• Monica Jackson, Author, Warrior…Friend by Karen Scott
• Monica Jackson…in her own words by Laura Vivanco

Amazon to Sell Ads on Kindle Fire Welcome Screen | Digital – Advertising Age – “Amazon is pitching ads on the device’s welcome screen, according to an executive at an agency that Amazon has pitched. The company has been telling ad agency execs that they must spend about $600,000 for any package that includes such an ad. The ad campaigns would run for two months and also include inventory from Amazon’s “Special Offers” product. For $1 million, advertisers would get more ad inventory and be included in Amazon’s public-relations push, according to this executive and an exec at another ad agency.” “ AdAge

Hammond File Sharing Leak – ” The results strongly suggest that an album benefits from increased file sharing: an album that became available in file-sharingnetworks one month earlier would sell 60 additional units. This increase is sales is small relative to other factors that have been found to affect album sales. I conclude with an investigationof the distributional effects of file sharing on sales and find that file sharing benefits more established and popular artists but not newer and smaller artists.” Pre-Release File Sharing and the Music Industry by Robert G. Hammond  Personal Note: This surprises me. I would have thought it helps smaller artists and hurts more established ones. 

Simon & Schuster settles e-book antitrust suit with state AGs | Apple – CNET News – “Simon & Schuster, one of the five major book publishers accused in multiple lawsuits of conspiring with Apple to fix e-book prices, has settled the complaint filed by numerous states’ attorney generals, CNET has learned… The terms of the settlement weren’t provided in court documents. A Simon & Schuster spokesman declined to comment. Spokespeople for Apple and the Texas AGs office did not immediately respond to a request for comment but we will update as soon as we hear back.” CNET  Personal Note.  I tweeted about this and someone sent me an email asking whether the details of the settlement would ever be known.  Yes absolutely.  All government settlements are public.  My guess is that the parties are waiting to see whether all the states are going to be involved in the settlement and what all publishers are going to be involved.  It could be up to 30 or 60 days before we see the terms.  Based on other reports, however, it is likely that the settlement will involve some rebate to customers and change in the existing contracts the publishers have with retailers. 

MGM film studio options desert island romance novel set in the Maldives | Minivan News – “A best-selling novel based on the captivating love story of a mismatched pair deserted on an uninhabited island of the Maldives is to be made into a feature-length film. According to reports, leading Hollywood production company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) has optioned the rights to Tracey Garvis-Graves‘ best-selling castaway novel “On the Island”, a five-week inhabitant of the New York Times bestseller list.” Mini Van News Personal Note:  This is the second self published book to be optioned for a movie in as many weeks.  

An Annotated Bibliography of Contemporary Romance Scholarship on Romance Readers | Blog | Smart Bitches, Trashy Books | Romance Novel Reviews | All of the Romance, None of the Bullshit. – “The process of creating a bibliography about romance readers forces the obvious question: Who are romance readers? On the surface, the answer is equally obvious: those who read romance fiction. But this answer becomes more complicated when you consider the various identities belonging to a romance reader inform who reads romance, how they read romance, and what kinds of romances they read. Gender, geography, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, religion, cultural heritage, and socio-political ideologies are some examples of factors that affect reading habits. The types of romances –genre, format, etc. also are influencing factors of reading habits, as well as factors that are themselves influenced by the identities of romance readers. “ SmartBitches

Deals

• Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes * $1.59 * A | BN | K | S - these two books are YA stories featuring a female alpha.
• Trial by Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes * $1.59 * A | BN | K | S
• The Duchess of Love by Sally MacKenzie * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Dark Whispers by Samantha Garver * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• What A Woman Needs by Caroline Linden * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S

Related posts:

1. Friday Midday Links: Winsor Tributes & Print Price Wars
2. REVIEW: Mr. Right Now by Monica Jackson
3. Thursday Midday Links: New Blog & State of the Day EBook Report

Onto the News:

CBS Corporation Reports Record First Quarter 2012 Results – MarketWatch – “Publishing (Simon & Schuster) Publishing revenues for the first quarter of 2012 increased 14% to $176 million from $155 million for the same prior-year period, reflecting strong growth in the sales of more profitable digital content as well as higher print book sales. Sales of digital content increased 64% in the quarter and represented approximately 26% of Publishing’s total revenues, the highest to date. Best selling titles in the first quarter included Kill Shot by Vince Flynn and Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult. The first quarter of 2012 also benefited from the continued success of fourth quarter releases Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and 11/22/63 by Stephen King. Publishing OIBDA for the first quarter of 2012 increased 43% to $10 million from $7 million for the same prior-year period. This increase was primarily driven by growth in digital and print book sales, which was partially offset by higher costs related to legal matters.“ MarketWatch.  No wonder S&S wanted to settle.  

Amanda Hocking’s Blog: How Am I Doing Now? – “Switched came out January 3, 2012 with an initial print run of  about 200,000 books in the US, and it’s in its fifth printing. Torn came out February 28, 2012, and I’m actually not sure of its initial print run, but it’s in its third printing. In a recent email from editor, she said that books in series tend to lose momentum as the series goes on with sequels doing slightly worse than the original, but she said that has not been the case with my books. Torn was outselling Switched and doing really well. Ascend came out last week, and my editor told me that my first week sales are already double that of Torn.” Amanda Hocking’s Blog.  Trad publishing still serves a large role for many authors. It’s a great post and Hocking goes on to note she feels that her books are stronger due to the editing input. She also notes that Amazon rankings don’t reflect her sales because she had tapped out the market there before going to NY. I don’t see her going back to self publishing soon. She clearly enjoys the support she gets in terms of editing, marketing, and publicity.

Target to stop carrying Amazon Kindle hardware due to ‘conflict of interest’? | The Verge – “According to an internal Target memo we’ve received, the company will be removing Amazon hardware from its locations starting this month. Certain accessories will remain in stock, but shipments of Kindles themselves will cease as of May 13th. While several brick-and-mortar stores we contacted still had the devices in stock, a quick search through Target’s online store reveals that Amazon’s e-readers have already vanished, and the Kindle-branded online store comes up entirely empty. As of this writing, it’s unclear what the nature of the cited conflict of interest is, but it should be noted that Apple recently partnered with the retailer for a small number of “mini-stores” earlier this year. Whether the Kindle move is related — or has implications for Target’s own e-reader ambitions — still remains to be seen” The Verge  This is really interesting and I have no idea how it will play out.  

Huge rise in ebook sales offsets decline in printed titles | Books | guardian.co.uk – “This is a 366% increase on the previous year, the Publishers Association said, and consumer ebooks are now equivalent to 6% of consumer physical book sales by value. But the strong digital sales come at the expense of print, the yearbook reveals: consumer print sales were down by about 7% in 2011 to £1.579bn. And last year’s decline in print sales is continuing in 2012: £313.6m was spent on printed titles in the first quarter of this year, according to the Bookseller, the lowest first-quarter figure since 2003. Physical book sales in the first three months of 2012 were down 11%, or £39m, compared with the same period in 2011, the Bookseller says, with fiction down 18%, non-fiction down 9% and children’s down 2%.” Guardian UK  This is the same pattern for digital books in the US.

Marius Milner, Google Wi-Fi snooping: Assessing the disturbing FCC report on the company’s Street View program. – Slate Magazine – “But Google, unlike other companies, wasn’t just recording the location of people’s Wi-Fi routers. When a Street View car encountered an open Wi-Fi network—that is, a router that was not protected by a password—it recorded all the digital traffic traveling across that router. As long as the car was within the vicinity, it sucked up a flood of personal data: login names, passwords, the full text of emails, Web histories, details of people’s medical conditions, online dating searches, and streaming music and movies. Imagine a postal worker who opens and copies one letter from every mailbox along his route. Google’s sniffing was pretty much the same thing, except instead of one guy on one route it was a whole company operating around the world. The FCC report says that when French investigators looked at the data Google collected, they found “an exchange of emails between a married woman and man, both seeking an extra-marital relationship” and “Web addresses that revealed the sexual preferences of consumers at specific residences.” In the United States, Google’s cars collected 200 gigabytes of such data between 2008 and 2010, and they stopped only when regulators discovered the practice.” Slate  Seriously Google, this is awful.

Soon you’ll be able to use your Nook to buy books in Barnes & Noble stores — Tech News and Analysis – “On the heels of yesterday’s news that Microsoft is investing $300 million in Barnes & Noble’s Nook and college businesses, B&N CEO William Lynch says that the company plans to embed NFC (near field communication) chips into Nooks. Users could take their Nook into a Barnes & Noble store and wave it near a print book to get info on it or buy it.” GigaOM  Not interested. Give me the option on my phone, yes.  Waving my nook around?  No.

Race in YA Lit: Wake Up & Smell the Coffee-Colored Skin, White Authors! « Sarah Ockler, Author – “White authors, white characters, white faces, white girls. The scenario isn’t entirely unlike my high school graduation, but it’s no longer the world I see (or want to see) when I look out the window. So why the disconnect? Plenty of YA authors of color are writing about diverse characters, often struggling to get those books out into the world and into the hands of readers. Discussions about the issue focus on a trifecta of economic challenges doused in racial politics: consumers aren’t demanding and buying diverse fiction. So booksellers aren’t stocking and promoting it. So the publishing industry isn’t actively seeking, acquiring, and publishing it (with covers and flap copy that appropriately reflect the characters and story). So consumers aren’t demanding and buying it…” Sara Hockler  Such a good read.

Related posts:

1. Tuesday Midday Links: Self publishing stock rises and so does traditional publishing
2. Wednesday Midday Links: Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch, Nook Tablet All Ship Early Plus Deals from Avon
3. Tuesday Midday Links: lost ebook sales site gains momentum

One of the first AAR DIK books I ever read was one of yours: “Walking After Midnight.” Now here I am, years later, reading another “walking” book that involves a hero and heroine on the run and trying to stay alive. My questions for myself as I started the book were will the romance work, will the suspense work and how will I feel about the thief hero when all is said and done. The answers are yes, partly, and ultimately it’s a cop out.

“For years after witnessing the murder of her mother, Micayla “Mick” Lange has been forced to relive the horrific events of her dreams, often causing her to sleepwalk. Now a Detroit cop, and stinging from a recent breakup, Mick has arrived early to housesit during the holidays for the wealthy father of her longtime best friend. When she catches Jason Davis in the act of stealing a large sum from the home safe, Mick finds herself embroiled in a crime so explosive it could cost both of them their lives. Although their attraction to each other is palpable, as natural adversaries their only common ground is mutual distrust – and the fact that the same killers are now hunting them both. Sparks fly and passions flare as Mick and Jason run for their lives, knowing that teaming up is the only chance they have to survive.”

The book gets off to a quick start with a throw down that shows Mick and Jason just how evenly matched they are. Mick might be littler but she can put a hurting on anyone stupid enough to discount her in a fight. But when proof of a horrific crime stares her in the face and she realizes that her knowledge is known, she has no choice but to flee with this crook she just caught red handed. This is one of the better set ups that forces the bickering hero and heroine on the road together that I’ve read. In a flash, Mick’s whole world is flipped and it’s she who does the most to get them away from the henchmen – something that I truly enjoyed. She doesn’t want to do this but once she makes up her mind, she’s the one leading the charge. I did wonder how she’d managed to remain in total denial about the true nature of the main villain, though. That must have taken some mental hoop jumping of major proportions.

The race away from the killers is one of the best parts of the book. There’s enough trash talking to keep the tension between Mick and Jason wound tight plus a little sexual frisson which – thank God – doesn’t lead to inappropriately timed boinking. Several thugs are still after them, forcing our lead characters through the bitterly cold, snowy night, just barely missing being caught time and again. But caught I knew they’d eventually have to be and it’s done realistically and due to the fact that Mick is a cop with ingrained instincts. Makes sense. Yet, I also think most people will see the twist coming that brings Mick and Jason into the hands of the baddies.

That entire scene is cool and I sat riveted to see how they’d escape from handcuffs, several men who weren’t going to hesitate to kill them, and through a steel reinforced door. Jason’s calm under pressure is a joy to see and his humor in the setting of a large percentage of the DPD being hot on their tails needles Mick in a way that had me laughing.

Now, this is the point where the suspense stuff begins to go pear shaped. I’m willing to go along with how you get these two out of Detroit. I can also accept the sweet little set up Jason and his cronies have going. And the explosion of Happy Boinking between Jason and Mick is inevitable given the sparks that are being struck between them. I can also trust Jason’s realization of how much Mick means to him and not just because of the hot lovin’. She’s more than that to him and given the life or death situations that they’ve gotten into and out of, I think they know each other and their feelings pretty well by this time. But…but…I did some serious eye rolling from here on out about the suspense.

The baddies had to make a return if only because they hadn’t been dealt with. Suddenly Mick lying to Jason about what she did was alright. And given Jason’s history – he only robs from crooks so that makes it all okay – he still has contacts in a Big Government Agency who are deliriously happy to help them out when it’s discovered that Mick is being blackmailed by the killers to return to Detroit – in a way that makes me wonder why none of these smart people realized it was a given it would happen this way. And everything that could go wrong does go wrong yet – booyah! – it’s Mick who mainly saves the day.

I gotta say that I have serious doubts about the rainbow happy ending. No one is going to discover where Jason lives by following him or – later – Mick back to the Bat Cave? No associates of the villain will make trouble for the rest of Mick’s family? She’s going to be okay living with a thief who, at the end of the day, has no plans to quit? But, that’s right, he’s a Disney thief who only steals from crooks so I guess she can accept that. I suppose she won’t be tied up for ages taking part in the trial of the villain or his minions either. It’s off to Jason’s sunny little hideout to put cracks in the wall plaster and shock the iguana.

After how good lots of the previous parts of the book are I hated to see it all go wonky at the end. Sigh.

~Jayne

Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Waiting in Vain by Charlotte Stein
2. REVIEW: One Reckless Summer by Toni Blake
3. REVIEW: Thunderstruck by Roxanne St. Claire, a Nascar Romance

• Engadget - Not a good comparison device on the market.
• Gizmodo - Should have had a home button.
• Pogue at the Times – Cheap and serviceable.

I’ll have my device and the nook tablet (hopefully) this week and I’ll review the devices this weekend.  It might take more than one post given that I’ll have two devices and I want to compare them to the iPad as well. Don’t forget to check out our Vox review.

*****

According to Publishers Marketplace (reg req’d), Kobo has launched the Kobo Touch with Offers:

Within the next two to three weeks, Kobo will match Amazon’s ad-bearing ereaders with their own “Kobo Touch with Offers” with “valuable offers and sponsored screens in discreet places outside of the reading experience.” The ad-driven model will sell for just under $100, a $40 discount over the ad-free model.

*****

I perused the flyers at BFads.net for ereader deals on Black Friday.  A couple of places like Radio Shack and Staples are selling the devices at retail but offering a $10-$20 gift certificate to the stores along with the purchase of the device.  There are two actual deals:

• Nook Touch WiFi $79 (regular price $99) – Best Buy
• Kindle Keyboard w SO & 3G $85 (regular price $139)  - Target

Wal-mart and Target also have iTunes gift card sales.  Wal-mart is buy a $100 GC for $80 and Target’s is buy $25 GC for $20.

Related posts:

1. New Kindles: Basic Kindle, Kindle Touch, and Kindle Fire
2. Monday Midday News Roundup: UK eBook Price War
3. Friday Midday News Roundup

The incentive to use the retailers self publishing platform over a distributor like Smashwords would likely be increased visibility at the retailer site. I wonder if the future of retail based self publishing will tie scaled royalties to exclusivity.

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Simon & Schuster released a video on behalf of Snooki to promote her latest book. The video is fairly embarrassing with Snooki wandering the halls of Simon & Schuster and labeling the author portraits as grenade or geek. Grenade is apparently a girl that is unattractive. Snooki then refers to the publishing staff as “farty old grandmas” until she “guidos” them up by having them stick out their “tits and asses”, tease up their hair, and put on lots of makeup while drinking heavily [the drinking heavily part was in the Director's Cut resurrected by Ed Champion which appears to have been removed by S&S]. Louise Burke, the publisher; Liz Perle, the editor in chief; and Lauren McKenna, executive editor, all appear in the video. They appear to be having a good time and you have to applaud the lengths at which they are going to support their author. It’s too bad, however, they that they are doing it in a way that emphasizes looking like Snooki and drinking heavily over being a well read, intelligent woman.  Sarah Wendell has a poll up and shared her own thoughts on the subject.

Maybe they’ll dress up as foul mouthed, video game playing, bling wearing, sword wielding Valkryies to celebrate Kresley Cole’s upcoming release, Lothaire. After all, Cole is a #1 NYT Bestselling author and Snooki only made the extended list. Hermain Cain is No. 7 on the non fiction list. Maybe we’ll see his publishing team sitting around smoking in a video or perhaps punching people in the face with bouquets of yellow flowers.

Think of the possibilities! What would you want Louise Burke, Liz Perle and Lauren McKenna to star in next?

******

The NextWeb quotes an excerpt from the Isaacson Steve Jobs biography about how Apple changed the ebook pricing market (and at the same time adds fuel to the class action lawsuits):

[Jobs] told the publishers that Apple would “go to the agency model, where you set the price, and we get our 30%, and yes, the customer pays a little more, but that’s what you want anyway.”

This made the publishers happy, but it didn’t solve the problem of Amazon undercutting the iBooks store on price.

To solve this, Jobs negotiated an agreement from the publishers to allow Apple to sell the books at a lower price if any other vendor began selling them in ebook form cheaper than Apple was.

*******

Publishersmarketplace has a piece on Amazon and how the agency pricing model is affecting Amazon’s balance sheet. (Reg requ’d) PM believes that over 90% of Amazon’s reported net income of $63 million is from the agency ebook commissions at $56 million.

What that also means, which analysts who find our piece are bound to discover, is that agency model ebooks are masking even greater declines in Amazon’s profitability than are readily apparent.

The larger gross margin on the agency books, however, is helping BN tremendously.

When the company reported their first quarter results in August, for BN.com they showed sales of $198 million and gross margin of $41.5 million. A year ago, sales were $148 million and gross margin was just $5 million. A meaningful part of the big boost in margin was Random House’s move to agency, along with the general increase in agency ebook sales. By our rough estimate, agency publishers did about $50 million in net ebook sales during BN’s reported quarter, which would be worth $21.5 million in recordable gross margin.

Which just goes to further support my belief that Agency has helped BN compete.

******

Speaking of BN, their stores are becoming increasingly devoted to non book items like toys, games, and electronics. They’ve reorganized their internal footprint and teen books are gaining prominence. They even have a Teen Paranormal Romance section at the front of many stores. Their website offerings are becoming more diverse as well.  BN.com now offers five new categories of goods: Home and Gift, Consumer Electronics, Arts and Crafts, Toys and Games and Baby.

Last week, Barnes & Noble started selling items like rugs and cooking utensils on its website. ”If shoppers are buying cookbooks from bn.com, it’s natural to offer them cooking supplies at the same time; if shoppers are buying new baby books, it’s natural to offer them baby supplies as well,” said John Foley, B&N’s president of eCommerce.

******

Whether it was Simon & Schuster’s bad programming or Apple iBookstore’s mistake, the initial iBookstore release of Steve Jobs’ biography was riddled with formatting errors.  Apple quickly responded and urged its customers to delete the original book and download a new copy.

******

Sarah Wendell pointed out this article about female soldiers being integrated into the special operative groups to help with cultural outreach.

In 2009, under pressure from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and Gen. David Petraeus, then the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, the Army began to develop Cultural Support Teams.

Last November, the first group of women went through a grueling five-day assessment that tested their physical and military skills, their problem-solving and writing abilities and their psychological and mental fitness. Those that passed moved on to a six-week training program.

And just because the women are part of the cultural support program, they are not immune to risk as the article starts with the news of the death of one of those women in a bombing.  She was attached to a Ranger’s squad.

“Any day that they’re walking into a village and engaging with the population they are at the same risk as those Special Forces, SEALs, or special operators they’re detailed to. So I would say it is not for the weak-kneed,” said Michael Lumpkin, principal deputy assistant defense secretary for special operations. “These women are on the front lines in very austere locations.”

******

Erica Tsang tweeted this article about using Georgette Heyer books as a guide to touring London.

From the steps, look left towards The Athenaeum Club. It was built over the western corner of the Regent’s demolished Carlton House and Wellington, who was a member, had a mounting block, which is still there, placed on the opposite pavement.

Walk left into Pall Mall, and first right into St James’s Square, where Deborah Grantham’s aunt had her gaming parlour in Faro’s Daughter. Numbers 20 and 33 are by Robert Adam. At 16, on the site of what is now the East India Club, the Regent was dining with Mrs Boehm on June 21 1815 when Major Percy, four French eagle standards protruding from the window of his post-chaise-and-four, clattered into the square to confirm the victory at Waterloo.

 

Related posts:

1. Wednesday Midday Links: Simon & Schuster Let’s Go Half of its Sales Staff
2. Wednesday Midday Links RoundUp: Big Changes at Simon & Schuster
3. Thursday Midday Links: Apple’s iBookstore Pricing Is $9.99 too

I’ve heard of the “Little Lady” books but no, shame on me, I’ve never read them. But when a friend of mine told me about “Swept Off Her Feet” and that she’d really liked it, the blurb got me interested in it. After she assured me that there’s no faux brogue dialog I was in. I’ll go ahead and say that if I’d read this back in March when it was first released, it would have been a recommend read from me. As it is, it’s probably going to be on my best reads of 2011 list.

Evie Nicholson loves her work as a buyer for an antiques dealer in London. But as she’s more interested in and, as the blurb says, “spins fanciful attachments to” the personal history of the little items, what she comes back from auctions with doesn’t always meet her boss’s approval. But her sister’s invitation to a ball held in a Scottish castle might be Evie’s road to redemption.

Kettlesheer Castle is the site of an annual ball held on Valentine’s Day and Alice’s boyfriend Fraser is the boyhood chum of the current McAndrews heir, Robert. Alice has finagled an invite for Evie to go and assess certain family pieces for possible sale as the upkeep on the drafty old place is enough to bankrupt small nations. Past McAndrews were the types who never threw *anything* away, so antiques dealers have long salivated at the thought of what might be tucked away in the Castle. Evie’s boss is hopeful of some spectacular finds and sends her up to Scotland with strict instructions on what to look for. Evie, being Evie, is more drawn to the personal stuff though she can’t seem to get tough businessman Robert interested in his family’s past or the romantic daydreams Evie spins about the place.

With the ball fast approaching, family and friends – including one calculating young woman who’s angling to become the next mistress of Kettlesheer – are in a frenzy of preparation even as Evie is down on her knees checking dovetailing. Will she find the spectacular pieces needed to save the family finances? Can she get Robert to view his heritage as more than a draining, lifelong anchor around his neck? And what will the two of them do about the feelings obviously simmering between them and waiting to boil over during the magical candlelit gala?

I see this book as a sort of evolution of the standard Chick Lit book. Evie has a tatty job but it’s one she really loves. It’s pretty obvious from early days who the hero will be and Robert is front and center through most of the book. Evie and Robert don’t initially hit it off as Evie has a semi-crush on Fraser – who is clueless about it and devoted to Alice the entire book – but these two don’t snipe at each other either. Robert is aware of the soundtracks Evie plays in her head as she swoons around Kettlesheer and imagines herself in Jane Austen settings there but though he shakes his head and doesn’t understand or share her romance with the place, he never mocks her – just gently teases her at times.

Robert may be a tough businessman but he’s also a bit of a romantic – at least for Evie. He’s practical to her daydreaming but they “fit.” The scene where he shows up before the ball with some of his great grandmother’s fancy gewgaws for Evie to wear, then sits back and enjoys watching her get excited over them shows me that he does know what she likes and that he wants to please her. Points to him for wanting to make his woman happy. Even if they hadn’t shared a kiss yet. When that “plane going down” kiss did happen, I sighed.

Most everyone in the book is good hearted, though not in a Sally Sunshine way, and even the calculating young woman is treated kindly and isn’t a total beeyotch just for the plot. The story is also brimming with humor and I literally laughed out loud more times than I remember. The teaching-Evie-to-reel scenes were fantastic though I winced when I read how true to life they were. Since I have two left feet as well, I can sympathize with her bewilderment during the Eightsome Reel and would probably end up on my ass after a twirling as well. Though after watching a full fledged 51st Division Reel on youtube, I think I’d be itching to get out and try it myself. The Hamilton House sounds like flirty fun too.

This is a happy book. A fun and funny book that put a smile on my face. I think Robert and Evie will be a good team together with each complimenting and bringing out the best in each other. The humor comes from the situations in the story and not from Evie being made to pratfall for laughs. The characters seem fairly realistic and not exaggerated merely for the plot. And it’s an excellent sign when I finish a book and immediately want to go back and reread my favorite bits. Think I could get an invite to the Kettlesheer Ball next year? A-

~Jayne

Goodreads | Amazon | BN | nook | Sony | Kobo

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas
2. Review Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon
3. Friday Film Review: Conagher

Having recently read and enjoyed a historical novel set in the 16th century and dealing with intrigue and assassins, I was intrigued when In a Treacherous Court fell into my hands. Realizing it was a debut sharpened my interest, since I’m always on the lookout for new authors, especially those whose work is something a bit different from straight historical genre romance.

The principal characters of In a Treacherous Court are Dutch artist Susanna Horenbout and English courtier John Parker. The “treacherous court” of the title is that of Henry VIII. John meets Susanna’s boat as it arrives from the Netherlands; she has accepted a position as a personal illuminator to the English king (it was unusual at the time for a female to hold such a position, and Susanna has to continually deal with prejudice against her for her abilities and her sex).

Parker’s first meeting with Susanna is anything but smooth, as Susanna has just had a man die in her arms. On the ship’s departure from the Netherlands, an English merchant by the name of Harvey raced on board at the last minute, pursued by several men. He got away, but was wounded, stabbed in the lung. Over the course of the journey, Susanna nurses him until he eventually dies. Before dying, Harvey entrusts Susanna with a secret for the king’s ears only. On hearing this, Parker tries to get Susanna to reveal the secret t o him; he’s the king’s man, after all. But Susanna is stubborn and willful; she promised Harvey she would only tell the king himself, and so that’s what she’s going to do.

Parker and Susanna set off for London, but are repeatedly attacked, both on the way and once they’ve arrived (even after Susanna manages to give the king Harvey’s message). The number of attacks really is overkill; Parker mentions at one point that they have been accosted five separate times (I think in the course of a little over 24 hours), and I was glad he gave  a number so I didn’t have to count them up myself. It was a little ridiculous. Still, it serves to let Parker know that whatever enemies Susanna has inadvertently acquired, they are extremely desperate and determined to silence her. It also makes Parker realize how protective he feels towards this woman he’s known for so brief a time.

There were things I liked about In a Treacherous Court - competent writing, sympathetic characters and a good eye for period details, to name a few. The things I didn’t like were fewer but a bit more problematic. The plot – having to do with machinations of the Duke of Norfolk and the pretensions of Richard de la Pole to the throne of England – was both confusing and a bit boring to me. I just didn’t really care that much what these characters were doing or why they were doing it. While I normally say that good writing and characterization trumps a mediocre plot, in this case the writing and characterization lacked the spark to really carry the story and overcome the ho-hum plot.

I did like that Susanna was a strong heroine; during her many moments of peril, she fights hard for herself rather than just waiting for Parker to save her. Their relationship worked fairly well for me too; each recognizes the attraction pretty quickly and there is not a lot of drama or mental lusting involved in their getting together. The only downside to this is that there is then not much tension in the romantic relationship, and since I didn’t have much of a stake in the suspense plot, I did miss having something really compelling to latch onto. To be fair, the book never lagged or bored me, but on the other hand it never really engaged me entirely.

The depiction of Susanna’s devotion to her craft was well-drawn but could’ve been fleshed out a little more (no pun intended); the same could be said of Parker’s troubled backstory. I wouldn’t even have minded a bit more about court life, and I have to say that the court of Henry VIII doesn’t interest me that much, maybe just because I’ve read so much about it already. Basically, I think the book needed a little bit more of something to round out the suspense plot, which really spent the majority of the book front-and-center.

The author’s note at the end informs the reader that John and Susanna were real people, who really did hold the positions noted in the book and and who eventually married. Knowing that they were real makes me wonder if a more interesting story could’ve been crafted from their courtship and marriage.

Ultimately, In a Treacherous Court  felt short and a bit unfinished to me – I think it had to do with it taking place over a short period of time, and so much of that time being taken up with action. Readers who really like suspense and action and/or stories set in the court of Henry VIII, and who appreciate quiet, subtle romances may respond more positively than I did. As it was, my grade is a B-.

Best regards,

Jennie

Goodreads | Amazon | BN | nook | Sony | Kobo

Related posts:

1. Leigh Court, erotic historical…
2. California Supreme Court Rules Same Sex Marriage Constitutional
3. Penguin Faces Off in Plagiarism Suit

• Nook 2
• Amazon Tablet

*****

Free ebooks this month:

• 5/1/2011 to  5/31/2011 Long Hard Ride Lorelei James
• 5/1/2011 to 5/14/2011 A Little Harmless Sex Melissa Schroeder
• 5/15/2011 to 5/28/2011 Fortune’s Deception Karen Erickson
• SEALed with a Kiss by Mary Daughtridge
• A Tailor-Made Bride by Kare Witemeyer

More here.

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Amazon has launched a new publishing imprint featuring romances called Amazon Montlake.  Connie Brockway is the debut author in that line.  According to Ms. Brockway, this cover is just a placeholder.  One hopes so because otherwise I have my doubts about the success of that line.  More genre specific imprints are coming from Amazon.  We wrote about Amazon as a publisher in 2009:

This was correctly read as Amazon’s foray into the marketplace as a publisher, not just a retailer. While this may have been a surprise to some, it seemed like the natural progression of Bezos’ moves in the last few years.     We actually discussed this just last month wherein I suggested the next logical step for Bezos was to become a publisher.

AAR has an email from Brockway about why she’s made an about face from her recent announcement that she would self publish.  There is no mention of whether she received an advance (and my guess is that she did not) but she will get a book in print and audio as well as on the Kindle platform.  She will also receive editing support.  Again, no details of the terms of the deal are released.

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Revenue reports are coming in from all publishers:

Harlequin:

The company’s total first-quarter revenue increased to $351.4 million from $335 million, and Torstar said sales from Harlequin, which publishes romance novels, more than offset declines in other divisions such as lower print advertising revenues.

Simon & Schuster:

“We got out of the gate faster than usual,” said S&S CEO Carolyn Reidy led by sales of e-books that doubled in the quarter and accounted for 17% of revenue with digital audio adding the other one percent (about $28 million). The steep increase in profits was attributed to lower shipping, production and returns costs as well as the “painful” belt-tightening that S&S has implemented over the last 18 months plus the higher sales, Reidy said.

Hachette (PDF):

However, “EBook sales momentum was considerable” in the first quarter of 2011, “up 88% compared to Q1 2010, accounting for approximately 22% of revenue in the United States.” Brisk sales in the U.S. for reading devices at the end of 2010 are a key factor in the explosive growth of digital reading in the first three months of this year. HBG has had 23 titles on the New York Times eBook bestseller list since the list’s debut on February 13, 2011.

Pearson (parent of Penguin):

Pearson PLC (PSON.LN) said Thursday that revenue rose 9% in the first quarter, bolstered by its extensive education and publishing operations, and reiterated that it expects sales, margin and earnings growth in 2011.

Pearson said the FT Group has made a “good start to the year”, and that Penguin “continues to benefit from consistently strong publishing and a leading position in digital reading, with ebook sales doubling in the first quarter” from a year earlier.

Related posts:

1. Thursday Midday Links: More on Amazon and Macmillan
2. Thursday Midday Links: Another self pub author scores big deal
3. Thursday Midday Links Roundup: Education is moving toward digital

I negotiated a deal with Dorchester that allowed for: 1. The immediate reversion of all of my print rights, and 2. The reversion of all of my digital rights as of 11:59pm 12/31/10.

This means that only Brian, not Dorchester, would have the right to distribute and sell those books going forward.   However, Dorchester appears not to have been abiding by this agreement, but instead putting Keene’s books up for sale on digital retailing sites.

Except that it wasn't, because since then, Dorchester has repeatedly violated that agreement. Since January of this year, unauthorized digital editions of my work have been sold via Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and Sony. These digital editions were not made available for sale until well after the rights had reverted back to me. Dorchester's response, in each case, has been to blame someone else and assure me that "they are looking into it" and that I would be "financially compensated" and that "it wouldn't happen again". Except that I haven't been financially compensated and it keeps happening again. In the most recent case (iBooks), Dorchester blamed their vendor, Libre Digital, but provided no documentation verifying this. An employee at Apple cast doubt on this explanation. In the case of Kindle, they blamed Amazon.com. Again, an employee at Amazon cast doubt on this. The ebooks were sold under the Dorchester brand. They were sold even though Dorchester does not have the rights to them. And it is Dorchester, rather than their vendors or booksellers, who are ultimately responsible. I have been patient. I have been understanding. The first time, I allowed that it could indeed be a mistake. Four times later? It is no longer a "mistake". It is theft, or at the very least, staggering incompetence. And as of this writing, I have not seen financial restitution for these unauthorized sales, nor have I received a valid explanation of how they occurred, nor have I heard what steps the company will take to prevent it from happening again.

Brian doesn’t have the means to sue Dorchester for this action and frankly even if he did, I doubt Dorchester would even pay the judgment.   Dorchester’s response to Brian has been evasive and then silent.   Dorchester’s response to fans has been to disable comments on their facebook page.   Brian is calling for a boycott of Dorchester books.

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Jessica Verday has a follow up to the debacle with Running Press and the editor of Wicked Pretty Things, Trisha Telep.   Even though Running Press invited Verday to resubmit her m/m short for inclusion in the anthology, Verday has declined because she doesn’t feel comfortable supporting any royalties going to Trisha Telep for this project.   Telep, if you recall, stated this in response to Verday’s going public about Telep’s request to make the m/m story into a m/f story.

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The good news is that Connie Brockway is finally going to be publishing Giles Strand’s romance story.   The bad news, for some readers, is that this will be digital only.   Brockway announced the news via the All About Romance blog that she was taking the self publishing route.   Brockway left the historical field to write a couple of contemporaries and then returned with at least one historical from Signet.   The current contractual terms offered made it easy for Brockway to decide to self publish.   Hopefully a return to her romance origins will revitalize the career of a favorite of many romance readers.

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Paul Biba from Teleread posted his notes from #pubtip (a mini conference) which was really just a conversation between Michael Healy (currently the registrar for the registry created by the now rejected google book settlement) and Carolyn Reidy, the CEO of Simon & Schuster.   I thought Reidy’s comments were interesting because she believes that the focus on publishers should be proving themselves to authors, not really developing relationships with consumers.

Biggest challenge is for publishers to prove they have a value to authors, not to become a B to C business. Have always been a B to C business – they always did this but now they are more directly involved.

Other notes include that S&S doesn’t sell to libraries because there they “haven't found a business model that they are happy with” and sales for books are half digital in the early selling periods.

Related posts:

1. Thursday Midday Links: Thinking of Buying a Dorchester Book?
2. Friday Midday Links: Leah Hultenschmidt, Don D’Auria Let Go by Dorchester; Only Keeslar Remains
3. Thursday Midday Links: Dorchester Dis-invited from RWA

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Internet friend, Nate the Great is a new contributor to eBooknewser, a division of MediaBistro. Nate is a very knowledgeable, pro consumer guy and it’s exciting to see him get an even greater platform than his already wonderful blog, the Digital Reader.

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You know how traditional publishing moves slower than the sands of time on a soap opera? Simon & Schuster is launching a social media site aimed at chic lit readers. True, it is in the UK and maybe chick lit is selling like hotcakes over there.

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Self publishing phenom, Amanda Hocking, will make her top 50 USA Today besteller list debut with three novels: Switched, Torn and Ascend. All told, Hocking sold over 450,000 copies of her nine self published books in January.

More astounding: This January she sold more than 450,000 copies of her nine titles. More than 99% were e-books.

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According to this article, HarperCollins may cease production of CD audiobooks altogether.

In a move that may indicate a major shift in format, HarperCollins is only publishing two out of its 150 spring audio titles on CD. The rest will be available as digital downloads.

A spokesperson for Harper says that they are not discontinuing the CD format and may decide later to publish a few more titles on CD. However, the move is being interpreted as a sign of things to come.

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Bloomsbury has announced a company wide initiative to acquire world rights whenever possible.

"We want world rights where ever possible," Charkin said, adding at a minimum Bloomsbury expects to acquire all English-language, German and Arabic rights. And, Charkin noted, Bloomsbury won't do a deal that doesn't include digital rights. He said the number of titles released in the U.S. annualy could rise as books acquired in other regions are released in the States. In addition to the global reach of Amazon, Apple and Google in digital distribution, agents and printers have also expanded internationally, Charkin said, making it imperative for publishers to keep up.

*****

In piracy news, Astatalk has deleted its fiction downloading board:

Posting of Fiction related Releases (downloads) is strictly forbidden because in most cases it turns to the problems for copyright owners.

ANYONE who creates fiction related releases/requests Will Be Banned

Thank you for understanding

FYI: you can’t ask for links to other sites and no discussion about other sites and etc. Also posting INFO that privately releases books is also banned

PS. WE CAN FIND OUT WHAT YOU PM TO EACH OTHER…..

PS. AGAIN I am not responsible for this mayhem..I only posted this WARNING for your own good

My guess is that Astatalk was talked to by the FBI as there have been reports of increased scrutiny by the government directed toward sites were there is commonly known downloading of copyrighted material.

Related posts:

1. Wednesday Midday Links: Simon & Schuster Let’s Go Half of its Sales Staff
2. Wednesday Midday Links: Authors Releasing Backlist Titles in Digital
3. Wednesday Midday Links: BN Is All About the EBook

“As of now,” Simon said coldly, “the Incident never occurred. And I will personally destroy anyone, anyone at all, who says it did. Do I make myself clear, gentlemen?”

The twins gaped open-mouthed at him and then exchanged bemused glances with each other.

“You cannot make the great blot on her reputation simply vanish, sir,” Charles finally ventured carefully.

“Watch me,” said Simon.

Allromance.com is the sponsor of this bookchat.   You can buy the book here and during the bookchat, allromance.com will be sponsoring giveaways of digital books galore.

The chat will be Tuesday 28 December at 9:00 pm EST-10:30 pm EST. Unlike previous chats, the author won’t be joining us (woe!) but we will be partying the entire time, with giveaways, discussion, polls (have you seen the polls?), old skool cover madness, and general discussions, like what title could possibly top “Earl of Blade?” Maybe “Duke of Sharp Badassery.”

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This is really ominous. In 2011, new state tax structures could require a duplicate tax on digital books: state tax where you live and state tax where the digital book resides until it is downloaded.   The increased sales tax could be as much as 21%!!!!   I would stop buying digital books. I would probably buy paper books and make my own digital book from the paper copy.   This is really distressing.   Maybe someone will point out in the comments that this is totally false (or is that just wishful thinking?).

Those 10 million Kindle owners are NOT going to be happy.

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Simon & Schuster enjoyed   a better year in 2010.   Digital gains were up but sales still lagged because of the “soft” brick and mortar retail sales.   International sales were growing as well (another reason to end the geographical restrictions).

In 2010, S&S children's publishing group "is booming and their results this year are the strongest in their history," Reidy said led by gains in teen, fantasy and middle grade categories. Highlights in the adult group included higher sales for authors such as James Lee Burke, Kresley Cole, Vince Flynn, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner. The international group is thriving "as never before" she added with its U.K. division in particular having a solid year with sales up by more than 18% in a market Reidy said has declined by 3%.

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Apparently authors do not like to get a rejection letter that doesn’t have any explanation but if you want an explanation, you might get one that you don’t like.   Here are some examples of famous authors’ rejections.

6. Mary Higgins Clark

Back in 1966, the young romance author was trying to sell a story she called "Journey Back to Love." It didn't go well, however; her submission to Redbook came back with a rejection from the editors, stating "We found the heroine as boring as her husband had." Ouch! The piece was eventually run as a two-part serial in an English magazine, and Mary Higgins Clark currently boasts forty-two bestselling novels.

I’ve got to remember that line…

Related posts:

1. Thursday Midday Links: Thinking of Buying a Dorchester Book?
2. Thursday Midday Links: Is Google Book Settlement Dead?
3. CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE CHAT Butterfly Swords Book Chat with Jeannie Lin

NY Times has another reporter who has admitted to lifting text from other journalists, specifically from the Wall Street Journal. He apologized and said he thought it was his own material. Slate made up its own list of excuses by plagiarists.

But apologies might be a thing of the past. Author Helene Hegmann was accused of lifting and she retorted that her copying was a remixing of material.

Although Ms. Hegemann has apologized for not being more open about her sources, she has also defended herself as the representative of a different generation, one that freely mixes and matches from the whirring flood of information across new and old media, to create something new. "There's no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity," said Ms. Hegemann in a statement released by her publisher after the scandal broke.

Hegemann’s book is finalists for the $20,000 prize of the Leipzig Book Fair in the fiction category. The jury picked her, even knowing the plagiarism charges.

Harlequin seriously wants everyone in the world to read its books. The latest is that they have opened an office in Turkey. ” HARLEQUIN TURKIYE will officially open its offices in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district in February, 2010.”

ComputerWorld has an article about how awful Adobe’s EPUB encryption is because even though the EPUB container might be standard, the proprietary systems are not, from the nook to the Sony and now Apple who will encrypt with Fair Play. Breaking the Amazon monopoly would be easy if publishers would just abandon the ridiculous DRM which only serves to punish legitimate customers by confusing and hampering their reading enjoyment. Sarah Wendell calls DRM, Driving Readers Mad. It’s so true.

Kindle for Blackberry is available but only in the US.

According to Kindle Daily Nation, a note in the Blackberry announcement indicates that Kindle will be available on the iPad. (Via Teleread).

File this under horribly creepy but some school is accused of spying on kids in their home through the students’ mac books. According to the lawsuit posted at Boing Boing, each family was issued a personal laptop equipped with a web camera by the Lower Merion School District. One student was disciplined for engaging “in improper behavior in his home” and they cited “as evidence a photograph from the webcam.” If this is true, I can’t even begin to express the egregious nature of the privacy violation.

Lori posted about things that pull her out of a book.

Men in their late 30′s or 40s that can have sex For. Ever. And Ever. And Over. And Over. Sorry, but unless you’re mainlining Viagra, that’s just not happening. Male recovery time is the perfect time for pillow talk. Just sayin’. (I will add a sour grapes note that this didn’t bother me until my late 30s. Heh.)

Sarah is taking a survey of where people buy their books. I buy at Amazon, Fictionwise, Books on Board and Barnes and Noble.

2009 wasn’t a very good year for Simon & Schuster. It’s revenue was down 7% and its operating income declined 42.5%. Caroline Reidy blames the assault on the hardcover and noted that all paperback formats did better which means in 2010, you’ll see more trade paperback reprints and originals. Here’s hoping that S&S jacks those ebook prices up high. (sarcasm).

Related posts:

1. Friday Midday Links: Courtney Milan’s Win Win for RWA
2. Friday Midday Links: Steve Jobs Claims Publishers to Punish Amazon
3. Friday Midday Links: MWA Breaks Up With Harlequin

She prefers not to lose a potential sale because an ebook version is not available and also does not want to “create an adversarial relationship” with ebook readers or “train those readers that instead the best way to get that digital copy is to download it for free.”

But she also sees the need to maintain control over pricing but admits that publishers have very little pricing knowledge, primarily because they don’t have a relationship with the end user.   Interestingly, the article suggests that publishers will vary price according to perceived demand which means that authors with lesser demand will be priced lower than those with higher demand.   This could work to benefit and hurt the author. It will be interesting to see how ebook royalties will be structured given that the list price (usually the basis for the royalty) may fluctuate a good deal.   In any event, this was a great article and I know it’s a paid subscription but it’s worth it.

In the comments to that article, Robert Gottlieb of Trident Agency, argued that windowing was important and that maybe agents should sell erights first and then print rights. For big name authors, it’s possible that they would have the power to decouple the digital from the print. After all, would Macmillan really want to lose an author like Janet Evanovich over that issue? For most authors, though, this might not be realistic. Of course, the entire battle is over the big name frontlist sales so it may not matter what “most” authors would be able to negotiate.

Under Amazon’s Kindle publishing platform, Gottlieb could garner his author 70% of the royalty off a $9.99 priced ebook. Or he could go through Rosetta Stone and perhaps have a 50/50 profit sharing deal for the ebook alone. One question is whether the ebook would be windowed before or after the print publication. If it is before, then I would think agents would be contacting NYTimes and USAToday to get all pre-print sales counted toward the bestseller list.

Authors are probably more sensitive to demand and pricing than the publishers are due to the direct contact authors have with readers.

Simon & Schuster has been quietly laying off people for the last few weeks. PW reports that Beth Wareham, director of bookbook and lifestyle, is the latest casualty. Wonder if Amazon is hiring editorial staff yet.

A word about Amazon. This has been a very difficult time. Many of you are wondering what has taken so long for Amazon and Macmillan to reach a conclusion. I want to assure you that Amazon has been working very, very hard and always in good faith to find a way forward with us. Though we do not always agree, I remain full of admiration and respect for them. Both of us look forward to being back in business as usual.

"We don't like the Amazon model of selling everything at $9.99," Murdoch said. "They pay us the wholesale price of $14 or whatever we charge," he said. "But I think it really devalues books, and it hurts all the retailers of the hardcover books."

Touchco uses a technology called interpolating force-sensitive resistance, which it puts into displays that can be completely transparent and could cost as little as $10 a square foot. The capacitive touch screens used in the iPad and iPhone are considerably more expensive. Unlike those screens, the Touchco screens can also detect an unlimited number of simultaneous touch points.

This is pretty interesting. I would not have guessed that Amazon was going to invest heavily in the hardware, but this move signals a serious intent to compete, not only on a platform basis, but an entire delivery system. I think it also signals that Amazon is not likely to open its doors to epub books or go DRM free. AllThingsD says that this might be the end of Amazon as a dominant force in book retailing.

Related posts:

1. Monday Midday Links: The Macmillan Amazon Fight Post Mortem Continues
2. Game On: Amazon Removes the Buy Button for All Macmillan Books
3. Thursday Midday Links Roundup

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related posts:

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

The postcard tins are a great gift item but I don’t have anyone to send snail mail to. Should I start up a prison correspondence?

I’m going to give the notebooks and the address books away on the blog (am keeping the notepads myself). Just as a disclaimer or non disclaimer, I purchased these myself and Harlequin, which does many nice things for Dear Author, did not pay for them or give me any kind of discount.

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Simon & Schuster saw sales increase in the last quarter to $230.4 million which is up 2.4%.   The improvement in sales was offset by “higher write offs of advances for author royalties” which I understand to mean that there were a number of author royalties that ended up being a loss for S&S.   Ebook sales are about 4% which matches that of HarperCollins.   CEO of S&S is disappointed by the fall sales.   Read more at PW.

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Internet users aren’t actually more isolated than not internet users according to PEW.

Instead, researchers found that online participation and mobile phone usage leads to people having larger and more diverse core discussion networks. (Discussion networks are defined as being the places where we can discuss “important matters” with friends and confidants.)

I know I’ve often read comments from readers stating that the internet has allowed them to find other romance readers and that their reading interests have grown and not diminished because of the online romance communities.

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New Fiction blog notes that the BN prices for ebooks are more expensive, almost uniformly more expensive, than the prices for ebooks at Amazon.   If you buy a lot of books this will add up. I noticed this last week when I was purchasing some backlist titles that the Amazon books were almost $1.00 cheaper than Barnes and Noble except for BN’s promotional pricing.   I did receive an email today from BN proclaiming that it has reduced pricing for over 100,000 books and that it is upping its affiliate program to 8% commission.   I find that the BN affiliate program is difficult to use so I doubt I’ll change.   (I’m far too lazy even for an extra 2%).

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Jessica, at the Dystel & Goderich blog, notes that online promotion can be effective well past the initial release date and that it can help move beyond publishing’s reliance on the blockbuster model:

Connecting an author with communities of like-minded readers on-line requires about as much virtual legwork as finding these folks in the real world, but especially as traditional media contracts, it’s well worth exploring. On-line promotion does not necessarily rely on a rolodex of producers and editors. Anything that helps move the industry away from the blockbuster model, which makes failures of far too many books, is, in my eyes, welcome.

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A recent study out of the UK claimed that file sharers represented the largest portion of legitimate music purchasers.   This has flustered media and IFPI, an international music trade group put out a release to counter the study.   Ars Technica notes that few outside the music industry actually believes that file sharing is the main cause of revenue decline including folks at the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media.   However, this has not stopped many countries in engaging in treaty talks about copyright under the guise of stopping counterfeiting.

News of the secret treaty talks leaked earlier this week and present a real shocking list of super restrictive copyrights which seem to be to overturn the fundamental concept upon which our criminal justice system is premised as well as poses unreasonable responsibilities on the shoulders of ISPs which will result in much higher internet costs.    Apparently the secret treaty would like to dispose of fair use ; block internet access; take down websites on accusations (not proof) of infringement; criminalize copyright infringement even when there is no commercial gain; ban any legitimate circumvention (like cracking the DRM so you can read a book on your iPhone as well as your laptop); and so on.   It’s pretty frightening.

On the one hand, I find it outrageous and on the other, I hope it gets passed.   Restrictive copyright helps large corporations and not content creators. Restrictive copyright actually works to chill creation and I can see this ultimately leading to fiction being primarily work for hire.   Copyrights will be too valuable for individual content creators to have them (much like comic books).

See you all over at fanfiction.org, that is unless you’ve watched a Youtube video with a song overlaid on it because then you’re internet will have been cut off.   Actually, there won’t be a Youtube.   Maybe I’ll buy those postcards after all.

Related posts:

1. Friday News Roundup: Positivity in the face of poor quality is cruelty of its own
2. Tuesday News Roundup: Sony & iRex Out With 3G Wireless Readers
3. Wednesday Midday Links RoundUp: Big Changes at Simon & Schuster

• Pamk
• stephanie
• Rexe
• Julie
• Sharon

I have sent you an email.

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Inside the Higher Ed blog has another piece on technology and scholarship. This time, Alex Golub laments the shift of readers from paper texts to digital texts arguing that scholarship includes making the texts part of your physical environment, something that the current slate of ereaders do not foster:

Except textbooks. I have to admit I am scared silly by the idea of a generation of students so alienated from material they are supposed to be immersed in that they rent digital textbooks that they do not intend to keep, cannot dog ear and underline, and otherwise feel totally alienated from. Even the current trend of students not underlining in books so as to preserve their resale value strikes me as appalling. Taking ownership of your education — and indeed, just learning how to read closely — means making your books part of your physical environment.

I never marked up my textbooks. I always took notes in a separate notebook and was religious in keeping my texts as clean as possible. The digital textbook would have appealed to me if I had the option because I would have interacted with the text at a higher level. Possibly I never attained true communion with literature and reading as Mr. Golub suggests is achievable. What is an immutable truth, however, is that the current state of the hardware market does not yet meet the needs of students. Dedicated devices are really for the leisure reading market.

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Jason Boyett pointed out the really restrictive guidelines for the Harlequin Steeple Hill line and author Tess Mallory chimes in about how the Christian Book Association is suppressing good Christian fiction. Funniest comment, to me, was Jen’s who said that her childhood was a Steeple Hill romance. Mine too, Jen. Mine too.

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Simon & Schuster, who is struggling to get into the black this year, has hit on a new way to sell books: chapter by chapter. Starting with the non fiction book by Dr. Michael F. Roizen and Dr. Mehmet C. Oz, S&S will sell individual chapters for $2 to $3. Best part? Those digital chapters will be encrypted with some kind of DRM. I’m not totally opposed to S&S’s new business venture. There are some craft books in which I would just like one chapter or a cookbook where I want just one recipe. What works for non fiction, though, would be disastrous in fiction.   The serial was lauded for its inexpensive nature.

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Two things happened to Barnes and Noble yesterday. First, it had a conference call with investors trying hard to convince them that as the reading public moved toward ebooks there was still space for retailers like BN. Second, BN was hit with a lawsuit from Spring Design who had presented an idea of a dual screened ebook – eink on top and lcd on the bottom – reader based on Android operating system to Barnes and Noble under a non disclosure agreement (NDA). If you click on the link you can see how visually similar the two devices are even though there is some difference in functionality. I would think that Spring Design would file for injunctive relief and if successful, it would halt the sales of the nook which is currently the best selling item for Barnes and Noble.

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Cindy S and Jessica posted about where they get their books. I love these posts and hope I see more of them around the internet.

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Borders is offering an “in stock guarantee” which means that any book that is not in stock but is listed on the Borders.com site will be shipped to the customer for free. Not sure exactly how this is going to work, but it’s a nice offering for readers and customers.

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Fun links:

• Christopher Walken reads Lady Gaga
• Artist makes a dragon sculpture using real bones. This looks awesome.

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BordersMedia tweeted that it would be supplying free WI FI to its customers by October via Verizon so you can buy your Sony eBooks in the store like you can buy Barnes and Noble ebooks from the new iRex reader. What you won’t be able to buy, though, is the new Sarah Palin memoir which the publisher won’t release in ebook format until 6 weeks later. Kassia has more to say about this decision at Booksquare.

Speaking of ebooks, the Kindle + University experiment = unhappy students. The student newspaper at Princeton quoted students and professors alike being frustrated with the Kindle’s lack of features. It’s clear that the current slate of ereading devices are not well suited to the academic environment.

"Much of my learning comes from a physical interaction with the text: bookmarks, highlights, page-tearing, sticky notes and other marks representing the importance of certain passages -’ not to mention margin notes, where most of my paper ideas come from and interaction with the material occurs," he explained. "All these things have been lost, and if not lost they’re too slow to keep up with my thinking, and the "features’ have been rendered useless."

Publishers are looking for new ways to monetize their content. According to a survey, US publishers are more inclined to want to charge smaller amounts of money for smaller amounts of content:

Charging readers a flat rate that would allow them access to all of a information provider’s online content similar to a traditional subscription model was favored by 25% of respondents, especially those from Europe. Paying for snippets of content through micropayments was favored by 23%, with that method backed the most in Great Britain and the U.S. The premium model, under which users would pay for selected online content, found support from 16% of respondents.

It might be that US publishers think readers will pay for serialized content where readers will be charged per chapter or section. I think readers are much more included toward the subscription model akin to what Disney is offering for its books – a monthly fee for access to the entire backlist.

Over at slashdot, someone posted a link to a recent ruling by a federal judge that game renderings of football players where expressive works and thus protected under the First Amendment.

In a further bastardization of the classics (and because no hit cannot go unexploited), there comes news of Little Women and Werewolves.

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One thing I find interesting about the Crawford layoff is that she was a well known women’s fiction editor and I know that Pocket was looking for women’s fiction writers.   Will McKenna take the lead in this or will Pocket hire someone for less money than they were paying Crawford.   Maybe Friedman can hire Crawford for Friedman’s new publishing venture.

Ross Rubin offers up his opinion that Sony can become a leader in the ebook industry if it can squeeze a 3G or wifi capability into the midrange units. Rubin also suggests that the Pocket Edition will be the big winner this fall with the bad economy.

Japan is spending $21B to build a power plant in space that will beam power back to Earth. Sounds very SFF to me!

Shannon Stacey responds to the article by Candy Tan at SmartBitches who was riffing off Meg Cabot’s hatred of the required reading list. Given the number of commenters at the Smart Bitches site who claimed that their teachers killed every desire to read, it’s a miracle that they are reading today. As for me, I read Romeo and Juliet, Beowulf, and Ayn Rand in high school because my English Lit professor made us. I still remember her instilling in me a love for the classics. Required reading lists are like vegetables. Good for you and an acquired taste. I think our friend Robin might have some further thoughts on this in an op piece later this month.

iRiver is working on cutting a deal with European and US Publishers to bring its iRiver Story eink reader to the US. It’s currently priced at $300 but only available in Korea. The Story looks like an elegantly designed device.

GMAIL went down yesterday and I feared that half the world ground to a halt. It signals the danger of cloud computing. When your access to information depends on someone’s computer health, it can mean problems from time to time.

JMC has a post about characters’ names and authors seeming desire to make them more and more unpronouceable and exotic.

Naming your protagonist Jayné and then telling that it is pronounced Zha-NAY? Monumental WTF moment.

CellStories.Net believes the future of publishing rests in cell phone delivery of short content. Having experienced Daily Lit which delivers short chunks of text in one sitting, I have to say that I am not a fan of this type of publishing but it’s something to watch for. When we did our digital publishing seminar in D.C. Kassia Kroszer of Booksquare talked briefly about chunking and I could see a number of blank looks in the crowd.

In distressing news, BBC wrote up a survey regarding girls and dating:

Nearly 90% of 1,400 girls aged 13 to 17 had been in intimate relationships, the NSPCC and University of Bristol found.

Of these, one in six said they had been pressured into sexual intercourse and one in 16 said they had been raped.

Lynn Raye Harris writes in her blog about winning the Harlequin Presents writing contest and gives her insight as to what she thinks makes a Harlequin Presents book. (There are three parts starting with this one.). Having read Harris’ debut book, I’m inclined to think that she knows what she is talking about as the Spanish Magnate, Red-Hot Revenge fit solidly into the HP ouvre.

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Barnes & Noble will be distributing Smashword books via the BN ebook store. Authors who publish through Smashword receive 85% off the net. The partnership allows for greater visibility of Smashword books. I’m not sure if BN is accepting all the Smashword books or some selection as the press release mentions a “Premium Catalog.” Given that Smashwords is a self publishing tool, I would think that either BN or Smashwords would have to curate the content to some extent or risk degrading the useability of the BN ebook reading store.

SF Guy has a spectacular list of Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, and SFF book releases for the month of September. You know, in case you were looking around for something to read.

Apple announced that the theme for its September news conference is “Rock and Roll” which seems to given credence the rumors that the Tablet will not be released this fall. It, instead, will be all about the new iTouches and Apple’s new music container.

Hachette’s CEO talks about how publishers will have to stand “big” against retailers in the downward pricing of ebooks. Further, Hachette is looking at acquiring other houses. The article suggested that Hachette is in a good position to acquire Simon & Schuster should CBS need to sell it. S&S quietly laid off one book editor last week and this article suggests that there are more “workforce reductions” coming.

Cleantech Group suggests that if you are reading and buying more than 23 books over a five year period that it is greener to go digital.

Lori Drew’s conviction for cyberbullying was nullified by judicial dismissal of the suit. While Drew’s harangue of a teen that led to the teen’s suicide was awful, the use of the terms of service to provide grounds for criminal charges would have led to much abuse.

Random House, despite laying off people and reorganizing its business divisions, still managed to lose money for the entire first half of 2009. Profits were down the first half of 2009 by 35.5% worldwide. RH did see an upturn in sales over the summer and have high hopes for the Dan Brown book.

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

Sandra Guy of the Sun Times writes about a recent study projecting the closure of over 10,000 retail stores in 2009 including about 400 bookstores. The downturn in the economy is affecting the decisions people make about non necessary goods and apparently books are in that category.

Wal-Mart is looking to be a one stop online shopping portal akin to Amazon. Friends of mine admit that they could buy books places other than Amazon but that they order so many non book related items that they can’t leave Amazon. Wal-Mart wants to have customers like those. Wal-Mart has dabbled in music downloads and I have to believe that if they want to be a one stop shopping portal that digital books will be available at some point through Wal-Mart.

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I think part of the strategy is to not only for publishers to expose themselves to Scribd’s audience but hopefully to reduce the possibility of Amazon becoming a dominating market force in digital publishing.

I linked to the Crain’s article because I thought this passage was particularly illuminating:

Ms. Pittis said that piracy is “probably pretty low in this country,” but worries about it more overseas, where millions of Scribd users live and where “there’s such a culture of piracy.” Asked to identify a book damaged commercially by piracy in another country, Pittis said she couldn’t, but added, “I don’t want a HarperCollins title to be the test case.”

Simon & Schuster’s prices are high. For example Seduce the Darkness by Gena Showalter has the “retail” price of $9.99 and is being sold at a fake “discounted” rate of $7.99. I say fake a) because someone from Simon & Schuster informed a reader at Dear Author that S&S was going to lower its ebook prices to be in line with its mass market equivalents and b) because it is a price higher than the mass market equivalents.

It will also be interesting to see if S&S maintains its policy to release the digital versions one week after the paper release. (If so, S&S, I think that is wildly stupid).

I hope that Simon & Schuster isn’t lying about its pricing to individual consumers who inquire about it. I have written for a clarification. I hope I get a response.

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