This year’s Romantic Times convention was my fourth in a row. Since my first visit, RT has underwent a dramatic change and much of it has to do with moving the focus away from cover models and toward the readers. In 2012, RT did not have a Cover Model pageant and while there were cover models roaming the halls, the overt sexuality of past conferences was not present.

This is not to say that all readers are happy with this change. Some vocal readers expressed unhappiness at the lack of eye candy and the disappearance of the Mangeant, as it is fondly referred to by some of us. (I think Heather Osborn may have named it) I overheard one reader exclaim to a friend after having her picture taken with a cover model that “it made her conference.”

You can’t really have an increased YA celebration and mantitty all over the place and thus I believe that in choosing to foster young readers, RT is making the absolute right decision as to the direction of their conference.

During the immense signing, RT set up Teen Alley. It was mobbed during the signing. There were groups of girls, some who came with their mothers and others who came with library groups. One library group had printed “Author Prom” t shirts for their readers. The readers wore the shirts and had the authors sign the t shirts. What a marvelous idea.

Even though the conference price is high, the hotels they choose are reasonably priced, some meals are provided, and a ton of swag (books and other items like bookmarks, chapstick, pens). However, I believe the most valuable thing that the readers get from this is the opportunity to meet with authors. The authors will sit in the bar and the lobby and are very receptive to readers coming up to them and engaging in them. Authors, I’ve learned, get a thrill from being recognized and acknowledged by readers. Some authors, like Beth Kery aka Bethany Kane, were anxious to meet other authors like Anne Rice. (I’m not sure if Beth ever got her Anne Rice meeting but I did hear that Anne Rice was in the elevator at some point!)

The Hyatt was really a great conference hotel. The staff was super nice and they put out signs that celebrated romance readers and had no snark! (At least none that I saw). Whether it was Hyatt or RT, there was a big dry erase board where a new question was posted every day and people were invited to write in their answers.

I attended a couple of sessions. One was the reader roundtable that Sarah and I facilitated. It ended up being a lot of authors wanting to hear from readers (dear readers, we want to hear from you!!) but listening to authors talk about their favorite books was really fun. MaryJanice Davidson confessed that she just started reading George RR Martin’s series and that she was totally hooked.

There were some RT scandals. What would RT be without scandals? J.R. Ward instigated #peegate. Apparently she twice used the restroom on Friday and both times had her bodyguards prevent any one from entering. Dear everyone there, no one but the hotel staff has the right to bar you from the restroom, particulary if you were a paying customer. Of other interest to Ward readers, she intimated in her panel that Butch and Vishous are regularly having sex. I guess that is okay for Jane, after all, she is just a ghost but what about poor Marissa? (Edited to add a link to someone who took more copious notes)

Q: We haven’t seen much of Butch and V lately–
JR: interrupts They’ve been seeing plenty of each other!
Q: — will we ever see any of that on the page?
JR: No.. [paraphrased]... I will give hints about it and talk about it verbally, but it won’t be on the page… because too many people would hate it.  sotto voce Butch is getting it regularly.

I tried to pump Nalini Singh for details about the ghost but she refused to give it up. Actually, she seemed close to being broken on Friday night (I had worked her over good for three days) and admitted that she wanted to tell but was afraid that if she spilled the beans to even one person that the floodgates would be breached and she couldn’t keep it a secret anymore. I told her that I knew it was Kaleb and in the event that she choose someone else to be the ghost, I would need a legal brief justifying her alternative choice. Someone is going to have to write a lot of fan fiction for me if the ghost ends up being someone else. Nalini is a very good sport. She had dinner with Angela James and Sarah Wendell and I. I think Angie and I spent about a good hour complaining about certain aspects of Nalini’s books. (Angie and I are not fans of reincarnation stories) Nalini took everything with really good humor. Perhaps it helps that Angie and I are real fans of both series but as I look back at that dinner, I am pretty amazed at how gracious Nalini was with Angie and I.

One of my highlights and more embarassing moments came right before the booksigning. I had slipped in to take photos which I have uploaded to the new Dear Author flickr account. Loretta Chase was there. I told her that when I was in Korea, I went to a bookstore and there was Lord of Scoundrels in Korean. I wished I had brought it with me. I shared with her repeatedly, in a rush of garbled words, how much I appreciated her books and loved her writing. I also told her that no matter what grade we gave her on the blog, we still appreciated her contribution to the genre. I think I may have said that three or four times. It was embarassing. I’m glad few people were there to see me.

RT has made Saturday into a reader event. There are four or five sessions going on at one time so that there is always something that will fit a readers’ particular interest. I’m not certain what readers want out of conferences but if it is to meet with other readers and authors in an informal but engaging setting, then RT is likely to satisfy.

Related posts:

1. Dear Author’s RWA Report: Jolie, the Intrepid Bookseller
2. New Report Says Author Presence Online Is Important
3. Thursday Midday Links: New Blog & State of the Day EBook Report

I went back to Bouchercon on Friday and Saturday and caught as many panels as I could, given my other responsibilities this weekend (why does everything always happen at the same time? Argh).  [Check out Sunita's report from Friday] Unfortunately I had evening commitments both days, so I couldn’t hang out at the bar (which is of course where so much of the fun is). But the panels were well worth attending and I was able to speak to authors during the books signing slots, so I’m not complaining. I promised more pictures, so here’s a shot of the free swag we got in the tote bag:

I went to all or part of eight more panels. I got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to get to the 8:30 panel (hey! I had to commute!) because it was about epublishing and provocatively titled “Everything is Broken.” It was moderated by author Eric Stone and the panelists were two editors from New York houses, another author, and the proprietor of a mystery bookstore in Minneapolis. One of the editors was refreshingly open to the idea of ebooks. He stated that he didn’t think ebooks were entirely cannibalizing print; while print runs were definitely lower, ebook sales were increasing and that offset some of the decline. He also said that he didn’t think piracy was killing sales. His company has a lawyer who sends out C&D notices when they find out about illegal uploads, but the rate of piracy was “not enough to make a dent.” He compared it to playing whack-a-mole, which I think is precisely the correct image.

The most disappointing aspect of the panel, I’m sorry to say, was listening to the comments of the  bookstore owner. He was adamant in his refusal to stock any books published by Amazon, even by writers like Barry Eisler whom he had successfully sold in the past. He will keep Eisler’s backlist but not order anything from Amazon. When the moderator asked whether his bookstore had considered adopting Google Books’ program, which allows independent bookstores to sell Google Editions (ebooks) through their stores, he said no. He was supportive of authors epublishing their backlists, because it helped sell the newer books, but he wanted nothing to do with ebooks. He didn’t seem to realize (or he didn’t believe) that indie bookstores could benefit by selling ebooks. He acknowledged this could be self-defeating (and even used the “cut off our nose to spite our face” metaphor), but he was resolute. Handselling is the key, and handselling is exclusively about print to him.

A couple of librarians were in the audience and they emphasized how much ebooks were helping them. One compared it to the decision to embrace the internet and said that teaching people to download ebooks and the software to read them was much like that earlier experience. Another said that it allowed her library to be a 24/7 resource and ebooks didn’t require extra physical space, which was a big plus.

One of the last comments from the floor was warmly received by the rest of the audience, which interrupted her repeatedly with applause. A woman stood up and said (I’m paraphrasing here):

I’m not a writer, publisher, or seller of books. I’m a reader and buyer. I’m the one you all want. I buy ebooks, I buy print books. I’m a library trustee. When I travel I visit bookstores and buy their books. Your panel subtitle says “Friend or Foe.” I think this should be about collaboration and partnership. We’re in this together. We all want publishing to succeed.

I agree with her, but I don’t think the friend-or-foe mentality is going away any time soon.

When the session ended, Patricia Rice and I discovered that we had been sitting right next to each other, so we chatted for a while and then made plans to have lunch along with Eileen Dreyer, who is also local and attending the conference. We met up at noon and spent two hours in the Dubliner Pub (where the PCA romance group went last year). Sadly, we all had afternoon obligations so we stuck to sodas and iced tea. But it was wonderful to meet romance authors face-to-face. We romance people really are everywhere.

Right after the epub panel I went to a panel on writing mysteries with social justice themes, moderated by Sara Paretzsky and featuring Laura Lippmann, Colin Cotterill, Frankie Bailey, Libby Fischer Hellmann and Gary Phillips. Everyone on that panel was wicked smart and thoughtful in their discussion about how to write characters with opposite political views, how to write convincingly about social justice without preaching, and what issues should be written about more (Lippmann and Phillips mentioned urban black male unemployment and poverty, Hellman child slavery in Africa, Cotterill and Bailey the conditions for migrant workers). A comment that stood out for me was one from Colin Cotterill. When Peretzsky asked how the authors reconcile their political views with the requirements of the novel, Cotterill said (I paraphrase again):

I tend to write from every character’s point of view. I’m writing books that cannot be published and read in the country where they are set.  So I try to stand outside the setting, paint the picture and let you decide. I put myself very much in the middle [ideologically].

Colin Cotterill was my biggest discovery and author-crush of the conference (and he beat out some stiff competition). Keishon has been pimping his books for ages and now I totally see why. I picked up his first Dr. Siri book as well as his new release, and he was charming when he signed my book. He thought he was terrible on the social justice panel. So he’s modest, too. Here he is taking pictures of the audience before the “Cranky Streets: What’s So Funny About Murder?” panel, with Eoin Colfer to his left (sorry for the horrible quality, I was in the back so I could sneak out midway through):

Some of the other highlights: I attended part of a western mysteries panel. Lori Armstrong was there, as well as historical and other contemporary writers. They agreed that the western setting allows them to write interesting and strong women characters. I sat in on part of a historical mysteries panel with Tasha Alexander. She was just as insightful and thoughtful as you’d expect, and I was sorry I didn’t see and hear more of her, but I’m definitely picking up one of the Lady Emily books. I went to the Q & A session with Robert Crais. My notes say “Handsome, witty, charming, thoughtful, intelligent. Too bad he’s a Dodgers fan.”

I discovered a lot of new authors who sounded so smart and funny and thoughtful that I want to read all their books. There were some boring moments on some panels, but for the most part, I felt fortunate to be able to attend. I was reminded over and over that authors are storytellers first and foremost, not just in their fiction but in their daily lives.

I also attended an LGBT authors’ discussion and book-signing session at my local independent bookstore, but this post is already long enough so I’ll write that up at my VacuousMinx blog, along with some more tidbits about the convention and thoughts about the mystery genre.

Every time I went to a panel I wound up buying books by an author. Thank goodness we just picked up some more bookscases. Here’s some of my haul:

Finally, I attended a panel chaird by Colin Cotterill on Amazon reviews. He had requested the panel, and as he is one of the International Guests of Honor, Bouchercon agreed. I wasn’t sure what it would be about but I hoped it wasn’t just about bashing online reviewers. There was a little bit of that, but mostly directed at the genuinely stupid and thoughtless reviews, and mostly done with humor. Authors shared some of their favorite negative reviews, but they also read from reader emails that had especially touched and moved them. Linwood Barclay read an email from a teenager in a care home in England who hoped he would write more books because “there isn’t much to do.” Lisa Lutz said she loved the idea that her humorous Spellman series mysteries were not just “beach reads” but “hospital reads” that made people feel better in tedious and difficult times.

Cotterill closed the session with his favorite negative review, of an edition of the King James Bible:

It’s almost preachy in tone.

I cannot top that. Next year, Bouchercon continues its tour of past-their-prime US cities and takes the convention to Cleveland. No Arch, but the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!

Related posts:

1. Sunita reports from Bouchercon 2011
2. Sunita’s TBR 2011 Challenge Review: Life Rewritten, by Margaret Watson
3. Sunita’s 2011 TBR Challenge: Hot Blood by Charlotte Lamb

I attended two panels:

• Vamps with Charlaine Harris, Kerrilyn Sparks, Cathy Clamp and Mario Acevedo
• Demystifying e Book Contracts with Ethan Ellenburg, Elaine English, Raelene Gorlinksy

Both of these panels were summarized for RT and the full reports can be read at the Romantic Times website sometime in the near future. The highlights of those are as follows:

Vamps

Harris enjoys reading Sparks but isn’t writing that kind of story. There were no hints given regarding the future of the Sookie relationship status but it sounds very tenuous. Don’t look for an HEA from Harris.

Sparks writes about what she finds romantic which means men that are gentleman and treat the heroine with kindness and gentleness. She also tries to write funny stories.

Clamp tries to write about two equals even though she thinks that many readers like a strong heroine but want the hero stronger. She says that the readers who write to her represent a small minority of the overall readership. She realizes that there are many dissatisifed and satisfied readers who will never communicate with her.

Acevedo spent most of the time blushing about the sex talk (which is really mild).

Contracts

Don’t be afraid to negotiate but don’t be an ass about it either was the message from the panelists. Get a publishing attorney, not a general attorney, to review your contract if you have questions. Understand that publishers are writing the contract that best suits their needs and purpose. Definitely use Google and other resources but understand that book contracts are confusing and complex. Don’t kick yourself if you don’t understand it. If you sign with a new epublisher and are concerned about terms, bring those up. New epublishers may not be sophisticated in the contract drafting but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are are trying to cheat you. Conversely, don’t hold your nose and sign when you aren’t sure of what is going on.

I also participated in two panels

• Save the Contemporary Reader Roundtable
• EReader Panel

Save the Contemporary
This was a small but fun panel. We had three authors: Julie James, Louisa Edwards, and Victoria Dahl. We really engaged the readers and asked them to share with us what they liked and didn’t like about books. Most of the readers liked small town settings but it the books represent a sanitized version of the small towns. One person wondered whether small towns was code for white, Christian.

Another person shared that a submission of hers was turned down when she wanted to write something much darker with racial implications.

We talked about covers. One reader mentioned she really likes it when the covers include plot elements like the cover of “On the Steamy Side” by Louisa Edwards.

Sarah Wendell, my co moderator, prompted Julie James to tell the story about the dress on the cover of “Something About You.” In the story, the heroine wears a backless fuschia dress exactly as it is depicted on the cover. This is no moment of serendipity. Instead, James had written the character as wearing a sexy black dress but when she received the cover image, she changed the dress of the heroine to match the cover.

It was a great time and I hope that we have more of these in the future. The readers were so engaged. I could have talked for hours with everyone.

eReader Panel

The comment I heard after the panel was that they were more confused than ever about what ereader to buy. It is confusing. We brought Sony, Nook, Kindle, the new Kobo Reader, iPhone, iPad, and netbooks. We brought up 8 things to consider when deciding on what ereader to buy (I’ll post those next Sunday). The easiest device to use was determined to be the Kindle. The cheapest is the new Kobo Reader.

There were things I liked about the Kobo Reader and things I didn’t. The Kobo is lightweight and I loved the quilted matt back finish. For $149, it’s a good eink reader but the software program could definitely make it better. Sarah and I thought the screen resolution was not as good as the Sony Pocket Edition. I was suprised that though the Kobo has bluetooth capabilities, it is only for the purpose of connecting Reader with a blackberry. I couldn’t tether it to the Macbook for over the air syncing of content. Weird.

All Romance Ebooks gave away a Sony Reader Touch and offered up three coupon codes.   For each book listed below you can get a 50% discount.   The codes are case sensitive.

• What the Librarian Did by Karina Bliss -janeRT2010
• Instant Attraction by Jill Shalvis – sarahRT2010
• Stray by Rachel Vincent – angelaRT2010

Overall Impressions

RT is a day/night conference. By day, it is mostly a writer’s conference with five or six writer panels for every one reader event. By night, it is a spectacle of fairy wings, vampire teeth, pleather, leather, and latex. There were the not very original coterie of non romance readers there to gawk and draw conclusions about the romance readership as a whole.

There were only 6 Mr. Romance contestants. I heard four didn’t show up and at least three were last minute additions including one who referred to this as another “dance gig.” One of the contestants was a guy who had come to the conference to learn to write romances. Andrew (whose last name I can’t recall at this moment) had written a book on the love lives of philosophers and apparently it was 30 stories of tragicly bad romances. Andrew began reading romances for the positive endings and would like to see his name on the cover, not necessarily his face.

The winner, Jamie, seemed like a sweet boy for whom a cover modeling gig seems perfectly suited to his skill set. Read into that what you will.

Mr. Romance 2009, Charles Paz?, got up on stage and began lamenting the mean girl bloggers of 2009 who posted his picture and made comments about his person suggesting that perhaps he was not their vision of a cover model for romance books. Apparently this affected Charles so adversely that he was unable to get out of bed. Fortunately, the facebook fans were wholly encouraging and gave him a reason to rise in the morning. Charles then broke down and started crying, sobbing almost. In fact, there were more tears shed on stage of Mr. Romance 2010 than at the last Miss America pageant (more cogent answers at the Miss America pageant as well). You mean girl bloggers, ruining everything. (As an aside, no one I talked to even remembered seeing posts about the winner from 2009. All I could remember was that he was short in 2009 and he is still short today).

Everyone agreed that RT has become more subdued and less sexualized. I attribute that to the fact that the Ellora’s Cavemen no longer roam the halls, barechested and eager. EC did hire local strippers for EC party. The rumor is that they are holding back the real cavemen for the fall EC Con.

Probably the best reason to attend RT is for the fellowship of readers. There isn’t anything more fun than talking with others, in person, about your favorite book, is there?

Related posts:

1. CES 2010: The Ebook Hardware Highlights
2. Software EBook Highlights from CES 2010

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More authors are getting into the casual gaming platform.   Orchid Games released Heartwild Solitaire Classic and recruited a few authors to write short stories that players are allowed to read after winning a game of solitaire.   The game and the stories are free.   Sherry Thomas has allowed us to host her free story here.   Right click to save the RTF on your computer or click the link to read the story in a browser.

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Courtney Milan has a great idea on how to resolve the business between RWA and Harlequin over Harlequin’s partnership with Author Solutions.   It reads like a win win to me.   Milan’s solution involves requiring all the Harlequin lines to be separate publishers and requiring Harlequin not refer any authors solicited from the conference to Dell Arte Press.

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October was a good month for book sales.   Nearly every category saw a positive increase.   The increase in adult hardcover is probably attributable to Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol.

• Adult paperback increased 37.5% to $130.4 million.
• Children’s/YA hardcover fell 0.5% to $87.9 million.
• Children’s/YA paperback increased 20.2% to $52.7 million.
• Adult hardcover rose 6.3% to $259.9 million.
• Adult mass market was down 1.8% to $61.2 million.
• Audiobooks dropped 1.8% to $19.7 million.
• Ebooks were up 254% to $18.5 miillon.

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Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster blames a soft market on the dismal S&S sales year:

Reidy noted that the bookselling marketplace "has been truly lackluster, and year-on-year sales at most of our major customers have declined significantly. Books from many of our continuing authors, as well as our higher-margin backlist, are selling at levels well below their peak." And although S&S had solid gains in its conservative and teen markets and strong performances in the U.K. and Canada, "the lower sales volume attributable to the soft marketplace was impossible for us to overcome."

I have a feeling the year end balance sheet at Simon & Schuster is grim.

Related posts:

1. Tuesday Midday Links: Harlequin Horizon’s, A self publishing venture
2. Book Sales Are on the Rise
3. Friday Midday Links: MWA Breaks Up With Harlequin

Let’s sum this up. Random House got knocked down again and again by the court system but because it had deeper pockets and could continue to litigate claims that it knew it would not win, it was rewarded with a licensing payment from Rosetta Books. I feel for Rosetta. What else could the do?

The legal foundation that Random House rests upon is shaky at best. Author contracts are largely contracts of adhesion and as such any ambiguity is resolved against the drafter of the contract, meaning if a term “book” is deemed to be ambiguous by the court, then the interpretation that favors the non drafting party (the author) is usually upheld. In the Rosetta cases, the court didn’t focus on whether the contract was one of adhesion but looked to see if there was ambiguity in the term book (there was) and whether it included digital rights (it didn’t). Further, the court in the Rosetta cases determined that new uses referred to new uses in the same medium (ie print), not a different one (digital). Perhaps Random House is convinced that it could convince a different judge to come to a different conclusion.   This move is meant to strike fear in the hearts of authors who think to take their backlist titles elsewhere and for the majority of authors, this tactic will likely work.

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Author Candace Sams (commenting under pseudonym NiteflyrOne)   runs amok over at Amazon, berating a reviewer and suggesting that the reviewer look to Harriet Klausner as an exemplar reviewing professional. Incensed by the one star review and determined to critique the reviewer back, Sams includes instructions on why Klausner is a better reviewer.   Klausner knows stuff.

Again…I point to Ms. Klausner as a number one reviewer for Amazon.com. She knows that authors rarely have full editorial control; rarely do they have even ‘scant’ control over their covers or the language used in dialogue or even sequencing of scenes: love scenes, kissing scenes, scenes of violence, etc. These are ultimately controlled by editorial staff…very rarely the author alone.

I’m bolding that part.   I knew I should have gone to reviewing school.   I thought authors made decisions about dialogue and sequencing but alas, it is the editor.   Look what else the editor does:

Those conversations were, on the whole, fraught with sophomoric comments blaming authors for all kinds of editorial decisions over which they have no or very little control (kissing scenes, cover content, love scenes, language, etc., etc., etc).

Anyway, Sams wishes for more “cognitive readers” and more “equitable” ones and speculates that the unhappy reader is a “frustrated romance author – who could not get his/her own work published – or who cannot write a manuscript at all……there seems, therefore, to be a need to render rather caustic attacks and on those who ‘can’ write and who ‘can’ get published.”   Also, in commenting to another negative review, Sams notes that some reviewers just can’t handle the material that steps outside the box.

This has been the biggest complaint about romance on the whole – that they all sound alike. Apparently ‘some’ reviewers ‘want’ them to sound alike. When they don’t, they aren’t able to handle the material.

In conclusion, don’t complain about the author’s writing, complain about how the editor obviously took gold and turned it into dross.   Thanks to the reader who sent me the link.

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Books on Mars posts the salaries of the top paid employees of the various writers’ organizations.   Mystery and romance writers associations pay the most with the Science Fiction position paying the lowest.   Allison Kelley, Executive Director for RWA, earned $106,572 in 2007/2008.

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Barnes and Noble should hurry up with the updates for it’s nook because the nook is being savaged in reviews.

• Gear Diary (she wants to ebay it right now)
• Gadgeteer (she’ll continue to use her iPhone)

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Author Barry Eisler who is making a concerted effort to get his books into romance readers’ hands had a nice surprise for him this morning when Salon named his book, Fault Line, one of the best for 2009. “Eisler has reinvented spy thriller for 21st century.”   Any romance reader want to take up the gauntlet and review Fault Line for Dear Author? I’ll buy you the copy and have it shipped to you, paper or ecopy.

Related posts:

1. Monday Midday Links: It Is All Gloom and Doom (today at least)
2. Monday Midday Links: Bookstore Outlet Looks Grim
3. Friday Midday Links: Promo is an author’s friend

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The Stalker’s Notebook wrote about genre labels and how restrictive they can be, particularly in the store. On the internet, however, with “tags”, readers can use as many labels as they like to help group books together. The more meta the data, the more helpful to the reader, and the better able authors are able to sell their books to the right audience.

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According to the Bookseller, a UK publication, many industry insiders say that ebooks will harm brick and mortar retail bookselling and while people are reading digitally, only a small percentage are actually buying them.

The results showed that though 44% of respondents had read a book digitally, only 19% had bought one. The majority of respondents said that e-books should be priced at the same cost as a paperback book (30.1%), or cheaper (53.6%).

…

“The high price of e-books is the main obstacle to their takeup,” said one respondent. “Readers can’t understand why the online versions of bricks and mortar shops sell ebooks at higher than paperback prices.”

The entire article is worth a read.

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Digital Manga Publishing announced that it hard partnered with Harlequin to bring Harlequin’s romance manga available online.   What I found interesting wasn’t the deal but the rent to own business model of DMP.   Apparently you can “rent” a book for approximately 72 hours and if you rerent it, you are also granted ownership.   I find this pricing model very interesting.    Another reader, Blue Tyson, pointed me to this article about subscription pricing for music.   Apparently an entry fee and small per song charge yields higher revenue than individual uniform pricing.

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Lori James of All Romance EBooks shared some of her insights as a retailer of romance digital books.   DRM clearly inhibits sales as only 3% of sales at her site are for DRM’ed ebooks.   It’s another article that I thought was really fascinating although I do wonder whether anyone though Microsoft was a player in ebooks.   Hasn’t it always been Adobe?

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MWA has delisted Harlequin as a recognized publisher.   The two were in talks since the announcement of Harlequin Horizons now Dell Arte Press but could not come to a resolution.   Lee Goldberg has an explanation of MWA’s position and Harlequin’s lengthy response. In Harlequin’s response, it notes that ITW and NINC have taken a different approach than the one taken by MWA.    Goldberg excerpts from the MWA rules this passage:

…nor may the publisher, or any of the executives or editors under its employ, have offered authors self-publishing services, literary representation, paid editorial services, or paid promotional services.

If the publisher is affiliated with an entity that provides self-publishing, for-pay editorial services, or for-pay promotional services, the entities must be wholly separate and isolated from the publishing entity. They must not share employees, manuscripts, or authors or interact in any way. For example, the publishing entity must not refer authors to any of the for-pay entities nor give preferential treatment to manuscripts submitted that were edited, published, or promoted by the for-pay entity.

I’m still curious how HarperCollins/Authonomy/CreateSpace fits into this because while Authomony is free, HarperCollins solicits for CreateSpace through it.   Authonomy’s blog post today is how participants can get published with HarperCollins.    RWA is having a special board meeting in January.   Will it follow MWA’s lead and end up with a very, very abbreviated RITA ceremony or will it adopt the hands off approach of ITW and NINC?

Related posts:

1. Saturday Midday Links Roundup: Writers Organizations Mad at Harlequin
2. Tuesday Midday Links: Harlequin Horizon’s, A self publishing venture
3. Friday Midday Links: Is the Advance Model Going the Way of the DoDo Bird?

Publishers should be able to sell e-books to distributors like Amazon at $5 and still maintain the profit margins they enjoyed on print book sales. In turn, distributors like Amazon should be able to sell e-books at the current $9-$10 price and still enjoy a healthy profit.
The bad news for authors is that their royalties will decrease since they are based off of retail sales price.

It’s a pretty interesting article and includes a mock profit and loss statement. I wouldn’t agree with all the points in the article such as author royalties which are increasingly off the net making the publisher margin more manageable.

Three major writing organizations are urging Harlequin to make changes to the Harlequin Horizon business venture. SFWA wants Harlequin to divest itself entirely of the venture (I hope they urge RandomHouse to sell its 49% interest in Xlibris and HarperCollins to shed Authonomy); MWA hasn’t said what would make it happy and neither has RWA. I guess the next move is up to Harlequin. It occurs to me that Harlequin could sue if these other writers’ organizations do not apply their standards evenly across the board so I wonder if we’ll see more publishers unrecognized by the writers’ organizations.

Lori posted her thoughts on the Amazon’s top 2009 books. The customers’ favorites are quite different than Amazon’s top 10 list.

The list for customer favorites is:

1. Vision in White
2. Bed of Roses
3. Lover Avenged
4. Skin Trade
5. Black Hills
6. Hidden Currents
7. Dream Fever
8. Bad Moon Rising
9. Dark Slayer
10. Covet

Editor’s top picks are:

1. Angels’ Blood
2. Smooth Talking Stranger
3. Kiss of a Demon King
4. The Perfect Poison
5. Bending the Rules
6. What Happens in London
7. Fireside
8. A Duke of Her Own
9. Immortal Outlaw
10. Angel Lane

I haven’t read a lot of those books.

According to a press release posted over at Teleread.org, Smashwords has purchased BookHabit Limited, a New Zealand author community.    Earlier, Smashwords announced a partnership with Shortcovers.

Toronto, Canada-based Shortcovers, an eReading application owned by Indigo Books & Music, will distribute eBooks published by Smashwords on a worldwide basis. Shortcovers will distribute the eBooks in 189 countries. Smashwords has more than 5,000 original eBooks from 2,300 self-published authors and small publishers from 20 countries.

I do think the advantage of digital books is the ease of international delivery.   Perhaps what will be lost in margin can be made up in volume.

Related posts:

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According to an editor, one New York house is not paying a full $1000 per advance. In fact, in a two book deal, the author is getting less than $1000 per book.   Authors, please consider what you are worth and whether print publishing is the right avenue at $1000 and a standard 6% royalty rate (or less).

I did manage to pick up some industry news. Not sure it’s really news, though, but perhaps more just confirmation of what we already knew was going down. A NYC print publisher has slipped under RWA’s stated “$1,000 for all books” requirement on a recent 2-novel contract (yes, in print). This is the second NYC house to do so, though RWA may not know about this one yet. Keep watching. This is far from a dead issue. Advances are falling almost everywhere, and I expect they’ll continue to fall as long as we have this economy.

Virgin is no longer going to be publishing Black Lace, Cheek or any other kind of fiction or non-fiction erotica.   This means editor Adam Neville is out of a job.   The books commissioned until December 2009 will be released as scheduled. Since January 2005, Neville and his colleauges published over 300 books and “were profitable unti lthe very end.”

Perhaps fiction authors might want to take a look at a new general imprint digital publisher, OR Books.   OR Books plans to spend upwards of $50,000-75,000 in marketing for each title.   The books will be made available in digital format and in print through print on demand technology.

The rumored Apple Tablet might be announced soon (yes, I squeed a bit here, but quietly).   According to the Apple Blog, The Street is confirming an October release date and a partnership with Verizon.   The Verizon plan may help to reduce some of the sticker shock of the Tablet.   I can see my Christmas list shaping up right now.

For those that didn’t attend the conference, you should check out Angela James’ speech she gave to the Passionate Ink crowd.

I know that, you know that and I believe that as time passes and more people get to know digital publishing, they too will recognize that. I’m not going to stop believing in our industry because people question, disdain or disbelieve. In the words of Galaxy Quest, I choose to "Never give up. Never surrender." because I have faith in digital publishing.

Chassie planned on having a whole lotta beer. She definitely needed alcohol to get the conversation started and probably an entire case to follow through with her plan. She took two bottles of Bud Light from the door and passed one to him. Snick, hiss, pop echoed, as the lids were untwisted.
Edgard’s backside rested against one counter; hers on the one across from him. She gulped her beer, cautioning herself to be tactful and calm, but what burst forth from her mouth was, "Are you in love with my husband?"

This is the industry that brought readers erotic romance and powerful books like Lorelei James’ Rough, Raw and Ready.

And it’s not going away.

Ron Charles of the Washington Post was given the Veritas Award by RWA for a single blog post he wrote that portrayed romance in a positive light.   Today he wrote about this honor and the struggle for romance writers to achieve legitimacy. Teresa Medeiros wrote a response proudly proclaiming her profession: Romance Write.

WHSmith takes “If You Like” recommendations to a new level by increasing the font of the branded author and nearly obscuring the actual book. Can you imagine cover quotes with supersized fonts for the Quoter?   (Via Sarah Weinman)

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How do we accommodate  changes in the publishing industry  environment without diluting RWA’s  focus on “career-focused” writers and standards for professionalism?

….

In other words, that publisher’s business model is of benefit to all its authors (RWA members). The fact that a publisher might not offer an advance but pays a 37.5 percent royalty rate is inconsequential; that business model is only favorable to the few–or even the several– who manage to sell enough books to make decent money, or at least the $1,000 required for Published Authors Network (PAN) membership. It is not favorable to the rest of its authors (RWA members) who earn very little money, if any at all. When an individual author (What is good for me and my career?) posts on a loop that she’s earned thousands of dollars, really likes her publisher’s royalty rate, and doesn’t see the need for an advance, good for her. RWA is always pleased when an author earns decent money for her work. But–and this is based on real examples, not assumptions–all the authors signed with that  publisher will not make decent money;  most of them won’t.

I never blogged about this because Diane Pershing is two months away from her presidency expiring. What was the point? Several others responded however here, here and here. Deidre Knight responded with an eloquent and cogent argument on E-span, the electronic publishing chapter of the RWA.

Knight argued that to make the argument that advances are the only legitimate business model fails to take into consideration the changing business environment facing the industry.   As Knight pointed out, HarperStudio, the experimental arm of HarperCollins, is testing the no advance, no return, profit sharing model that has long existed in digital publishing.

Publishers’ Lunch reported NYT bestselling author Glenn Beck made a “multi-title co-publishing deal, covering an unlimited  number of titles over an undisclosed term with ….BECK’S COMMON SENSE, “channeling the spirit of Thomas Paine,” for  publication as an eBook original and then a trade paperback original, in  June 2009, also to include picture books and fiction for children and YA  books, said to be a 50/50  profit sharing deal with Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

Jason Epstein’s keynote speech at Tools of Change this year argues that the “radically decentralized marketplace” is changing the traditional publishing infrastructure.

Like American automobile manufacturers traditional publishers will persist in their traditional mode as long as they can, but they cannot indefinitely defend their institutions against disruptive technologies any more than the monks in their scriptoria could withstand the urgency of movable type. As factory based production and distribution gradually give way to web based production and marketing the cost of entry for publishers will decline to practically zero. Such traditional publishing functions as publicity, design, marketing, legal, record keeping and so on will be sub contracted as will web marketing and design. Talented editors require only minimal managerial services and in the digital future will require even fewer provided they resist inducements to expand or merge. Today’s unwieldy conglomerates, trapped in a bad economy within their Gutenberg mode and motivated only by profit rather than the intrinsic value of the work itself — the joy of publishing distinguished books, the primary motive of successful publishers — will deconstruct, leaving their surviving imprints to fend for themselves under diverse ownership or vanish. Resourceful agents may become business managers for groups of like minded editors and authors whose imprints will become recognizable brands, distinguishing their content from the great sea of helter skelter digital content while authors, as stakeholders along with their editors, may opt for profit sharing arrangements rather than traditional royalties. Best selling branded authors who require only minimal publishing services beyond manufacturing and distribution may become their own publishers, retaining their agents as business managers, subcontracting essential functions, and forgoing today’s unsustainable guarantees in exchange for the entire net proceeds of their titles. Customers will pay less but pricing must still cover traditional author royalties, residual publishers’ overheads and profit.

At Book Expo America, the biggest buzz word of North America’s biggest trade show was “digital publishing”.    (This one is a great sum up of one of the digital seminars held at BEA ’09).

Diane Pershing’s response to Deidre Knight was posted today.   In it Pershing suggests that Knight’s motivation for speaking out in favor of digital publishing and against the current position espoused by Pershing was because Knight’s Butterfly Tattoo is not eligible for a RITA.   Pershing states that only two digital publishing seminars were ever brought to RWA’s attention:   one offered by Angela James and one deemed not up to snuff by RWA’s seminar committee.

Pershing goes on to state that for all the complaints that members may appear to have about RWA, the organization has not suffered in terms of membership or money.   Pershing notes that while authors might not get the advance paid right away, when the career focused author is ready, money in the thousands will be waiting for them.

Even so, most career-focused authors have books in various stages of completion and publication, so there is a steady flow of money to them.   And whenever the money does get there, there will be money, in the thousands of dollars.   It is guaranteed.   Can the same be said for the digital model?

Here is what I think about this whole hub-bub.   Why care what RWA thinks? Why advocate for RWA to change? Why not simply withdraw from the organization. It does nothing but to offer a contests, conventions, and help polishing your first three chapters. I don’t know of one editor who cares whether the submission comes from an RWA member.    I don’t know of any reader who cares whether the book is from an RWA member.

In what measurable way does RWA help an author a) sell books or b) become published?   There are plenty of ways to meet editors and agents. They go to Lori Foster’s events or Lora Leigh’s events.   They might be at ComicCon.   They might be at RT.   You can even go to the RWA convention without being a member.

RWA is not forward thinking as Pershing states. If it was forward thinking, it would recognize that its duty to its membership includes equipping the authors with information about all the ways in which authors in the romance industry can make money. It would tell them that a digital publisher offers higher royalties against no advances thus making that publishing path more risky but with possible better reward. It would equip authors to go forth and seek out digital publishers armed with the knowledge of how to distinguish between a good and bad digital publisher.

But why work within the the RWA?   RWA doesn’t make the money an author makes with digital publishing less real.   RWA only serves to delegitimize an author if she allows it.   RWA’s failure to recognize digital publishers makes RWA look bad; not the digital publishers or the authors that choose that model.   For the authors who aren’t aware of the avenues of success from digital publishing or know and don’t want to take advantage of that model, so what? More publishing slots for those who are in the know.

The market will change and evolve regardless of RWA.   The only people it harms are those wedded to the RWA philosophy and you know what, let them go the way of the dodo bird.

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Conventions are a mainstay of the science fiction/fantasy genre but only in the past few years have various romance related conventions started up.   Lora Leigh has a very popular reader appreciation weekend called RAW and Lori Foster hosts a similar reader/writer convention.   There is the RT convention I just attended and the RWA convention in DC coming up in July.   Have you attended a convention and if so did you enjoy it?Would you go again?   What are you looking for in terms of a convention?

For me, I’m more interested in the cutting edge of publishing so I plan to attend Tools of Change next year and possibly BEA.

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Greg Topalian, senior v-p for Reed Exhibitions, said, however, that it has become clear that there is not enough interest in the Canadian publishing industry to make either event a successful standalone operation. Reed was willing to run a smaller traditional business-to-business fair and complement that with a consumer show, but, "at the end of the day, there wasn’t enough signups for either," Topalian said. "We’ve worked for a number of years to find ways to change the show or to have it evolve, but when you get to the point where your customers say you aren’t valuable any more it’s time to move on," Topalian said. He said that while he would never rule out trying to do some book-related events in Canada in future years, "as of today, there will be no events in 2009."

Via Publishers Weekly.

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I attended my first romance event when I graduated and moved to New York. The other readers online told me about a huge booksigning in New Jersey. (The annual NJRWA book signing.) I got on the Garden State Parkway and headed for New Jersey. When I walked into the hotel, I couldn’t believe it – there were crowds of people, and all of them were fellow romance readers! There was a huge ballroom with rows of tables, all lined with romance authors.

I timidly approached some of my favorite authors, and had my books signed. That was fun, but I found myself more interested in the other readers – when did they start reading romance? What were their favorite books? Did they have any good recommendations? A group of readers and authors went out to dinner after the signing, and for me, that was the highlight of the day, because I got a chance to talk to everyone. Whether we were talking about books or about our lives, it seemed like we had a lot in common – after all, we all loved reading! Dinner was over far too soon.

Not long after that, I heard about Celebrate Romance, which had held it’s first meeting in Las Vegas the previous year. It was an entire weekend of the things I’d liked best about the dinner after the book signing – a chance to talk to other readers, discuss books, and meet authors. And as a bonus for me, the next meeting was in Philadelphia, only a few hours from home. I couldn’t wait to attend.

The experience was even better than I’d expected. The first day I arrived, I stayed up until midnight, eating Philly cheesesteaks and swapping stories with other romance readers. The next day, I listened to speakers talking about my favorite subject – romance novels – and joined in enthusiastic group discussions about favorite plotlines and tacky covers. And on Sunday, I even got to have breakfast with one of my favorite romance authors – Mary Jo Putney – although I think I was too shy to say much. I exchanged email addresses with dozens of readers and authors, and had so many great chats with people that I’d met online, but finally met in person. By the end of the weekend, I was ready to sign up for next year.

Since then, I’ve attended CR almost every year, and it’s always been a terrific experience. A few years ago, I even got involved in organizing the conference. I had gotten so much out of CR, I had to do everything I could to help keep it going. It’s hard to believe that it’s been ten years since I attended my first one – and I still have a great time, every year.

This year’s Celebrate Romance conference is being held in Portland, Oregon, from Friday February 27th to Sunday March 1st. The keynote speakers are Cathy Maxwell and Jane Porter, and other attending authors include Elizabeth Boyle and Lisa Hendrix (and too many others to list). There are going to be speakers, discussion groups, dinners, and lots of chances to just kick back and relax. I can’t wait! Even though I’m busy with all kinds of behind the scenes details, in my heart I’m still that eager reader, waiting to get a chance to share my love of books with everyone else at the conference.

You can find out more at the CR web site, http://www.crspring.com

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I was thinking that RT was the only convention out there where you needed to take a shower every two hours. Maybe at PenguiCon, there are washing stations for gropers and gropees like they have at my local zoo outside the petting station.

It was so successful at PenguiCon that the group plans to take their show on the road. “And we’ll probably do it at other cons, because it’s strangely wholesome and sexual at the same time.” Wow, I can’t wait to avoid those.

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My conference started on Wednesday, and unlike last year there was actually a function for booksellers –” a tea. I’m not much for tea, not the kind that RWA serves up anyway. I tend to be a little biased on this subject. Apparently, to the RWA, booksellers are a bother. So much so that you couldn’t register for the event and no name tags were provided –” well, you can’t have name tags if you don’t have registration. I just showed up anyway. Authors didn’t know who the booksellers were and as such, spent time talking amongst themselves. I remember the days when we booksellers were treated to a day filled with events, talks and seminars and even a luncheon. Those days are long gone for booksellers, but the librarians still have one in which we booksellers can participate. But I’m sure I don’t need to remind readers that there is a vast difference between bookstores and libraries!

Thursday and Friday were filled with informative sessions –” I hit the publishers’ spotlights. It’s where they reveal not only the direction of the industry, but who has the hot books coming soon.

As most readers know paranormals and erotic romance are hot right now –” and the industry shows no sign of slowing down. In fact with erotic romance many publishers have new lines to feature these spicy stories. Although whether most of the erotic romance being published even remotely resembles anything close to a romance is beyond me! There is hope though; buzz around the conference is there are a few publishers left who are looking to develop an erotic romance line. Hear me now –” READERS WANT THE HAPPY ENDING!!!

As for books obtaining a lot of buzz, be on the lookout for:

• Thea Devine has a contemporary due out from Pocket October of this year: His Little Black Book.
• Also from Pocket is Roxanne St. Claire’s third book of the Bullet Catchers series, Take Me Tonight, due out spring of 2007 — is getting very good buzz. Without having read the first two in the series, I have to admit that I can’t wait for it . . . this means I’ll have to get caught up to date!
• Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh was also a much talked about book (at least I was talking it up to everyone who would listen). StS is new paranormal due out in September from Berkley.
• Another hot read getting some early buzz from Berkley is Lora Leigh’s Harmony’s Way. It’s the follow up to the break out book Megan’s Mark, which made the USA Today’s bestseller list. HW is in stores December 2006.
• Jacquelyn Frank’s The Nightwalkers: Jacob is also creating some buzz. Kate Duffy, her editor from Kensington, is putting it on her best of the best list. After the number of years that Duffy has been in publishing, I have high hopes for this book. I have to admit I snagged an ARC of it immediately!

Friday nights’ publisher parties seemed uneventful. Mostly crowded, you could barely get around to even talk to anyone. The only thing noteworthy was Cindy Dees who cornered one of the Harlequin editors and seemed to be having an intense discussion, definitely not the party atmosphere.

That leaves the RITAs. Once I heard Nora was slated to MC once again this year, my curiosity got the best of me. I dressed for the occasion (see note above, me and my PJs) set on staying just for Nora’s opening monologue. Two hours later I was still stuck to my seat! In fact, most people walking out of the theater kept stopping for the little shorts still playing on the giant screen. Little vignettes played throughout the entire ceremony, movies about, well, publishing and writing. Including the ever famous Kathy Bates Misery sequence where she *demands* that the book is written in her way! Oh and not to forget the ever famous Romancing the Stone –” “Joan Wilder –” THE Joan Wilder????” And please, anyone who knows what the name of the movie that Hugh Jackman plays a man who writes a romance, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know . . . !!!!

Yes, Nora is a classy lady. She is the very definition of a class act. To come back from last years’ debacle to triumph with the best RITA Awards ceremony EVER, she is my hero! Honestly, I’ve never stayed for an entire ceremony before –” I just hope she’ll MC it next year too! My hat is off to you Nora!

The only thing left to answer was this years’ hullabaloo . . . nothing concrete, but there was quite a bit of whispers about Ellora’s Cave and its future. Now this could be some residual from the recent June update to Piers Anthony’s website about how EC authors’ checks are bouncing or maybe it’s because some of their best authors have been picked up by New York publishers. We may have to revisit this topic another day when we have more information.

Notes for next years’ Dallas conference: Find a dress for the RITAs if Nora continues to MC the event and also get a meeting with the Pocket editors –” they seem to have a handle on the books for which readers are really enjoying these days.

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