Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Two Julie James Events with Jane Litte (and me)

Two events I'd like you to know about this week! 

First, if you're near Naperville, IL - and hold up a minute. Naperville, by virtue of being outside Chicago, is kind of near EVERYTHING.

It's right in the middle of North America, almost sort of!

Look:

See? Kinda near EVERYTHING. So if you're curious about Julie James' new book, Love Irresisitibly, then you'll be interested in the Jane-and Julie event, which is tonight! 

Tuesday 2 April - 7pm

LADY JANE’S SALON Le Chocolat du Bouchard 2nd Floor (aka The Loft) 129 South Washington Street Naperville, IL 60540

Special event: Jane Litte of Dear Author chats with Julie about Love Irresistibly. Julie will be signing books, and also giving away a signed collection of all her books (JUST THE SEXIEST MAN ALIVE, PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, SOMETHING ABOUT YOU, A LOT LIKE LOVE, ABOUT THAT NIGHT, LOVE IRRESISTIBLY) to… read more »

Well, Holy Crapmonkeys: Amazon has Acquired GoodReads

There has been a great disturbance in the force: Amazon has acquired GoodReads for an undisclosed amount, but one I presume contains a looooooot of zeros. 

From Goodreads CEO Otis Chandler's blog post:

Today I'm really happy to announce a new milestone for Goodreads: We are joining the Amazon family. We truly could not think of a more perfect partner for Goodreads as we both share a love of books and an appreciation for the authors who write them. We also both love to invent products and services that touch millions of people.

I'm excited about this for three reasons:

1. With the reach and resources of Amazon, Goodreads can introduce more readers to our vibrant community of book lovers and create an even better experience for our members. 2. Our members have been asking us to bring the Goodreads experience to an e-reader for a long time. Now we're looking forward to bringing Goodreads to the most popular e-reader in the world, Kindle, and further reinventing what reading can be. 3. Amazon supports us continuing… read more »

Women Rule Sci-Fi - Nebula Nominees Announced

Who says science fiction and fantasy is for guys?  The 2012 Nebula Awards have been announced.  In the category of novels, there are six nominees, and four of them are women.  Yeah, we rock.

If there's anyone left who thinks that to enjoy, or create, science fiction and fantasy you have to be equipped with a penis, the 2012 Nebula Awards should help convince them otherwise.  

The Nebula… read more »

Links and a Tessa Dare Trilogy on Sale

First, thank you to the many, many people who have shared the reaction video from Ron Charles of The Washington Post regarding EL James being named "Publishing Person of the Year" by PW.

Link!

Never have clingwrap and leggings looked so good. Well played, Mr. Charles, well played. 

Harlequin and Cosmopolitan Announce Joint eBook Partnership

Harlequin and Cosmopolitan magazine announced a joint ebook venture this morning called Red Hot Reads. 

From the Red Hot Press Release: 

Cosmo Red Hot Reads from Harlequin will present independent, adventurous women in contemporary settings and feature fast-paced plots, great dialogue and compelling romance. The shorter length of Cosmo Red Hot Reads from Harlequin titles (approximately 30,000 words per title) should appeal to readers on a variety of platforms, including mobile devices.

Under the agreement, Harlequin, a leader in digital publishing, intends to publish two original ebook titles per month, beginning in May 2013. The novels, by some of Harlequin's bestselling authors, will have strong narratives centering on modern young women living the free-spirited and outgoing lifestyle espoused by the international magazine. The ebooks will bear both the Cosmopolitan and Harlequin logos on their covers.

Harlequin has a page for the Cosmo Red Hot Reads program on their site that explains more. They're looking for 25,000-30,000 word contemporary romance stories, no paranormal and no historical. The description of the heroine - early to mid twenties, independent, career-focused, adventurous -… read more »

Two Reminders and One New Thing

I remind you of things! And have a new thing to tell you about! And that's my daily allotment of exclamation points. I used them up early, wow. 

Reminder the first: last call to enter the Andrea Kane Digital Backlist giveway! Don't comment here- comment over there to enter to win 14 historical romances that sound like a heaping pile of fun. CROSS DRESSING. Oh, the weakness I have for ridiculous heroine cross dressing. The minute you stop to think about it, you realize there's no way a 19 year old woman would fit in boy's pants. But while I'm reading it, of COURSE she can hide in plain sight dressed like a boy. I'll be picking winners this afternoon, so head on over to enter now. 

Reminder the second: the Sizzling Book Club Chat for Julie Anne Long's What I Did for a Duke is Tuesday 23 October at 9pm ET. There will be some mayhem, and a very fun discussion. If you want to grab your copy of the book, it's still 99c at AllRomance, and everywhere else. Alas, it's not part of the… read more »

Meet Intern Amanda!

Every now and again, I'm lucky enough to have an intern who wants to learn about writing, editing, website administration, and the proper establishment of wtfery, mayhem and shenanigans. (Yes, I totally write that on evaluations). 

Please meet Intern Amanda, whom you'll see here periodically. Here is her introduction: 

...

Helloooo, Bitchery! I'm Amanda and, for the next few months, I'll be lurking around as the new SB Intern! Exciting, right? To give everyone a quick and boring background, I am senior at Florida State University where I hope to graduate that following spring with a B.A. in Editing, Writing, and Media. As part of my degree requirements, I need to fulfill an internship of my choosing and assemble a portfolio of my work. Naturally, I read in my spare time and, on particularly bad days, subject myself to the horrors of reality television.

Kindle Paperwhite and Paperweights

Amazon unveiled all the new toys today including the Kindle Paperwhite, available with WiFi only and with 3G access, and new Kindle Fire options with jaw-dropping cheap 4G dataplans. 

The Kindle Paperwhites come in a 3G version ($179 with Special Offers and $199 Without) and a Wifi version ($119 with Special Offers and $129 Without). 

There's been a good amount of chatter and coverage, and you can read a lot of the news articles about it at FastCompany (which is fast (hur) becoming one of my favorite magazines) and Mashable, and you can read a biiiiiiiig long page of specs at Amazon, too. 

But wait, there's more, though without paperwhiteage: the Amazon WiFi Kindle also received an upgrade in the pageturn speed and the rendering of text (said to be "crisper"), and is on sale now for $10 less than it used to be. That Kindle is $69 with Special Offers and $89 Without.

A few thoughts of mine own: 

read more »

Audible Launches ACX, Self Publishing for Audio Books

Per Shelf Awareness today, Audible has launched ACX, which enables authors to create audiobooks of their work, either by narrating them or by hiring voice actors from the registered database of talent.

Here, have a video about it, featuring two actors who really irritated me with their pseudo-bashful self-congratulatory demeanor:

The upshot is that so many excellent books are not made into audio books, and with the increasing success of self-publishing ventures in digital and print-on-demand, audiobooks are a natural extension of that success. The ACX program is available to authors at a flat rate or at a 50/50 share of royalties.

I figure that anything which increases the number of audiobooks for those who need or prefer the format is a very good thing, particularly if it allows authors who hold their audio rights to exercise them for fun and profit. On the flip side, though, as Don Maass said on Twitter, if a publisher exercises unused audio rights, what will be the author’s share in those circumstances? And vice versa?

Operation Auction

Last week I learned that Fatin, better known as the tireless creator behind RR@H Novel Thoughts, lost her husband in a horrible shooting at his store. The romance community, because it is amazing, has responded by creating an auction to benefit Fatin and her children.

You can learn more about what to donate at Jaci Burton’s site, get ideas from this hella list of ideas from Larissa Ione, and get contact information for donation at the Novel Thoughts website. I’m donating something along with Jane Litte and Angela James, and if you have books, critiques, or services to add, please get in touch with any of the auction organizers.

A website has been set up with a long (and truly inspiring) list of items donated so far at OperationAuction.wordpress.com.

The auction will go live the last week of March on eBay, and details will be all over the place when the items go live. My prayers and thoughts are with Fatin, who has been part of the romance community as long as anyone can remember. May her husband’s memory be a blessing.

Avon Launches Avon Impulse Digital-First Imprint

Avon/HarperCollins announced today a digital first imprint, Avon Impulse, which will launch with a digital short from author .

From the extremely brief ABC news article:

Avon Books announced Monday that it has set up a digital romance imprint, Avon Impulse, where books by new and established authors will be released electronically, with paper editions available on demand. The imprint begins next week with an e-novella by Katherine Ashe, “A Lady’s Wish,” and “multiple titles” are planned each month. Avon Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

The digital market has been especially strong for romance fiction, in part because fans can read e-editions in public without fear of embarrassment. Avon also cited decreased shelf space in physical stores as a reason for starting Avon Impulse.

Following “A Lady’s Wish” will be “Royal Wedding, “a historical romance short fiction anthology by Stephanie Laurens, Gaelen Foley and Loretta Chase, which will be timed to release alongside that other royal wedding.

The press release also says,

Later in the season bring four releases from Lavinia Kent and a prelude to Karina Cooper’s Avon debut, Blood of the Wicked. Jaime Rush launches a brand new series with a digital… read more »

Jennifer Rardin

From Orbit Books comes the very sad news that author Jennifer Rardin passed away suddenly on Monday 20 September. I am so sorry to hear this news, and my condolences to her friends and family.

Jennifer Rardin wrote one of the best kickass heroines I’ve read. Her Jaz Parks series had a way with building the tension and never allowing the heroine to become weak or scared or in need of constant rescue. Jennifer also hosted one of our haiku contests a few years ago. You can get a sense from her judgment of the winners how funny she was:

Cat Marsters:

I like vampires Especially when They fight back a bit

Jennifer says, “Cat, I picked yours because you might have been channeling my heroine, Jaz, when you wrote it.  In fact, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it’s the last thing she thinks before she stakes a villainous vamp.  Congratulations.  I hope you enjoy reading the series as much as I’ve loved writing it!”

She cracked me up when we corresponded.

Her obituary asks that donations in memory of Jennifer be sent to Riley Children’s Hospital. (I… read more »

Harlequin Reaches nearly 3 Million Free Books Downloaded in 2009

As part of their 60th Anniversary year, Harlequin gave away 16 free titles and set a goal of putting a romance in the hands of over 1 million women.

I inquired at the end of the year as to the total number of downloads they received for their free book promotion, and got the final tally as soon as they’d finished counting: over 2.5 million romances were downloaded as of 29 December 2009.

That is numerically and romantically awesome. Way to go.

Carina Press

It’s stars and astronomy time!

Carina is a constellation in the Southern sky, and is Latin for “keel” - as in, the fins and structures operating below the surface of the water unseen yet keeping the ship balanced, and on its course. Here’s an interesting bit of physics I didn’t know: the keel’s job is to convert a sideways force to a forward force, sort of like trying to figure out how to convert a changing tide or market to keep your industry moving forward.

Nice name.

It’s even more awesome when applied to Harlequin, who launched Carina Press today, a digital-only publishing house. it is a division of Harlequin Enterprises LTD but because it is digital only, as in, not print, it operates separately.

Carina is embracing the digital publishing business model as well, offering no advances or DRM-

Wait, hold up, what now?! HOLY MERCIFUL HEAVENS, NO DRM? NOW I’m stunned. Until now I was nodding my head.

Carina will compensate authors at a higher royalty rate (no word yet on the percentage range) and the books will be sold direct to… read more »

Candy at Wordstock Festival events on Saturday and Sunday

Dear Internet: I miss you. So very, very much. I’ve started a half-dozen posts (Katiebabs, I’m still working on finishing the cri de coeur—though cri de singe fâché might be more accurate—that’s my review of Cry No More) and left them unfinished. I am shaking my tiny, tiny fist against the various timesuck vortices that have spontaneously emerged around me.

But if you miss seeing me on-line, you have an opportunity to see me IN REAL LIFE, if you live in the Portland area and you’re free this weekend, because behold, I’ll be taking part in two events at our annual literary festival, Wordstock. One of them costs a bit of moolah ($25, but there will be many, many other intimidatingly awesome authors there) and the other costs essentially the price of admission to the festival.

Item the First Saturday, October 10, is the Live Wire show, wherein you get to see Many People Who Are Not Me Who Intimidate the Everloving Snot Out of Me. The line up includes Sherman Alexie (AAAAAAAAAAAA here’s hoping I don’t fangirl all over him and then faint on his shoes from the hyperventilation), James motherfucking Ellroy, and Wesley Stace, who wrote a really… read more »