Harlequin Romance and their publishing house have taken the short step into the worst of the vanity presses, scamming aspiring authors out of money and pretending to provide a service.
One which Lulu.com has provided on equitable terms for years, I might add.
Post over on Seanan McGuire's LJ about this travesty.
Thankfully the RWA, SFWA, and MWA have all come out against this shite with fervor.
Vanity really sucks! I hate to see people get suckered. On the other hand, the suckers should do they're homework. With that being said, I sometimes wonder if self-publishing could really open-up a road for more creativity(although, not through Harlequin, I can only imagine how those books will read.) An idustry that could begin around "self-publishers" seems very exciting to me(i.e. quality printers, quality binders, quality critics, real sales, and real free-thinking)...And, then again, Harlequin is going to fleece alot of fools. If a quality-driven industry was created around the "self-publisher", the Harlequin-type scammers wouldn't be around for very long.
ReplyDelete