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

In a huge shift, NY Times is revising its bestseller lists. It will add a Trade Paperback list in addition to its stable of Non Fiction, Hardcover Fiction and Mass Market Fiction lists. It will also expand the paperback list to 20 titles (from the 15). The total number of bestsellers listed will increase to 110 from 70.

The addition of a trade paperback list adds another page of ad revenue for the Times. One executive sees that addition of a list as “completely ad driven.”

Via New York Business.

In today’s New York Times tech section is an article about the growth of ebooks. The writer, Peter Wayner, offers up a summarization of places to buy ebooks (Fictionwise) and formats (Mobipocket and eReader) and devices (cellphones, PDA, and Sony Reader).

There isn’t anything that you haven’t read here on eBook Sunday but Wayner’s explanations are concise and easy to understand, if a bit simplistic. Some articles that we have compiled on the subject:

Where to Buy
What to use to read an ebook
What desktop readers are there for Windows Computers?
What is the difference between all of the formats?
A new ebook reader’s perspective

The interesting part of the article is that it sounds like Fictionwise is testing formats for the iPhone (yeah) and that ebook sales have increased $4 million in revenue since last year to $8.1 million. Not bad ebooks, not bad.

The New York Post ran a scoop yesterday that the paid online content portion of the NYTimes known as the TimesSelect would be eliminated by the end of the year. The NYTiimes refuses to confirm this saying “We continue to evaluate the best approach for NYTimes.com.” According to the article at Editor and Publisher, TimesSelect subscriptions results in $9.9 million in revenue. The WallStreet Journal, on the other hand, generates about $75 million in online subscription revenue.

Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates believes that it is because the Times specializes in strong writing but its content can be found, for free, elsewhere on the ‘net where as the WSJ offers unique content only obtained at WSJ. One thing that is offered in the TimesSelect is an early preview of Sunday’s NYT Bestseller list.

Via Editor and Publisher.

The NY Times has a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book even before the book goes on sale. (use bugmenot.com for username and password) This is actually quite normal for all books but with Potter, no review copies were sent and no copies were supposed to be sold until Friday night.

Times hasn’t said where they purchased the book and no one else in NY is crowing about purchasing it. DeepDiscount.com is supposed to have shipped it early but the Times posted the review on July 18 and the earliest reporting of those who received the book was on Tuesday, the 17th. I guess its possible that the reviewer sped read the book and composed a review in time for it to appear in the NY Times the following day but it doesn’t really pass the smell test to me. Am I the only one who thinks that the NY Times got a copy of the pirated version and wrote the review from that?

I’m not going to cite the review because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but you can go to the review and read the …

Judith McNaught’s League City, Texas home sold for $3.5M this month. She’s moving to Dallas to be closer to family. See, authors, what 10 NYT Bestsellers can do for you?

Do any of you remember in the late 80s, early 90s when RT used to have a monthly spread of some author’s palatial estate? Times have changed a bit. The NYT business section reported yesterday while Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep sold 133,000 in hardcover and 329,000 on a $40,000 advance, Prep’s second novel, The Man of My Dreams has been a disappointment. To date, it has sold 36,000 copies in hardcover and 6,000 in paperback while the advance was several multiples of the Prep advance.

It doesn’t look like Sittenfeld is quite on the McNaught track. At least not yet.

One of the more interesting points in the NYT article was that publishers do little to no market research, depending solely on sales to determine what to buy, what to push, what to sell. We readers clearly see that as publishers pushed regency romances on …

According to today’s NY Times Book Review, the editors regret publishing a March 4 essay by Ben Schott. Mr. Schott opined about his book abusing ways in an article entitled “Confessions of a Book Abuser.”

Several readers found some disturbing similarities between Schott’s essay and a piece of Anne Fadiman’s 1998 book, “Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader.”

The Editor’s Note articulated the most similar passages as the opening lines of each essay.
But the most striking resemblance occurs in the opening lines of each essay. Schott’s begins: “I have to admit I was flattered when, returning to my hotel room on the shores of Lake Como, a beautiful Italian chambermaid took my hand. . . . Escorting me to the edge of the crisply made bed, the chambermaid pointed to a book on my bedside table. ‘Does this belong to you?’ she asked. I looked down to see a dog-eared copy of Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Vile Bodies’ open spread-eagle, its cracked spine facing out. ‘Yes,’ I replied. ‘Sir, that is no way to treat a book!’ she declared, stalking out of the room.”

Fadiman’s essay begins: “When I was 11 and my brother …

I was looking at the March slate of releases a couple months back when I realized that there were a whole slew of really exciting books due for a March release. There were so many that we could barely fit all the reviews in the last week of February and the first couple weeks of March so that the reviews were timely. It got me to thinking about release months and then it got me to thinking about Tuesday, the Holy Day of Publishing.

It’s on Tuesdays and no other day on which books are released. In fact, it’s not just books, but it’s movies, music, and games. Retailers call it Super Tuesday (not to be confused with the political Super Tuesday). When I first started researching why Tuesday was the release date over some other day of the week, I didn’t get any definitive answer. I went straight to American Association of Publishers (AAP) and received the response that if Tuesday was the day for release as I was asserting, it was unknown to them the reason why. I figured that was a source not worth following up.

I turned to a publishing insider who …

The New York Times reported that Science Fiction authors Scott Sigler, Tee Morris, Mark Jeffrey, Evo Terro and Cory Doctorow are giving it away now for free. This time, the e version is podcasts or audiobooks read by the author and available at Podiobooks.com. The article speaks to the fact that the authors giving away books in order to gain an audience. This is hardly new news.

This was a much blogged about topic back in November of 2006 when Forbes published Cory Doctorow’s piece about the benefits of giving it away for free during November 2006’s special publishing edition. Late to the game much, NYT? (Although to give NYT some credit, the Business section, in 2005, did report on Warren Adler’s book, Death of a Washington Madame, which he released electronically for free via email, a chapter at a time).

In 2006, the New York Times reduced the size of its newspaper and reduced its staff by a third. Its revenue and profit at the time were flat from the previous year while internet revenue was increasing. Part of this is due to the fact that by the Times gets news, …

For Sales ending December 9, 2006

Hardcover

THE BOLEYN INHERITANCE, by Philippa Gregory. (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, $25.95.) Politics and treachery in the court of Henry VIII, narrated by three women, two of them his sometime wives. #12

FIRST IMPRESSIONS, by Nora Roberts. (Silhouette, $17.95.) Seeking peace, a wealthy businessman retreats to a small town, but his lovely and charitable neighbor won’t stay away; reprint of a 1984 novel. #15

H.R.H., by Danielle Steel (Delacorte). #17

BORN IN DEATH, by J. D. Robb (Putnam) #35 (#17 last week)

Paperback

ON THE RUN, by Iris Johansen. (Bantam, $7.99.) A girl and her mother, a horse trainer who once worked for the C.I.A., are targeted by a Middle Eastern magnate. #5

READY FOR LOVE, by Debbie Macomber. (Mira, $7.50.) Reprints of two romances involving two brothers. #6 (#10 last week)

VALLEY OF SILENCE, by Nora Roberts. (Jove, $7.99.) The circle of six go into battle to save humans from the vampire Lilith in the final Circle Trilogy book. #9 (#8 last week)

DROP DEAD GORGEOUS, by Linda Howard. (Ballantine, $7.99.) As she prepares for her wedding, Blair Mallory becomes the target of a killer. #10 (#5 last week)

REBELLION, by Nora Roberts. (Silhouette, $7.99.) A reprint of an early historical romance about a Scottish …

For Sales ending December 2, 2006.

Hardcover
DEAR JOHN, by Nicholas Sparks. (Warner, $24.99.) An unlikely romance between a soldier and an idealistic young woman is tested in the aftermath of 9/11. #4

FIRST IMPRESSIONS, by Nora Roberts. (Silhouette, $17.95.) Seeking peace, a wealthy businessman retreats to a small town, but his lovely and charitable neighbor won’t stay away; reprint of a 1984 novel. #14

BORN IN DEATH, by J. D. Robb (Putnam), #17

CHRISTMAS LETTERS, by Debbie Macomber (Mira), #33

Paperback
DROP DEAD GORGEOUS, by Linda Howard. (Ballantine, $7.99.) As she prepares for her wedding, Blair Mallory becomes the target of a killer, #5

REBELLION, by Nora Roberts. (Silhouette, $7.99.) A reprint of an early historical romance about a Scottish beauty who finds love in the enemy camp, #7

VALLEY OF SILENCE, by Nora Roberts. (Jove, $7.99.) The circle of six go into battle to save humans from the vampire Lilith in the final Circle Trilogy book, #8

READY FOR LOVE, by Debbie Macomber. (Mira, $7.50.) Reprints of two romances involving two brothers, 10

THE GILDED WEB, by Mary Balogh. (Dell, $6.99.) Romance follows a kidnapping in this reissue of a 1989 novel, #11

SWEET REVENGE, by Fern Michaels (Zebra), #11

THE PRINCE KIDNAPS A BRIDE, by Christina Dodd …