And here I was thinking nobody noticed my entourage. Next year I’ll be more discreet, at least while in the bar.

It was great meeting you, Jane. (For those of you who haven’t seen her - She’s tall, slim, elegant, and oh so pretty.) Can’t wait to see you next year in SF.

Ruth

Very interesting discussion. Let me weigh in with another perspective, this from a small-press published author, who has made most of her royalties on digital sales from her publisher’s website. And one who has no intention of resigning from RWA. Why would I leave the organization that has helped me so much just because of a blip in the organization’s policies? This controversy doesn’t pass my 5-year test, as in, will it matter in 5 years? Not a bit, IMHO.

The furor was raised by the definition of vanity presses that encompassed all epublishers. The later clarification, to the effect that “primarily” was not the intended word and “exclusively” should have been used to describe sales from the publisher’s website, does sound ludicrous coming from a group of people who make a career out of carefully selecting their words. Add to that the fact that only now is a task force being organized to study the epublishing portion of the industry, and the situation gives every impression of a BoD that formulated policy in total ignorance.

“Publisher recognition” never made sense to me and I’m pleased to see it fall by the wayside. However, the argument that RWA intends to protect its members from publishers that do not meet RWA’s standards is questionable. As the guidelines for participation in editor appointments at National were presented, publishers who do not meet RWA’s criteria may still participate at the national conference by paying a fee. How many members who wouldn’t do their due diligence before signing a contract - or even, heaven forfend, before submitting! - will bother to pay attention to, or be put off by, which publishers had to pay to participate and which didn’t?

As for royalty income, to date I’ve made at least $1K on every one of my ebooks - some of them have brought in a lot more than that in the first month. That’s with my current publisher. When I was with LTDBooks (years ago but who’s counting?), and before that the pioneer Dreams Unlimited, epublishing was in its infancy and such an ROI was inconceivable. Times have changed, and the industry will change with it. ‘Tis the nature of the beast.

Oh, and I’d really like to see a royalty rate of at least 30% on digital sales added to the RWA expectations of an acceptable publisher. Given the low overhead and minimal cost of sales for digital copies, I see no justification for a publisher paying authors the same royalties as for print sales.

I also agree with TeddyPig that the magnitude of the reaction has to do with the way three eoresses were given the RWA recongition many of their writers craved, or at least appreciated, only to lose it scant months later. In a reversal fo the old adage it would be better not to be recognised at all, than recognised and dropped–and the whole vanity issue is a hot button.

Still chuckling. ;)

WHY when we book can’t they just say you’ll be in room whatever? But they won’t. So every year I have to go around telling people, or taking calls from the front desk so they’ll tell people.

The funny thing is as we were all getting ready for the party, we realized that there was no room number on the invitation.

I think this is the funniest thing in the entire post. What a way to weed out guests. Invite them and then hide the party. Hehehe.

Well see, I can respect that reaction. It was a BIG deal to the writers when the ePubs finally got recognized. People started to feel they were being seen as professionals. It did give a sense of validation.

I did go to the librarian’s day organized by the phenomenal Cathie Linz on Wednesday and had a great discussion about eBooks. Libraries and eBooks is still a frontier (to be well not just conquered, but entered!)

Malle