Archive for June, 2009
Dear Ms. Palmer
I admit that I read this because I had heard, early on, that this book had similarities to the JR Ward brotherhood series. I can’t help but think that pre publicity buzz was intentional. Ward’s Brotherhood series is hot, hot, hot, and anything that sounds like/looks like The Black Dagger Brotherhood is going to get some attention.
It wasn’t the similarities to the Ward series (and there are a few) that made the story drag for me, it was actually the lack of emulation. Â Ward series excels, in part, because it is completely over the top. If you are going to have silly names and a somewhat silly storyline, you really have to bring it as an author. Instead, first installment of the Feral Warrior series came in with an emo sigh instead of a roar.
The Feral Warrior series is based on a band of shapeshifters who protect a Radiant, a woman through whom the power of nature is funneled (this imagery tends to remind me of the Angel of Death in the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie). The Radiant ascends and then through living and sexual energy derived through congress …
Dear Ms. Chase:
 After I read last year’s book, Your Scandalous Ways, I knew my expectations were going to be set incredibly high for anything that came after. And thankfully, Don’t Tempt Me is not a book in the same vein, but instead hearkens back to the Carsington series, especially Miss Wonderful and Mr. Impossible. A hero who has suffered a great loss and who copes by putting on a distracting outward display and a heroine who lives on the margins of polite society’s rules and whose innocence does not equate to naïveté. And while Don’t Tempt Me possessed a number of charms of its own, somewhere between my high expectations and the echoes of other books, I was not as tempted to love it as I hoped I would be.
From the beginning, little Zoe Octavia Lexham, aka “The Bolter,” was a pain in Lucien de Gray’s young neck. Although when Lucien came under the guardianship of Lord Lexham, following a tragic series of illnesses and accidents claiming both his parents and older brother, Zoe was also a “bright, bright spot in his life.” He was the only one she seemed to listen to, and she …
I thought this might be of interest to DA’s readership. The PC-compatible writing software, Liquid Story Binder, is on sale for 50% off today (June 30) only.
http://daily-deals.iconico.com/software/liquid-story-binder/
 The response for this contest was so overwhelming that I decided to chip in and buy a second giveway book. Yep, that’s right – we’re going to have two lucky winners and both books will be autographed by Jennifer! And the winners are…drumroll….
#36 Shanna
#79 cc
Ladies please contact Jennifer (cjmueller @ windomnet.com) so she can get your addresses to mail out the books.
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
Earlier I sat here at desk, looking out to a window, thinking that it was great the vast expanse of the world is out there with its rich and varied cultures and peoples. If I had the money and the time again, I would travel for as long as possible to enjoy the sights—some may be memorable and some upsetting—and to gain insights—deep and shallow—from the surroundings and the encounters with strangers. I think many of us were born for such an existance.
Adventuring is part of my family’s lifestyle; almost a way of life. I left home at sixteen because it was expected of me. All my relatives, at least once in their lives, have travelled abroad and some lived there for months and even years. They have returned home when they have felt ready to hang up their travelling bags.  Some of us remain transplanted. I haven’t yet to return home because I feel like I still have much of my journey left.
As it stands, I don’t have the money or, more importantly, time or opportunity.  I’m deskbound these …
Authors Alice Hoffman and Alain de Botton compete for author douchebag of the day. Hoffman tweets the phone number and email address of the awful reviewer and de Botton essentially curses the career of the NYTBR critic. See more here.
In better news, publishers are just giving away the farm on Kindle which is great for Kindle users (and also those who have iPhones or iTouches) but not so great for everyone else. What’s free?
Quartet Press, a new romance epublisher, is open for submissions.
Joe Wickert looks at Fast Company’s cover story of Amazon and Jeff Bezos. Â Kindle numbers are eyebrow raising.
Recently, Bezos claimed that Kindle e-books add 35% to a physical book’s sales on Amazon whenever Kindle editions are available. Put another way, for every three print copies of, say, Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Outliers” the site sells, it also sells one Kindle e-book — or about 25% of total sales.
Barnes and Noble released an iPhone app. Â It allows …
 Loading ... Last night, on Twitter, Alice Hoffman totally lost her shit over a review written by novelist Roberta Silman at the Boston Globe. As Ron Hogan so beautifully summed it up:
In addition to playing the Famous Writer Card on Twitter, Hoffman also played, among others, the Feminist Card (”Girls are taught to be gracious and keep their mouths shut. We don’t have to”), the Provincial Critic Card (”This is a town where a barking dog is the second top story on the news”), the Lousy Paper Card (”No wonder there is no book section in the Globe anymore – they don’t care about their readers, why should we care about them”), and the Post Your Enemy’s Email & Phone Number Online Card (encouraging fans to further validate her reaction and “tell her what u think of snarky critics”).
Gawker had some things to say about Hoffman’s inability to keep her fingers from her keyboard as well.
Popwatch found out that Hoffman once gave a negative review to author Richard Ford which lead Ford and his wife to shoot a bullet through a Hoffman book (Practical Magic maybe?).
Hoffman decided that she would delete her Twitter Account and issue …
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.
Dear Ms. White,
 Last November, I recommended your book “Redeeming Gabriel.”Since then, I’ve made it a point each month to check the historical offerings from the Steeple Hill line. When I saw this new book, I jumped on it and was happy to discover that it’s a (slight) sequel to the first one. I enjoyed “Crescent City Courtship” very much and it confirms that you are an author whose books I will look for.
When Abigail Neal hammers on the doors of Charity Hospital for a doctor to attend her laboring room mate, she wants a real doctor, not some “still wet behind the ears” student wannabe. Unfortunately, she gets John Braddock who stiffly informs her that he’s quite capable of handling the situation.
Only the labor has gone on too long and the baby can’t be saved. John is devastated by what he sees as his failure as a doctor and horrified by the conditions in which these two poor women live. The mother is far too weak to remain there so, along with Abigail and the poor wrapped baby, he takes her to the clinic located at Dr. Laniere’s residence.
And it’s here that a world …
Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Diana Rowland’s debut book, Mark of the Demon, is in stores now. You can read more about the book, including an excerpt, at Diana’s website.
***
 Fifteen years ago (or thereabouts) I wrote a big, horking, 150,000-word fantasy novel. It was sweeping! It was epic! It was full of every possible fantasy stereotype! Upon finishing, without a care (or a clue), I eagerly bought a copy of Writers Digest to find a publisher to sell it to. But before I could send the first copy out, I had a stroke of luck! A good friend of mine had become engaged to a senior editor at a fairly prominent publishing house, and she agreed to take a look at my manuscript. Several months later I received word that she’d liked it enough to pass it along to her superior. I waited in eager anticipation, certain that in a matter of days, or perhaps weeks, my brilliance would be recognized and I would soon be a Real Live …
Dear Ms. Winfree:
 I can’t recall why I purchased this book but I bought it a couple of months ago with two other books from Samhain. It could have been a “new” book or it could have been on the bestseller list. Those usually influence my purchases at Samhain. Â I thought it had good suspense and a very nice romance that was often complicated by attention paid to other romances which had taken place prior to the setting of Facing It.
Ruthie Chason is in a terrible marriage. Â When she finds information that Stephen, her husband, is engaged in criminal behavior, she gets up the courage to grab her children and leave. Â Her brother, Tick Calvert, is Sheriff of Chandler County. Â She runs to him.
Tick recognizes that Ruthie has to hide while he figures out the best way to apprehend Stephen and make sure the evidence is good enough that Stephen gets put away for a long time. Â Both Ruthie and Tick know that if Stephen catches her, Ruthie is a dead woman. Â Tick calls on his friend and deputy Chris Parker to take Ruthie and her three children with him to St. …
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it would issue guidelines for bloggers who accept renumeration in the form of product or payment in exchange for writing about such a product. Â The FTC plans to enforce these guidelines by pursuing bloggers who do not divulge these financial arrangements by either ordering bloggers to pay restitution to customers or referring cases to the Justice Department for prosecution. Â I’m a fan of openness and transparency but I can’t help but wonder if FTC regulations will result in shutting down casual bloggers who are unaware of the changing laws.
Follow the Reader takes a look at the influence of blogs and twitter on the sale of books. Â Conclusion: probably helps but it isn’t “making” any one book.
mikecane linked to all the free ebooks on Amazon, sorted by Date. Â There appear to be over 7,000 free ebooks.
Publishing Trends gives some tips on author websites. Â It is widely known that websites can translate into sales, the corollary of which is that good websites sell more books. Â The key isn’t flashiness (I can’t stand Julie Garwood’s site for example) but a information. Stephenie Meyer’s site links to more fan sites …
Note: It will be hard to totally avoid spoilers in this review.
Dear Laura Baumbach and Josh Lanyon,
 Dr. Sarah read and recommended “Mexican Heat” back in February but it’s taken me this long for a spare moment to check it out. Hot action, hot love and hot loving all rolled up in one book. I can see why Dr. Sarah likes it.
I’ll use the Samhain blurb because 1) I’m lazy and 2) it’ll sorta, kinda avoid spoilers. At least at this point.
SFPD detective Gabriel Sandalini might as well have put a gun to his own head. One red-hot sexual encounter in a bar’s back room has put two years of deep undercover work in jeopardy—two years of danger and deception as he worked his way into crime boss Ricco Botelli’s inner circle. Gabriel can’t afford emotional entanglements. Hell, he can’t afford emotions. But that was before he had a name to pin on that anonymous one-off—Miguel Ortega.
Miguel Ortega doesn’t trust anyone, but tough, street-smart Gabriel brings out the conquistador in his Spanish blood. But distractions are nothing short of deadly right now, not with his boss’s impending marriage to Botelli’s sister, which will ensure peace—and
…
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.
***
“Nawlins ain’t nothing like what yer used to, McDunna. You may be a specialist where you come from, but here you ain’t shit.”
Dianna McDunna rubbed the center of her forehead, trying to chase away the voices of doubt which had nagged her since she’d left the police precinct. She’d been here a week and hadn’t managed to make much of an impression on her coworkers, at least not the kind of impression she wanted to make. Barry, at least, seemed willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and time, but Longstreet was a misogynistic dirtbag and already making arguments to get her assigned to a desk or busted back to patrol. She hadn’t worked patrol in almost eight years, the very thought was insulting.
The spires of the St Louis Cathedral rose closer and …
Dear Ms. Quinn:
 Confession time. I don’t remember much about The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever. Â I vaguely remember Olivia, best friend of Miranda, younger sister of the hero but her flavor wasn’t with me when I started What Happens in London. I don’t know if that is good or bad but I highly enjoyed What Happens. It is sweet, funny and romantic. Can’t ask for much more from a romance book.
Olivia is the only daughter of the Earl of Rudland. She is very, very pretty. Has received a multitude of marriage proposals, all of which have been rejected and is currently being courted by a Prince.  Olivia’s problem is that she is bored now that Miranda has married her brother and hied off to the country-side.  Olivia finds herself gossiping with some nitwits who suggest her new neighbor killed his fiance. She has nothing better to do so for five days she spies on her neighbor while he is in his study.  She notices that he wears a funny hat with plumes and that he furtively tossed a whole sheaf of papers in the fireplace!  Olivia is intrigued.
Sir Harry is annoyed that Olivia is spying on …
Loading ... Nearly all ereading devices have had mp3 players. I don’t know if this is for audiobooks or music playing. Â But I do know that writers often to listen to music to get them in the mood for certain scenes. Do readers listen to music while they read? I prefer perfect silence when reading.
 And we all love that, right? This is for one copy of Jennifer Mueller’s latest book, “A Ruined Season,” a charming Regency with a non nobleman hero. Yes, Virginia, such books do exist! Just leave a comment here by the end of Saturday, June 27th at midnight EST to be eligible.
Edited to add: Sorry but due to shipping costs, this is limited to residents of the US or Canada.
Captain Blood (1935)
Captain Blood (DVD 2005 Turner Entertainment Co and Warner Bros Entertainment)
Grade A-
Genre: Romance/Swashbuckling/Pirate
I had so much fun doing my last Friday Film review that I decided to comb through my DVD collection and see what else might be suitable. Captain Blood is one of the epic pirate movies which set the standard for Hollywood historical action films for years to come. I first saw this as a teenager. I loved it! And then I discovered it was an adaptation from a book so I hunted that down and, wait a minute!, the author, Rafael Sabatini, wrote lots of similarly styled books. I was in heaven then. So not only did I fall in love with the movie but I ended up getting years of reading enjoyment out of it. Not a bad bargain.
Peter Blood, bachelor of medicine, is caught up against his will in the attempt to overthrow King James II (boo hiss). Called out to tend to a wounded rebel, Blood cares little for the man’s politics until he too is swept up by the King’s soldiers and sent to jail to await trial with the rest of the rebels. There he’s condemned and faces death …
If you were reading around the blogosphere, you would have noticed the allegations of plagiarism against Chris Anderson, editor of Wired and author of The Long Tail. Â Also in the plagiarism news is the suit filed against Elisabeth Hasselbeck for her cookbook. Â TMZ obtained a letter that the attorney for Susan Hassett sent to Elisabeth’s representatives. Â You can read more about both stories at SmartBitchesTrashyBooks.com.
Publishing is a low paying job with entry level positions paying just above minimum wage (and a barely liveable wage in New York City). Â The question that the New Yorker posed was whether low paying positions are affecting literature. Â I think the answer most people were giving is “Yes”. Â See GalleyCat for more details. Â It could be one reason why there appears to be so many complaints of plagiarism and sloppy copyediting coming out of New York.
Apple allows in a porn app that it wouldn’t approve before because it has instituted a ratings system for Apps. Â I am still awaiting publishing and their ratings particularly given that ScrollMotion continues to add individual book apps on a daily basis.
TechCrunch points to an interesting survey of teen entertainment habits. Â Apparently teens still …
Dear Ms. Harte:
 I was interested in this story because it featured a shapeshifter of an unusual kind: birds of prey. Cullen Whitefeather is a part of the Ac-taw, the name for those who shape shift. Cullen’s other form is that of a golden eagle. Cullen and his family live in Cougar Falls, an area that is protected by a mystical totem which allows only those who are Ac-taw to find the place.
Cullen has visited the local diner nearly every morning to have coffee and waffles and to ogle Sarah Duncan, the waitress, for whom he has unrequited feelings. After Sarah is attacked by a jealous gaggle of raptors, Cullen takes her wounded body home with him where they await Ac-taw justice.
I did appreciate the attention given to the bird of prey habitat and behavior. You took careful effort to show how Cullen and Sarah were different types of shapeshifters. The battle scenes between the birds of prey was also unique and very well done. The mannerisms of the animals were also well incorporated throughout the book. Cullen’s mother calls …
SmartBitches, in conjunction with Sony, is giving 30 readers an opportunity to test drive a Sony Reader. FOR FREE. Go here to read all the details. For all those who don’t like reading on a laptop, I highly recommend you take a look at this offer. The fact is that I think you’ll like ebook reading once you give it a try.
Harlequin is giving $25 gift certificates for those chosen to test drive the Sony Readers so you don’t even have to spend your own money to get books onto the device.
Dear Ms. Rowland:
I’ve been stuck in a reading rut for months. Nothing has appealed to me. Even books I was dying to get my hands on 6 months ago have languished away unread on my bookshelves. After I explained my situation to Jane, she recommended your work and I’m glad that she did. I did have some trouble getting into the story and had issues with the characters, but ultimately it proved to be an entertaining book.
Kara Gillian is a Detective in a small town not too far from New Orleans. She’s also a summoner of demons. Perhaps because of this, Kara has been fascinated for years by the unsolved Symbol Man murders and what she believes may be the involvement of the arcane arts in said murders. When a body is found with strikingly similar injuries to the previous victims, Kara is pulled from her detective work in white collar crimes for her first homicide investigation.
While Kara is trying to stay one step ahead, or at least not too many behind, the Symbol Man and his steadily increasing body count, she’s also experiencing some demon trouble. One night while attempting to summon a lower …
Ruthless Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress by Cathy Williams
Cesar is tired of bailing his younger brother out of hot water so when Ferdinado asks for access to his trust fund, Cesar heads out to see who it is that has her gold digging claws in Ferndando. He finds not a statuesque model blonde, but a mannish, petite redhead. Not Ferdinado’s type and certainly not his. The two get stuck in a snowstorm. They have sex. Jude becomes pregnant and the real fireworks begin. Cesar is standard HP hero (alpha, hot, assholic). Jude isn’t a doormat but falls pretty easily for Cesar. B-
This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.
Up Close and Dangerously Sexy by Karen Anders
Given that the haikus have come to a close here at Dear Author, I submit my own:
Stranger danger here
As long as he gives good Os
No worries, she thinks
I stopped after the second scene. The heroine is in the sister’s apartment. Some stranger comes in and thinks she’s the heroine’s twin. He gets in bed with her and brings her to orgasm with his hand. “She …
Dear Mrs. Mueller,
To begin, congratulations on your first print book. I liked the different “Impressionistic” cover. Your publisher did very well by you but I must say that I hope a less expensive, paperback edition will eventually be available for readers in the US.
Two years ago, The Honorable Miss Sophie Greenwood had just arrived in London for her first Season when it was over before it had barely begun. Her father’s attempt to increase the family fortune ended up costing them almost everything they had. But what was worse, at least in the eyes of the ton, was her mother’s desperate attempts to marry her off before the news became widely known.
She was unsuccessful, Sophie was humiliated and the family retreated to their modest country estate. Her brother bought a commission in the Army with what little funds they could scrape together and since then, Sophie has endured her mother’s tantrums and veiled comments making Sophie out to be the villain of the story.
She looks at her bleak future with dread until the day Mariah, a cousin, arrives with Lady Sandbourne who is to present Mariah for her first Season. Mariah has inveigled an …
The Book Depository, a company that ships anywhere for no cost (I have no idea how they do this) is coming to the US. Next month, the North America specific site will launch. They plan to be competitive against US booksellers. I love the Book Depository for sending international prizes. It’s a very easy to navigate shopping site.
 Each year, RWA recognizes excellence in romance writing through the RITAs, considered the top honor in the genre. Â Though awards are presented in a dozen categories, a writer has just one shot in her career to win the Best First Book award. Â This interview series focuses on the debut authors nominated in that category. Â Alyson H undertook to bring this idea to Dear Author and completed all the interviews. Â Alyson is a great interviewer and elicited some fun information. Â Alyson makes you, the reader, interested in the interviewee. It’s a great skill. Thanks Alyson and I hope the readers of Dear Author enjoy this six part series.
***
Meet Anthea. Meet Lawson, too, because Passionate is the literary baby of a husband and wife writing team.  As in the best of partnerships, they seem to share a vision even though their strengths may lie in different areas: they’ve said that alone, Anthea would have a dozen unpublished manuscripts by now, and Lawson just one perfect paragraph. Together, they wrote plenty of perfect paragraphs telling the story of botanical artist Lily Strathmore, who is trying to be the proper sort of lady of her time …
 Evangeline Anderson’s books are my dirty little secret, my secret shame, my love that dare not speak its name. I don’t know WHY her writing makes me feel oh so fulfilled but in such a wonderful dirty way, but it does. They’re so full of *angst* and *melodrama* and *gay for you* and all the things that usually just make me roll my eyes. But they’re quick reads, hott! as anything, rollicking good fun, and you totally don’t notice the huge gaping plot holes until after you’re done and REreading the damn thing when you go, Hur? (like I just did). Her books are the one reading habit I’m ashamed of, but it’s the squidgy, yummy shame that you just want to share with people. So let me share…
Str8te Boys is pretty much dorm porn with extra-angst. It’s a short little story–under 70 pages–but so much fun. It’s told completely from the third-person perspective of Maverick (ORLY? I mean, that name? Really?!), an arrow-straight (uh-huh) jock at the end of his senior year of college, who happens to play “gay chicken” with even straighter, party animal roommate and …
It’s Author Promo Time. Â Apparently the July releases are escaping into the bookstore as we speak and thus it is time for authors to tell us what books to buy and why
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 June would be a July 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.
- WAIT before reposting. These comments get stuck in the spam filter. Give us some time to fish it out.
- DA reserves the right to delete the post if it promotes objectionable content (i.e., no daddy/daughter
…
Perhaps Diane Pershing misread the temperature of the membership when she said that those who didn’t like what RWA is doing should leave because her comments have spurred those who do not want to leave the organization but would rather stay and change it. Others within publishing are beginning to notice.
Need more information? Check out ESPAN, the electronic publishing chapter of RWA (I know, it’s totally ironic) and the growing RWA for Change yahoo group.
University presses are facing closures and lack of funding in these difficult economic times. Michael Jensen, director of strategic Web communications for the National Academies Press urged university presses to rethink publication and scholarship:
Scholarship must be “de-linked from print publication,” such that books are “the exception” and no longer the norm for disseminating new scholarship. With colleges and universities unlikely to be providing major budget increases to libraries, the reality is that within a decade “we will be unlikely to be able to sell print books to to libraries at the prices we need to charge,” adding that “it’s crazy to think we can continue to do what we have been doing.”
Following this conference, the AAUP announced a partnership with IPublishCentral to make digital publishing available to membership academic presses.
In the meantime, the University of Virginia Press and University of Pennsylvania Press partner with Ingram Digital. The Indiana University Press went online last week.
Oh look, a print publisher runs out of money, stiffs its writers, and no one is certain the outcome. Inkwell Publishing Solutions was a book assembler hired by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and others to put textbooks together. Inkwell would hire freelance writers to provide content.
Inkwell has owes about 50 freelance writers, editors, page designers, and others. Some are owed $3100 and some are owed $10,000 or more. Inkwell blames HMH for non payment.
When asked for a comment, the president of Inkwell had this to say:
Ms. Cooke, who also is the company’s president, did not think the unpaid people from her factory warranted any attention.
“What business is this of yours?” she asked. “I’m not going to say anything about any of our clients.”
A couple of weeks ago there was a lot of contention on Dear Author because of an F review for Trinity Blacio’s The Claiming. In the midst of the usual cache of mean girl accusations were also a lot of intersecting issues related to the elements that we each take into consideration when deciding whether a book is good or bad, works for us or doesn’t. And one of the reasons I think conversations like the one over The Claiming become so heated is that we don’t always separate out the various quantitative and qualitative measures that go into our responses, the overlapping issues of correctness, style, and taste, especially when there are so many people talking around and through so many nuances of our specific responses.
I tend to be a somewhat analytical reader by nature, so when I endeavor to review a book, one of the first things I do is start breaking down each of these categories as they relate to the book, weighing and measuring how each worked for me and how much of each shaped my experience of reading.
Correctness
Correctness is a measure of how well the author conforms to basic rules of …
Dear Ms. Duran:
 I was probably the only member of the Dear Author reviewing team that didn’t love your freshman debut, DUKE OF SHADOWS. For me, it read like a love story between you and India and not so much a love story between the characters. I admit that despite the urging of your critique partner, Janine, that I was reluctant to read your follow up book. I put off reading it until recently when I cracked it open just to read the first couple chapters and ended up not being able to put it down.
It’s obvious from the categorization of this post that I gave the book an A. It’s the first without qualification A I’ve given in a long time but I tried to look for flaws and couldn’t find them. This is a story that was technically masterful as well as being a great love story. I think it’s a book in which I would find new layers and meaning each time I read it.
Lydia Boyce is a spinster, living with her sister who is married to the man that Lydia thought she would marry. She’s plainer than …
Keishon of AvidBookReader explains why the iPhone is her go to ereading device even though she owns and loves her Sony Reader.
Intel hopes to have wireless power charging available in the next 18 months. As someone who lugs around three items that need to be charged at all times, I can only say that 18 months cannot pass quickly enough.
Arnold Schwarznegger’s requirement for California to go digital in its textbooks could represent a huge financial loss for Pearson (parent company of Penguin).  Because educational texts represent a major source of income for Pearson, it has responded rapidly to the Governor’s call for digital texts.  ”[T]extbook giant Pearson has responded with digital content to supplement California’s programs in biology, chemistry, algebra 2, and geometry.”
Kindle download limitations can be publisher initiated according to the blogger at Gear Diary. Â Apparently, publishers can license the right to only download a copy to one device but you don’t know until you try it because there are no DRM restriction warnings.
Wall Street Journal suggests that there will be Amazon Kindle price increases in the future because Amazon cannot sustain the loss leader pricing of $9.99 forever. (Only until the publishers …
Loading ... I start a lot of books during a month that I never, ever finish because I just can’t get past the first three chapters or so. Â I estimate that I finish approximately 60% of the books that I start. How about you? Given all the books you buy, rent, borrow, how many do you truly finish?
 Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. In The Accidental Bestseller, Wendy explores the depth of women’s friendships and the emotional bonds that tie people to their families, their friends and their work.
The writing itself proved somewhat cathartic for Wendy, mostly because, like her protagonist, she at one time contended with the emotions and stress involved with switching publishers. She also ended up sharing other attributes with her character. Each lives in the Atlanta area, has written numerous novels, maintains strong friendships with other women novelists, is married, has two children, and enjoys spending time in the mountains of northern Georgia.
***
I was one of those lucky people who sold the first book she wrote. This was, of course, the result of complete and total ignorance. If I had known how unlikely this was I might never have begun. And I have to tell you that what followed was neither fast nor painless!
I started writing that first manuscript while at home with a two-year-old and a newborn. I chalk …
A couple of weeks ago, we posted a call for your favorite vampire romance recommendations. Â The post generated 106 comments and even more recommendations. Â This post is directed toward medievals. Â Kris Kennedy recently released her first book, The Conqueror, set in England, 1152. Â The first romance Ned, my DH, read was Claudia Dain’s, The Holding. Â Madeline Hunter started out writing name writing lush, gorgeous medievals in the 2000 and 2001 with her “BY” series: By Arrangement, By Possession, By Design.
Some of my favorite medievals are by Julie Garwood (no comments from the peanut gallery, Jayne). Â Who can have read Honor’s Splendour and not sighed aloud when Madelyne warms Duncan’s feet? (If you read it and didn’t sigh, you have a cold, cold heart. Â Also, refuse to link to Garwood’s website as I find it almost unuseable and certainly unfriendly to readers).
What are your favorites?
Diane Pershing’s stance, and one that she is taking on behalf of the RWA, is that digital publishing model of high royalties v. no advances is not a legitimate business model. This post discusses why digital publishing is legitimate and offers insight (I hope) for whom digital publishing might benefit.
The digital publishing model.
The digital publishing model is characterized by a few elements:
- No advance
- High royalty (usually between 35-40%)
- No returns
- No resale market
- Monthly payments
The print publishing model.
- Some advance from $2000-$1 million or more per book which is a prepayment against royalties. These advances are usually paid in increments. Most contracts are for more than one book and therefore you get some amount of the advance when you sign the contract, some amount when you deliver the first book, some amount when your second book is accepted, some amount when you deliver the second book. (This may vary from contract to contract and author to author, but generally you do not get the entire advance in one lump sum).
- Low royalty. Most print authors receive 6%-10% on mass market sales, 8-12% on trades, and 15% or higher on hardcover sales.
- Reserves held against returns. In a royalty statement, the author’s royalties are
…
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.
If anyone has submitted a first page for critique and that book is now for sale, will you please let us know. I’ve had requests from readers who want to finish the story you started and are willing to pay for that privilege!
***
McLean, Virginia October 1985
Claire Campbell winced at approaching headlight beams. As the station wagon passed, she sighed and focused on the curve ahead. Deadman’s Curve, they unimaginatively dubbed it as teens, which, in Claire’s case, proved nearly prophetic. Her right knee ached. She gripped the wheel, ignoring the pain, as she navigated this curve yet again. The pain was not memory, though memory played its part; Hat Trick took the curve too fast, too high, and Claire went through the VW van’s windshield, landing on the crumpled hood of a Cadillac. Now, exhausted, hurting, and afraid, Claire made the curve and eased off the accelerator. The semi-circular driveway was up ahead on the …
In the most recent RWR, a monthly publication put out by the RWA, Diane Pershing’s president’s letter contained a very wordy assessment of RWA’s commitment to its 10,000+ membership which can be condensed into this: digital publishing is not a legitimate business model and those who are in digital publishing are not sufficiently “career-focused”?
How do we accommodate changes in the publishing industry environment without diluting RWA’s focus on “career-focused” writers and standards for professionalism?
….
In other words, that publisher’s business model is of benefit to all its authors (RWA members). The fact that a publisher might not offer an advance but pays a 37.5 percent royalty rate is inconsequential; that business model is only favorable to the few—or even the several— who manage to sell enough books to make decent money, or at least the $1,000 required for Published Authors Network (PAN) membership. It is not favorable to the rest of its authors (RWA members) who earn very little money, if any at all. When an individual author (What is good for me and my career?) posts on a loop that she’s earned thousands of dollars, really likes her publisher’s royalty rate, and doesn’t see the need for an advance, good for her. RWA
…
Dear Ms. Leto,
 My main problems with romantic suspense books are that sooner or later, someone’s got to act like an idiot or lose all common sense in order to have a reason to save or be saved. No way around this, it seems. I just prefer to not see characters I’m supposed to like acting like morons. So, why do I keep reading this type book? Because there are some rom susp books which have worked wonderfully for me and I’m always looking for the next one. The critical factor appears to be: can the author persuade me to go along with the characters and their actions or does my kitty get an ear load as I complain?
Attorney Faith Lawton steps outside the courthouse. Shots ring out from a nearby rooftop. The concrete around Faith explodes with expended bullets as a pair of strong arms pulls her back into the building….
Faith Lawton welcomes the strong embrace of chief of detectives Adam Guthrie—for the moment. His fast actions save her life. But it’s nothing personal. They’re adversaries in the courtroom and out—in spite of their often sexually charged exchanges. Now Adam’s convinced she was the
…
Dear Ms. Krentz:
 This book was published in 1989 but I don’t think I read it until the early 1990s. My copy was used and I recall that I had purchased it used in its original Harlequin Temptation iteration. Since that time, it has been re-released by Harlequin at least twice more. I anxiously await for it to come out in ebook format. (Hint. Hint.)Â The thing that I remember most about this book is that it was the first one that started out with the hero and heroine in bed together.
Juliana Grant is a tall, confident, passionate business woman. When Travis Sawyer first met her, a relationship is that last thing on his mind but she embodied everything he had ever wanted in a woman. Travis, a business consultant, had sought out Juliana because she was the only member of the Grant he had not yet met. He begins to woo her under the guise of offering his consulting services for her burgeoning coffee shop empire. Travis plans to crush the Grant family because they promised him a part of the business when he saved their bacon but reneged when …
Dear Mrs. Bylin,
 Until recently, Readers looking for a western set, historical romance have had to hunt. Now there seems to be a growing number to feed our need for American historicals on the western frontier. But while some still feature the standard gunslinger, yours offers something different. A Bible slinging hero who’s already fallen to his lowest and a heroine who mistrusts religion.
Adie Clark runs a boarding house in Denver, Colorado and, up til now, has stuck to her policy of only renting to women. Adie’s known what it is to be a woman alone, with little money and few prospects. So when a gaunt man collapses on her front porch in the middle of the night, her first thought is to get rid of him quickly. But he’s not a drunk and offers her twice the normal rent to be allowed to stay. Needing the money for the mortgage payment, Adie reluctantly agrees to a week stay.
Events take a turn when one of Adie’s mistrustful boarders shoots the man in the shoulder when she feels threatened by him. Now Adie’s stuck with him and terrified that the longer he stays, the more …
JA Konrath is earning approximately $100 per day via Amazon Kindle sales of his short stories. He suggests that hardcover pricing for ebooks is a non starter. I agree. (Thanks Ann Bruce).
Anne Sowards of ACE/ROC is putting out the call for steampunk books asking authors to tell their agents to submit to her. Angela James of Samhain is looking for the same (although probably of a romance bent). Katiebabs has a three part round up of what steampunk is all about. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).
Publishing apparently loves its videos. First it was HarperCollins and now Penguin has new multimedia including “The Publisher’s Office”. Episode 1 features JR Ward and Berkley Executive Editor, Cindy Hwang, talking about paranormals. There’s something a little hilarious about Ward wearing her sunglasses with a night backdrop.
RRRJessica wrote about polyamorous romances and culture. Life reflecting fiction or fiction reflecting life? For me, polyamorous relationships fall squarely in the fantasy category.
Pseudononymous writing has been part of our culture for as long as the written word existed. Text by “anonymous” existed even in Ancient Greece. A detective in Britain lost a suit wherein he tried to stop a newspaper from revealing his true identity. The blogger wrote about the local police department and won a prestigious reporting prize for political writing. Since his outing, the blogger deleted his blog and was subject to a written reprimand from his superiors.
My understanding is that British and US laws are very different on this subject but I doubt that even a US blogger could get an injunction to prevent a newspaper from revealing a blogger’s identity. There have been cases which prevent ISPs from giving up identifying information, however; and there is a long history of US caselaw supporting anonymous speech.
(Thanks to Anion the Evil for bringing this to my attention).
Dear Ms. Jordan:
 Oh, how I wanted to like this book. You are one of my favorite HP authors but I’ll be the first to admit that when you miss, it’s spectacular.
At the funeral of his youngest half brother, Falcon Leopardi learns of a terrible act perpetrated on a young woman. His deceased brother took it upon himself to drug a shy girl who refused his advances, raped her, impregnated her, and then refused to support the child once it was born.
Falcon immediately sets off to find the mother and the child to bring honor back to the Leopardi name. It is not easy to find Annie (whose last name apparently was so unimportant that I wonder if it was included. I could not find it for the review). Annie had taken her baby and ran away, fearing that her stepbrother would bring some harm upon Ollie. Falcon did find them and gave Annie a choice. Stay in London and live hand to mouth or come to Sicily and allow your child to be given every opportunity. Annie realizes there is no choice and goes to Sicily with …
Dear Ms. Marchetta,
 I have a bone to pick with you. I’ve got a packed read-and-review schedule for the next month or so, and I need to be able to move from book to book. But you’ve made that impossible. Yes, I blame you. It’s your fault that your book, Jellicoe Road, left me so drained and dazed that I can’t read anything else.
I tried. I tried a sexy historical romance. I tried a contemporary erotic novel. I tried a thought-provoking science fiction story. I tried one of my very favorite books from last year. I even eyed another YA. I put them all back down after a page or two.
It’s not that they were bad. They just weren’t your book. They weren’t Jellicoe Road.
It really isn’t fair of you to write a book that’s so beautiful and powerful that everything else pales in comparison.
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let me explain that when I picked up this book to read for Keishon’s TBR challenge, I was cheating a bit. Yes, technically speaking Jellicoe Road was …
RWA has posted the results of its 2008 survey of readers along with industry busting numbers on the romance readership. In 2008, 74.8 million people read at least one romance. (I wonder if they are counting readers of Danielle Steele and Nicholas Sparks and Emily Giffen and the like since those books are denoted as “romance” at least on Bookscan). The largest portion of romance readers are in the south at 37.1%.The median age is 44.9 years and readers between the ages of 31 and 49 compriise 44 percent of the readership.Books are most often purchased at a mass merchandiser: Target, Sams, Costco, or Wal-Mart. Second are online sales at 37% (26.4% at an online book merchant and 9.6% “other online”).More than half of romance readers who read in electronic format do so on a computer or cell phone (not a dedicated device). For romance readers, 5.4% of them are buying/reading e-books, but 90.6% of readers buy a mass market with just under 47.2% buying hardcover.Readers are more likley to try a new author based upon recommendations, seeing the book at the store or library and advertisements in books that they are …
Dear Ms. Hailstock,
 I have been looking forward to sharp tongued Samara finding love with persistent Joshua for months now – well, ever since Samara’s sister Cinnamon’s book. But, alas, I’m afraid it didn’t live up to my hopes for it.
Samara is marriage shy. Actually not just shy but phobic. You’ve given her some concrete reasons in that so many of her family and friends are on their second and third attempts. That plus the national marriage statistics make the effort looked doomed to failure and filled with heartache. So, Samara decides to play it smart and enjoy dating but with no intention of ever tying the knot.
Joshua knows quickly that Samara is The One for him. He’s one of the divorce statistics and the fact that he was married when he first began pursuing her, though separated and already having filed for divorce, turns Samara off. Okay, that’s understandable. Then their attempts at dating get screwed the next few times he asks her out. With his job, again, I can see it. His ex does sound like a piece of work.
But he persists and keeps after Samara in a way that is unique and …
The winner of the raffle is: Michelle Reaver!
She takes home a kickin’ prize pack of the following books:
The winner of the auction on eBay was “msbhavin” who won with a bid of $380.00. WOW. I’ll be sending a donation to the North Shore Animal League in that amount in honor of Edith Layton later today.
“Msbhavin” will receive a bound galley of the upcoming anthology Must Love Hellhounds featuring Charlaine Harris, Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook, and Nalini Singh; a bound galley of Black Hills by Nora Roberts; and a bound galley of Christine Feehan’s Dark Slayer, along with an awesome gift basket donated by Ms. Feehan herself.
Thank you to msbhavin and to Michelle Reaver – and happy reading to you both!
|
|
Open Threads at Dear Author. Want to know what new releases are out this month and what readers are excited about reading? Check out the threads below. 
We don’t like to censor comments nor do we endorse the comments of any poster. We do reserve the right to moderate comments but most of the time will not, believing, as Justice Brandeis did, that the greater good is in “more speech, not enforced silence.”
