Archive for March, 2008
I read on an author’s blog the other day that she had an MS Word catastrophe. I think we’ve all had those at one time or another. Google docs doesn’t really solve the MS Word catastrophe but it does allow a person to write and edit documents without relying on your own personal computer. The problem was that you had to be online, connected to the internet, to use Google docs.
Not anymore. Google Docs is now useable offline. Any changes that you make while not connected to the internet will automatically be synchronized with the online document once you connect again. I love this idea and can imagine using Google Docs for more than just blogging and maybe for work as well.
Via Ars Technica.
Want a Sony Reader? Join the editorial staff of a major publishing house. Random House is the latest publishing to join the ereading ranks with Hachette, Simone & Schuster, St. Martin’s. Each publishing house is providing eReaders to its editorial and sales staff to read galleys and other “preview material.”
I asked one insider about why the houses were all going Sony Reader and not Kindle and was given a response that in essence said that Publishers didn’t want pre published info or interoffice info on the Amazon servers. Makes sense to me.
So when will Penguin, the eternal foot dragger in the eWorld, and Harlequin, the leader in epublishing, join the ranks of the rest of the big publishing world?
Via Publishers Weekly.
There was an Australian library (I think) that once hosted single’s parties which I thought was a brilliant idea. Apparently, though, some of the Literati* think that book tastes are more of a turn off than a turn on. Self help books are apparently something that would likely make women keep their clothes on. One male editor at Harper recounts the tale of giving a girlfriend Nabokov’s “Ada”, a book that is apparently about incest at its core. The relationship didn’t last, but the girlfriend’s love for the book did.
I think a boyfriend giving me a book about incest could give a weird message, like, I’d like to screw you like you’re my sister or, alternatively, I think of you like a sister and thus, this is my kiss off book.
As for Ned and I? The big fiction that we tell everyone is that we met at the bookstore (or was it the library). We didn’t but it’s something that the parents like to hear.
More at the Times.
* I know some in the cubicles of publishing might object to the term Literati, but I wasn’t the one who coined the term.
Dear Ms. Clare:
 I admit to having some reservations about starting this book because I had a real hard time with the heroine in Hard Evidence. However, the gritty and realistic feel that emanated from the pages of this book were captivating and made the book hard to put down. I read that you had gone into lockup overnight so as to experience what it was like incarcerated. Even that short time clearly had an impact in the writing of this story.
Marc “Hunt” Hunter and Sophie Alton had a moment in high school and then Hunt disappeared from Sophie’s life, seemingly forever. Fast forward twelve years and Sophie is a journalist celebrating the release of a female inmate whose life Sophie had been following through her writing and Hunt is a felon doing hard time for the murder of a federal agent. Sophie had begun reporting on Megan’s life in prison when she heard about the stillbirth of a different inmate’s baby. When Megan was released, Sophie was to meet her and help Megan adjust to post incarcerated life and to reunite Megan with the baby she birthed in …
 Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews. Both Jane and Jia would recommend this sophomore effort by newcomer, Ilona Andrews. The “Magic” series features a smart mouthed, sword wielding Kate Daniels who helps to enforce the law in an alternate universe Atlanta. For the crossover genre reader (i.e., the romance reader that likes to cross the genre aisles), Curran, the Beast Lord of the Pack of Atlanta, plays the alpha male who likes to tweak Kate’s chain. Jia particularly likes “how their relationship is unfolding slowly, developing over the course of what I hope will be several books. It makes things more believable considering the two people involved: the Beast Lord of the Pack and the lifelong loner with a dangerous heritage.”
 First You Run by Roxanne St. Claire is recommended by Jane as a fast paced road romance featuring a hot Austrialian bodyguard and a Mayan scholar. The suspense revolves around the end of the world theory that some believe is predicted by the Mayan long calendar. So you get a bit of historical facts, a bit of suspense, a bit …
So, this Amazon thing. It sounds bad. For those who might have missed it, Amazon decided to stop stocking Print on Demand books that do not use Amazon’s own service, Booksurge. I’m not sure who falls under a Print on Demand service. I have always viewed PODs as any publisher who has print books but does not have a print run. This can vary from printing to order (i.e., if the bookstore orders 1000 copies, the publisher prints 1,000 copies) or it can be a simple as a book that is printed, bound and shipped upon each individual sale.
Small print publishers like Samhain and Whiskey Creek Press use POD services but in different ways. Samhain partners with Ingrams that prints stock to fill orders and keeps some inventory on hand. Ellora’s Cave used to do it this way but bought their own printing presses. Whiskey Creek Press and NCP use POD in yet another way but it appears that some of those booksellers retail agreements with Amazon are in jeopardy. Whiskey Creek Press and another epress, Pawprints, have seen the “buy” links on their book pages disappear. Samhain and Amber …
Poll is closed. Results are as follows. See the updated standings at the Official DA BWAHA site.
The Elite Eight books are:
Young Adult: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Paranormal: The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason
Novel with Romantic Elements: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
Historical: The Serpent Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt
Erotica/Erotic Romance: Fairyville by Emma Holly
GLBT: Master of Obsidian by Jamie Craig
Category: Billionaire Next Door by Jessica Bird
Contemporary: High Noon by Nora Roberts
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Harlequin
Turn the Page Bookstore who is donating our prize to the second place bracket.
Dear Ms Hart,
 I was checking my ebook reader to see what books were on it and came across this one. I’m embarrassed to say how long it’s been sitting there, patiently waiting to be read so I won’t. But I found once I got started reading it, the pages just clicked along.
I’m not sure if there’s any place like this in existence, an island retreat for burned out government agents to allow them to regroup, talk with counselors and deal with the issues of their jobs gone bad. It’s nice to think so. I like the small touches to remind us it’s still a gov run facility such as the showers not working in Zane’s original room and the slightly run-down air. But hey, it’s a free week at the beach so I could deal with it as Zane and Kendall do.
I like that you don’t force these two to be together — well beyond being on the same small island — in order to heighten their conflict as there’s enough there already. And Kendall’s already beginning to admit to herself that Zane isn’t really to blame for her despised …
Sadly there is no query for today because no one wants to play with us. I can do a couple of things for query Saturday. I can solicit queries from debut authors who have books coming out soon so that it serves as an example for aspiring authors and promotion for those debut authors. Or, we could do blurb Saturday where I pick out a couple blurbs and post them here, blind, and we can talk about what we like and/or don’t like about the blurbs.
Or we can do something else entirely. I’d love to hear your suggestions.
Poll is closed. Results are as follows. See the updated standings at the Official DA BWAHA site.
The Elite Eight books are:
Young Adult: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Paranormal: The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason
Novel with Romantic Elements: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
Historical: The Serpent Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt
Erotica/Erotic Romance: Fairyville by Emma Holly
GLBT: Master of Obsidian by Jamie Craig
Category: Billionaire Next Door by Jessica Bird
Contemporary: High Noon by Nora Roberts
Loading ... Paperspine
Harlequin
Turn the Page Bookstore who is donating our prize to the second place bracket.
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