Victoria Strauss posted a statement on Writers Beware about the recent ‘Harlequin Horizons’ line which would take payment for publishing. (Hello vanity publisher?)
Here are a couple quotes from the statement. You can read the full statement here.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA) finds it extremely disappointing that Harlequin has chosen to launch an imprint whose sole purpose appears to be the enrichment of the corporate coffers at the expense of aspiring writers.
Until such time as Harlequin changes course, and returns to a model of legitimately working with authors instead of charging authors for publishing services, SFWA has no choice but to be absolutely clear that NO titles from ANY Harlequin imprint will be counted as qualifying for membership in SFWA. Further, Harlequin should be on notice that while the rules of our annual Nebula Award do not expressly prohibit self-published titles from winning, it is highly unlikely that our membership would ever nominate or vote for a work that was published in this manner.
I think that pretty much echoes the sentiment going around the internet right now about the whole thing.
Critique Notes