Seressia on July 22nd, 2008 at 5:01 pm:

I think the fact that they attempted to change Sahara into a comedy guarantees that we won't see Matthew as Dirk Pitt again-or anyone else for that matter.

I agree, and it’s too bad. I’m going to watch it again; I didn’t get the comedy feeling the other times I watched it — unless you were being sarcastic about how awful the movie was compared to the book 8^)

Leeann Burke on July 23rd, 2008 at 8:13 am:

As for recommendations within the books they'd only be able to recommend authors from their own publishing house (I think) and to be honest it wouldn't influence me. What does influence me? Covers and ads online have the biggest impact on what books I buy.

I agree with the first part of what Leeann wrote. And for me, that also goes as far as other author’s recommendations listed on the book jacket/back; it’s my guess they’re pressured into supporting the house’s other authors. So I take those with a pinch of salt.

But online ads do nothing for me; I look up the author in a social book site and see what the other readers are saying. I used to look up reviews in Amazon, until I learned those are so easily gamed.

My biggest pet peeve is re-releasing of books. I understand the reasoning – to generate more readership of a certain author, or to herald the long-anticipated release of a new book – but if you have changed the title/cover/re-written the original book – tell me, upfront on the cover. I hate, hate, HATE to get a new book home only to open it and find out that I have the original on my shelves. And while I am on the subject of re-writes – QUIT DOING THAT! I have yet to read a re-write that in any way, IMO enhanced the original story. There are reasons that I fell in love with or hated the original story and you re-writing it is not going to change my opinion either way. Plus, again IMO, there has never been a re-write worth my shelling out more $$ for the same story.

As for the trade vs mass market vs hardback – I prefer all my books in a series be the same format – but if I want the book badly enough, I will purchase it regardless. I have found though, that for me, with most authors, with very few exceptions, moving to hardback signals the end of the series, even if it continues for additional books. IMO there seems to be a lack of continuation within the series from mm to hb. Almost as if the author is now writing to a different audience. One notable exception to these is the In Death series – most series lose me after the 4th book or so, I just tend to not really care about the characters any longer, but these books just get better and better. IMO Ms. Roberts can continue to write about Eve and Roarke well into the 2050′s!

Dear me, the gentleman certainly gets around! Since the closest bookstore is 60 miles away, I don’t get to browse much and admit that I had neither heard his name nor seen him on any covers before, nor noticed that he’s all over Romanceland.

Looking at this site made me go: ‘where was *I* when this all happened?’ Or maybe it’s really because I don’t pay attention to covers, except when they are as ugly as the turquoise dog or pink leg ones that SB Sarah finds for us to snark.

As for recommendations within the books they’d only be able to recommend authors from their own publishing house (I think) and to be honest it wouldn’t influence me. What does influence me? Covers and ads online have the biggest impact on what books I buy.

BLASPHEMY! I'll take Nathan Kamp's mug in front of my eyes as often as I can get it!

Hey! I never said his mug was ugly :) … just that the hero in the book could be an albino and they’d still put him on the cover, and I’m a big fan of at least having the hero’s colouring match the authors description.

Nathen Kamp is a lovely lovely man, but frankly, I'm so sick of his mug I often don't bother picking books up off the shelf to read the back blurb.

BLASPHEMY! I’ll take Nathan Kamp’s mug in front of my eyes as often as I can get it!

why is going to hard cover a good thing for an author?

Well, I’m only a reader, but I would think when and if an author is able to publish a HC, she/he has “arrived”.

More sales=more money=HC

Plus, I know in my neck of the woods that HC books have face time on the shelves that many paperbacks don’t get.

Don't punish the readers because the NYTimes and USAToday don't take into account esales when tallying its lists. And please have ebooks available on the same street date as the paper copy. It seems to unfair to have to wait a week or even several for a book I can instantaneously download if it's available.

Amen!

And what’s it going to take to get them to count us, anyway?!

I also agree with the commenters about releasing ALL the books in ebook, if you’re going to release one, and releasing them in ALL the available formats.

I’ll tell you, I’m in a cold sweat right now. More and more books I’ve been waiting to buy *cough*VirginiaKantra’slatest*cough* are coming out only in Mobipocket (and – I assume – the fugly Kindle’s format). I buy only eReader if the book has DRM. Lately, I’ve passed on more and more books that are being released Mobi only.

And I stopped buying ANY new books in paper copies – hard-, trade-, or paperback. If a book I want comes out only in paper (or not in eReader)? Used books. I’m only one reader, but that’s my statement. This one reader doesn’t want the paper any more!

Also, a comment about short stories in expensive anthologies: with the advent of ebooks, I think it would be wonderful if shorter stories and novellas could be published singularly and sold as independent works. I’m just not one of those readers who will read every story in an anthology and be turned onto a new author. Instead I am the reader who will usually avoid an anthology unless there is more than one or two authors whose work I really want to read, or where there is a similar or overlapping theme (like the Tangle antho). If I sense an antho is being used as an expensive vehicle for a big name author, though, I can easily become resentful and turn away.

I have to confess that I’d never paid the least attention to the format of paperbacks before, except I like the larger size (trade) better for reading and holding. The cheaper versions are always on such nasty paper, and fall apart with too much handling.

Then you compare that to what they did to Sherrilyn Kenyon’s reprinted backlist in the DH series. I’ve read them all, and even I can’t distinguish between all the brooding faces in the black backgrounds.

Now if its a series, I much prefer the books look cohesive…just not identical. Its misleading and annoying as hell. The Elizabeth Peters reprints from Warner books a few years ago look identical. Only the front mini picture is different. Black covers with white lettering and the same border patterns. When I had to print off a list to keep with me so I didn’t double…it got old and was inconvenient.