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Cling up the ripped bodices, give Fabio the unhealthy information and cue the legal professionals: the Romance Writers of America, a nonprofit dedicated to serving to romance writers construct their careers, is headed to chapter court docket.
As with so many affairs of the center, bother began in a resort, or extra exactly with resort payments for the group’s flagship annual convention, which the group mentioned it couldn’t pay in its chapter submitting on Wednesday in Houston, Texas.
RWA membership has declined sharply attributable to latest controversies over range inside the group and the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented it from holding in-person occasions in 2020 and 2021, in keeping with court docket paperwork.
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Earlier than 2019, RWA had 10,000 members, however membership has dropped to about 2,000. The group’s declining membership meant that its long-term convention commitments have been “threatening RWA’s capability to proceed to function,” in keeping with its court docket filings.
The group estimated that it owes roughly $3 million to the motels that host its annual writers’ convention and about $74,500 in money to different collectors. It plans to make use of its chapter to eradicate the debt to the motels, and as an alternative institute a three-year fee plan that directs the entire group’s disposable earnings to the motels and different collectors.
FILE PHOTO: E-book lovers choose romance novels on the Hong Kong E-book Honest July 18, 2012. (REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Picture)
RWA mentioned in a press release it expects a “swift decision” to its chapter restructuring, which “is not going to affect its day-to-day operations” of offering coaching and different assets to its members.
The group signed a long-term contract for its flagship annual writers’ convention in 2018, locking it in to agreements with Marriott motels across the U.S. However as membership declined, RWA tried to cancel or renegotiate its now-excessive contracts, with solely partial success.
The resort that hosted RWA’s most up-to-date convention has sought greater than $700,000 from RWA as a result of it offered fewer rooms than RWA had reserved, and the group expects to lose cash on its upcoming 2024 convention in Austin, Texas, as properly. RWA additionally faces a $1 million contract termination demand from the Philadelphia Marriott that’s slated to host RWA’s 2025 convention.
RWA has been roiled by controversies over range lately, and it acknowledged that it had “misplaced the belief of our membership and the romance group” in a 2019 assertion.
RWA reconstituted its board, canceled its 2020 awards program and pledged to enhance its file on range after it suffered backlash for ousting a board member who had criticized different writers’ work for holding unfavorable racial stereotypes. The group additionally renamed its annual awards program to emphasise its connection to RWA founder Vivian Stephens, a Black editor who championed girls of colour within the romance writing group.
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These adjustments failed to stop additional criticism in 2021, when the group gave an award to a historic romance novel with a protagonist who took half within the 1890 bloodbath of greater than 300 Lakota males, girls and kids on the Battle of Wounded Knee. RWA rescinded the award.
