Given that the 2007 Cover Contest voting is underway, I thought this would be the appropriate time to post my cover post. Because this is an image heavy article, you’ll have to click the “more” link to read the entirety of the article. I’m talking about trends in covers and cover identification today.
There [...]

I’ve never said that before, have I? Before I get to the upcoming news, let me remind the readers that there were two outstanding Caroline Linden ARC’s for her June book, A Rake’s Guide to Seduction. Two readers didn’t come forward so I am re-opening the opportunity. Caroline Linden [...]

Romantic Times convention took place a couple of weeks ago. Since the convention, a few people spoke up about their experiences which included a negative reaction to the antics of the Ellora’s Cavemen. SB Sarah said that the Cavemen acted like cavemen and were overly grabby. JC Wilder reported [...]

In one of the industry news pieces I did this past week was a report of Amazon challenging New York State’s intent to impose a sales tax on internet sales. A commenter indicated that this was good because it helped to encourage people to shop locally.
On the surface, this argument is compelling. Force [...]

We’ve had a bit of a firestorm here at Dear Author and many new readers (hello new visitors). I thought it might be worthwhile to do a bit of post mortem on the recent brou ha ha.
For new visitors, let me give you a bit of a history. I started Dear Author [...]

There is a host of reasons to like Kresley Cole’s works. My top two are they are relentlessly fun and deliciously subversive. The fun is probably readily apparent, but this article is about her subversivity.
Cole takes very traditional tropes and reverses them completely. For example, Cole’s books are female-centric with the [...]

Most of the blogosphere has been mouth agape in reaction to the Deborah Anne MacGillivray harassment of an Amazon reader over a 3 star review that the reader left for a book of MacGillivray’s. In my link backs, though, I saw a post called “Authors Who Bite Back” from Tess Gerritsen’s blog that left [...]

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I’ve been fatigued by the scandals and the bad behavior and the general discontent that’s going on these days. It seems like you can’t turn around without tripping over someone inserting their foot into their mouth and then some. The problem with that is there are actually some wonderful things [...]

Dear Amazon:
Perhaps you know that there was a bit of scandal involving the Amazon review system that erupted in the past couple of weeks. An author, Deborah MacGillivray, was found to have been the leader of a group of people who worked systematically to make their reviews the top rated ones and to get negative [...]

Apparently, there appears to be a breakdown in the comment box on the previous thread. Ms. MacGillivray was the recipient of a three star review on Amazon. She chastises the reader for not understanding the book correctly.
Reba,
Thank you for letting me know you enjoyed “A Restless Knight” so much you read it twice. [...]

The Society of Authors, an author organization in the UK, has cried that literary piracy is going to lead to the demise of literature because authors will eventually stop writing.
“For a while it will be great for readers because they will pay less and less but in the long run it’s going to ruin the [...]

Today’s topic is a follow up on last week’s wherein I wished for two things a) for grittier romance books and b) for those romance books that include gritty elements, to treat those elements seriously.
One of the responses that I heard was that readers like to be entertained and not issued to death. I don’t [...]

So, this Amazon thing. It sounds bad. For those who might have missed it, Amazon decided to stop stocking Print on Demand books that do not use Amazon’s own service, Booksurge. I’m not sure who falls under a Print on Demand service. I have always viewed PODs as any publisher who [...]

Yesterday, the 2008 RITA Finalists were announced. We posted the results and encouraged others to provide congratulations. This post and the comments that follow will likely be critical of the process, the finalists, the judging. Please be aware of this. I do not mean to diminish anyone’s accomplishments, but I am [...]

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A legitimate criticism of romance as serious literature is it’s often cavalier treatment of important life topics. Too often, war, separation, human indignity, are treated as plot devices, conflict mechanisms, and not given the attention and treatment those important issues deserve. How many romance books are thought provoking? How [...]

I’ve read about RWA getting alot of grief this past week for discriminating against small presses however, I think it is patently clear that the reason for the 2007 change in RWA policy regarding recognized publishers (making it more author focused) is to protect its authors from unscrupulous small presses (including epresses) who start up [...]

According to its owner (or one of its owners), NCP does not engage in any editing of its books.
“Editing-the focus of editing in this company has shifted with the times. We spent years trying to help new authors perfect their writing skills by paying editors to tweak the books. Some authors actually appreciated [...]

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As was reported last week, urban fantasy is on the rise. More and more UF books are being published and these books are increasingly being marketed toward the romance reader. These books are commonly referred to as part of the cross over genre. There is a boon and a [...]

A couple of weeks ago, the news came down that the PW Tech blog was being put on hold. I wondered what that meant for romance blogger, Barbara Vey. She’s having a one year anniversary and will be off to a conference to talk about blogging for PW. I suggest that if [...]

Free ebooks are all the rage these days. Oprah gave away over a million copies of Suze Orman’s, Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny and became the #2 bestseller in the nonfiction/general category.
Other publishers are toying with the free ebook giveaway. Tor is giving a free book away a week [...]

In my morning blogrolling, I read the post at the Smart Bitches site about a discussion that erupted on the political blog, Obsidian Wings, about romance novels.
The starting point for the discussion was the part of the post where Hilzoy, the poster, said the following:
Second, romance novels* (update below the fold) are not “books”, as [...]

On the SBTB site, Laura Kinsale asked the question “I’m curious. What’s the difference between Cassie Edwards writing about ferrets and fan fiction published for profit?”
Robin’s response was “the fact that fan fiction, by its very nature, has overt attribution.”
My response was
The difference, ethically (and in general), between fan fiction and plagiarism, i.e., [...]

Dear Ms Charlotte Allen, offering of an op ed piece at Washington Post:
If I had a subscription to the WashPo, I’d probably cancel it today. When I first read your article , I thought it was going to be a joke. I had to read it twice to see if you just weren’t [...]

This past week saw another fun dust-up involving Phase authors. Apparently, there are a certain contingent of Phase authors and other self designated erotic romance authors who share a good deal of their personal lives online, using their literary pen names. Some authors, like Selena Kitt, post photographs of nudity (NSFW) and blog about their [...]

The question of whether there is a divide between authors and reader/blogger/reviewers has been discussed and debated here and elsewhere. To me it seems clear that it does, at least in some quarters. Some reader/blogger/reviewers, including some of my fellow bloggers here on Dear Author, have called out some authors for behaving badly. [...]