Re: Why?

Tony Burton" <[email protected]> wrote:
Please don't think that I'm losing any sleep one way or another about it.  I 
merely 
commented on why they may be doing what they do.  I couldn't care less, really.

I had no dog in that fight, and still do not.
___________________________________________________

And that's the pity of it. 

Instead of concerning itself with the larger issues affecting the welfare of the ebook industry in general and independently published ebook authors in particular, ie. DRM and the monopolistic ways of the New York print publishers, EPIC chose to make itself into a mini-RWA with everything that that goal entailed. From the day of its inception, EPIC's  management and membership chose instead to focus all their attention and financial resources on frivolous social issues, such as in whose backyard the next annual convention was to be held and what to serve at the awards banquet. 

Until the day EPIC decided to summarily scrap all of its previous membership rules and throw its doors open to all comers, there was endless internal squabbling about what constituted an 'authorized publisher' and how to determine which membership candidates were 'legitimate' and which were not. In the meantime, EPIC's Membership Committee managed to insult and alienate an untold number of people in the industry, including me, and, in this regard at least, memories tend to be long.

For those authors who were approved by the Membership Committee, EPIC's listserv exchanges were pretty much confined to "I just got this great review!!", including, inevitably, the full text of the review. This would be followed by a deluge of one or two line congratulatory posts, each with its own eight or ten line signature, and that was about it. Serious discussion was manifestly not welcome and the mildest criticism of the organization would be instantly greeted with a chorus of accusations of 'you are not nice!!!'; which, if the critic didn't desist, would be followed by shrill demands for their excommunication. (Actually, the excommunication threat didn't mean much because, by that time, any  thoughtful person who was serious about their craft would have left anyway.)  

As for EPIC's reason for being, that is, IMHO, something of a mystery in itself. When I was officially advised that EPIC's primary interest wasn't in electronic publishing at all and that print was every bit as important to them, if not more so, I was left scratching my head in wonder. Especially since the E in EPIC's name, supposedly, stands for 'electronic'.

In conclusion, I've finally realized that I don't have a dog in this fight either and probably never did. Instead, I'm simply expressing my regret about what EPIC should have been and the impact it could have had  if its management had only gone about it right.
 
      
--
Freddie aka Kate Saundby
[email protected]
http://www.double-dragon-
ebooks.com/
http://www.authorsden.com/visit/aut
hor.asp?AuthorID=1745
http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/K
ateSaundbyeBooks.htm


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