Jan 31 2010
Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Larissa Ione is currently working on the bestselling Demonica series, an over the top, crazy, action filled and sexy take on paranormal romance. Her latest entry in the series, Ecstasy [...]
Jan 31 2010
Per the message boards at Amazon: Dear Customers: Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases. We have expressed our strong disagreement and [...]
Jan 31 2010
Please note: I am not an expert in antitrust law. I’m giving my own interpretation of the law. There are a myriad of legal issues implicated by this situation, not the least of which is Amazon’s own publishing ambitions and possible anti competitive behavior. Macmillan announced yesterday that it would be selling all of its [...]
Jan 30 2010
You can read the full text for free here but essentially it sounds like this dispute is not one that will end happily for readers. Macmillan wanted to sell the books via an agency model wherein the publisher sets the price and the retailer gets a cut. In an open letter to Authors, Illustrators, and [...]
Jan 30 2010
Dear Ms. Stein: I get several requests a day from authors seeking a review of their book. I generally read the first page of every book I receive for review. Often times the first page is insufficient to keep me reading. The story however opens with an engaging premise, a humorous tone, any promise of [...]
Jan 30 2010
Welcome to First Page Saturday. Individual authors anonymously send a first page read and critiqued by the Dear Author community of authors, readers and industry others. Anyone is welcome to comment. You may comment anonymously. *** "Don’t move or I’ll kill you," This probably wasn’t the best start to a night Amicia ever had but [...]
Jan 29 2010
On Friday, blogs noted an exchange between Walt Mossberg and Steve Jobs about ebooks. Steve told Walt that publishers hate Amazon and that they would be withholding their ebooks from Amazon. Late Friday, the “buy it now” button has disappeared from books by Julia Spencer Fleming, Lisa Kleypas, Louisa Edwards, Lora Leigh, and virtually every [...]
Jan 29 2010
Dear Ms. McSparren: One negative aspect of having titles like the one that is given to your book is that it diminishes the content of the story Bachelor Cop is actually fairly intense emotional story but the title suggests something far more flippant. Perhaps that works in both positive and negative ways. Positive because the [...]
Jan 29 2010
Kitty (1946) Genre: Period romance/comedy/drama Grade: B- Here’s a movie that isn’t afraid to let one see its main characters being less than chivalrous. It’s another movie I first saw years ago on AMC and hadn’t rewatched until recently. Though I enjoyed a lot of it, some aspects don’t work so well for me now. [...]
Jan 28 2010
Dear Ms. Gabaldon, Though the classification of your first book, Outlander, as a romance has apparently been a bone of contention for you, I have to say that it was Outlander that started me on romance reading 15 years ago. I had joined a mail-order book club, one of those where you get nine books [...]
Jan 28 2010
The message that I heard from others yesterday is that they were underwhelmed by the iPad. Significantly, it lacks the ability to run applications simultaneously, has no camera, lacks a USB port or external memory slot. Further, there is no innovative input, only a large screen keyboard. I’m not certain how easy it would be [...]
Jan 28 2010
Dear Ms. Ione: Ecstasy Unveiled is the fourth book in the Demonica series. I’ve enjoyed all of the three previous books to varying degrees. The last one was my favorite and while I enjoyed this entry Wraith and Serena from Passion Unleashed remains my favorite couple. The action in this book is non stop and [...]
Jan 27 2010
Dear Ms. Showalter, I read Playing With Fire when it came out in 2006 and enjoyed it, enough to hope that there would be a sequel. I realize that the book was subtitled Tales of an Extraordinary Girl, and wasn’t sure how much mileage you’d get out of a single character romance. I also didn’t [...]
Jan 27 2010
According to an RWA Hot Sheet, RWA has changed the way that it will recognize publishers and authors. Taking into account emerging trends in publishing that may offer opportunities to writers, the task force recommended that RWA adopt methods used by other trade shows and conventions and to shift its method of evaluating publishers as [...]
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