That Contest Part 2

Having just taken another look over at I Heart Presents - and I really wish I hadn't - I'm just going to make one final comment.


And that is that, no matter what happened with the official rules and the actual winning entry - that is between the editors and the entrant. No matter how disappointed, angry, frustrated and confused you are there is a professional way to deal with it - and there is a petty, ill-tempered , mean spirited - quite frankly - childish way of doing just that.



A professional would be aware of the fact that the editors are human and mistakes can be made. The editorial offices are closed and no decision can be made until later this morning. I have no doubt that there will be an official announcement later. Until I am aware of all the facts that is all I'll say.



That is where the decisions and the proper assessment of the situation rests.



For anyone else - to resort to personal cat fights, and the sort of mean spirited spite on a public forum that I have seen in some of the posts does nothing to justify your cause, it simply lowers the writer to the level of truly unpleasant and totally unprofessional. I'm glad to see that one poster at least has realised this and come back to say so.



A while ago I wrote a post pointing out how unjustified the Crime Writers' Association were in their long-running and tired joke about the fact that crime writers were lovely people - it was the Romantic Novelists who would stab you in the back. Sadly, reading some of the posts on I hearts would give them plenty more material to keep that tired old chestnut roasting well into 2010.

To be honest, the venom in some of those posts would make me want to back well away from working with/ helping 'wannabe' authors in the future. Which, considering the post I put up at Romance Bandits on Saturday about how and why I do that would be a real disappointment.

PS On a personal note to 'Jenny' who commented so much - I quote:

The odds were grim to begin with. HM&B didn’t contract new writers for quite some years, it’s only in recent years that they’ve opened the doors again. It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to work out why. Their stable of authors will need to be replenished – The Grand Dames of romance are winding down, some of the newbie writers may not be around for long as some, let’s face it, aspire to greater heights and view this particular genre as a stepping stone or a temporary diversion

Sorry - no- get your facts right. The doors have always, always been open to anyone who could achieve the standard of story-telling required. And I have no idea if you consider me one of the 'Grand Dames' (heaven forfend!) but winding down . . . no . I may have been published for 25 years but I ain't finished yet. - I already have two new books scheduled for next year, a new one 'on the keyboard' so to speak. And a 'special project' commissioned for after that. I don't see any of my writing contemporaries 'winding down' either. It's the writers who have made the Presents Line such a wonderful publishing success and so the line that 544 - and more who didn't enter the contest people would aspire to be published in.

You apologised to the 'Sisterhood', for not congratulating the winners, but in that paragraph you managed to dismiss the established authors, the newcomers to the genre - the genre itself in your comment about 'aspiring to greater heights' - If you really want help and advice - feedback and clarification you'd do well not to alienate those who might offer it to you as you struggle to start off your own career.