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

We love the contemporary like Damn and Whoa (tm SmartBitch Sarah) so we’ve created a special little online place for them at http://savethecontemporary.com and we’ve run a kind of monthly campaign highlighting a different book.

This month’s book was Lisa Kleypas’ Smooth Talking Stranger which Jane described as a Snoopy book (Happiness is a warm puppy) and Sarah described as the book as having suds that stays with you. Which, in real person terms means we both loved the book and wanted an effective way of telling others we loved it to.

From now until April 6, 2009, Borders is offering30% off all pre-orders, so if you’re thinking of buying it, you’ve got 30% more (or less) incentive to do so.

If you are a reader, author, or ameoba, you can use the “savethecontemporary.com” site to recommend your favorite contemporary reads too. Take a look. In the meantime, the following folks won a copy of Smooth Talking Stranger. Please send your snailmail to jane at dearauthor.com.

• Lorigreen
• janajhanson
• Bonnie_Ferguson
• Stephanie Makowski
• Kim C
• cammY
• Elizabeth Lester
• Alissa Davis
• Kwana
• Kym
• junedaisy
• Lou_bookpusher
• Keira S
• Mollie M
• Christina Tu
• Cheryl C
• Sarah Louise G
• Pam P
• rebjy
• Rebecca S

We’re starting a new pile of awesome. We’ve created a new site just for the Save the Contemporary campaign. We’ll be announcing future contests both at SmartBitches and here and steering interested folks who like free books and awesome prizes over to the new site.

This month? Smooth Talking Stranger, by Lisa Kleypas. Sarah and I both really enjoyed this book. Sarah finished reading it and literally had to go lie down and sniffle. Her eyes were stinging, her smile was wobbly, and she had Good Book Sniffles. I wrote about it earlier today in my ode to the comfort read. It’s Snoopy. The book, that is.

As usual, we want to spread the word about this book, and about contemporary romance. Head on over to the Save the Contemporary site, and forward the announcement of the Lisa Kleypas book using the “Email this Page” link at the top, or spread the word via Twitter using the hashtag #stc – making sure to alert either jane (@jane_l) or me (@smartbitches). Or, you can write about the campaign, link to the site, and email us a link at sbjcontests@gmail.com.

Every time …

The following commenters are the random winners to the Save the Contemporary Campaign featuring the late January release of Instant Attraction by Jill Shalvis.

The winners are:

• Peggy P
• Victoria W
• rd2129
• Lori S.
• Bonnie L
• Brandy W
• Jessica
• Darby Lohrding
• El
• Edith

I’ve sent an email to the winners requesting a snail mail address so we can ship the books out right away. For those who did not win, but want to help spread the word and be entered to win the Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder, don’t forget about our “Save the Contemporary” Campaign widget and gif.

The Spread the Word winner will be announced in 1 week, so tune in on Monday 26 January to see who wins a book and a really kickass video camera in our quest to Save the Contemporary.

Why? Because if there’s one thing that makes us sad, it’s the idea of contemporary romance dying out. So spread the word, …

UPDATE: The comments are closed but the good news is that Kensington is upping its copies for giveaway to 20! SB Sarah and I each have 10 books, instead of the original 5. We’ll announce the winners later today. Thank you so much commenters and thank you so much Kensington.

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Here’s the deal: we dig this book. We dig this book like damn and whoa, and we think you will too. And yet, so many people say the contemporary romance is a dying breed. So, in order to spread the word and the opportunity to read it we’re doing a multi-level giveaway in tandem with our reviews of Instant Attraction.

Part the First: free books! Leave a comment and you’re automatically entered to win a copy. We each have 5 paper copies of the book give away, so drop a word here and at Dear Author and double your chances. Comments will be open for 24 hours starting now.

Second: Spread the Word! Below is a Sprout widget about our campaign, and a simpler animated graphic. Right-click-and-save the graphic, or grab the Sprout for yourself, and put it on your site. Let us know that …

Dear Ms. Shalvis:

I’ve read and enjoyed Blaze books written by you and I’ve purchased your full length books  in the past but it wasn’t until I got a prod from SB Sarah that I actually read one of your full length novels. I’m so glad I did.

Katie Kramer survives a near fatal tragedy and determines that she must live big else her survival would have been wasted. This newfound enthusiasm for adventure leads her to take a job with Wilder Adventures. Wilder Adventures is an extreme winter resort in the Sierra Madre mountains run by the Wilder brothers. It is also the home of Cam Wilder, a champion snowboarder, whose long and glorious career ended during a race the previous year.

Cam was world weary and heart sore and all the traveling around the globe didn’t help him find the answer to how to live with the loss of his skill, his fame, and his relationship with his long time girlfriend, Serena. He was a thrill seeker to the nth degree with no mountain to great a challenge for his board and body.  His zest for life seemed …

And Now: Buy a Contemporary, Save the World

Here’s the deal: SB & J dig this book. We dig this book like damn and whoa, and we think you will too. And yet, so many people say the contemporary romance is a dying breed. So, in order to spread the word and the opportunity to read it we’re doing a multi-level giveaway in tandem with our reviews of Talk Me Down.

In conjunction with the great giveaway below, Borders is offering a $1.00 coupon on any order of Talk Me Down to help “save the contemporary” but mostly to help debut contemporary writer Victoria Dahl and her book Talk Me Down. Visit Borders.com between December 15, 2008, and January 15, 2009, and you can save $1 on Talk Me Down. Simply enter promotion code HAR1222D during checkout.

Now, onto the giveaway:

Part the First: free books! Leave a comment with the preferred format (i.e., paper/ebook), and you’re automatically entered to win a copy. We each have 5 paper copies of the book plus 2 ebooks to give away, so drop a word here and at Dear Author and double your chances. Comments will be open for 48 hours starting now.

Second: Spread the Word! …

And the random integer generator has spoken. Over 80 people spread the word, and many a person mentioned their hope that the contemporary romance will not die but flourish happily. We certainly hope so.

Without further ado, or any ado at all, the winner is:

Margay! at http://www.myspace.com/margay1122

Congrats – please email Sarah or Jane or both, and we’ll make arrangements for a massive Amazon gift certificate to the tune of $100 to be delivered unto the inbox of your choice. Thanks for spreading the word, and stay tuned for more from Dear Author and Smart Bitches as we try to Save the Contemporary.

I’ve mentioned before that the contemporary romances that doesn’t feature vampires, campy vampires, werewolves, immortal peril, mortal peril, suspense out the wahoo, or extraordinary extraterrestrial extraneous circumstances seem to be fewer and far between. Every now and again I hear declarations that the contemporary romance is a dying subgenre and it’s harder and harder to find, and that if you’re not an established name, you’ll never get anywhere, because fewer people want to read contemporary romance.

So when Sarah and I read Flat Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy, we were both blathering to each other about how awesome it was and how refreshing to have actual conflict between people caused by realistic tension stemming from ordinary life experiences between two marvelous characters. Contemporary romance done right? More please! So, following this review, read more about a multi-level contest sponsored by Dear Author, Smart Bitches, Berkeley and Erin McCarthy, a contest we …