Jordan Summers

SUPERNATURAL ♦ URBAN FANTASY ♦ CONTEMPORARY/SUSPENSE ♦ EROTIC ROMANCE

September 3rd, 2007

I found this post interesting, considering everything that went down at RWA recently. Do you agree with the author’s stance? Disagree? If so, why?

On a completely separate note, I couldn’t resist this. According to Amazon, it’s on its way to my house as we speak. YAY!

This entry was posted on Monday, September 3rd, 2007 at 5:47 pm and is filed under General. You can feed this entry. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 comments to “Interesting Post About Organizations”

Oohh, that’ll get a discussion rolling. I agree. And the biggest reason is that you have to have some way of sorting out people with common goals who will benefit from an organization. Somebody who wrote a book and had it published via subsidy press may be a beautiful writer, but is not trying to pay the bills. (Otherwise, they would be earning money, versus paying, for publication…)

And there are a lot of organizations out there already that support people who just want to write. Pro writing organizations are for pros, and there has to be some way to define what “professional” is or you have a huge mess and an ineffective organization.

I’ve also run into the same problem one of the commenters on that thread mentioned; that booksellers do not take you seriously and don’t want to deal with you if you don’t have a major publisher paying coop. If you have a small press book out, they treat you as self-published because they have no real way of sorting out the difference.

This is understandable because so many small presses are in fact subsidy or at the very least cooperative publishers in disguise. That’s very true in epublishing as well.
by Charli September 4th, 2007 at 5:42 am
Posting again to clarify, I’m not saying the MWA standards are the right ones. Just saying I agree every pro organization has to deal with this dilemma and find some way of defining the membership standard. And I think that’s become much more difficult to do.
by Charli September 4th, 2007 at 5:57 am
I can understand having standards in a professional organization if it achieves trade goals for its members. If the organization isn’t anything other than a list of members paying dues, it’s a social club, not a trade organization. I noticed the blog author mentioned she’d quit if the MWA hadn’t listed her publisher. I guess it all depends on whose ox is getting gored.
by BernardL September 4th, 2007 at 6:45 am
Charli, I understand why everyone is confused, especially given the change in technology. It’s hard to keep up with it all. I do think that there needs to be guidelines and some division between hobbiest and published writers. I just found the article interesting in light of everything that’s been happening.
by Jordan September 4th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Bernard, Unfortunately, I think a lot of writers organizations have turned into social clubs. There’s nothing wrong with that, but they do lose their appeal after a while.
by Jordan September 4th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Charli, I agree. I don’t know what the answer is, but there does need to be standards in place.
by Jordan September 4th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
All I know is that I am so ordering that book!! Thanks for the link!

As for organizations, I totally agree that there need to be some standards or the whole thing falls apart. What those standards should be… I’m just glad it isn’t me.
by Suzanne September 4th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Suzanne, It’s silly how excited I am about that book. I’m counting down the days. *ggg* I agree about the organizations. I’m glad that it’s not up to me. :-O
by Jordan September 4th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Y’know, I tried to post my answer here. Twice. But instead got a page where I was told to add JS debug code to whatever I was doing and send someone my results! Yikes! So I’ve cross-linked to you, Jordan, and added my 0.02 at my site.
by Kaz Augustin September 4th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Kaz, That’s really weird. I’ll have my tech guy *cough* dh *cough* take a look at it. Too weird.
by Jordan September 4th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
I think all writer organizations should be permanently shut down, their leaders audited by the IRS and summarily kicked out of the industry, their funds seized and donated to reading programs for underprivileged kids, their trophies smashed, and their conferences outlawed. Any three writers seen even standing close together for more than two minutes should be arrested and interrogated by Christopher Melloni when he’s having a bad day.

Too extreme? But imagine how great writer organizations would be after all that happened to them. Because it wouldn’t stop them. They’d go underground, meet in empty warehouses, garages and attics, with members furtively using passwords and (finally!) secret handshakes. They’d have to focus on the only reason the should exist, to help each other out. Or at least some of this endless freaking whining would stop.

I know. Don’t hold my breath.
by Lynn September 5th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Lynn, For a moment I didn’t get past being in a room with Christopher Melloni. *ggg* (wg)

It would certainly be an interesting exercise. I’m trying to imagine a world where writers help each other without slashing out in jealousy. (Closes eyes.) Nope, just can’t see it.
by Jordan September 5th, 2007 at 8:57 pm