A response from EPIC

[erastes]

EPIC haven't responded to my concerns, no surprise there, but they did reply to a fellow m/m writer Pat Brown. She graciously gave me permission to publish their answer on this blog, so here goes.  If you have high blood pressure you might want to take a pill now. The whole letter seems to me to be a metaphor for a woman with a shovel digging a deeper and deeper hole. Aside from one removed section, email is reproduced as is, typos and all.


"We fully embrace the difference in romantic liaisons. We have a category, GLBT, for same sex romance and other books within those genres. We are looking into adding a GLBT Romance category next year because we realize that we need a split between general GLBT books and their romantic counterparts.

"We have a large membership that DOES write exclusively in the GBLT category. They have not complained about the definition because they know we don't exclude them at all. It wasn't until after the contest started that we all realized we could have included a GLBT category which encompassed romance.

"Every contest has rules. Not everyone will agree with those rules. HOWEVER, we do our very best to include everyone. Not everyone is so open minded in regards to same sex romance. Every category MUST have a definition that defines that category. Contemporary Romance IS a category of heterosexual couples where as Contemporary GBLT Romance would not be. We don't have those new categories yet and we are not adverse to adding them should it be necessary.

"The GLBT category is judged only by people who LOVE the genre. Isn't that the way it should be?

"On a personal note, some of my best author friends are gay. Some of my female author friends write gay books. I personally have embraced that people are different all my life no matter what their sexual orientation might be. [section removed as it refers directly to personal feelings and politics]

"On a professional level, EPIC tries to be extremely fair to ALL it's members. We have gone from a contest with no GBLT category to one who
embraces the genre with open arms. We started with approximately 20 categories to a contest with 30 categories. We change as the market
changes and we try to say on top of the market.

"We take every complaint seriously and yours will be filed away to be looked at next year when we are once again doing the category definitions for the EPPIEs.

"I am hoping that this will put to rest your fears regarding this subject.

"Thank you.

"Carol MacLeod
"EPIC President"

ETA: My two cents:

1. We fully embrace the difference in romantic liaisons 

What differences?  Why is gay love different from heterosexual love.

2.We have a category, GLBT, for same sex romance and other books within those genres.  

How kind at least there's somewhere for those "other books" to go other than in the normal categories. It also means that Age of Sail, Vikings, Thrillers, Detective, Scifi, Fantasy, contemp romance all have to compete against each other.

3. We are looking into adding a GLBT Romance category next year because we realize that we need a split between general GLBT books and their romantic counterparts.

Again. WHY do you need a split between gay books and their "romantic counterparts"?

4. They have not complained

Because as far as I can tell, most of them hadn't seen the category definitions before they entered?  Also people don't like to complain. And they have complained. I've complained. Pat Brown has complained and Lee Rowan has complained.

5. Contemporary Romance IS a category of heterosexual couples

WHY?  Could you explain to me why contemporary=heterosexual?

6. On a personal note, some of my best author friends are gay.

Oh Dear. Foot - meet bullets.

7. I personally have embraced that people are different all my life no matter what their sexual orientation might be

I think that's the crux of the matter, madam Chairperson. - you consider gay people to be DIFFERENT and while you think you are being accepting, for forgiving them for being different, you are actually being - perhaps unintentionally - homophobic.

8. We change as the market changes and we try to say on top of the market.

As ebooks sprung mainly from the GLBT and erotic end of the market, I challenge that assertion.

Comments

[angelabenedetti.livejournal.com]

How small a group are we talking about? That is, about how many GBLT writers would have to join and become active -- at least active enough to participate in discussions and support one or two of their own for elected offices, and to volunteer for things like organizing the Eppies -- to make a significant difference? Ten? Twenty? Two hundred?

On just throwing open all the categories without addressing the bias, I'd find it horribly frustrating to enter the "proper" categories year after year and know that I was always going to lose to a het-oriented book, no matter what. I don't think the Boston Marathon is a valid comparison; at least with a footrace, winning or losing is dependent solely on the ability of the competitor, and they don't have to worry about getting half their points deducted by the Russian judge, or a panel composed of 80% Russian judges.

If my stories lost to awesomely written books which just happened to be het romances, then fine. But if it became clear that the judging was biased against GBLT work from the start, then that's a whole 'nother kettle of weasels and yeah, it's a problem. :/

Angie

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Which is why I think separate categories would be the best solution--where the author chooses which competition to enter. If someone chose to put a het romance in the glbt category because, say, the heroine had a brother dying of AIDS and she was trying to get a marriage bill passed while he was still alive so he could marry his partner - and the hero had some kind of political influence but had to defy political....hmm. there's a plot here, I think.

But it should be the writer's decision.

I don't know how many active voices would be necessary, because it's not just m/m writers who are striving for fairness. But the strategy so far has mostly been just to enter as many glbt books as possible to prove that the numbers are there to justify separate categories. It's clear from the number of entries that the "Inspirational" category exists mainly for the relatively few people entering books in that category.

[angelabenedetti.livejournal.com]

I agree that it should be the writer's decision, but that assumes that there are reasonably valid alternatives from which to choose. I think it needs to be worked from both ends -- letting the writers choose where to put their books, and giving them categories which actually fit their books well. One GBLT catch-all, plus a handful of erotica categories, is nowhere near enough. If they're looking to expand, though, then that's hopeful. Or to alter the definitions of the other categories to not be specifically exclusive of GBLT, either way.

It's clear from the number of entries that the "Inspirational" category exists mainly for the relatively few people entering books in that category.

Huh. :/ That suggests that it's not just a numbers game, though, if they're willing to give a separate category to a relatively small group of books. But yes, entering lots of GBLT books every year can't hurt. I'm just afraid that we'll get into a situation where all or most of the GBLT writers have wandered away in disgust or frustration, and then the folks running EPIC can say, "See? Hardly any of our writers are into that stuff, so one category is plenty." [sigh] Holding out against attrition is probably worth it, if there's no better alternative organization or award out there for people to migrate to.

Angie

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

I don't know if there are better alternatives, and creating the glbt category was a similar response. There's a natural conflict between category requirements specific enough to give writers and judges an idea of what's expected versus requirements so tight that almost any book could be docked for 'wrong category.'

In many bookstores, GLBT books are automatically shelved in either the 'erotic' section, or the social-science/gender studies sections. Most people who never write or look for these books aren't even aware that there is a literary ghetto, and the (usually younger), more in-your-face glbt activists often contribute to the impression that it's all about Teh Sexx.

I do wonder what the result would be if glbt writers got into active participation in the group. Two things I've heard when I mention Epic and the Eppies are that the one category is not very useful--but the other is that as a group it isn't doing a lot to justify the cost of membership. I'm not sure on that score, because the group has been around as long as many of us have been writing, so there's no way to determine whether or not the outreach contributes to e-book sales.

[angelabenedetti.livejournal.com]

In many bookstores, GLBT books are automatically shelved in either the 'erotic' section, or the social-science/gender studies sections.

Oh, that's a whole 'nother rant, trust me. [wry smile] And the lavender ghetto is right next to the brown ghetto, as far from the genre fiction shelves as the bookstores can put them. For whatever reason.

But the fact that issues like this exist in other areas of a GBLT writer's life just underscore the fact that a professional association should be helping us combat them, not contributing to the problems.

I do wonder what the result would be if glbt writers got into active participation in the group. Two things I've heard when I mention Epic and the Eppies are that the one category is not very useful--but the other is that as a group it isn't doing a lot to justify the cost of membership. I'm not sure on that score, because the group has been around as long as many of us have been writing, so there's no way to determine whether or not the outreach contributes to e-book sales.

Yes, that's a major issue. In a way it's a classic chicken/egg thing -- the group doesn't see a reason to go to bat for us, but if it doesn't support us then our people don't see any reason to join the group and write them checks.

On this level, another significant question is whether EPIC does anything significant for any of its members. What do other writers -- the writers of straight romances, for example, who have a number of good places to categorize their work within the Eppies structure -- get for their $30/year?

Under "Programs" I see the Eppies themselves, and a couple of other contests. If you're a member, you get $10 off the entry fee per book, so if you have more than three books to enter in one year, you're saving some money there. There's a bookstore too -- it'd be interesting to know whether any significant number of sales go out through that bookstore. Worth putting your books there? At least $30/year in extra sales?

The "How-To Guides" are mostly things like managing a Yahoo subscription. The only one really specific to writers is how to start a critique group, which is nice but not exactly unique.

Okay, here's a better list of links, under "Resources and Links." :) This is a decent collection with a lot of good stuff. Again, not unique to EPIC, and you can find pretty much any of this on your own or on other resource links pages, but it's handy to have in one spot.

"Author Services" is very sparse, and there's a warning at the top which specifically says that EPIC doesn't actually endorse any of the services linked anyway. Anyone who's an EPIC member can advertise here, but I don't see enough listings to suggest that it's a particularly fruitful advertising venue.

They have a model contract up -- that's helpful. Especially with all the brand new e-pubs started by folks who've never done this before, as though it were like setting up a lemonade stand, this gives something for new publishers to reference to make sure they're doing it right, and something for new writers to reference to make sure a publisher is doing it right before they sign anything.

List of contract red flags -- another nice resource for both baby writers and baby publishers.

Short list of articles about e-books and electronic publishing, and what looks like a few writing help links.

A page of poetry. Umm, okay.

Then at the bottom, three more articles (separate from "Articles" for some reason) on promotion and such.

There's some good stuff here, but to be brutally frank, I don't see much of anything that I'd be getting for my $30/year that I'm not already getting. Anyone can come use the links and articles and such.

In the President's letter, I see some potentially useful things, particularly getting a lawyer on retainer. From context, it looks like the purpose might be to actually give the membership in general legal advice and opinions, to replace all the "I'm not a lawyer but this is what I think..." type discussions with a, "We do have a lawyer who specializes in publishing law and they say...." That could be useful. A fee discount for individual consults -- at least an initial exchange -- for members would also be very cool.

[Continued on Next Rock...]

[angelabenedetti.livejournal.com]

[...Continued from Previous Rock]

On the whole, though, it looks like the purpose of the organization is more the promotion of e-books and electronic publishing than the actual provision of concrete services and support to members. Which is a good thing if done effectively, but if their emphasis is not to be a professional organization for writers, if they don't even have goals to eventually be able to provide, say, advocacy for writers who are being ripped off by their publishers, or group health insurance or a medical emergency fund, for example, then maybe I'm complaining because this apple doesn't taste anything like the carrot I'm actually looking for.

And a lot of the things the president talks about are services and resources which are already available elsewhere. There are a lot of forums and blogs and such where writers can hang out and talk about whatever they'd like; it's nice to have a gathering point, but we don't need a writer's association just to set up a forum. And if they intend to provide only "generalized" feedback about publishers, because of liability issues, heck, I can go to Piers Anthony's site and find very specific feedback already, so another site where I'd only get hints and euphemisms or whatever doesn't feel terribly useful.

Pardon my blathering, but I've been thinking a lot about this over the last couple of days. :/ I've been trying to figure out whether joining EPIC would be worthwhile, and at this point I'm leaning toward not. They don't seem to intend to be a writers' organization in the same way that SFWA or RWA or HWA are. If their purpose is elsewhere, that's fine; it's good to have an organization trying to promote the concept of e-books and e-publishing. But if I'm looking for a professional organization for writers, I think looking at EPIC is like shopping for groceries at a hardware store -- if I'm not finding what I want, it's my fault for coming to the wrong place.

Which leads to the question of whether there is an effective professional writers' organization, for either e-published writers or for writers of gay romance and erotica? RWA is very problematic for us, and excludes us in their awards even more than the Eppies do. Is there anything else? :/

Angie