The stigma...

I was a little irritated yesterday when I visited a site that has a yearly award. (I'm not going to name the site, because this isn't just about them; I still come across this attitude here and there and it always annoys me, even when I'm not brimming with Raging Pregnancy Hormones.) The site had included ebooks in its awards this year (hurray for them) but the site owner felt it necessary to add that they'd never expected to review ebooks because there's a "stigma" attached to them which makes people assume they're inferior. But, she hastened to add, when they were approached by NCP and EC, they were surprised to discover some extremely talented authors and wondered why on earth they weren't "in print" (her words-- both NCP and EC produce paperbacks, so I'm guessing she meant "New York pubbed," although I could certainly be wrong about that).



*Sigh* I don't want to start the whole e-pub vs. paper pub thing again (God forbid), but two things bug me here. First, dear site owner, thank you very much for including e-pubs in your awards, but please don't insult those "talented authors" by bringing up that so-called "stigma" at the same time you're recognizing them, okay? Second, please stop implying that e-published authors are living in some sort of publishing ghetto. I write for two e-publishers, and both of them happen to have books available in print in major bookstores. Both of them also have a whole host of excellent authors writing for them. There are good books being published by e-pubs, and good books being published by New York, and many of the same authors are being published by both. Could we just drop the whole stigma thing, please?



In the meantime, I'm thinking of getting myself a T-shirt that says "Stigmatized and proud of it."