Interviews

Interview with Courtney Milan, #6 on the NYT

Interview with Courtney Milan, #6 on the NYT

On Wednesday evenings, the New York Times Bestseller list is emailed to editors and agents. On this past Wednesday, RWA was abuzz because Courtney Milan’s self published novella “Unlocked” made it to number 6 on the NYT ebook list and number 19 on the combined print and ebook list and 36 on the USA Today [...]

Interview with Sourcebooks

Interview with Sourcebooks

Deb Werksman met Grace Burrowes at the Washington Writers’ Retreat. Werksman had a few minutes between appointments and said “tell me about your books” as she does to every author she meets. Grace shared that she had written 19 unpublished manuscripts, all regency romances. The stories were written about the Duke of Moreland and his [...]

Interview with Heather Osborn, Samhain Editorial Director

Heather Osborn is the current Editorial Director for Samhain. The current romance Samhain publishing schedule is 4 to 6 a week. They don’t anticipate changing this release schedule as more books flooding the market would likely canabalize their existing sales. They will be launching their Retro Romance line in December. A few of the authors [...]

Interview with Shauna Summers, Executive Editor for Ballantine Bantom Dell

Shauna Summers is the executive editor for the Ballantine, Bantom, Dell imprint. She edits authors such as Suzanne Brockmann, Shana Abe, and Lara Adrian. Two debuts that she is excited about include Cecilia Grant’s “A Lady Awakened” (hhttp://www.ceciliagrant.com/) that will release in January 2012 and Molly O’Keefe’s contemporary series that will be released in the [...]

DA Intro Interview: RITA Best First Book Nominees, Part 2

DA Intro Interview: RITA Best First Book Nominees, Part 2

Welcome to part two of  Dear Author’s interview series with the debut authors who are up for Best First Book in the RITAs, the annual awards presented by the Romance Writers of America.  Three historicals received nominations: Kaki Warner’s Western Pieces of Sky, Kieran Kramer’s Regency When Harry Met Molly, and Karen Witemeyer’s inspirational A [...]

Interview with Bella Andre, Self Publishing Success

Interview with Bella Andre, Self Publishing Success

In January 15, 2011, Bella Andre (http://www.bellaandre.com/) launched a new title under the name Lucy Kevin. Lucy Kevin had no cross pollination with Bella Andre name and was unknown before the release. “Falling Fast” shot up to #4 on the BN Bestseller list and Andre sold 25,000 copies of the title in one month. Her [...]

DA Intro Interview & Giveaway: RITA Best First Book Nominees, Part 1

DA Intro Interview & Giveaway: RITA Best First Book Nominees, Part 1

This week Romance Writers of America hands out the RITAs, its highest awards in eleven romance sub-genres, plus a special category for debut authors.  As an occasional contributor to Dear Author, I’m delighted to host again the nominees for Best First Book as part of the Intro Interview series. And we’re giving away books!  For [...]

Harlequin’s Response to Royalty Concerns & Contract Issues

I asked Harlequin about a couple of things regarding the new royalty rate as well as whether Bob Mayer’s claims that Harlequin was inserting a non compete clause in its new contracts to prevent authors from self publishing. Here is their response (from Donna Hayes, CEO of Harlequin) Concern: These new rates aren’t actually better [...]

Meeting with Megan Records Kensington

Megan Records is an Associate Editor at Kensington. She is the editor for the RITA nominated Rebel by Zoe Archer. She also edits Mary Jo Putney and Cynthia Eden among others. Zoe Archer’s new series is called the Hellraisers. The main characters have literally sold their soul to the devil in exchange for various powers. [...]

Meeting with Alicia Condon, Editorial Director of Kensington

Alicia Condon, is the editorial director of Kensington, but has been in publishing and romance publishing specifically for almost 30 years. One of the first authors Alicia bought was Jayne Ann Krentz for a tiny magazine called Romantique. They bought possibly JAK’s very first book and Diana Palmer’s first book. In those days, there was [...]

PRIDE WEEK INTERVIEW: On Character Authenticity

PRIDE WEEK INTERVIEW: On Character Authenticity

For Gay Pride week here at DA, I decided to interview a group of my favorite authors and bloggers about creating authentic LGBT characters. Laura Goode, Radclyffe, Georgia Beers, Kirsten Saell, Mfred, and Leah all agreed to answer my questions.   Welcome, ladies! Please introduce yourselves. Mfred: I’m Mfred, a queer librarian living and working [...]

The Dear Author Intro Interview & Giveaway:  Faye L. Booth, author of Trades of the Flesh

The Dear Author Intro Interview & Giveaway: Faye L. Booth, author of Trades of the Flesh

Faye Booth’s title aptly captures several aspects of her novel: there’s Lydia, the newest hire in a London brothel; Henry, a doctor who must break laws to obtain cadavers for his medical students; and then there’s the Victorian pornography angle. Warning to HEA purists? this is probably not your book. But if you like your [...]

Debut Author Interview with Darynda Jones

Debut Author Interview with Darynda Jones

Usually these interviews are run by the awesome Alyson H but I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to ask a few questions of Darynda Jones, debut author of First Grave on the Right.   Darynda was our Brenda Novak auction winner.   When Darynda sent me the book for reading before the interview, it was [...]

The Dear Author Intro Interview & Giveaway:  Laurie London, Author of Bonded by Blood

The Dear Author Intro Interview & Giveaway: Laurie London, Author of Bonded by Blood

Feeling tired lately?   Have you considered the possibility vampires are feeding on you, then wiping your memory?   Neither have most of the residents of Seattle, but maybe they should, especially Mackenzie Foster-Shaw, whose rare, irresistible blood type makes her extra vulnerable.   She only knows that a family history of unexplained disappearances is bound to catch [...]

My First Sale by Darynda Jones

My First Sale by Darynda Jones

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. Darynda Jones sold her debut book, a Golden Heart winning entry, at auction to St. Martin’s Press.   First Grave on the Right is on shelves starting tomorrow. *** An interesting [...]