Jan 5 2009
Suggestions for Dear Author Changes in 2009
[poll id="137"]
We’ve changed the look and now we’re thinking of what we can do to make Dear Author fresh and new for 2009. I loved getting the guest opinions during the month of December and am thinking about making that a regular feature for Tuesday’s Op Ed day.
I’ve had other people ask why the Industry News section isn’t on the front page with the posts and I’ve always felt that the reviews would be lost if we included the industry news in the front page.
I don’t know that we do enough to highlight the smart voices of readers here at Dear Author. If you recall, I want to post essays from readers, bloggers and authors this year, about why we read, write and blog about romance. Please send me an essay if you want to participate (or a date you’d like reserved).
Any other ideas/suggestions?
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Jan 05, 2009 @ 10:17:20
Did I break the poll? I know I voted for more reviews (review junky here) and it’s not showing. I didn’t vote on the others except for ‘More information on upcoming books’.
Jan 05, 2009 @ 10:19:53
@joanne I didn’t have it set to have multiple answers so I changed it.
Jan 05, 2009 @ 10:23:31
Wow, you’re quick & thank you for easing my always-breaking-something conscience.
Jan 05, 2009 @ 10:54:51
I really enjoyed December’s overall blog the most. I liked the different/new features and definitely enjoyed the guest opinions.
However, that said, I like the blog, period, so if you choose not to change it, that’s fine too! :-D
Jan 05, 2009 @ 11:55:44
I would love more reviews and guest posts from authors and perhaps bloggers all over the net. More discussions of various genres.
I also love the industry news and highlighting new authors and books we may not be aware of.
Jan 05, 2009 @ 14:49:30
DA already rocks. Since you asked, a few more reviews would be awesome. But mostly, keep doing what you’ve been doing so fabulously.
Jan 05, 2009 @ 14:53:55
Is it my computer, or did the ability to go to the bottom of a thread go bye-bye when the site got re-designed? When threads get wanky, I have to scroll through a hundred comments to read the most recent, when before I could click on the persons name in Recent Comments and go straight to the one I wanted to read.
Jan 05, 2009 @ 15:15:54
I voted for NOTHING- it ain’t broke, so don’t go messing around with it.
Seriously I enjoy this site because it supplies us with information covering a wide range of topics. I ADORE the techie info, particularly your hands-on experiences, and the industry news and really appreciate that you boil it down to what romance readers would most likely be interested in. But I also enjoy reading the reviews and the author contributions like First Sale. So, for me at least, the mix you’ve got now works.
Jan 05, 2009 @ 15:58:17
As usual, if you gave us more of everything, you would be blogging nonstop! I would like to see more “First Sale”. I always get a kick out of hearing the authors describe their reactions.
Jan 05, 2009 @ 21:50:35
If you’d like to put the industry news on the front page without swamping the reviews (which is a valid concern), why not put the ‘more’ tag right at the start of the text. This will give the headline only, and people can still see it in the main listing.
The guest articles were very enjoyable indeed.
Jan 05, 2009 @ 21:52:31
This really is a superlative site, so I can’t think of much to change. Maybe, though, your thorough examinations of ebook readers and and other aspects of epublishing need to be matched by more reviews of ebooks themselves. Mrs. Giggles, Book Utopia, and some other sites/blogs are doing a valiant job of providing thoughtful reviews, but . . . damn, after going through the DA thread about anticipated releases for 2009, I realized how woefully overlooked epresses are!
Jan 06, 2009 @ 03:13:58
I’d like to see more reviews. Other than that, I’d like to see the industry op-ed pieces branch out into other venues such as…*cough* indie publishing. But then again, I’m biased.
Jan 07, 2009 @ 16:44:26
I’m a new reader, but one thing I’ve noticed is you don’t put links directly to Kindle versions of books in your recs. I know, it’s just an extra click, but maybe you could at least say whether the Kindle version is available so I know whether to go to the Amazon link or not? (Since I got my Kindle last month I’ve decided to stop buying real books. :D)
Jan 07, 2009 @ 17:15:08
@Julia: Julie – we don’t because we generally put a direct link straight to the paper version at Amazon and like you said, the Kindle version is one click away and because we’ve made an agreement with Sony who provided us with Sony Readers for the reviewers and to give away to readers at Dear Author to place ebook links to them.
Generally, if a book is available in eformat, it is almost always available in Kindle.