I used to be a journalist. I wrote for several years for an alternative weekly paper in Tampa Florida. Most of my articles were food reviews, which made them opinion pieces. When I wrote those pieces, I went to the restaurant, ate the food, and then formed an opinion upon which to base my article.
That style seems to be out of fashion. Exhibit A: A letter that was sent from a journalist at the Washington Post to local area romance writers (including yours truly, a board member of Washington Romance Writers). It was signed, no joke, “Breathlessly Yours.”
Much mockery is being made of this solicitation on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books site, but then, that is what they do there. When I originally got this email, I didn’t even blink. This was par for the course at newspapers when I worked for them. Every Valentine’s Day, without fail, they’d decide to humor the local romance writers by publicizing some facet of their sex lives, complete with the requisite digs, stereotypes, and insults.
Many years ago, I got my first big break as a journalist, to write a feature story about a romance novelist who set a lot of her books in our home town of Tampa. I found this novelist, pitched the story, and had it accepted. I also got in many arguments with my editor, who, among other things, refused to let me use the term “New York Times Bestselling Author” to refer to certain other local authors who were, in fact, New York Times Bestselling Authors, because he “hadn’t heard of them”; wanted me to ask the author about her favorite sexual positions (in an article where I interviewed her parents, the principle of the Catholic school where she’d once taught English, and her priest!); changed the title of the piece to “My Randy Valentine”; and added all kinds of little “bodice ripping” phrases in here and there to show that our paper didn’t actually countenance “these kinds” of books. The photographer sent to shoot her apparently asked her to pose in a boa with bon bons. She refused.
(It was pretty frustrating. However, I feel triumphant that several of the other editors there then now work for Ellora’s Cave. Countenance that.)
I was a little baby writer at the time, so I agreed to a lot of things that I may have argued against now. (Of course, now I’d just look up the archives of the NYT list.) There was one in particular that makes me grimace every time I see it (which is often, considering that the piece is framed and hanging on my wall — my first byline). My editor was also a music critic, and was unused to the construction used when discussing book imprint releases. One usually writes something to the effect of, “Rites of Spring (Break), due out from Bantam Dell in June,” but in music, something comes out on a given label. Thus, throughout the piece, the author’s books are released on Harlequin Blaze, etc.
All in all though, I think the piece turned out pretty well, and certainly the author in question wasn’t so offended that she never spoke to me again! (Right, Jules?) It also had an adorable graphic — a cartoon of a little Cupid reading a romance novel. My favorite cover.
But because of that experience, I tend to give these young journalists a little leeway when I get the idea that they’re getting the screws applied by their editors. I did an interview not long ago where the writer seemed desperate to get me in a grudge match with Curtis Sittenfeld, and when I didn’t bite, her editor sent her back to me to try again. This was the one that, re: my posing for a few small press romance covers, asked if my “mother had forced me into modeling at a young age.” My mother, dear heart, had nothing to do with it. I was 25, and I had a friend who was a photographer…
And I honestly think the journalist who sent out that bedroom solicitation (though not young or inexperienced) was trying to be funny. But I wonder why romance writers are the Valentine’s Day go-to gals. Why don’t we get interviews of thriller or horror writers every Halloween?
As my friend Susan Kearney (USA Today Bestselling Author, look it up) likes to say, “They always ask me how I ‘research’ the sex scenes. They never ask how I research the murders.”
January 18th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Very interesting and great article on JEL! I have to say, I’m still not sure how I feel about the whole email from the reporter thing. I thought it was funny, awkward, her trying too hard. Honestly, I’m thinking the best approach might have been writing a letter back to her explaining why it upset people (because it seemed to piss quite a lot of people off) rather than sending it to a website to mock her.
I think I’d be really upset if I sent an email and it ended up being mocked on a website. I know, I know, don’t send an email you don’t want the world to see and all of that. But have we really helped the cause of romance writers by doing that? I think we could have maybe made at least one more person understand romance writers a little better by starting some good dialogue with her, instead we mocked her. Dunno, doesn’t feel right to me.
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January 18th, 2008 at 9:27 am
I see your point, Carrie. I don’t find it ethical to share private emails without the senders permission, but in this case, the email did come with a permission to forward, so I can understand why the person who forwarded it did so.
Which was NOT me, btw.
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January 18th, 2008 at 9:36 am
I dunno. I sort of enjoy being mocked on websites.
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January 18th, 2008 at 9:39 am
BTW – what’s the ’cause of romance writers’?
I mean, why is this need for acceptance by non-romance readers out there?
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January 18th, 2008 at 9:45 am
I don’t think there’s a need for acceptance, just a desire not to be regularly mocked by total strangers.
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January 18th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Jennifer Estep said …
Geez. What kind of editor were you dealing with? Because none of those requests would be professional or appropriate in regards to any person you were writing about.
And the current letter — that just makes me cringe. Especially since it’s from the Post.
As a professional journalist, I’ve done several articles about writers in all genres, and I’ve never had an editor ask me to “sex it up” like that, so to speak. But sadly, I know it’s not unusual. Another reason why I’m so jaded about the journalism biz …
Regarding your comment about horror writers on Halloween, etc., I took a PR class last year where the instructor suggested folks who write paranormals send out info around Halloween about vampires, ghosts, etc. She also gave some more examples to tie in with different holidays, not just V-Day. It’s really all about pitching and marketing …
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January 18th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I think it’s a good idea, but I don’t see that stuff — I just see the romance thing.
I know a writer who replied to the woman with an honest description of her bedroom and was told that the journalist was looking for something “literal.”
Uh, whatever that means.
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January 18th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Jennifer Estep said…
Is there an e-mail floating around for the woman who wrote the letter? I was going to write to the Post, but you have to register with them to do anything other than look at the home page …
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January 18th, 2008 at 11:15 am
I would have loved to have seen JEL’s face when asked to pose in the boa.
Or maybe, it would have been the journalist face when she told him no.
When I read the letter I can honestly say it didn’t make me mad. I’ve come to expect things like this from the people. It doesn’t seem to matter that romance is one of the biggest selling genres. People still have their ideas about who we are and what we do.
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January 18th, 2008 at 11:54 am
UGH. I can’t seem to get the link to the Post email on the SB website to load.
I couldn’t get it to load when any of the other WRW members got those emails, either.
So I can’t read what the Post writer (seriously? The Post?) wrote, but now I’m curious!
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January 18th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I’ve always thought that someone somewhere (and I pitched it to my show but they didn’t go for it) should do a serious look at romance writers for Valentines day. A non-fluff piece, if you will, that includes all the big numbers (books sold) and the small ones too (beginning advances–the don’t quit your day job part).
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January 18th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Ha! I posed in a black leather jacket and jeans at my parent’s very smartly decorated house on the lake. I don’t think there is one pink thing in the whole of my mother’s house, LOL! Too bad for him. He did have to wait for me to blow dry my hair every ten minutes because he insisted on shooting with the door open (natural light) and it was humid (when is it not?) and my hair wasn’t staying straight. Poor guy.
The article turned out great, Diana and I’m always impressed that you had to work that hard to keep it the way you wanted it. And you could have asked me about the sexual positions…I doubt I would have answered!
My favorite Valentine’s Day interview was from one of the local papers and it had a bunch of us romance writers picking out our favorite places–most romantic restaurant in Tampa, best place for a picnic, etc. I thought that one was clever.
As for this bedroom thing…the letter was just silly. That writer deserves the spanking she’s going to get.
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January 18th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
“This American Life” by PRI had what I thought was a pretty good piece on an RWA convention. The reporter went to the convention expecting the boa’s and finding real people instead.
Here’s the ep:
http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1066
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January 18th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I thought I’d chime in to mention the “closet” photo essay that appeared in the same alt-weekly that ran Diana’s article. The photog took pics of various local “celebrity,” musician and hipster kids’ closets…people flippin’ loved it. Who knew?
The author of the letter at least understands that people love an inside glimpse into other people’s lives, even perfect strangers. (And I’m betting you wouldn’t even need a decorator for your room, Di. You have impeccable taste.)
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January 19th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Hey, “kk,” you wouldn’t happen to be kelli, would you? HI! What are you up to?
The closet thing sounds like a cool article, though I don’t remember it. The bedroom one could be too. I think it was just the manner of the solicitation that really turned the whole thing sour: “Breathlessly Yours” and all that…
Ha on my bedroom. Right now it’s all hand-me-down furniture, wedding gifts in boxes, and a bedside table that looks like the cold medicine aisle threw up.
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January 21st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
It’s interesting. The newspapers want to go with the stereotypes of romance because that’s what they seem to think their audience expects, but they don’t seem to realize that they are making up that stereotype themselves. So essentially they are basing their coverage of romance on other newspapers’ coverage of romance, which is based on other newspapers’ coverage, and so on.
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