See what’s clicking on FoxBusiness.com
Hang up the ripped bodice, tell Fabio the bad news, and call the lawyers: The National Association of Romance Writers of America, a nonprofit that helps romance authors build their careers, is heading to bankruptcy court.
Like many romantic troubles, the trouble started at a hotel — specifically, the hotel bill for the group’s major annual conference, which the group said in its bankruptcy filing on Wednesday it couldn’t pay the hotel bill. Houston, Texas.
RWA membership numbers have declined due to recent controversy over diversity within the organization. COVID-19 pandemicThis has prevented the company from hosting in-person events in 2020 and 2021, according to court documents.
Red Lobster files for bankruptcy: blame focuses on shrimp trade
Before 2019, RWA had 10,000 members, but membership has fallen to about 2,000. The organization’s declining membership means that its long-term participation in meetings “threatens RWA’s ability to continue operating,” according to court filings.
The group estimates it owes about $3 million to the hotel, which hosts its annual writers conference, and about $74,500 in cash to other creditors. The group plans to use the bankruptcy to eliminate its debt to the hotel and instead work out a three-year payment plan that will see all of the group’s disposable income dedicated to the hotel and other creditors.
FILE PHOTO: Book lovers choose romance novels at the Hong Kong Book Fair on July 18, 2012. (REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo)
In a statement, RWA said it expects the post-bankruptcy restructuring to be “resolved quickly” and that there will be “no impact to day-to-day operations” of providing training and other resources to members.
In 2018, the organization signed long-term contracts for its flagship annual writers conference with Marriott hotels across the U.S. But as membership numbers have declined, RWA has tried, with only partial success, to cancel or renegotiate contracts that had become redundant.
A hotel that hosted RWA’s most recent conference is seeking more than $700,000 in damages from RWA for selling fewer rooms than RWA had booked, and the group also expects to incur losses on its 2024 conference in Austin, Texas. RWA is also facing a $1 million termination demand from RWA. Philadelphia Marriott It is set to host the RWA’s 2025 conference.
RWA has been embroiled in controversy over diversity in recent years, and in a 2019 statement acknowledged it had “lost the trust of its members and the dating community.”
After receiving backlash for firing a board member who criticized other authors for including negative racial stereotypes in their work, the RWA restructured its board, canceled its awards program for 2020, and pledged to improve its record on diversity. The organization also renamed its annual awards program to highlight its connection to RWA founder Vivian Stevens, a Black editor who championed women of color in the romance writing community.
Click here to get FOX Business on the go
Those changes failed to prevent further criticism in 2021, when the group awarded the prize to a historical romance novel whose protagonist took part in the Battle of Wounded Knee, the massacre of more than 300 Lakota men, women and children in 1890. RWA rescinded the award.
