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

Rupert Murdoch consummated a deal to buy Dow Jones & Co for $5.6 billion and now is urging the board to make the online Journal free. The Wall Street Journal currently charges $99 and is the only major news site that has an online fee now that the New York Times has eliminated the subscription for its Times Select.

Murdoch believes that the Wall Street Journal online is losing ad revenue because of the restricted readership and that the increase of views from the elimination of a fee based access would be offset by increased ad dollars.

Via CNet.com

There has been some tension between romance blogs and the romance website, All About Romance. When I first read the threads over at AAR that turned from why some didn’t like the message board change to why blogs are exclusive and narcissistic, my first instinct was to reach out and say that we welcome commenters and hope that we aren’t exclusive. That’s my opinion still but I realized as I was writing this piece that there will always be some that won’t find Dear Author welcoming or interesting. That a blog, a website, or a message board cannot be all things for all people, least of all a blog.

We do have a viewpoint here at DearAuthor and because I pen most of the opinion pieces, most of the viewpoint that is espoused is mine. Jayne and I write most of the reviews for DA and our opinions vary widely and so do our writing styles so to that extent I think we have some depth but it’s not a great variety such as is provided at a place like All About Romance or Romantic Times.

I admit that when I began Dear …

Dear Ms. Shinn,

This book was so good that after finishing it I kept saying to myself, "This book was so good! This book was so good!" I sat down at my computer to write this letter and like an inarticulate idiot, all I could think to say was "This book was so good!”

Yes, Dark Moon Defender was a very, very good book, and easily the most romantic thing I've read that came out in 2006. Thus far it's also my favorite of your Twelve Houses books, which began with …

As you may have noticed, we use YouTube here for the hosting of our video reviews but next year, that will probably change. Gizmodo reports that YouTube will soon be adding 30 sec video ads to the beginning of video content beginning in 2008. Somehow I think that will lead to a huge decrease in video viewing, particularly in the viral video viewing where videos are embedded in blogs, like the one above that was on Dionne Galace’s today.

What a huge disappointment.

Via Gizmodo.

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) will start selling its product in November. The OLPC project is designed to provide a laptop for every child in a developing nation so that the technology divide would not further impoverish those without. For $399, you can get a funky green and white child friendly laptop delivered to you and one will be sent to child in need. The promotion will last two weeks and ship in time for Christmas.

Hmm. How young is too young for a laptop?

Via Endgadget.

Last week, we were the recipients of promotional insight from author Craig Davidson, whose promotional boxing matches got this reader out her romance genre lounge chair and into the literary fiction part of the bookstore.

This week, we are pleased to share with our readers the thoughts of author Beverly Jenkins and the genesis behind the Pajama Party weekend book celebration. Jenkins has written sixteen books to date. She writes historical romances as well as romantic suspense. Her seventeenth novel, Sexy/Dangerous, was published in November 2006. Every other October, she hosts a Pajama Party weekend for her fans. This year, from October 5 to October 7, Ms. Jenkins will host her 5th PJ Party Weekend.

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The PJ began as idea I had as way to say thanks to my fans. At the time I was receiving so much fan mail it was hard to keep up with it. I thought it would be neat to have them all together in one spot so I could …

Drollerie Press came to my attention when two authors, Joely Sue Burkhart and Imogen Howson, emailed DearAuthor and wondered if we wouldn’t be interested in reading their books. The covers were gorgeous and I assumed that this was some small print independent publishing house. Upon further investigation, I learned that Drollerie Press is a new ebook publishing house that is offering transformative fiction in any genre. Jayne read Joely Sue Burkhart’s romance Survive My Fire and I read Imogen Howson’s young adult offering, Falling.

Both were interesting pieces of fiction that made us interested in more Drollerie Press offerings. One of the owners, Deena Fisher, emailed me with an offer to the Dear Author readership. Any purchase totaling $2.50 or more, the buyer will receive 15% off if they enter the words ” Dear Author ” (without quotation marks). The code is good through December 31st.

Ms. Fisher agreed to answer some questions about the vision and future of “Drollerie Press ”

Q. What is your niche in the publishing market?

Fisher: Mythic arts. Our goal is to showcase great writing in any genre …

Dear Ms. Vaughn:

This was a top seller at Samhain’s My Bookstore and More a few weeks ago. I’m always curious about what other people are reading and so I bought the book blindly (no cover, no blurb) and I had never read you before.

India Powers is a woman who has spent her whole life pleasing her impossible parents only to be overlooked for her less successful older brother. She even went so far as to get engaged to a man she doesn’t love because it was the one thing that really pleased her parents. When India finds her fiance in bed with another woman, she decides that no amount of parental approval is worth a lifetime of unhappiness. She breaks off the engagement to the fury of her parents and heads off to take a vacation on a remote island.

Rafe Santiago and Grant Thompson have been best friends from childhood. Now adults and business partners, Rafe and Grant are weathering Rafe’s nasty divorce. During the marriage, Rafe’s wife constantly made plays for Grant, sometimes attempting to pit the two friends against each other. One …

Dear Ms Haseloff,

Years ago I read the DIK review at AAR for this book. I was interested and purchased it. I read it and was blown away by it. I contacted you and you were gracious enough to email with me a little about this book and others you’d written. I’ve always meant to go back and write a review for it and now’s the time.

I love books which make me want to know more about the people and times presented in them. I knew you had based this on the real raid carried out by Kiowa and Comanche warriors against settlers on the Elm Creek in Texas that took place in 1864 while most of the soldiers and young men from the area were back east fighting the Civil War. I didn’t realize you had changed the names of the main characters and assume this was to allow for a little artistic license in telling the story. It seems that the basic facts are the same. The raid was launched on the few settlers remaining in the area, some managed to fight the Indians off while others, …

Caroline Linden caught my attention with her second book, What A Gentleman Wants and I rushed out after that book was finished and bought her first book, What A Woman Needs. If I were to label Linden’s books, I would say enigmatic heroes and common sense heroines who show us that the path to love is never straight and easy, just like Caroline Linden’s road to publication.

Her latest novel, What A Rogue Desires is out in stores now and while I haven’t done a formal review of it, I have read it and it’s one that I would recommend.

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The first book I wrote was utterly unsellable. I didn’t know that at the time; I didn't even care. It was just for practice. The second book was better, but only a little. The third book, though, I knew that book was good.

The opening scene popped into my head one night, while I was making dinner, …