A strange new irony presented itself in my little author world this  week.

You see, a lot of my friends are in San Antonio at RWA’s National convention.  Authors have traveled from all over to meet together, to attend workshops about craft, to hone their marketing skills and to talk about all things books.  I mean it.  ALL things books.  The quest is to get better, to improve, to succeed at writing books.

And what lands in an inbox today?  A note from a Major NY Publishing house asking if their book club members would be interested in getting wines with book labels on them.  You  know.  ”Is that something you would pay X for?  Would that be fun for you?”

Wines.  This of course, after previous surveys asking if book club members would like to receive Weight Loss Powders/Products or how about Cosmetics?  Instead of books.  Or maybe with them.  (Who doesn’t love a little protein powder with their latest serving of reprinted category romances, right?)

Hey, NY Publishing House complaining about how self-pub is eating your cake and stealing your lunch money, how about offering book club members…. wait for it… BOOKS!  Good books.  Better books.  Well-written books.  What a remarkable concept?!  Right???? How revolutionary!!!

It’s a snapshot of where their hearts and minds are and where we’ve always been as their unknowing dupes.  Who cares about the craft? About the product?  About the future?  Answer = Authors.  Who apparently has forgotten what they do and why they exist?  Answer = Traditional Publishers.

Wine?  Wine.  Sure.  Because someone in NY has gotten the brilliant notion that the way to compete with Amazon isn’t to invest in authors and a better product.  It isn’t to use whatever channels or powers you still have.  It’s to try to sell groceries, sundries and diapers, perhaps?  It’s to do anything and everything that undermines their credibility at a time when they need it most.

I have an idea.  Keep the wine.  Start opening bottles and drinking heavily.  Party like it’s 1999.  And when that hangover kicks in and you don’t understand where the good times have gone… Feel free to send out another survey.  I’m sure you’ll get plenty of answers.