Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Romantic Times SNAFU

The Romantic Times Conference has come under fire this year for separating traditionally published authors and independent authors into different ballrooms.  This, according to many, was a blatant attempt to keep them from the crowds and people were even directed away from the room.
You can read one person's account here.

But not everyone has the same version of the story.  Event volunteers and some authors claim the division had more to do with whether books were returnable than how someone got published and, though one comment was made about the Indie Room containing "aspiring writers", it was quickly corrected.
A counterpoint to the above link here.

So... was it intentionally malicious?  I'm not sure since I wasn't there.  I have heard there were best-selling authors in the Indie Room (the person reporting this made it sound like traditionally published best-selling) but that many panels save for one had zero independent authors on it.
Either way, this decision has caused more harm than good and I hope they figure out a much better classification system.  I, for one, think erotica writers may not want to sit right next to YA authors (and vise versa) due to audience differences.

Did you hear about this?  What do you think happened?

2 comments:

  1. Yes I heard about it. Once it was explained it kinda made sense. Like you said it had to do with pricing and sales--since the indies don't go thru a retail third party, it was handled differently. Obviously it wasnt the wisest choice for RT, and hopefully they won't do that again.

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    1. They have a whole year to address the situation, and I really hope they do.

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