No Love Lost for Romance Publisher

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books is fast becoming my go-to blog for news from the romance segment of the publishing industry. First there was the brouhaha over the RWA awards ceremony, and this morning they report on one small publisher’s challenge to RWA’s bestowals of legitimacy. The SB,TB reader comments show this issue isn’t cut-and-dry, and it raises a lot of interesting questions about the role writer’s groups can play in advocating for their members by keeping publishers “honest” (in the broadest sense of the term).

15 August 2005 | uncategorized |

Load Up on Guns, and Bring Your Friends

I’m a bit busy today, doing a bunch of interviews for my next PW feature story, so posting will be sparse today. But I wanted to note Jack Shafer’s response to the WaPo/Marianne Wiggins flap:

“Stamping out conflict of interest may result in a ‘fairer’ book review. But will it produce a better one? I think not.”

Keep in mind that Shafer cops to a “prejudice against fairness,” and argues in favor of greater accuracy in book reviewing: “If the Post is going to apologize for publishing the Wiggins review on ethical grounds, I’d like to see it ask for reader forgiveness when fully vetted and unconflicted reviewers give bad books a free pass.”

15 August 2005 | uncategorized |