RITA and Me, Part 2
As some may remember, I’ve already posted about judging for this year’s RWA RITA contest. It was an interesting experience—some of the books were first rate (I’ve discovered a couple of authors I really enjoyed whose other books I’m now reading), others were less so. I plan on volunteering again next year.
But one response I got to my judging was a little unexpected. A couple of ebook and erotica writers told me they refused to judge the RITAs, even though they were members in good standing of the RWA Professional Authors Network (which RITA judges must be). Their reason? They felt their work was unfairly excluded from the competition because of its format or its subject matter; therefore, they refused to join in the competition as judges when they couldn’t be contestants.
I understand this point of view quite well. Like a lot of other PAN members, I’d like to see RWA accept ebooks as RITA entrants and I also believe RITA badly needs a specific erotica category (since erotica authors shouldn’t be forced to compete in categories where they don’t fit and since some PAN members object strenuously to reading anything they consider erotic). But although I understand the logic here, I’d also urge these writers to reconsider their position.
For a while, RWA had a kind of “two-tiered” membership, divided between writers who were published by the big New York print houses and writers who were published by small houses that specialized in epubs and POD (print on demand). Not surprisingly perhaps, writers in the first group tended to look down upon writers in the second group. That attitude is changing I think, given the widespread popularity of ebooks and the rise of a new self-publishing industry that even some print authors have embraced. But that way of thinking still occasionally rears its head. I wonder sometimes if RITA entries from small independent presses receive the same attention from judges as those from the big print houses. They should, of course, but I’m not sure it always happens.
Old attitudes die hard. If those of us who publish with smaller houses want to be taken seriously, we need to make our presence known. A judge who publishes with both majors and minors or a judge who publishes with an indie press is much less likely to dismiss a book from a smaller publisher when it shows up in her RITA bundle, even unconsciously.
It only makes sense for writers from all types of publishing formats to take their place in RWA. If changes are ever to be made in the way RITA entries are categorized and distributed, writers from smaller publishers need to make their voices heard. And one way to do that is to stand alongside other PAN members in judging the RITAs.
Posted in Blog • Tags: On Reading, On Writing, RITA, RWA | 5 Comments
Is the reasoning for this exclusion of epub and erotica discussed anywhere? I mean, officially from RWA? I’m very encouraged by the changes I’ve seen in the last couple of years that has been much more inclusive of digital publishers and those they publish. However, I don’t understand why it’s taking so long to open the RITAs to all published authors.
I know the Golden Heart contest (equivalent contest for unpublished writers) is limited to a certain number of entries. I assume the RITA is the same. So the worry that hundreds of Erotica novels would come pouring in and there would be too many entries is not a worry. As there are so many Erotica novels being published, there are obviously plenty of Erotica authors who would likely be happy to judge. Though I’d venture to say many Historical, Paranormal, and Contemporary authors would also step up.
I just can’t see the argument. A traditionally published print book from one of the NY houses does not guarantee quality any more than a digitally published book from a smaller press guarantees a lack of quality. Whatever reason they have for this exclusion, I don’t think it would stand up to logic. To say it’s unfair is redundant at this point.
Erotica authors can enter currently, but they have to enter one of the other categories (e.g., paranormal). As we both know, this doesn’t work terribly well since erotica is actually a category of its own. RWA has considered creating an erotica category, but rejected it for fairly murky reasons (too many categories, too hard to decide what constitutes erotica, etc., etc.). My own guess is that they’re dealing with a still-strong anti-erotica faction within RWA that will eventually (perhaps literally) die out.
I blame the Puritans.
Even if this faction doesn’t like the category, they don’t have to read it. You don’t have to judge any category you don’t want to judge. It’s not as if the finalist authors are going to show up for the awards in whips and chains dragging shirtless men up on stage with them. (Though I’d never miss an awards ceremony if that were the case.)
LOL Me neither!
Excellent discussion.
There is a limit to the number of RITA entries and this year, the 2011 RITA closed earlier than the deadline do to the number of entries.
While I personally love to read digitally, not all do. And yes, I do see the rationale behind having the option to read print or digital. RWA is a large organization who represents a diverse membership. Change happens. It’s just sometimes slower than some members would like!