RWA approves new authors of GBLT romance chapter

A few months ago, I asked fellow authors of GLBT romance to join together with me to look into forming a special interest chapter of the RWA. While RWA has acknowledged this sub-genre of romance, there was never a chapter where authors of this sub-genre could meet to discuss issues and experiences that focused on their writing, promotional needs and publishing issues. Over 100 authors showed up to discuss the possibilities. In the end 39 RWA members formed the Rainbow Romance Writers online special interest provisional chapter of RWA.

I’m very proud to announce that as of today we are no longer provisional but officially part of RWA! Here is the official announcement from chapter president Jade Buchanan:

Rainbow Romance Writers is the newest Special Interest Chapter within the Romance Writers of America. A lot of hard work has gone into setting us up as a chapter, but we are very proud to announce that writers specializing in LGBT romance now have a specific place to network with other career-focused writers and concentrate on our unique needs within the romance genre.

Our goals are:

* to promote excellence in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender romances
* to help members become published in LGBT romances
* to be an advocate within the industry for our genre
* to be a resource to our members and others on writing and the publishing industry

We currently have 39 wonderful members who represent all different aspects of the LGBT romance genre.

Interested writers can contact us at membership@rainbowromancewriters.com
if they would like to become members of Rainbow Romance Writers. They can also email me directly at jade.buchanan@yahoo.com

http://www.rainbowromancewriters.com

Here’s a HUGE thank you to everyone involved in making this happen, those in the new chapter and those at RWA who service the interest of the whole romance writing community! KUDOS!

Amazon's missing ranking for Gay fiction

You may have noticed that rankings and bestseller info has been removed from all a lot of gay romance and gay fiction books in the last few days. It appears that Amazon has decided we are to be hidden from the mainstream.

When Amazon was asked about the missing rankings they responded to one author with:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.

Best regards,

Ashlyn D
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage

Plainly, we are being discriminated against by Amazon, shoved into the backroom.

Not all authors of adult fiction are being targeted but it is widespread and rampant. So if you are looking for rankings and bestseller lists of adult or gay fiction, it looks like you'll need to buy directly from the publisher or hit up B&N.

Hopefully next month MLR Press will have the ability in place to buy ebooks directly from the site and print books soon after that. We getting everything in place for direct sales. We value our readers and now we REALLY like Barnes and Noble.