Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary

SB Sarah invited Dear Author to engage in a once a month cross blog debate. Our first was going to be . . . well, I can’t remember anymore, we threw around so many ideas. Out of the THREAD THAT WOULD NOT DIE however, came a very interesting concept about personal attacks and where the line should be drawn, if it could be drawn.

While much of the blog posting is about one particular blog in question, it is used as illustrative of an example that we believed was over the line, in terms of personal attacks. You may disagree. I think this is really an important topic because I see it discussed briefly from time to time. We want to know your opinion as to what is appropriate in terms of criticism.

Please join us, after a deep breath and some chocolate as Sarah says, at the Smart Bitch site for the first of the Smart Bitch/DearAuthor Cross Blog Debate.

Dear Ms Smith,

I’ve loved several of your Regency novels in the past. I liked this one too. But, sad to say, I didn’t love it.

Mary Anne Judson has an idyllic country life, except perhaps that her Uncle Edwin is of a casually larcenous nature. When he liberates an abandoned–and smuggled–cargo of fine silk and finds himself pursued by the handsome London draper, Mr. Robertson, life becomes rather hectic. And Mary Anne suspects there is more to the stylish draper than meets the eye.

Readers who are sick of reading about London Seasons and how to properly address an Viscount’s second son should check into your books. Several of the ones I’ve read have been set in the country or in towns other than London. I get tired of the seeming belief that there was only one city in all of England during the Regency era.

Mr. Robertson is a hero with a secret - but at least he’s not over in France spying. He stays in England and only decodes. I find this a much more likely scenario than a peer dodging back and forth across the channel. …

This Publishers’ Weekly article made my stomach churn. In my agent interview series, I’ve asked the agents whether they think it is a detriment to be a woman in the publishing industry. Most have answered no, but the glum fact is that if you are a woman, you are being paid 60 cents on the dollar that a man earns. The average publishing salary for a man is $99,442 and $63,747 for a woman. Publishers’ Weekly identifies the huge divide in that editors, who are mostly women, are paid substantially less than the management side, comprised of mostly men.

Editorial personnel in the high-priced Mid-Atlantic region earn an average of $51,000, while management averages a much more respectable $140,000. Sales/marketing employees in the region average $69,000 and those in operations earn $60,000.

Is there anyone else who thinks this is backward and should be changed?

Via Galley Cat.

You probably couldn’t miss the business reports of the Harry Potter sales that dominated headlines yesterday. The first run printing was 12 million copies and a reported 8.3 million sold in the first 24 hours according to figures in USA Today.

When I look at the Potter mania, partly induced by the media, partly induced by the publishers, but most induced by the millions of fans anxious to read the books, I sigh with regret. Not because I hate Potter mania, but because I wonder if there will be something like that around for my daughter to experience. It struck me how influential these books were when I read about the girls and boys who started reading at the age of 12 and now they are adults but their whole life was marked by reading a Harry Potter book almost every year of their childhood.

There was no series where I hotly anticipated the release of a book every summer. There was no book mania in my childhood, other than my own self created one. In 2004, NEA released a Reading at Risk study which cited that in the years …

Dear Ms. Martin:

I like romantic suspense and the description of the book which had a bit of the paranormal to it which can make an ordinary suspense a little more captivating. Unfortunately, the book started out with stereotypical characters and never deviated.

Autumn Sommers had a vision once which she ignored and it came true resulting in tragic consequences. Twelve years pass and she is having new dreams of a young girl being kidnapped. Determined to make a difference this time, she identifies the girl and then tracks down her father, Ben McKenzie. Ben is angered that Autumn has raked up this past tragedy his family suffered when his daughter, Molly, was abducted years ago. Confronted with facts that Autumn shouldn’t know, Ben reluctantly joins Autumn in the search and hopeful rescue for his daughter.

Autumn was a fairly standard romance heroine. She was a shy good girl without much sexual experience but she had the floozy best friend. She liked homey things rather than anything trashy (see floozy best friend). Ben was a quality guy. He generally only dated starlets …

Don’t like the covers on your books (me neither)? Kate Spade has some downloadable covers for your books. I don’t know if they will last or whether they fit a paperback as they use hardcovers for examples but they are free. On Kate’s summer reading list is one that Jayne read and recommended: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

Via Styledash.

Lately I’ve been getting a number of Shelfari invitations from authors who think I might be interested in viewing their virtual bookshelf. While I like to know what people are reading, I’m not interested in getting spam. There was a suggestion at Angie W’s blog that Shelfari overtook your address book and sent out the invitations without your consent.

This sounded so wrong that I was surprised I hadn’t seen something about it on one of the tech blogs I read so I signed up myself and emailed the company. You can opt out of sending invitations but you can also opt out of receiving them too. From the Shelfari folks themselves:

To remove yourself from receiving any future invitations to Shelfari, go
http://www.shelfari.com/actions/emailoptout.aspx.

Jessica Faust of BookEnds, LLC is an agent who knows and loves the romance genre. While BookEnds represents the gamut from romance, women's fiction, mystery, thrillers, and suspense to self-help nonfiction, in Faust’s blog, you can see the attachment toward the genre that we love–romance. When I was at RWA’s National Convention, I had the good fortune to hear Faust speak on the state of erotic romance. She gave it to the authors straight so that they could arm themselves with market information but she also charged them that regardless of the market, a good book will sell.

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Jane: Tell us about your background. What made you decide to become a literary agent? How did you get started in your career? What types of books do you primarily agent?

Faust: I began my publishing career in 1994 as an editorial assistant at Berkley Publishing. The two editors I worked for at the time handled primarily romance and mystery including Nora Roberts. Ironically I had not read a lot of either of these genres, but discovered very early on that I loved them both. I always think I …

Red Sage Publishing was one of the first erotic romance publishers in the market. The first anthology was published in 1995 and since then, Red Sage has gone on to publish 18 Anthologies and one single title, The Forever Kissby Angela Knight. I heard rumblings that Red Sage would be moving into ebook publishing, I was excited because my local stores have never been very good about stocking Red Sage and because they are often stocked in the Self Help section, I forget about them. Alexandria Kendall, Publisher of Red Sage, graciously answered some questions about Red Sage and its new endeavor. At the end of July, we readers should start to see Red Sage ebooks on the internet. I, for one, am excited about this.

Jane: How did Red Sage start?

ALEXANDRIA KENDALL: I started Red Sage in 1994 and our first book was published in 1995. Red Sage means passionate wisdom. Don’t laugh. :) I had attended several RWA conventions and kept hearing the authors complain about their publishing houses not letting them write the sex they wanted to write …

Dear Ms. Howard:

I am a big fan girl and while I haven’t loved your last few books (okay since Open Season), I still look forward to your new ones. While Up Close and Dangerous isn’t going to sit on my keeper shelf with Dream Man or After the Night or the Kell Sabin series, it still was a good read and more romantic than your previous three.

Widow Bailey Wingate is going on vacation, a much needed one. She’s currently the trustee of her two spoiled stepchildren’s trust funds and these two adult children, Seth and Tamzin, make her life hell. She decides to go on a river rafting excursion with her family and takes a corporate jet from J&L Executive Air Limo to get there. Cam Justice (the J in the J&L) has to step in to fly her when his partner becomes violently ill. Cam dislikes Bailey for being cold and stuckup every time J&L has flown her and Bailey dislikes Cam for acting like a superior ass. While flying over the mountains in …