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

Got a book you want to talk about? Frustrated with a book or series? In love with a new one? Found a buried treasure? An issue that keeps popping up in the books you are reading? Just want to chat about stuff in general? Post away.

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Dear Mrs. Sims,
I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect of a Gay Victorian romance novel written by a mid-west cookie baking grandmother. But I guess it just goes to show that 1) readers should never prejudge a book and 2) any author can write about anything if the story is in them to be told.
This really is in the vein of the long Victorian novels of yore. We get two protagonists both of whom had bad and good childhoods. Jack Rourke and his twin brother Michael are the sons of a whore and an abusive sailor father. Raised, if you can use the term, in the rookeries of London, most of what they know is being poor and being beaten whenever their father’s ship docks.
Jack has found an escape in the company of a troupe of actors and a mentor in its lead actress. After a final, horrible confrontation with his father, he escapes with her help and is adopted by her wealthy brother into a world he could never have imagined. Taking the name Kit St. Denys, he becomes one of England’s most accomplished young actors leading a true rags to riches existence.
Nicholas …

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see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Dear RWA Members*:

Can we talk about the RITAs? I don’t mean to harsh on the nominees. Indeed, some of my favorite authors were nominated this year and some of my favorite authors have won in the past. Oh, we all have our quibbles about who was left out and who was included, but those are subjective decisions. No, I don’t want to talk about the specific nominees but rather the categories themselves.

I know that you are a large group and one would say, even, a diverse one, but I have to tell you that I get the sense you aren’t happy with the direction that romance in general is taking. In the past, I’ve said many of actions of RWA that adversely affected erotic romance were primarily targeted toward epublishing and that erotic romances suffered because epublishing in romance is often associated with erotic romance. I posited that if inspirational romance were to be primarily associated with epublishing that it, too, would be treated differently. In looking back, though, I can’t help but wonder now if I was wrong.

By having …

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Dear Ms. Jordan:

I’m an admitted fan of the HP line. I think its the length of the book, the emotion impact you get in a short time, and, well, for the lulz. Julie Simmonds is accosted in the street by an expensively clad man standing next to an expensive car. He claims that the child she has been taking care of was fathered by his brother.

Julie is your standard self sacrificing HP heroine. She uses all her money to pay off her dead sister’s debts. She leaves her good job to take on a new one that allows her to parent Josh. She is so close to the edge of poverty that she cannot even eat properly. She even let go of her lover, James, when he fell in love with her sister. James, her sister and their parents all head off to view a place in Scotland that might be the perfect locale for a wedding. The sister’s baby, Josh, is left in Julie’s car. The entire family is killed in a freak accident leaving Julie with tons of debt, little money, and Josh.

Rocco Leopardi …

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Dear Ms. Kleypas:
Sometimes I think I’m the only one who didn’t love your first two contemporary romances.I liked Liberty and Hardy, but I became so attached to them that certain things like Hardy’s uneven characterization and Liberty’s choice in men left me dissatisfied. Smooth Talking Stranger was a chance to start anew with two new protagonists.

Ella Varner is a survivor. She was raised by a psychologically abusive woman who possessed not a single ounce of motherly instinct. She did her best to protect herself and her sister Tara, but both were left with emotional scars. After years of therapy, Ella has managed to achieve a tenuous bit of happiness: she’s got a successful job as an advice columnist, a nice place to live in Austin, a great boyfriend, and friends aplenty.

Her life gets shaken up a bit when she receives a phone call one day. Long story short: her sister had a baby, didn’t want to take care of the baby, won’t tell anyone the baby’s father’s name, left baby with the emotionally damaging grandmother, and grandmother refuses to take care of baby. Ella doesn’t exactly want …

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Orbit is offering AFRAID by  Jack Kilborn as an eBook available for $1.99 for the month of April.  Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley is Orbit’s $1.00 title.   Ruckley’s new release, Fall of Thanes, will be available on 5/3/09 and the other title in the series, Bloodheir, is also available in ebook format.  (Someone seems to be listening to reader suggestions that all the titles in a series should be in eform).

Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione will continue to be available for $1.00.  Four Michelle Rowen titles will be available for the price of 2 (these are funny paranormals).  These sales start on April 1st and should be available at different etailers.  Sony will for sure carry them.

Fictionwise is having a 50% off sale. This means you pay Fictionwise’s full price (usually some discount off the retail price) and you get 50% of your purchase in Micropay dollars to be used in the future.

Harlequin is offering “sexy ebooks” for $2.99. I don’t know if this link doesn’t work until April 1 or what. Sexy eBooks $2.99 each. We’re bringing sexy back at Harlequin! eBook offer. Ends April 30, 2009

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As reported at GalleyCat, Dear Author is revising its review policy to achieve two goals. First, we want to encourage publishers to move to digital arcs as an option for reviewers. Second, we want to enable our own reviewers to accomplish their reading/reviewing in as painless a way possible.

As authors may know, almost all houses are cutting back on the number of ARCs being produced and being sent to reviewers. There is some belief that bloggers do not need much lead time as opposed to print publications. Unfortunately, this is not true. Reader/bloggers almost exclusively run their blogs in their spare time, as a hobby. They are not paid for their time or the product that they produce. Therefore reading/reviewing has to be shoe horned into spare moments of the day. Advance copies make it easier for a reader/blogger to plan ahead, preview books to be read, and schedule timely reviews. Finished review copies are nice, but don’t allow enough time for us to read and review in a timely fashion.

Generally, finished print copies are not mailed until 3 weeks before the date of the release. I collate them and send out …

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Out in the book writing world (which, on a Venn Diagram, is a separate by slightly intersecting sphere of the reader world that DA inhabits), there was a controversy over a series of twitters with the hashtag #queryfail. #Queryfail represented a number of agents and editors giving out advice, in 140 words and less, about how NOT to query. Many of the tweets had to do with blatant disregard of the agent or editors’ stated guidelines.
Nathan Bransford, an agent, took a stance that he would never publicly humiliate an author for a submission, no matter how egregious the submission was in ignoring the submission guidelines. Other agents were branded “mean girls” for participating in #queryfail in the fall out. (I took this opportunity to appreciate the “if you don’t have anything nice mantra” is one that is expressed in circles far beyond the romance genre).
Jessica Faust of BookEnds, who did not participate in #queryfail, made an important point today. Rejection is not about the author but the submission which is what I believe about books and book reviews.
Ned and I watch American Idol and he views Simon Cowell as the nicest guy on …

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Scribd has 55 Million visitors, lots of pirated books, & burgeoning legitimate business interests. A couple of weeks ago, Scribd announced that it had an agreement with Random House to host full length free works by popular authors like Tess Gerritsen whose work on Scribd was “read” 30,000 in three weeks. This week, brings us news that JK Rowling and Ken Follett are trying to battle with Scribd to keep their books off the Scribd site.
The main takeaway from this article is how clueless publishing is:

Ken Follett�s publisher, Macmillan, was unware that World without End had been uploaded on to the Scribd website for more than five months, and had been read more than 500 times there. Macmillan said it was �now looking into this�

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Welcome to the My First Sale series. We used to host this on Fridays but starting now, we will be hosting these stories on Monday to make space for our new Friday Film Review feature.

In the First Sale series, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Ann Aguirre debuted with break out urban fantasy titles, author of Grimspace and Wanderlust. This month, Ann’s serving up Blue Diablo, a little more romance with your heaping of urban fantasy. On sale date is April 7, 2009, but may be in bookstores now.

***

My First Sale: or How Defenestrating the Rulebook Worked for Me

Before Grimspace, I wrote a number of novels. I wrote to the market. I tried to please. I got a small break when I signed with my first agent, but I was still writing to the market. I tried my hand at contemporary romance, which wasn’t my strong suit. I was so frustrated. Some of the joy went out of writing too. I started to feel like, “What’s the point? Nobody but me …

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This is our Author Promo Thread for April. It’s a place for authors to tell us about their awesome April releases. The rules for Author Promo Night Open Thread are as follows:

• The book has to be released in that month (i.e., anything released during the last week of March would be an April release)
• You can post for yourself or you can have a friend post for you if the idea of posting about your book paralyzes you .
• No self published authors unless you write romance. No, I am not a POD hater, I am just thinking about the manageability of the thread.
• Think about the readership. I.e., does your non fiction book about psoriasis really fit?
• This one is more of a guideline than a rule, but be smart about your comment because if it is just a link to your website and the title of your book, I doubt you are going to get any interest.
• DA reserves the right to delete the post if it promotes objectionable content (i.e., no daddy/daughter incest recommends are going to be allowed. Sorry.)

That’s it. Post away.

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I had a reader email me because she couldn’t get Stanza Desktop to work with her iTouch nor could she get Calibre to work with Stanza. After much trial and error on her part, she got both to work. She gave me permission to share these results so that if anyone else was having problems, they might be able to reference her solution. Thanks Helen!

First, go to System Preferences -> Sharing and click on Personal Web Sharing to see the host name of your computer. You’ll need this when adding a catalog to Stanza

Stanza + Calibre

Stanza can access Calibre contents over the internet. You must set up Calibre to be a content server. This is done by accessing the “configure” option on Calibre (located by the little wrench on the upper right hand side).

On The Computer (these are for a Mac but the idea is the same for all ‘puters)

• In System Preference > Sharing > Firewall (should be on with everything selected in Advanced)
• Click “New”
• Set Port Name at “Other”
• Set TCP Port Number at 8080
• Enter Description “Stanza”

The iPhone

• In the Library, Click on “Shared Books”
• Tap Books in calibre (on NAME OF YOUR COMPUTER)
• Enter User name and password
• Tap

…

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Photo via Flickr.

Until about 4 months ago, I hadn’t really grasped the concept of cloud computing. Alot of tech people would talk about it as if it were the holy grail and it was a concept used to applaud the innovation behind the Kindle.  Unfortunately, I didn’t really get it. 

Cloud computing is the concept that all information is stored outside the device you use to interact with the data.  For example, if you have a computer, your programs might be installed on the computer (called a local install or a client install) but all the data that you create would be stored somewhere else, in the cloud.  

The perfect example is blogging.  The only local software I have installed is a browser (I use Chrome).  From the browser, I am able to access the blogging software and all the data is stored outside of my laptop.  Gmail or Yahoo is an example of cloud computing.  Your emails can be accessed via your browser from anywhere there is web connection. Your emails are not device dependent.

For the Kindle, all the books that you can read on …

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There are going to be some slight changes at Dear Author (and some major ones) while we tweak our schedule.  Dear Author is three years old April 4, 2009, and in order to stay fresh and interesting, we’re going to be adding new content and paring down some old content.

Sundays have always been about ebooks but I think that it’s increasingly wrong of us to separate digital publishing from regular publishing and possibly marginalizing digital publishing.  In a world where the two business models of publishing are converging, it is harder than ever to have a discussion of one without the other.  

Therefore, Sunday’s will no longer be when we talk solely about the business model of ebook publishing.  Tuesday is our regular opinion day and any discussions we have about digital publishing will be folded into our Tuesday opinion day.  The first of those articles will be in two weeks and will be on the topic of How Bezos Pwned Publishing.  (I was intending to publish the article this Tuesday but want to address the issue of Erotic Romance and the RITAs in a timely fashion).

On Sunday we intend to focus on two things.  

• First, we want to go

…

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Dear Ms. Daley,

Modern methods of crime solving fascinate me. I admit I’m a real life CSI junkie and can watch a whopping amount of cable shows which explain how law enforcement officials crack a case. The description of this book

The only witness when a single mother mysteriously vanishes? Her three-year-old daughter. FBI agent Sam Pierce needs to question little Sarah. Yet child psychologist Jocelyn Gold will barely let him near the girl. Or herself. The tragic conclusion to a kidnapping case broke Sam and Jocelyn apart years before, and their hearts still haven’t healed. But for the child’s sake—and her mother’s—they must join forces to uncover just what Sarah saw.

caught my attention. A child psychologist who gets to solve a case with the clock ticking? Bring it!

I am fascinated by the whole idea of working with children to open up their memories about things they’ve seen, especially when it might solve crimes. The scenes in which Jocelyn works with Sarah and the other children to solve this crime held my attention while not raising any red flags of WTFery.

But I wanted to know how Jocelyn could be angry …

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We’ve still got voting going on in the DABWAHA Tournament. The Elite 8 is here and is comprised of a Novel with Romantic Elements, 2 Paranormals, 2 Historicals, 2 Erotic Romances, and 1 Contemporary.  Round 4 voting starts at 10:00 AM EDT. Voting in Round 4, the Elite 8, will last 8 hours each.  Jennifer Y remains at the top with a 91% pick percentage.  Last year, the winning pick percentage was 69%.  

Voting Schedule:

• Round 4, Region 1: 10 AM EDT to 6 PM EDT, March 28, 2009 (today)
• Round 4, Region 2: 6 PM EDT to 2 AM EDT, March 29, 2009
• Round 4, Region 3: 2 AM EDT to 10 AM EDT, March 29, 2009
• Round 4, Region 4: 10 AM EDT to 6 PM EDT, March 29, 2009

What is DABWAHA? It’s the Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors or DA BWAHA. For newcomers, this is a tournament of books that mimics the March Madness tournament of basketball. We’ve picked a slate of 64 books in 8 different categories to compete against each other through the next few weeks. Right now we are in the voting …

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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.
***

Lili and Jane stood, crushed between the doors of a downtown 2 train and tired commuters on their way home. Lili leaned against a door, rubbing her aching shoulders. She tilted her head back against the door’s glass window and drifted off to sleep a little bit, calmed by the rocking movement of the train. To a native New Yorker like her, it was as good as a lullaby. The train pulled up to a sudden stop mid-tunnel, sending the horde of commuters smashing into the two women. Jane looked up through the window, and dropped her magazine.

“Sweet minty Jesus!”

Lili jumped up, her eyes wide, and turned around to see what had made Jane yell out. She could see nothing in the tunnel but another train full of tired people, waiting to get into the next station. She poked her friend viciously in the shoulder.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Is there something out there in the tunnel?” Lili stared at Jane, whose …

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DISCLAIMER: So as to avoid the appearance of impropriety in this conversational review by Joan/Sarah F. and Janine., Joan/Sarah F. says: “I acted as a first-reader for MHT on this story. While I wouldn’t say I was a critique partner or even a beta-reader, MHT did send me this story to see if I thought it got BDSM right. As I had nothing to correct, my input (”OMG! It’s fantastic!”) had no effect on the finished product.” Janine says: “I don’t know the author at all and only read the review copy with which DA was provided.” We encourage you to seek out other reviews should this review leave you with some questions about whether this story would work for you.

Janine: Adam is vacationing on a tropical island with his friend Stacy. As the story opens, Adam has been eyeing Brett, a fellow tourist, but because of Stacy’s drunken antics, he does not have much opportunity to approach the man he desires.

After lusting from afar, Adam get his chance when their tour bus stops and Brett struggles to use his digital camera. Adam gives Brett a few pointers and takes the opportunity to flirt …

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Maili, an old friend of the blog (and truly a vanguard of romance reader bloggers) has extensive film knowledge and offered to write a review of a romantic film every Friday.  I was delighted to accept.  Henceforth, every Friday, we will feature a film review so that if you aren’t sure what to do on the weekend, this might provide you with an idea.  We will be moving First Sale stories to Monday to accommodate our new addition to Dear Author. – Jane

Grade: A
Genre: Black comedy / Romantic comedy (US)

Dear Hal Ashby,

You and scriptwriter Colin Higgins passed away in the same year almost twenty one years ago, but your cinematic legacy still lives on. Especially your second directorial effort, Harold and Maude, which I’d describe as one of the best love stories in the history of cinema.

I wondered sometimes how the studio people reacted when you and Colin Higgins decided to film a love story about a suicidal rich-kid teenager and a 79-year-old feisty woman. Not to mention having this smart-dressed teenager Harold (Bud Cort) to hang himself in the living room during the film’s opening scene.

But as we quickly discover, it’s a fake suicide attempt to attract his …

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The website for “Love as the Practice of Freedom? Romance Fiction and American Culture” is finally live!

This conference is on April 23-24, at Princeton University, and FREE! to the public.

There are some pretty illustrious names presenting at the conference. Rather than repeat them all here (Eloisa James, Jenny Crusie, Beverly Jenkins, SB Sarah, Michelle Buonfiglio), go to Teach Me Tonight for the link-filled goodness of the presenter line-up. Or go poke around the conference website itself!

So, if you’re in the vicinity, we’d love to see you there in just about a month from now!

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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. Miranda Neville writes historical romances for Avon. Her latest book, Never Resist Temptation (excerpt), is in stores now.
***

One morning my agent called with two rejections. In the afternoon she called again, with an offer from Avon. A mixed day, but on balance a good one. (Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!)

The story starts about five years earlier when I decided to write a novel. A fan since childhood of Georgette Heyer, I discovered they were publishing Regency romances again. Better still, the new ones had sex. It took me about two years and I slaved over every historical detail, certain no one would want to read my book if I didn’t say exactly how many painted roundels graced the ceiling of the drawing room at Syon House. Nothing much happened in the story, but when finished it had lots of frightfully witty dialogue, two and a half sex scenes and one hundred thousand words, which I’d read on some website was the correct length …

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The following is a spoiler filled tale in the spirit of Green Eggs and Ham.

I am a zombie fan!
Zombie fan I am

That zombie-fan-I-am
That zombie-fan-I-am!
I do not like that Forest of Hand (and Teeth)!

Do you like
The village and Mary?

I am not being contrary.
This story is not
believable or scary.

Would you like Mary
On the run?

I would not like her
On the run.
I did not find the story fun.

I did not like
The escape plan.
I did not like it, as a zombie fan.

Did you like the love story?
Did you find the ending gory?

I did not like the
Love story.
I did not like the ending,
I did not find it gory.
I did not like the vagueness
of the undead.
I did not understand what was going
on in Mary’s head.

I did not like her
Selfish outlook.
I did not like
This Forest book.
I did not like it,
Zombie-fan-I-am.

Would you like it if the author
Moved Mary
To someplace
A little more scary?

Not in the new place.
Not with zombies in her face.
Not behind the fences please.
Not in a platform in the trees.
I did not like Mary
here or there.
I did not like her anywhere.
I did not like her selfish outlook.
I did not like this Forest book.

Why not? What’s wrong? Everyone else loves it.
It’s …

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We love the contemporary like Damn and Whoa (tm SmartBitch Sarah) so we’ve created a special little online place for them at http://savethecontemporary.com and we’ve run a kind of monthly campaign highlighting a different book.

This month’s book was Lisa Kleypas’ Smooth Talking Stranger which Jane described as a Snoopy book (Happiness is a warm puppy) and Sarah described as the book as having suds that stays with you. Which, in real person terms means we both loved the book and wanted an effective way of telling others we loved it to.

From now until April 6, 2009, Borders is offering30% off all pre-orders, so if you’re thinking of buying it, you’ve got 30% more (or less) incentive to do so.

If you are a reader, author, or ameoba, you can use the “savethecontemporary.com” site to recommend your favorite contemporary reads too. Take a look. In the meantime, the following folks won a copy of Smooth Talking Stranger. Please send your snailmail to jane at dearauthor.com.

• Lorigreen
• janajhanson
• Bonnie_Ferguson
• Stephanie Makowski
• Kim C
• cammY
• Elizabeth Lester
• Alissa Davis
• Kwana
• Kym
• junedaisy
• Lou_bookpusher
• Keira S
• Mollie M
• Christina Tu
• Cheryl C
• Sarah Louise G
• Pam P
• rebjy
• Rebecca S

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I don’t know if this is company wide, but for Pocket books ARCs will no longer be made available to reviewers or bookstore owners. Instead, finished copies will be mailed earlier. Whether this will affect actual sales is yet to be determined.
On the royalty side, S&S will be offering a 25% of “net receipts for all sales of all electronic editions including eBooks and audio book downloads.” According to the ereads article, retailers take a discount of 50% of an ebook list price. For a paperback, that is $3.50-$4.75 so an author will get 25% of that. This is a 25% reduction in royalty. I suppose this is one reason that S&S is charging more for its ebooks. Most S&S ebooks are $9.99, a near 50% markup over the paperback pricing.
Guess what S&S, we readers don’t care about your royalty fights and your problems with etailers. We care about the end price of a book, the one that we pay in our checkout basket. Ratcheting up the price so that you can placate your authors (which assumes that they are stupid and they are not) by gouging both the etailer who passes …

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Dear Ms. Mitchell,

It’s been a while since I read a Southern gothic, young adult or not.  In fact, I think the last novel I read in this subgenre was Cherie Priest’s Four and Twenty Blackbirds and that came out a few years ago.  For some reason, it’s just not a genre I often read in so I was glad to have the opportunity to give your novel a try.

Iris lives in Ondine, a small Louisiana town where nothing happens.  She’s expecting just another lazy, hot summer spent with her longtime best friend, Colette.  Granted, by spending time together, we mean casting spells and summoning ghosts in the cemetery.  Nevertheless, it’s all fun and games and make believe, until one day something answers back and whispers in Iris’s ear.

Even though Iris’s small town is a place where nothing ever happens, we all know that’s never actually the case.  Every place has a history and at least one dirty secret.  In Ondine’s case, a boy named Elijah Landry disappeared.  No one knows if he ran away, died, or was murdered, but Iris is determined to find out because she thinks the ghost Colette and …

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Update: Sorry guys. For some reason the polls did not open on time so we are revising the voting schedule.

We’ve still got voting going on in the DABWAHA Tournament.  Round 3 is about to begin at 8 AM EDT.  Voting in Round 3 will be for 8 hours.  

Voting Schedule:

• Round 3, Set 1: 8 AM EDT to 4 PM EDT, March 26, 2009 (today)
• Round 3, Set 2: 4 PM EDT to 12 PM EDT, March 26, 2009
• Round 3, Set 3: 12 PM EDT to 8 PM EDT, March 27, 2009 (today)
• Round 3, Set 2: 8 PM EDT to 2 AM EDT, March 27, 2009

The schedule is varied and longer to give people as much time to vote and to accommodate schedules all over the globe.  I’ll tell you that relentless vote pandering went on twitter last weekend.  

What is DABWAHA? It’s the Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors or DA BWAHA. For newcomers, this is a tournament of books that mimics the March Madness tournament of basketball. We’ve picked a slate of 64 books in 8 different categories to compete against each other through the next …

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Dear Ms. Abe,

I’ve been a fan of your drakon series since the first book, The Smoke Thief. I was one of those readers who had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the paranormal romance revolution, but the drakon series are among the books that make me glad I finally (more ore less) succumbed. These stories combine romance with fantasy elements (a village in the heart of 18th century England whose residents can turn from human to smoke and from smoke to dragon) that I have never found to be too heavy-handed or overly detailed (I find the excessive world-building of some fantasy tiresome and confusing). I’ve also found your prose well above-average: lyrical without being purple or overblown.

The Treasure Keeper opens with the first entry into the journal of Zoe Lane, on her thirteenth birthday. Well, technically it opens with a prologue narrated by the mysterious dragon whose opaque commentary runs through these books, but the first chapter is Zoe’s journal entries from ages 13 through 29, with a postscript addressed to her twin Cerise, explaining why she is slipping away from Darkfrith – the drakon village – an action that will …

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I thought it might be nice to have two separate threads. One thread for congratulations and another for who you think should have gotten a nod and didn’t.  This is the thread for the “I can’t believe so and so was left out.”

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In the paranormal category:  

• The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter
• The Healer by Sharon Sala
• Mine to Possess Nalini Singh 
• The Undead Next Door by Kerrelyn Sparks
• Thunder Moon by Lori Handeland
• Dragon Wytch by Yasmine Galenorn
• Seducing Mr. Darcy by Gwen Cready
• Moonstruck by Susan Grant

In the NWRE: 

• Tribute by Nora Roberts
• Where Serpents Sleep by C.S. Harris
• The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
• The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner
• Last Dance at Jitterbug Lounge by Pamela Morsi
• The Paper Marriage by Susan Kay Law
• The House on Tradd Street by Karen White

In novella:

• “Thicker Than Blood” by Meljean Brook in First Blood 
• “Penance” by Sharon Sala in Aftershock
• “Blame it on the Mistletoe” by Terri Brisbin in One Candlelit Christmas 
• “The Fall of Rogue Gerard” by Stephanie Laurens in It Happened One Night 
• “Snowy Night with a Highlander” by Julia London in Snowy Night with a Stranger 
• “Our Day” by Jean Brashear in The Valentine Gift 
• “Only You” by Jacquie D’Alessandro in It Happened One Night 
• “Blame It on the Mistletoe” by Terri Brisbin in One Candlelit Christmas 
• “All He Wants for Christmas” by Jill Shalvis in Heating Up the Holidays 

In contemporary:  

• Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson
• Out of Time by Samantha Graves
• Snowfall at Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs
• Sweet Talk by Susan Mallery
• Tall Tales and Wedding Veils by Jane Graves
• Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber
• No Good Girls by Jean Marie Pierson
• Your Roots Are Showing by Elise Chidley

In Historical:  

• Spymaster’s Lady by

…

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I’m beginning to see my google reader as the publishing death watch notice. Every day I wonder, who is teetering on bankrupcty today. While not on the verge of bankruptcy, Random House still looks sick and has a dismal outlook. According to the article at Publishers’ Weekly, total revenue fell 6.5% and earnings were down 20.8%. The U.S. division saw a decline in sales in the second half of 2008. The cost cutting measures even cost money. The book, Brisingr, was it’s biggest selling title with four million in sales. Random probably cannot have Peter Jackson’s movie of Naomi Novik’s books soon enough. Both sales and revenue are projected to be down in 2009.
The only positive note is that digital sales are increasing tremendously.

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Dear Ms. Rimmer:

While you have been a long time commenter on Dear Author, I hadn’t picked up one of your books until recently. I kept meaning too but I never saw your name within the lines at Harlequin I usually perused each month. Jayne’s reviews of various Harlequin books has encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone and so when I saw your name, I immediately snapped up the title. I had no idea what to expect.

The Bravo Bachelor must be a continuation of members of the wealthy Bravo family. Gabe Bravo is the fixer. If there are problems or bumps to the furtherance of the Bravo empire, Gabe sallies forth to smooth the way, eliminate the obstacles in such a charming way that the impediment was apologizing for being there in the first place.

Gabe Bravo, however, meets his match in Mary Hofstetter. Mary owns a small patch of land that was willed to her by her now deceased husband. Gabe’s father has determined that this patch of land will be the site of a future Bravo resort. Mary is pregnant, alone, and cash poor …

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Dear Readers,

Netcomics is a publisher that publishes manga and manhwa online. No e-reader is needed, just $0.25 per chapter. They publish not only their own but Luv Luv and Yaoi Press comics among others. The way it works is that you buy e-cash in $10 amounts, then pay as you view each new chapter.

You don’t own the chapters, not at those prices. You get to view them for 48 hours. But, so you have a chance to look at a manga before starting to pay, the first 1-2 chapters are always available free (one for short works, 2 for longer).

Last, almost all the books are or will be available in hard copy if you find you truly love them and can’t live without them. There are a couple of series I follow that I purchase in hard format. What I love most about Netcomics though is that the net-version is usually 1-2 volumes ahead of the print, and with chapter releases the wait time is generally much less for updates, 2 weeks for my favorite series.

The series tend to be focused on women’s and girls’ comics. There are romances both …

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Dear Authors,

This anthology is subtitled “Forensic Mysteries from Today’s BEST WRITERS.” I’d heard of some of your names but forgive me if I say that mysteries, though I enjoy them, aren’t my first reading choice so there are some of you I’d never heard of before. What can I say except – I have now. And the stories live up nicely to the claim of having been written by the best writers.

I applaud Dana Stabenow not only for her contribution but also for her editing of the collection. Marty Greenberg and John Helfers rounded up the writers and got the project published.

The stories are located across America, from the heat of Florida to the bone chilling cold of Alaska. The people solving the crimes are from varied backgrounds and hold different titles. The ways the crimes are solved utilize everything from spy satellites, knowledge of sports, tax implications of a home sale, CPR, OCD, dental records, the victim’s job, and, of course, some post mortems. All are solved by the clues left behind and the intelligence of those determined to see justice done.

If you like CSI …

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According to this morning’s ShelfAwareness, Baker & Taylor is identified as a company at high risk of default or bankruptcy. Other than Ingram, B&T serves as the primary distributor of books in the U.S. and the world. B&T apparently has a high debt load.
As can be seen by the Anderson News fiasco, a distributing company that defaults or goes bankrupt in this climate can have very negative consequences on the publishing market. Assuming that B&T’s major creditors are the publishing houses, will the publishing houses have an incentive to prop up B&T until it can work its way out of its financial doldrums?

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We’re starting a new pile of awesome. We’ve created a new site just for the Save the Contemporary campaign. We’ll be announcing future contests both at SmartBitches and here and steering interested folks who like free books and awesome prizes over to the new site.

This month? Smooth Talking Stranger, by Lisa Kleypas. Sarah and I both really enjoyed this book. Sarah finished reading it and literally had to go lie down and sniffle. Her eyes were stinging, her smile was wobbly, and she had Good Book Sniffles. I wrote about it earlier today in my ode to the comfort read. It’s Snoopy. The book, that is.

As usual, we want to spread the word about this book, and about contemporary romance. Head on over to the Save the Contemporary site, and forward the announcement of the Lisa Kleypas book using the “Email this Page” link at the top, or spread the word via Twitter using the hashtag #stc – making sure to alert either jane (@jane_l) or me (@smartbitches). Or, you can write about the campaign, link to the site, and email us a link at sbjcontests@gmail.com.

Every time …

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see more Lolcats and funny pictures

In this year’s Top Chef, a Bravo Reality cooking show, one of the challenges was to create the last supper for a number of culinary dignities. To a (wo)man, each chef requested a simple, classic dish. Wiley Dufrense, one of the leaders in molecular gastronomy (mixing chemistry and cooking), is a lover of eggs. He requested eggs benedict. Jacques Pepin whose book La Technique is part of fundamental teaching for French cuisine, requested roast squab and peas. Lidia Bastianich wanted roast chicken and potatoes. You get the idea. At least one recapper of the episode noted how boring the “last supper” requests were.

Comfort food is not exciting. It’s rarely innovative, but it touches something at the core of a person and resonates so strongly that the person returns to that dish, that food time and again. And, as seen in the Top Chef episode, comfort food done right takes skill and an understanding of what comprises those seemingly simple dishes.

Everyone that I have spoken with who has read Smooth Talking Stranger, Lisa Kleypas’ March 31, 2009, …

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Mariah Jovan and David Nygren interview Sarah Wendell about writers and money.

Twitter is the new fad amongst everyone and their cousin including John Mayer. Apparently as a result of John Mayer spending too much time twittering, Jennifer Aniston is moving on. (shameless gossip piece tangentially related to writing and publishing because the twitterati is the subject of a new RWR piece).

Steve Johnson, an author, and starter of things related to the internet (as everyone on the internet is) and apparently a SOMEONE because Andrew Sullivan linked to him, has found the Kindle koolaid and thinks it might be the savior of newspapers. (ha ha ha, I laugh). Via Andrew Sullivan.

Speaking of the news not making any money even with the Kindle, a billionaire wants to turn newspapers into not for profit corporations. Gee, will my subscription be tax deductible then? Can I endow the Jane Litte editorial space for snarkiness and mean girliness?

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Dear Ms. Forster,

Several things about the back blurb for your book grabbed my attention.

After a bitter divorce, all cookbook author Allison Sawyer needs is some peace–and to lose herself in a kitchen, whipping up delectable meals. But the rustic retreat in the mountains offers more than seclusion. It offers one friendly and very fine neighbor.

Torn between her attraction to Brock Lightner and her reluctance to get close to another man–especially one she suspects might be working for her powerful ex–Allison keeps her distance. But the remote, idyllic setting and Brock’s rugged sensuality are an enticing combination.

A private investigator looking to make a fresh start, Brock is intrigued by Allison. Who or what is she running from? And how can he convince her that he’ll do anything to protect her…and to have the chance to love her?

I like characters who don’t automatically shut off all thoughts of finding The One just because of a past failed romance and the idea of a strong man who can entice trust from a wounded woman. Plus I love to cook – even if I’m not so hot on the cleaning up afterwards. But what …

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Dear Ms. Thurman,

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I love your Cal Leandros series.  Its blend of fast-paced action, sarcastic humor, and supernatural mayhem should appeal to anyone who’s ever loved the Winchester brothers on Supernatural.  Except in these books, not only do we have the above but we also get a multicultural cast and female characters that don’t get killed after a few episodes.  (Come on now, we know it’s true.)  Last year’s Madhouse was one of my favorite books of 2008 and while this latest installment was satisfying, it’s not exactly what I signed up for.

Starting immediately after Madhouse, Deathwish opens with Cal fleeing from his homicidal relatives from hell, the Auphe.  For readers unfamiliar with the series, I’m not exaggerating.  The Auphe are really demonic elves from hell.  In fact, they’re elves, period.  One thing the series emphasizes is the fact that myth and legend get it wrong.  With the Auphe, they seriously got it wrong.

Cal and his brother, Niko, thought they’d wiped out the Auphe.  They were mistaken.  What’s worse, Cal notices something strange about the Auphe attacking …

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Bummed out that your DABWAHA Bracket (if you’re curious, it’s “deh-BWA-hah”)isn’t in the top 5? The top 10? Anywhere near the top?

Fear not! It’s time for the 2nd chance bracket! The what?

Well, now that we’ve been through two rounds of voting, many of us are out of the running. And, just like last year, we’re running a second chance bracket tourney.

The prize? An iPod Touch, 8GB.

Head on over to here and fill out a new bracket. Pimp your voting choices on Twitter. Trash talking is TOTALLY allowed.

Game on – times two.

1. Click on the “Enter Your Picks” link.
2. Either pick your name from the dropdown list or Press “NEW” to
   add a new ONLINE ID
3. Enter your email address
4. Click on the names of the books that you want to advance
5. Press submit

That’s it. If you want (and I highly suggest that you do) check the box to have a copy of your entry mailed to you.

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This isn’t a formal poll, but rather a copyright pop quiz.  But don’t worry, it only has one question.  And no penalty for the wrong answer.  Plus it’s multiple choice.

Who said the following:

Most artists, if pressed, will admit that the true mother of invention in the arts is not necessity, but theft. And this is true even for our greatest artists.

a)    a torrent site owner
b)    an admitted downloader of pirated books
c)    an anti-trust attorney

Okay, the fact that I included the last answer kind of gives it away, but again, the point isn’t the answer, it’s the question.  And more specifically the statement made by Carl Sprigman, an anti-trust attorney who wrote a fascinating article, “The Mouse That Ate The Public Domain,” on the dangers of stricter copyright codes.  The rest of the statement I quoted above is as follows:

If we know little about the utility of longer copyright terms, there is abundant evidence regarding the vital importance to the progress of our culture of a robust stock of public domain works.

Most artists, if pressed, will admit that the true mother of invention in the arts is not necessity, but theft. And this is true even for our greatest artists.

…

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With only minutes to go in the second set of polls in round 2, Kresley Cole v. Lisa Kleypas and Patricia Briggs v. Nalini Singh are neck and neck. Every vote counts so if you haven’t voted yet, get to it.

http://dabwaha.com/blog

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Warning – this is an epic review. And by epic, I mean long. And also full of terms like “joy juice” “muff” and “spunk.”

Dear Ms. Doyle:

Thank you for sending me your book for review. I obviously have had some concerns about the quality of books that are being issued by Ravenous Romance given my last encounter, but it would be unfair of me to tar the entire catalog by the same Ladyfingered brush without exploring more of the RR catalog. This is going to be a good news/bad news post. I’ll give you the good news in the first paragraph. I thought this book was indeed better than Knight Moves.

The bad news is that the rest of the review will not contain any more “good news” kernels.  Making a Scene is told in the first person present tense from the point of view of the female protagonist, a writer of cliched detective stories, three of which have made it onto the extended New York Times bestseller list.  Her agent is in the midst of negotiating a film rights deal but the film people want the relationship in the next book to …

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We’ve still got voting going on in the DABWAHA Tournament. Round 1 has been put to bed. After fierce twitter pimpage, Angela James has manuevered herself to the top of the charts with two others hot on her heels. As top bracketeers at the end of round 1, Ms. James is entitled to the $15 Gift Certifiate and some BIG UPs.  Next voting round begins at noon EST.  

Voting Schedule:

• Round 2, Set 1: 12 Noon EST to 6 PM EST, March 21, 2009 (today)
• Round 2, Set 2: 6 PM EST to 12 AM EST, March 22, 2009
• Round 3, Set 3: 6 AM EST, March 22, 2009 to 12 Noon EST, March 22, 2009
• Round 4, Set 4: 12 Noon EST, March 22, 2009 to 6 PM EST, March 22, 2009

What is DABWAHA? It’s the Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors or DA BWAHA. For newcomers, this is a tournament of books that mimics the March Madness tournament of basketball. We’ve picked a slate of 64 books in 8 different categories to compete against each other through the next few weeks. Right now we are …

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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.
***

 Anwicke International wasn’t on a main thoroughfare after all. Nor was it the sleek skyscraper Reid expected. The pre-war building with its weathered cornices and grimy windows barely cleared the topmost branches of the creaking oaks huddled around it. That it still stood might be testament to a small town’s civic-mindedness. That it hadn’t been condemned years before was more likely testament to a small town’s lack of funds to raze the place.

Reid glanced at the envelope in his hand and up at the street numbers carved in granite. The numbers stubbornly continued to match.

“Damn.” He’d never again take another job out-of-state without first staking out the business and getting an eyeful of the amenities. This eyeful was discouraging, but as he made his way up the Mayanesque steps to the entrance, he doggedly reassured himself that this job would be better than the job he’d left in Colorado. Not to mention the ones in Arizona, Nevada, and California.

Well, maybe not California. At least—not …

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Dear Ms. Jewel,

Scandal is the first book of yours I have read, but it won’t be the last.

The book begins when Gwilym, Earl of Banallt, arrives at Havenwood in autumn of 1814. Banallt is a guest of John Mercer, who does not realize that his widowed sister Sophie has a previous acquaintance with Banallt.

When she was only seventeen, Sophie ran off with a fortune hunter and married him over the anvil at Gretna Green. It created a scandal, and Sophie was cut off by her family. It was during the years of her marriage that Sophie became acquainted with Banallt.

It is clear from the very beginning that although he has not seen her in two years, Banallt had strong feelings for Sophie. He hopes that seeing her will confirm his hopes that those feelings are now dead and gone. Banallt, who was also married when he first met Sophie, is now widowed and needs to marry again soon in order to continue his line.

But when he sees Sophie, Banallt realizes that his feelings for her are still alive and acute. Acting on a powerful instinct, Banallt asks …

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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. Rob Thurman writes urban fantasy for ACE.  Her current release, featuring the Leandros brothers, is in stores now. Deathwish made it to #26 on the NYT Bestseller list.  In the fall, Thurman will release a new series with a female protagonist.  Stay tuned.
***

When I received the call about my first sale I was just pulling into the parking lot of the theater to see Shrek 2, which was a dicey situation. A huge burst of pleasure like selling your first book combined with that movie, it could have led to an obsession with talking cats in thigh high leather boots. Fortunately, that didn’t happen…and dreams don’t count.

But before that, I first wrote a mystery, not so much because I was a big fan of mysteries overall, but of a particular subset of mysteries: the buddy/buddy genre. It didn’t sell. And in retrospect as it was my very first attempt at a full-length bit of writing, it probably sucked quite egregiously, and I’m better off. So, …

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Look! Sarah and I try to chew gum and walk at the same time. Not as easy as the Commander in Chief implies. We’ve got the DABWAHA going full steam (don’t forget to vote) and in a week we’ll be launching the next selection in our Save the Contemporary campaign. Lisa Kleypas’ third contemporary, Smooth Talking Stranger, is slated to be released on March 31, 2009. Yes, it is a hardcover and the economic times are tough but if you can borrow a copy, we think that the charming romance between advice columnist Elle Varner, her sister’s infant, and one very hot Jack Travis will be worth the effort.

Or you can try to win one of the twenty copies that St. Martin’s is offering as a giveaway. Or if you want a copy of your own (and we think you will) you can use the 30% off coupon for the online Borders store. If you live near a Borders, you can have the book delivered to the store for no shipping expense.

Don’t miss Borders new media feature for romances: TRUE ROMANCE. Borders has also put …

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Another contemp
I become predictable
Sorry DA Fans

This one – first person
The POV is light, fun…
Also present tense. :-(

Is ok, Higgins
I forgive for present tense
Because your book? Great.

Men do not want Chas
Female jock masquerading
As dating leper.

Chas still wants Trevor
Her first lover & first love
But they are just friends

I love your voice BUT
Trevor’s “hot fudge sundae eyes”
Every chapter??

The subplots are fun
I wept last hundred pages
Sad but happy end

The best character?
Has to be Scorpion Bowl
Steals the scene, always

Light, fun. I stayed up
Too late reading. Now looking
For backlist. B+
This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or ebook format from the Sony Store or 30% off from Harlequin as part of the DABWAHA extravaganza and other etailers.

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Some ebook news. Here is the Diesel romance ebook press release discussing it’s 400+ bundles. Of interest is that Diesel claims 60,000 customers. That seems like a big number to me for some reason given that digital books only make up a small percentage of overall book sales. Maybe by the end of 2009, ebook sales will be on par with audiobook sales. That would require phenomenal growth though. (Update: Should note that the great thing about the Diesel ebook bundles is that they are cross publisher compilations).

Sony and Google have reached a deal wherein Sony will provide 500,000 ebooks scanned by Google and not under copyright in epub format for free. An new ebookstore was released by Sony yesterday.

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