Double, double, toil and trouble. . .

DAMN! Shakespeare certainly knew his stuff--and it was almost as if he knew about the Harlequin brouhaha before anyone else! Uhm, basically HQ went to bed with AuthorSolutions(self-publishing) and managed to catch a roaring case of crabs. Within a short period of time RWA pulled their support of ALL HQ imprints, which means their HQ authors are NOT allowed to sign at any RWA venue and they will not be able to submit their books for the Rita's (romance's answer to the Oscars), and I'm certain there are all sorts of other ramifications that I'm blissfully unaware.

And as I'm supremely NOT qualified nor do I have an immediate interest in the outcome, I will leave it for others to give their input.
--And I'm sure virtually every agent and author who has ANY connection to Harlequin--and even some that don't--has had something to say about the situation. (sorry, no links--find your own. Okay, I'll provide some if you ask nicely)

I feel sorry for all the authors caught in this mess. They did nothing wrong. It is simply a case of management seeing guaranteed dollar signs with frustrated writers willing to do anything to publish their tomes--even handing over $600+ for the privilege of HQ/AH to publish it.

Uh, Remember--money moves toward the author. I can also see it from the business side of the issue. HQ saw a huge leap in the self-publishing industry and didn't see any reason NOT to get a piece of the market. They already had the set up, so it was a simple decision to add gravy to their taters.

But honestly, some books have no biz EVER getting published. Oh, there are exceptions: granny's rambling memoirs about the Oklahoma land run or a cookbook with all the recipes handed down over the generations to share with family.

But most self-pubbed books could stand a heavy editing hand. Shoot, just judge a contest and you know what I mean!

In the meantime, I'm popping some popcorn and sitting back to watch the show. It'll be interesting to see how it all boils down.

As I said before, I feel so sorry for those HQ authors, especially the debut authors, who are caught in the middle of the crap hitting the fan.

Thanks a lot, HQ!

But while we wait to see what happens . . . Write On!