Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

It’s not showing up on eHarlequin yet.

And, like, yay! for you guys in the US and Canada, but what about the rest of us? There’s a big world out beyond North America and we like to read too!

As part of Harlequin’s 60th Anniversary, they have a rather auspicious and frankly asskicking plan: to give a free e-book to every woman in America and Canada as part of their celebration.
That is pretty cool! And a good way to hook in more readers (or existing readers to their authors). Unfortunately for me though I live in Australia. No books for me. :(

I’ve gotten free e-harl ebooks before and I’m in Australia…not sure if they let you buy
them but I could download the freebies from a promotion awhile back so hopefully
this will be the same!

Bookjunkie, they’ve set up a special 60th birthday website and the books will be available from there.

I can’t see them yet, but I’m fairly sure the site is supposed to become fully functional sometime today (29 January 2009).

My experience is the same as Bookgal’s: I’ve got free eHarlequin books too, in past promotions, and I’m in the UK. Harlequin doesn’t have a problem with separate rights for different geographical areas, because (as far as I know) they own world rights to all the books they publish. So I’m hoping that this promotion won’t be limited to US and Canadian readers.

I live in the Netherlands and was able to download all sixteen.  I am so happy in my pants right now!  I can’t wait to find the time to read all these.  :)

I don’t see them on my Stanza yet- but thanks for the heads-up Sarah!

So far the only way I can see to download them is directly to the computer. Is there a link so I can dl them to my ereader? Or am I, in my usual technologically challanged way, missing something? I would love to carry them with me on my cross country road trip.

I was going to go on eHarlequin’s website, but I’ll wait til Sony puts them up since I prefer the LRF format over PDF.

Weeeee! Thanks Harlequin!

That’s what I am doing too Jessica, once I realized that somewhere in that blog it said Sony was going to offer them. duh.I will blame it on the extreme cold for freezing my brain cells.

Wow, thanks for this heads up. What a great marketing tool ebooks can be.

I had no idea that Harlequin did Historical Inspirational romance! I think I am going to have to add this in a special section on my Harlequin Historical website. Goodness me. Does Harlequin have other sneaky Historical books that I don’t know anything about?! Fictiondb lists 34 books in this series (including some yet-to-be-published)! WTF? How did I not know about this. Etc.

Does Harlequin have other sneaky Historical books that I don’t know anything about?!

Gemma, Dear Author recently reviewed a historical in the Blaze line. On the thread there, Jia said that

I think Harlequin is still testing out the idea of historicals in the Blaze line. As far as I know, this is only the second Blaze Historical to be released. The first was Bound to Please by Hope Tarr, which was released last year. I’m sure if there’s a positive response, they’ll publish more though.

Ooo, thanks Laura. I will scoop them up too. I have tentatively decided not to include the MIRA historicals since MIRA is self-described as women’s fiction rather than romance. Since I’ve not read any MIRAs I don’t know how reasonable a description that is.

You know what’s a little bit silly? I skimmed through the recent review of one of these Historical Inspirationals on Dear Author, thought it sounded good and have put it in my Fictionwise basket to buy next time I’m making a purchase. In all of that I never noticed that it was published by Harlequin! :D

Heh, SB Sarah, I was just getting ready to email the link to you to say it was up and live, but I should have known the Bitches would be all over it! :)

I got an alert on this last night. I thought it was awesome. Something for free in this economy? Terrific! Hit me with a Blaze please.

Hit me with a Blaze please

You got it Kwana—hope you enjoy it!

As for the Blaze Historicals, there are definitely more on the way. Aside from Jade Lee and Hope Tarr, Patricia Potter is doing some historical westerns, Merline Lovelace is doing some set in the Crusades. Betina Krahn is doing Victorian, and Joanne Rock is doing Viking.

Going by the cover of that ‘Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch’ one, Sylar’s a cowboy now?

(One below that, the Baby Bonanza one, his expression says “What’s that? You want me to do what, God? Why yes, yes I will!”. And off he goes to find a spork and a naked mole rat.)

This is truly a happy day! I don’t have an ebook reader, but for free I will read on my PC!

Hey all,

I believe the link should be working. The books are in all formats and will be at all the eRetailers now or very soon. Yes, people from outside NA can download.

Please feel free to share with your friends and family!
Malle (Harlequin Digital)

@Malle-
YOU GUYS ROCK! You guys seem to be one of the few publishers who get this ebook stuff. I hope I can find some new favorite authors in this promo.

The only thing I can say is more bundles please :) I’d love to see these Historical Blazes in a bundle. I’d be on that like butter on toast!

Historical Blaze bundle is duly noted and sent to the person who creates our bundles—okay she sits across the glass partition from me.

@Malle, I could totally kiss you. :D

How about that customer service? Heh, I could send you guys some girl scout cookies as bribery, but I think I’ll be done with them before I even got to the post office.

This is rockin awesome! Can’t wait to download to my iPhone.

big romantic kisses to Harlequin! ;-)

*doing the happy dance*

This ROCKS! Thank you, thank you!

Big hugs to Harlequin!

Are they up on Amazon yet?  I’ve been checking and I haven’t been able to find them…  :o(

I’m so excited!

BAD SB’s! BAD Harlequinn! I just sat here at my computer for two and a half hours reading a book digital cover to digital cover, when I should have been cleaning my house, washing dishes, cooking, sleeping… ARGH! ARGH! ARGH!

and

THANK YOU!

BTW, I am also outside of US/Can and had no problem downloading them.

PS - ARGH! Happy ARGH!

Indeed, Historical Blaze bundle duly noted, said the person who makes the bundles (um, please don’t deluge me with requests now please :) ). Of course, gotta wait until a couple more titles get released first. Thanks for the list @Leslie Kelly, you’ve certainly got the scoop!

And I know some other “sneaky” Historicals from Harlequin—try Spice Briefs and Spice for some erotic historicals (by Charlotte Featherstone and Alice Gaines, off the top of my head). And Blaze has a trilogy of time-travel books (going back to the Old West) called “stolen from time” that starts in March with Once an Outlaw by Debbi Rawlins.

@Malle, what happened to the .mobi format? It was available for all the books this morning, but now it’s not. :-( Temporary glitch or permanent change?

Excellent book offerings, though!

@aurianrose

We expect them to be up on Amazon in a few days - keep looking and I’ll come back when I know they are there!

@Cate Rowan
Temporary glitch! As you can imagine 16 books, 5 eBook formats plus ePub plus PDF, plus Stanza and new web pages and delivery to all retailers means a few hiccups. The books will be available throughout 2009 so don’t worry if you don’t get them today. Expect next week to be more *perfect*

@Anony Miss
Your delight is our delight—and any excuse not to do housework! While I am happy so many of you are reading the books on your computer screens you must find a friend who has a reading device and see how much better the eInk technology really is. I read almost exclusively on my Sony Reader (no Amazon in Canada yet—maybe at their press conference in 2 weeks?) and it is better than paper. Sacrilegious but true!

Yay, distracted myself from the evils of revision by downloading the whole collection of ebooks today. I haven’t even gotten ‘round to reading all the christmas freebies yet. Didn’t stop me from buying some real Mills & Boon books… I might eventually come ‘round to ereader technology when it gets properly going in the UK.

@Malle
Thanks, that’s wonderful news! And I’m awaiting the Amazon announcement, too. I had a Kindle, loved it like damn, then sold it last month (for even more than I paid) so I’d have funds for the Kindle 2. I have my fingers crossed into knots for a Feb. release for K2. Harlequin + Kindle = Delight.

Woo and hoo!  This is a fabulous promo.  And the thought of a historical Blaze bundle is also very exciting….

Talk about some awesome customer service!! Carly Phillips on Plotmonkeys was just bemoaning the fact of shitty customer service she had yesterday.

I am heading back over there and drop the link to the downloads and also let them know that there is someone out there who cares.

On the other hand, I just sent an email to janet evanovich’s site asking why the new book was only on kindle and not available anywhere else. The answer I recieved from some one (not janet) was worded in such a way, I may never spend another penny on one of her books. Let’s see what kind of answer I get back.

I am waiting for the Sony downloads myself. While waiting I downloaded a whole bunch of the free classics, and added a shitload to my wishlist.

..Must behave myself..

Malle- since the help section is not that helpful to me- it’s not just your site- but which is the format for the Sony eReader? The Adobe one just downloads a big file to my computer, but not one I can put on my reader.

I really wish that the sites would be much more simply worded for idiots like me so we know that we are downloading the right thing. I suppose I could just download one of each of them and figure out what works.

thanks

@ev, I *believe* you’ll be able to read the ePub version, depending on what model Reader you have and whether it’s been updated. Good luck!

On the Adobe Digital Editions (which I really haven’t use yet,but did dl from my library where I can also “borrow” books) I can’t get past the verifying down load screen. Aarrghhh…

@ev- Just wait a day (or two, they might put them up Feb 1st) and you can just get them on Sony’s site (which is LRF format). I’m waiting on those, just because they flow better.

They are not up on Amazon yet. However if you have a kindle you can download the MS Reader versions and then convert them to TXT using ABCLit converter.  Since they are DRM free this worked perfectly and they can be done all at once in a batch.

@Ev
Repeating what Jessia G said the titles will be on Sony—easiest place to download to their reader.

Upsell, Sony is also featuring a special Harlequin Reader for Valentines Day. $$$ but pretty. When I find the url I’ll come back and post it.

Is anyone having trouble accessing the eReader versions? I can download them fine, but my Stanza Desktop says “Stanza Desktop cannot read this eReader book. However, you can share this book with Stanza iPhone/iPod Touch from Stanza Desktop.” When I try to access it via my iPhone, Stanza asks for my credit card number. Since I didn’t purchase these w/a credit card…

I was able to access the free novellas at Christmas time, so this has me scratching my head.

Thanks!

Okay, we are asking Stanza, but why don’t you go to Stanza and download from there? We are the 2nd item in their catalogue.

Ignore this if you don’t want to be upselled ? upsold?
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId;=-1&productId=8198552921665773556

Pretty Harlequin cover on Sony Reader.

and if you buy the Harlequin special eReader, you get a17th free book- Carly Phillips new one! Too bad I already have the new 700, cause I would have bought this in a hearbeat!

Hmmm… maybe I will and send Daughter the 700? nah.

But you are right, I will wait until Sony puts them up. It’s not like they are going anywhere!

BUT, they finally have Plum Spooky up!!!!

Thank you so much, Melle! I don’t know why that didn’t even occur to me. It’s working perfectly!

Dayle: I have to agree with Malle.  For the iPhone, just now it is easier to go through Stanza link to the special Harlequin 60th catalog and download all the books. I have both readers on my phone (eReader and Stanza) and will be checking the Stanza/Fictionwise catalog next few days as we can expect to see the free books appear there as well.  So all us iPhone gals will be taken care of…and have plenty to read over weekend!

Squeeeeee! I’m so excited—can’t wait til they’re on Amazon! Thanks, Harlequin!

The reason that books purchased from eReader are asking for your credit card is that eReader’s selling secure eReader format (DRM) even though the books are free. I’m guessing this is just the default set-up for Harlequin books on there, since they’re always in secure eReader format.

I went ahead and downloaded them using Stanza but also ‘bought’ the Fictionwise ones, since I can then delete them from Stanza and still be able to download them. I may download them as well from the Harlequin site just to have a backup.

BTW, the NASCAR one is only available from the Harlequin site and not Stanza/eReader. Is this on purpose? Not a problem if it is - after all, it’s free.

Congrats to Harlequin for this great offer and making it available everywhere. I went to buy the latest Orbit $1 book and it’s now region-locked from Fictionwise - which unfortunately doesn’t tell me until after I’ve added it to my cart and tried to purchase it. Grr. It’s not even available as an ebook in the UK, so how is it losing the local publisher sales? Even if it were, it would probably be Mobipocket (with DRM) or ePub with Adobe DRM, neither of which can be read (officially at any rate) on the iPhone.

I understand that there are regional rights, but it seems silly to me that if I buy from a US site on US servers, I can’t get the US edition, when I can buy from a US site and get the physical US edition shipped to me. I find it kind of sad that the World Wide Web makes it easier to enforce anti-consumer regional selling practices when it could make things easier for the consumer, not harder.

I was on the Sony homepage and there is an ad for the Harlequin free books at the bottom of the page.

Amazon coming soon…

Greatest work - I have position the script on my Christmas wish list and contributed it to my blog situation.
Thank you for alarming me to your position - I don’t read every post completely, I know, and this one slipped past my microwave radar.

freebies