Erotic Romance

RWA: Fuckery Now, Fuckery Tomorrow, Fuckery Forever

2021-08-01T19:44:00.014-05:00

RWA is back to their usual fuckery. It seems like a good reason to revisit this blog.

If you don't spend time on Twitter the news might just be getting to you that the winner of the VIVIAN for romance with Religious or Spiritual Elements is Witemeyer's At Love's Command. A book that is known for opening with the hero taking part in the massacre of Wounded Knee.

This is how Lakota spirituality is represented: "The words had barely left his tongue when a medicine man started chanting. As the troopers searched the camp for weapons, the Sioux holy man wove among the younger warriors. Chanting. Dancing. Subtle moves at first, almost imperceptible, but he grew bolder, his motions more defined. Matt clenched his jaw. Exactly what they didn’t need. The Lakota had been docile enough yesterday when Matt’s company had rounded them up near Porcupine Butte. Big Foot had been compliant. But this holy man . . . he was stirring up defiance. Matt could feel it as sure as he could feel the winter wind against his neck."

The hero realizes his error (to some extent) but the whole story relegates the many years of his involvement and the massacre to being an opportunity for personal growth by the Christian white guy who is all that really matters.

Many people with good intentions have promoted and participated in attempts to rescue the RWA from its own bigotry, prudery, lack of diversity, and failures of moral character. It is time to put a fork in those efforts and call them done. There is a need for a professional association for romance writers, but the RWA is not -- and never will be -- that association.

Professional associations must do two main things; they must represent and they must lead. The RWA is unwilling to represent the true diversity of romance writers and where they are leading is not -- I sure hope -- where we are going. I have nothing more of substance to say but will compile links (below) to those more knowledgeable and articulate than I am.

See also:

AUG 2

ROMANCE WRITERS OF AMERICA AWARDS BOOK WITH GENOCIDAL “HERO” Sarah Nicolas / Book Riot

Atmosphere Press and Why Facebook Advertisements are Bullshit

2021-05-11T19:55:00.005-05:00

It's a pretty routine activity for me...

See an advertisement where a high-volume all-genre press is trawling for authors while declaring they have no submission fees. Take a slightly closer look and see they will list will publish your book, only on Amazon, for "less than $5000".

Yes, ladies and gentlepersons, that is a fucking vanity press.

The interesting thing is that the next day Facebook serves me the exact same ad, with my comment removed, and I am now blocked from commenting.

TL;DR Fuck Atmosphere Press and fuck Facebook ads too.

Getting Cute with Copyright--cover art and movie trailers

2020-11-06T09:39:00.004-06:00

It is generally understood that cover art and other material made to package and promote a product can be shared online. However, it is also true that these materials are under copyright, creating something of a grey area when--as is usually the case--sharing is not explicitly permitted. While cover images are shown on a massive scale on sites like Goodreads and book reviews sites, this is done based on the idea that is a reasonable risk, rather than an absolute right.

A similar situation exists with movie trailers. They are promotional materials that work best when they are able to be shared and reshared on platforms other than where they were originally hosted. But copyright holders do have the discretion to assert their copyright and not allow sharing. It is probably counter-productive to do so, hence the prevailing norms that sharing without explicit permission is okay--but the option to blanket-prohibit sharing is available and reasonable to use in some cases.

What might be legal but is not reasonable is to withhold permission to share copyrighted promotional material only when the review is critical or negative. And this is exactly what Netflix is doing by reporting posts of the trailer for the controversial movie "Cuties' only when the accompanying comments are negative.

This is just like authors asserting copyright over their cover art, but only when it is shown on a negative review (as I have experienced multiple times). It is not asserting rights over intellectual property, it is weaponizing those rights to suppress discussion for and between consumers of the product. It disrupts the current normals of use without permission, and not for any good reason. As is so often the case, a large company is doing that which is legal with complete disregard for that which is good or right.

Defund Writing Associations?

2020-06-25T12:33:00.003-05:00

CC by 2.0 Fred Merchan

It has long been apparent that Romance Writers of America struggles with issues of diversity leading to the collapse of the board this February. their past mis-steps included a profound failure to respect of include people based on race as well as GLBTQ+... and even more trivial publishing options like e-publishing or erotic content.

Meanwhile, International Thrillers Writers failed to act after a serious harassment issue at a convention, and "all lives matter" themed BLM statement, and yesterday all of their board members resigned except for the two co-presidents.

Did you also notice that in June the Board president and chair of the Poetry Foundation also stepped down after issuing a vague and non-specific BLM statement? Not only as the usual symbol of contrition but because doing so makes space for better representation on the board.

And later in June a similar set of circumstances saw 63% of the board members of the National Book Critics Circle stepped down.

It is a fairly common observation that as non-profit organizations grow they also become more conservative and less likely to make bold ideological statements or take related actions -- or indeed change very much at all.

The ostensible reason is to represent a broad representation, but this representation tends to focus heavily on the paying membership or industry representatives. And this group tends to be white, affluent, and urban or suburban. It tends to be the group currently most financially successful in the profession for prevailing and historical reasons.

But will the processes that created the old Boards, somehow now be able to fill those same seats with fundamentally different people who represent fundamentally different goals? Because if we dig back into the theory large and increasingly archaic organizations are often unable to reinvent themselves so profoundly. What happens is that new groups form in new ways and gradually grow up to replace them.

NEW MARKET Belong Books

2020-06-23T10:15:00.000-05:00

Belonging Books is seeking romance fiction" submissions of all lengths from and about minorities—people of color, people with disabilities, religious minorities, LGBTQ+ people, etc."

Founded by Kit Willihnganz, L.S. Quinn, Anna Risher, and Robert Gatewood

See also
[Dec 2019] Belonging Books Prints Inclusive Love Stories

Red Sofa Literary Agency Self-Destructs

2020-05-31T13:01:00.000-05:00

Red Sofa literary agency imploded last night with tweet from the founder causing the immediate withdrawal of agents Amanda Rutter and Stacey Graham.

Authors have also separated from Frederick as their agent including Andrew DeYoung and Tim Hanley.

Dawn Frederick tweeted that she had called police in response to the looting of a gas station.

Fredericks posted a response on her website. Frederick is the only remaining agent at Red Sofa.

see also

[Jun 1 2020] Foz Meadows

And now

[Jun 10 2020] Frederick is getting lawyers to try and suppress people tweeting or retweeting about what happened
[Jun 22 2020] At least 4 C&Ds have now been sent, Frederick in a hole and still digging

Cocky Christine Feehan

2019-11-26T09:28:00.000-06:00

Just when we thought it was safe to use words again....

A trademark application for the word 'dark' in a book series.

Because that's totally unique to her series, natch.

Cocky Tamer?

2019-04-08T14:17:00.001-05:00

The latest title trademark dispute to hit the news relates to two book series using the term "Tamer".

On one side is MSE Media which has registered a trademark. A.k.a. author Michael Scott-Earle.

On the other Isaac Hooke and his Monster Tamer series.

On the MSE side:

The Hooke series doesn't just happen to use the same term they have very similar tropes such as being harem books where monsters and women are... tamed (cringe).

On the Hooke side

MSE has filed trademarks on DRAGON SLAYER and other pretty damn generic terms.
It's a commonly used word in the sub-genre. Draco Tamer-David Belwisk, Animus Tamer-DL Runeborn, Goddess Tamer-Neil Bimbeau etc etc et-fucking-cetera.

So in a scale from real trademark infringement (1) to Cockygate shenanigans (10) I would call this a sold 9.5

When is an Agent not an Agent: TV Writers and Conflicts of Interest

2019-04-08T13:38:00.001-05:00

A dispute between TV Writers an Agents has blown up recently over a familiar sounding problem. Specifically, that when agents are also TV producers they stop representing only the interests of the writer. Agents that are also publishers should take note.

Article 13

2019-03-26T16:18:00.001-05:00

Europe has now passed a copyright bill that includes the controversial Article 13. As someone who wanders widely on the internet, I see some communities celebrating this as a much-needed defense against privacy, and others as the decriminalization of memes and fan-fics.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle and largely unclear at this point. This article uses some pretty vague language to say that online media platforms must make efforts to prevent unauthorized sharing of copyrighted works. That is, they can't just ignore the problem and maybe respond to take-down notices when they feel like it.

This is likely to narrow the current zones-of-tolerance for some less transformative types of fan-sharing and fan-works--and mistakes are bound to be made. The main methods of achieving compliance will be automated processes and false positives will abound. But requiring any kind of less-error-prone manual assessment would quickly make content sharing platforms slower or more expensive to access.

Essentially this bill represents battle that large rights-owners (such as music organizations) have won over large content-sharing platforms (like Google and YouTube). It was never really about small scale producers or users and the outcomes for us are bound to be mixed as blunt instruments are employed by both sides.

I just hope that everyone can now start to have a more nuanced conversation about the difference between acts of exploitation like plagiarism and piracy, and acts of fan engagement like live-streaming video-game play and creating fan-works.

F+W Media (incl. Reader Digest) Files for Bankruptcy

2019-03-14T08:58:00.003-05:00

After a failed attempt to move their focus from subscription publications to online retailing, F + W ended up in debt. The profitable publications in their stable will be sold off, but many of the smaller ones might be coming to an end.

Some indication of why they can't effectively modernize can be seen on their website where their products are divided by gender where Men "explore, build and collect" while Women are "creatives and artists". FFS.

Excessica closed to Submissions

2019-03-06T15:20:00.002-06:00

I missed this announcement when it first came out, but Excessica is closed to submissions for the foreseeable future. See this thread for more information.

Plagiarized Love

2019-02-19T14:53:00.002-06:00

It seems that the latest prolific plagiarist to be uncovered is Cristiane "Cris" Serruya (#CopyPasteCris).

Courtney Milan has posted a thorough explanation. Other authors have now found their work in Serruya's books including Courtney Milan, Victoria Alexander, Bella Andre, Christa Caldwell, Loretta Chase, Kresley Cole, Tessa Dare, Lynne Graham, Abby Green, Lisa Kleypas, Karen Marie Moning, Trish Morey, Alys Murray, and Nora Roberts.

Ethics aside, in a digitally connected world this shit won't work for very long, so why even bother?

Cris is claiming "Fiverr ghostwriters running amok" as her defense. To a largely skeptical response because, well shit, who wouldn't copyscape or otherwise check ghostwritten work these days? (And if this is true she submitted ghostwritten work to the RITAs.)

[Courtney Milan] Feb 19-- Cristiane Serruya is a copyright infringer, a plagiarist, and an idiot.
[Smart Birches] Feb 19 -- Cristiane Serruya: Alleged Plagiarist

REVIEW Badlands by Morgan Brice (Darkwind Press)

2019-02-18T19:14:00.001-06:00

There is a lot about BADLANDS that will be very familiar to any reader of m/m romance and/or psychic crime fiction. I was not overly hopeful when the first two chapters were taken up by our heroes wandering around and providing exposition about their tragic pasts.

These backstories were vital to the romance but it felt like I was jumping into the second book in a series because so much had gone on before the book started and so little actually happened in the first two chapters.

Fortunately the relationship and the murder mystery took of with a hiss and a roar (and quite a lot of angst) from chapter three on. The story was enjoyable but hung on half a dozen TSTL moments shared equally between both characters.

If you want an angsty m/m romance blended with an 80s style psychic-helps-cop serial killer plot, this is the book for you. It feels like a set up for a series but I am not sure it has the momentum to support one unless the author has some some major plot twists held in reserve.

7/10

MARKET Sapphire Book Publishing

2019-02-18T11:15:00.000-06:00

Sapphire Book Publishing (2010-- )
Genre: Lesbian non-fiction and fiction including romance

Sapphire published lesbian fiction in all genres including romance. Submissions are only accepted during open submission periods which can be checked here.

Market: Caleo Press

2019-02-11T14:29:00.003-06:00

Indie Co-op publisher Snowy Wings is opening an romance imprint: Caleo Press. The launch is meant to be in January but I can't seem to find a website for the yet.

"Ghostwriting"

2019-01-30T17:10:00.001-06:00

To be perfectly honest it blows my mind that people are offering romance novel ghostwriting work for $1 per 1000 words--with a requirement for popular themes and conventional plot structure. Even in the current market a good writer would do better going straight onto Amazon.

Proposed Copyright Rule

2018-12-27T10:54:00.000-06:00

A rule is being proposed for small works such as blog posts and social media posts. As follows:

The U.S. Copyright Office is proposing to create a new group registration option for certain types of literary works. To qualify for this option, each work must contain at least 100 but no more than 17,500 words. The works must be created by the same individual, and that individual must be named as the copyright claimant for each work. The works must all be published online within a three-calendar-month period. If these requirements have been met, the applicant may submit up to 50 works with one application and one filing fee. The applicant must complete the online application designated for a “literary work” and upload a digital copy of each work. The Office will examine each work to determine if it contains a sufficient amount of creative authorship, and if the Office registers the claim, the registration will cover each work as a separate work of authorship. The Office invites comment on this proposal.

Review: JILTED by Lilah Suzanne (Interlude Press)

2018-12-06T20:28:00.000-06:00

Objectively speaking, JILTED should be the kind of story I would enjoy. A romance that starts with a bolting bride and is full of quirky queer characters. If I described what happens in the book it would sound like a mash up of “Being Alexander: a Novel”, “The Bone People”, and the movie “Addicted to Love”, all of which I enjoyed.

Unfortunately, I found the actual prose strangely dispassionate. The narrative is omniscient for pages at a time, and when we see into Carter’s head he is always thinking and feeling basically the same things. The humor, wit, and angst never seem to be quite sharp enough to pierce the overall impression of “meh”.

My rating reflects that there is nothing objectively less-than-competent about the book, but I simply cannot say that I really enjoyed reading it.

Review copy courtesy of NetGalley, 4/10

Fiery Seas Publishing Closed

2018-12-06T10:51:00.001-06:00

Reliable sources report that Fiery Seas (2014-2018) ceased trading as of yesterday.

Market: Interlude Press

2018-12-03T13:39:00.002-06:00

Interlude Press (2014--) (Imprint: Duet Books)

Genre: "LGBTQ general and romantic fiction."

Website

Notes:
[12/3/2018] Seeking --(Adult Fiction) Novels of 60,000-to-90,000 words in the following genres: contemporary, historical, romantic comedy, mystery/suspense, and romantic fiction. --contemporary, fantasy, and science fiction Young Adult novels of 60,000-to-80,000 words. Interlude Press --Short stories for anthology: Low-to-no angst, feel-good short stories for an upcoming YA anthology. Show us your best charming, quirky stories of teen friendship and/or romance of 7,500-to-15,000 words.

Louisiana DoC Banned Book Game

2018-11-29T18:00:00.003-06:00

Here's a game for not quite all the family. How many books have you read that are not permitted by the Louisiana Department of Corrections (books and booklets section starts on page 9)?

My score is 8

A Game of Thrones (George R R Martin), Bitten (Susie Bright), Death Note (Tsugumi Ohba), Dragon Masters Guide (Dungeons and Dragons), Ghost World (Daniel Clowes), Preacher (Ennis & Dillon), Story of O (Pauline Reage), Tarot for Beginners (P Scott Hollander)

Who can beat my score? It's a long list so it shouldn't be difficult. All those smutty stories and most of my strikes are comic books!

New Imprint: Carina Adores

2018-11-28T10:14:00.000-06:00

Carina Adores is a new imprint dedicated to "trope-driven LGBTQ+ contemporary romance line". Imma going to have to ponder a bit on what that means, but I think it's good. Examples of the tropes are provided.

At first I wondered if this was just breaking out the queer material from Carina-proper, but the addition of the used/flipped/subverted trope element does give a distinct character to this proposed imprint that could be very popular.

Hera Books

2018-11-26T20:19:00.001-06:00

Hera Books opened this month and is "looking for crime and thriller, romance, saga and general fiction." Co-founded by Keshini Naidoo and Lindsey Mooney.

Characters are allowed to be old now, apparently. (And apparently I am old now).

2018-11-22T20:32:00.000-06:00

The latest turn on the news-go-round is a reported increase in stories about... old people. Stories of this sort have recently appeared about manga and other types of fiction. So it is not especially uprising that Entangled is announcing a new imprint for "older characters". I could be more thrilled about "older" meaning over 30. Thirty is "August" only if your life expectancy is 45, which is conventionally counted as just the first year of middle age. The official guidelines increase this to 40 which means at least we can expect to live to retirement age, if not beyond.