RWA Responds To PW Article

The article that appeared in the March 13, 2008 issue of PW Daily regarding Tsaba House and Romance Writers of America contained a factual error. The Tsaba House author referenced in the article was not trying to enter RWA’s RITA contest. She called to inquire about a contest sponsored by an RWA chapter. The rules governing RWA chapter contests are independently determined by each chapter. At no time did the author mention the RITA award when communicating with the RWA office. According to RWA records, the office was not contacted by the author or publisher until February 2008, several months after the RITA entry deadline, which was November 30, 2007.

Since finalists will be announced March 26, 2008, we think it’s important to set the record straight.

The facts are:

Pam Schwagerl, President/Owner of Tsaba House contacted the RWA office on February 25 to request that the publisher be added to RWA’s “approved list” so one of its authors could enter a contest. (It should be noted that some chapters limit their programs to authors and publishers who appear on RWA’s list of non-vanity/non-subsidy publishers.)

RWA does not maintain a list of “approved publishers,” but it does maintain a list of non-vanity/non-subsidy publishers. RWA’s definition of "Subsidy Publisher" is any publisher that publishes books in which the author participates in the costs of production in any manner, including publisher assessment of a fee or other costs for editing and/or distribution. This definition includes publishers who withhold or seek full or partial payment or reimbursement of publication or distribution costs before paying royalties, including payment of paper, printing, binding, production, sales or marketing costs.

At RWA’s request, Ms. Schwagerl supplied a copy of the company’s boilerplate contract which listed several instances in which costs could be charged to the author. It therefore failed to meet RWA’s standards.

As stated in the article, the contract was obtained “from self-publishing guru Dan Poynter’s Web site as part of a package of contracts and agreements.” RWA maintains that the clauses found in this contract are not standard for works of fiction.