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

We hosted our first Q&A with an author during a liveblog. The author was Kresley Cole and the subject was Kiss of a Demon King (amongst other things). Kresley’s husband and editor, The Swede, also came and shared his experience.

You can buy Kiss of a Demon King currently in three different ebook formats: Sony, Kindle and Mobipocket.

Kresley Cole is also running a promotion that ends tomorrow which features the Red Sony Reader as the grand prize.
 

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Dear Ms. Hart:

Congratulations on getting nominated for the 2008 RNA Romance Prize Shortlist. It’s a good thing that the RNA doesn’t judge on titles because despite the cringe inducing title, this is a touching, heartfelt book.

Perdita James is the Operations Manager of Bell Browning Engineering and she and the rest of the management team is sent to a leadership training course after BBE gets a new CEO, Ed Merrick. Perdita is irritated because she’s a good leader, thank you very much, and doesn’t see much use in being defined as peacock by some questionnaire where all the other management members are friendly dolphins or nit picking owls.

The truth is that Perdita is a peacock. People listen to her and gravitate toward her. In a room full of people, Perdita is bound to be at the center of the loudest, biggest circle as she charms people with her smarts and her humor.

Interestingly, while Perdita and Ed work together, this isn’t at all about a boss/subordinate conflict. Ed Merrick, a widower of five years with three children, decided to take this job far from London to move …

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Welcome to First Page Saturday. Individual authors anonymously send a first page read and critiqued by the Dear Author community of authors, readers and industry others. Anyone is welcome to comment. You may comment anonymously.

***

Something drove her scrambling for consciousness like a drowning man clawing towards the surface of the ocean. Gasping, floundering and disoriented, pulse pounding in her ears, blood so thick with adrenaline it felt as if her heart and head were warring over the privilege of being the first to erupt.

That she hadn’t roused from sleep with a headache proved only a minor consolation. Jess wanted to sit up and scream, pound her mattress with her fists, throw her pillows across the room.

A temper tantrum wouldn’t cure the insomnia.

With a grimace pulling at her mouth, Jess kicked off her bed linens and fumbled in the moonlit darkness for a pair of breeches and shirt. After easing into the well-worn leather of her riding boots, she pushed away from the bed. It was never too early to start cleaning stalls and mixing mash for the broodmares, after all. And the routine chores would soothe nerves frayed from … whatever had startled her awake.

Moving through the rancher …

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UPDATED LINKS:

Rather than make a new post, I’m adding a few links to the existing one:

Greek opposition leader, George Papandreou, argues for a Kindle for every reader. (Sony, get yourself to Greece Stat!).  Thanks Xandra G.

• UK’s RNA announces its shortlist which includes India Grey, a favorite of Meljean Brook, and Fiona Harper, who I swear won last year.  Must try her out.  RNA is a very, very prestigious award in the UK as the longlist is selected by a group of 80 readers all over the country and the shortlist is determined by a panel. I think it is so cool that they include readers in this award.
• Silhouette author Suzanne McMinn’s blog CHICKENS IN THE ROAD has been nominated for a Bloggie! She is in the best kept secret category of the blog awards.  The bloggies are like the Oscars of the blog world.  Being nominated for a bloggie is great.  Winning a bloggie can turn you into Dooce or Pioneer Woman.  So go forth and represent for the romance world.
• HarperCollins has offered early retirement packages to anyone who is over 55.

…

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Dear Ms. Finch,

I love a good American set historical romance. And I’m glad to see that Westerns are coming back into fashion. The brawny Texas Rangers, open skies, roughing it under a canopy of stars, coyotes singing in the distance, rattlesnakes rattling, flash floods and tornadoes …’er maybe not all of that but I’ve missed them over the years.

I love the choice of your opening scene. “Middle of Nowhere, Texas.” I imagine that would cover a lot of territory. Hud Stone, our brawny Texas Ranger, is disgusted with his latest assignment but since it comes straight from the Ranger Commander, he’s got zero choice in the matter. Instead of continuing his search for the low down dog who gunned his partner in the back leaving him for the coyotes to find, he’s got to head to one of the worst hellholes in Texas and pick up the Commander’s daughter then escort her to meet her father at the Ranger camp.

Gabrielle Price is far from the spoiled princess Hud imagines her to be. Thanks to her friendship with a street urchin, she knows the world is a bitch of a …

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Wow, what can I say? This is the first time that Dear Author has hosted royalty on the site. I mean, we’ve read books about Princes (usually angry bitter ones that are healed by the love of a woman who pretends to be brazen but is really a virgin who gives up her job so that she can provide the requisite heir and spare to the Prince) but this is definitely the first time we’ve ever posted anything by a Princess. I started reading Princess Mia’s diaries way back in 2000 and I got to meet Meg Cabot* who I think is Mia’s social secretary or something in 2002 in New York. When I read that Princess Mia would be writing a historical (and a steamy one at that), I literally laughed out loud. Brilliant. I hope you all enjoy HRH’s First Sale story.

***

I’m not going to lie. Being a princess is pretty awesome sometimes. I mean, I get invited to things like balls and movie premieres, and I get sent beautiful clothes from top designers—for free!–to wear to all these events.

You …

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Oh boy, where to start?
Statement: Not a contemp fan…
But Dahl has won me.

 

It wasn’t the plot
It wasn’t Ben or Molly
Or the hot sexxors

The story? Saucy.
The voice? Fun, frisky & light.
I am your fangirl.

Blushing Sheriff Ben
Naughty kittenish Molly
Turns life upside down

Molly’s secret? Porn.
Just kidding. She writes for an
Ellora’s Cave Clone.

How to describe Ben?
‘Metrosexual’ does it.
Want to pinch his cheeks.

There is a stalker
Molly needs a slap to head
(Bit too dismissive)

No worries out there
Romanceland! TSTL
Radar never beeps.

Was giving a B
But write up gives warm fuzzies
So…you get an A.

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Dear Ms. Higgins:

For longtime readers of Kristan Higgans (which I suppose is only a few years), Too Good to Be True represents an interesting flip on the plot of Fools Rush In which appears to be your debut book with Harlequin.

Fools Rush In is the story of a girl who falls in love with her sister’s ex husband and, of course, is beset by guilt and insecurity as their relationship blossoms. Too Good to Be True is the story of a sister who’s sister and fiance fell in love.

Grace Emerson, a high school teacher at a local private school, is tired of the pitying glances and the sympathetic murmurs and the just all the talk that has enveloped her life ever since her ex-fiance, Andrew, started daing her younger sister. So she makes up a boyfriend, a perfect pediatric surgeon who is so devoted to his practice that he can’t make it to Grace’s frequent family get togethers where she has to endure the furtive glances and pained looks as Andrew and her sister try to hide their attraction.

Complicating the matter is Grace’s attraction to her new next door neighbor …

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Harlequin’s 60th Birthday is here and they are giving away 16 free books in digital format and DRM free. Their goal is to get a book into the hands of every woman in US and Canada but in order to do that, they are going to need help from readers to spread the word. I gave out the link to a couple of people who are offline readers today but I don’t always do that. What about you?

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Harlequin is 60 years old this year and to celebrate, Harlequin plans to get a copy of one of its books in the hands of every woman in the US and Canada. In the past 60 years, Harlequin has

• 5.8 billion books sold
• 2,700 authors
• 34,000 titles
• 640 bestseller placements
• 1 Publisher

To do this, they are giving away 16 free Books to be downloaded from eHarlequin.com beginning today.  Harlequin urges you to spread the word and urge your friends, family, neighbors, work colleagues.  There is a book for every reader in several formats and all DRM FREE so go forth download, download, download.

• Harlequin American Romance, Once a Cowboy by Linda Warren
• Harlequin Blaze, Slow Hands by Leslie Kelly
• Harlequin Historical, His Lady Mistress by Elizabeth Rolls
• Harlequin Intrigue, Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch by B.J. Daniels
• Harlequin Presents, Price of Passion by Susan Napier
• Harlequin Romance, The Bride’s Baby by Liz Fielding
• Harlequin Superromance, Snowbound by Janice Kay Johnson
• Silhouette Desire, Baby Bonanza by Maureen Child
• Silhouette Nocturne, Kiss Me Deadly by Michele Hauf
• Silhouette Romantic Suspense, Stranded with a Spy by Merline Lovelace
• Silhouette Special Edition, Dancing in the Moonlight by Raeanne Thayne
• Love Inspired, A Very Special Delivery by Linda Goodnight
• Love Inspired Historical,

…

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Dear Ms. Uviller,

It was the back blurb of this book that caught my attention. The mob thinks the heroine is with the FBI. The FBI thinks she’s with the mob. And she’s dating an exterminator? After reading that I just knew I had to try this one.

Zephyr Zuckerman has a vivid imagination, four best friends from high school, a former asshole boyfriend she’s still not over and at age twenty-seven, still hasn’t made up her mind what she wants to do when she grows up. In the meantime, her parents have hit on something to occupy her time and save them some money. After the long time super of the small apartment building they own is arrested on charges of taking kickbacks from an oil company – and honestly how could that be a lot of money since there are so few tenants there? – they suggest that Zephyr take over his job.

A strangled, “What?!” is her initial response. She’s never dealt with stopped up sinks, unlocking the garbage hold, identifying unknown smells or allowing an exterminator through the building. It’s mainly the guilt over the money her parents have tossed down …

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• Orbit’s new creative director, Lauren Panepinto, blogged about the production of the cover for Jennifer Rardin’s “Bite” books. It’s a pretty fascinating behind the scenes look as it shows the model with the leather and the crossbow.
• Speaking of Orbit, it sounds like Hachette and everyone is making up so you should be able to access the One Dollar Orbit ebooks at your favorite digital retail location. (Deal only good in USA).
• Young Adult Library Services Association lists its 2009 top ten graphic novels for teens although all the titles listed were published in 2007 and 2008. Says Jan of these offerings: “We reviewed Sand Chronicles and REAL was on my top 10 for last year. Uzumaki creeped the heck out of me, and I had a blurb about it around Halloween 2007 as a truly scary manga.”
• And if you haven’t had enough Jane Austen rewrites, you could check out “Pride and Prejudice versus Zombies”. GalleyCat quotes from the catalog:
  

  What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers–and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against

…

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Dear Ms. Sorenson:

I have read your category novels and thus I was excited to make the transition to full length mass market novels.   This book had very real characters and very steamy love scenes. I found the suspense to take kind of a back seat to the deception/romance story and that, at times, the secondary love story between the hero’s daughter and a boy from the wrong side of the tracks to be the more compelling storyline.

Sonny Vasquez is part of VICAP for the FBI. She is asked to go undercover to see if she can flush out the SoCal Strangler, a man who has been picking off young women along the southern California coast.  Sonny is to go in and try to seduce Ben Fortune, a former champion surfer whose own wife was killed three years ago by the purported SoCal Strangler.  Except the man that was arrested and imprisoned committed suicide and in his note wrote that he did not kill Olivia Fortune or anyone else.  Fortune becomes the top suspect.  After observing Fortune, Sonny begins to rethink her plan to present herself as a beach bunny as …

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According to Lois McMaster Bujold’s Myspace page , Borders has decided not to stock Horizons in the store. It will be available online only.  This is really sad because I think that Bujold is an author that really deserves a broader audience.  This will obviously not help.

It’s hard to say what is the decision behind this.  Bujold seems to be a frontlist author of EOS, a division of HarperCollins, and for her not to have physical stock at one of the largest chain stores in the US says something, but I’m not sure what.  Perhaps its an indicator of the illness of Borders.  Perhaps an indicator of a wider systemic industry illness.

Bujold has a beautiful writing style and readers who like fantasy and romance would be hard pressed to find a better blend than in Bujold’s Sharing Knife series.

Thanks JMC for the tip.

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Note: There might be details in the review that some might view as spoiler-ish.  Just an FYI.

Dear Ms Pattillo,

A copy of your latest book, “Jane Austen Ruined My Life,” was included in one of the recent arc packages Jane sent to me. Since I’ve enjoyed several of your previous stories, I made sure to put it close to the top of my reading “To Do” list.

When she was a young grad student, Emma Grant thought she’d found her Mr. Knightley. But as she said herself, he actually turned out to be her Mr. Nightmare. Now divorced from her academic star and tenured professor husband – after she caught him doing her teaching assistant on their kitchen table – she’s flying to England. The divorce not only cost her her marriage, she’s also lost her university teaching job due to Edward and the slut’s allegations that Emma plagiarized a paper. As Emma says, one whiff of scandal is enough to derail an academic career, especially when one’s opponent is as respected as her former husband is.

Emma’s got one last chance to resurrect her career. If she can find, publish and write a paper about …

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Harper Studio is toying with the idea of offering a coupon code for the download of a digital or audio book with the purchase of a print book.  HarperStudio is the new “experimental” publishing arm of HarperCollins.  Most of their 2009 releases are celebrity books, but the idea of the Paper Plus purchase intrigues me.  

I would not buy a paper book and then use the coupon to get a download of a digital book. I just want the digital book.  FOR THE MOST PART.  There are definitely some books (particularly picture books) where I might like to have both print and digital but for my everyday fiction, digital only please.

Thoughts?

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More bad economic news:

• Starbucks to stop brewing decaf after noon to save $400 million. Amazing that so much decaf coffee goes to waste. Decaf will now be available only upon request after 12:00 pm.
• School sales are dropping due to worsening economic situation in urban areas and sharp decrease in federal funding. Let’s hope that getting more money to schools for crazy things like books will be a top priority for Congress and the White House.
• Small press comic books are feeling the pinch as Diamond Comic Distributors who distributes English-language comic books will only distribute the title if the minimum advance order from comic books is $2500. The previous minimum was $1500. At least one publisher, A Wave Blue World, will be offering the individual comic books online for free and then sell a collected edition. Let’s hope that the free seeds bear rich fruit for small print publishers.

Good news:

• Neil Gaiman was awarded the Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book. The Newbery recognizes the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature and is considered to be one of the most prestigious literary awards in the business. The Newbery has been

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Dear Ms. Hunter:

This is the last book in the Rothwell series which started off with Rules of Seduction. Christian, the eldest of the Rothwell brothers, has been an enigmatic figure throughout the series. He’s unconventional in his attire (often roams about his home on Grosvenor Square in a robe and barefeet) and is generally considered to be a recluse. In previous books you got the sense that part of Christian is not within him, that he left it behind somewhere or with someone.

Sins of Lord Easterbrook is an apt title because it refers to not only the current Lord, Christian, but his father, as well. Leona Montgomery has come from Canton to London to pursue an investigation started by her father over seven years ago which may reveal more sins of his father, particularly that related to opium trade. Leona and Christian shared something seven years ago when Christian had left his family to try to find himself, addicted to opium and too rich for his own good, he flitted from one place to another, landing in Canton where Leona’s father ran a shipping concern.

Whatever …

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Disclaimer:  So as to avoid the appearance of impropriety, Dr. S is “a complete, utter, and unabashed FanGrrl” and has “a professional relationship” with Brockmann. Dr. S does not enjoy any monetary gain from the sales of the books.  We encourage you to seek out other reviews (or read a few chapters in the bookstore) should this review leave you with some questions about whether this book would work for you.

Dear Ms. Brockmann:

Despite your best efforts, the only way one would not know spoilers for this book is if one (a). didn’t care, or (b). lived in a dark, dank, cold, internet-less cave in the middle of a spooky forest surrounded an impenetrable  and very smelly swamp.  So while I’m going to try to review this wonderful book without too many spoilers, I’ll be employing the spoiler font with a very liberal hand.

You are famous (infamous?) for your innovative story arcs in which future primary couples not only meet in books previous to their own, but they actually start the relationship.  Gone Too Far (Book 6 of your Troubleshooter series) finished the overwhelmingly popular story arc of Sam and Alyssa (that starts in earnest …

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An confidential emailer forwarded me this invite to an Amazon press event.  Will it announce the new Kindle which I like to call “Bubble Boy”*?  A Kindle with wider geographical reach?  That it’s totally destroying any other format out there (given its announcement that MS Lit and Adobe books will no longer be available on the Amazon site)?  Guess away.

We’d like to invite you to an important Amazon.com press conference on Monday, February 9 at 10:00 am. The press conference is scheduled to take place at The Morgan Library & Museum located at 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street in New York.

*The image taken from the blog “Boy Genius Report” shows the purported design of the Kindle 2.0 which I have nicknamed Bubble Boy due to its rotund, bubblicious keys. Kindle needs some serious design help because the Kindle 2.0 for all its curves lacks any kind of marketable asthetic.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This is our second official podcast wherein we talk about romance books with guest interviewee Angela James, executive editor of the publishing house Sam of Hain (Samhain). Some may think that Angela and we are BFFs. In truth, though, Sarah and I are not BFFs with Angie. Angie is BFF is someone far more popular* than Sarah and I and would drop us in a heartbeat to go and rock it with the Popular Person. Angie is really just a opportunist BFF which is why she agreed to be our second victim, err, guest on the Dear Bitches, Smart Authors Podcast. Cue fun, sexy music.

Technical notes: this is the feed to the podcast and you can click on this link to add it to iTunes. We can’t curse on the podcast due to iTunes content restrictions. (Dammit fuck).

If you have content suggestions, tips on how to do this whole thing better, or general wtf-ery comments, email us. It’s all welcome because a) we are new to this and b) we don’t really know what we are doing so the wtf comments are probably all valid. The email address for the …

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Time Magazine recognizes that Old Publishing is suffering from severe economic reversals and that new publishing  venues are gaining prominence.  The article does not address, however, how to monetize new publishing:

Not that Old Publishing will disappear–for now, at least, it's certainly the best way for authors to get the money and status they need to survive–but it will live on in a radically altered, symbiotic form as the small, pointy peak of a mighty pyramid. If readers want to pay for the old-school premium package, they can get their literature the old-fashioned way: carefully selected and edited, and presented in a bespoke, art-directed paper package. But below that there will be a vast continuum of other options: quickie print-on-demand editions and electronic editions for digital devices, with a corresponding hierarchy of professional and amateur editorial selectiveness. (Unpaid amateur editors have already hit the world of fan fiction, where they're called beta readers.) The wide bottom of the pyramid will consist of a vast loamy layer of free, unedited, Web-only fiction, rated and ranked YouTube-style by

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more animals

The revenge trope  is a prevalent one in romance. Admittedly, it’s prevalent everywhere.  Revenge is what powered the Count of Monte Cristo. It’s easy, you see, because it provides insta-conflict in romance. Take one hero bent on revenge, one innocent bystander, mix and stir. It’s easy to arouse emotional response to the revenge trope. There is the reason for revenge that gains the avenger a sympathetic mien. There’s the conflict between whether the avenger gives up revenge and saves the heroine or succumbs to the need for revenge.

There seems to be three main types of revenge themes:

a)  Wants to wreak as much damage as possible without regard to who is really responsible.

The Avenger in this case usually believes that the value of his harmed loved one is worth more than any number of others.  Liz Fielding wrote an early series called the Beaumont Brides.  The first book in the series is about Luke Devlin’s sister fell in love with Edward Beaumont.  She pined for him and when she died, Luke vowed revenge on Beaumont. His plan was to ruin him financially, take his …

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>From Publisher's Weekly's rundown of the Spring/Summer 2009 Hardcover releases, I've tried to cull the romance ones. ATRIA BOOKS

• Lavender Morning (May, $26.95) by Jude Deveraux. A 20th-century woman is torn between her mother's society roots and her father's working-class background.

BALLANTINE

• Burn (July, $26) by Linda Howard. The author of Death Angel blends suspense and romance.
• Hot Pursuit (July, $25) by Suzanne Brockmann depicts a female bodyguard and the politician she must protect. 8-city author tour.

BERKLEY

• Skin Trade (June, $26.95) by Laurell K. Hamilton follows Blood Noir as the newest entry in the Anita Blake series.

BERKLEY SENSATION

• Undead and Unwelcome (June, $24.95) by MaryJanice Davidson. Vampire queen Betsy Taylor returns for the eighth novel in this series.

DELACORTE

• Seducing an Angel (May, $22) by Mary Balogh. Cassandra, Lady Paget, arrives in Regency London to restore her reputation. 70,000 first printing.

HARLEQUIN

• More than Words, Vol. 5 (Apr., $16.95) by Heather Graham et al. showcases original short stories inspired by real-life heroines.

HQN

• Heartless (June, $24.95) by Diana Palmer. Gracie's shameful secret makes her deeply afraid to love.

KENSINGTON

• Malice (Apr., $24) by Lisa Jackson. A detective recovering from an accident sees his dead wife everywhere.
• Mr. and Miss

…

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Dear Ms Allen,

I had heard high praise for your novel, “Whistling in the Dark,” after my initial foray into m/m stories. And I’d actually bought a copy of the book in its previous form though I hadn’t read it yet. So, when you offered the new and improved version to us for review, I decided it was time for me to get off my lazy butt and actually read the darn thing.

It’s post war New York City and everything is changing. Old conventions are being abandoned for the bright new possibilities as flappers bob their hair and raise their hemlines. People can actually buy a newfangled contraption called a radio and listen to music in their homes. Sleek cars cruise the streets and wild parties take place on rooftops. Jazz fills nightclubs and people are hurrying to buy up booze before Prohibition finally goes into effect. The city that never sleeps has something for everyone. You just have to know where to look.

But for Sutton Albright, New York is a last resort. He could go home to the family empire in Topeka but after what he was expelled from college for …

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According to the NYTimes book blog, Sara Nelson, the editor in chief of Publishers Weekly, was laid off due to restructuring .  Reed Business Information has been on the auction block for a while now but the sale of RBI has stalled several times, some citing the credit crunch.  7 % of the staff has been cut.  Brian Kenney will be the editorial director for School Library Journal, PW, and Library Journal.

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Last week, we had the prologues poll and now we’re going to do an epilogue. How many of you enjoy epilogues? What do you want in an epilogue? What type of book needs an epilogue and where are epilogues merely extraneous?

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Congratulations to Natasha from Natasha News! You spread the good word about Jill Shalvis’ awesome release, Instant Attraction, that will be in stores soon (if it isn’t already) and you won Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder and a copy of Shalvis’ fabulous book about the Katie who is learning to live balls out and Cam who is ready to love the same way.

Stay tuned to a new promotion in March for Lisa Kleypas’ Smooth Talking Stranger. If you like Kleypas, this one will go on your keeper shelf.

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Dear Ms. Phillips:

I count you as one of my favorite romance authors. I practically camp out at my local bookstore whenever your books are released. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to get my hands on this one.

Georgie York is best known for her role as the spunky Scooter Brown on America’s favorite sitcom “Skip and Scooter.” Although she no longer has the bright red Orphan Annie hair or the trademark curls, Georgie still reigns as America’s sweetheart. Even a series of box office flops can’t seem to diminish her public appeal.

It’s not just the poor box office numbers that are plaguing Georgie. She’s also got a Brangelina-esque problem to worry about. Her movie star ex-husband Lance Marks left her for sexy do-gooder actress Jade Gentry. Barely surviving the heartbreak of her husband’s abandonment and the subsequent divorce, Georgie is shattered to find out that Jade is also pregnant. With paparazzi everywhere, Georgie goes to Vegas for a change of scenery.

Bramwell Shepherd is the Skip to Georgie’s Scooter. His career is going nowhere fast, and he’s only got …

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On the evening of January 15, 2009, I got my Sony reader, a silver PRS-505. It is a thing of beauty. The case looks sleek and classy. I think the red ones are very pretty too, but the silver is gorgeous and one of the reasons I wanted it is that bright colors can strain my eyes after a while. Yes, I’m the kind of person who decorates her apartment in restful shades of cream, beige and khaki, until my husband says “Can’t we get some color in here?”

And speaking of my husband, when he saw I had gotten my reader, the first words out of his mouth were “I guess you won’t be needing all these paper books, then?”

His second sentence was: “I’m jealous. You’ll love that thing more than you love me!”

I don’t quite love the reader more than I love him, but it’s a near thing. I think of a section from one of my favorite books, A.S. Byatt’s Possession, a little segment in a letter describing cucumber sandwiches:

oh, the perfect green circles — oh the delicate hint of salt — oh the

…

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With the book industry suffering from the recession despite the seemingly erroneous claims that books are recession proof, it’s with little dismay that I look to the one part of the industry that is actually experiencing growth.  It is, of course, ebooks.  According to the November AAP numbers, every category of retail book business suffered a decline other than ebook sales.

Sadly, many of those in charge in the epublishing part of the industry seems intent on killing ebooks.  It’s as if publishers don’t want ebooks to succeed.  I don’t actually believe that.  I just think that many publishers are simply clueless about how to capture and monetize the ebook market.   

When we had dinner with Harlequin back in San Francisco, one thing that Malle Vallik of Harlequin Digital shared with us was the speed at which Harlequin Digital could make things happen to be responsive to readers.  (I think Harlequin is one company that really gets ebooks.  It could be perfect ebook publishing company but for the DRM issue).  

Publishing is not used to swift change but it needs to reorient its thinking.  What might work …

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Dear Mrs. Styles,

Yeah, finally book two in your Viking series. Or at least book two over in North America. I still don’t understand how Harlequin and Mills and Boon decide when to release what where. Greater minds than mine must be at work here somehow.

Sela and Vikar have a past. A bad past that includes a marriage made for all the wrong reasons and ended for ones just as bad. Vikar needed the political connections from marriage to a powerful Jaarl’s daughter and Sela hoped for a man she could respect and, perhaps, care for. The vicious court life didn’t help them communicate and when Sela had had enough, Vikar never came after her despite her message to him.

Now the tables have turned and Vikar has arrived with his men to avenge a raid made by her father’s men. When Vikar doesn’t find the Bose the Dark in his own hall, he suspects a trick is being played. The man is as slippery as an eel and not to be trusted. If he can get Sela to go for her father, Vikar can follow and nab him. But things don’t go according …

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It’s tough out there. People are losing their jobs and their homes. They are struggling to make ends meet. I recognize that in posting these links that some of the readers are in the same position as the recipients of these individuals but I post them not for those of you who are hurting. This is a post for those who are willing and are able to help. But because there are so many people out there struggling, I won’t post another one of these unless the circumstances are extraordinary.

• First up is Gemma Halliday sponsored event. Halliday found out one of her avid fans (and this girl’s mother) are basically homeless. Gemma is planning an auction starting Jan. 19th and running through the 26th to raise some funds to help them out. The auction link is here.
• Sharon Cullars is in danger of losing her home, but Karen Scott and Roslyn Holcomb and a number of authors and bloggers got together to auction off goods to assist Cullars.

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Welcome to First Page Saturday. Individual authors anonymously send a first page read and critiqued by the Dear Author community of authors, readers and industry others. Anyone is welcome to comment. You may comment anonymously.
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Background: Late Victorian England: an avaricious, impoverished widow makes her way through high society, and low society, encountering militant suffragettes, grumpy pornographers, and villainous foreigners attempting to overthrow the government, in search of a sugar daddy (all the while trying to ignore the charms of a stuffy and staid secretary).

The first blow was the death of her husband.

This in itself was no tragedy. For Lady Rosamund Archer was not overly fond of the departed Earl whose death at the age of seventy-two had been, she felt, unfashionably overdue.

The blow came upon the reading of his will.

Her husband – forty years her senior and fourteen years her companion in matrimony – left his entire fortune in the hands of his oldest son, her detested step-son Claude. Claude had no redeeming features; he was brutishly ugly, with a personality as uncharming as his soul was corrupt. Rosamund was not the least bit surprised when he made a measly annual stipend dependent upon the frequent use of …

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• Everyone but everyone is laying off people: Google, Sony, Microsoft, Intel, Motorola, and on and on.  Almost 200,000 tech jobs lost since August 2008.  Everyone is laying off, that is except for Apple who posted a record profit of $1.6 billion for the last quarter having sold  4.3M iPhones as well as a bunch of other Apple tech paraphenalia.  If your book isn’t easily available on the iPhone, maybe you are missing a key marketing opportunity? Dunno.  
•  For years, people have been uploading poor quality bootleg Monty Python to YouTube and MP has finally caved, started its own channel, offering up some of its most popular content in high quality and for free.  Bad business move right? Of course not, else why would I be posting about it.  Since Monty Python launched its own channel in November, “their DVDs also quickly climbed to No. 2 on Amazon’s Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent.”  I’m sure no one here wants to see a 23,000 percent increase in sales.  Keep on with the DRM, publishing folks.  It’s making you so much more money, I’m sure.
• John Scalzi says that this NYT Article identifying some obscure town

…

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I first saw the news on Lori Devoti's blog regarding the partnership between Juno Press and Pocket.  I know that the previous Juno titles were not really cross over, but more fully UF books.  I wondered if the deal with Pocket meant that there would be a shift in the tone of the books.  I asked specifically if the books would be more romance crowd focused. According to Pocket, "the new titles will remain in the style of Juno's previous urban fantasy titles.  Authors should submit directly to Paula Guran."  Guran's site says that submissions are suspended but that should change shortly.

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I got this email and thought I would post it in full. You’ll probably see it around the web. I’m going to, one of these days, post my thoughts on the Google Settlement. Honestly I kind of fear it.

From: GoogleSettlement
Date: Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 2:30 PM
Subject: Legal Information Re: Google¹s Scanning of Books and Other Writings

You are receiving this notice because we believe your members or readers may be interested in the settlement of a class action lawsuit regarding Google’s scanning of books and other writings. The proposed settlement affects the legal rights in the United States of authors and publishers throughout the world.

A summary of the Google Book Search settlement appears at the end of this email. Detailed information about the settlement is available at http://www.googlebooksettlement.com. Please read the full Notice, which has details about the settlement, important terms, the claims process, and key dates. It is available at http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/notice.html. These documents and assistance with the claims process are also available from the Settlement Administrator by email (BookSettlement@rustconsulting.com) or telephone (1.888.356.0248).

We would very much appreciate if you would forward these links and contact information to your members or provide them on your website. …

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Dear Ms. Lee,

Like Jane, I’m biased towards books featuring Asian heroines.  So imagine how excited I was to discover a book that not only featured an Asian heroine but an Asian hero too!  And in historical China!  Even better, the cover depicted them as both distinctly Asian.  That last bit sounds like a strange thing to be excited about but speaking from experience, book covers don’t really have a good history of staying true to a character’s ethnicity.  Just look at the cover of that Harlequin Presents with the Asian heroine that Jane reviewed last month.

Chen Ji Yue is the only daughter of a poor noble.  With little money to their name and two brothers who need to take the Imperial examinations, her family sends her to the Forbidden City.  The previous emperor has recently died and his son has newly ascended the throne.  And his first duty as emperor is to produce an heir.  To this end, he sends notice to all the eligible young women that he is seeking an empress.  And that’s not all: he also seeks four favored concubines and enough women to fill the two tiers of …

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I wish you could have seen my face when I read the title of this press release "Big Fish Games, romance novel company sign deal " because I thought that perhaps Harlequin was taking specialization a little too far when it comes to . I mean, I know that Linda Howard's husband is a champion bass fisherman and there was a brawny fisherman who starred in Kristan Higgin's Catch of the Day, but co branding with Bassmaster?  I just don't see it.   Big Fish Games, however, is a video game manufacturer and the agreement is that Harlequin will publish a number of books in a miniseries called "Mystery Case Files" and Big Fish will create interactive games based on those books. I'm not sure whether this is a "choose your own adventure" web 2.0 style or whether it will be like those pens where you tip them and the clothed librarian becomes the sexy librarian or whether . . . I guess your imagination can fill in those other alternative scenarios until the games are released this summer.  I wonder if it will be an iPhone app? At the bottom of the release was this line: …

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I’ve seen more and more advertisements for “blog talk” radio and other internet based methods for readers and authors to interact, timed usually around the release of a book.  I’ve even heard of authors holding virtual readings in “Second Life.”  There are still other ways to harness the internet to recreate the intimacy of an in-person signing or tour event such as using free software like SKYPE and a webcam.  What are your thoughts/preferences about these promotional events?  Publishers and authors are interested in hearing your opinion.

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Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Friday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Jill Shalvis’s new series about the Wilder family is kicked off at the end of this month with Instant Attraction.  SB Sarah and I have been running a promotion for this wherein if you spread the word about Jill’s book, you are entered to win a FLIP Video Camera.  
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I first started writing just over ten years ago now, during a time I fondly refer to as the deep, dark years of hell. I had three kids under the age of five (don’t worry, we finally figured out what caused that problem J), I’d just lost my accounting job, and my husband had just officially burnt out on his job as a paramedic on the mean streets of downtown Los Angeles.

It was not a great time for either of to begin a new career. So of course we both did. I dove into writing with the same joy that reading romances had been giving me for years. I had …

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Story parallel to Cade’s
What I liked: EVERYTHING
Cole can do no wrong.

Illusion Queen is
Misunderstood, not evil
(Well, a bit evil.)

Rydstrom shows his horns
Grows a personality
Bondage fetish, yum.

One part of story
Disappoints: we never see
Ryd’s piercings, alas.

I’m a dirty bird
Wanted nasty hot sexxors
This has all & more

Witty, fun romp? Check.
Sex as playful torture? Check.
Gena shout out? CHECK.

Did I mention that
The cover is hotness itself?
Grade A from this girl.

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Dear Ms. Harper:

I am a big fan of the Elizabeth Hoyt historicals. They are richly detailed with full bodied emotional depth. They are sometimes dark but have always delivered a satisfying read. I can see where writing fun contemporary romps would serve as a nice relief as well as allowing an author to stretch the boundaries of her writing repertoire.

Unfortunately this book with its frivolity and humor didn’t translate well. Poetess Zoey Adler, who works at a health food store but gulps down Culver Butterburgers like they were manna from heaven, was stunned to see some burly guy run out of her apartment building with her baby niece, Pete, in tow. Zoey had been in an argument over a parking space with Mr. Lips of Sin, a handsome but non talkative, tenant of her apartment complex, when she was shot at, bowled over, and caught up in a road race before she knows it.

Mr. Lips of Sin is Dante Torelli, undercover FBI agent, working to ferret out a rogue agent working in the Chicago office. Zoey climbs into Dante’s Beemer as he is about to give chase …

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It's not like being estranged is enough for the brother of Mark McGwire.  He'd like to make some money off of the estrangement if possible by penning a tell all novel of McGwire's usage of steriods and performance enhancing drugs during McGwire's major league days.  I expect Jay, though, to the get the obligatory million dollar plus advance in case to hasten the downfall of publishing.  
Dear Jay:Tell us something we don't already know.  Jane

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First, a mini lesson in copyright and distribution.

When authors sell the distribution rights to their book, they are actually selling the right to print, publicize, and sometimes digitally distribute the work in certain geographical territories. The author (via her agent usually) sells the right to publish the work in specific formats; sometimes one publisher may have the print and digital distribution rights but another publisher the audio and sometimes digital rights are withheld from the publisher. JK Rowling, for example, famously refuses to have her work digitized so the pirates do it for her. Recently John Grisham agreed to have his works be available for sale in digital format.

So essentially an author has these bundles of rights. She, via her agent, gives these rights to someone else (a publisher) in exchange for advances against royalties, usually, but sometimes for a flat rate (like a film deal). These rights can be limited however the author wants including by type of distribution (i.e., audio, digital, print) and by geographical territories (like US or UK or Japan, etc).

What’s this have to do with digital booksellers?

In this international, internet marketplace, the burden is on the booksellers or …

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I’ve often wondered why there is a prologue in a story. Why isn’t it Chapter One? In The Boss’s Christmas Proposal, the story opens with a prologue of the character confronting her parents and asking for a job in the corporation. Chapter One sees her starting her new job. What’s the point? I can see if a prologue features something that takes place very early on in one’s life (I think Lord of Scoundrels used this effectively by telling the backstory of Dain’s troubled childhood) but mostly I think prologues are overused.

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Dear Ms. Cote,

If one says that the American Civil War has dropped off the face of the earth as far as romance books are concerned, that goes double for the Reconstruction period that followed the end of the war. I guess picking up the pieces and sweeping away the rubble isn’t as much fun. But I have to say that the books I’ve read of this era have been among the best American Historicals and I’m happy to add this title to the list.

While Lee might have formally surrendered to Grant, there are those who aren’t willing to put down their rifles, or put away their hate, just yet. Verity Hardy knows she won’t be welcomed with open arms to Fiddlers Grove, Virginia but she never expected that anyone might use violence to stop her from opening a school for freed slaves and their children.

Matthew Ritter has no such illusions. The townspeople drove him and his family out years ago when his father defended a free black man from being taken by slavers and he knows their feelings probably haven’t changed now that the South has lost the war. …

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• Audible is offering a free download of almost any of the 50,000 titles in its catalog. You know that Audible is the only one not stripping its DRM from the offerings in iTunes.
• Alloy Entertainment is a packager and backed the popular Gossip Girl and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. They now want to make a name for itself in women’s fiction, young adult, middle grade and chapter books. They will acquire 12 books a year paying low five-figure advances. Authors will get a revenue split after they earn back their advance. (Kind of like traditional publishing?). According to the PW article, it looks like they will accept unagented manuscripts.
• Rumor is that Britney Spears is being paid $14 Million for her autobiography. How much does the ghost writer get paid? Unless it contains more crazy than is published at TMZ, I don’t know who will buy it.
• For those heroines that constantly want to serve as bait to catch the bad guys much to the mortification of the hero, you can now outfit your beloved in bulletproof clothing, like Obama reportedly was wearing yesterday.
• Speaking of the Obamas and what

…

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Dear Ms. Bird,

After eyeing it all year last year, I finally decided to sign up for Keishon’s TBR Challenge. I figured it would motivate me to dig up some of the older books that have piled up around my house which I have been ignoring in favor of the new and shiny.

Keishon’s assignment for January was category romances. I must admit that though I did have a few in my to-be-read pile, I don’t read many categories. I tend to prefer longer books. But your 2007 book, The Billionaire Next Door, has been in my TBR pile and I’ve wanted to read it for a while. This challenge was my golden opportunity.

Sean O’Banyon specializes in corporate mergers and acquisitions. Although he is now a Manhattan billionaire, pursued by women and sought after by deal-makers, Sean was once an abused child from Southie, Boston. When Sean’s once-abusive father dies, Sean, who hasn’t spoken to his father in years, travels to Boston to collect his father’s remains and get the duplex in which his father lives ready to sell.

It is in Boston that Sean encounters …

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The following commenters are the random winners to the Save the Contemporary Campaign featuring the late January release of Instant Attraction by Jill Shalvis.

The winners are:

• Peggy P
• Victoria W
• rd2129
• Lori S.
• Bonnie L
• Brandy W
• Jessica
• Darby Lohrding
• El
• Edith

I’ve sent an email to the winners requesting a snail mail address so we can ship the books out right away. For those who did not win, but want to help spread the word and be entered to win the Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder, don’t forget about our “Save the Contemporary” Campaign widget and gif.

The Spread the Word winner will be announced in 1 week, so tune in on Monday 26 January to see who wins a book and a really kickass video camera in our quest to Save the Contemporary.

Why? Because if there’s one thing that makes us sad, it’s the idea of contemporary romance dying out. So spread the word, …

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