Courtesy and the Romance Genre

Recently, I was browsing through a popular romance website, Ecataromance.com, and was interested in finding out the winners of the 2007 Best Book of the Year. I was disturbed to read the introductory letter from the webmistress, which stated that it was supposed to be a fun contest, and, hoping to make the process more efficient and organized, she changed some of the categories. Unfortunately, and this is the disturbing part, some authors/nominators sent in "impatient ranting emails" about the changes, and further, "I’ve received emails the likes of which I never thought I’d get. Obviously our contest has made many people very unhappy and that was NEVER our intention." Many of the folks who run romance-friendly websites do it for love of the genre and are not getting for their work, and I imagine reading nasty emails must have some effect on how they perceive the genre and its writers. I also realize this is part of a larger problem that Lynne Truss discusses in her book, Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reason to Stay Home and Bolt the Door. Rudeness is just part of our everyday lives, but need it be a part of our profession?