It seems that Romance Writers of America is considering dropping “Mainstream with Strong Romantic Elements” from the categories for the Golden Heart.

My first response is shock. Traditional romance is not dead. But the romance industry is changing, and quite a bit of that change comes in the form of women’s fiction. Chick-lit. Hen-lit. And Mainstream w/SRE. These are now a huge chunk of the romance market. RWA should not ignore these authors.

The RWA proposal calls for the category to be dropped from GH, but not from the RITA. I find that to be a baffling decision. What it means to me is that if you are already an established Mainstream author, you are accepted. If you are a budding Mainstream author, you are not.

The way I look at it, dropping Mainstream w/SRE is going to cause quite a few authors to be less inclined to care about RWA. The Golden Heart is a big goal for many, many RWA members. Me, for example. But because most of what I write doesn’t fit traditional romance categories, I wouldn’t be able to enter the Golden Heart contest. That bothers me because it tells me that my work isn’t horribly important to my professional organization.

I recently joined Elements, an RWA approved chapter that is attracting many a Mainstream author to its fold. The membership has doubled in the past few weeks, partly I believe in reponse to the fear of many authors (just like me!) that Golden Heart will drop the Mainstream category.

I encourage all RWA members to be sure and express their opinion on these proposed Golden Heart changes.