I’ve always thought of them as WWE types, sitting on normal furniture and breaking it etc. Not the sort of people you’d want to have around the hhouse.
(hot85. Yeah)
Categories: Random Musings
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by SB Sarah • Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 10:51 AM
Sarah: Darlene’s last post highlighted something that I’ve been pondering ever since this whole kerfluffle blew up in such windy fashion:
For the record, I have zero information about the personal lives of my current ebook publishers and editors. I don’t know if they’re married, gay, straight, have children, have financial problems or have been medicated for anything.
And I’d just as soon keep it that way. What I want from my publisher is for them to publish and promote my books, not become my new best friend.
The incredibly loyal comments from happy Triskelion authors here that display an almost cult-like devotion to the “family” of the publishing house makes me wonder: is this overwrought drama surrounding any criticism a part of the reason why romance as a business isn’t taken seriously?
I don’t regularly read blogs and message boards devoted to other genres, but do mystery authors get all huffy and start tossing their feather boas in agitated fashion when someone says something disparaging about their publishing house? Does this bizarre quirk of culture exist in any other genre?
Why is there this attitude in the romance world that we must all get along and hold hands and sing no matter what our professional disputes? Why is it that so often in the minor and major kerfluffles, professional criticism is taken personally?
In this particular case, it’s easier and far more entertaining to point fingers as to what should or should not have been done in the case of the entry itself, and avoid the actual matter of the situation: can you establish a career with some degree of confidence if your publisher is Triskelion? Given the tone of recent communications, and now the public behavior of the authors who support the firm and react as if someone insulted their mothers, if I were a writer shopping a manuscript, I would have my reservations. It’s one thing to say, “I’ve never had financial problems with Triskelion and this is a minor wrinkle in what has been a smooth publishing process.” But if the number one accusation is, “You’re not being nice!” then how is anyone supposed to take any subsequent argument seriously?
I think it’s symptomatic of the “be nice culture” of surrounding romance, and I won’t hurt the feelings of my Fem Soc prof by attempting to diagnose WHY that culture exists, but the same thing often happens when we post a particularly cranky review of an author that people love love love, oh, how could we be so mean?! There’s a pressure and expectation to not rock the boat, to not dis the authors or the books, to react with love and kittens and not level any harsh analysis.
I understand that writing is a solitary business and other writers are the ones that often best understand the ramifications of that career choice, but hey, I have had friends at work who supported me. I never took it personally when they might harsh on a company policy, even if I agreed with it. So what is it with the personal investment in what should be a professional business interaction?
Criticism isn’t always “nice.” But sometimes it’s necessary, since keeping unprofessional behavior and financial and ethical shenanigans under the blanket cover of “it’s not nice to talk about it” just hurts people who enter into agreements without that knowledge.
Candy: What I find especially interesting is how many criticisms and commentary are construed as personal attacks, or signs that we bear ill-will towards specific people. Trista Whatserface, for example, was convinced that you’d posted Northman’s e-mail out of spite—which was puzzling, because neither of us knew anything about her before yesterday, and as far as I knew, you posted the e-mail because it was newsworthy. In a trainwrecky way, sure, but while there might’ve been plenty of the fascinated horror that accompanies the rubbernecking of any sort of wreck, there wasn’t any actual malice. Projection, much? The accusations that we were attempting to twist the story for our own ends were also strange—the vast majority of the post was Northman’s e-mail, for one, and for another, other than interest in the goings-on in the industry, neither of us has any sort of vested interest in Triskelion.
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Categories: Random Musings
Categories: Random Musings
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