Controversy

Over on Romance Divas, there's some passions running high regarding one of the recent (proposed?) changes to RWA PAN eligibility. To wit:

"Our proposal: Rather than having all members who write for particular publishers automatically become PAN-eligible, we are proposing that authors who can prove they have earned $2000.00 - in advance, in royalties, or a combination of the two - on one romance novel from any non-vanity, non-subsidy publisher shall be PAN-eligible."

Personally, I have no problem with this. As others said in the thread, other writer's organizations have minimum requirements (re advances/royalties) for eligibility to join. I do see where the moving target/bar/goal can get frustrating for those aiming to achieve the required criteria, but all in all it makes sense, and might be better in that the onus is now with the author to achieve PAN status, rather than depending on the publisher's standing with the RWA.

The nucleus of the real problem here is that RWA is trying to be all things to all people. I think there needs to be a very painful refocusing/re-adjustment on what they want to represent and achieve, and for whom. They are a professional organization whose membership majority is unpublished writers, while the published membership soon reach the point where they feel their needs aren't being met. They already know how to write synopsis, proposals and query letters. They have their agents and publishers; they've put together their websites and have their marketing plans. They've branded themselves/their work, made it on a couple of best-seller lists, and mastered the Hero's journey and/or the 3-Act plotting structure. Heck, they've written articles or given workshops on any or all of the above. Then one day they have an epiphany, the RWA is mainly working as one huge kaffe klatch for them where they can hook up with friends either on a monthly basis at the local chapter meeting, or once a year at Nationals. Or they feel strongly that RWA supported them through their fledging career and now they want to give something back. But in terms of helping/supporting them for the next level? Not so hotso.

So you've got authors at a certain point in their career who might feel they've outgrown the RWA for all intents and purposes on one hand, and on the other you have the unpublished or newly published who are going to be pissed every time there's a whiff of exclusion or 'elitism' in any purposed changes the RWA may make that the organization (read: sitting Board) feels will put it on a more equal footing with comparable organizations in other genres, and as a result must (may?) make it more attractive (credible?) to published/established authors and other professionals (ie agents, editors), which in turn makes it more attractive to the unpublished.... (yes, I know that last sentence was a disaster. heh.)

One last thing, given the fact that I didn't rejoin my local chapter (though I fully intend to pay the $5 guest charge to attend those meetings that strike my fancy) and I haven't seen one single stinking issue of the RWR for months now, yet feel like I'm not missing out on much, needless to say, this whole issue/topic is not keeping me up at night. Just thought I'd put in my long-winded, gramatically mangled $0.02 and get a blog post happening. ;-)