Greetings from me, and my blood pressure medication.
RWA has filed for bankruptcy, per a Bloomberg story that is behind a paywall.
The URL alone is enough to give me a stroke, so I’m sharing that over the headline:
I’m sharing the URL straight because the part after the date, called the “slug,” is the part that made the top of my head blow clean off.
So what actually happened?
Most likely: With years of terrible conference hotel contracts booked into the future, something attendees and even board members complained openly about to me as far back as 2017, and an utterly disgraceful handling of a single ethics complaint that led to the mass exodus of membership and disaffiliation of many major chapters of RWA, the organization has filed for bankruptcy.
But no, we need something snappy. Something that will get clicks!
DEI? Courtney Milan?
No, y’all. Just no.
You can read the bankruptcy filing here if you’re interested.
If you’re new, or weren’t part of romance at that time, and you’re wondering why the attempt to blame DEI, which is utter horseshit, here’s a very brief recap. On December 23, 2019, RWA suspended Courtney Milan after an ethics complaint.
Shit went very, very sideways after that. Board members resigned, including every single board member of color. Then the president, Carolyn Jewel, resigned, followed by full-time staff members, and finally president Damon Suede resigned as well.
I wrote about some of the ongoing problems with RWA, and then in February, after doing a four-part podcast series about what had happened, I resigned from RWA.
Along with apparently MANY MANY thousands of other people per their own bankruptcy filing who ALSO left the organization.
But sure, blame the one person of color. Sure. It wasn’t the visible racism, and alienation of membership by hamfisted leadership.
And many other people wrote about the particular and actual why RWA imploded, including the impeccable Kelly Faircloth at Jezebel. The racism and structural bigotry was baked in. They had (and apparently still have) a problem reckoning with how the organization and its leadership wasn’t equipped or willing to advocate on behalf of everyone in their membership.
But sure, it’s this one person’s fault.
(I’m a little incensed here, folks.)
They even cite DEI in their filing!
Subsequently, predominantly due to disputes concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues between some members of a prior RWA board and others in the larger romance writing community, membership decreased to approximately 3,000. Due to COVID concerns, the Debtor held its annual conference virtually in 2020 and 2021, and subsequently its membership reduced further. RWA was able to postpone its obligations to the respective Conference Centers these two years by agreeing to add two future years to the applicable Conference Center Contract to 2028.
First: this is some Performative Bullshit. If I understand correctly, a bankruptcy court judge is not likely to care why they’re filing. This is all smoke and distraction, performative bullshit pandering, and also, deeply irresponsible.
Second: Courtney Milan is not to blame here. I don’t know why that needs to be said but it’s easy to blame a person of color (and collect clicks, if you’re into shoddy headline and slug writing) than to own up how the massive mismanagement of a six-month disgrace and prior examples of institutional bias alongside a conference contract set that choked them may have left the organization in a precarious position financially.
It is APPALLING that on their way down the final swirl of the toilet bowl, the organization had to point blame anywhere but itself, and specifically mention DEI so that one person now has to manage a LOT of sudden public attention, which she has said on the record has not been and will not be great for her mental and physical health.
Why? Why would you do that except to be performative and cruel? Is the racism that profitable? Clearly not, they’re bankrupt.
The racism is the problem. The racism is always the problem, and it’s not the fault of the person or people who point it out.
I am so fucking angry and appalled. Good thing I have a blog so I know where to put all that rage.
I left RWA before the drama, but continued to follow the story. Thanks SBTB for keeping us informed
This is a great example of romance writers changing the status quo for the better, in a good way. Lots of other romance networks have sprung up–it’s no coincidence that Authors Guild of America launched its first romance writing discussion boards, AND saw a big uptick in membership, after the RWA Shitshow of 2020.
I joined RWA in 1996, was a Golden Heart finalist in 1997 and utterly appalled when they told me at the Chicago National meeting in 1999 that my e-published novel wasn’t real, give them back the ribbon. Still, I stayed with the organization. For someone who knew very little about the nature of good writing, the conferences, and indeed my local Dallas chapter, were gold. Not only did I scarf up every bit of info I could, I enjoyed being with people who knew what romance was and appreciated it and applauded it.
And then the debacle that was the end of 2019 and the vitriol that followed. The Pandemic didn’t help matters and we lost even more of our social graces as we went to Zoom meetings which I never enjoyed. When it was time to renew, I didn’t.
Am I saddened by this news? Yes. Am I surprised? No, just wondering what took so long.
fwiw, Steamy Lit Con is operating with the tagline ‘celebrating diversity in romance.’ I attended their debut event last year (my first ever book con) and thought they did a great job with it. Don’t know if they’re considering any kind of awards structure though.
fwiw, Steamy Lit Con is operating with the tagline ‘celebrating diversity in romance.’ I attended their debut event last year (my first ever book con) and thought they did a great job with it. Don’t know if they’re considering any kind of awards structure though.
1) I’ve just brought a SHITLOAD of Courtney Milan books….hilariously I don’t even like historical romance. Will be donating her books to my local library, so others can enjoy them much more than me
2) I’m very very tempted to start a TikTok channel just to promote the HELL out of Courtney’s books (and other utterly talented authors of colour…..the fantastic Kennedy Ryan etc). I mean if BookTok can sell turd like Colleen (yes, I have issues with very young impressionable women reading books about toxic relationships – Colleen do better!)
Sarah, thank you for your righteous rage. And thank you once again for keeping us informed. And thank you RWA for showing your ass once again, just in case we forgot.
I already own everything Courtney Milan has written, because she is basically a tremendous writer. However, as a subscriber to her Weekly Tea newsletter (also a source of excellent writing), I may have to drop a little something something in the tip jar to express my support.
Ilona Andrews has a very good post on this as someone who writes but was never a member of RWA. https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/rwa-filed-for-bankruptcy/ The heart of it is in the couple of paragraphs above the snip of the filing and the link to this post.
Oof. RWA is so on trend with current right-wing rhetoric …bridge collapse, blame DEI! billion dollar bank fail, blame DEI! doors flying off of planes, blame DEI! It’s no longer dogwhistle. We hear you loud and clear.
The fact that RWA has jumped on DEI-as-boogeyman bandwagon is so on the nose it’s almost funny.
That Courtney Milan is still out here in streets having to do the work of calling people on their BS makes me furious. Bless her. She doesn’t deserve to keep continually getting dragged into this mess every time RWA’s name is mentioned, but she rise to the occasion every time. She’s a national treasure.
If I could wave a wand and have a new RWA, it would 100% have the soul of this community.
I just visited the RWA site for the first time in…probably since the big board exodus, and I was shocked how many chapters they’ve lost. The page with chapter activities used to be full of events and contests every month, but now it’s like tumbleweeds up in there.
I have mixed feelings about RWA. There are decent, admirable people who made lifelong friends there and got supported in their writing when they most needed it. God bless ’em.
On the other end of the scale are people who were actually harmed, emotionally, financially, and professionally for ever having crossed paths with RWA and the non-trivial number of messed-up people who were part of it. My old chapter was run like some kind of middle-aged white chick mafia. Cross them even a little and they’d call up your editor.
For me, these harms carry more weight than any benefit RWA has done. I’ve heard so many stories from fellow writers of racist, bigoted, and/or otherwise shitty things happening to them and people standing by and doing sweet FA.
That said, I don’t think it follows that everyone RWA harmed is a candidate for sainthood. Yes, they hurt many super nice people who wouldn’t hurt a fly. But they did the same to people who are assholes to other writers, who stir up online drama to their own financial benefit. A person can be treated horribly by RWA and still be a dick.
I mostly learned from RWA what I DIDN’T want to do or be as a writer. So, uh, thanks? I could’ve just read some blogs and saved my money and energy.
Well, at least they’re consistent.
https://www.courtneymilan.com/courtneys-weekly-tea-tip-jar/
She has a tip jar. For the love of everything that is holy, let’s send her all the warm fuzzies we can.
Wow. I’m a member of RWA, but I rarely check out the site these days. So, I had no idea about the bankruptcy.
I joined a little before the first big blowout, and the NWL were miffed at being put in their place. (Temporarily, anyway) Several great authors left. I decided to stick around… then the whole holy-shit drama over the Nazi love story and the Indian-killer books.
I know there are a few members who were really trying to keep the organization going – including DEI – but I guess they can only do so much.
My membership will laspe in August. I won’t be renewing.
@Katie, thank you for the link to her tip jar. I want her to be able to preserve her mental health — I can’t imagine the early 2020 firestorm was good for it, and I don’t want the current level of foolishness to hit her again.
@M.F. Hopkins, I know people who tried to make things better, but I also know there was resistance. A person I know told me CM shouldn’t have been so [unpleasant] and public, she should have addressed the issue privately. At the time, I didn’t know she had, and I didn’t remember that RWA, iirc, started with the public stuff. Nor could I remember this (which I first heard quoted in the American Experience documentary about the Stonewall Riots/Uprising):
“It isn’t nice to block the doorway,
It isn’t nice to go to jail,
There are nicer ways to do it,
But the nice ways always fail.”
To add insult to injury, the Associated Press story bungled the facts, referring to Courtney as “a Chinese American writer who said [RWA] violated the group’s code with negative online comments about other writers and their work.” For my book about romance writers, I spent literally two months, and talked to 10 people, to get the facts right–AP could have spent five minutes.
I joined RWA in 1984 for the same reason I left in June of 2020–RWA was founded by Vivian Stephens to educate, support & hopefully further the careers of all writers. By the time Damon Suede came along RWA was no longer serving their mission, & their censuring/banishment of Courtney Milan brought that ugly truth to light.
In retrospect, I think it insanely ironic that I never even HEARD of Vivian Stephens as RWA founder until I LEFT the Org, during a time when “leadership” was pandering. Yes, pandering. And don’t think Ms. Stephens didn’t know it after she’d been disappeared by RWA for so long, only to have Alyssa Day email her & ask if they could name an award after her. Of course, Ms. Stephens, being the gracious soul that she is, accepted. But RWA?
Ugh. Gross. There isn’t a policy they didn’t stomp all over in the name of politics, & when I tried to say politics didn’t belong in RWA (our mission was to support all writers & the writing, regardless left, right, center, race, religion, gender, etc.), I got stomped.
So yeah, let RWA blame DEI or COVID or even Courtney if they want to (because she’s so high above them, she’s untouchable), those who rode the wild ride know the truth. They started down the wrong path when they pushed Vivian Stephens into the shadows, perhaps thinking they knew a better way. But they had no true guiding light forward, they forgot what they stood for. And I doubt, at this point, they will ever find their way home.
This is so incredibly petty yet also unsurprising, given how the original fiasco went down and all that it exposed.
Leadership should be ashamed of themselves for putting their pride and hate over their organization’s actual mission. The same goes for all those people more interested in gatekeeping than writing and encouraging fellow writers. If their response to valid, serious criticism is doubling down and finger pointing, it’s no wonder they’re in the shape that they’re in.
I once went to a local RWA chapter meeting because they were having an editor speak and, since it wasn’t directly genre Romance related, it was open to non-members. It was a nice mix of people and I felt really welcomed, which was such a such gd relief because I had just moved away from a city where I didn’t feel comfortable or safe anywhere. I admired everyone’s guts: they went around the room and shared word counts, rejections, accomplishments – they were all seriously trying to get published. I thought of them when this was going down – with all those chapters closing or leaving, members trying to do the right thing because the people in charge of the organization decided to blow the whole thing up and leave the industry in a weaker position. Here they are again, refusing to take responsibility for their poor decisions and lack of leadership. Disgusting is what this is!
ANYWAY, I’m off to read my Courtney Milan books.
I’ve gotten two more emails from the RWA in the last week. Apparently they are going ahead with the “Golden and Diamond Awards”. Won’t that be fun? I’m sure they’ll be the model of professionalism and taste.
Another article, from a scholarly source, about the RWA debacle: https://theconversation.com/inside-the-rise-and-fall-of-one-of-the-worlds-most-powerful-writing-groups-231362