Jan 10 2012
I was going to write about whether readers have a duty to other readers to write and leave reviews where they shop, even one or two line reviews. But given the five days of flameouts in roughly the first five days of 2012, I thought I would briefly address the issue of the author/reader paradigm. [...]
Jan 3 2012
Maili suggested I do a prediction of the 2012 romance genre, but those books have already been bought, mostly. Here’s what I would like to see: More diversity, not just in the characters, but in the settings. I’m iffy on wanting more steampunk. Too many people slap an iron bustle in a book and throw [...]
Jan 1 2012
The following are my bold and not so bold predictions for publishing in 2012. My boldest prediction will be that Amazon will buy Goodreads in 2012. The most unlikely to happen prediction is Number 10. What are your predictions for 2012? 1. More authors will self publish than in 2011. I suspect that nearly [...]
Dec 27 2011
Although I’m not exactly a devoted reader of John Scalzi’s Whatever blog, a Twitter retweet last week drew my attention to a recent post, in which he announces that readers protesting ebook prices on his “Big Idea” posts will have their comment deleted: Why? Primarily because here at the tail end of 2011, I [...]
Dec 20 2011
For many years, we’ve preached that review are for readers and they are. Oftentimes, when authors react to reviews, it results in an unfortunate dustup with authors saying things they wished they hadn’t and readers throwing out threats of a ban list. The comment threads to a review can be contentious whether it is [...]
Dec 13 2011
There are four types of romances as it pertains to villains: Romances with no villains. The redeemable villain The domestic villain The international villain The straight contemporary and the straight historical rarely have villains. The story is propelled primarily by the main characters and their romance. Paranormals, Science Fiction romance, and urban fantasy books [...]
Dec 6 2011
A couple of weeks ago the Brookings Register ran an article titled “Not your mother’s romance novel.” The article spoke to two women who have recently become interested in romances. Two women who had not read older romances, but had formed negative opinions regarding those older romances: Gill said she believes the romance genre of [...]
Nov 29 2011
Anyone who’s spend any length of time on Twitter likely knows about #fridayreads, the hashtag started by Bethanne Patrick, aka The Book Maven, who created, among other things, NPR’s The Book Studio. In fact, I know some people who have actually unfollowed Patrick because of the FridayReads cheerleading, which, admittedly, can get a little intense [...]
Nov 22 2011
Heroines in romance have great latitude. They can be rich and very poor. They can be successful and a failiure. They can be pretty, dumpy, funny, dour. They are not all extracted from the same hard body mold like the hero. The heroine’s own agency can provide a source of conflict for the romance. For [...]
Nov 15 2011
During a past discussion about the lack of representation of non nobles in historical romance, there was one comment that by Darlynne that stuck with me. Maybe it says readers want people of power in their romance novels. You don’t have to worry about the hero being ground under someone’s heel or treated badly, not [...]
Nov 8 2011
Who doesn’t love a small town Romance? Given Jane’s observation in her 2011 RWA wrap-up that small towns remain very popular, apparently a lot of readers do. Given the comments to that post and various lamentations from readers online, there are many readers who absolutely despise the small town Romance. While all genre devices have [...]
Nov 1 2011
Sarah Wendell and I had a lively debate via email on the topic of inclusion or getting it right. The Mahajara’s Mistress by Susan Stephens recently reviewed at Smart Bitches features a heroine who has an eye patch due to the loss of an eye and is scarred in her face. She dresses like a [...]
Oct 25 2011
Like many romance fans, I recently read the newest book by Loretta Chase, Silk Is For Seduction. Like many fans, I too loved it. It is a great example of the qualities I look for in a romance: interesting characters, engaging storyline and witty, sometimes startlingly funny, dialogue. It also seemed refreshingly different. Now, I’ve [...]
Oct 24 2011
When Joan Swan contacted me and asked if I was interested in an author guest post, I replied that I would be as long as it wasn’t promotional in nature. She reached out to author Pamela Palmer and together they have presented this piece on cover art. ***** As with everything in the publishing [...]
Oct 18 2011
It seems strange that in 2011, nearly 2012, we have to give advice to authors on how to manage their websites. I think authors get worried about how to tackle the huge ordeal that is their website and become paralyzed by the idea of the time or cost involved. When I am looking at an [...]
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