Moro’s Price up for an award!

There’s an old saying: I wouldn’t join any club that would have me. I’m considering all sides of that argument, right now, for reasons I’ll clarify in this post.

A very kind and enthusiastic reviewer just nominated my M/M erotic romance space opera Moro’s Price for the 17th Annual Preditors & Editors ™ Readers’ Poll. Since the novel was technically re-published in 2014 after an Amazon glitch, it is eligible.

Here’s the link, if you want to see that and the other entries:

http://critters.org/predpoll/novelsf.shtml

I am honored and thrilled the reviewer thought that much of my work (like, quietly-fizzing with warm joy and a teeny bit of smug triumph. I won’t lie about that.) Ten years ago, or twenty? I would have a complete pest to everyone I know. I would have been over the moon with giddy delight. You might – gasp! – have seen me dancing.

But I’m more of a cynic and realist now. I’ve learned how many branches of publishing really work (sausage factories have nothing on it). That’s why I tend to shy now from many open-nomination polls in my genre. They get flooded by self-nominated authors whose only barrier to entry may be an entry fee. As in the art world, it means a little more if someone else likes your work enough to nominate it.

I love Preditors & Editors’ watchlist of players in the publishing industry. It’s one of the first places I check when researching a publisher, lawyer, editor, or agent. While the reasons for negative or cautionary ratings may be held private, I rest assured there *was* ample reason. Like Piers Anthony’s ‘Hi Piers’ publishing overview, Pred-Ed gives me a good baseline to spot bad publishing behavior.

The Pred-Ed Readers’ poll is a genuine reader-based assessment of notable works published every year. It’s been going since 1997, and it is sponsored by some very well-known groups in the publishing field.

But somehow, sometimes, that contest has appeared to be co-opted by less-savory players. Anyone can nominate an entry. I’ve seen claims that votes on it often appear to be gamed heavily by self-published and vanity-published authors, or by publishers who may have themselves been downgraded by Pred-Ed. In other writing forums – and behind closed doors among some professional circles – some wins at the Pred-Ed Readers’ poll have often been met with shaking heads.

Even a nomination in the Pred-Ed Readers’ poll seems to be a level of separation between new authors and seasoned authors. New ones are giddy; experienced ones offer conditional approval, with some version of, ‘Yes, that’s good, but -‘

Some authors have claimed they would bow out of the poll, because of those previous allegations. So what? All that mediocrity needs to win, is for skilled people to shun these contests. So I’m staying, and shilling as gently for votes as I can.

I don’t know that many of my fellow contenders. I’m not wasting my time to go looking for who was vanity, self-pub, or commercial…and who may be the genre equivalent of Monkey Jesus.

I like my readers. I trust them far enough to tell me what they like. Is Moro’s Price my absolute best work? Nope. But it was pretty strong when I queried it. Some amazing editors helped me turn it into something better. I think the book’s actual reviews show that, for all its obvious debut-novel flaws, it’s a good story.

I’m happy that some other people seem to think so, too.

The poll runs through January 14, 2015, so wander over and check out the entries.