Archive for February, 2007
Best Romance of the Year: Lover Awakened: A Novel Of The Black Dagger Brotherhood, JR. Ward
Worst Read: On the Way to the Wedding (Avon Historical Romance), Julia Quinn
Best New Author: Elizabeth Hoyt
Best Buried Treasure: Jacob: The Nightwalkers, Jacquelyn Frank
Best European Historical: Devil in Winter (Wallflower Quartet, Bk. 3), Lisa Kleypas
Best Medieval: The Silver Rose: A Novel, Susan Caroll
Best Contemporary: Drop Dead Gorgeous: A Novel, Linda Howard
Best Romantic Suspense: Cold As Ice, Anne Stuart
Best Paranormal: Lover Awakened: A Novel Of The Black Dagger Brotherhood, JR Ward
Best Chick Lit/Wom Fiction: Hot Dish by Connie Brockway
Source: AAR-After Hours
I think in an effort to capture the blogging atmosphere, AAR posted the results in a smallish column on its blog site, After Hours, but the smaller column made for difficult reading (or maybe it was the formatting) and the two places to comment, at the blog site or on the message board, may serve to confuse people and split the commentary.
JK Rowling is suing eBay for allowing the sale of pirated ebook versions of her books from the Indian version of the auction site. An injunction was awarded in favor of Rowling prohibiting eBay from listing any illegal auctions. This requires eBay to police the auctions proactively instead of waiting for a notice from the rights holder of a copyright infringing sale. Via Times UK.
I certainly don’t condone any illegal sales of ebooks but I do wonder if JK Rowling could deter some illegal sales by authorizing legitimate e versions of her Potter books for sale. Clearly there is a segment of the market who would not only like such a thing but be willing to pay for it.
2006 Graphic novel sales are up 12% from 2005 totaling $330 million. ジェーン (JÄ?n), a friend of the Ja(y)nes and Janine, is reviewing romance oriented graphic novels for us. Graphic novels are for all ages and include non fiction versions as well. Via Publisher’s Weekly. Gravitation EX
released by TOKYOPOP on February 6, 2007, was Bookscan’s No. 59th selling romance title, beating out releases by Susan Wiggs Summer At Willow Lake and Susan Kearney’s Island Heat.
Shelfari is a Seattle based company that launched quietly last fall to compete with Library Thing, a commonly seen widget used on reader blogs accross the net. Shelfari allows you to input your books, rate them, and show them off on your blog. You can also enter your amazon associates id and earn money off the books on your shelf should a user click on the widget and then purchase the book.
Amazon recently invested $1 Million in Shelfari. It would be great to see integration between the two such that any Amazon purchase was automatically entered into the Shelf. The downside to these types of databases is that it is only as good as the information the user enters which can be quite a hurdle for readers with big libraries. We need to have a low priced bar scanner to assist in the cataloguing of personal libraries (not to mention how nice that would be for insurance purposes).
Liate Stehlik was named the Senior Vice President and Publisher of Avon in October of 2005. Prior to her move to Avon, Ms. Stehlik was a Vice President, Associate Publisher at Pocket. Avon has been a mainstay in the romantic fiction genre for decades. I have treasured keepers from the 80s that were published by Avon. In more recent years, Avon has become synonymous with regency historicals and funny contemporaries made popular by authors such as Julia Quinn and Rachel Gibson. I remember once speaking with an author at an RWA Convention several years ago. She yearned to be an Avon author because Avon authors made it on the New York Times bestseller lists. In February, Avon had three books on the Times Bestseller Paperback fiction list: What Price Love? (Cynster Novels) by Stephanie Laurens, Bite Me If You Can by Lynsay Sands, What A Lady Wants by Victoria Alexander.
 Q. What is the role of a “publisher” at HarperCollins?
A: As I see it, the role of publisher is to be sure that every book on …
 The prospective manufacturers of a new ebook reader posted this picture and the following specs at Mobile Read:
Project of the device for reading electronic books
Screen: 6 “SVGA Electronic Paper Display (not E Ink Corporation)
CPU: ARM7, 73 MHz
SRAM: 1,0 Mb
ROM: 256 Mb (it is used 248 Mb)
USB 2.0
SD/MMC: up to 2.0 GB
Formats: TXT, XML (FB2), RTF, JPEG, GIF, BMP
Weight: 185 gram
Retail price: 165 Usd
The beginning of sales: IV-2007
The important part of this announcement wasn’t even listed and that is this device is to have a detachable front light. If this unit actually can be sold for $165 USD with a front light, this would be a perfect reading device.
 On Thursday night, around 9:30 pm, I finished Annie Solomon’s, Dead Shot, a March 1, 2007, release. I closed the last page and ran to my computer to download every Annie Solomon book that was available in ebook format. My quest to satiate my desire for Solomon romantic suspense books was put to an immediate halt when my search at several ebook websites came up with no results. Not one Solomon title is in ebook format.
I had a yen to read more Solomon but Warner’s inability to provide a digitized backlist deterred my would be impulse purchase. Impulse buying has long been a hallmark of retail sales. 26% of holiday shopping is impulse purchases. 60-70% of supermarket purchases are impluse buys. A research company, UIE, found that nearly 40% of online purchases are impulse driven.
This generation is more into instant gratification than any other, partly because we can get it now. Hear the song, Sleep Won’t Weep by Damien Rice on last Thursdays’ Grey Anatomy? Download it when the show is over and relive the emotional …
Doesn’t it seem wrong that this book is being published by Crown (Random House) and not HarperCollins?
Publishing director at Harper UK, Jane Johnson’s CROSSED BONES, about a London woman who becomes obsessed with the story of a Cornish girl kidnapped in 1625 by Moroccan pirates, to Allison McCabe at Crown, for publication in 2008, by Russell Galen at Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency (US).
But doesn’t it seem even more wrong that a guy is writing as a girl about a girl’s guide?
Film right: Eric Garcia writing as Eliza Brandt’s THE GIRLS GUIDE TO REVENGE, a self-help guide on how women (and men) can exact revenge legally, to Arnold Kopelson Entertainment, in a significant deal, by Barbara Zitwer Agency.
Hmm. A little Secret History crossed with some Stephen King novel?
Will Lavender’s psychological thriller OBEDIENCE, in which college students are called upon to use their deductive skills to solve a fictionalized disappearance of a girl, and they come upon real-life circumstances that mirror the class assignment, to Sally Kim at Shaye Areheart Books, at auction, for publication in spring 2008, by Laney Katz Becker at Folio Literary Management.
Is this a novel or an illustrated book?
Comic book illustrators and writers Greg Hildebrandt …
Nalini Singh created her own meme to generate publicity for her upcoming March release, Visions of Heat (Berkley Sensation). If you post the meme on your blog, you’ll be entered in a contest to win a $50 Amazon voucher and an Advanced Copy of Book 3 of her series, Caressed by Ice. Do it. You know you want to.
Dear Ms. Rose:
 Having read four of your six releases, I feel confident in saying that you consistently deliver a good suspense with a believable romance. You regularly villianize certain professionals (defense lawyers and journalists), but your provocative themes along with strong characterizations make for a non stop reading adventure.
Tess Ciccotelli is a psychiatrist with a promising practice until her patients start killing themselves. What is worse is that her patients seemed to be driven to kill themselves by Dr. Tess herself. Evidence from the crime scenes show hallucinegetic drugs with her finger prints on it; her voice is recorded as taunting the victims. Dr. Tess becomes the prime suspect and her life begins to fall apart as the press villifies her and the licensing board begins to review her competency.
Aidan Regan is convinced that Dr. Tess is at fault for the murders of her patients and sets out to prove it. In the course of the investigation, Aiden’s thinking is changed and he begins to not only believe that Tess is a victim, but he begins to care for her. This makes the real killer all …
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