Harlequin Horizons versus RWA

[jackiekessler]

Originally published at Insert Witty Title Here. You can comment here or there.

So you may have heard about this thing called Harlequin Horizons, and RWA’s response. But if you’re not in the publishing industry, you may not see why this is a big deal - and why RWA did the best possible thing any author organization could do.

Basically, Harlequin

Comments

[michaeldthomas]

Bravo. That was the best summation of this boondoggle that I've seen.

This whole thing makes me so angry. It's hard enough for Romance writers to get the respect they deserve. Having the most famous imprint of the genre turn into a scammer just makes it even more difficult.

[scbutler]

Holy, moly. What a scam. I wonder when Writer Beware will weigh in.

[katatomic]

What they've come up with is what used to be called "subsidy publishing"--a scam by which writers pay for "editorial" and "marketing" services, as well as the printing and cover art design you might expect, as well as catalog listings that never get seen by anyone serious. In my opinion Subsidy is one of the worst of all possible options for a writer hoping to get into the big time. I'm appalled at HQN for doing this. They should be ashamed of such transparent attempts to separate desperate writers from their cash. I know the industry is hurting, but this is a bit much. For shame Harlequin

Excellet post

[anonymous]

Great summation!

There are FAR better (and CHEAPER) places to self-publish, like Lulu.com and CreateSpace.

There are also far better independent publishers out there, that if someone "washes out" of the Harlequin submission process that they should pursue, indie houses who have been out for a while and have the e-publishing and POD aspects fairly well in hand.

I hadn't heard that Harlequin would be routing people over to HH in rejection letters, and that just really adds an extra slime factor to this whole thing. Ugh.

Lesli Richardson.

[anonymous]

Wow-- and here I thought RWA was just being pissy, being a e-book author, we feel like the unwanted guest at the table where the RWA is concerned. But this clears up a lot for me..thanks-- Renee Michaels