Archive for August, 2007
Dear Ms. Bowling,
I’ve been eyeing your books for a while and decided to take the plunge with this one. After all it’s short (actually extremely short) and discounted at Fictionwise as it’s new so I figured I didn’t have much to lose. After reading it, I’ll be trying some of your other books. 
As I said the novella isn’t long but I feel like I got to really see and know the protagonist, Amelia Sinclair, in that short span of time needed to read it. It’s also got a really good period “feel” to it.
Amelia Sinclair has lived all her life with the decorum expected of a 19th century banker’s wife. She remained faithful to a husband who never loved her, raised three children, and turned away the love of a lifetime. Now widowed at the dawn of a new century and facing her second fifty years, she decides she can no longer deny the love that has burned within her for decades. Can she throw away the only life she has ever known in order to find the only life she has ever wanted?
She’s a woman who’s always …
Barnes & Noble has decided to stock copies of “If I Did It” in stores as well as selling the book online. Initially, it had claimed that lack of customer demand was keeping it from the retail shelves. Since the announcement a few weeks ago of the publication of the book, Beaufort Books has received 116,000+ pre orders.
Via JMC and the Washington Post.
 A little bird told me that Ms. Kent’s birthday is today and therefore I thought it perfectly appropriate to post her first sale story, particularly when she was giving away multiple copies of her books in print, galleys and other readerly associated items to celebrate her birthday. I think it is always fun to go to a birthday party and come home with a present. Mosey over and help Kent celebrate her birthday. Kent’s latest release is The Perfect Stranger
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 I actually have two first sale stories, one being the true first, and the second being the "firstâ€? everyone remembers. As with many aspiring authors who are members of RWA, I entered a lot of writing contests after joining the organization. One of those was the 1992 North Texas RWA Great Expectations Contest. The final round judge in my category was Catherine Carpenter of Meteor Publishing. She picked my entry as the winner, and asked to see the full manuscript. I sent it, and she …
Dear Ms. Camp:
 I don’t recall reading you before although your name sounds familiar. I may be getting you mixed up with another author whose initials are CC (kind of like how I get Connie Mason and Cathy Maxwell mixed up in my head. I know, it is completely wrong but what can I say?). The The Marriage Wager is a standard regency historical that is adequate but not thrilling.
Constance Woodley iis not quite a poor relation but she doesn’t have enough funds to live on her own and thus she lives with her spiteful aunt and neglectful uncle. She is forced into acting as the de facto chaperone to her cousins.
Lady Francesca Haughston is the one of the leading lights of society whose marriage to Lord Andrew Haughston left her with a pile of debts. She dabbles in matchmaking and in return for helping couples find the right life companion is often rewarded with a costly gift that she pawns. A friend of hers, the Duke of Rochford, challenges Francesca’s boastful claim that she could make …
The boy wizard is still defeating the needy teenage girl but she’s still hanging on to the number two spot. The new entry to the list was To Scotland, With Love by Karen Hawkins. It was a mid month release and debuted at number 41. Next week should be more interesting as August 28 was a big release day.
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPré (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic), $34.99, No. 1 (Peak 1).
Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown), $18.99, No. 2 (Peak 1).
Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown), $8.99, No. 7 (Peak 7). Moved up from position No. 9 from last week.
New Moon, Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown for Young Readers), $17.99, No. 10 (Peak 10). Was 17 last week.
Almost Dead, Lisa Jackson (Zebra), $7.99, No. 12 (Peak 2).
Ricochet, Sandra Brown (Pocket), $9.99, No. 15 (Peak 5). Paperback release of hardcover.…
Usually we try to provide a recommendation list that has a little variety but this month, it’s all historicals. In my rush yesterday to post our recommendation list, I totally forgot two authors that I had read a long time ago and loved. I am an idiot.
 I thought this one came out next month, but in double checking, I realized that the release date was late August. Eve Kenin breathes new life into the urban fantasy world with Driven whose post apocalyptic vision of the future (or alternative dimension) balances intricate world building with character development. Raina Bowen must win a race of truckers delivering cargo across a highway controlled by Duncan Bane. Duncan holds a weapon over Raina’s head and if she can win, she can remove that weapon and seek vengeance upon Bane. Wizard, a mercenary, appears to complicate and help Raina at the same time. She’s not quite sure his motivations but she doesn’t care so long as he doesn’t prevent her from gaining the ultimate prize. Together Wizard and Raina learn about …
Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Books a Million (BAMM) all experienced profitable quarters due to the scads of people buying Harry Potter books.
Borders
Sales in the quarter ending in August 2007 rose 10.4%.
Excluding the sales of Harry Potter, the same store sales for Borders showed only a 0.4% increase compared to the previous year sales. With the Harry Potter sales, Borders sales were up 9.7%.
Via ShelfAwareness.
Barnes and Noble
Earnings for Barnes and Noble rose 9% on the spine of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Excluding the sales of Harry Potter, Barnes and Noble had a same store sales increase of 1 percent.
Barnes and Noble expects to have a loss of 6 cents to 10 cents per share in the upcoming quarter given that same store sales growth is flat (or nearly so).
Via MSNBC.
Bamm
Books a Million experienced a 9.6% rise in net sales with a 6.6% gain in same store sales. I could not find an article that parsed out what the gain would have been without Harry Potter but given the Borders and Barnes and Noble results, I would suspect that most of the growth was due to Harry Potter.
Via Stockhouse.
*the same …
Dear Mrs. Simonson,
 You’ve only written a few Regencies yet all have been ones I’ve enjoyed. As I’ve not heard of anything new from you in years, I guess I need to look into trying some of your mysteries. For readers unfamiliar with your books, I’m glad that this one has been reissued in ebook form and hope it will inspire a new readers to try you out.
When Lady Meriden’s eldest stepson and husband die within days of each other, the estate passes to the second stepson. No one has seen him in years, yet he inherits everything, including his father’s gambling debts and guardianship of his seven siblings. Jane Ash rushes to her aunt’s aid. Months go by before the new baron comes, and Jane is left to cope with her ailing, self-dramatizing aunt and bewildered cousins, all of whom have problems. Lady Meriden alternately spoils and neglects them. Julian, the heir, has his own problems and wants nothing less than to play the heavy parent to his unknown siblings. When he does come, will he and Jane form an unexpected alliance that leads to romance?
This is …
Dear Ms. Rose:
 This may be a week of talking about under appreciated gems. You consistently put out strong suspense stories with an qually strong romance. I also appreciate the thematic approach to have your books.
Die for Me’s theme was families–the families that we create and the families we are born with. Regardless of what you feel about your family, their actions can reflect on you.
Vito Ciccotelli, a detective from Philadelphia, comes from a large family. His parents are still alive. His brothers are very close, at least one of them has lived with him at one time or another. Vita has always believed that he would have a family as well. Vito is unafraid of love. To some extent he embraces it and what it would mean for the creation of his own family.
Sophie Johannsen, an archeologist, has a family is one that she created and was, in part, created for her. Her mother figure is her grandmother, a former famous opera singer. Her father figure is her uncle by marriage. Her view …
Denise Brown has decided to not go on the Oprah show on September 13. According to Brown, at the time she agreed to the show, the book was still being shopped around. Brown wanted to make the case for the book’s non publication but now feels that appearing on the show would be “moot” given that the publisher is rushing to make the book available on September 13 to coincide with the show itself. Beaufort Books, the publisher of the tome, has said it will print 125,000 copies to meet the 116,000 pre-orders. Barnes and Noble still refuses to stock it in the stores.
Via NewYork Times.
Dear Ms. Gayle,
 When Jane forwarded to me our copy of your first release My Summer of Southern Discomfort I wondered if she’d read it first and what she might have to say about the legal aspects of the book. And then I wondered if this was going to be a “trash the South” story. I also pondered if the title could refer to the humid, heat wave we’ve been sweltering through for most of the month of August. The answers are 1) no and not bad, 2) no and 3) yes the heat was mentioned. It’s also one of the nicest surprise reads I’ve had this year. Since I am lazy and the work has already been done for me, I’m going to steal this nice synopsis from Carol Haggas at Booklist:
Having suffered professional and personal humiliation at the hands of her boss and lover, promising young attorney Natalie Goldberg beats a hasty retreat from the prestigious Manhattan securities law firm where her career precipitously derailed from its fast track and surprises everyone by taking a low-paying, demanding,
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Dear Ms. Goodman:
 I’m never sure a) why I started reading you so late (only two years ago) and b) why not everyone has caught onto your genius by now. If His Kiss Is Wicked is another solid entry into your catalog of published books.
I don’t want to give any of the plot away because what happens is quite a surprise and I wouldn’t want to ruin that for the readers. My summary, thus, is a bit vague. Emma Hathaway is a gentleman’s daughter who went to live with her uncle and her cousin, the beautiful Marisol, a few years ago upon the sudden and accidental deaths of her parents. Her cousin is flighty and tends to engage in flirts with men not her fiance. Emma agrees to pretend to be Marisol and put an end to the most recent flirtation. What happens at the meeting pushes Emma to seek out Restell, a man who solves problems.
Restell Gardner is known to be a bit poor, a bit disreputable, and a bit of …
The Novel of Formation
The novel of the same title by Charles Dickens is a bildungsroman, a novel of formation following a protagonist from childhood to maturity. In some cases, it might loosely be described as a coming of age story although it generally follows a protagonist from childhood to some significant period beyond adulthood.
A genre readers’ bildungsroman is the formation of their expectations through reading similarly situated books. At a smaller level, the formation of expectations can be reduced and assigned to an author or a series of books.
Series Books Foster Expectations
Reader expectation is fostered by series books. When an author writes single titles that are loosely connected, there is no continual emotional investment in the characters, but rather the author’s work. Overtime, the author can either build a relationship with a reader for quality work, uneven work, or bad work, depending on the reader’s response.
With a series where the main characters re-appear from book to book to book, the readers become emotionally attached to the characters more than the authors’ work. Readers become so involved in the characters that they almost become real to those …
On the heels of the Triskelion Bankrupty and the Silk’s Vault troubles, Mardi Gras Publishing will apparently be filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy at the end of this week or the start of next. (registration required). The rights will be returned to the authors but as we discussed previously, the bankruptcy court has the power to bring those rights back into the estate.
Mardi Gras authors do not want readers to be buying the books because they aren’t likely to receive a royalty off the sales.
Dear Mrs. Gabaldon,
 A few years ago when the first Lord John book (Lord John and the Private Matter) was released I made a mental note to myself that I ought to try this one out. After all I had enjoyed Outlander (though got bogged down in the next one and never finished it). Alas, a mental note made was all I did and it wasn’t until Jane mentioned all the goodies she picked up at RWA and hadn’t I read the first book because she had an ARC of the second and did I want it? that I decided to get off my arse and give it a go. What followed was an intense four days of me fitting in snatches of reading time whenever I could despite having to work 10 hour days at work and sleep sometimes. I read. I devoured. I inhaled. I had to know what happened next. I cursed when it was the last second I could leave for work and not be late. In other words, I liked the book. …
The Goldman’s were granted the rights to the OJ hypothetical confession and shopped it to Beaufort Books, a sometimes vanity press where authors contribute monetarily to the publication of their books. The Brown family is not happy about the publication of the book. Oprah has booked the two camps for a high charged Springer like episode. Fred and Kim Goldman will face criticism from Denise Brown on September 13, 2007.
Grand Central Publishing (formerly Warner Books) is an all-format, all-genre trade publisher. We're the house of Nicholas Sparks, David Baldacci, Brad Meltzer, Lolly Winston, Preston & Child and many others. We have several imprints including 5 Spot, where we publish smart women's fiction and nonfiction such as Knitting Under the Influence by Claire LaZebnik, and the Forever imprint, where we publish romance.
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We've got a very exciting fall coming up for romance!
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Die for Me by Karen Rose: For those of you who love edge-of-your-seat suspense, Karen Rose is the perfect author for you. Her books are gritty, tightly-plotted, and action-packed. She began her career on our Forever list, and is now published on the GCP mass market list (where we also publish Sandra Hill and Dorothy Garlock, among others.) We're also repackaging Karen's backlist to reflect the new, edgy look of Die for Me. (September)
- The Serpent Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt: This is the third and final book in Elizabeth's "Prince� series. They're historical romances, taking place in the
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 I received notice this week of an issue with Silk’s Vault, an epublisher, failing to make payments to its authors. I did email Silk Vault and received no response but given that I have two individual reports of royalty payment failures, I felt it was important to offer these incidents up for the community’s consumption.
Camille Anthony recently went public regarding the non payment of royalties for books she has contracted with epublisher, Silk’s Vault. Since the publication of her novels, she has never received her royalties on time. As of the writing of her blog post, she hadn’t received royalty payments at all for her sales in 2007. Her first quarter royalty statement sent to her (without the accompanying payment) does not include the first quarter sales of books sold at Fictionwise (506 copies). She has not received as second quarter royalty statement. When the owner was confronted by Ms. Anthony, Ms. Anthony was told that she would be paid when the owner was able. This is a contractual violation. Ms. Anthony’s contract requires payment of royalties no later than 45 …
Dear Ms. Howson:
 When you sent me your book to read, you said that it was a Young Adult Futuristic Romance. I didn’t need a blurb or anything else since I don’t know if I had ever read a YA Futuristic Romance and was quite intrigued. I really liked your voice, the story, the world, but was disappointed at the development of the romance.
Linnet is a privileged girl who lives in some type of futuristic earth setting. There are two distinct classes of people – those who live above the pollution in the sky and those who live below the pollution on the ground. I really liked the play on the “upper” class and “lower” class concepts giving them both literal and figurative meanings. The wealthy have moved themselves away from the smog because the pollution was killing vegetation, causing impurities in the water, and generating deformities in people.
Linnet’s family has enough money so that they live entirely above. Everything from their schools to the nurseries that grow their food are in the upper areas of the atmosphere. But all of living creates waste …
Dear Ms. Hoyt,
 Many readers (including Jane and Jayne) have fallen in love with your debut, The Raven Prince. I wish I were one of them, but unhappily, I have to report that I closed the book feeling that the fan bus had left the bus terminal without me. As I sit here, figuratively waving to all those folks whose faces are plastered to the bus windows, wondering how to explain to them why I couldn't get on board, the bus turns smaller and smaller, until it's a dot on the horizon. I look around. Yup, I'm all by myself out here.
The Raven Prince takes place in eighteenth century England. It's the story of Edward de Raaf, the temperamental Earl of Swartingham, and the widow Anna Wren, whom he nearly runs over with his horse one day. Shortly after that, Edward finds himself in need of a new secretary, and since he doesn't give his steward, Mr. Hopple, much time to come up with one, Hopple hires Anna, a woman.
It doesn't take long for …
I was at Barnes and Noble the other day and there was a display by the kids’ play table of two pop up books: one about dinosaurs and one about sharks. The covers are hard but slightly padded and they had a kind of old fashioned illustrated look to them. The interior featured wonderful 3D imagery with each page featuring one large pop up and several small ones at the outside corners of each page. I was sure that these books were $60 or more but instead, they sold for under $20. It seemed like a bargain to me and it is. The production costs are 2-3 times that of an average book . The tot isn’t quite old enough for these but I was tempted to buy them and save them for when she is.
The Wall Street Journal had a write up about these books in today’s online journal. The original publisher of these pop up books on steroids was Candlewick Press and it began with Dragonology in 2003. …
 Cafescribe is trying to make its ebooks more appealing by sending all purchasers a scratch and sniff sticker to place on their ebook reading device. The smells include old books and coffee. I admit to having my share of scratch and sniff stickers and minus the grape ones, they all smelled horrible. Plus, who wants to clutter up their ebook reader with a bunch of stickers? Is this like the bumper now? Or has Cafescribe too many fond memories of the Trapper Keeper?
Via Endgadget.
 Award-winning author Patricia Sargeant knew from the age of 9 that she wanted to be a writer, but her dreams of being a published one didn’t come until after rejections and long waits. Despite six years passing between the completion of her first manuscript and her first sale, Sargeant persevered. Her hard work has come to fruition and with one book under her belt, September sees the launch of her first trilogy featuring firefighters with On Fire.
Her first romantic suspense, You Belong to Me,won third place in the 2006 Reviewers International Organization’s Award of Excellence in the Favorite Debut Novel Category.
Born in the West Indies and raised in New York City, Patricia now lives in Ohio with her husband.
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 I’ll always remember my first sale call. It was around 9 a.m., Wednesday, March 1, 2006. I was at work in my office trying to figure out how to get rid of a co-worker who’d turned a two-minute question into a 30-plus-minute impromptu meeting. To my great …
Dear Mrs Sorenson,
 Way back in the mists of time when I was a college student, I was part of the Honors Program at UNC-Chapel Hill and one thing we had to do was take one Honors course a semester. My sophomore year, I picked one about Istanbul. Now that was a great class: Interesting, not too much work and an easy A. Not at all like my organic chemistry classes. So, in a roundabout fashion, that’s why when I saw where your book was set, I knew I had to give it a try.
Travel photographer Connor Stark captures the inanimate beauty of Istanbul from behind the safe distance of a camera lens. But it’s the lively tour guide Natasha Plakouris that captures his imagination. He is destined to work alone while she’s tethered to her group of tourists, until a twist of fate changes their itineraries.
Connor has what many would consider a dream job. He can go anywhere he pleases, gets paid to take beautiful pictures of fabulous places and no one is riding him to be here a certain day or go …
You can’t keep a good wizard down, not even with a love triangle between a needy teenage girl and two supernatural heroes. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows moves back into the number one position.
Only two new books on the list of note: Play Dirty by Sandra Brown, debuting on the list at No. 8 and Suzanne Brockmann’s Force of Nature showing up in the 22 slot. The mid month release date works well for authors. I understand Eloisa James’ next book, An Affair Before Christmas, is to receive the mid month release (November 13) in an effort, likely, to move her out of the extended NYTimes list and into the top 15.
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPré (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic), $34.99, No. 1 (Peak 1).
Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown), $18.99, No. 2 (Peak 1).
Play Dirty, Sandra Brown …
Dear Ms. Laurens:
 In the early days, I read your books the moment that they came out but after the 8th or 9th Cynster book, they began to lose their appeal to such a degree that when you made the move to hardcover, I left myself behind. Since the hardcover move, I’ve read only three Laurens books. I think that it was the breather that made me appreciate in Beyond Seduction what made me a fan in the first place.
Your historical romances are richly detailed and your characters are well thought out. I can see you making conscious decisions about even what types of clothes your characters wear and what type of gifts they would find appealing. I believe that type of writing shows a lot of respect for the reader and the genre. At your best, you show us why these two individuals, Gervase Tregarth and Madeline Gasciogne, belong together. While Beyond Seduction is not your best (Devil’s Bride and A Secret Love will always …
Dear Ms. Novik,
 I’ve now found out that even a lesser Novik book is still pretty good. But this one should come with a warning to load up on lots of chocolate, a glass of wine or some Prozac before starting. Jaysus, there were a lot of depressing events to read and, for a while, every time I started a new chapter things just seemed to get worse for our intrepid British Aviators and their marvelous dragon, Temeraire.
The story starts off well enough in China were book two had ended with Temeraire and his crew, including his Captain Will Laurence, defeating the sinister plans of a Chinese prince to overthrow the throne. By doing so, they’ve made an implacable enemy of Lien, the Celestial dragon companion of the prince. Her rage extends past Laurence and Temeraire to include anything British. While waiting for favorable winds, Temeraire’s dragon transport is badly damaged by fire soon followed by a letter instructing Laurence to proceed to Istanbul with all speed to collect three dragon eggs which the British government has bought from the Sultan. What follows is …
Wal-Mart positions itselfto be a force in the digital music business in which Apple ITunes holds a more than 70% market share. To challenge the big gun who is now third in the overall music sales, Wal-Mart has begun to sell high quality (256 ) songs from EMI at a lower price point. While Apple is selling DRM free EMI songs at iTunes for $1.29, these same songs at Wal-Mart sell for $.99 and are also DRM free.
With Wal-mart offering DRM free music clearly in an attempt to lure customers away from Apple, it seems to make sense that it would offer lower priced ebooks in the future to complement its print based book business. I can hope that the future also holds DRM free ebooks.
According to an Associated Press-Ipso poll held in August, one in four American adults did not read a book in 2006. The demographics of who reads falls largely by class and gender lines. Women who are better educated with higher incomes tend to read more, with those who are liberal reading slightly more than conservative Republicans. The 27 percent of non readers tend to be men (nearly a third compared to a quarter of women), older, less educated, lower income, minorities, from rural areas and less religious.
The most read type of book? Popular fiction, histories, biographies and mysteries were given by half while only one in five said that they had read a romance novel. Poetry, politics and classical literature were read by only 5%. Men prefer non fiction while women read more in nearly every other category.
The book business sold approximately 3.1 billion books last year worldword which was an increase of less than 1 percent. This article made me quite sad, not for the book business, but for the state of reading in the US. With the aging baby boomers, this number could decline dramatically in the upcoming years …
Dear Ms. Boyle:
 I haven’t read many of your books, but each time I start one, I think to myself, why haven’t I gone on a Boyle glom and then I get to the end feeling one part happy and one part dissatisfied and I think its the latter feeling that drives my buying decisions. Love Letters From a Duke was a fun, sweet, and humorous romance whose flow was interrupted by frequent summary monologues but worse, we weren’t privy to many of the love letters which purportedly exchanged between the hero and heroine.
When Felicity Langley was 17, she wrote to the Marquess of Standon, the future Duke of Hollindrake, and suggested that they were a well suited pair and should marry. The recipient of the letter was not the Marquess of Standon as he was off fighting for his country. Instead the Marquess’ grandfather and current duke received the letter and with his secretary embarked on a four year letter writing exchange with Ms. Langley which culminated in an expectation of marriage.
Upon Hollindrake’s ascension to the title …
Dear Mrs O’Connell,
 I’m still not sure what made me pick up your book in Waldenbooks and decide to try it. I can’t remember if it was turned out on the shelf or if it was just a lucky grab but I enjoyed reading it despite a few problems. I also intend to recommend it to a friend of mine who’s a born and raised Boston girl as it’s as much a novel about that city as it is American Chick Lit.
As much as I liked the standard Chick Lit plot which calls for the heroine to have some throw away job from which she can easily call in sick as the story demands, I’m glad to see that more and more authors are giving their heroines responsible careers. As the owner of a wedding cake boutique, Lauren’s got one of the best I’ve read about lately. Oh, what yummy cakes you described. I got hungry and bewailed my current diet while reading about the scrumptious cakes and fillings and toppings turned out by Lauren’s staff.
As for Lauren herself, I felt like she needed …
TextBookFlix
is a new company that is offering college textbooks for rent. You pay a one time rental fee for the book and you can pay an additional amount if you keep it. If you choose only to rent, the textbook is available to you until the end of your semester. There is no limit to the number of books you rent. The rental fees are approximately 50-60% off the retail price. I don’t know how that compares with used textbook prices.
The site is open for ordering around the clock and your books are shipped within 1-2 business days after placing the order. Returns are just as easy by printing of the pre-paid shipping label online and sending it in the mail.
 The brick and mortar arm of Barnes and Noble will not carry the hypothetical confession of OJ Simpson in his book, “If I Did It”. Borders will carry it in the store and Barnes & Noble.com and Amazon will make the title available online. B&N’s reason for not stocking it in the stores is based on the the store’s buyers belief that there isn’t the retail interest to justify the shelf space.
Via Publishers’ Weekly.
Avon moves forward with its plan to publish original ebook content. It was first learned that original content would be from erotica author Delilah Devlin but a new announcement indicates that bestselling authors will contribute to the ebook only publishing arm.
Victoria Alexander’s ebook original is entitled Lady Amelia’s Secret Lover and included with your ebook purchase is a video that features the author discussing the plot and characters. It’s sort of like DVD with the directorial commentary. The book will sell for $3.99. The original erotic ebook content, released through Avon Red imprint, was originally priced at $3.99 but will now be offered at $2.99. This might be in response to Harlequin pricing its original ebook content at $2.99.
While I love the idea of original ebook content and I like the idea of the embedded video, so few ebook readers play video content and many times technical issues prevent video from being played on devices without specialized software. I think a podcast or audio unencumbered by DRM would be a better idea. Almost every ereading device plays mp3s and an audio …
I love reader blogs and whenever one links to us, I go and check them out. Read for Pleasure began blogging this summer. She has an affinity for numbers, statistics, and, most importantly, books. RfP, as she is known in the commenting world, published a Used v. New article last week on her blog. It was an insightful column with interesting facts and insights. I asked whether I could reprint it at Dear Author and she graciously said yes.
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Amazon.com first started selling used books in 2002. It was a huge success. By 2004, 67% of used books sales were online–a higher percentage than any other product category. (Only 12.7% of new books sales were online.)The Author’s Guild urged its members to de-link Amazon in protest, and sent an open letter to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon:
If your aggressive promotion of used book sales becomes popular among Amazon’s customers, this service will cut significantly into sales of new titles, directly harming authors and publishers.April 9, 2002
Bezos in turn emailed Amazon’s used booksellers:
We’ve found that our used books business does
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Dear Ms. Gaffney,
 Your newest novel, Mad Dash, brought home how much I miss your voice in Romance. The thoughtfulness and delicacy of your prose, the sense of fullness and vitality you portray in the fictional worlds of your novels, remind me why I began reading that genre in the first place: because the wondrous complexity of emotionally intimate relationships is endlessly compelling. All of the novels of yours I have read – and this is my first foray into your "women's fiction� work – express this truth in both emotionally and intellectually satisfying ways.
Mad Dash is no exception, and perhaps it even proves the rule. Told primarily through the alternating perspectives of Dash and Andrew Bateman, the novel tracks Dash's 20-year itch, her restless unease in a life made comfortable but no longer satisfying after the death of her mother and the departure of her only child, daughter Chloe, to college. In Dash's dramatic reconstruction of her own life, she was the center of her mother's universe – as Chloe is in Dash's – and once the twin stars in Dash's world …
Nesya Shapiro Blue worked on the documentary “Against Pornography” but that didn’t keep Amazon from listing two hardcore porn films, “Fantasy in Blue” and “Dreams of Candace Heart” as part of her producing credits. The correct producer is Nancy Blue but despite repeated requests for correction, Amazon, the owner of IMDB.com, never responded. Shapiro Blue is suing Amazon based on claims that her reputation was “severely tarnished” and that she lost out on film opportunities because of the errors.
This case has really interesting ramifications if it is ever litigated given that IMDB relies, in part, on user added information. IMDB does promise to correct errors if brought to its attention.
Sometimes, especially when two or more people have similar or identical names, correct credits can be associated to the wrong person. If this is the case, please identify all the credits that belong to one of them and we’ll move the incorrect ones to the other person(s) sharing the same name
Ultimately the court may decide whether a website owner can be held responsible for the dissemination of inaccurate information which could be harmful to a person’s reputation. In the past, this …
 The surprise British sensation, The Dangerous Book for Boys, achieved a new pinnacle when the rights for the book were sold to Disney and producer Scott Rudin (”The Queen” and “School of Rock”). The problem is that there is no story in The Dangerous Book for Boys. It’s a how to manual of reclaiming some past idea of manhood which includes camping, riding bicycles, and skipping rocks. There are chapters on grammar and a list of useful Latin terms and Shakespeare quotes. What there is not is a plot, central characters, a climax or the accompanying denouement.
The script will be made out of whole cloth and the only thing that will resemble the book? Possibly the font that is used to advertise the movie. Disney and Rudin apparently want to capitalize on the sense of nostalgia (where everything that happened 50 years ago must be better than today) and hope to drive the millions who bought the book to the theatre in an attempt to recapture lost youth. One of the authors, …
Update: I was emailed that Ms. Studts has begun a new venture called Magickal Media, a web design corporation. While there appears to be no corporate filing under such name in Arizona, GoDaddy’s whois information shows a company out of Scottsdale Arizona (same county as Suprise) as the registrant (DomainsbyProxy.com).
One thing that occurs to me is that if there was mingling of funds between the personal accounts of the Studts and the corporation, it might be that the corporation is an alter ego and thus the Studts might be personally responsible for those debts.
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The Arizona Republic reported on the Triskelion bankrupcty on August 17, 2007. While most of the article is a rehash of things that we have already covered here at Dear Author, there are a few details that might be of some interest. Kristi Studts, the owner, lauched Triskelion Enterprises in 2004. She lives in Surprise, Arizona. At one time Triskelion had "a stable of nearly 100 international authors." The Trisk Bankruptcy Trustee notes that the financial decline began when Triskelion attempted to make the move from ebook publisher to print publisher with authors’ royalty payments bouncing or …
Dear Ms Ivey,
 I bought “Beaudry’s Ghost” a few years ago (when LTD Books was still in business) and have had it on my IPAQ for almost as long. I’ve got a long list of books TBR on that sucker. I needed something different to read and thought, “Ghost story. Not too many of those being written in these days of vampires, Vampires, and more VAMPIRES! Why not?” Turns out to have been a good choice.
Jared Beaudry’s enraged spirit has been roaming the Outer Banks of North Carolina for over 130 years, hungering for the one thing he cannot have–revenge against the mad Confederate officer who took his limbs, his life, and worst of all, his honor. During a reenactment of the Civil War battle in which he died, Jared takes a desperate leap of faith–setting in motion a deadly chain of events nothing can stop. Taylor Brannon can only stand by, helpless, as her entire reenacting unit is taken over by spirits of long-dead Civil War soldiers. Terrified, she has two choices. She can run, or she can stand her ground and try to ensure the safety
…
Dear Ms. Spencer:
 This was a library book and while it is much more romantic and erotic than the Ukiah Oregon books, it was very confusing. Tinker features a heroine of the same name, derived from her full name (Alexander Graham Bell) and her skills (an 18 year old female genuis). She was created through the manipulation of ovum and seed by her grandfather. I didn’t quite understand where she gestated but in any event, Tinker is a completely scientific being. She owns a scrap and salvage yard in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh is a city that spends part of its time on Elfhome and part on Earth. Every 28 days, Pittsburgh returns to Earth – it is called Shutdown and it lasts for 24 hours. During Shutdown, an elf runs into her scrapyard being chased by magical beings – Foo dogs. (part of the myth in this story deals with Japanese mythology). The elf is Windwolf, an elf who Tinker wrangled with years before. She believes that she has a life bond with him and that if Windwolf dies, so does she. She …
 I’ve traveled a bit in my time and I never go anywhere without a travel book, but sometimes I end up buying more than one because each travel book has its own strengths, and, of course, its own weaknesses. Lonely Planet, one of the better guidebooks on the market, is using digital technology to address those issues by allowing customers to create their own guidebook. Starting with its Latin America guidebooks, users can download free chapters and access others for a fee between $2 – $5. The idea is that if you are going to visit Belize and Guatemala, then you don’t need the chapters for Panama and Costa Rica. The cost for the individual chapters is based on the overall cost of the book, meaning that you aren’t getting charged more money to make your own copy.
I think this is a genius idea and an innovative use of digital ebook technology. Since going live in July, there have been over 13,000 downloads of individual chapters of guidebooks.
This is another area in which music has led the way. You used to have …
 Sandals Resorts and Harlequin teamed up to run a cover model contest for real couples. The aspiring couple had to write a 50 word submission on why their love was everlasting. Patrick Combs and Deanna Latson, married 11 years, won the contest and “all-expenses paid trip to Sandals Grande Antigua Resort & Spa, where they were photographed for the cover of a forthcoming novel in Harlequin's Everlasting Love series. The book, “The Valentine Gift” by Tara Taylor Quinn, Linda Cardillo and Jean Brashear, will be published on Valentine's Day 2008.”
Their entry:
Eleven years of an endless honey-moon. 132 months of breakfast in bed. 3984 days of wine and roses. 95616 hours of making love by the sea. 5,736,960 minutes of enduring romance. And 344,217,600 seconds of being with the one who completes our soul = Patrick + Deanna, Forever.
Via Publishers Weekly.
 Bill Schneider is the author of three self published books. Like many self published, debut and midlist authors, Schneider is toiling in obscurity. So he did what any possibly neurotic, desperate, and not terribly ethical author would do and began telling people that his book, Crossed Paths, a gay love story set in 1976, was an Oprah Book Club pick. The hoax was taken to another level when he posted on his website that he was on Oprah in May 2007 and provided a five page transcript of the conversation.
Schneider was confronted by journalists at Weekly Dig about the lack of information regarding his appearance on Oprah, his poor Amazon ranking, and the fact that no one has seemed to have heard of his book. Schneider replied that he thought the episode aired on June 18 but that the reporter should check with his publicist. (I found the idea that Schneider had a publicist even a hoot). Harpo spokeswoman refuted Scheiders’ claim.
Since the hoax has been exposed, the transcript has been taken down but through the power of Google Cache, its still alive …
Dionne Galace has been blogging about books since June of 2005. She writes funny, funny reviews, fake blurbs, and commentary on the covers of books in the romance genre. I’ve spent many an hour on her blog reading her entries while tears of laughter streamed down my face. When she shared with me that she had sold a story to Samhain called, Skin to Skin, I was thrilled for her and demanded that she share her story of how she felt when she made her first sale. You can buy “Skin to Skin” today. May the Force Be With You, Sister Dionne. Write on.
* * *
 When I sold my first short story (that would be Skin to Skin to Samhain), I didn’t want to tell a soul. I couldn’t. It was something I wanted to keep to myself for a while. I wanted to savor it. I wanted to wrap it around myself and roll around in bed with it. I sat down in front of a mirror in my underwear and watched my mouth move as I repeatedly said to myself, “I …
Dear Ms. Shin,
 When I read the blurb for your book “A Rapture of Centuries,” I knew I’d be dealing with a hero who somehow has stayed alive for, well, centuries. I wasn’t sure exactly how but I prayed he wouldn’t turn out to be yet another vampire. If I had seen the cover for the book, I’d have had a better idea of what was going on here. In a way the cover is sort of a spoiler and I kind of liked not knowing where you were headed with the story until we, and the heroine, finally find out later in the book.
IRS Agent Noelle Parrish knows how to keep business and pleasure separate. When the death of her latest audit subject leaves her to complete her work with his nephew and sole heir, Antonio Cristobal, she’s only worried about making it back home in time for her 30th birthday bash.
But the seductive and powerful Antonio turns out to be a code section the IRS never addressed, and he’s more than rule-abiding Noelle can resist. Despite her best efforts to stay on task, she is caught up
…
So a couple of days ago, we had the torturous bra implant and today’s gadget news brings us the Fertility Phone. Samsung has applied for a patent for a phone “capable of tracking a woman’s fertile periods.” Despite the fact that the picture vaguely looks like you are supposed to stick the phone where phones are not to go (unless, I guess if they vibrate and then that’s a painful, but personal choice), the phone is supposed to take your temperature and then tell you if its a fertile or non fertile time.
I guess this brings a whole new dimension to phone sex. Aren’t you glad that I don’t just choose to blog about books all the time? (Rhetorical question).
Via Engadget.
Three CNet.com reporters are filing suit against HP for invasion of privacy and violation of fair business practices. In the ll of 2006, Hewlett Packard hired a private investigator and charged some of its employees to hunt down the source of its boardroom media leak. The PI and employees engaged in pretexting which essentially is posing as someone else to obtain person’s obtain financial information. HP obtained, illegally, the phone records of several journalists. It also engaged in monitoring (also known as spying) on the three CNET reporters, as well as reporters from BusinessWeek, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Associated Press.
HP paid$14.5 million to the State of California to settle the civil charges the AG’s office leveled and with the SEC in May that required no monetary fine or admission of guilt.
Tom Perkins, a former HP board member, penned a book called Valley Boy which includes a chapter about the HP scandal.
Via CNET.com.
SourceBooks, a publisher out of Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ stomping grounds in Naperville, Illinois, is joining the ranks of romance publishers. It’s new line is dubbed “Casablanca” and will offer “15 to 20 titles per season, in a mixture of mass market and trade paperback formats.” The editorial manager is Deb Werksman who previously purchased manuscripts for the relationship, wedding, and humor imprint.
The books will be in “all genres of romance fiction, including paranormal, time travel, contemporary, romantic suspense, historical, erotic and Regency.” Werksman told Publishers’ Weekly that she is “looking for books that actually transcend a genre in some way.” Publishers’ Weekly went on to say “Werksman's goal is to launch new authors and ‘pick up authors who are looking for a new direction in their career.’”
 The launch titles are a time travel romance Hundreds of Years to Reform a Rake by Laurie Brown, and two Regency romances, No Regrets by Michèle Ann Young and a reprint of “Cotillion” by Georgette Heyer.
I’m not sure whether …
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