The Beat Goes On

My friend Maya Reynolds blogged about this a day ago or so. It bears repeating: Harlequin has announced that it's getting into e-books. Good news, right? The giant of the romance publishing industry has finally jumped into the 21st century. Writers everywhere, rejoice.

Well... maybe. Harlequin is talking about offering an advance of $2,ooo-$4,000 and royalties of 6%. Six percent. Ellora's Cave, Whiskey Creek Press, Loose-Id, etc., they're all offering 35-40%. Hmm. 35%. Or 6%.

Not a tough call, right?

Well... maybe it is. I mean, it's Harlequin. It could mean 6% of $100,000 in sales versus 35% of $1,000 in sales. It could. As a fledgling publishing author, would I turn that down? Would I turn it down if I were multi-published? This could be the best thing to come down the pike in a long time. It could. It could also erode what the electronic publishers are doing and be completely the wrong thing for writers. If the e-pubs are able to offer 35% in royalties with no advances, why can't Harlequin? Or, at a minimum, offer something a bit closer to what is 'industry standard'. What the e-pubs have already established.

I'm hoping that RWA wades in on this and does what it was founded to do: advocate for writers. Try to guide the industry so that writers and their careers are advanced or at the very least protected. This is real. It could be a real problem.

We'll all be watching this very closely.