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

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 [...]

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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 [...]

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. [...]

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Romance is an easy target for dismissal by critics, both insiders and outsiders alike. Respect that the genre deserves isn’t being earned despite the tremendous buying power that the genre readers command. Science fiction and mysteries are more honored and more respectable by mainstream press and critics.
This past summers brou ha [...]

Louise Allen’s book, Virgin Slave, Barbarian King, was one cited by Julie Bindel as part of the patriarchal propaganda designed to “feed directly into some women’s sense of themselves as lesser beings, as creatures desperate to be dominated.” Ms. Allen’s response was on the Guardian today.
I wish Allen had talked more about the historical aspect [...]

Steve Almond is using the Huffington Post to air his current grievance instead of waiting for the publication of his next book. Gawker, a popular New York literature gossip and opinion blog, has written some favorable and some unfavorable items about Almond. In return, Almond chooses to compare Gawker readers to aggrieved Republican [...]

So, I spent last night toying with another “Dear Mom” review and I thought it might be fun if some of our reviews were addressed to people other than the author. I.e., I might write the next Tara Janzen review to Holly because we were both disappointed at the last Janzen. Or I [...]