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

Good news, neighbors to the North, Penguin will be selling books in Canada at US price points starting in 2008.

A couple of weeks ago, there was an article about Canadians becoming increasingly unhappy with the price disparity on books, with the Canadian retail price being significantly higher than the US retail price even though the Canadian dollar was equal to or, on some days, higher than the US dollar.

Canadian booksellers would not discount the books because it would mean a loss for them. In response, Penguin Canada will sell all its US originated books at the US price point.

During the last couple of months, I read several books written by authors who live outside the U.S. I know from our contests that there are many international readers but I didn't quite grasp the breadth of the international author. Authorial success and continued contracts rely primarily upon sucess within the U.S. The NYTimes, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Oprah, Starbucks, Daily Show and all of those other book power brokers, are U.S. entities.

Even the simple things like the cost of postage and more obvious things, like the cost of plane tickets for bookstore signings impose barriers which US based authors don’t face. Today Sasha White shares her thoughts about writing books for US audiences and market to US audiences in the face of geographic and cultural barriers.
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Sasha White is a strong voice in an emerging market of erotica for women. Ms. White’ latest release, Lush, is unapologetically set in Canada. Lush features three stories set against the backdrop of an art gallery where a gallery owner, jewelry designer and a photographer surrender to the sensuality that surrounds them. Her extensive backlist can …

Dear Ms. Spencer:

Haven is your debut work and I have been excited to read it since I first heard of it back when we ran our first ebook contest. I didn’t know what to expect and did not read the excerpts purposely. I like to be surprised when I read a book. While I thought that parts of the book lagged (which I think is a common debut author issue), overall Haven is a cozy romance that harkens back to a time when romance writers wrote romances, not paranormals, suspense, erotica.

Hildy McAllister has just blown up her career by accusing the department chair of sexual harassment and plagarism. She seeks refuge in a cabin which was bequeathed to her and her sister by their deceased father. When she arrives at the cabin, she wants nothing more than to go inside and sleep for days. Instead she finds a nearly naked man in there.

Jim Curry is a local schoolteacher whose mother’s cabin is a short distance away. He’s fallen for the area and is hoping to convince Hildy to sell it to him. Disrupting her refuge …

Ladies,

I loved your second book, “What I Really Want to Do is Direct” and knew I had to go back and read your first, “Speechless.” It’s worth every trade paperback penny. I hope you two have something else in the works because if not, I’m afraid I’ll go into withdrawal.

Anyone who’s ever suffered under a supervisor from hell and or worked for the government needs to read about Libby McIssac. Bored with her regular job in the Education Ministry, she decides to take a chance and apply for the position of speechwriter to the Minister of Arts, little knowing what she’s getting herself into. The Minister’s ratlike assistant Margo makes Libby’s (or Lily, as the Minister insists on calling her) life into one long misery. But since Libby isn’t one to tuck her tail and crawl off, it’s hilarious watching her outfox Margo and finally begin to do the job she was hired for. If only she could get her personal life on track as well.

Sandy, while I know that your experience in government came in handy in this book and Yvonne’s film industry career helped in “What I …