Your book “Princess Furball” was recommended to me by etv13, one of our readers here, after I posted a review of the movie “Donkey Skin.” I instantly fell in love with the name since I have two little Princess Furballs at home. Well, I finally got my own copy of the book and after finishing it, I have to say it’s charming.

The story is not quite “Donkey Skin” and not quite “Three Nuts for Cinderella” but rather a blending of the two. And here the theme of incest is not included. Instead the King, who has ignored his daughter for years after his wife died, promises her to an ogre who will pay handsomely for her hand in marriage. But her beloved nurse, who thought of the Princess as a daughter, had made sure to see that the Princess was learned. So she grew up to be strong, capable and clever enough to think of a way out of the hateful marriage. Of course it involves a handsome Prince but also three beautiful dresses, three keepsakes from the Princess’ mother and a coat made of the hides of 1000 different animals. And naturally there’s a happy ever after plus one yummy looking wedding cake.

The illustrations by Anita Lobel remind me a touch of the Impressionists of the late 19th century and are colorful and skillfully done. I think any child would be enchanted by them and able to follow the story through them. The story is simply told though detailed all the same. And though I don’t want to get bogged down in PCness, it’s nice to see a Princess who is responsible for her own HEA who gets a Prince who recognizes that she is as clever as she is lovely. B+

~Jayne

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I’m a big Edgar Allan Poe fan. Any book with a title referencing him is always going to get a second look from me. Combined with a striking cover, it’s almost guaranteed I will pick it up. I initially thought Masque of the Red Death was a debut, but your name sounded familiar so I did a quick search. I discovered I’d reviewed your debut (a contemporary YA) a few years ago. And while I didn’t much care for that novel, I’m always willing to give an author another try, especially if their next work is something different.

Masque of the Red Death takes place in a neo-Victorian, steampunk city reminiscent of New Orleans. It’s a decaying metropolis, practically in ruins, in no small part due to a highly contagious plague that’s afflicted the populace. Our protagonist, Araby Worth, is the daughter of a scientist. Her father invented the masks that allow people to travel out in the open without fear of contracting the disease. This allows her a position of privilege.

You see, only the wealthy can afford the masks. The poor are left to fend for themselves. Of course, the rich take all this doom and gloom seriously. With death and disease all around, most of them spend their time at the Debauchery Club where they can forget their pain through drugs and meaningless sex.

Araby’s reasons for going to the Debauchery Club, however, are more personal. She once had a twin brother and we’re led to believe he died from the plague. Araby feels both responsibility for his death and guilt because she survived. She intends to live the rest of her life in stasis, forgoing everything and anything that her brother will never experience. (Yeah, it’s a little overkill but teenagers can be pretty dramatic.) But Araby’s existence is shaken up when she meets Elliott, her best friend’s older brother. Elliott wants to start a revolution and he needs Araby’s help to make it happen.

If there’s one thing I like about this book, it’s the atmosphere. It’s dreary, which suits the premise. An extremely contagious, and extremely lethal, disease is sweeping through your city. There is no cure, and only a select few have access to the one thing that has a chance of preventing infection. I’d be hopeless too.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t appreciate this as much as I’d like because I spent a good chunk of the book utterly confused as to when and where it takes place. I admit it’s the fantasy reader in me. I like the setting clearly defined and portrayed. I never could figure out if Masque took place in an alternate historical earth featuring steampunk technology or if it was a constructed, secondary fantasy world. There are aspects of the setting that can even support a post-apocalyptic setting. It’s almost as if the setting attempted to be everything for every reader, and that never ends well. Readers who aren’t as fixated on setting probably won’t mind the vagueness but those who do pay attention to that sort of thing may run into some issues.

Araby is a frustrating protagonist. The angst stemming from her survivor’s guilt makes sense for the majority of the book but when the big revelation comes towards the end, I couldn’t help but think the degree to which she self-flagellated was blown out of proportion. In many ways it makes sense for her to go through life, merely existing and trying to escape, but while that’s a realistic course of action, it often ends up being dull to read about.

When Araby gets pushed out of her comfort zone, I should have cheered. Instead I ended up boggling over some of her decisions. For example, why in the world would you steal things from your parents because a guy you just met (and who you don’t even like) told you to? There’s no logic here, and it makes Araby look a bit dim. She also goes along with many things that would normally set off warning bells. There’s being naïve and sheltered, and then there’s having no sense of self-preservation. It’d be nice to think these actions are due to Araby’s survivor’s guilt, which in turn has fed a sort of fatalistic attitude but I’m not convinced that was intentional.

There’s also a love triangle. I’m sure no one is surprised by this, given the state of the genre these days. Araby is initially taken by Will, a bouncer at the club she frequents with her best friend. Will seems like a nice guy — he’s kind to Araby, despite the obvious difference in social class; he takes care of his two younger siblings. I truly liked the portrayal of the relationship between them. But when Elliott was introduced and began to take up more page time with Araby, I knew Will’s viability as a love interest was going to plummet.

This irritated me because Elliott is a jerk. He’s not nice. He tells Araby not to trust him but he also expects her to do all these things he asks. He’s jealous and possessive for no good reason. There’s a memorable scene in which he threatens to drop her into a river filled with hungry crocodiles. None of these things scream love interest to me. They do, however, scream Get away. I will never understand the allure of the jerk love interest. Maybe I’m supposed to excuse Elliott because of his tragic family history but that’s not going to happen. Araby’s family history is just as tragic and she doesn’t treat people the way he does.

But my biggest complaint about the book has to do with its execution. While I really did like the dark, gloomy feel of it, many aspects did not ring true. Like many other people, Araby goes to the Debauchery Club to forget her sorrows. For some people, this means having meaningless sex with strangers. For others, like Araby, this means getting high. Pretty edgy material, right?

Except it doesn’t read edgy. Nothing about how the club is portrayed is believable or authentic. Araby is constantly getting high but her drug trips never actually read like drug trips. She was always passing out or falling asleep. That’s not getting high. That’s being sedated or getting roofied, neither of which I think is the intention. Looking back, I realize I had a similar complaint with your previous novel. I really dislike the inclusion of “shocking” content to be edgy without actually going all in and being edgy. If things like drugs and meaningless hook-ups are going to be portrayed in novels, then it needs to be more than just for show.

I had high hopes for Masque of the Red Death. Maybe too high. It had a lot of elements I like: gothic atmosphere, plague, and references to Edgar Allan Poe. But the execution left a lot to be desired. Combined with frustrating characters and a love triangle lacking any subtlety, I regretted being lured in by the pretty cover. D

My regards,
Jia

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I admit I went into your debut novel not knowing much about it. I knew it was a YA. I had an idea about the basic set-up: a girl dies in a car accident and is brought back to life by a classmate. This somehow leads into a race against the clock to save the world which is about to be destroyed. Even the backcover blurb left me with more questions than answers. All these things piqued my interest enough to give your novel a try. It’s a decision I don’t regret.

It’s the last days of summer before junior year, and Janelle Tenner is spending them as she normally would. She’s lifeguarding at the beach because if there’s one thing she excells at, it’s swimming. She has a new boyfriend and is excited about it — but she could do without the accompanying drama involving his ex-girlfriend.

Then she’s hit by a truck. It’s exactly like the stories say — she sees a bright light and scenes from her life flash before her eyes. Janelle knows she’s dying. But inexplicably, she’s brought back from the dead to find one of the loner boys from her high school, Ben Michaels, leaning over her. Janelle can’t explain why but just like she knew she’d died, she knew Ben somehow brought her back to life.

Even though Ben hangs out with the stoners at her high school, Janelle is curious. She tries to find out more about him — especially how he could have possibly healed her fatal injuries. At the same time, Janelle discovers her FBI agent father is looking into her accident and that it’s somehow connected to a major case he’s currently working on.

Janelle can’t help herself and snoops into her father’s files. What she finds leads her to believe that the FBI has discovered a bioweapon capable of unleashing a deadly virus. But once she discovers the secret behind Ben’s mysterious ability, Janelle learns that the bomb in FBI custody is something much, much worse.

Unraveling is what you get when you mix 24, Veronica Mars, and X-Files. The fast pace and countdown conceit is reminiscent of 24. Janelle Tenner reminds me of Veronica Mars in many ways — she’s the daughter of a law enforcement official and she’s clever and likes putting together cases. There’s also that incident at a party involving a roofie. As for the X-Files part, there’s a lot of weirdness taking place in the first half of the book. Corpses being found of people with severe radiation burns. The truck that hit Janelle is a make and model no one has heard of. And of course there’s Ben, who can bring people back from the dead.

It sounds like a lot but I thought the book made the various elements work. I admit I made the mistake of assuming this was going to be a paranormal novel. I suppose it was the part where Ben healed Janelle. I tend to associate that with paranormals and fantasies. But it’s not, and I don’t want other readers to go in with that expectation. Instead it’s a soft SF thriller. I call it soft SF because the science is not really delved into or explored as much as you’d find in the harder SF titles. I don’t mind this because I prefer soft SF to hard but readers who like their science fiction hard and technical will be dissatisfied. This is especially true in the second half of the book, after we discover what the deal with Ben, the countdown, and the bomb is.

This is one of those rare cases where I believed the instant love between Janelle and Ben. Janelle is drawn to him because he saved her life. It’s reasonable to expect her to be curious about him and his ability. When she discovers that there’s more than meets the eye, I found it easy to believe she’d fall in love with him. I also thought Ben’s attraction to Janelle was believable as well — harder to accomplish since in the hands of another author, I might have considered his feelings creepy considering the reason why he’s drawn to her and has always been drawn to her. But as with Janelle’s fascination with Ben, I think it makes for someone to be drawn to the person who saved their life.

I liked the depiction of Janelle’s home life. It has its good points, but it’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. She loves her FBI agent father but there’s a deep thread of resentment there because he’s never home. This wouldn’t be as big an issue if it weren’t for the fact that her mother is mentally ill and not even remotely functional. In effect, Janelle is left with the responsibility of taking care of her mother and also raising her younger brother. There’s a particularly poignant scene in the novel where Janelle realizes that she’s essentially her brother’s maternal figure so losing her would hit him far harder than losing either of his true parents. It’s a sad truth but a real one.

It was nice to see that Janelle’s friendships weren’t all sunshine and roses or doom and gloom. A lot of the time, it’s either one extreme or the other. Alex is her best friend and they help each other out all the time, but they have their disagreements. Ben’s best friend cannot stand Janelle, but he’s willing to put up with her for Ben’s sake. Janelle’s relationship with her former best friend is a mess and illustrates that sometimes you can’t find it in yourself to forgive. I think platonic relationships can be especially hard to depict in a nuanced fashion so I liked that we saw many different variations.

On the other hand, I would have liked for there to be more female characters that were on Janelle’s side. There’s her ex-best friend. There’s her current boyfriend ex-girlfriend. There’s her mother. These women were not there to support to Janelle and in many ways, were there to cause her more problems. With the focus on her FBI father, her father’s partner, Ben and his friends, and her best friend, it would have nice to have other female characters who didn’t fall into that category.

I can understand why some readers would find this book to be jumbled and unfocused. There’s a lot going on, and I don’t disagree that the narrative could be streamlined. I didn’t mind the way it was told, but I can see why some readers would be irritated. I will say that if you enjoyed Kate Elliott’s Cold Magic and the way that narrative was told, you will probably not mind Unraveling’s execution.

There are a few other quibbles. There’s an event that happens midway through the book. When it becomes obvious who the potential suspects are, the perpetrator ends up being painfully obvious. Alex, Janelle’s best friend, does something at the end that struck me as out of character. It seemed more like he did it because the plot required that he do it, not because it was something his character would do. The thread involving Janelle’s former best friend and her current boyfriend’s ex just trails off into nothingness. For that matter, her current boyfriend vanishes into obscurity after Janelle decides their relationship isn’t working out and that Ben is worth pursuing instead.

All that said, I did enjoy Unraveling and devoured it. My ARC is almost 450 pages long and I didn’t think the book read like it at all. It was enjoyable and I hope that more SF thrillers along this vein are soon to follow in the genre. Word of warning to readers though: while I thought the ending was appropriate and fitting, there’s a cliffhanger regarding the romantic plot. You’ll know what I mean if you read the book. B+

My regards,
Jia

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The cover song has always occupied a precarious position in the annals of music lovers. On the one hand, it is quite a safe thing to do—cover someone else’s song. One already knows that it is beloved. One already knows what sort of person might like that song. It has a brand, a mark, a name already stamped upon it. You, as the musician, can rely on people’s nostalgia to bring to the song you are playing emotions you might not be guaranteed to evoke through your own work. If you are a really excellent musician, you may even bring to the original song something that wasn’t there before. You may make it better. You may, like Jeff Buckley singing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” create an entirely new song.

But there is also a risk in covering a song, especially a beloved song. You may just make people wish they were listening to the original. You may just make people sad that they never got to see the Beatles the first time around. You may expose your own mediocrity by attempting a song that is beyond your abilities. You may, like a cover band at a wedding, make people’s skin crawl with your rendition of “I Will Always Love You.” Yes, the cover song is a dangerous thing to do.

So, too, are books that re-tell classic works of literature. There’s something both naive and arrogant in supposing you, as an author, can say something more interesting about, for example, Lolita, than Nabokov did. It’s rather an act of hubris, isn’t it? Of course, when it is done well . . . but there’s the rub. You’ve got to do it well. And if you don’t? There’s a lot more to lose.

In the book description on Amazon.com, The Flight of Gemma Hardy is called a “captivating homage to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre” which is rather misleading. Homage? Is that the word to use? I would not describe this book as an homage to Jane Eyre. No, that book would be Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart. This book is Jane Eyre—Jane Eyre dressed in the slacks and cardigans of the 1960′s, Jane Eyre missing all its teeth and replacing them with wooden dentures—but Jane Eyre, nonetheless. There are, of course, differences. But those differences are in the details rather than the plot structure, the themes, or the characters. The differences are either superficial, amounting to just mere costume changes, or they are substantial in such a way as to make the plot simultaneously absurd and dull. This is, in my opinion, merely a bad cover version of Jane Eyre.

The book is divided into five parts roughly corresponding with the parts in Jane Eyre. The first two sections focus on Gemma’s childhood, the loss of her only friend Miriam, and her years at Claypoole School. The third section focuses on her time as a nanny to a young girl, the niece of a wealthy banker and landowner, Mr. Sinclair on the Orkney Islands. Part four focuses on her flight from Mr. Sinclair upon learning his secret and Gemma’s recovery of herself during that time period. The last part focuses on the discovery of the remaining family she never knew she had—a family that lives in Iceland—and her eventual return to Mr. Sinclair.

Gemma Hardy is an orphan. Her beloved Uncle has died leaving her in the care of an aunt who, she is coming to realize, hates her. When the village doctor suggests that perhaps she might be better off at school, she sees this as her chance to escape the increasing misery and grief that seems to be her lot at Yew House. Much like the titular character of the book upon which this novel is based, Gemma finds that school is not at all what she expected. Claypoole is a school with an inordinate number of scholarship girls, but they are not there to learn. They are there to earn their keep. Gemma finds no solace at Claypoole but she does find a kind of freedom. When the school closes, she takes a position as a nanny for the Sinclairs in the Orkney Islands. It is there she meets the handsome, brusque Mr. Sinclair and promptly falls head over heels in love with him. But Mr. Sinclair has a secret that seems to be connected to the steward, Seamus Sinclair. Despite this, Gemma feels as if she has finally come home. But this feeling is shattered when, on her wedding day, a secret from the past is revealed and forces Gemma to find her own way in the world.

So, ya know, like I said, it is pretty much Jane Eyre. The names have been changed, but the problems are real, as they used to say on Mathnet part of Square One.

And the book is problematic. It wants to retain all the elements of the original whilst modernizing the plot. What this means is that Ms. Livesey has to jump through some very difficult hoops in order to sustain the original plot structure. Her decision to set the story in the 1960’s makes certain elements of Jane Eyre nearly impossible to deploy with any kind of verisimilitude or believability. I think I can say with a fair amount of confidence that it is a fact that orphaned young women in the 1960’s had advantages and opportunities that orphaned young women in the 1840’s simply did not possess. I hope that we can all agree that this is the case. It certainly seems like it ought to be the case. I suppose it is important that as a reader I certainly felt it ought to be the case. Getting a job in the 1960’s, even without references, wasn’t nearly as difficult as getting a job in the 1840’s, surely? But in order to give to Gemma the kind of isolation and alienation that is the hallmark of Jane’s character, Livesey has to do a lot of work in order to make that come off in the setting she has chosen

We see this problem first on the announcement that Claypoole School is closing due to financial difficulties. As such, Gemma finds that her dreams of university are unlikely to manifest themselves. She must find other employment until such a time as she can gain entry into a university. On the advice of a professor she takes a job as nanny. Well this seems all fine and dandy. I accept this. I find this believable. However, it makes her about 18 years old when she meets Mr. Sinclair (42!), which granted is about the same age Jane was when she met Mr. Rochester but 18 in 1966 seems a hell of a lot younger than 18 in 1846. Also, there is no reason that Mr. Sinclair should be that old except for the fact that the author needs to have had him fight in WWII. It all seems so forced, this plot. Where Jane’s involvement with Rochester is rife with inequalities (age, class, education), these differences are superficially dealt with in The Flight of Gemma Hardy. Nor are we given the kinds of conversations between Gemma and Sinclair that occur between Jane and Rochester; conversations that are essential to the establishment of these two people’s connection and love for each other. The age difference between Sinclair feels out of place and anachronistic within the confines of the setting. More importantly, it seems superfluous to the rest of the novel, an unnecessary holdover from the original that doesn’t make any sense in this new book.

Because the fact of the matter is, Gemma has more long term opportunities than Jane did. She still could to University. She can go to University. She could get another kind of a job. She could become a doctor or a lawyer or a spy. Jane Eyre didn’t have those choices. Where Jane comes off as having a valiant integrity—albeit an idealistic and at time impractical integrity—against a society that inexorably attempts to degrade her, Gemma just comes off as spoilt and foolish and unaware of the world around her or the possibilities it has to offer.  I could have forgiven the acrobatics Livesey employs to maintain the “homage” to Bronte had they had any emotional weight within the narrative. But they didn’t. A book that I was finding rather innocuous became really annoying to me when Sinclair reveals his great, dark secret.

If you will recall, the great, dark secret of Mr. Rochester is one of the most scandalizing reveals in the history of literature and a large part of that novel’s themes revolve around it. The problem is that it simply does not work in a modern context. Mr. Rochester had very little choice about what to do with his wife. Assuming, as I do, that Bertha had some kind of severe schizophrenia or something then she couldn’t simply be allowed to live in a house like a normal person where she might end up hurting a totally innocent bystander or herself or a servant or something. Nor could he put her in a madhouse. Oh well, Rochester could have but considering the state of madhouses in the 19^th century, that seemed a really despicable thing to do. Even Rochester, not known for his upstanding morality, thought it was despicable. I’ve always taken the position that Rochester was doing his best under the circumstances. It’s not like he locked her in the attic and THEN she went crazy. No, he locked her in the attic BECAUSE she went crazy. But even this is an overly simplistic version of the matter.

Bertha’s existence and her insanity bring up a lot of issues in the novel, issues that must be dealt with before the “Reader I married him”. Is Bertha a kind of mirror to Jane? To Rochester? Is she a metaphor for female sexuality? Is Rochester cruel? Is he evil for what he has done to her? For his deception of Jane? Is Jane right to leave him? Does he deserve to be burned in his bed? What does it mean to love the unloveable? Is Bertha any more or less unloveable than Jane feels herself to be? What is forgiveness? What is atonement? How do these relate to things like class and gender and money and sex and death and God? I could go on. In short, the revelation of Bertha in the attic is pivotal to the religious, ethical, and existential questions that weave throughout the book. If you take away the particular of that revelation and replace it with something else, that something else should perform as powerful and visceral a problem to the characters and to the reader as the original revelation. You know, if you are writing an homage and all that.

Spoiler alert: I will in the following paragraphs reveal Mr. Sinclair’s secret.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Gemma gets her knickers in a twist, decides she can’t trust Sinclair anymore, etc. etc. just as Jane does. Only this seemed a rather tame secret in comparison to having a mad wife in the attic. And Sinclair wasn’t going to commit fraud or bigamy or anything by marrying Gemma. All in all, the whole thing seemed like a rather unfortunate incident. Even at 18, naïve and arrogant as I was, I would not have considered this to be a big, fucking deal. That Gemma does is baffling to me as a reader. I was expecting something like murder or an actual exchange of identities, like Hugh Sinclair really was Seamus Sinclair. It could have been incest, or God anything that would have a force like the original.

The question I came away with is this: if one is going to re-tell a story, or re-imagine a famous work of literature, a famous song, a famous painting—what does your version of this other story offer the reader? What makes your version of this story interesting or different? What does it add to the original? How does it converse with original? What does it leave out and why? What does it focus on and why?

It seems to me that The Flight of Gemma Hardy is a book that didn’t bother to ask these questions. It simply regurgitates the original story into a different time period without asking any significant questions either of the narrative or through the narrative. This might suggest that this book is badly written. But it isn’t and I struggled with it because of that. In fact, it is quite well-written. The prose is clean and smooth; the setting is detailed in such a way as to paint a picture in your mind’s eye; the characters, both primary and secondary, are complex, well-drawn and interesting; it is what I would call a well-crafted novel. Yet, even as I recognize the craft that went into writing this novel, it lacked a vital spark. I recognize this is a vague criticism. It is not helpful to the author. But readers will know what I mean when I say: This book had no breath. I slide through it with all the ease and expediency of a drive-thru, and I drank it with the same unthinking speed as a chocolate milkshake. It was, in short, forgettable, flavorless, and fast. More so, because it only made me think with regret of the book I’d rather be reading, Jane Eyre.

As such, despite the skill with which this novel is written, I must give a C- for being one of, in the words of Jarvis Cocker, “the sad imitations that got it so wrong.”

Lazaraspaste

P.S. To those interested, the incredible video to Pulp’s “Bad Cover Version” can be found here.

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Hope you’re doing well!

I am working with S—V—n, the anti-aging expert in skin care, around the launch of the first ever Virtual Book Club on Facebook! Partnering at the launch with HarperCollins, S—V—n is offering a new way for readers to come together socially and take part in discussions around great books. The S—V—n Book Club not only allows users to create profiles, share reading lists, and join in discussions with other readers but also participate in live question and answer sessions with popular authors – all within the Facebook community!

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HarperCollins has sued Open Road Media for the publication of “Julie of the Wolves”.   According to the petition, HarperCollins alleges that Open Road has willfully infringed on HC’s contract with Jean Craighead George which included the provision HC’s “exclusive right to publish George’s children’s novel Julie of the Wolves ‘in book form,’ including explicitly via ‘computer, computer-stored, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented.”

HC argues that the ebook was forseeable based on the technology that existed at the time of the contract.  Specifically they point to creation of Project Gutenberg in 1971 and digital storage and retrieval systems in use in the 1950s.  Digital books are no different than print books, says HC.

Other notes of interest is that HC employs 750 editors and spent more than $70 million in promotion of its books in fiscal year 2011.  It had 166 titles on the NYTimes list with 18 of them achieving number 1 status.

PDF of Petition here.

As Richard Curtis notes, this is not dissimilar to the argument that Random House made which was unsuccessful in its case against Rosetta (a company owned by agent Curtis).  However, the contract language of HarperCollins appears to go beyond the terms “in book form” and includes explicit reference to “computer, computer-stored, mechanical” forms of the book.  The contract was not attached, so I’m unclear where the computer, computer-stored, etc. language falls.

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In the Sourcebooks v. Clenney case, Sourcebooks filed a motion to dismiss the counterclaims.  In support of the motion to dismiss, Sourcebooks attached a FedEx envelope which showed that a royalty statement and payment were delivered to Clenney but that Clenney rejected the receipt of the envelope. At the status conference, the parties discussed settlement and a settlement conference is set for February 2, 2012.

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The NYTimes article on publishers and digital lending clarifies the problems publishers have. It’s not this nebulous security issue that Penguin tried to pawn off on the public, but it’s this idea that there is not enough friction in the digital lending process such that it presents a lost revenue stream:

And print copies don’t last forever; eventually, the ones that are much in demand will have to be replaced. “Selling one copy that could be lent out an infinite number of times with no friction is not a sustainable business model for us,” Ms. Thomas says. Hachette stopped making its e-books available to libraries in 2009.

and

Explaining Simon & Schuster’s policy — it has never made its e-books available to libraries — Elinor Hirschhorn, executive vice president and chief digital officer, says, “We’re concerned that authors and publishers are made whole by library e-lending and that they aren’t losing sales that they might have made in another channel.”

Essentially this confirms what Sarah Glassmeyer wrote back in April 2011  that if each patron bought one more ebook than they ordinarily do the market loss of libraries would be covered.

According to Bowker, however, library users are some of the biggest book buyers:

Miller says LJ editors have been amazed by the strength of the findings so far—including the degree to which libraries are boosting book sales. “Our data show that over 50% of all library users report purchasing books by an author they were introduced to in the library,” Miller noted. “This debunks the myth that when a library buys a book the publisher loses future sales. Instead, it confirms that the public library does not only incubate and support literacy, as is well understood in our culture, but it is an active partner with the publishing industry in building the book market, not to mention the burgeoning e-book market.”

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Louis CK decided to produce his own video “Live at the Beacon Theater” and sold it DRM free for $5.00.  Louis CK announced that his revenue reached $1 million as of December 21, 2011.  He netted about $250,000 after he paid everyone who worked on the project with  him along with a sizeable charitable donation.

Speaking of piracy and DRM, Lionhead said that it probably loses more money to the used video game market than it does to piracy.

West said that any sales Lionhead make of Fable III on PC this Friday and beyond will be “a bonus”.

“For us it’s probably a no-lose even with piracy as it is,” shrugged West. “But, as I say, second-hand sales cost us more in the long-run than piracy these days.”

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With the growth of ereaders, travelers are chafing against the rules that require all electronic devices be turned off prior to take off and landing.  Nick Bilton of the NYTimes has looked into whether these regulations are necessary, particularly now that iPads are being allowed in the cockpit. Portable voice recorders, hearing aids, heart pacemakers and electric shavers are allowed to be used on take off and landing and according to the tests, the voice recorders emit as much as or more electronic emissions than a Kindle.

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GoDaddy was a vocal supporter of SOPA. It helped draft the legislation and was even exempt from the SOPA restrictions. Yep, GoDaddy was exempt.  When GoDaddy’s support of SOPA gained prominence on the web, domain owners began transferring their business away.  GoDaddy attempted to halt the exodus by publicly reversing its stance and deleting all the blog posts reciting their support.  Regardless, people are still moving away.

Speaking of SOPA and piracy, ironically IP addresses associated with RIAA were connected to illegal pirating of television shows.  RIAA’s response? It wasn’t them but someone illegally using their network.

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I’m not sure where the statistics have come from but this report says 13.4% of all purchases over the holiday were made on an iOS device.  Amazon is trying to capture some of that online revenue through the Fire notes the tech reporter, Mike Elgan.

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Keishon has a fantastic post about how writers who became successful writing a certain type of work change their style in response to the broadening audience.

The crux of my problem: I dislike when good writers are discovered for their originality and then when they are introduced to a new audience they no longer provide that something special that made them a hit in the first place. I’ve never liked writers writing to a market but that’s the business of publishing.

Deals

First up are some randomly selected freebies:

• Awakening Mercy by Angela Benson * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Fatal Embrace by Aris Whittier * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Bridleton by Becky Barker * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Triple Threat by Jennifer LaBreque * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Faith by Lori Copeland * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Fairytale by Maggie Shayne * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• The Finding by Nicky Charles * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• The Keeping by Nicky Charles * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• The Mating by Nicky Charles * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Sheltering Hearts by Robyn Carr * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• A Chance in Time by Ruth Ann Nordin * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• A Husband for Margaret by Ruth Ann Nordin * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• A Texan’s Promise by Shelley Gray * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Dangerous Grounds by Shelli Stevens * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Baby, I’m Yours by Stephanie Bond * $0 * AMZ | BN | S | K

Here are some coupon codes. I even included a print one.

• Save $5 when you spend $10 or more on your order using the CARSP1011 coupon code until January 4. Good in U.S. and Canada.
• $4 off ebooks with coupon code SPEND4E11 at Harlequin. Readers report that the coupon can be used more than once.  Must spend at least $4.00 and it is good until 1/31/12.
• There is free shipping at Harlequin for print books until December 31, 2011.  I’m not sure if you can combine it with SAVE10DOLLARS which requires you to spend at least $30 or more and get $10 OFF your order on Harlequin Print Books (Expires 03/31/12).

• Knitting Under the Influence by Claire LaZebnik * $1.99 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Mystic River with A Bonus Excerpt by Dennis Lehane * $1.99 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Samantha Moon: All Four Novels by J.R. Rain * $1.99 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Justice by Karen Robards * $1.99 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb * $1.99 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Yours Until Dawn by Teresa Medeiros * $1.99 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• The Orchard by Theresa Weir * $1.99 * AMZ | BN | S | K *Recommended by Janet. Review here*
• The Black Prism by Brent Weeks * $2.99 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Bootscootin’ and Cozy Cash Mysteries Boxed Se by D. D. Scott * $2.99 * AMZ | BN | S | K
• Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells * $2.99 * AMZ | BN | S | K

Related posts:

1. Tuesday Midday Links: News and Deals
2. Link Round Up Tuesday
3. Wednesday Midday Links: Amazon partners with Overdrive to allow library lending for Kindles

First up is the news that Dan Lubart has been hired by HarperCollins as SVP of Sales Analytics according to Publishers Marketplace. I find this fascinating because Lubart’s firm, Iobyte, has been analyzing price data and list placement. I can’t help but wonder if it is because of Lubart’s influence that the prices of the Avon 2012 frontlist romance books are being reduced to $4.99 and $6.99. You can read some of Dan’s posts at Digital Book World.

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A couple of lawsuit updates. First, the class action suits against publishers alleging that publishers and Apple conspired to set prices at a certain level have been consolidated in New York. I think the Second Circuit has been more friendly to publishers than the Ninth Circuit and thus this is probably a boon to the publishers.

Via Publishers Weekly.

James Grimmelman reports that Authors Guild has filed its motion for class certification and the motion doesn’t address any concerns that Judge Chen raised in his rejection of the class action settlement. I don’t really understand it. The Judge has already pointed out that the class is overbroad and basically signalled that he is not going to approve a class based on its current make up and the AG doesn’t even address it?? Either there is no good argument to be made or the client (Author’s Guild) is being difficult and demanding that the motion be put forward in its current state. Am befuddled by this.

Grimmelman doesn’t have the motion up on his site yet, but I expect it to be there in a few days.

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Courtney Milan’s Unlocked was # 72 on Amazon’s 2011 Bestselling Kindle books of 2011. The only romance author to have a higher ranking was Nora Roberts. Steve Jobs’ biography was the number one in print and #5 digital.  Milan’s latest book “Unraveled” is recently released. I’m in the process of reading it and hope to have a review of it up next week some time.

In fact, Steve Jobs’ biography may save print this year. According to the NYTimes, retail brick and mortar sales are up in large part due to popular non fiction titles like the Steve Jobs’ biography.

Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest bookstore chain, said that comparable store sales this Thanksgiving weekend increased 10.9 percent from that period last year. The American Booksellers Association, a trade group for independents, said last week that members saw a sales jump of 16 percent in the week including Thanksgiving, compared with the same period a year ago.

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It’s these periodic boom sales of print books that likely leads executives like Maja Thomas to say that digital growth will be capped at 50%.

There is a natural limit to the growth of digital. I think it might be 50%. The book as an object is a perfect object. It has a lot of utility. People love it. There is something about a book. We’re going to see again a doubling of our growth over the next few years, to 40% or more. But once we reach a plateau, we’re going to have two businesses: a digital business and a physical business.

Read more at DigitalBookWorld.com: Hachette Digital’s Maja Thomas on Digital Revenue, Bookish and the Leaked Manifesto | Digital Book World http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2011/hachette-digitals-maja-thomas-on-digital-revenue-bookish-and-the-leaked-manifesto/#ixzz1gQweTif5

In some markets, the physical book will likely dominate such as picture books and children’s books but for long form fiction? I think the market will be more like 70-90%. The problem with publishers clinging to the idea that digital will only be 50%, it prevents strategic thinking and planning for when the market exceeds that marker.

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Not only does Macmillan and Hachette not sell digital to the library market. Not only does Penguin preemptively turn off lending for its digital books without prior notice and then turn it back on only to say that new releases either won’t be digitally lent or will be windowed. Not only does HarperCollins demand repurchase after 26 lends. But now comes word that Overdrive has restricted catalogs for some libraries and not for others.

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Ryan Claringbole, the Digital Branch Librarian at the Chesapeake Public Library in Virginia. He asked if I’d ever heard about OverDrive restricting certain libraries’ access to specific publishers’ materials, or, in other words, different libraries seeing different catalogs of eBooks available in the OverDrive Marketplace.

Overdrive blames this on the publisher.

Connection to Library Service Area: As Steve Potash communicated in writing to every one of our library partners earlier this year, select publishers set restrictions on their catalogs where the library allows access to the library’s digital collection by card holders that have no connection to the library’s service area. We are constantly working with library IT teams to test and validate patrons’ card status, before they can download copyrighted materials. In very few cases, where an institution does not restrict download access to only patrons with connections to their service area (such as residents, students, property or business owners) there may be limits on access to select publishers’ catalogs.

This is likely why the NY Public Libraries stopped allowing non resident New Yorkers to pay $100 fee for access to its catalogs, although it never publicly stated this.

Infodocket raises some great questions about this practice and Overdrive’s response.

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Finally, the deals. The malls are thick on the ground with people.  If you don’t have to go out, don’t. It’s a jungle out there.  Here are some great ebook deals.  BN just launched gifting of ebooks.  Amazon has the same feature.  Both allow you to set a time and date that you want a gift sent.

I think the Suzanne Enoch books are republished by the author. (The  covers are kind of amateurish)

• The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells * $0 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Catriona by Jeanette Baker * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Wild Highland Magic by Kendra Castle * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Wicked By Any Other Name by Linda Wisdom * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Wolf Next Door by Lydia Dare * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Merely Magic by Patricia Rice * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Kiss at Your Own Risk by Stephanie Rowe  * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Heart of the Wolf by Terry Spear * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Here Comes Trouble by Donna Kauffman * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Holidays Are Hell by Kim Harrison Lynsay Sands Vicki Pettersson Marjorie M. Liu * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Yours Until Dawn by Teresa Medeiros * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Home for the Holidays by Johanna Lindsey * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• A Seduction at Christmas by Cathy Maxwell * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• The Christmas Pearl by Dorothea Benton Frank * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Terri Garey by Silent Night, Haunted Night * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• All I Want for Christmas Is a Vampire by Kerrilyn Sparks * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Any Given Christmas by Candis Terry * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Utterly Charming by Kristine Grayson * $2.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Sin Undone by Larissa Ione * $2.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas * $2.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• The Wild Marquess by Miranda Neville * $2.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Angel’s Devil by Suzanne Enoch * $2.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• The Black Duke’s Prize by Suzanne Enoch * $2.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo

Related posts:

1. Tuesday Midday Links: Sad news in Romancelandia
2. Tuesday Midday Links: Sunshine Deals Making a Big Impact
3. Tuesday Midday Links: July Freebies and Deals

There are some popular titles like Hunger Games and Fast Food Nation.  What’s Amazon’s goal here? To bulk up Prime Memberships and sell Kindle devices.

According to this September 2011 article at Practical eCommerce, Prime members spend a lot more at Amazon than any other customer.

• In 2009, Amazon had 2 million Prime members. In 2011, Prime has 5 million members out of a total 121 million Amazon customers. Although that represents only four percent of all customers, Prime is growing at over 20 percent year-over-year;
• Once they join Prime, Amazon’s customers’ gross merchandise volume grows from $400 a year to $900 a year in their first year of membership;
• For each one million Prime members, Amazon’s revenues increase by 1.5 percent;
• Prime members spend 130 percent more than regular Amazon customers;
• 92 percent of Prime members surveyed by Piper Jaffray plan to renew their membership.

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Harlequin had a good third quarter but the forex adversely affected them:

In the quarter, reported revenue fell to C$115.7 million from C$117.5, although sales would have been up C$600,000 excluding the impact of foreign exchange. Parent company Torstar said digital sales at Harlequin rose C$7.5 million in the quarter as the publisher continues to adapted to the growing demand for e-books while profits were helped by lower book returns. In the third quarter, excluding foreign exchange, North America division sales were up C$1.2 million and overseas down C$0.6 million.  Harlequin operating earnings were up C$2.0 million in the third quarter excluding the impact of foreign exchange, with North America up C$3.0 million and overseas down C$1.0 million.

Digital revenues were 15.8% in the third quarter.  I was actually surprised by the 18.5%. Many other publishers are seeing 20% of their revenues from digital and Harlequin has been at the forefront of pushing digital sales.  I would have expected to see Harlequin have higher digital numbers.  It does appear, however, that the digital sales are growing at a faster rate than the decline in paper books which might signal that Harlequin is expanding its audience through digital.  I’m unsure about this but that is what I gleaned from the reports by PW and Publishers Marketplace.

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Pearson, the parent of Penguin, has announced a 6% increase in overall sales.

Pearson increased sales by 6% and operating profit by 13% in the first nine months of 2011. Our businesses once again produced strong competitive performances in generally weak market conditions, benefiting from premium content and services, digital innovation and presence in developing economies.

Specific to Penguin, the press release states:

At Penguin, sales were level with 2010. With strong publishing and the continued rise of eBook sales – which more than doubled in the first nine months of the year – Penguin offset the industry-wide decline in physical retail markets. Publishing highlights in the third quarter included the trade paperback of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help in the US and, in the UK, Jamie Oliver, Marian Keyes and Dawn French. The fourth quarter is an important selling season in consumer publishing and Penguin has a strong publishing line-up of bestselling authors including Tom Clancy, Patricia Cornwell, Sue Grafton, Daniel Yergin and Steven Pinker in the US; and Jamie Oliver, Lee Evans, Rob Brydon and Jeff Kinney in the UK.

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According to PublishersMarketplace, Harpers’ revenue and profits were up for the first quarter, although no specific numbers were provided.

Instead they now say that for the fiscal year so far print books “sold through bricks and mortar retail” accounted for 77% of worldwide sales and 71% in the US.

 

Related posts:

1. Thursday Midday Links: Amazon Bows to Pressure & Bluefire Brings Digital Lending to iThings
2. Wednesday Midday Links: Amazon partners with Overdrive to allow library lending for Kindles
3. Thursday Midday Links: New eReaders to debut from BN and Amazon

I remember first hearing about this book when it was sold.  The title was so evocative, but then I forgot about it because it is a YA book and while I’ve enjoyed my share of YA books, my preference is to read adult romances.  This YA book has a slight romance in it, but it’s not a romantic story by any stretch of the imagination.  I held off reading it despite being urged to read it by various reading friends.  Finally, I caved and I am so glad that I did.

I don’t know if I can convince any of my hardened romance reading friends to read this. After all, it took a concerted effort by a number of my reading friends and I actually got it for free from Net Galley, but I’ll do my best to explain why this book is worth the time of any reader, including those who primarily love romances.

The plot is fairly simple. A reluctant young woman is chosen for an unknown destiny. She is separated from her family, is placed in great danger, and must find herself in order to triumph.

Princess Lucero-Elisa of Oravalle is the younger of two sisters. She’s fat and unattractive but she was born with a Godstone in her belly, a mark that comes only once a century.  This is a  mark that means she is destined for greatness.  The story opens on the day of Elisa’s marriage to King Alejandro de Vega, the king of the desert country, Joya d’Arena.  Elisa believes (and rightly so) the only reason that she is being married to this handsome king is because of her Godstone.  Her sister, Juana-Alodia, is so much more capable and ready to be Queen.

Prayer candles flicker in my bedroom. The Scriptura Sancta lies discarded, pages crumpled, on my bed. Bruises mark my knees from kneeling on the tiles, and the Godstone in my navel throbs. I have been praying—no, begging—that King Alejandro de Vega, my future husband, will be ugly and old and fat.

Elisa is a mass of nerves and insecurity but never sulky and her self pitying comes across as more self deprecating than whiney.  If Alejandro is ugly, old and fat then maybe he will come to love her or at least she will have “a reason not to care when he turns away in disgust.”   She’s studied Belleza Guerra (a type of Art of War) but she is no good in the drawing room or deciphering political intrigues.  While there have been a plethora of naive, innocent, shy heroines in romances and YA books, oftentimes the character comes off as contrived.  Her beauty is hidden by a bad haircut and glasses.  Her shyness easily disposed of under the bright sun of a popular boy’s attention.

This is not the case here.  Elisa’s naivety and insecurity seep through the pages.  Her perceptions are that her sister, Julia, has only distaste for her.  That her father is happy to send her off at the age of 16 despite his love for her.  Her new husband wants to keep their marriage a secret and she can see that he shares a closeness with a woman in his court, a woman whose beauty Elisa could not begin to compare.  Moreover, it seems that once outside her own kingdom, everyone knows more about the Godstone than she does. But her husband does want and need a friend. And Elisa manages to gain the respect of a few in her husband’s court.

So she is fat, unattractive, and away from everyone who loves her. Her sister’s last words to her were to trust no one from Alejandro’s court. It is good advice for everyone wants Elisa’s Godstone.

As the story progresses, Elisa transforms from the inside out.  She must in order to survive.  The people that come to love her do so because of her determination, her courage, and her willingness to fulfill whatever destiny has in store for the reluctant heroine. Her looks become unimportant for Elisa is a person with agency and thus her skin, her weight, her looks are merely the covering of the vessel full of love, courage and faith.  There is one poignant scene where Elisa is confronted with admiration by someone in her past who looks upon her differently because of her physical changes.  Elisa sees in that person weakness she had not perceived before.

Elisa’s growth stems from the challenge to her faith. The Godstone is tied to a prophecy that everyone in the land believes. And if Godstone’s exist, then so must God, the creator of the stones. Once outside the walls of Elisa’s own country, though, she experiences the horror of battle, of loss, and of betrayal. She begins the common questioning of her faith by reassuring herself in the surety of God’s goodness only to see that goodness fail her.

In her own way, Elisa is decisive. Maybe it’s the result of being raised as a princess or perhaps it is just an inner confidence born of being the Chosen. When called upon to make tough decisions, Elisa does not waver.  But when her faith and belief in the spirituality of the Godstone is challenged, when she learns that there have been failed bearers before her, she rises to the challenge.  While Elisa might not be pretty or facile she is determined to fulfill whatever role she is to play as the bearer of a Godstone.

There are a host of interesting people in the story from the sullen Cosme’ to the stalwart Lord Hector, Alejandro’s personal guard and every one  of those characters are nuanced, neither wholly good nor wholly bad.

One thing I was surprised by how subdued the “god” presence was in the story. I know that the question of faith was important but I felt like we moved to quickly over passages where Elisa could have had real doubts that it lessened the impact but that was only a minor complaint.  This is clearly the first in a series. There is definite resolution at the end, but there is a lot more of Elisa’s story to be told.  I can’t wait.  B+

Best regards,

Jane

Goodreads | Amazon | BN | nook | Sony | Kobo

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: I Do, Anthology
2. REVIEW: Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
3. REVIEW: Runaway by Meg Cabot

I read your first novel, 666 Park Avenue, earlier this year. In it, readers were introduced to architect Jane Boyle who gets swept up in a whirlwind romance with the man of her dreams, only to discover that not only does she come from a long line of witches, she just married into another family of witches that covets her power. The Dark Glamour picks up where the previous novel left off, with Jane on the run from the Doran family.

Forced to go into hiding, Jane doesn’t have many options. Lynne Doran is a powerful woman, both magically and socially. There’s nowhere in the world that Jane can escape from Lynne’s connections even with her estranged husband’s advanced planning. So instead she tries to outwit her mother-in-law and remain in New York City. Whether this is actually a smart choice considering the circumstances, I leave up to the reader. With this series, you have to accept Jane’s haphazard way of thinking.

That said, she does learn a couple things by staying in NYC. First, Jane discovers that a pair of siblings from another witch bloodline are in “business” negotiations with the Doran family. More importantly, however, she learns that Lynne’s daughter, formerly presumed dead, is still alive. As a result, Jane goes on a globetrotting trip to find Lynne’s daughter and deliver her back to her mother. After all, the only reason Lynne wanted Jane to marry her son was so that she could give birth to a daughter to continue the Doran bloodline. If Jane can find Lynne’s daughter, then she can have her life back. Maybe not the most altruistic motivation, but I never said Jane was a nice person.

There are times when I really question Jane’s judgement. It’s not just the part where she chose to stay in NYC, with her face plastered all over TV and knowing that Lynne could stumble across her at any moment. It’s the part where she sleeps with the brother of the sibling pair negotiating with the Doran family. I realize part of it is that magic attracts magic — sort of a way to keep the bloodlines strong — but she wasn’t ripping the clothes off Harris in the previous book despite the existence of that magical attraction. And I’d think after the whirlwind romance with estranged husband Malcolm, she would have known what was going on. That she didn’t realize the reason behind her attraction to this stranger requires a heavy amount of disbelief, especially when combined with the mystery woman stalking Jane all over NYC. Of course, I freely admit I have a hard time understanding characters with raging libidos despite being on the run for their lives. In my opinion, there are more important things on which to focus your time.

I thought the clues regarding the big revelation at the end were a bit too obvious. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I prefer discovering those revelations with the characters. Figuring things out ahead of the characters tends to ruin things for me because I then start questioning the characters’ competence and lack of insight. On the other hand, I know other readers like that sort of thing (figuring something out and then watching how the characters reach the same discovery) so your mileage may vary. Or maybe it’s not as obvious as I think, and I just made a lucky guess.

That said, I did like the big twist of that revelation. It builds upon the story told in 666 Park Avenue and complicates the history of the different witch bloodlines. It wasn’t without its flaws, however. I thought the events bridging Jane’s finding Lynne’s daughter to the climax were rushed. I liked the character of Lynne’s daughter so I wished we could have seen more of her reactions towards discovering she’s the long-lost daughter of a wealthy family and how she copes with that change of fortune.

Like its predecessor, The Dark Glamour takes longer than it should to get moving (and once again, the cover copy reveals far too much information) but when it does reach the point of no return, it’s a steamroller. The main highlight of this book for me was that it portrayed how you could do something considered a good deed (even if it was for selfish reasons) but things can still go wrong. The climax of this book came about because Jane found Lynne’s daughter but didn’t realize the true reason why her mother-in-law was so desperate to find a female heir.

Overall, this novel is an easy read, good for lazy afternoons. It’s not particularly deep but sometimes that’s the kind of book I’m looking for. While I could have done without all the lusting over men who are a danger to her and would have liked to have seen her interact with more female friends (because she does have them!) outside of plot necessity, the ending twist made the book for me. But I can only hope that this series is finite and doesn’t intend to drag this plotline out. The ending was a bit of a cliffhanger. C

My regards,
Jia

Previous book in this series: 666 Park Avenue (review)

Goodreads | Amazon | BN | nook | Sony | Kobo

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: 666 Park Avenue by Gabriella Pierce
2. REVIEW: Angels’ Blood by Nalini Singh
3. REVIEW: Doppelgangster by Laura Resnick

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Author Dorothea Benton Frank gave an interview to the Columbus Dispatch which surely sounded better in her head than it did when it was printed out. She indicates her preference for well groomed fans to match her own attractive appearance.

“This is the honest-to-God truth: My readers are good-looking,” she said. “They’re not all beauty queens, but they’re cute as a bug, well-groomed and nice. You wouldn’t mind being related to them.”

She paused, then added: “I went to a Stephen King book-signing once, and his fans . . . I had to sleep with the lights on.”

Source: Columbus Dispatch

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File this one under why the Internet is so great. Someone found a picture of two topless Victorian women dueling. The 1892 duel was fought by Princess Pauline Metternich and the Countess Kielmannsegg in Liechtenstein and was overseen by Baroness Lubinska who had medical training. The duel was fought topless for medical reasons rather than titillation. The reason for the duel? It wasn’t over a man. Read the piece at The Mary Sue to found out more.

I thought Sherry Thomas would be the perfect author to incorporate this into her books.

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Some pay information for those who work in publishing has recently been published.   Executives are earning a very nice salary.  John Makinson, Chairman of Penguin reportedly pulls in $2,213,670 and Donna Hayes of Harlequin has a total package worth $1,668,486.  The top publishing executive appears to be Will Pesce, CEO of John Wiley, whose total package is over $3 million.

Jeff Bezos takes home an annual salary of $81,840 and no stock awards although the stock he does own places his fortune around $1.7 billion.

Source: PW

The editors, however, are making substantially less.

Using the anonymous job site Glassdoor, we found that the average salary for an editor in the New York area is $53,500 a year. This includes book editors and magazine and newspaper editors. The site breaks out figures from specific companies.

Source: GalleyCat

Maybe the editors are simply not mean enough.  According to a new study written up in the Wall Street Journal, researchers found that meaner people earned more.

The researchers examined “agreeableness” using self-reported survey data and found that men who measured below average on agreeableness earned about 18% more—or $9,772 more annually in their sample—than nicer guys. Ruder women, meanwhile, earned about 5% or $1,828 more than their agreeable counterparts.

Source: Wall Street Journal

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Break out the DRM cracking tools because Microsoft has officially killed MS Lit.  The app will no longer be available for download after August 30, 2012, and all stores carrying LIT books will need to pull the formats on November 8, 2011.

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A Mississippi judge ruled  the statute of limitations had run on Ablene Cooper’s suit against Kathryn Stockett.  Cooper sued Stockett under various tort theories.  The preliminary pleadings showed that Stockett had given the book to Cooper in January 2009 but the lawsuit was not filed until February 2011.  Mississippi has a one year statue of limitations for these types of claims.  A statute of limitations is a time period set by the state (via a bill) during which people can bring civil claims (also criminal suits).

Cooper argued that the statute of limitations should begin when she read the book and thus was aware of the defamation and slander rather than the date she was given the book.

The decision didn’t rest upon the merits of Cooper’s suit, but rather a procedural issue.  It’s hard to swallow Stockett’s claim that Aibileen Clark was not based on her brother’s black maid named “Ablene Cooper.”

I liked The Help quite a bit but let’s face it, the whole subtext of it is this white girl saving these poor black maids.  Stockett’s refusal to acknowledge Cooper’s distress has to be galling.  Source: Charlotte Observer

Related posts:

1. Microsoft Discontinues Live Search Program
2. DUAL REFLECTIONS, PART 2: Black Silk by Judith Ivory (Judy Cuevas)
3. DUAL REFLECTIONS, PART 1: Black Silk by Judith Ivory (Judy Cuevas)

“To their respective families, Jack Wells and Amy Legend are outsiders. A free-spirited man-of-all-trades, Jack takes life as it comes—not at all like his supremely organized mother, the admiral’s widow, and his methodical lawyer sister. Amy, a professional athlete with exquisite taste and golden beauty, has a glamorous career a world apart from her bookish older siblings and college professor father.

When Jack’s mother marries Amy’s widowed father, they invite all the children to spend the summer at the Legends’ retreat in northern Minnesota. They never imagine just how well Jack and Amy are going to get along—as affection unexpectedly flares into a burning attraction that threatens to damage already fragile familial bonds. Agreeing to deny their desire until the vacation is over—caught between long-simmering conflicts and clashing personalities—Jack and Amy find, nonetheless, that they are falling deeply in love. And passion this strong couldn’t possibly wait until summer’s end . . . no matter what the consequences.”

Dear Ms. Seidel,

A couple of weeks ago, one of my reviews about a female athlete was posted here at DA. People commented about how rare it is to find a female athlete in a romance and that “Summer’s End” is one of those rare books. My eyes widened in amazement as I looked down on the (awful clutter) that is my computer desk and fished your book out (from under some piles of paper). Here’s to serendipity.

The back cover blurb might make this sound like it focuses on the romance but I found that to be just one of many things happening. This is a lovely group ensemble book that probes the dynamics of multigenerational issues. Things have always been a particular way at the lake and Legend family seems stuck in a serious rut about it. Some has to do with Hal’s first wife and her aristocratic English lack of care about cobwebbed corners + insistence on tradition. Some is the overspill of grief at said mother’s death. Some is hunkering down and protecting “the way we’ve always done it” in the face of new stepmother Gwen. But they all need a stick of dynamite exploded to lift them out of all this. Which is what happens.

Lots and lots of changes take place over the course of the book but for the most part, I can believe them. Phoebe finally deals with her reluctance to part with her grief for her mother and her resentment of Amy for seemingly not feeling the same way. These two work this out and hopefully will have better communications in the future. Jack lays to rest his unfinished feelings of failing his father’s expectations and comes to peace with the fact that he is and isn’t like his father. They both hate(d) rules and regulations but his dad worked them to his advantage while Jack has to find something that lets him avoid them. Giles wants space for his family away from a location he’s never felt physically comfortable in. The new house will be built to suit them and its location will give them some privacy. Ian is still working with a counselor as to why he felt drawn to his critical wife. This part still feels underdeveloped to me but then it also helps the book avoid a totally neat and tidy wrap up of all issues. And Afterthought Amy wakes up to the fact that her distance from her family isn’t totally their fault then starts to arrange her schedule some to fix that.
There are a lot of characters to be introduced to, learn about and keep straight in the book. Most of these people have scenes from their POV except for Ian – I don’t recall any from him. I found this no loss as what the others see and what he does show his feelings well enough. So why then have one or two scene with the POV from more secondary characters which adds nothing to the story? Did we need Maggie and Joyce? No, I don’t think so, especially as they each had only one. More of Gwen? Yes, please and Hal too.

Taking a months vacation every year? Jeez, who does this these days? Lucky for the Legend family that they’re mainly professors who can take the summer off but how about lawyers Phoebe and Giles? Yeah lawyers can take some time off but I think this shows the book’s age. I did enjoy the time devoted to Amy’s skating career and the detailed descriptions of what it takes to reach that level and attain those dreams.

Hal and Gwen: the book starts with them, but then – for Hal at least – for the most part they step back out of the action. Gwen is seen more as she’s trying to fit into her new role at the lake and into this family but for pages and pages on end, Hal disappears. I would like to have read how these tensions were seen by them as a couple and not just by Gwen. But her organizational skills are a product of her history as a Navy wife while maybe Hal is used to stepping back for the strong women in the Legend family.

The romance between Jack and Amy is slow yet also, I know I’m being perverse here, fast and underdeveloped to me. They skirt around each other for weeks then suddenly give into temptations then pull WAY back almost immediately and have little contact until WHAM! they decide to get married. Sorry but as much as I like these two it just isn’t enough for me. I’m told they’re in love and that there’s no dabbling in a relationship for them – it’s all or nothing – but why? I don’t get the reason they can’t take some more time with it.

As for epilogues and last chapter wrap ups, I can usually take them or leave them. Here the last 20 pages are too detailed about some things – the dress up Thanksgiving feast – at this point, who cares? – and skim over others such as Nick’s fight to discover his father and Ian’s family working through massive changes of the past year.

A passage at the end of the book says everyone changes and that is the truth. Some of these people annoy me to no end when the book starts while others have been doing the long suffering martyr thing. Most of the changes come slowly over the month long stay at the lake or take even longer up til the Thanksgiving gathering. The exception being the change in Ian’s marriage and relationship with stepdaughter Maggie which is an overnight blowup. But the mix of the two time frames makes the whole thing more believable. Some change is due to actions while others are due to long simmering feelings and resentments that are finally expressed. I might not have started out liking some of the characters but by the end of the story, you made me care for them and relish the improvement in their lives.

Yes, I have some issues with the book but the characters come alive for me. For the most part, detailed descriptions are eschewed in place of showing who these people are and their relations to each other. I can feel the love, the tension, the resentment, the peace, the misunderstandings as if they’re playing out in front of me. Juggling this many characters and still maintaining that is a feat. I never lost interest in either the characters – who are flawed but react believably – or the story and am glad to see this book reissued for more people to enjoy. B

~Jayne

Goodreads | Amazon | BN | nook | Sony | Kobo

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Don’t Forget to Smile by Kathleen Gilles Seidel
2. REVIEW: Principal of Love by Patricia McLinn
3. REVIEW: Mystic Horseman by Kathleen Eagle

The offers, which will start rolling out later this summer, will primarily target the male-dominated audiences of the two magazine brands. Later, Hearst will expand it to other demographics through such well-known magazine properties as Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Esquire.

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HarperCollins has a book site called Book Perk which is similar to a coupon site.  The deals aren’t daily and they aren’t quite as attractive as most Groupon deals (which are usually for 50% or more off) but they are book specific.  The latest deal is for paper readers:

Juliana Stone Paranormal Romance Bundle: FREE Pre-order of His Darkest Salvation With Purchase of His Darkest Embraceand His Darkest Hunger

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Kelly McClymer’s blog post on what author royalties should be.

Conclusion: 25% net is much too low a royalty rate, a 50% net is too much as it assumes no cost to the publisher and is not realistic.

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Ideeli is also having a book sale.  Scholastic is selling boxed sets of its most popular titles: Harry Potter, Hunger Games.  The Harry Potter collection in a treasure chest is $150 (regularly $195). I love how the books get exponentially larger as the series waxes on.  To my great dismay, the Captain Underpants boxed set is on sale. We just bought the box set at Barnes and Noble two weeks ago.

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This is the Princeton Report of their eReader pilot program. (PDF)  Students were issued Kindle Dxs for study purposes.  The major issues were the lack of ease of annotation. For leisure reading, the Kindle worked great. For scholarly reading, not so great.  The report is based on the first generation of Kindle Dxs and there have been software improvements but it’s still a great resource for those designing ebook readers and ebook reading software.

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A new-ish blogger, Lux Lucas, had a great epilogue post in response to the discussion we hosted at DA last week.  She suggests that epilogues are the price of sentiment but also brings out a really interesting point about the out of step heroine and hero:

Opponents of romance like to talk about its conservativeness, its heteronormativity. Certainly the genre can have those elements–and when an epilogue works overtime to reinscribe its characters into the problematic social fabric they’ve been trying to buck, I start to feel some sympathy with those criticisms. How many times have we read the scenario in which rakes or bluestockings express their great ennui with the shallow/rigid/traditional society that enmeshes them only to see those same characters absorbed back into the fold at the end of the book? Often, indeed, this reabsorption seems to be a desirable end that the epilogue is designed to effect.

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And finally, I have updated the Coming Soon catalogs. The August catalog is pretty much complete although I am missing most of the series books.  Here is the July catalog.  In adding in the covers to the catalog, I came across this gorgeous historical romance cover. I love the color of the cover (kind of pumpkin-burnt orange) and I love the positioning of the couple.  The look of the couple is also arresting with both of them appearing in very period oriented clothing.  The ring on the man’s very big hands is also a great touch. Yeah, I’m totally interested in reading this book just based on the cover alone.

Related posts:

1. Monday Midday Links: Covers, book sales, and nook price drop
2. Monday Midday Links: It Is All Gloom and Doom (today at least)
3. Monday Midday Links: Coming Soon Booklist

In the eyebrow raising department, the pseudo regulatory arm of agenting in the UK is debating whether to remove the prohibit against agents as publishers. Andrew Wylie began publishing his client’s backlists.   Agent Sonia Land digitally published Catherine Cookson’s backlist.   In the U.S. Richard Curtis publishes backlist titles and runs ereads.com.   Waxman Literary Agency runs Diversion Books, an epublishing arm.   Steve Axelrod is co publishing digital backlist titles with his clients like Julie Ann Long.   I view agents publishing their client’s books as a conflict of interest and believe that this activity by agents will culminate in a lawsuit in the near future.   However, until such time as there is a potential financial deterrent, I would not be surprised to see more and more of these ventures in the future, for not only backlist titles, but original digital fiction.

When all of the publishers have original digital fiction lines and agents do as well, I wonder what impartial party will be advising authors as to the best place for their works?

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Speaking of advice, Steve Axelrod and his client, Amanda Hocking, choose to turn down Amazon’s bid to be Hocking’s print publisher. Amazon offered the most money to Axelrod and Hocking but was turned down, presumably because Amazon’s deal required an exclusive provision (likely for the Kindle).   These are the types of decisions that would be questioned in an agency publishing matter and it would be difficult for an agent to prove that turning down more money for some other distribution deal was in the best interests of the client.

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Amazon is making moves to retail its print books and has signed an agreement with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. HMH will distribute Amazon’s books in brick and mortar retail stores around the U.S.   Can BN refuse to stock these?   I am guessing no.   Shatkzin points out that the interesting part of this deal is HMH’s statement that indicates print rights are a subsidiary now.

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HarperCollins says that its 26 lending limit cap is a “work in progress” and that it is committed to listening and learning from libraries about the digital lending process.

“We try to be intelligent about our policy,” he said. “And when we landed on 26, the information that we had was that most books don’t circulate 26 times. In terms of the long tail, this particular number probably works for a different part of the collection. We realize it doesn’t work for the best sellers.”

I guess the question is whether HC is more evil for the cap or MacMillan, the sponsor of the new romance website, Heroes and Heartbreakers, and Simon & Schuster for not allowing their books to be digitally lent at all.   Both Macmillan and S&S have said that the digital lending business model, as it currently exists, does not work for them.

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Big money is being paid out for dystopian YA books. I suppose the interest in that genre can be traced back to Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy.

oung adult fiction is big business. Between 2008 – when the last Twilight novel and the first Twilight film were released – and 2009, the market almost doubled in size. This year, despite sales having dropped slightly, the teenage fiction market is worth  £48m, according to industry analysts Nielsen BookScan. While the Twilight saga, which has sold more than five million copies in the UK, and the Vampire Diaries series still outsell dystopian titles, the market for “paranormal romance” appears saturated.

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I believe the YA market is glutted as well.   YA market, as I understand it, is largely driven by the retail buyers like Barnes and Noble and school buys.   With declining budgets, school buys will decrease and BN is already scaling back on the number of books it is putting on the shelves. Everywhere I turned at RWA, a romance author was hawking her YA book.   The rumor is that BN sales of YA PNR is down 25%.

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Also down are print sales.   And this is all the fault of digital book sales.

According to new sales data coming from the US and UK first quarter sales in the US are down a full 9% in volume on last year, from 178m in the first quarter of 2010 to just over 162m this year….marked drop in fiction sales on both sides of the Atlantic, with the UK down 9.8% on 2010 figures in the first quarter, and the US down a massive 19.3%. According to Nielsen figures, fiction is the dominant e-book genre, taking a share of 70% compared with its print share of 30%.

Said Nowell: "We can surmise that e-book sales may be affecting fiction more than other genres, and responsible for the steep downturns in the US and UK.”

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Maya Rodale has an interesting piece about the gentleman’s club known as White’s. It still exists today. It is still as exclusionary and likely as misogynistic as it was when it was founded. It’s like Augusta National, the home of the golf tournament called The Masters. No girls allowed.

Related posts:

1. Amazon Net Sales up 31%
2. HarperCollins E-Initiatives, an Interview with Ann Allessi
3. Time for Digitizing Is Now Declares Industry Groups.

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From the promo files, we have the following:

From 3/1-3/31, Ashley March will be hosting the 1st Annual March Madness Blog Party to celebrate historical romance readers and writers. Throughout the month, a guest historical romance author will be featured each day with a giveaway. Also, a daily feature will spotlight community sites and blogs that support historical romance. In addition to the daily giveaways by guest authors, other book bundles and prizes will be given away, with more than 40 prizes overall. Aspiring historical romance writers will also have a chance to win a partial critique from super-agent Barbara Poelle and a full critique from Ashley March. For full details and schedule, please visit: www.ashleymarch.com/blog.

and from Jeannie Lin, author of the Butterfly Swords, we have romance author trading cards. The image is the card that will be handed out by Moira Rogers.

I think this is pretty cool because in the day of digital books, there really aren’t physical items to connect with. I received an oversized postcard of the awesome Jaci Burton cover “Perfect Play“. She’ll send them to anyone who wants one and I have to say that it is really a magnificent item and not just because of Jed Hill. Part of the appeal is the heavy stock it is printed on. This is a quality piece of promo and one I’ll probably keep. I was thinking that I might actually like to collect these for keepers and put them in a special bound volume or something. Those photobook places will print up bound photographs. Something like that might be neat for readers. What do you guys think? Maybe I will collect a bunch at RT and have them bound for giveaways here at DA? Would you guys like that?

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Barnes & Noble settled its lawsuit with Spring Design (who is now out of business). In return for undisclosed consideration, Spring Design is granting BN “a non-exclusive, paid-up royalty free license for the entire portfolio of Spring Design patents and patent applications. The terms of the settlement are otherwise confidential.”

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Samhain editor, Anne Scott, blogs about the importance of allowing readers a safe place to talk about books. I don’t know if this is in response to the horrible event that Teddy Pig suffered over at Goodreads or not, but I really appreciate Scott’s statements. To sum up, reviews are for readers. Authors shouldn’t read negative reviews if it is too difficult to handle.

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At a HarperCollins site unironically called Library Love Fest, HarperCollins posts an open letter to libraries arguing on behalf of its decision to limit library lends to 26.

Our prior e-book policy for libraries dates back almost 10 years to a time when the number of e-readers was too small to measure. It is projected that the installed base of e-reading devices domestically will reach nearly 40 million this year. We have serious concerns that our previous e-book policy, selling e-books to libraries in perpetuity, if left unchanged, would undermine the emerging e-book eco-system, hurt the growing e-book channel, place additional pressure on physical bookstores, and in the end lead to a decrease in book sales and royalties paid to authors. We are looking to balance the mission and needs of libraries and their patrons with those of authors and booksellers, so that the library channel can thrive alongside the growing e-book retail channel.

HC goes on to say that it sells at a discount to its distributors which really can’t be the case under Agency because, as I understand it, you can’t treat one class preferentially under retail price maintenance.

As is often the case, the comments are the best part of the blog post. One commenter noted that libraries have a finite budget and that when a book is expired, it likely won’t be replaced because libraries can only afford to buy so many books (and they aren’t likely to invest in expiring books). Many of the commenters didn’t appreciate the PR speak of HC when it tried to portray themselves as friends of the library and committed to library access.

What HC is trying to do, is my guess, is create more sales by limiting access to libraries. HC believes, perhaps incorrectly, that by not allowing the library to have access, patrons will then purchase more books independent of the library. Sarah Glassmeyer suggests that if each patron bought one more ebook than they ordinarily do that would, the market loss of libraries would be covered. Which gives rise to the question of whether publishers trying to do away with libraries altogether?

SUMMARY: U.S. Libraries circulate about 2 billion items per year. This means each person that has a library card averages about 13 checkouts a year. Given that the average price of a book is about $20 (low estimate), that means the value of materials circulated by libraries is 45 Billion dollars or $270 to each borrower.

If each borrower changed one checkout to purchase – $3,750,063,240
If each borrower bought one eBook at $6.00 – Publishers would get $1,001,352,000.

Overdrive is moving the entire digital catalog of HarperCollins to a different catalog.

Beginning March 7, we are making changes in the eBook ordering process. HarperCollins eBooks and their catalog of titles will be moved from our general eBook catalog to a separate collection. Until we have time to review the effect of these new terms with our library partners, HarperCollins eBooks will not be listed in our Library Marketplace. You will be able to review and order HarperCollins eBooks from a separated catalog, if you so choose.

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Agency is not likely to come soon to the UK or EU. It’s kind of shocking to see that UK and EU have stricter antitrust laws that the US. Way to go FTC. Anyway, this morning, EU readers woke up to the news that the European Commission RAIDED European publisher offices looking for evidence of price fixing.

DG Competition has launched an investigation yesterday and simultaneous raids in several editors of the Union, including all the major French publishers, suspected to agree on the price of digital books through the contract term.

Related posts:

1. Wednesday Midday Links: BN lending features are disappearing
2. Thursday Midday Links: Amazon Bows to Pressure & Bluefire Brings Digital Lending to iThings
3. Wednesday Midday Links: Discoverability of Digital Backlist Titles

Second, Macmillan refuses to allow its digital books to be lent in the library. Apparently Simon & Schuster is the same way and won’t allow its titles to be lent digitally through the library.

Today news has come out that HarperCollins will now institute library lending caps. A library is only allowed to lend a book 26 times for 2 weeks each before that license to access that book “expires” and then the library must purchase a new license. Essentially that is like making the library buy a NEW print copy of the book once a year.

Oh! and the publishers want to look at the library patron data to see if the library is actually observing territorial and geographic restrictions.

Here’s how digital lending works now:

1) Library buys digital book through Overdrive at regular cost (not through promotional pricing).
2) Library lends the digital book to one reader at a time for a period of three weeks. of varying weeks depending on the fufillment service.
3) Library CANNOT re-lend book until the three weeks expires EVEN IF the reader returns it early, depending on the fulfillment service. Some books can be relent when the book is returned.

Please let me repeat step 2. The library lends the digital book ONE READER AT TIME. There are very long wait lists for digital books.

Here’s just a few reasons why this move by HarperCollins is so unbelievably bad.

1) Restricting library usage of digital books will not slow down ebook adoption because ebook adoption is a by product of digital media adoption. As TV and movies and music goes, so will books. Or books will just be left behind.

2) Reducing visibility in the libraries will reduce discoverability by readers. Reduced discoverability is the last thing that publishers can afford to have happen to its books.

3) Reducing legitimate access to books will make it easier for readers to justify piracy. Don’t give them that opportunity.

Or as Courtney Milan points out:

A lend from a library is never as good as a purchase. People do it because they are readers, and they put up with it because it is really, really expensive to support a flat-out voracious reading habit on your own dime.

Publishers, if you make it impossible for young people-those in the "under 25″ category-to support a good reading habit on their own dime, these people are not going to start magically spending money on books when they start making a decent income. No; at that point, they'll already have started spending their time haunting hulu instead, where they can actually get free entertainment. And when they start making money, they'll be buying iTunes streams of those shows they watched for free.

What’s probably even more distasteful is the lipservice that publishers were giving to libraries at these past digital conferences. Deep down, I think publishers (and some authors) hate libraries and used bookstores. Also swapping sites.   One thing readers can do is start to tell other readers why certain books aren’t in their digital library catalog. It isn’t the library’s fault. Tell your reading friends where the fault lies and that is with the publishers and then you can tell them what types of books that publisher puts out.

Related posts:

1. HarperCollins E-Initiatives, an Interview with Ann Allessi
2. Monday Round up Links: A New Kind of Book Tour
3. Dear Jane: How do I check out electronic books from the library?

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Sarah Weinman writes for Daily Finance and has the latest analysis of the incredibly dismal Borders’ news. Borders Q3 financial news was that it suffered a $74.4 Million loss and a 17.6% sales decrease.

The primary culprit was the gross margin from the stores that remained open: It plunged from 18.5% to 15.4%. Borders blamed “the de-leveraging of fixed occupancy costs caused by negative comparable store sales.” In other words, stores’ sales shrunk, while their fixed costs — things like rent, insurance and electricity — remained the same.

See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/fYboBQ

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Not every social media platform launched by publishers is going to work. HarperCollins is closing BookArmy which was a site designed to engage readers in the UK. The site was launched in 2008 and was to compete with Goodreads, LibraryThing and Shelfari.

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Speaking of social media sites for readers, Goodreads has its 2010 reader poll out. For romances, there are some interesting choices including a m/m title: Promises by Marie Sexton. Strawberries for Dessert by Sexton was reviewed during the Gay Writes week here at Dear Author and was one of Sarah F’s books of 2010. I voted for Meljean Brook’s The Iron Duke but I loved seeing the broad range of choices including another small press book from author Lorelei James.

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An interesting data point from Goodreads was shared a couple of days ago. Apparently goodread users read more books published in 2009 than 2010 during the year 2010. This could be that more readers are signing on to Goodreads and adding books to their libraries that they read in the past and just haven’t correctly categorized those books (guilty) but I read a lot of backlist titles and with publishers and authors digitizing their backlists, these titles are a lot more accessible.

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I loved this blog post by author Michelle Styles about markets outside the US.   While the US remains the largest market for romance authors, according to Styles, there are other growing markets out there and they have different tastes:

As an overseas editor explained to me several years ago, they find the books through Harlequin's internal database as well as publications like the RT Book Reviews but always it is based what their specialised knowledge of what their readership wants. And the readership desires do differ. For example, Germany has never been a Regency driven historical market.

Harlequin’s push internationally is something to watch.   According to this blog post at iLook China, “Harlequin received official, red star-stamped permission to place half a million copies of twenty titles in Mandarin and a quarter-million copies of ten English versions on the shelves of Xinhua.”   The blog post linked to another article published in 2007 about the increasing demand of romance books and the corresponding worry about the message of these books.

Some Chinese experts are worried about the new reading trend. They feel anxious due to the submissive psychology in these romances and they wonder how such plots will affect young girls with no exposure to any feminist principals. These experts feel that the stories might addict readers to scenarios urging them to act obsequiously, thus mirroring the yielding concubine heroine who eagerly seeks the protection and favor of a powerful man. Psychologists wonder if reading these books could create dependent personalities and negatively impact on contemporary Chinese female characters.

The entire article is worth a read.   The societal culture in China is much different than in the US and it is more patriarchal.   Good thing that Jeannie Lin’s book is about a warrior princess!

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David Pogue at the NYTimes reviews the color Nook. (sign in required) Pogue likes the bright and beautiful LCD screen, the touch screen interface, and quickness of the device. He thinks, however, the interface is too confusing:

The price you pay is complexity. The Color Nook offers far too many pop-up control racks. There's the Quick Nav bar, the Status Bar, the Media Bar, the Library, the Daily Shelf and the Recent Items menu. It will take you quite awhile to master what's where.

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Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches Trashy Books was featured in the New York Times yesterday in an article about romance readers and ebooks.

Romance readers tend to be women ages 31 to 49 who are -’ contrary to the popular image of Miss Lonelyhearts living vicariously through fictional tales of seduction -’ in a romantic relationship, according to the writers group. They frequently fly through a book or more a week, and from the beginning they have jumped at the chance to store hundreds of titles on a single device -’ where the next happy ending is a download away.

Romance ebooks is the fastest growing segment of sales for digital books.   This makes sense as romance readers are voracious, buying on average three books a month according to BN chief William Lynch.   One of the benefits to reading digitally is that romance readers don’t have to face the scorn and disdain from others like clerks or fellow subway passengers.   That benefit was made all the more obvious by the commenters who wasted little time in trashing romance readers as well as the books in the genre.   Apparently there was some disdain for the article by romance readers on twitter and other places, but I was happy with the article and thought it portrayed romance readers as dedicated readers who are just as ready and willing to spend their disposable income on a tech gadget and books as the boys are which is also contrary to the popular image of Miss Lonelyhearts.   The truth is that most of the covers are embarrassing.   We aren’t embarrassed of reading romances- the content-but the covers are mockable and who can blame people for associating romance readers with the covers.

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Aldiko, one of the more popular Android reading apps, will be adding ePub DRM support in its next upgrade.   I’ve recruited commenter Brian to write up an Android eBook Reading 101 Guide.   Thanks Brian!

Related posts:

1. Thursday Midday Links Roundup: Education is moving toward digital
2. Wednesday Midday Links: February Book Specials
3. Books Top Seller for Internet

She was shortlisted for the Carnegie medal for Which Witch? the story of a wizard looking for a wife, while Dial-a-Ghost describes how Fulton Snodde-Brittle comes unstuck when he tries to hire some “frightful and dangerous ghosts” to scare his young nephew to death. The Secret of Platform 13 features a mysterious platform at King’s Cross station that leads to another, magical world. Published in 1994, three years before JK Rowling’s Harry Potter set off for Hogwart’s from King’s Cross’s platform 9 ¾, the book’s possible influence on Rowling has occasionally been raised, though never by Ibbotson herself.

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In other sad but stupid news is that Cook’s Source, a supposedly venerable magazine of cooking, lifted a blogger’s article and reprinted it in their magazine without her permission. When the blogger found out, she wrote the magazine asking for a public apology and small donation to Columbia University. An editor from Cook’s Source responded with this:

But honestly Monica, the web is considered “public domain” and you should be happy we just didn’t “lift” your whole article and put someone else’s name on it! It happens a lot, clearly more than you are aware of, especially on college campuses, and the workplace. If you took offence and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than was originally. Now it will work well for your portfolio. For that reason, I have a bit of a difficult time with your requests for monetary gain, albeit for such a fine (and very wealthy!) institution. We put some time into rewrites, you should compensate me! I never charge young writers for advice or rewriting poorly written pieces, and have many who write for me… ALWAYS for free!”

Read more here and the original blogger’s story here.   I don’t know if I have read a more astonishing response.   You should be grateful we took your work without your permission because it sucked before and now it’s awesome?   Cook’s Source isn’t fairing well over at it’s facebook page.

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One writer for the Guardian is speculating that giving away the digital book for free may both feed pre paper book sales buzz and foster an entitlement of free culture.   I’ve long advocated for a digital early program by publishers.   Harlequin does this with its series categories and I suspect it does this because a) the series books are often available in retail locations before the onsale date of the 1st of the month and are mailed to direct customers early and b) early digital sales might foster some word of mouth for books that have a very short shelf life.

It is also a good way to get consumers to buy direct from Harlequin versus a third party retailer.   I struggle with this quite a bit.   In fact, I pay a premium by having my HP subscription with Harlequin. I get 8 titles for under $25 and delivered one month earlier.   If I could wait one month, I could get the entire set from Amazon for $9.99.   Simon & Schuster used to have one or two titles for sale early but again, you had to buy it direct from the site.   I think that you could definitely charge readers for early access and still get that pre print sale buzz.

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People in Australia have something to be a little happier about.   Apple’s iBookstore is offering pay for local content. I don’t know if this content duplicates what Kobo and Kindle offer to Australian customers or it offers something new. Of course, everything is according to “Agency” pricing:

Among the first group of six Australian publishers making their titles available through the store  is Hachette Australia, which has not previously sold ebooks on any platform in Australia. Hachette Australia managing director Malcolm Edwards told the  Weekly Book Newsletter the company had made its titles available to Apple through "an agency model', and said around 100 Hachette titles would soon be available on the store.

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In an interview with likesbooks.com, Lisa Kleypas reveals that nothing is coming out in 2011 which sounds like her contemporary series is being pushed back to begin publication in 2012.   Given that she is publishing in hardcover for these contemporaries, I can’t foresee a back to back to back release of those books either.

What will readers see in the year ahead?

Since I decided to take a break, 2011 is going to be a quiet year for me. Nothing scheduled-’I'll just be working. And of course I'll be checking AAR to find out about the great new romances coming out every month!

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In possibly the worst press release of the year (based on readability and grammatical correctness), Barnes & Noble is pushing its in store freebies for nook readers. The freebies appear to be original essays rather than original fiction.   Will that drive you to the store? I’m guessing no, but some of the freebies that may be of interest to the readers include:

• How Not to Look Like a Frump, Tart or Freak by Clinton Kelly Whatever your style, Clinton Kelly can help. The author and host of TLC's What Not to Wear shares fashion advice and words of wisdom, exclusively for NOOK owners.
• Read Pink! by Eloisa James This fall, a group of romance authors have banded together with their publisher, Penguin Books, to help promote breast cancer awareness. Join New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James as she discusses the great strength and humor displayed by the heroines written by these queens of romance.
• Being Grateful for the Little Things by Lesley M. M. Blume In this reflection on gratitude, children's author Lesley M. M. Blume finds much to admire among the fairy world, mostly unseen by humans. In this exclusive essay, Blume shares what we can learn from fairies that will make us happier creatures.

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Sarah Weinman discusses some possibilities as to why News Corp is burying the financial details of HarperCollins last quarter.   Weinman notes that whatever the reason, NewsCorp. is treating HarperCollins like an afterthought and maybe this signals Rupert Murdoch’s desire to put HarperCollins on the sale block.

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Finally, lostbooksales.com is up and running. Here you can enter information for each book you wanted to buy but couldn’t because of any reason: price, availability, regional restrictions, etc. You can also provide links to places that provide books without restrictions. Thanks to Suze for the grand idea. I knew that international issues were a big deal because I receive emails from readers about it regularly. But I don’t think I truly understood the scope until people like Sarah Tanner started entering titles of books that are not available to her. It makes me feel guilty at my own good circumstance and upset on behalf of the readers who aren’t as fortunate.

Related posts:

1. Thursday Midday Links: Here Come the Category Bestsellers
2. Thursday Midday Links
3. Thursday Midday Links: Global Is the Future

Next week we are going to celebrate National Coming Out Day and the “It Get’s Better” movement started by Dan Savage:

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With all the layoffs and downsizing, Borders has no need for the space its current headquarters offers. Thus Borders Corporate in Ann Arbor has been quietly listed for sale for a bargain $18.439 million dollars. That has to be a blow for the local Ann Arbor economy given that only an estimated 600 people still work there.

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Macmillan Publishers (you know, the company whose CEO won’t allow digital lending of books and thinks readers should have to get out of their house to buy a book) is launching Macmillan Films so that it can package literary projects to Hollywood. I suspect Macmillan will start to want authors’ film rights now.

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On Agency Gatekeeper Blog is a fun rundown of things that drive an anonymous reviewer for a “major book-reviewing outlet” crazy. (no, it’s no one from Dear Author that I know of). While the reviewer holds up the JR Ward series as one that gets it right (which is ironic given that the Ward series is devoid of any female personality and the heroines are distinguishable only by the color of dress that they were), she nails some points like how

#2– A career is something that happens while you’re waiting for a rich man (or in some cases, a rich vampire) to sweep you off your feet. If there is ever a choice between pursuing your career, maintaining friendships and enjoying daylight versus becoming a blood-sucking immortal fiend of the night who forsakes all human contact and can’t practice medicine anymore, a woman will always choose her man.

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Speaking of lists, I particularly enjoyed Stephanie Draven’s 7 Deadly Sins of Paranormal Romance.

GREED: Too Many Speculative Elements. The best paranormal romance takes the world as we know it, or the past as we imagine it, and twists one or two crucial elements, following the repercussions from those changes like ripples on a pond. The worst paranormal romance turns itself into a carnival for every strange and unexplained myth, magic, and phenomenon in the cosmos. Elves and vampires, mining together on Epsilon 4 with space aliens who are ruled by the Wicked Witch of the West in a kingdom called Oz-readers need to be able to focus. In a world where everything is possible, what is truly at stake? (For an example of how too much of a good thing can ruin a series, see the television series LOST which started out with an intriguing premise, but eventually piled so many new paranormal elements onto the stack that the whole thing collapsed under its own weight, bleeding viewers and disappointing long-time fans.)

I refer to Greed as the “No Paranormal Left Behind” syndrome.

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Sourcebooks is launching a new “line” of books called Casablanca Classics. CC will republish old books that have gone out of print. Unfortunately, the price of these new books will be $9.99. I love this idea and hate the price point. After all, I can find most of these used on Amazon for $.99 + shipping.

November 2010
Devil’s Desire by Laurie McBain

February 2011
Fierce Eden by Jennifer Blake
Moonstruck Madness by Laurie McBain
My Love, My Enemy by Jan Cox Speas

March 2011
Merely Magic by Patricia Rice
Legacy by Jeanette Baker

May 2011
Tapestry of Dreams by Roberta Gellis

June 2011
Bride of the MacHugh by Jan Cox Speas

August 2011
Midnight Waltz by Jennfer Blake
Catriona by Jeanette Baker

Given that the only thing Sourcebooks has to do is pay for a new cover and marketing, the $9.99 price point seems excessively high.

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Random House is running at online promotion at Suvudu.com where fans get to vote on the direction of a chain story, in a “Choose Your Own Adventure” style. Here is the link to the page, and the original announcement is below. Lara Adrian, Harry Connolly, Lucy A. Snyder, Kelly Meding, and Stacia Kane are writing this short story of Munira, a "retriever" of magical items in the fictional city of Port Nightfall.

The daughter of a djinn, Munira is contacted by the most powerful sorcerer in the city, the wily Temesis who makes her an offer she can't refuse: steal the Light of Ta'lab from an evil necromancer or he will kill her father! Fans will have the opportunity to vote on the choices Munira makes in the story via Suvudu.com, and each new section (penned by the various authors), will reflect the fans' voices. The short story began on Monday, September 20, 2010 and, once completed, will be available for download as a  ¢99 eBook.

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Orbit has launched The Orbital Drop which is a monthly special ebook deal. Deals will include two-for-ones, digital boxed-sets, and big discounts on some of the best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Urban Fantasy in the known universe. Each deal lasts one month though. You can sign up here. When I signed up, it looked like it might be US only which is a big shame.

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You know who loves happy endings? It might not be who you think. Eva Ibbotson, author of several beautiful YA novels, admits to loving the happy ever after ending. Eva’s childhood

was a “very cosmopolitan, sophisticated and quite interesting” childhood, but it was not a happy one. With parents who were very bad at hiding their dislike of each other living at either end of the country and grandparents in Vienna, Ibbotson was “always on some train, going about and wishing I had a home. When I came to write, consciously or unconsciously I always wanted to make things right for the hero or the heroine.” As a result, Ibbotson describes herself as a “happy endings freak”.

Thanks from Reader Robin F.

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HarperCollins’ CEO says that revenue from digital books, excluding children’s books, is about 20% this year. That’s a hell of a sea change from just a year ago. No wonder publishers are in turmoil.

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Related posts:

1. Publishers Making the Backlist More Accessible
2. Wednesday Midday Links: February Book Specials
3. Tuesday Midday Links: New Readers, New Prices

1) What will you consider romance (ie. differentiating between UF / Paranormal, etc)

For the titles where it’s not obvious, I’ll decide case by case based on the input of the book’s publisher and my fellow editors.

2) Will you be doing category review?

I’m open to submissions of romance novels of any kind, though of course we can’t review everything. I would especially love to see more submissions from independent presses (though no self-published books, please) and more titles featuring people who aren’t straight white well-off Anglophones. I feel very strongly that the romance section should reflect the diversity of romances and romance readers. When in doubt, any publisher who wants to know whether or how to submit romance titles for review consideration is welcome to look through our submission guidelines [http://publishersweekly.com/pw/corp/submissionguidelines.html] and then email me if they still have questions.

3) Will you be having editorial features besides reviews in the romance section?

Yes, we’ll continue to feature noteworthy romance titles in our Pick of the Week and signature reviews, and noteworthy romance authors in profiles and Q&As. Romance publishers should feel free to send me pitches for any of those (no guarantees, of course).

4) Will there be these distinct sections for all genres?

In addition to our main fiction section, there’s already a mystery reviews section (edited by Peter Cannon) and an SF/fantasy/horror reviews section (edited by yours truly), and those will continue to run as they have.

5) Will this still be oriented to the trade or do you want to reach consumers who might subscribe to RT?

PW is still absolutely a trade publication, though of course anyone who wants to subscribe is welcome to!

I think this is fantastic of Publishers’ Weekly and I can’t wait to see the new and revamped magazine.

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Profits are up at most publishing houses. What a difference a year makes, right? Because of bestsellers like Stieg Larsson’s series and Sarah Palin’s book, Random House and HarperCollins both saw increases in sales and revenue. Simon & Schuster, which lacks a big powerhouse hit, saw a better return given that it decreased its operating costs. Penguin has had the most success because of consistent hits like The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Charlaine Harris. Ebooks accounted for 8% of adult trade titles by the end of June.

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HarperCollins is rebranding its Science Fiction/Fantasy imprint to reflect a worldwide imprint comprised of EOS and the UK/Australia/New Zealand line called Voyager. The new global imprint will be called HarperCollins Voyager. I hope that this means that HC Voyager will be buying world digital rights and releasing digital copies simultaneously in e-format.

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In a disturbing update on digital media ownership, the 9th Circuit has appeared to rule that digital downloads via the iTunes store are merely licensed and not sold. This would mean that you aren’t truly in ownership of the songs and other digital media purchased through the iTunes store and at other vendors with similar contractual language.

But in reviewing a decision in a suit brought against Universal Music Group by producers affiliated with rapper Eminem, a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that iTunes downloads (even the DRM-free variety) are encumbered by enough restrictions that they can't be considered sales at all.

If I don’t own my digital products, then I either expect the price to drop dramatically or I will have to go back to buying paper books and converting them, by hand, into digital copies.

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If you have a little time and interest in critical examination of romance, I would urge you to take a read (or two) at the discussion prompted by a blog post of Katharine Beutner. Beutner is a graduate student and author of the critically acclaimed Alcestis. According to her blog post, Beutner has taught a course on romance book narratives largely based on the traditional regency romance (I believe that is what is to be gleaned from the comments).

Beutner presents a traditional romance narrative structure based upon Janice Radway’s conclusions of what an ideal romance is beginning with the building block of “the heroine’s social identity is destroyed.” The comments contain a dizzying number of articulate replies from individuals like our own Robin (aka Janet), Jessica of ReadReactReview.com, Carolyn Jewel, Eric Selinger and Laura Vivanco from Teach Me Tonight, and author Jeannie Lin.

Two things struck me as I read this. First, the having academics who love and study romance is going to do a lot for increasing the respect given to the genre. Second, the open exchange of ideas and information that took place in that thread was remarkable. I give Beutner a lot of credit for being open minded and taking criticism of her off the cuff blog post with graciousness.

I hope if you have a moment, you’ll take the time to read it.
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Related posts:

1. Midday Links of Love: 50% off Ebooks at EHarlequin Today
2. Wednesday Midday Links: Simon & Schuster Let’s Go Half of its Sales Staff
3. Ebook Sales Up 59% in 2007