Literary Agents

Monday News: Debates over fee access to digital lending; DIY bookshelves; Avon to increase brand awareness

Monday News: Debates over fee access to digital lending; DIY bookshelves; Avon to increase brand awareness

Public Libraries News: Should Library ebooks be charged for? – “Against free library e-book accessible at home (Justin Tomlinson) Most publishers do not want e-book lending in libraries (DJ) therefore it’s better to charge to get them on board otherwise libraries are going to be left behind (JT)  This would “protect footfall” by encouraging people(…)

Tuesday News and Deals: Apple iPhone Sales May Fall; Booksellers Start Lobbying Congress to Keep Agency

Tuesday News and Deals: Apple iPhone Sales May Fall; Booksellers Start Lobbying Congress to Keep Agency

News Amazon’s $1 million secret – Amazon.com – Salon.com – “Amazon is picking up its literary largess during an especially charged season in the company’s relationships with the rest of the book world. For the first time, the “Big Six” publishers — HarperCollins, Random House, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and Macmillan — have refused(…)

Wednesday Links and Deals: Amazon creates a special site for iPads; AAR Is Providing Guidance to Publishing Agents

Wednesday Links and Deals: Amazon creates a special site for iPads; AAR Is Providing Guidance to Publishing Agents

News Amazon created an Ipad optimized site because Apple made Amazon remove the buy links.  If you have an Ipad, this is the way you want to browse the Amazon Bookstore.  Here is the link (www.amazon.com/iPadKindleStore.) ***** Random House acquired Canada’s major book publisher McClelland & Stewart.  I’m not familiar with M&S, but the acquisition has(…)

Tuesday Midday Links:  Agents, the unseen gatekeeper to reading

Tuesday Midday Links: Agents, the unseen gatekeeper to reading

Agents are far more powerful in publishing than many readers understand.  They are the ones negotiating contracts with the publishers and can doom or help an author.  They are the ones telling authors that x isn’t selling and y isn’t selling.  They are the unseen gatekeepers that rarely get mentioned.  But the fact is much(…)

REVIEW:  Changing the Game by Jaci Burton

REVIEW: Changing the Game by Jaci Burton

Dear Ms. Burton: As you know, I really enjoyed The Perfect Play. I love football and I felt like the story captured elements of the athlete hero fairly well.  It was scorching hot and had a believable love story with a great heroine.  I knew from hints within The Perfect Play and by the included excerpt that(…)

Thursday Midday Links: Open Letter to Loretta Chase

Thursday Midday Links: Open Letter to Loretta Chase

Dear Ms. Chase: I don’t have your email address but I had to write you to comment on a note a fan made on your behalf on the Smart Bitches site.  You see, your book Captives of the Night(kind of a sequel to the Lord of Scoundrels) caught the attention of Sarah Wendell.  But not(…)

REVIEW: Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris

REVIEW: Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris

Dear Ms. Ballantine and Mr. Morris, I have an uneasy relationship with steampunk. I want to like the genre, but I feel like the label has become so dilute as to be useless. It seems like anything featuring corsets, parasols, tea, and goggles gets labelled steampunk these days. Sure, there’s usually a mention of a(…)

Monday Midday Links: Digital is killing print and everyone wants a piece of that pie

I confess that I thought about not doing these anymore but apparently the midday links are very popular so onward! 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(…)

Thursday Midday Links: The Year of the Digital Backlist

Thursday Midday Links: The Year of the Digital Backlist

Sunita has deemed 2010 as the Year of the Digital Backlist with the news that superagent Andrew Wylie has a) created a digital publishing arm called Odyssey Editions and b) signed a two year exclusive distribution deal with Amazon. From the Amazon Press Release: This is the first time any of the titles–which include Norman(…)

Monday Midday Links:  Coming Soon Booklist

Monday Midday Links: Coming Soon Booklist

Because sleep is for the dead, I spent some time in the past few weeks compiling a list of upcoming books. I hope you find this helpful. I have more to add (see the prefatory note on the upcoming books page). ***** In the UK, authors receive a royalty every time someone checks their book(…)

REVIEW: His at Night by Sherry Thomas

REVIEW: His at Night by Sherry Thomas

Here is another new summer reviewer, Sunita, and her take on Sherry Thomas’ release, His at Night. Dear Ms. Thomas, When romance novel readers bring up their favorite books, yours are among the first and most frequently cited as exemplary works in current historical romance. Your prose is lyrical and distinctive, your characters are unusual,(…)

Wednesday Midday News Roundup: historical fact v. entertainment

Generation Y women like social networking and sharing their thoughts on the products that they buy.   This is, apparently, news.   It is not something that ebook manufacturers have caught on yet, though.   The current ebook reader enthusiast is a 47-year-old married man with a household income in excess of 6 figures.   But! researchers believe that(…)

Is Agent Editing Normal?

I read this on an agent blog today and light of the events that have happened to Sidney Somers at New Concepts Publishing, so I had to ask whether this is normal because it sounds strange to me. Apparently the agent has two clients who have started their own erotic epress. The agent is editing(…)

Lucienne Diver Joins the Knight Agency

Received this release in my inbox: We are pleased to announce that veteran literary agent Lucienne Diver, previously with Spectrum Literary Agency, has joined on as the newest member of the Knight Agency’s talented group of agents. For full details please visit the Knight Agencies blog at www.knightagency.net I’ve never heard anything but good things(…)

Agent to the Romance Stars Claims Vampires New Alpha Male and Erotica Is Porn

I read the Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction report and I had to check the date, twice, because of what it contained as it related to romance. Steve Axelrod, agent to romance heavyweights like Suzanne Brockmann, Jayne Ann Krentz, Julia Quinn, Christine Feehan, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, was interviewed on the topic of what was hot in(…)