Not much to report in the WIPpy department. The writing is going well, but I’m still in the No Man’s Land of writing new scenes before I get to begin revising the scenes drafted during my NaNoWriMo experiment. The closer I get to those drafted scenes, the more I realize that the manuscript might just fall in line with my “plodding” (a.k.a. plotting). This, of course, amazes me to no end. And I have my brainstorming group to thank for it, because I couldn’t have done all that plotting without them (thank you, Looney Binners!).
My big news this week (well, last week or the week before, but I don’t think I’ve announced it yet), is that I’ve finally been admitted to RWA’s Published Authors Network (a.k.a. PAN). My Alter Ego’s third sale to Red Sage Secrets did it. It’s taken me so long to get here: two novel sales and three novella sales. Phew! And, if not for the change in RWA author eligibility standards last summer, I still wouldn’t belong to PAN. Because, before the changes, novella sales, regardless of advance level, didn’t count. Only novel sales counted, and my two Amber Quill novels, as amazing as they are, have not yet reached the level of income generation (LOIG – and, yes, I made that up) required to join PAN. However, now I am in PAN and they can’t get me out. Mwahahaha.
I know not everyone in RWA is happy with the changes to the eligibility requirements, but, I have to admit, being in the position of being able to continue entering the Golden Heart although I was in fact a published author always felt weird to me. This year, for the first time, because of the changes, I was able to enter the RITA, RWA’s contest for published works. Even though I didn’t final with either my or my Alter Ego’s entries, that I get to enter feels, well, exactly where I should be.
I was also able to join NINC this year (Novelists, Inc.). However, NINC’s membership requirements are different from RWA’s (which makes sense, considering they are different organizations). When I joined NINC in the fall, the requirements were two published novels. HEAD OVER HEELS and BORROWING ALEX qualified me. Last I knew, NINC was in the process of changing its membership requirements to one that might also include an income generation level (IGL for those into acronyms, as I, um, appear to be), however, seeing as I’m already a member, even if my earnings don’t reflect the minimum (I have no clue if they do), I don’t have to worry about it. I’m grandfathered in, and, unless I allow my membership to lapse, they can’t get me out. Mwahahaha.
Does anyone else have good or bad or lackadaisical news to report?
Congrats on finally getting PANned! You deserve it.
Way to go, C!
What I want to know is, how you got into NINC? I’m looking at their requirements right now, and I know I don’t qualify! 🙂
Natalie, my two paperbacks with Amber Quill Press qualified me. And I think I’d sold at least two novellas to Red Sage by the time I applied, too. This was *before* NINC started talking about changing membership requirements, and when I got on the loop I realized I slipped in just under the wire. If I’d waited a couple of months, I might have been too late.
Thanks, Lexi! It sounds funny, when being “panned” is a good thing, but it’s all in how you print it out, LOL.
Okay, Natalie, I went to the NINC website and checked their membership requirements, and, yep, if I applied now, I wouldn’t be accepted.
Yes, I’m the riff-raff that made it under the wire into NINC! 🙂 Snort!
Congratulations, Cindy.
Linda
Thank you, Linda!
I don’t remember their requirements ever being lax enough to have let me in, though! I’ve checked from time to time over the years, and my publishers never fell under their qualifying market description. Or so I thought!
Dang it! LOL