Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

Borders is running a Buy 4 Get 1 Free special for romances. When I first saw this discount notice in my inbox (which works out to about $1.25 off per book), I thought, “Sweet.” But apparently, I should have thought “those rat bastards.”

According to blogger at TensionBreaker:
Offering consumers 5 romance novels for the price of 4 (and making the offer a week before Valentines Day) crosses the line from “meeting the consumer’s untapped needs” to “exploiting the consumer’s human frailty at a time of emotional weakness.”
I think offering the coupon on St. Patrick’s Day would be particularly insidious given how liquor can also “exploit a consumer’s human frailty”. Perhaps Columbus Day would be an appropriate time for Borders to run the special?

I went to the Borders site to see if it was engaging in any other nefarious business practices and it was. It is offering Hogfather, the movie version of Terry Pratchett’s novel, BEFORE YOU CAN BUY IT IN THE STORES! If that is not exploiting human frailty of those weak willed addicted to Pratchett, I don’t know what is.

Please, readers, we must band together and …

We all love to buy books, right? And as much as I luv me some ebooks, I still enjoy browsing in a bookstore. Something about the feel and heft of a book in my hands, the surprise discovery, the remembered TBB title makes a trip to my local brick and mortar store a treat. Sean Dodson has picked out 10 stores from around the world that make browsing just as much fun as actually reading what you’ve bought.

Via the Guardian

moar funny pictures

I have to just give a plug for my dear friend, Tina Trevaskis, who is now the new Romance/Horror & Westerns Marketing Specialist at Borders Group Inc. Tina is a huge lover of romance. I met Tina over 7 years ago (I think) due to our mutual love of romance. Of course, her goal is to sell as many romances (and horror and westerns) as possible so any marketing decisions will be geared toward that. I’m also sure she’ll take extra care to avoid misspelling names, JMC!

I am really excited that Tina, someone who loves the genre, will be leading the marketing charge at one of the largest retail book selling chains in the US. I bet if you’ve got a suggestion on how Borders can better serve its romance readers, Tina would love to hear it. (Or maybe not but eh, that’s what the comments are for, right?)

Drollerie Press came to my attention when two authors, Joely Sue Burkhart and Imogen Howson, emailed DearAuthor and wondered if we wouldn’t be interested in reading their books. The covers were gorgeous and I assumed that this was some small print independent publishing house. Upon further investigation, I learned that Drollerie Press is a new ebook publishing house that is offering transformative fiction in any genre. Jayne read Joely Sue Burkhart’s romance Survive My Fire and I read Imogen Howson’s young adult offering, Falling.

Both were interesting pieces of fiction that made us interested in more Drollerie Press offerings. One of the owners, Deena Fisher, emailed me with an offer to the Dear Author readership. Any purchase totaling $2.50 or more, the buyer will receive 15% off if they enter the words ” Dear Author ” (without quotation marks). The code is good through December 31st.

Ms. Fisher agreed to answer some questions about the vision and future of “Drollerie Press ”

Q. What is your niche in the publishing market?

Fisher: Mythic arts. Our goal is to showcase great writing in any genre …

I’ve purchased most of my books at Fictionwise. I’ve long thought that its Buywise club was a smart purchasing decision. After all, I buy alot of ebooks and it just seemed to make sense. I sat down with my laptop, an Excel spreadsheet, and Ned and learned that I really haven’t been spending my money wisely after all.

The Buywise Club at Fictionwise. Is it worth it?
I buy alot of books at Fictionwise but recently I’ve wondered whether I am getting the most bang for my buck. In other words, should I be shopping around? I’ve been a Buywise Club member for as long as I can recall. To be a member of the Buywise Club, you have to pay an annual fee of $29.95.

I had Ned do the math for me and you have to buy 27 books in order to break even with the club membership. (That’s 27 books at $6.00 per book with one free $6.00 book).

If you buy more than 27 books, being in the club makes sense. If you buy less than 27 ebooks a year, Fictionwise Buywise club doesn’t …

This is a special post by Bookseller Jolie after talking with some other booksellers and readers.

Readers want to buy your books; booksellers want to sell your books. Even though this article is all about the peeves, it’s really about how to help authors get connected to readers. The only way to do that is have a fabulous website where readers and booksellers can find the answers for which they can use in order to buy more books!
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#1 - Series links are not easily identifiable.  This should be its own special link on the home page!
When readers find a book they like, they want everything they can get their hands on!!! Whether it’s more in that series or another series you may have!

Booksellers want to stock your series, have all the books on hand. 9 times out of 10 a reader will buy all the books in the series, if a bookstore has them. While booksellers are a smart bunch, we can’t know ALL the books that are interconnected! Like the reader, we’ll go to the author’s website for the information.

# 2  Printable booklist - This makes it so …

Angie W, Executive Editor of Samhain Publishing, brought a new ebookstore to our attention last week: All Romance Ebooks. All Romance Ebooks or “ARe” opened its doors on November 1, 2006, and while it took a while to get my attention I appreciate it didn’t go around and spam comment on all of our blogs like another ebook company did a couple of months ago.

This ecommerce site offers ebooks from all the major electronic publishers except for Ellora’s Cave. I started with its FAQ section and its suprisingly complete, even bringing up issues I hadn’t thought of such as whether they are selling our personal information to any third party (NO) or whether the “tell a friend” section is a way for them to harvest more emails (another NO). Here’s why I love this idea. As a consumer, I like to go to one place to buy all my books, particularly ebooks. I cannot remember all of the ebook publishers out there and bringing all the epublished romance books together in one location makes for easy browsing and even easier purchasing.

Publishers who …

Edited April 17th

This week we're reviewing Cobblestone Press. They opened their cyber doors in 2006.
“Cobblestone Press is an electronic, full service publisher of mainstream, sensual, and erotic romance, releasing two to three digital books a week in a variety of downloadable formats. It is our mission to provide quality romance books in electronic formats and to raise the standard in digital publishing. If you are new to eBooks, check out our eBook guide for help.”
They sell only ebooks. Their books are also sold through Fictionwise. They have a chat room, a newsletter, several forums, several yahoo chat groups, RSS feed, a blog and a quarterly emagazine. CP merchandise can be purchased through CafePress.

Website layout - There are links to View Cart, Home, CPQ, Recently Released, Bestsellers,Subscribe- RSS Feed, Coming Soon, Chat Room, Ebooks categories, About Us, Gift Certificates, Submissions, BLOG, CP Mercandise, Contact Us,Community Center, Customer Service, Copyrightand Tradmarks at the side of each page. There is now a search by author link. Or, you can click on a book then search the link of the author's name leading to a page with each author's books listed (with except link), the author's webpage (with link).

Book …

This week we're reviewing Freya’s Bower. Freya’s Bower is a subsidy of Wild Child Publishing. FB opened it’s electronic doors in spring of 2006. While the catalog is small, it offers books in fifteen different categories. It is a non-subsidy publishing house and pays 40% e royalties and 10% wholesale print royalties with no charges to authors. The only print book currently available appears to be its Charity Anthology.

It is advertised as “an erotica and romance publisher”, however, the submission guidelines are clear that if sex isn’t organic to the story, it should be left out. They prefer third person stories. Each month they give away one free ebook. The contest is simply sending an email with the word “contest” in the subject line. There is a newsletter, an author blog for readers to communicate with authors and a blog to keep up to date with the publishing plans of Wild Child and Freya’s Bower.
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Website layout - There are two sites: the main site which features the books and information about the …

This week we're reviewing Wings E-Press. I’ll just use their promo blurb:

WPI opened its cyber doors at www.wings-press.com , with offerings in General Fiction and all genres of Romantic fiction. Books will be available as downloads in popular ebook formats, along with quality trade paperback editions. In addition to publishing a catalog of excellent fiction, WPI plans to put into place an entire writer’s community where authors can work directly with editors while honing their craft, exchange ideas, share in promotional and educational opportunities and grow as professionals.

I think they've been in business for about 5 years. They sell ebooks and trade paperbacks ($6.00 for ebooks and $11-12.00 for most trade paperbacks). Their books are also sold through Fictionwise, Amazon, Cyberbooks, and Pats and Paws. They have a yahoo chat group, a newsletter (which offers monthly prizes), and a blog.
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Website layout - There are links to Showcased authors, Author Search, New Releases, Golden Wings (Senior Editor picks in each department), Information, Submissions, About Us, and Booksellers at the top of each …