The Harlequin Horizons Train Wreck Hitting Home

It's difficult for me to talk about the whole 'Harlequin getting into the vanity publishing business' mess. As a Harlequin American author currently writing my eighth book for them, I'm reeling and probably will be for a long time. Sort of like finding out your husband cheated on you with your best friend. I'm still gathering my thoughts, still gathering facts (lots of good information circulating out there but also lots of misinformation), still gathering my emotions—which are scattered all over the place.

I'm not as outraged or incensed as many authors. No throwing tomatoes, please. It's just that self-publishing and vanity publishing have been around for years and years. Harlequin isn't driving the bandwagon, they merely jumped on it, a place where other large publishers have been for a while. If an author decides to self or vanity publish, they have many, many companies from which to choose. Self and vanity publishing is, in fact, widely accepted in some writing groups. I have attended the Southwest Society of Writers conference four times. Not only are book doctors and self publishing companies welcomed there and allowed to set up tables to distribute their literature, attendees can purchase an appointment with a book doctor or company rep for $15-25 (talk about a scam).

Not being outraged or incensed, however, doesn't mean I'm without a horribly bad taste in my mouth and a severe sense of disappointment and loss. But that loss is strictly personal. You see, this really is all about me.

I dreamed of having a career with Harlequin for years. Finally selling to them was one of the highlights of my life. I relived that joy with each new book contract, each new cover, each new review in Romantic Times. I made good money from Harlequin in 2009. I made as much money as some people, especially in this tough economy, earn in a year working forty hours a week. That ain't too shabby. I submitted three workshop proposals to RWA Nationals recently and for the first time, felt that I was truly qualified to be a speaker. I have three books coming out in 2010, a goal of mine for years. Most exciting, I arranged for my editor to come to my local chapter's conference in April of 2010.

And suddenly, the last week, all these good feelings, my sense of accomplishment, my joy and pride in my hard-earned writing career, have been tarnished, if not downright become meaningless. This didn't happen at first. No, it wasn't until a non-Harlequin author posted on a loop that she would never buy another Harlequin book again and our conference chair emailed me to ask if we should go ahead with having my editor at the conference since RWA removed Harlequin from their list of eligible publishers. Suddenly, I saw my career going down the toilet. I mean, let's be serious. Sales are everything. And the thought that Harlequin's vanity publishing program could ultimately affect my sales, my income and my career, hits about as close to home as you can get. That, more than a loathing of Harlequin's money-grubbing, preying on innocent writers business practices and my inability to enter the RITA next year with what I believe is my best Harlequin American ever, upsets me.

After several sleep deprived nights, I came to conclusion that I will do what's best for me and my writing career. That's the only reasonable course of action I can take. I will finish up my current contract with Harlequin because there is no way I will breach it. I will continue to write and submit non-Harlequin American proposals to other publishers, as I have been doing for the last couple years (my agent just sent one out about two weeks ago, and I've started working on a new one). I will also submit to Harlequin American again and sell to them as long as it makes sense career-wise and money-wise.

It's my fervent hope that Harlequin will cease with their vanity publishing division and that, after months of damage control, I will once again be thrilled and proud to be one of their authors. If not, I will survive, making the choices and decisions that are best for me in the long run.

Cathy Mc

Want versus Need

One of my best friends just got a new laptop. It's red.

She really needed it. It's her primary work computer, the only one that's practical, but it had an apparently unfixable malfunction where it kept shutting off randomly. Then she dumped coffee grounds into it. The N stuck--when the machine wasn't turning off at ever-more-frequent intervals.

So now she's got the new baby, and is loving it, and I'm totally jealous!

Some of you may remember that a few months ago, my Mac laptop died screaming. Literally. I bought it in March 2003. In early March 2006, the logicboard failed. I just barely came in under the recall they never bothered to tell me about, even though I'd registered the computer with Apple. About six months after they replaced it at no charge to me, it failed again. That time they charged me over $300.

Over the next few years it got slower and slower, even though I never store files on it and never added new programs after the first year or so. Even before I dumped a whole mug of hot cocoa in it, it was locking up and taking five minutes to react to a simple command, like deleting a comma. I replaced the keyboard, but I guess some of the cocoa got into the DVD drive, because THAT kept locking up the machine, and it wouldn't restart afterward.

The day it died, it bogged down in Word for 20 minutes before I shut it down and it wouldn't restart. Later that day, I tried to boot it, and it half booted, but screamed in agony. So I forced it to power off and left it in stasis.

And now I really want a new laptop. But I don't need one. My primary computer is my desktop. I write new text on the Neo if I need to be away from the office. I want to use a laptop to check e-mail when I can't be in my office, or to do editing or critiquing elsewhere in the house. And especially, I want it for writers retreats. I'm hoping to do one in January, but I won't be writing new stuff, I'll be editing old, which will be impossible away from my house. Still...I don't have to go on retreat. I don't have to have the flexibility a laptop would provide.

I just want it!

TIME FLIES...

I'm sitting here wondering where November went. I can't believe that it's the 18th and Thanksgiving is next week. Where does the time go? Do any of you wonder the same thing?

Every year I make a promise to begin my Christmas shopping early so that I'm not so pressured when December 25th rolls around, and every year I seem to be so caught up with life in general that I don't accomplish this goal. Even with that said I do have one gift each for my daughters and one for my eldest grandson.

It's a tradition in our family that my husband buys our girls each a good bottle of perfume. I started asking them what they would like two months ago and still have not received an answer from any of them. So even if I have good intentions they seem to fall flat.

How many of you brave shopping the day after Thanksgiving? Not to be paranoid, but I worry about going out in crowds right now with the H1N1. Not to mention, I'm not sure I want to fight the lines. How about you?

Writing also seems to take a backseat at this time of year as well. I find that my daughters and grandsons also have the time off that I do, which means there won't be any quiet in the house to accomplish anything that requires thought process. Plus, there's always someone around waiting to use the computer and at this moment my computer is the only one connected to a printer. (sigh)

I'm tossing the idea around about buying a MacIntosh. It's a beauty of a machine and looks like I might be able to do book trailers just using their equivalent of PowerPoint. I'm not looking forward to buying software across platforms, but it certainly looks powerful. Perhaps it could be my Christmas present. *g*

Talking about Christmas presents, what do all of you want for Christmas?

Mac

It's Been a While

I haven't been in the place in a long time. Where? you ask. Having submissions out and waiting to hear back. I was lucky enough to land a three book contract about a year ago, so I've been busy working on that on not coming up with new proposals. I did get one finished back in March of this year, and that's the one my agent and I FINALLY got out the door last week. Then, just today, I submitted a previously published book that I retain the e-rights to Harlequin's new e-publisher, Carina (not yet ready to talk about Harlequin's new self-publishing venture, don't know enough about it).

I love submitting and waiting to hear back. I wake up every morning with a little frisson of excitement and wonder if today's the day. I rush to my email box and check my phone for missed calls. When my necklace is crooked, I move the clasp back behind my neck and make a wish (tell me I'm not the only one over the age of seven who still does that). I really believe in both submissions. I think I have a good chance with the previously published book. The new proposal, however, is a historical paranormal set in the American west. I'm convinced I'm going to have a hard time selling that book despite it being a truly different story and one of my best efforts. The publishers we sent to are at the top of my wish list, my dream publishers. If I were to sell...well, you'd hear my yell from here to the ends of cyber space.

When I'm done with my current book, due March 1st, I'll be uncontracted again and unemployed. That is, as far as the writing goes. It would be so cool to have a new contract.

Cathy Mc

Of Nostalgia, Memory, and Falling Behind

I drove up to Massachusetts on Saturday, and back to Pennsylvania on Sunday. While I was up there, I spent an hour or so driving around to all the places I lived growing up. It's odd how "home" affects us. I mean, I've lived outside of Massachusetts just slightly longer than I technically lived in it. But an ephemeral sense of home built as I drove up I-95 through Connecticut and Rhode Island, seeing familiar town names on the signs, and when I crossed into Massachusetts, something clicked. I belong there.

I haven't been back to Agawam since my mom died 6 years ago, but I have been up there as an adult. So it was very odd to drive by one apartment complex and find it so extremely tiny. I mean, everything from the distance from our old parking space to the apartment, to the width of the apartment (I swear, I could stand on the stoop, hold my arms out, and touch the edges of both sides), to the size of the yard out front.

Some things had changed. The Cumberland Farms across the street had been rebuilt and is huge! I had to buy some Necco wafers for old times' sake. But the Casa di Lisa and Bruno's restaurants next door have been there for more than 23 years. That's amazing to me, because non-chain restaurants around here change names every six months sometimes.

I also discovered the "nearly 2 miles" I thought I walked to junior high was actually less than a mile and a half. Unless Agawam and Feeding Hills are shrinking as a whole. That could explain a lot.

So this trip was going to be across three days, but ended up only being two. Which kinda sucked, because I was going to stop partway home yesterday and catch up on my writing for NaNoWriMo. Instead, I drove all the way home, was too tired to write during the football game (which ended badly and gave me nightmares, thank you very much Tom Brady et al), and am now, oh, about 7500 words behind my goal. *sigh*

Better get to it.

Learning from a friend's big "R"

A good friend of mine got a really tough rejection today. Been there, done that, so I can totally relate. This was particularly painful for her because she had gone through two revisions of the manuscript at the editor’s request, the first on the partial and the second on the full manuscript.

She forwarded me the editor’s letter which I read with real interest as I write for the same line (Harlequin American) and I’m working with this editor for the first time on a manuscript. The editor mentioned that one reason for the rejection was my friend’s lawyer hero. She stated that when the book didn’t have a “western element”, the hero needed to be extremely hunky and performing extremely hunky acts. This made me look at my own books for this lines and the heroes I’ve written.

Definitely, my books all have western elements. Some more than others but all would be considered “contemporary ranch stories”. Hunky acts sort of threw me a little. Oh, it’s easy to see where the hero is performing hunky acts in some of my books. Like in HIS ONLY WIFE, the hero is a wilderness firefighter who goes out there and literally saves lives. But, for instance, in TAKING ON TWINS, my February 2010 book, the hero is a professional fisherman who is extraordinarily laid back. The only hunky act I’d say he performed was being a good dad to his kids.

Is that what the editor meant?

I’m thinking of my friend’s lawyer hero. Maybe there were more hunky acts he could have performed, like defending underprivileged people or caring for an ailing relative or (here’s something from my books) being a good dad to the heroine’s little girl.

While the rejection was bad news for my friend, it did help me. I’ve been thinking about my next proposal to Harlequin American. I hadn’t planned on using a western setting as is usual for me. Now, I think, I’ve changed my mind. I can easily move the fictional community to a more western place and will!

Cathy Mc

Sadness

Today I crossed an author off my auto-read list. That's a rare occurrence that always makes me sad.

This one especially. I started reading her in college, so we're talking 20 years ago. I devoured all her series romances, tracking down her backlist, and bought her single titles before I knew how important that was to an author's career. I followed her into hardcover, even as she changed and no longer wrote "romance" by the standard definition. Her characters were more complex, less purely "good," but the stories still enticing and the romance fulfilling.

But slowly, I grew less excited about a new release. I stopped buying hardcover, either waiting for the paperback or getting the books from the library.

And now it's happened. I started a book that I'm not going to finish, and I'll think twice before trying the next one. The "final straw" was that the first character introduced is wholly unlikeable. Irredeemable. And so is everyone around him. There's nothing in this opening chapter to compel me to keep reading, see what's going to happen, maybe be patient and connect with a different character.

There's no blame to be applied here. An author has to write what an author has to write, and this one will continue to hit the bestseller lists with her books. She might have a slightly different audience than in the past--certainly different by at least one reader. But people change, and reader tastes change, and that's just the way it is.

But it still makes me sad.

Am I unique in this, or have you had a favorite author who has ventured so far into realms you don't want to explore that you stopped reading them?