Hi! I’m Treva Harte, an author and one of the owners of Loose Id (www.loose-id.com.) I can’t remember if I was invited or barged my way into guest blogging for Naughty and Spice, but I’m happy I’m here. Thanks for putting up with me.
I decided to try to make this a seasonal blog. I’m feeling particularly seasonal today because, besides writing up the annual family news for cards, something funky has happened in our house and it feels like the Artic, only indoors. (Dear Friends and Family – Did you know firewood makes a lovely gift this time of year?)
At Loose Id we’ve pretty much finished editing the December and the New Year’s holiday stories by now and are rolling into Valentine’s Day. Editors and authors are starting to drop like flies as family, flu and shopping cuts into their writing and editing time. I, who vowed I was never going to crunch myself on a time schedule for my own stories again, have broken my New Year’s resolution before Christmas and am writing a time sensitive story that is part of a multi-author series, no less. While doing some emergency editing, of course.
I took time out of this insanity to go to my local RWA chapter’s holiday party. I keep track of many author friends on-line. I realize that I’ve gotten just a bit lazy about keeping up with people face-to-face. It was actually wonderful to be in rooms full of romance writers and hear about how they are doing. The very first writer event I ever went to where I consciously thought of myself as a romance writer was this chapter’s annual holiday party. I remember how odd it felt to be around people who all did the same thing I did. Now it feels pretty normal. What feels odd is that people are asking me how my publishing business is doing.
This year there are a number of people who are worried about getting contracts from New York. Not just new authors but multi-published ones. That is a perennial topic of conversation, of course, but the economy and recent bad publishing news have added a new layer of desperation for some folks this year.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to get new contracts in NY because it’s being done. What I’m saying is right now I’m very glad that I didn’t pursue that path to New York, which I once thought I very much wanted. I don’t know how bad times will get for many of us but so far the well-established e-publishing companies I know are holding steady or expanding. When people ask how my business is doing, I can say, “Just fine, thanks.” We don’t have to worry about distributors failing or bookstores going out of business. All we have to do is keep readers satisfied. Things may change for us, of course, but fortunately we can rethink and change course fairly quickly if we must.
It makes for a less stressful season.
A prosperous New Year to all—
Treva
www.trevaharte.com
Note: For those who have an interest in what some old-timers in e-publishing (some of whom have since become multi-published in NY) chat about at RWA conventions, check out the Internet-based radio interview I had with my buddies Kate and Diane at http://radiodentata.com/sascha.html
December 15: Kate Douglas, Treva Harte and Diane Whiteside
The show airs at 4 PM EST and again on Saturday at 4 PM EST.
