Archive for the 'Bookstore' Category
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:
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
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 …
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.
Michelle Sagara has alerted readers to an Amazon seller who is selling unpublished books.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.
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:
   
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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…
 Sue Grimshaw is the romance buyer for BGI. She buys for Borders, Borders Express and Waldenbooks. Since she began her position with BGI, Ms. Grimshaw has increased romance book sales for BGI by 20%. She is a fan of the genre and is devoted toward getting the romance books into the hands of the romance buyer.
Can you share a little about how you came to be the buyer for romance for Borders?
Prior buying the Romance genre I bought for our non-fiction and children’s categories. Five years ago when our Romance Buyer left the company for a job in NYC, I jumped at the opportunity to interview for the position & thankfully got it! I am a voracious reader of the category and read anywhere from 3 to 5 books per week. I totally love the genre and enjoy seeing authors succeed.
What is your role as the romance buyer for Borders/Waldenbooks? I.e., what exactly is it that you do!
The merchandising structure in the company begins with the buyer who reports directly to a category manager, who manages various categories in a segment …
Dear Fictionwise:
I am a long time customer and a big pimper of ebooks. Listen to me. I have some important business advice to impart. Part of the whole deal with ebooks is instant gratification. That means when the book is out, we readers want to buy it and read it. Maybe you haven’t been paying attention to readers, but alot of online romance readers (you know, the ones who actually buy ebooks v. the offline readers who don’t) are pretty savvy. They know when books are released. It’s on Tuesdays. Every NY publishing house releases books on Tuesdays. That’s the day after Monday.
I have emailed you a number of times about this, but it hasn’t seemed to sink in. Your reply to me is always “we release books on Monday.” Why would it be so difficult to change your release date to Tuesday so I don’t have to wait an entire week to buy the “new” releases. Because by the next week, I have already bought the new release from some other bookstore. Like Powells.com or eReader.com. You should, in fact, release …
 Samhain Publishing graciously offered DearAuthor three gift certificates of $5.00. The winners are 3, 5, 16 (picked by Ned). I will email Samhain with your email addresses. The winners were picked at random from the 18 comments left during last Sunday’s Ebook Weekly article. Ebook lovers may want to visit even if you didn’t win. Samhain’s bookstore has been revamped and there is an ebook reader giveaway that you can enter if you buy a book.
On Tuesday, we’ll be announcing the winner of the Nalini Singh Viral Blogging Contest.
I think I am up to 5 4 book pimping posts. In my email box yesterday, I received notice from Borders/Waldenbooks of a coupon of 30% off of any one book. Now you have to be a member, but signing up is free.
I’ll be getting Crown Duel and Inda by Sherwood Smith that Nicole blogged about the other day. Talk about an awesome cover!
Oh, and romances are still 10% off until September 24 so JR Ward’s book, Lover Awakened, will be discounted along with books like Viva Las Bad Boys by HelenKay Dimon.
edited to add: damn bookstore had neither Smith book. worthless coupon.
 Received in the inbox today a notice that Waldenbooks and Borders Express are having a 10% off sale for all romances until August 27. You do have to be a Borders Rewards member but that’s a free deal. Here’s your opportunity to pick up Nora Roberts’ Angels Fall, Helen Kay Dimon’s Viva Las Bad Boys, Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout’s Speechless, and Jo Goodman’s One Forbidden Evening or any of the other books you have been thinking about but haven’t yet purchased. Go for it. You know you want to. ;)
As for me, I’ll be stopping off to pick up Primal Heat by Susan Sizemore. Is it just me or does anyone else get Susan Sizemore and Susan Squires mixed up? Anyone else got a recommendation for Jayne and I? Because I know Jayne is all over this sale too. After all, 10% means we can save as much as $.80 on some books. Which means we have $.80 more to spend on books. :)
Samhain has been in business for almost a year (if I’m reading their “about us” section correctly). They publish ebooks and print books ranging from short stories to plus novels ($2.50-$6.50 ebook prices). Samhain has two yahoo groups, Samhain News (announcements) and Samhain Café (chat). They state that their policy is to sell ebooks for less than print books (yeah, rah!) and when I looked up buying a print book, the cart stated that there is no shipping charge for books sold in the US. At least some of Samhain’s titles are also sold at Fictionwise.
The website is laid out with links for the Home Page, newest releases, coming soon, submissions, publication calender, about us, about ebooks, employment, and contact sections across every page. The About Ebooks section has links to download free Adobe, Microsoft Lit, and Mobipocket readers. Submissions are encouraged and information can be found by clicking the link found at the top of all pages. The author link will take you to individual author pages which have links to each author’s own webpage.
The Book Store (My Bookstore, …
CONTEST! Phaze is releasing six stories to be published early next month as part of their Samba Heatsheet line – all stories set in South America. Phaze will offer two Dear Author readers three downloads apiece. Just post in the comments section one title that will be released in the Samba Heatsheet line.
There are two websites for Phaze. One is the publisher site which is mainly devoted to giving information about its books, Phaze events, and submissions and the other is the bookstore. Phaze appears to have opened its doors in 2004. There are novels in print and for sale at Borders. It publishes erotic stories in a several categories, lengths and explicitness:
- Heat Sheets: 5,000 – 12,000 words (short stories)
- Photon: 12,000 – 30,000 words (novella)
- Comet: 30,000 – 60,000 words (category)
- Eclipse: 60,000 – 90,000 words (novel)
And
- Pulsar—Milder language, standard sex and pairings.
- Nebula—Bold language, may contain toys, sensual bondage, mild D/s, anal play
- Nova—Bold language, may contain threesomes, anal sex, significant bondage, serious D/s, m/m encounters
There is forum which contains reviews, news, contests, and events. There is also an …
Liquid Silver wanted to give away three books but only two people sent me an email. These are the winners: Michele B and Jennifer. Look for an email from LS soon.
NCP began publishing in 1996. They sell ebooks and also offer some of their books in print.
They have several book categories:
- Anthologies, Special Collections
- Contemporary Romance
- Fantasy and Fantasy Romance
- HARMONY™ Romance, Multicultural, and Interracial Romance
- Historicals: Medieval, Western, Regency, and Georgian
- Historicals: Other Time Periods and Unusual Locales
- Love Bites™ Short Stories (SENSUAL to CARNAL), including Short Story Themes and Holiday Themes
- Paranormal Romance, Vampires, Werewolves and Shifters (Contemporary)
- Time Travel
- Thrillers, Mysteries, and Romantic Suspense
- Science Fiction and Futuristic Romance
Their sensuality ratings are sweet, sensual, spicy and carnal.
BOOK LENGTH:
- Full Novel = 90,000 words and up; 360 pages and up (double-spaced)
- Mid Novel = 61,000-89,000 words; 244-356 pages (double-spaced)
- Category = 40,000-60,000 words; 160-240 pages (double-spaced)
- Novella = 20,000-39,000 words; 80-156 pages (double-spaced)
There is a link to an author information page with links to each individual author. Those author pages have covers for all the author's books at NCP. Some have pictures and …
I am cycling this to the top to close out the contest. One more guess needed, ladies.
CONTEST! Venus Press is offering DearAuthor readers a chance to win three gift certificates worth $5.00. You just need to post below one of the three books Jane bought in trying out Venus Press. Hint: One is from the Confessions line, one from the Paranormal line, and one from the Contemporary line. The first three posters to guess one of the books will get the $5.00 gift certificate.
Post your guesses here. Hints will go up tomorrow. We have only one entry folks and no matter what’s going on between author and publisher, this blog is for readers and this contest is for three free books!
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the launch title of the new Harlequin Teen line. Offer ends Aug 31.
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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.”
