For those of you not in the publishing biz, there has been a HUGE kerfluffle going on over romance publisher Harlequin’s decision to steer aspiring writers it rejects into its own vanity publishing subsidiary called Harlequin Horizons. While this action by Harlequin may be perfectly legal, morally and ethically it falls somewhere between loan sharking and Madoff-ing your clients.
(Definitions are in order: A vanity press is where you pay a specialized publishing company to print your work. The difference between vanity publishing and self-publishing is that with the latter, the writer keeps 100% of the profits. With vanity presses, the publisher still takes a cut even after you’ve paid them.)
So here’s the rub. Harlequin (the big-time publisher of romance novels), has started a vanity imprint where it will steer writers it rejects (i.e., not good enough for prime time) and have them pay Harlequin to publish their work. Harlequin then takes a cut of any sales, and also promises that books with good enough sales might be given consideration to be published back under the main Harlequin imprint (where they were originally rejected).
This is, quite simply, bullshit.
It’s not only giving false hope to aspiring writers, it’s using that false hope to line Harlequin’s pockets by dangling an unobtainable carrot of possible “legitimate” publishing if only their books sell well enough. Which is nigh to impossible since Harlequin will not help writers sell their vanity-published books, thereby ensuring that sales will never be good enough.
Either a book is good enough for Harlequin to buy and publish, or it’s not. Harlequin is deliberately blurring that line, and that is not acceptable.
This may not seem like a big deal to you, but even if you’re just a casual reader and have no desire to ever put pen to paper/fingers on keyboard, this affects the larger business of publishing and how writers are treated and paid, and in a very negative way.
The Romance Writers of America, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and the Mystery Writers of America, have all come out publicly against Harlequin.
The lovely and talented Jackie Kessler has been at the forefront of the awareness campaign about this mess. For her take and analysis (which is much more detailed than mine), go here.
John Scalzi’s take is here.
