In this week’s podcast episode, we’re looking at the incredible ads and features for the September 2015 issue of RT Magazine.
Thank you to Mari for this issue, and thank you to Alison for co-hosting with us!
You can also find all the RTRW content at our category page for Romantic Times Rewind.
If you want to listen and follow along with this entry, we have more detail in the audio, but you can click play and listen and read and absorb all the visual goodness:
Ok, let’s get started! This cover has A Lot going On.
Amanda discovered after some assistance from Elham in the comments of our last Visual Aids post that this dog’s name was Louisa, and she’s longer with us, but she’s a very, very good dog. Lousia, if you’re not familiar, is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and they do indeed have Very soft ears.
The jewelry is also Astonishing, but did we spend most of our time talking dogs, and dogs we loved, and WHY there wasn’t a mention of the name of that dog in the magazine? Yes, yes, we did. Our priorities are exactly where they need to be. They’re good dogs!
On page 6 is the letter from the editor, with this set of images in the corner:
- Colleen Hoover has been famous for a long, long ass time.
- Grigoris!
Do we know who that is? No, we do not.
2015 was solidly in the era when Every Publisher Must Have a Blog, and the ads were often collections of that month’s releases. This is from Romance At Random.com, so Random House’s Official Blog.
Look at how many men are staring at their crotches on these covers. No shirts, big muscles, staring down like they lost something.
This reader letter asks after Janet Dailey’s Tylers of Texas series:
“…a writer friend of Janet’s was able to complete the series by using the late author’s notes?”
HUH.
Meanwhile, here we are in 2024, and Janet Dailey, who died in 2013, has THREE new books out. And, as has been noted by several people, Dailey’s website makes no mention of the fact that she’s no longer with us. Everything is present tense.
Lindsay Hobbs wrote up a deep dive into this strange set of circumstances at Topaz Literary:
My curiosity was piqued enough to use the contact email on her website and inquire about who had written Calder Brand. This is the response I got:
“That’s a good question and one I get asked frequently. Before she died, Janet mentored a young author and taught the woman how to write in her style. Janet also left outlines of future books and outlines for the characters to work from. I guess Janet knew how beloved her characters were and how heartbroken readers would be if no one ever knew what happened to the Calders, or her other characters. We like to think the writer is doing a good job of keeping to the spirit of Janet’s writing, and she is acknowledged in every book.”
Okaaaay…fair enough, I suppose, although I did think it odd that if this were the case, there would have been a gap of eight years between Janet Dailey’s mentorship of this nameless author (“the woman”) and the continuation of the series. But I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt, and I checked the acknowledgements in Calder Brand to find the shout-out to the ghostwriter that I had been assured would be there.
There are no acknowledgements in Calder Brand. Not a single page.
As I’ve mentioned before, Reformed Rakes did a two-part series on Dailey and touched on this part of her ongoing publishing career, too:
“…it’s not abnormal for an author who is a big brand name to have ghost writers to continue on in that tradition. But if they have died, it is bizarre not to have mentioned that. So that’s something…that is weird to not have that she died on her website or to be continuing on in that vein.”
It’s so weird, and so interesting. Someone(s) is ghostwriting Dailey’s books, and I’m really curious as to who it is.
The letters to the editor at this point also frequently reprinted people’s Tweets:
Remember coming home from the RT Convention and needing a substantial amount of space to make room for all the books you brought home? Amanda has a LOT of memories of the 2015 RT in Dallas (more on that in a moment) because it was her first RT, but here’s a picture of the books she brought home from that conference:
That was just from the conference. Later, Amanda shipped back a box of books that weighed over 30 pounds.
The days of that many free books at a conference seem to be in the past, which I understand completely but it’s still a little bittersweet to see what RT was like.
Another publisher blog and a shelf of books:
If the ad is just an array of covers, the covers have a LOT of work to do in a glance: they convey genre, heat level, intensity or tone, and they’re doing a solid job of it!
Compare that to this screenshot of NetGalley for some October romance releases:
A lot of illustrated, a lot of green and blue, but it’s not as easy for me to get a sense of how much angst or what the sexual intensity might be from this collection overall. This isn’t a slam against illustrated covers, because I get how and why books are marketed with this style of cover art. It’s really interesting to look at a 9 year difference in what books look like, is what I’m saying.
Alice Liang did a whole interactive exploration of the way romance covers look starting around 2011 through 2023 at Pudding, if you haven’t seen it.
There’s a quiz about Christine Feehan books, and there’s a question that is ENRAGING to me.
Question six: What is the big twist in Cat’s Lair?
Is there an answer key? NO. THERE IS NOT.
Are the answers in the next issue? I LOOKED. NO. THEY ARE NOT.
How do you dangle a twist and not tell folks what it is?
Amanda searched Goodreads and found a review that said, “I’ll admit, I never saw the twist coming!” We think she figured it out. Maybe. Do we know for sure? NO. WE DO NOT.
Also: AGAIN there’s a dog pictured with an author, but NO mention of the dog’s NAME. If you’re going to show the dog, you have to share the dog’s name. If you name a pet, we want to see pictures. Our needs are simple and clear on this matter.
Another publisher ad!
Dog in a canoe! Dog holding a basket with a Cat in the basket! Dogs everywhere!
Seriously, nine years ago, romance looked very different. It’s wild to see as a group.
This Font.
That’s it. This Font. Get a load of the R.
I think the color for Avon for this month’s releases was TEAL:
Three out of four books are teal, and the fourth is THE VVANGELS.
And then we get to the scrapbook for RT 2015 in Dallas.
The Historical Ladies Event – look at the costumes! And all the people at the party!
And then, the Taste of Texas Romance Rodeo, completely with mechanical bull:
Did Amanda ride the mechanical bull?
YES SHE DID. Lasted the entire time, too!
We spent some time talking about the branding at RT: book cover window clings and coverings on every elevator door, or inside the elevator, that were book covers or collections of covers.
There were branded hotel keys – I think the first key card I saw was a book cover, and I think it was a Sabrina Jeffries novel. I know this is standard operating procedure at a conference now, but this was a newer thing and I thought it was so neat.
By the branding and signage were all up and adhered to every surface, the hotel was very much Our Space. It was neat.
And look at the swag. As it says in the historical party picture above, “Fans flocked to meet their favorite historical romance authors and received lots of goodies and autographed books.”
At Shayla Black and Lexi Blake’s Perfect Party, there were tables full of mini champagne bottles, mugs, lipgloss, notepads and pens, and shot glasses! No wonder the package home was 30+ pounds.
And finally, this image from the awards ceremony is such a neat and happy time capsule:
Meg Cabot getting a plaque to celebrate 15 years of The Princess Diaries. Christina Lauren’s Sweet Filthy Boy was the seal of excellent winner.
And look at Cecilia Tan’s truly gorgeous dress. Cecilia won a Pioneer Award for her contribution to the erotica genre. WOW that’s a beautiful dress.
So that was September 2015!
Remember, if you join the Patreon, you’ll get access to the entire issue as a PDF.
What do you think? Do you remember any of these books? Did you go to RT in Dallas? And how are you enjoying the RT Rewind episodes?
I just checked my reading history and see that I read a half dozen books by Colleen Hoover between 2014 and 2017, so yes she has been around for a while.
I haven’t read any books by Janet Dailey since her plagiarism was raised by Nora Roberts. How interesting to hear of her death and continued publication; the term ghostwriting is particularly appropriate!
I once ghost wrote a novel about a certain famous girl sleuth whose books have been popular for a century. I gave one of the minor characters my real last name, for my own amusement, since my name wouldn’t be on the cover. Maybe that’s how the ghost writer was “acknowledged.”
ZOMG I don’t think I ever got this issue in the mail because I don’t think I ever knew they put pictures of me in that dress into print! I figured if I was EVER going to go for a full-on “red carpet dress” this was my big chance.
Funny story: I did not expect I was ever going to have a chance to wear that dress again. But then… my parents took us on a cruise with a “formal night.” The dress weighs a million pounds because of all the glass beads on it, but… I brought it. It was a hit. 🙂
@Kareni – the “ghost” writing of Janet Dailey is extremely appropriate, yes. It will never not fascinate me as a weird post script to her career (which is ongoing).
@Kris: HOLD THE PHONE. You were a ghost writer for the series I think you’re implying? That is VERY COOL.
@Cecilia: I couldn’t stop talking about your dress because it was so gorgeous. I bet it was heavy with all the beading, but you looked terrific and I love that you got to wear it again!
It was not as heavy as a chainmail dress I once tried on… the glass beads made it very comfortable in a way because it made sure the drape was always right. 🙂 But trying to keep my luggage from being overweight? Had to leave out a pair of boots and some books! 😛