Dear Ms. Stuart,
Fire and Ice is the fifth and (if I’m not mistaken) final book in your Ice series, which features the agents of a ruthless spy organization known as the Committee. This one is all about the flamboyant Reno, Taka’s younger cousin.
Back in the third book, Ice Blue, [...]

First there was the Indiana Censorship Bill that requires any seller of sexually explicit material to register with the Secretary of State. You know, like bookstores that sell romances and such.
Now the Republicans have the opportunity to vote for Tony Zirkle who is in a primary race for a House seat in Northwest [...]

The Cover Cafe 2007 contest is open for voting. There are seven categories and ten finalists per category. Go on over and vote for the best covers in 2007.

Shelf Awareness highlighted a New York Times article about Open Book, “the first real estate home for literary arts in the nation.” Open Book is a large facility of 55,000 square feet. It houses three different business/literary facilities:

The Loft Literary Center the largest of the three nonprofit groups that formed Open Book, offers [...]

Audio book sales were down by 5.7% in February according to the AAP but up overall by 5.6%. Audible is trying to increase its market by reaching out to kids. According to an AP article, 1/3 of all youth have an ipod or some other mp3 player. The goal is to reach [...]

Dear Mrs Simonson,
I first read “Lady Elizabeth’s Comet” a few years ago when I was lucky enough to score a copy of it through a used bookstore. Ever since then, I’ve touted its merits to those looking for intelligent heroines, beta heroes and wonderful storytelling. I’m delighted that Uncial Press has brought it out [...]

Dear Ms. Murphy,
Your urban fantasy novels have failed to work for me in the past but I like giving authors second chances, especially when they expand into a favorite subgenre. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a political fantasy, and this book reminded me why I enjoy it.
Set in an [...]

Dear Ms. Frost
I think this is one book where I wish I hadn’t read the first one because while some of the vampire world building was better explained in Halfway to the Grave, the heroine read so differently it was like she had a lobotomy. One Foot in the Grave takes place [...]

This is a memoir in the making, don’t you think? Roger Clemens, star pitcher and first ballot Hall of Famer, puts his legacy in jeopardy by possible being on the juice. Sues for defamation against the accuser. Has all his dirty laundry and then some aired for the world to read. There [...]

In the true spirit of viral marketing, I received my first AuthorTalk link in my inbox from a friend. I’m not sure how she found it but I think it was from another person’s blog. And now I am doing my part in spreading the word.
I think the entire point of book trailers [...]

Dear Mrs. O’Reilly,
You came close to a trifecta. You really did but it’s with sadness that I’m going to have to grade this book down. Don’t worry, it’s not a D grade because so many things are still right about it that were right about the first two books in the series. But a few [...]

I haven’t done a good job of posting these figures recently, but net book sales for the year are up 6.2% in 2008 and 4.8% in February alone. Given that we are either in a recession or on the cusp, I would think any amount of increase is positive. Adult paperback is [...]

Dear Ms. Cole:
Somewhere in the middle of Dark Needs at Night’s Edge I felt that this book occupies a very important moment in the Immortals After Dark series. As Jane said previously, this is a series one can pick up at any point and not be completely confused. But for those of us [...]

Last month, I read about a new e book program for kids called Kidthing.com. Kidthing is based on Adobe flash and is one part audio book and one part video. It really harnesses the ability of a computer to translate into a learning tool for young children.
During its beta period, users could access [...]

Dear Ms Mueller,
One thing I know is that I’ll always get something new and different when I begin one of your stories. I realize I mention the unusual settings you utilize in almost every review but I appreciate it so darn much that it just has to be said. And this is one [...]

Welcome to First Page aka Query Saturday. Individual authors anonymously send a first page (or query) read and critiqued by the Dear Author community of authors, readers and industry others. Anyone is welcome to comment. Published authors may do so under their own name or anonymously.
Readers, though, the way that I look at it is [...]

Dear Ms. Mallory:
I’ve pledged to myself to try and be more diverse in my reading because I do have the luxury of choosing among a number of books without financial risk. This is my first book from you and while I had several issues, I like the voice and would try you again.
Marietta Winters [...]

There’s another AuthorTalk video up. HelenKay Dimon is the victim subject of the newest one.

When Lois McMaster Bujold agreed to write a first sale letter for the blog, I almost fainted with delight. I started reading Ms. Bujold at the beginning of her Sharing Knife series despite hearing about how fantastic her Miles Vorkosigan/Naismith series. I was intimidated by the size of that backlist even though I [...]

Dear Readers,
Here are two more first volumes, these two from popular series that I found I didn’t like as much as their popularity suggested I should.

Honey and Clover by Chica Umino. Viz. Retail $9.99. Rated T+ for older teen. 10 volumes (still ongoing in Japan; 1 released here).

Honey and Clover centers around a group [...]

We hosted a giveaway for 15 copies of Kresley Cole’s delicious upcoming May release, Dark Needs at Night’s Edge. The winners are as follows. Please send me (jane @ dearauthor. com) your snail mail address.
# 92 Little Lamb Lost
# 36 Miss Kitty
# 14 Ana
# 50 Emily
# 107 Josie
# 97 Dani
# 67 Shreela
# [...]

Dear Mrs. Butcher,
A friend of mine recommended this book as one in which there isn’t too much gratuitous violence. Since I loathe play-by-play descriptions of the evil people can do to each other, I paid attention and noted the title. As she said, it isn’t so much a slice by slice commentary of what was [...]

I had a reader ask if she could get the blog posts in her email box. I searched around and found a plugin that allows subscribed readers to get each blog post as an email.
You can subscribe here.

Dear Ms. Holly,
A few years ago, I read your historical romance Beyond Innocence. While I didn’t love the book, I thought it was better than average and I especially liked your writing voice, so much so that I quoted from it in my opinion piece on style. Therefore, when Janet (Robin) recommended Catching [...]

We’ve had a bit of a firestorm here at Dear Author and many new readers (hello new visitors). I thought it might be worthwhile to do a bit of post mortem on the recent brou ha ha.
For new visitors, let me give you a bit of a history. I started Dear Author [...]

I missed this story completely. Must have been the crazy Amazon thing that made me pass over this. Gawker Media, the owner of several blogs such as the science fiction/fantasy blog io9 and one of my favorite tech blogs: Gizmodo, decided to sell off Idolator to Buzzne; Gridskipper to Curbed, and Wonkette to its [...]

This hasn’t even occurred to me before as a privacy issue. The Ninth Circuit recently ruled that a US Customs Official has the right to rifle through the contents of your laptop. The issue was brought before the Appellate court in a charge of child pornography.
The traveler’s laptop was searched [...]

Dear Ms. Napier:
This is the second of your books I have read, and it was selected purely by what was available on Fictionwise. Luckily for me, Price of Passion was a winner, an entertaining and smart interpretation of the enduring Harlequin Presents equation of plucky but overset heroine + darkly passionate and misunderstood hero [...]

Dear Ms Barrett,
A notation on the cover of “This is How It Happened” states it’s “Not a Love Story” and that’s the truth. Even for a Chick Lit book this novel has almost no romance in it. Most of the story is Maddy and her endless need for revenge against the man who done [...]

PenguiCon is an “

There is a host of reasons to like Kresley Cole’s works. My top two are they are relentlessly fun and deliciously subversive. The fun is probably readily apparent, but this article is about her subversivity.
Cole takes very traditional tropes and reverses them completely. For example, Cole’s books are female-centric with the [...]

Edited to add: Caution There’s a major spoiler in paragraph 3.
Dear Mrs. Beverley,
When you posted to one of my earlier reviews that your next book would be back in the world of the Mallorens and feature a rake with a ‘nun on the run,’ I started salivating. Me wuvs the Mallorens and Georgian historicals [...]

Congratulations. You are getting an early peek at Caroline Linden’s lovely June historical, A Rake’s Guide to Seduction. Please send us your snail mail address within the next 48 hours. Thanks!

8 - ames
15 - NHS
19 - Wonald
25 - Liviania
31 - Willa
44 - azetc lady
49 - growlycub
57 - CrystalGB
61 - Dani
63 - Laela

Dear Ms. Melton:
You are a new to me author and I had heard good things about you so I was happy to try you out. While this book didn’t work for me, I am still interested in reading other books by you, either future or past works. The main reason that I struggled [...]

Late Friday, AP reporter, Hillel Italie reported that Signet/NAL has severed its relationship with Cassie Edwards. Since we made a bit deal, here on the blog, about how appalling Signet/NAL’s initial response was, I thought it would be fair to give over our Sunday to say how awesome I think its final response is.
For [...]

Dear Mrs Duvall,
I’ve got to say this is one of the more unusual suspense novels I’ve read lately. There’s not an ex-Navy Seal, sheriff, or former black-ops member of any kind in sight. No mafia hit men, billionaire’s daughter in danger or any of the other standard operating procedures for romance suspense novels in the [...]

Welcome to Query Saturday. Individual authors anonymously send a query to be read and critiqued by the Dear Author community of authors, readers and industry others. Anyone is welcome to comment. Published authors may do so under their own name or anonymously.
Readers, though, the way that I look at it is this: Would the hook [...]

Sarah just sent me the link to the news release that Signet and Cassie Edwards are no longer in business together.
“Signet has conducted an extensive review of all its Cassie Edwards novels and due to irreconcilable editorial differences, Ms. Edwards and Signet have mutually agreed to part ways,” the publisher said in a statement Friday.
“Cassie [...]

I tried to re-open the Dear Author forum, but am having technical difficulties. Instead, I’ll sticky this post for a week. I got the forum working but I had to start anew. I’ve had some inquiries about what people can do to in response to Amazon’s treatment of Reba Belle. [...]

Dear Ms. Napier:
I’ve slowly been converted to being an HP fan. Being an HP fan means that you are in for a lot of drama and a lot of bruising kisses. The real measure of success for me, in an HP, is how strong the heroine is. Because the men are fairly [...]

Julie Leto is constantly honing her craft to be a better writer, so much so that her group blog is called the Plot Monkeys.  She’s had her writing ups and downs but Leto is a survivor, as any girl raised with three brothers would learn to be.  She’s on the high point now with a [...]

Most of the blogosphere has been mouth agape in reaction to the Deborah Anne MacGillivray harassment of an Amazon reader over a 3 star review that the reader left for a book of MacGillivray’s. In my link backs, though, I saw a post called “Authors Who Bite Back” from Tess Gerritsen’s blog that left [...]

Dear Ms Burkhart,
I was intrigued by the first story in your Keldari world, “Survive My Fire.” Intrigued enough that when you sent us a copy of the second installment, I immediately made plans to read it. It took me a while to get to it but I found it as interesting as the first. I’d [...]

Dear Ms. Osterlund,
When I received this book from Jane, I was excited. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book solely about a princess and I admit I had a soft spot for them when I was younger. And not only did Aurelia feature a crown princess, it also had the spymaster’s son [...]

Dear Ms. Bauer:
I’ve had this in my TBR pile since Keishon’s review last year. I’ve dusted it off (metaphorically since it is an ebook) for Keishon’s monthly TBR challenge. While I agree with some of Keishon’s points (particularly on the extensive world building), I found the romance to be forced in many places.
Dr. [...]

According to Publishers’ Marketplace, Judge Robert Patterson, Jr., is urging RDR and Rowling to settle.
Patterson said, “The fair-use people are on one side, and a large company is on the other side…The parties ought to see if there’s not a way to work this out, because there are strong issues in this [...]

Want to win an Advanced Readers Copy of this June 2008 book? We are giving away 10 of them. Read the review and then leave a comment if you are interested. Rules are winners are picked at random and you must promise to post something, somewhere about the book prior to June [...]

Dear Ms. Samuels,
This book has a great beginning with a different plot. In a book world overpopulated with vampires and werewolves, it was something totally new to me. You give us interesting characters - a flawed heroine, a Japanese hero and Tom, who’s a ghost. It starts wonderfully and then, unfortunately, goes totally overboard [...]

Dear Ms. Weaver:
It has been a long time (or so it seems) since your last release and I have anxiously awaited it. The result may be a case of missed expectations. This book had a fun premise but was weak in the execution.
Best friends, Iris and Russ are snuggled up together on Halloween [...]

As you can tell by the title, my impatience with publishers is rising. Their loose association with integrity becomes more evident every day. Last week, it was discovered that Lonely Planet, a travel guide publisher, was putting out books by an author who a) plagiarized and b) didn’t even travel to the places [...]