Comments on: Why Does RWA PRO Exists?

By: What Makes Someone a “Professional” Writer? «

What Makes Someone a “Professional” Writer? « — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:03:10 +0000

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By: Edie

Edie — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:37:45 +0000

What everyone else said, especially Keri. And I dropped out of the Pro-Org loop months ago. The moderators were way too restrictive and I didn’t need the irritation.

By: kate r

kate r — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:25:08 +0000

I LOVED pro back when I qualified as a member. That group was the best part of RWA. Informative, supportive….and did I mention informative?

sigh.

By: Pat S.

Pat S. — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:03:14 +0000

Cyndi, you certainly have my vote.

By: ArkansasCyndi

ArkansasCyndi — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:39:08 +0000

Thanks Pat S. I appreciated your comments and yeah, I think many PROs have no idea what PRO is supposed to do for them. So education would certainly be on my agenda if elected.

By: Pat S.

Pat S. — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:33:15 +0000

I have to say this. I’ve been PRO eligible since February, but never bothered putting together the paperwork because no one could effectively tell me what the whole point of PRO was. Plus, I’d seen all over the place that it had a “loser” connotation and that I should just keep working on PAN status instead and forget PRO. I really appreciate your explanation of what the purpose of it is, and perhaps that should be one of your goals–educating folks on what PRO is and what the benefits are. Looks like I need to work on collecting that paperwork now!

By: ArkansasCyndi

ArkansasCyndi — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:21:04 +0000

“In the world of e-readers where many agents/editors are going directly to asking for the full instead of sample pages, the PRO membership should explode.”

Yeah, I see that coming.

I also understand what you mean about the negative connotation (one rejection and you’re in PRO!…although that is how I got in ) And I understand about a “step up the ladder”. What I hear from many PRO members is that they aren’t getting what they want from PRO. So I say..get in there, volunteer (see tomorrow blog), make PRO what you want (and need) it to be.

By: Jill James

Jill James — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:13:54 +0000

Cynthia, I want outsiders to know how many people say they are going to write a book, how many people actually start a book, how many people actually finish a book, and that itty bitty small percentage that actually send it out into the world and get that PRO pin.

By: Keri Ford

Keri Ford — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:52:58 +0000

What do you want people outside of RWA to think when you say you are PRO? and what difference does it make to you what people think?

I don’t care so much about random folks/other writers, but as Jill mentioned, when querying. That’s where I’d like it. If you don’t have much info to put in your bio, and suddenly PRO is a blinking light of NEWBIE**NEWBIE**NEWBIE, you’re left with nothing unless you have some contest finals to put with it. and only then, Golden Heart finalists are the only ones that can use that across the board. Saying my contemporary mystery placed 2nd in X-Contest doesn’t do a world of good for my regency that I’m shopping.

It should just mean something more. When I first made PRO, I thought I was taking a step up the ladder, but it’s not really like that at all. I don’t think there should be a “maintain your pro-status by completing something every 2years or not” That seems like a lot of resources that’ll need to be pulled in. and really, what does that mean? that you can write effeciently, but not necessarily effectively?

I guess it’s the negative ‘you got rejected is why you got in’ connotation that’s attached to it that needs to be dealt with. don’t ask me how to fix it, I just believe that’s part of the problem.

In the world of e-readers where many agents/editors are going directly to asking for the full instead of sample pages, the PRO membership should explode.

By: ArkansasCyndi

ArkansasCyndi — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:22:10 +0000

I don’t think PRO will ever mean much outside of RWA without a change in the definition. RWA is one of the few writers’ organizations that allows non-published people to join with full membership. Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t change that. Wouldn’t ever THINK of changing that.

But let me ask you…What do you want people outside of RWA to think when you say you are PRO? and what difference does it make to you what people think?