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

August Promotions for eBooks

Jane — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:04:51 +0000

These are the August specials I know of. If I have missed some, let me know. The Hachette deals can be found at most etailers like Kindle, Sony, BooksonBoard.com, and the like.

Orbit’s $1.00 release is

Night Shift by Lilith Saintcrow, retail price $6.99 for $1.00 during the month of August.

Forever Summer Sizzling Reads for $1.99

Insatiable Desire by Rita Herron
Hungry for More by Diana Holquist
Seduce Me by Robyn DeHart (new release)
Simple Wishes by Lisa Dale

Other Hachette August specials:

Brian Haig: Buy Secret Sanction and get Mortal Alliesfor free.
Kate Lynch: Blessed Art the Cheesemakers for $2.99

Harlequin is offering:

25% off My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent, the launch title of the new Harlequin Teen line. Offer ends Aug 31.

Books on Board is offering a number of ebooks under $5.00 including:

One Week as Lovers by Victoria Dahl
The Darkest Prison by Gena Showalter
Thorn Queen by Richelle Mead

October Ebook Specials

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Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore Is Neither Sound Nor Fury

Jane — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:48:31 +0000

I had to write this post after reading all the headlines on Twitter about Barnes and Noble’s ebookstore presenting real competition for the Amazon Kindle. It’s not and here’s why.

First, BN’s ebookstore is simply that, a store. There is no device. Kindle captured the burgeoning ebook crowd not because it simply provided books in digital but because there was a bookstore tied to a device that made purchasing so simple you could explain it to your mom or your five year old.

Second, BN has no such device and there are no plans to release such a device until 2010. 2010 is a long way off. The fabled Apple tablet may have come by then. The PixelQi netbook that has a dual screen (eink like and straight LCD) may have captured the attention of the market. 2010 is eons away in technological time. Further, there is no confirmation that BN will even sell the device. Instead, the news is that BN will be the exclusive content provider of digital books for the Plastic Logic device. Have you seen the Plastic Logic device? It’s big which means expensive (the Kindle Dx cost $449) and unweildy.

Third, BN price matching Amazon gives people no incentive to leave Amazon if they are already customers there. Without a matching device, how many existing customers are going to suddenly start reading on their iPhones or laptops who are not already ebook readers? Certainly not enough to challenge Amazon’s domination. People who are already ebook readers understand that there are a plethora of stores and price matching opportunities out there.

Fourth, BN’s inflated book count of 700,000 includes over 500,000 public domain books fed by Google Book. Of the remaining books, BN.com’s ebook store has the worst content availability. This morning is the release of Meredith Duran’s ebooks, Bound by Your Touch and Written on Your Skin. Neither books are available at BN.com. Both are on sale at Fictionwise.com, BooksonBoard.com, and Amazon. BN is not even winning the simple content game.

Fifth, BN promises multiformats but will be wrapping those formats in it’s own DRM. BN promises that its books WON’T be compatible with the Sony Reader or the Kindle. Just what we readers need and want.

BN brought nothing new to the game. It’s offering eReader format which are already available at ereader.com or fictionwise.com, both vendors offering customer rewards programs that BN is not. It’s not a leap to say that these two sites, owned by BN, will be totally subsumed into the BN.com ebook site, but until that time, there is no incentive for a reader to leave eReader.com or Fictionwise.com.

The roll out of BN.com’s ebookstore brings nothing new. It’s not a Kindle killer. It’s barely competition for the existing ebook stores out there. Frankly, it was aweak rollout. If this is the understanding of the market that BN has in its upper management, it will be nothing but a failure.

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Books on Board’s Beyond Heaving Bosoms Promotion

Jane — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:00:19 +0000

For twenty four hours, BooksonBoard will offer Beyond Heaving Bosoms for 25% off beginning on April 14 10am cst to April 15 10am cst.

Along with 20% off list price all titles by these authors whose books are mentioned in the book:

Stephanie Laurens
JD Robb/ Nora Roberts
Jude Deveraux
Kelley Armstrong
Patricia Briggs

The promo code for readers will be “SmartOnBoard”. Details are here and here.

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Amazon Pricing Problem: Beware

Jane — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:00:29 +0000

Michelle Sagara has alerted readers to an Amazon seller who is selling unpublished books. TSCBooks is offering unpublished works of authors like Maya Banks, Michelle Sagara, Stephenie Meyer, Maria Snyder and the like. These are books that are not published and some are not even in ARC form but the seller has them offered for $1,000.00. There are additional books such as Green Eggs & Ham and The Foot Book offered for $1,000.00 as well.

I’m hopeful that this is just an error but for big fans of Sagara, Banks, and the like, be careful of these “unpublished” works particularly when the price is so high.

Thanks for tip, Has.

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REPOST: DA Discount for Dorchester Books

Jane — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:00:52 +0000

I’m just reposting this as a reminder since the coupon will end on March 15, 2009.

EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR DA
READERS: TAKE $10 OFF YOUR $25 ORDER with Code DA25 at checkout

You can preorder these hot May titles
and get them before they arrive in stores:

Then use your discount to try out some fresh new voices
available now:

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Oh Noes! Borders Offers Romance Book for Free; Takes Advantage of Emotionally Weak Women

Jane — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:00:05 +0000

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 put a stop to this corporate attempt to exploit us. I suggest we take up a letter writing campaign and demand this discount not be offered during any holiday during which we weak women might be emotionally susceptible to the ploy of getting us to buy more romance books!

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Beautiful Book Buying

Jayne — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:00:28 +0000

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

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New Romance Marketing Expert at Borders

Jane — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:43:48 +0000

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?)

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Spotlight on Drollerie Press

Jane — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 09:00:22 +0000

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 that includes mythic elements presented in an original way. To use Joely Sue Burkhart’s story as an example, you told her you didn’t much care for dragons as I recall. That was my first response as well. Dragons are overdone. I’m tired of them. They hoard gold, they’re vain, they hate humans for their short lives or brutishness, they’re either sentient and wise beyond mortal ken or they’re incredibly helpful pets. Joely took the idea of dragon and turned it around. She imagined something unique and yet perfectly appropriate to the myth and she made them real for the reader. We find that kind of storytelling exciting and that’s what we want to provide for every genre.

Q: What makes an ebook publisher successful?

Fisher: Well, I may have a different answer 10 years from now, but I think any business enterprise is likely to succeed if the principals find a need and fill it well, manage their product (quality, freshness, reliability), stick out the tough times, provide great customer service, and watch their cash flow. E-book publishers have built an audience on erotica, which, if you’re going to get consumers to adopt something new is one very good way to go about it, and more publishers and wider offerings have resulted from that early boom, which is great. It’s a healthy field, but it seems to me that the rate of growth is slower now in the U.S. Quarterly earnings have quadrupled since 2002, but there’s no reason it shouldn’t be much higher. To truly succeed, to grow into a major market, I believe we need to encourage a universal e-book reader format (such as the adoption of the IDPF approved format); simpler DRM, which I believe is the greater hurdle; and more attractive reading options (as an aside, did you know that 68 million dollars worth of e-books sold in Japan in 2006? And that cell phone reading is what’s pushing that explosively rising trend? AnimeNews ).
I think e-books will explode–they are exploding–but who will end up leading the explosion is the question.

Q:. Where do you see your publishing house in 5 years?

Fisher: Drollerie Press will have brand recognition outside the e-book world. We’ll have a large selection of good works available for sale in both e- and print formats and in every genre, with a solid collection of non-fiction, literary fiction, and poetry that work within our greater theme. When a reader picks up a book and sees our logo on it, they’ll know there’s a really good read inside. I see us as providing a great publishing experience for established authors and exciting opportunities for new authors. I see our covers as real works of art that are as unusual and exploratory as the words they cover. We’ll have branched out into related products like art prints, pillow books, and illustrated books for adults, for example, and we’ll have a strong and growing young adult category. I’d also like us to be able to be active in other ways, such as providing a couple of college scholarships one to a budding author and one for an artist, though that may have to wait for the 10 year plan.

How are you determining what content to offer?

Fisher: We accept based on a handful of criteria. First, is it mythic in nature?
Does it take a myth, legend or fairy tale and turn it on its head? Does it create a new legend from bits and pieces of old ones or the author’s fertile imagination? We’re not looking for faithful re-tellings, we’re looking for imaginative stories rooted in the mythic. For example, Cindy Lynn Speer’s retelling of Bluebeard is set in an alternate Spain, includes Kitsune, and reads like an historical romance, Imogen Howson’s Falling puts a mutated Rapunzel in an alternate future. Tala Bar’s heroine lives in ancient Israel, sees visions, and her idea of happy-ever-after doesn’t come with a man. Each is very different in style from the other but they’re all mythic in nature.

Second, does the author have a good grasp of the mechanics: punctuation, spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and does the author know how to tell a good story?

Third, does it really work for us? It can’t just be mechanically adequate and based on a myth. The story has to grab the editor and shake him or her. It has to have its own intrinsic magic. I accepted Atlantis
1999 because it’s not just a good story; but the language is incredibly dense and intricate.

Why should a reader be buying from you?

Fisher: A reader should buy from us if he or she wants a good story that’s well-told. Though we find our stories at the heart of myth, legend, and fairy tale, that’s the sum of what we’re about.

Are there any things you’d like readers to know about Drollerie Press?

Fisher: We want them to love buying our books. If there’s a problem with the software, they have difficulty with the shopping cart, they want to buy it from a particular outlet, or in a particular format, they’d like things differently organized, they want to know when the next book is coming out, they’d like to read a particular kind of story, or anything else they’d like us to know or would like to know about us, we want to answer the questions, fix the problems, and make the whole experience rewarding. We hope they’ll drop us a note and let us know–good or bad–how they feel.

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Price Comparison: Which E book Retailer Has the Best Prices

Jane — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 09:00:40 +0000

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 work for you.

28 books x $6.00 = $168.00 (purchase without club benefits)
27 books x $5.10 (15% discount) + $29.95 + 1 free book = $167.65 (purchase with club benefits).

For every book above 27 books you paid for (because you get 1 free), you would be saving .15 per dollar spent. In our example, you would save $.90 for every $6.00 book. If you bought 99 books (because you get 1 free with the club membership), you would save $65.15.

How does All Romance eBooks compare to Fictionwise’s Buywise Club?
All Romance eBooks has a deal where you get 1 book free for every ten purchases. There is no cost to the book club and the “free book” is a perk that every purchaser gets. How does that compare to Fictionwise’s Buywise Club?

If you buy more than 60 books, Fictionwise’s Buywise Club is a better bargain for you.

Fictionwise: 60 books x $5.10 (15% discount) + $29.95 + 1 book free = $335.95
All Romance eBooks: 56 books x $6.00 + 5 books free = $336

Are the Cheapest Prices with the Bookclubs?
We’ve determined that if you buy more than 60 books a year, then Fictionwise’s Buywise Club is a better deal than All Romance eBooks. Now, we turn to whether it is better to buy at Fictionwise than anywhere else on the internet. After all, price comparison is just a click of the keypad away from you. The results will surprise you.

	HC	Kensgtn	S&S	Hqn	Dell	Smhn
eReader	$7.19	N/A	$5.39	$5.67	$6.29	N/A
Fictionwise	$7.99	$9.00	$5.99	$6.30	N/A	$5.50
Buywise Club	$6.79	$7.65	$5.09	$5.36	N/A	$4.68
All Rom Ebooks	N/A	$9.00	N/A	$6.30	N/A	$5.50
Diesel	$7.80	$7.61	$5.08	$5.34		$5.50
MobiPocket	$7.99	$9.00	$5.99	$6.30	$6.99	$5.50
Powells	$6.79	$7.65	$5.09	$5.36		N/A
eBooks.com	$7.19	N/A	$5.99	$5.04		N/A
BonBoard*	$6.23	$7.02	$4.67	$4.91	$5.45	$4.95
Publisers Site	$6.71	$9.00	$4.08	$5.67	N/A	$5.50

As can be seen by the table above, the prices are lowest at Books on Board except for Simon & Schuster books. Simon & Schuster sells all its ebooks at 35% off the retail price and thus it is always cheaper to buy from the publisher website for Pocket, Pocket Star, etc. book. This really doesn’t make sense for publishers, in my opinion, since it could drive traffic and business to their own bookstores by selling at the 35% off rate like Simon & Schuster.

Books on Board, while it has great prices, has an unwieldy purchasing system which requires you to wait for an email with a verification code. You paste the verification code into your account center. That said, if you don’t mind the extra hassle, Books on Board is the place to shop right now.

Fictionwise’s Buywise club doesn’t make much sense (this is what I would use on a regular basis) because you can get the cheap prices from Powells, Diesel or Books on Board. Sadly, even with the micropay, the Buywise Club doesn’t make financial sense. At this point I can’t see renewing my Buywise Subscription. I’ll be shopping at Books on Board, even with its unwieldy purchasing system because not only does it have the lowest prices, but it also has the books on time where as Fictionwise is always selling the books a week late.

*Mobipocket format is slightly more expensive most of the time.

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

August Promotions for eBooks

Related Posts:

Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore Is Neither Sound Nor Fury

Related Posts:

Books on Board’s Beyond Heaving Bosoms Promotion

Related Posts:

Amazon Pricing Problem: Beware

Related Posts:

REPOST: DA Discount for Dorchester Books

Related Posts:

Oh Noes! Borders Offers Romance Book for Free; Takes Advantage of Emotionally Weak Women

Related Posts:

Beautiful Book Buying

Related Posts:

New Romance Marketing Expert at Borders

Related Posts:

Spotlight on Drollerie Press

Related Posts:

Price Comparison: Which E book Retailer Has the Best Prices

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