Apr 25 2012
Debut Print Book: The Wedding Beat by Devan Sipher
I’ve had some concerns by readers who are primarily print readers that the coverage at Dear Author has been too focused on ebooks. When I asked the readers what they were interested in seeing, they responded that they would like to know more about print debut authors. We developed a little questionnaire and every Wednesday at 10:00 AM CST (as long as we have content) we’ll post the questionnaire answers along with links to the author’s site and a buy link to his book. I hope this helps people discovery new books. Now, on to the answers.
Name of debut release: The Wedding Beat
Release date: 04/03/2012
Publisher: NAL (Penguin)
2 sentence summary: Gavin Greene is a hopeless romantic; he’s also a professional one, since he writes the wedding column for a Pulitzer Prize-wining newspaper. The Wedding Beat tells the classic story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy assigned to write article about girl’s wedding
Genre: Romantic comedy
Characters: Gavin Greene, a wedding columnist; Melinda Altman, a travel writer and photographer
What makes this story different: The Wedding Beat is different from many romance books because it’s told from the male perspective. It’s also different, because it’s loosely based on my real-life experience as a single guy writing the Vows wedding column for The New York Times. (“Always the wedding columnist, never the groom.”)
Is this a series?:
Why you wrote this book: My training is originally in creative writing, so after writing about thousands of weddings for a newspaper, I yearned to be able to tell a romantic story where I wasn’t constrained by what happened in real life.
Why is this your first published book? How many did you write before? I’ve written for the Times since 2004, which didn’t leave time for much else. This is the first novel I’ve written. However, I worked for many years as a ghost editor of other people’s novels. So it was time for me to put up or shut up.
What’s your writing process? I suffer. That’s a totally serious answer. I try to write a chapter a week. And the first few days are spent thinking of all the reasons I shouldn’t write the chapter, can’t write the chapter and why I should abandon the project altogether. This is how I write every newspaper article as well. So I’m used to it and just accept it as part of my process.
Your next published book. (Or information about the book you’re currently writing.) I’m writing another romantic comedy. I don’t think I’m allowed to give the title yet. But the tagline is “Sometimes first love can take a lifetime.”
The last book you read that you loved. Please don’t mock me, but I found myself rereading Gone With the Wind and falling in love with it all over again. And I have to say that “I’ll think about it tomorrow” is a great philosophy for handling the pressures of publishing one’s first book.
The last book you read for research. Bridget Jones’s Diary was my bible while writing The Wedding Beat.
The romance book character you most identify with. I think that has to be the protagonist of my book. We’re probably more alike than beneficial for either of us. For the record, I’m taller, but he gets the girl.
You can check out more about Devan Sipher and his books at http://www.devansipher.com/
Send to Kindle
Apr 25, 2012 @ 10:25:21
Now see? I’d buy this one in eBook. But it’s $9.99. That’s incredibly steep.
Why can’t they price debut authors at a price point that is more palatable? I pay $9.99 for VERY few authors in eBook format.
Apr 25, 2012 @ 11:21:22
You know, after reading the Bro-Magnet, I’ve been wanting more from the male perspective. I think I’ll have to be on the look-out for this one. Thanks for this feature as I don’t think I would have heard of this one otherwise.
Apr 25, 2012 @ 19:27:39
Wow, this interview was witty! And a hero who is a wedding columnist. How different is that? I really want to read this book now.
Apr 25, 2012 @ 23:08:01
Um, why am I thinking of 27 Dresses? :p
Apr 25, 2012 @ 23:21:15
Thank you for the print focus! Ebooks are very American, but in places like Australia we’re still very much print readers. Also, ebooks seem more focused on speciality genres like erotica, but many blogs (not only this one) are focusing so much on those books that more mainstream reads are never getting any attention anymore.
I read about an equal amount of ebooks and print books, but much prefer print!
(And, p.s., I wish Americans would stop complaining about book prices. You couldn’t find any book for cheaper than $20 in Australia! People are willing to pay more than $10 to see a crappy movie or to have a crappy restaurant meal, but they complain over more than $5 for hours of entertainment through a good book?)
Apr 26, 2012 @ 02:32:21
This sounds fun. Might have to check it out at The Book Depository and see what the price is. $9.99 is too much for an ebook unless it’s from a trusted author or there are fabulous reviews from trusted reviewers. But this book sounds great and I love the male POV. I’ll keep my eyes open for a sale maybe…
Apr 26, 2012 @ 02:34:15
Ah, it’s a trade paperback – The Book Depostory has it for about $13 AUD. :(