Marilyn's Musings

(I wrote this on another blog I'm on, but I think it's important enough to repeat on my own blog.) I'm back on my soap box once again. On DorothyL, the premiere list for mystery fans and authors, they've been discussing the fact that Bouchercon has voted against discriminating against small press as far as allowing their authors to serve on panels. (They won't let self-pubbed or those who paid to be published however unless they've won a prestigious prize.) Left Coast Crime on the other hand will not allow any author published by a non-MWA approved publisher be on a panel. Though going to mystery cons is an enjoyable experience, they are very expensive. If you can't be on a panel, your books will not be in the book room. If you're not on a panel of course no one will be able to purchase your book. For an author, part of the reason to go to a con is to let people know about your book. I've decided to only attend mystery cons and writers conferences wh...

I suppose the most challenging event to arise is Mystery Writers of American's decision to approve and disapprove publishers based on the number of books printed on a print run, advance, author not spending anything to be published. Because a lot of publishers are now using print-on-demand technology to print books (including some New York publishers) they wait to print books when orders come in. This is ecologically sound, but something MWA doesn't approve of. MWA certainly can make up whatever rules they so desire--but as a member of MWA I sure didn't have any input into these new rules. My publisher is not approved, though Mundania has been trying hard to convince MWA they should be approved. They don't charge authors anything--they don't give an advance, but they do have a sound royalty system. I'm a MWA member and have been for years and that won't change as long as I pay my dues. The problem is now some of the mystery cons have decided that only those ...