Archive for the ‘Publishing’ Category

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RWA – And the Conference Begins in Earnest!

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Somehow this year’s RWA conference seems to be flying by. Perhaps it’s the pace of New York City; I always feel so energized whenever I’m here. Whatever the reason, there’s a liveliness about this year’s conference that has been very fun. I’ve enjoyed getting to see authors whose work I admire – there’s too many of those to give an exhaustive list here, but I will say that it was a special thrill to meet Loretta Chase for the first time. Another thrilling thing about this conference has been the sheer number of first sale authors I’ve been meeting. There’s a lot of new voices out there and I’m curious to see what it will do to the market.

Speaking of the market, since Blythe shared news of upcoming books with you yesterday, I’ve been keeping note of all the news I hear on the book market and publication trends and here’s what I’m getting from a variety of authors, agents and editors who would prefer not to be named:
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Posted in Lynn AAR, Publishing, RWA | 9 Comments »

RWA Literacy Signing – Start Spreadin’ the News

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

At some point, I have to get rid of the Sinatra ear worm, which has been in my head for days. But anyway, here we are in New York! The New York Marriott Marquis is full of women and full of news. This is the fourth literacy signing I’ve been to, and it was easily the most crowded. The author were packed to the gills, and readers could barely get past each other in the aisles. The good news? Lots of news! I managed to check in with lots of authors about various topics – including the question greedy readers always want to ask: What are you working on next? Here’s an admittedly eclectic sampling of some books to look forward to:

Lauren Willig‘s new book, coming out in February, is her first featuring an American heroine. The hero’s a poet! Hopefully a good poet. She also has a short story coming out in a Jane Austen anthology.

Karen Templeton has her first release in a continuity series, Fortunes of Texas. It’s due out in January. She’s also working on a three book series.

Maya Rodale is working on the third book of four in her Writing Girl series (I read and reviewed the last one, and thought it was great).

Susan Elizabeth Phillips is writing the story of the runaway bride from Call Me Irresistible.

Mary Jo Putney is working on her fourth Lost Lords book and could see the series running to eight or nine books. She’s also writing YA, and her third YA, Dark Destiny, is on the horizon.

Delilah Marvelle (she who wrote the book about the Polish heroine with one leg, which I really enjoyed) has a new series called the Rumor Series. It will be out in January, but there’s an e-prequel (e-quel?) coming in December. And it’s set in New York City.

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Posted in AAR Blythe, Authors, Book news, RWA, Settings | 16 Comments »

RWA Coverage: What’s Your Pleasure?

Friday, June 17th, 2011

In a little over a week, Blythe, Lynn, and I will be at RWA in New York.

The three of us certainly plan to blog that week and provide coverage day by day.  We also plan to live tweet the Ritas.  But at this point we don’t plan detailed session coverage as AAR provided in the past – usually days after the event.

So, here are my questions:

Does this sound like the level of detail you’d like?

Any authors you’d like to hear from?  Any gossip you’d like us to track down?

- Sandy AAR

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Posted in RWA, Sandy AAR | 17 Comments »

What a Scandal

Friday, May 6th, 2011

scandalThe promise of a scandal seemingly sells.  In fact, scandal seems to be one of those publisher buzz words that is used over and over again whether there’s a real scandal in the story or not.

In fact, judging by the number of times the word has blazed across book covers, scandal has been used, abused, and reused, I think almost to death. Amazon lists 276 paperback romances with “scandal” or a version of it (scandalous, etc.) in the title, as well as 27 hardcover and 50 Kindle titles. Worldcat lists 578 romances with the word in the title. And AAR has reviewed five pages with it or variations in the title. So far in 2011, four books with that title have been reviewed using the word in their titles. If the trend continues, this year will be a banner year for scandal.

But how much scandal do most of the stories include? Take Scandal in Scotland by Karen Hawkins which will be published in June of this year. A sailor and an actress, whose protector is trying to hide his homosexuality by providing for her, scramble to get hold of a mysterious antique onyx box. So what’s the scandal? Her having a protector?  Hardly! Weren’t actresses during the Regency supposed to have them? Wasn’t part of a young man’s “wild oats” to be spent hanging around actresses? Having a liaison between a sailor and an actress, under the circumstances, isn’t scandalous at all! But the title indicates there will be one somewhere in the 384 pages.

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Posted in Books, Pat Henshaw, Publishing, Reading | 17 Comments »

The People We Hate to Love

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

During my life I’ve been a critic and/or a reviewer of books, movies, theatre, live events, and art.  I’ve written a weekly book review column as well as a weekly art critic column.

Everywhere I’ve worked and for everyone who edited my writing, what a critic or reviewer is and should do has been a bit different.

In the early ‘70s, my editors saw the job as that of critic, the point being to give an honest critique of art pieces I saw in local galleries. Critique, in this case, meant being harsh. I tended to write my columns only about pieces I liked and avoided technical art language in favor of the language used by everyday people. I tried to describe the art in terms of how the piece made me feel, not how the various art elements worked in the piece. Oddly (to me), my columns produced positive letters to the editor, which, of course, made my editors happy.

When I switched newspapers, I became a critic at large, being assigned various entertainment events to cover. This included people like Tony Orlando and Dawn or Liberace, family events like the Ringling Brothers Circus, and generally any event other critics couldn’t cover.

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Posted in Defining Romance, Pat Henshaw, Publishing, Reading, Romance, Romancelandia | 14 Comments »

Author Calls for Dorchester Boycott

Monday, March 28th, 2011

boycott Dorchester Publishing (publishers of LoveSpell and Leisure Books) is in the news again months after it announced it was no longer publishing mass market paperbacks. The news has gotten even worse for authors and readers. When we last talked about this, former author Brian Keene blogged about getting his rights back from Dorchester.

Now, Keene is calling for a boycott of Dorchester. (Not only did this make Galleycat and Publishers Weekly, but it even made Huffpost Books.) Not only is Dorchester not paying authors, which is bad enough, but they are also selling books to which they no longer have the rights. Say what?! In Keene’s case, even after the rights were returned to him, Dorchester continued to sell editions of his books for the Kindle, Nook, iPad, and other devices. Dorchester kept making excuses, none of which he believed. However, most authors, like Keene, don’t have the means, let alone the time and patience, to sue Dorchester. Besides, they might have better luck getting blood out of a turnip.

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Posted in Anne AAR, Publishing | 11 Comments »

Speaking of Audiobooks: Anne Stuart Interview and Ruthless Giveaway (Contest Closed)

Monday, March 7th, 2011

Anne StuartRomance readers have enjoyed Anne Stuart’s books for years with many of her titles sitting on countless DIK shelves.  My own list of Stuart DIKs includes A Rose at Midnight, The Devil’s Waltz, and Ritual Sins.   More recently I’ve discovered yet another way to enjoy Anne Stuart’s writing by listening to her books in audio with Black Ice and Ruthless heading the list of my favorites in that format.

For those of us always wondering about the inner workings of the audiobook industry, I think you’ll find that Anne is uniquely qualified to talk with us today.  Not only does she understand much of what goes on behind the scenes, but she also appreciates what we, as audio listeners, want to hear.

To celebrate the ongoing audio release of Anne’s Rohan series, we are giving away two audiobook copies of Ruthless, the first in the series, courtesy of the author and AAR.  Place your name in the hat by commenting on this column by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Friday, February 11th.  Due to the cost of postage, the giveaway is open only to listeners in the U.S. and Canada.  We encourage multiple comments, but you will only be entered in the contest once.  If you review for another Web site or blog, please refrain from entering.  The winners will be notified by email on Saturday morning and you will have 24 hours to respond.  Another winner will be selected on Sunday morning if a winner has not responded.  Now, let’s talk with Anne!

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Posted in audio books, Contests, giveaways, Historicals, Lea Hensley, Publishing, Romance | 59 Comments »

Borders: Things Are Getting Shakier

Friday, January 28th, 2011

bordersAfter years of troubling reports, it appears that Borders could indeed be on the verge of catastrophe.

After what should have been a profitable holiday season, the chain missed payments to publishers and has been trying—without much success, as reported yesterday by Publishers Weekly—to negotiate terms. Publishers are, quite understandably, tired of playing ball.  To make matters even murkier (and financial matters usually are), it was announced late on Thursday that Borders secured new financing which may buy them some time.

A few days ago, the Washington Post ran an article that explained more clearly than any piece I’d read before exactly what happened to the once glorious Borders empire.

I won’t attempt to summarize the article here since it’s such a lucid account of exactly how the company got itself in this pickle, but it’s hard to imagine the blindness of company executives who failed to grasp the importance of the Internet (crucial mistake number one) and eBooks (crucial mistake number two). I mean, heck, who knew the Interwebs was going to catch on?  And eBooks?  Who’d-a-thunk dedicated readers would so eagerly embrace an easier and faster way to get their hands on the books they love?

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Posted in Books, E-books, Publishing, Reading, Sandy AAR | 35 Comments »

Poof! The Amazing Disappearing Stories

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

banned According to techie news site Ars Technica, Selena Kitt, a self-published author of erotic fiction and a publisher, reported that Amazon removed some of her stories from the print store and from the Kindle store. Other authors affected include Esmeralda Green and Jess C Scott. Amazon did not give an explanation to the authors, but the stories had one thing in common — they all contained erotic incest fantasies.

Kitt’s non-incest stories seem unaffected. Early reports that Amazon was removing the stories from readers’ Kindles were wrong. However, they did remove the stories from readers’ archives, so if those readers want to read the stories later, they are out of luck. They may be able to get a refund, but that depends.

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Posted in Anne AAR, E-books, Publishing | 17 Comments »

The Hardback Dilemma

Monday, December 20th, 2010

hardback bookThere are very few books out there I will buy in hardback. Hardbacks have several severe disadvantages, mainly:

  • They are big, and don’t fit into my handbag.
  • They are heavy, and I don’t like to carry them in my handbag or have my arms tire when I hold them for a longer time.
  • They take up more space on my shelves than they need to.
  • They are expensive.

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Posted in Books, Publishing, Rike AAR | 22 Comments »

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