Oct 30 2006
I have heard that sales of historicals are down; that the historical is dead or dying. I attribute the death of the historical to the fact that there has been a publishing concentration in one sub genre and one location (Regency England) that the nothing in the historical market is fresh. To some degree, it [...]
Oct 29 2006
There are two competing factions in the ebook reading industry. No, not authors v. readers or readers v. publishers (that story is for tomorrow ;) ), it’s IDPF v. OpenReader. The idea is to create an ebook standard that would enable customers to buy any book from any online source and view it on any [...]
Oct 23 2006
Dear Authors: This past week readers have been talking websites and how we really like them. Author websites provide us with information on what is next, what you’ve written in the past and whether we will like your books if you are new to us. Essentially, they are an online sales brochure which help convince [...]
Oct 16 2006
Part One was the delivery of promises and Part Two was about the promise itself. Part Three is about the breaking of promises or what I like to think of as When Good Authors Go Bad. There are spoilers in the post below, so reader beware. There was a lively discussion back in September about [...]
Oct 5 2006
I hate to do this during Sharon Shinn week but it is an important issue that needs to be addressed. There are still many fans who have paid for Wildcat Arrows and have not received it. Elizabeth, who graciously agreed to be interviewed here at Dear Author, is no longer able to assist in obtaining [...]
Oct 2 2006
Part Two of the three part series on promises in romance. Part One was the delivery of promises and Part Two is about the promise itself. Part Three is about the breaking of promises or what I like to think of as When Good Authors Go Bad. Branding is an important concept for a business [...]
Oct 1 2006
This past week, Sony sent an email letting everyone know that its e ink reader is ready to ship. It’s now backordered, but it was ready to ship. E ink devices work kind of like sophisticated magna doodle boards. (In an unrelated riff, I had a MDB on my dorm room door in college. It [...]
Sep 25 2006
Stay tuned for some exciting features at Dear Author (exciting for us at least). The week of October 2nd through October 8th we will be featuring an interview and several reviews of an author that the Two Ja(y)nes and Janine love. Today marks the first of a three part series on Romance Publishers Promises to [...]
Sep 24 2006
I had a mini debate/discussion with the readers over at MobileRead about whether backlights were important. I thought that they were and wouldn’t buy a reader without one. Most everyone over there thought that backlights were really secondary to the better display of an e-ink device. What say you? {democracy:3} If you don’t have an [...]
Sep 21 2006
I noticed on Sybil’s blog today a cover for an Avon Red book which looked strikingly similar to the cover for Sunny Chen’s Mona Lisa Awakening. Are these too similar? They are for my tastes. It’s a great cover, but I’ll always like the first one better. Is it that there are just so many [...]
Sep 18 2006
When Jane asked me to write about erotic romance, I was initially going to comment more on the difference between erotica and erotic romance. To over simplify it, it's like comparing Penthouse Letters to Ellora's Cave. It goes without saying that most who read Dear Author will know the difference. So as I began to [...]
Sep 11 2006
The Top 100 Romances list compiled by AAR in 2004 has been floating around the ‘net these past few weeks. We thought it might give readers a better idea of whether she would correlate well with Jane or Jayne. Also, we have conscripted another friend to write reviews here with us. Wouldn’t you just know [...]
Sep 10 2006
Dear Fictionwise: I am a long time customer and a big pimper of ebooks. Listen to me. I have some important business advice to impart. Part of the whole deal with ebooks is instant gratification. That means when the book is out, we readers want to buy it and read it. Maybe you haven’t been [...]
Sep 4 2006
Last week, we talked about the dichotomy between authors pleas to buy new and a reader’s desire to get the most books for her money. The problem isn’t with the authors and the readers. It is the publishers’ desire to make money without regard for anything else. Publishing houses used to focus on the content [...]
Aug 28 2006
The mantra going around last week amongst author blogs was “buy new”. At least one author says to readers Don’t gripe about how they aren’t publishing anything you like if you aren’t buying new books because you gave up your right to vote on what’s being published. Another author said The “swap readers” appeared, in [...]
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