RWA Pro-ness Mania Spreads!

I'm not the only one to hear about the RWA's "Pro" category (which means merely that a RWA member has completed a novel-length manuscript and submitted it somewhere) and be struck dumb by the sheer silliness of the idea.

The redoubtable Miss Snark takes on the concept today, and does her usual excellent job of dispensing with nonsense. (Though the comments by her devoted Snarklings do go a long way to making this idea seem less completely idiotic, to me at least.)

The RWA will never take my advice -- and rightly so -- but I'd say the big problem is calling this membership level "Pro" when it's so clearly nothing of the kind. It is a necessary step in becoming a pro, but it's several miles away from actually being one (which would mean being published). Perhaps if they renamed it Wanna-Be First-Class or Gold Star for Trying or Plays Well With Others, the confusion and laughter aimed at people of this level (by outsiders looking for thing to make fun of, such as myself) would be reduced.