Responsibility in marketing

I am thrilled to see that the moderators of Marketing For Romance Writers (MFRW), one of the biggest genre marketing support groups online, have made the following announcement:

“Calls for submission may be submitted only by publishers who DO NOT charge fees for services such as editing, cover art, printing, and etc. A publisher must provide these services at their cost.

Marketing for Romance Writers provides access to publishers to issue submission calls as a courtesy but does not endorse anyone. We do, however, feel it is our duty to limit those calls to publishers that do not charge fees for their services.

Read submission guidelines and use your best judgment regarding contract decisions. Sites such as Preditors and Editors, and Dear Author are good spots to uncover information about disreputable editors and publishers. Do not assume a good name has remained good over the years. Staff changes can change reputations as well.

Moderators, Marketing for Romance Writers”

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Why am I happy? Because MFRW’s submissions calls over the last couple of years have unknowingly contained entries from vanity publishers…as well as some incompetent and notorious non-fee-charging publishers. In turn, some of the aforementioned publishers have supposedly used their inclusion on MFRW as some kind of endorsement of quality, when courting new and inexperienced authors.

That is not the case, as verified by the above statement.

Not the mods’ fault, and they shouldn’t be reduced to policing calls-for-submission. Kicking out the vanity publishers is a great step toward making MFRW an even better and safer resource for romance writers.

Even a strong community like MFRW can’t protect everyone, or spot every dubious publisher.

Writers, I hate to hammer this at you like a late-night infomercial, but it’s up to you to do your research on publishers, agents, editors, and other industry professionals.