Some of you may know that two years I was elected as to sit as a Director at Large on the RWA National Board. I’m running for re-election. For interested members, here’s a little more about me and my feelings about publishing and RWA.

I’ve been publishing Romance since 1987. I’ve traditionally published and now self-publish. I’m the poster child for managing a career as a mid-list author with series still tied up with traditional publishers. I’ve been a RITA finalist in historical romance and in paranormal romance. I’m a current board member. I have worked in the Tech sector in highly specialized jobs. Many of my tech skills have crossed over and become very useful and helpful to managing my self-publishing business. I’m an entrepreneur running a profitable business. I bring all that experience to my board service.

The short version is that these last two years on the board brought home to me in the very starkest of terms how unfair publishing is to diverse authors. The facts are depressing, and I am absolutely committed to seeing RWA make progress. Diverse authors do not have the same opportunities as white, straight, authors. Too many doors are shut to them and there are too many obstacles in front of that door and afterward for those who manage to get it open. RWA can and will do better and it can and will work with publishers and the industry to address and solve this issue.

I heartily recommend and endorse all the current sitting board members up for re-election: Tessa Dare, Courtney Milan, Farrah Rochon, and Damon Suede.

Vote. It matters.

So, I’m looking at my Google and Talkwalker Alerts and there are more of them than usual. So I look in case it’s something more exciting than another pirate site, and Oh! Yes! There is! !! for good measure.

I am running for the RWA Board, for a director at large spot. I knew Tessa Dare and Courtney Milan were running. In fact, when I saw Courtney at RWA this past July we chatted about that, and I did think it would be pretty awesome to have the two of them on the Board since they have my utter respect in all things business of writing related. Anyway, I don’t know exactly what happened, but I walked away from that chat having decided to run for the Board, too.

It’s not a decision totally out of the blue. It’s been mentioned to me more than once over the years, mostly because I have no shortage of opinions, and an often appropriate response to someone’s strong opinions about stuff is to say, well, why don’t you do something about it?

Over the last two years, the issues facing RWA have been both important and contentious. I think contentious is good — it means people are paying attention. RWA is, in my opinion, currently an organization of writers who hold a unique position in the business of being authors. There is no other organization ahead of RWA and its members with he issues facing publishers and writers today. Not one. Other organizations are behind RWA members. What has happened to and because of authors in RWA is very likely on its way to other writers.

It’s also true that the current publishing environment is one driven by technology. We are potentially looking at a future where the big publishers are not companies like the Big 5 but technology companies. Amazon, Google, and Apple are tech companies, they are not book publishing companies …. except now they are.

I have spent something like 20 years working in tech. I currently work in software development, as a data architect. That’s a job that touches lots and lots of technical areas. I feel strongly that RWA needs at least some Board members who have a strong grasp of what this technology transformation of publishing could/does mean for writers. I’m not the only one with expertise, not by any means. But I am one of them.

This is a crucial time for RWA. So go look at the slate of really, truly, fine candidates and then vote for people you feel should on the board, representing you.

Consider this:

Everyone says publishing is dead. Nobody reads. Three of the biggest companies in the world — Apple, Amazon, and Google — are all recently and aggressively in the book publishing business.

Whatever your take away on that, go vote. It’s important.