Just read the latest Romance Writers Report (the professional journal of the Romance Writers of America) and I’m so impressed with the changes in the organization. Since the problems got a lot of publicity, I wanted to share a bit about the solutions.
First of all, a bit of history. RWA ran into problems in the first place because they did something very unusual. To join the mystery writers or the science fiction writers organizations, you have to first publish a novel (or equivalent). RWA offered memberships to those who had published a romance novel AND to complete beginners who wanted to write a book but didn’t know how. This meant very different needs for different members, so RWA set up the Published Authors Network (PAN) to address specific issues you run into after you’re published while providing workshops and articles for everybody, trying very hard to support two vastly different groups with those differences naturally creating a lot of friction.
I didn’t know this when I joined. I applied for membership after I’d written three complete romance novels that editors at various publishing houses requested I submit. I figured, well, I guess I’m a romance writer so I should join RWA. At which point I found myself in sort of no-writers-land in RWA, where I wasn’t one of the beginners who wanted to learn how to write a book or who had never sold anything (I was already published and paid for writing in other fields) but I wasn’t published by RWA standards.
There were a lot of us in that no-writers-land, which is inevitable, because if you start as a beginner, you invariably finish a book and then try to market it and get rejected and try again, and then eventually sell. Given the number of beginners and the quality of workshops available, some members had to be going up the ladder. A lot of them, in fact. But it can take years to get from “I’ve finished my first novel” to “I got my first novel contract”, and for those years, RWA now offers the PRO program. This is a huge step.
It’s only one of many changes in the organization since the big shake-up, but RWA is now set up to offer something really valuable, something that can be of great benefit to other writers even if they have no interest in writing romance. Specifically, a large, national professional organization that is set up to educate and support the writer at every stage of the writer’s journey. From learning how to write a novel in the first place to how to market it to what to do when you’re offered a 3-book contract, RWA has resources that a small local group can’t match. Whatever point you’ve reached as a writer, there are members who have been there and done that and learned from it. This pool of experience, talent and knowledge is tremendously helpful.
The RWA National website has lots of in-depth information about what is available to a member, but honestly, if you want to learn to write a book, then how to sell it, and get the opportunity to meet agents and editors at a conference, in short, if you’re serious about a career writing novel-length fiction, then RWA can help you. Even if you want to write mysteries or fantasy or something other than romance. My chapter has romance writers, speculative fiction writers, and mystery writers, and all of us are getting something out of membership.
Myself, I’m not really a romance writer. I’m sort of a cross-genre hybrid. But all writers need the company and support of other writers, because there are common problems and struggles that only another writer can relate to. Which is why I’ll renew my membership again in 2005. RWA and my chapter of mixed bag writers offer me something I value and benefit from.
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