'Stains''Two ravens''Job Security' 'Yeti Yet' 'Characters in Flight'(forthcoming)in Tales of the Talisman 3-1 www.zianet.com/hadrosaur/index.html
'Morning Coffee''Happy Landings''Teller of Tales''Silver Shells''I'm tired of Bombs, and my dog is dead' 'One Dark Night'in Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com
'The Jewel Below' 'Mo the Mountain' in Flashing Swords
flashingswords.sfreader.com
Read 'Silver Shells' In The Best of Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/features/the-best-of-every-day-fiction-2008/

[SilviaMG]

This bit from their website is glorious:

'While there is no guarantee that if you publish with Harlequin Horizons you will picked up for traditional publishing, Harlequin will monitor sales of books published through Harlequin Horizons for possible pick-up by its traditional imprints.'

Silvia's online at silviamoreno-garcia.com



Innsmouth Free Press