RWAChange

There's a new Yahoo group called RWAChange out there, and you romance writers who are E-published or interested in E-publishing might want to join in. The mission of this group is to help effect positive changes within RWA, a way for authors who don't feel they're being heard to have a voice in what goes on within RWA pertaining to digital publishing. It's been up for six days and it's already over 500 members strong.

Its focus is not to disparage RWA, but to help it become an organization which all of its members, including the E-published ones, can be proud to support. I have high hopes for this organization's efforts. Already the communication has been extensive and positive.

More on RWA vs. E-Publishing - It All Comes Down To Money

Here's RWA President Diane Pershing's response to Deirdre Knight's article on RWA's E-publishing position. I'm disappointed in RWA's foot-stamping, I'm-not-changing-my-mind stance on this issue.

Any time it comes up, E-pubbed authors and advocates of E-published authors have been extremely vocal about RWA's need for change on this issue. Having served on the board several times for my local RWA chapter, I can tell you that any time a concern comes up, my local chapter does its best to address it and make its concerned members as happy as possible. In the end, no matter how you slice it, it makes more financial sense to make your customers happy. Anyone who runs a business knows that. No happy members (customers) means no dues, means less money for the organization.

RWA may not founder by losing some disgruntled members, but it will feel the difference, considering they felt they had to raise the dues by $10.00 recently. I don't fault them the rise in dues, as businesses need operating funds, but I do feel that I am paying for services which have not been a help to me in the path to publication since shortly after my initial foray into the pursuit. The best help I have gotten has come from members of my local chapter, books on craft, the library, and workshops that are open to anyone, RWA member or not, for a slightly higher fee.

Nationals may be different, of course, but with my other bills (and a very active toddler), it's hard to justify spending that kind of money getting there and staying there. I find it more useful to stay home and write. If I don't have product to sell (a finished manuscript), I'm wasting my time anyway!

Between RWA and my local chapter, I spend an annual $110.00, $85.00 of which goes to RWA. I wish to God there was a way to keep my local chapter without having to spend the dues on RWA, because CNY Romance Writers has been an enormous help and support to me and I love them. But my return for that $85.00 investment in RWA has not been sufficient for a few years now. So it is with regret that I've decided I can't justify the cost anymore. I will have to leave RWA, and my local chapter once my RWA membership runs out. I would rather put that money into other methods of remaining educated about what's going on in publishing.

It's a sad, tough decision which I have wrestled with for a year now, but I've come to the realization that it's time to move on from RWA. I'm thankful for the friends that I have made in my local chapter, and I wish I could stick with CNYRW. Perhaps when/if RWA outgrows this prejudice against non-vanity small presses, and forms a better way for individual members to be heard, I may rejoin.

If they don't, I'll still write.

About That Word Count Meter...

Well, I think I am getting more used to the word-count meter. I've even decided to put one up on the blog. At some point. I've been checking in with it, and it actually is motivating me to write so I can see that percentage go up.

The problem now is, continuing to be sure that the words I put there count. Not just writing to write, but to make the words matter. I still have to cut away any deadwood that slows pacing. You've got to sacrifice your words for the good of the story, so to speak.

So look for one of those little gadgets in the sidebar soon. :)

More on RWA vs. the E-Publishing Community

Deirdre Knight of The Knight Agency speaks out against RWA's position on E-publishing on a recent news item from ESPAN, the Electronic and Small Print Authors' Network (a chapter of RWA). The article is lucid, articulate, and well done. Have a look - and thanks Deirdre for your insights!

The Digital Age and RWA: A Call for Change

Release Date for EARTH Announced!

The release date for EARTH is official. My first book will be released 4/23/10 - aptly enough, one day after Earth Day! I will hold contests and giveaways following the book's release, and I hope you'll be as excited about the prizes as I am. Keep an eye on my blog for announcements and updates regarding these contests!

Harry Potter and the Best Book Ever

The Half-Blood Prince was one of only two books that ever made me cry (the other was Where The Red Fern Grows, and if you know that book you understand why). I am a grown woman, and I cried, cried, cried at Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Tell me the trailer doesn't look amazing. The end of this trailer says the release date is July 17th, but the movie actually comes out July 15th. So July 15th, I know where I will be!

New Toy (Sorta) and License Plates

I got my replacement Sony eReader in the mail last night. My other was broken, and I have sent it for repair (assuming it will cost less to fix than to buy new). How much did I miss this sucker? So I'm doing the happy dance this weekend!

Meanwhile, I am writing fast and furious in the next Elementals book, WATER. The characters are beginning to develop layers, and it's always fun to explore a new hero and heroine and find out what makes them tick. While I already have the synopsis written for all four books in the Elementals series, I don't learn every little thing about the characters until I have written (and revised, and revised, and revised) the stories.

Last week I saw my first Montana license plate. Funny, considering the hero from EARTH (and his siblings) are from Montana. A good luck sign? You decide....

iTunes Anonymous?

I'm such a music-driven writer, and I guess I should have seen it coming when my brother gave me his old iPod Nano for Christmas a couple of years back, but I'm an iTunes junkie. I love that I can say "Hey! I like that song!" and click that little "Buy" button and get it without moving an inch out of my seat. Then I can go back to writing. Instant gratification, thy name is iTunes. On the upside, my writing gets done faster than it would if I had to trek to the mall. On the downside, my wallet cries whenever I get that little zing of awareness that Song XYZ would be great for my current scene. Do they make a twelve-step program for music-driven writers? :)