681. RT Rewind: July 2016 Ads & Features

[music]

Sarah Wendell: Hello there. Welcome to episode number 681 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. I’m Sarah Wendell, Amanda is with me, and we’re hopping back in the time machine. That’s right: we are going to look at the ads and features from July 2016. We spot a Smart Bitches friend in the letters to the editor, and we talk about romances translated into English, the appeal of the wounded hero, and we spot an ad that is very clearly some Tay-fic, as I am now calling it. We also discuss an article about Kickstarter and romance, and this is 2016. Look how far we’ve come! And how much RT had its finger on the pulse of some new trends.

The July ’16 issue also has several scrapbook-style pages of the RT convention in Las Vegas. We recorded a separate episode about those pages with some conference memories, analysis, and memorabilia. That’s going to be our bonus episode for the month of August for Patreon subscribers, and there’s going to be pictures galore. So if you’d like to join the Patreon, I’m about to tell you how to do that!

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All right, are you ready? The time machine is ready; we’ve got snacks; we’ve got drinks. Let’s do it! We’re going back to July 2016 to look at the ads and features of Romantic Times Magazine.

[music]

Sarah: Are you ready to talk about the ads and features? Starting with the cover! We have Simona Ahrnstedt’s All In, which was a pretty big book in the SBTB community. I know Redheadedgirl reviewed it; I know Simona was at RT and was, like, kind of blown away, as, as understandable. Did you ever read this one?

Amanda: I didn’t, but for those who don’t know, Redheadedgirl and I traveled to Sweden together.

Sarah: Oh, that’s right! I forgot about that!

Amanda: And I believe Redheadedgirl met up with Simona and they had, like, lunch or something together.

Sarah: That’s frigging awesome.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Had some open-faced sandwiches, I bet. No, maybe that’s Norway. Anyway. So whoever –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Someone, someone’s going to write in and be like, Sarah, you are incorrect culturally. That is an entirely different country.

So this is not a bad cover. It’s the cover of the book, and the book cover is pretty great, ‘cause it’s this woman in a white bikini and long, like, like, cover-up pants? Like, really thin gauze pants, but she’s diving into water, so there’s this huge splash, and then you see her underwater, and the background of the cover is just the big splash in the water, so it’s actually a great cover for the magazine.

Amanda: Yeah. It’s really nice with all the different shades of blue.

Sarah: Yeah, it’s lovely! And this is what we think they should always do: put the cover of the book on the cover of the magazine to reinforce that’s what you’re looking for in the story. You’re not going to bump into Simona Ahrnstedt in your, at your Barnes & Noble.

Amanda: Yeah. [Laughs]

Sarah: I also want to point out some of the headlines? Here are the headlines: Kiersten White’s Brutal Princess, Thrills and Chills with Ruth Ware, Abbi Gline’s Nicest Mean Girl. What? [Laughs] Wow, okay!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: And then on page 2, the inside cover ad is a Diana Palmer book? But I read this scrolling – it’s a PDF – and I really thought the headline said The man who shattered her back.

Amanda: [Laughs] And I wrote in my notes the Insert Lucille Bluth, Good for her.

Sarah: Good for her!

[Laughter]

Sarah: And then page 3 is a whole collection of books from Kensington, and I cannot tell you why, except in one case, all of these books I’m like, These are from ten years ago. I can’t tell you why I know they’re from ten years ago, but I know they’re from ten years ago, and I think the reason that I, I think the reason I’ve identified is, this was a period of time when there were a lot of stock images of white couples with a guy, white heterosexual couples with a guy who’s got some kind of beard shadow going on against a white background. They were everywhere. And there’s one for Stacy Finz’s Heating Up, and then there’s one for Brenna Mills’ Last Chance Season, which was the, I call this the Bella Andre style? When she self-published her, I think it’s the Sullivans, close-up of people at the top, close-up of the landscape at the bottom, title in the middle.

Amanda: And these are all Lyrical –

Sarah: Press.

Amanda: So Lyrical was a, what, like, digital- –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – first imprint from Kensington.

Sarah: Kensington bought them.

Amanda: And, like, digital-first imprints and digital-only imprints were really popular around this time.

Sarah: Yes. This was a big digital-first imprint era, and some were bought, like Lyrical merged with Kensington, and some continued, and some, well, most of them are gone now.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: On page 6 and 7 we start talking about the conference, and we’re going to do a separate episode about the conference, ‘cause there’s so much scrapbooking information, like scrapbook information in this magazine. However, I just want to say, in the letter from Kathryn Falk, Lady of Barrow, we have conference stats. More than three thousand, five hundred attendees; two hundred seminars; and seven hundred authors signing books. That’s a lot of people. I don’t know if you told me, Hey, do you want to go to a conference with thirty-five hundred people and seven hundred authors? I don’t know that I would be like, Yes! Let’s go! But here’s what blew me away. Paragraph three:

>> With June being the thirty-fifth anniversary of Romantic Times, I’m proud to announce the rebranding of our monthly magazine. We are transitioning from a print format into a totally digital world – for the next thirty-five years! –

Okay.

>> – by investing in technology for our website that will allow us to provide more content and news than ever before to romance readers and writers around the world. Due to popular demand, we’ll spotlight new fiction categories, more indie reviews, films, video, swag, and surprises.

So they are ending the print edition with this magazine and doing digital only, and I don’t think it lasted more than another two years, ‘cause this is 2016. Here’s the thing that I noticed, and this is because I’ve, like, worked in, like, doing the tech for companies and stuff, or for places: there are two people who run the website. There’s Elissa Petruzzi, who’s the web editor, and Kristin Wise, who’s the website coordinator, and now all of these people are going to have things to say about what the website should be doing, and I feel so bad for them!

[Laughter]

Sarah: I feel so bad for them! Like, why are we the magazine now? You’re two people! Two people!

Amanda: I wonder if this was, like, the beginning of the end of, like, well, one, it is very expensive to produce print media.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: But going digital-only –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – then, you know, in this letter, Kathryn’s like, And we’ll be doing this for the next thirty-five years! I’m very curious if Kathryn believed that, of, like, This is just like the newest iteration –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – of how we keep RT Book Reviews alive? Or if this was sort of like a shift to save money –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – and help reduce, like, finances and stuff like that. And then they tried it for a while and it wasn’t helping as much as they thought, and so they’re like, You know, I’m tired of doing this anyway; let’s…

Sarah: Yeah. I, I think Kathryn Falk shut it down ‘cause she was just done. Which I understand! You’ve been doing this a long time. I get it. And she did a lot of things in her career, as we’ve talked about. Like, she’s done a lot of different things. This seems to be the thing that was, took the longest of her lifetime? Like, this was the thing that she did the longest? I also wonder if publishers were not as interested in advertising in a digital publication versus a print publication, because print still has a lot of weight.

And what’s weird is we don’t have magazines anymore. What’s funny is the episode that I have out with Jo Piazza, she talks about how influencers are now, they’ve basically destroyed the magazine industry, because they are creating magazines and TV shows for you every day, as she says. And magazines in America are, like, mostly dead. That’s not true in other countries, but it’s true here, and I wonder if the start of the magazine contraction also influenced the decision to go digital-only.

Amanda: I’m also very curious how the ad rates differed from digital to print.

Sarah: Oh, that’s a good question.

Amanda: …assume they would restructure their ad rates because people would – I’m assuming – pay more for something in print rather than digital.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: But I’m curious if they structured it –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – that way, or if they just kept everything the same, but instead now you’re just getting a digital version.

Sarah: Yep. And I imagine that if you are an author and you were going to invest in a print ad, that is a different proposition for the digital magazine, because the thing about a print magazine is that you can put it in a place where you’re going to pick it up. Like, this – forgive me for being crass – this is a bathroom magazine.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Like, this is a magazine where you put where you’re going to spend a lot of time. Maybe by your bed, maybe in a bathroom; whatever. Digital magazines, it’s really hard to not read them. Like, I had to go through and weed out a lot of my Substacks, (a) because Substack sucks and (b) because I wasn’t reading them! There’s too many.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: On page 8, letters to the editor, there is a letter from Heather S., who comments all the time on the website and who I’ve met a bunch of times. Heather S. writes:

>> Just wanted to say how pleased I am by the increased coverage of male/male romance in your mag. I see several reviews in an average issue now. I’ve also enjoyed the occasional article and special feature on –

Wow.

>> – GLBTQIA romance in RT. Please continue the good work.

Oh, hi, Heather! It’s good to see you in here!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: The article on page 20, I’m really glad you wanted to talk about this.

Amanda: Yeah. I’m scrolling. So the article on page 20 is related to the cover story, cover author Simona, about her making her US debut with All In, because All In debuted in Sweden and was published in Swedish.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: And I was able, I traveled to Sweden, and I did pop into a few bookstores just to see –

Sarah: Oh yeah!

Amanda: – what it was like! And they did have Nora Roberts, which she mentions in the article; obviously E. L. James that had been translated into Swedish, so it was really cool to see Swedish editions?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: I also collect foreign editions of The Little Prince, so I snagged a Swedish edition –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – while I was over there.

Sarah: Ooh!

Amanda; But I thought this was really interesting, considering where we’re at in publishing now. I thought, at the time in 2016, there would be a bigger boom of romance in translation?

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: And there’s another article in this issue – spoiler alert – and comparing to a previous article that we covered in a previous issue about romance in China.

Sarah: Yes! That was the previous issue. Wow.

Amanda: [Laughs] Yeah. So I just thought it was really interesting. I, we’re just getting drips and drabs of some translated works now.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: I saw there’s one out, Save Me by Mona Kasten, that is getting a US debut or has a US debut. I also think it got a TV adaptation, if I’m not mistaken –

Sarah: Huh!

Amanda: – called Maxton Hall. I think that’s the right one?

Sarah: Oooh!

Amanda: But, so I’m curious if we’re going to see another uptick in translated works. I don’t know how big. If you are an international listener, how big are the romance sections in your language –

Sarah: Right.

Amanda: – being published there, and then making its way to the US? I just think it’s fascinating –

Sarah: Oh, it is.

Amanda: – as someone who reads, like, translated, you know, fiction or fantasy.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: But I feel like romance hasn’t really caught up there.

Sarah: Yes, absolutely. I do know of one book that’s in translation into English: Hildur – oh, I hope I say this right – Knútsdóttir? Who is an Icelandic author of creepy horror. She was translated into English by Mary Robinette Kowal.

Amanda: Oh!

Sarah: Hey! So – ‘cause Mary Robinette speaks Icelandic. So that translation, I’m pretty sure, was nominated for a Hugo? So both of them are nominated for a Hugo for The Night Guest, and have you heard of this book?

Amanda: I might recognize the cover. The Night Guest.

Sarah: I’m going to say that this is Iðunn [sounds like Ethan]? I – okay, I think this is Iðunn:

>> Iðunn is in yet another doctor’s office. She knows her constant fatigue is a sign that something’s not right, but practitioners dismiss her symptoms and blood tests haven’t revealed the cause. When she talks to friends and family, the refrain is the same: have you tried eating better? Have you tried exercising more? Have you established a good nighttime routine? She tries to follow their advice, buying everything from vitamins to sleeping pills to a step-counting watch, and nothing helps. One night Iðunn falls asleep with the watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night. What is happening when she’s asleep? Why is she waking up with increasingly disturbing injuries? And why won’t anyone believe her?

Amanda: That sounds spooky and cool, and it’s under two hundred pages.

Sarah: I know! But that, I was thinking when we were talking about this, wow, that’s really one of the few translations that I’ve heard about lately. So few books are translated into English? It’s much more common for our books to get translated out.

Amanda: I feel like predominantly I see a lot of, like, Japanese and Korean –

Sarah: Ohhh yes.

Amanda: – translated into English. But yeah, I just want to know, obviously I think the US has the, the dominant market on publishing and producing romance?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: And I wonder, too, ‘cause we had that issue with the Jodi McAlister books, right, where they were originally published in Australia –

Sarah: Yes!

Amanda: – and they weren’t offered in the US –

Sarah: Yes. Which, which you –

Amanda: – because –

Sarah: – made happen…

Amanda: [Laughs] ‘Cause they were too Australian. So I’m wondering if the romance publishing is popular in other countries –

Sarah: Uh-huh.

Amanda: – but they just never make their way here because they’re just too rooted in whatever country, and they’re worried that the US market won’t be able to connect with those settings.

Sarah: I think it’s more the, the US market deciding that we won’t connect with those settings.

Amanda: I want to see more stuff!

Sarah: I would love to see more stuff. But also, romance is a very specifically American genre? The sexual politics, the heteronormativity, these are all very American culture elements. There are, I mean, shades of this culture exist in other countries, but the, the idea that, you know, you need to launder your reputation through marrying somebody else, or –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: – that God will show you the way to what really matters, and it’s not, not owning land and being your own person. Like, this, this emphasis on heterosexual coupling, on, especially wealth and the tropes, these are all very, very much influenced, I think, by American sexual politics? And that probably doesn’t translate as much to other countries, either. Especially because – and this is the most notable thing – how many of the American romances are marriage-focused.

Amanda: Mmm.

Sarah: And that’s not the, true in other cultures, that marriage is not so, like, such a big focus for young people.

Amanda: Yeah, fair.

Sarah: Like, lots of people just shack up and call it good, and that’s fine.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: It’s amazing what happens when you have universal healthcare and possibly a higher late, rate of employment.

Amanda: I’m jealous.

Sarah: I know! I am so glad you picked this, ‘cause I knew you would have thoughts on this article.

But I also hope you have thoughts on the article on page 22, “Broken Heroes, Healed Hearts: Why We Love a Wounded Hero.” Do you have thoughts on this one?

Amanda: Well, it’s interesting ‘cause it’s written by Sophie Barnes, which is a historical romance author –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – and she sort of interviews or asks similar questions to other really popular romance authors.

Sarah: Yep!

Amanda: Like –

Sarah: I’m going to email all my friends!

Amanda: Yeah! So these are all historical romance authors –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: – and there’s a pull quote from Valerie Bowman, who we covered on a previous issue, which also led to us interviewing Valerie.

Sarah: She’s coming back, too. I recorded an interview with her about her pivot to contemporary and what’s happening with historicals and how she feels about the changes in the historical genre.

Amanda: Ooh, can’t wait for that one.

Sarah: It’s a good conversation.

Amanda: So Valerie’s pull quote says:

>> The happy hero is more difficult to write, because there isn’t as much to work with. That’s why I try to wound all my heroes, if only a little. Poor men.

[Laughter]

Amanda: So I love a difficult hero. Anyone who’s been listening for a very long time or been reading the site knows that I don’t like a friends-to-lovers –

Sarah: No!

Amanda: – I don’t like a low angst. These people have to work for it.

[Laughter]

Amanda: And I, I thought about this, of, like, why I’m so drawn to these heroes, and I think it’s because, like, I’ve been in relationships early on in my life – you know, early twenties, mid-twenties – dating people who I shouldn’t have been dating, just because, like, they clearly did not have their shit together, but there’s something – and I don’t, I don’t think Sarah can relate to this, knowing Sarah’s romantic history –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: …something so intoxicating about this high drama sort of man with a lot of baggage: I can fix him; I can heal all his wounds; he’ll believe in love again because of me. I get it. I’ve lived it. [Laughs] It is not healthy.

Sarah: Nope. It’s exciting, and you see a lot of it portrayed in the media, but that’s not actually enjoyable or healthy or emotionally, you know, tranquil.

Amanda: And I think there, this goes into the fantasy aspect of romance, where I, like, you can sort of live vicariously through these characters, and then, like, everything’s great in the end. They sort of come to a compromise or, like –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – a happy point, and they have a Happily Ever After. But you don’t have to go to therapy for it.

[Laughter]

Amanda: I mean, afterwards you don’t have to see a therapist because of that shitty boyfriend. So –

Sarah: I’m sorry; I just, I’m sorry. [Laughs] You can read about damaged men and not have to go to therapy afterward is a very strong argument.

Amanda: You’re saving money!

Sarah: [Laughs] You’re saving money!

Amanda: Think of that. Saving money by reading… [Laughs] Yeah, and I, I don’t know, I just, I love a, I love a guy with a big old chip on his shoulder. I forgot who I was talking to; we did a, a Rec League for this, and it might have been inspired by them, but she had coined the phrase “sad historical businessman”?

Sarah: Yeess!

Amanda: [Laughs] Like, I love a sad historical businessman.

Sarah: Sad historical businessman is so common!

Amanda: Yeah. If, if you’re thinking about, like, Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas, like –

Sarah: Mm-hmm. Sad historical businessman.

Amanda: Yeah! And I don’t agree with Valerie’s assessment of, like, it’s hard to think of a relationship obstacle if everyone is sort of, like, happy and well-adjusted, so. [Laughs]

Sarah: Yep, pretty much!

Amanda: But, you know, when Sarah scans this page, I highly recommend reading the answers, ‘cause, you know, you have a lot of heavy hitters weighing in about the wounded hero. Eloisa James, Elizabeth Hoyt’s in here.

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: Really fascinating article…

Sarah: The graphics chosen are absurd.

Amanda: Yeah. [Laughs] Like, book covers, and then the first one is, like, weird little clip art – why is there a guitar?

Sarah: It’s Phantom of the Opera, but there’s a guitar there.

Amanda: Is it because they couldn’t put an organ?

Sarah: I guess? I don’t know – or he, maybe he’s sad historical theater-haunting guitar player.

Amanda: Yeah. it’s funny that they used the, like, phantom versus Raoul, because obviously Team Phantom over here.

Sarah: Mm-hmm. Yep. But there’s a lot of heavy hitters in this article, and the quotes are pretty great. Like, Eloisa, Eloisa James says at one point:

>> There’s a tendency for wounded heroes to have greater appeal than heroes who aren’t wounded?

And her answer was yes:

>> I think they’re all wounded in one way or another. A Teflon-perfect hero would be incredibly boring, so yes, wounded heroes rule.

I mean, if the hero’s emotional state is part of the conflict, I can recommend some books if that’s your jam.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: There are a few.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: And then you picked the next item to discuss.

Amanda: Yes! It’s called “Kickstarting Love.”

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: …be about? So they interview the woman who started Rosy Press and then launched Fresh Romance, and I don’t know if any of you remember it. Maybe Carrie has talked about it on the site. I can’t remember if she reviewed anything?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: But it was an anthology; so it was a digital comic anthology –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – of, like, romance comics, and I remember the Kickstarter. I don’t think I wound up backing it, but what’s so popular now? Kickstarting romance novels. Like, Sarah’s done podcasts about romance on Kickstarters, and a recent links post I mentioned two Kickstarters, one doing beautiful, like, collector’s editions of Jane Austen books, and then Ali Hazelwood and Adriana Herrera have a dystopian romance collection that they’re bringing to Kickstarter.

Sarah: Oh, yeah.

Amanda: Yeah, and then of course, like, all of the, what is it, like, the bonkers romance Kickstarters that have been hugely successful. But yeah, ten years ago there’s an interview – [laughs] – about bringing different forms of romance publishing to Kickstarter.

Sarah: Yep! And what’s interesting is one thing that stuck with me from that interview is that Katee Robert was explaining that the percentage that Kickstarter takes is so much smaller than retailers for books, and so you do a huge Kickstarter with a huge bunch of stuff and lots of books and special editions, you’re going to keep more of that money.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Which is cool.

Amanda: One question that they asked Janelle, who’s the founder of the press who produced Fresh Romance was:

>> Would you recommend Kickstarter to writers in general or just comics creator, creators?

And she says:

>> I think it’s great for everyone, but a good visual product –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: >> – definitely has an advantage.

Sarah: Yes, that is absolutely true. Especially now, when everything is special editions. Like, you can only –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – get this through the Kickstarter; you can only do this here. Like, that’s pretty cool.

Amanda: Yeah. Also, I was right! Carrie did review Fresh Romance.

Sarah: Oh, what did she give it?

Amanda: She gave it a B!

Sarah: Good for her! Excellent!

Amanda: Yeah. She reviewed this one; I think she reviewed volume two as well, the second issue. [Laughs] I remember, yeah, she reviewed the first one.

Sarah: She sure did! Now Kickstarters are a very common marketing tool.

Amanda: It’s so interesting, ‘cause I think I’ve only backed one romance Kickstarter, and it was a Katee Robert one where she did really nice editions of the Wicked Villains series, which was like the, the Disney villains retellings, whatever? And I’m pissed – ‘cause I think we talked about this – Sourcebooks wound up picking up the Wicked Villains series and producing new, beautiful illustrated covers, and I like those illustrated covers slightly better than the Kickstarter ones –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – but I’ll be damned – [laughs] – if I’m going to buy these books again!

Sarah: Yeah. I already own these!

On page 45 there’s an interview with Pintip Dunn, and I’m so impressed with this interview? It’s really good, but this was my favorite part:

>> You wrote for a long time before selling your first book, and then you sold six more; tell us everything.

>> I sold seven books in approximately seven months.

Hell yeah, you did! What was it like?

Amanda: She had, like, a stockpile of books?

Sarah: She’s just writing and writing and writing!

Amanda: …here’s everything!

Sarah: Seven books in seven months, and then she goes on to say:

>> I wrote my first novel about fifteen years ago. I signed with my agent four and a half years ago on the third novel I queried. For the next two and a half long years I heard the same thing over: I love this book, but we can’t buy it because of the market. I could have despaired, and okay, I probably did, but then I wrote another book and then another. My first offer came in August of 2014, just over a month after I gave birth to my third child, and in the next seven months I sold all three books plus four others.

Hell yeah, you did! That’s so great!

Amanda: And also, so we talked about – this interview was to promote her YA book The Darkest Lie, which you picked in the reviews episode, and in The Darkest Lie the main character works at a crisis hotline. Apparently Pintip Dunn worked at a crisis hotline from 3 to 6 a.m.

Sarah: Oh my goodness!

Amanda: Yeah. And she mentions, like – I mean, I can’t imagine sort of how difficult that job would be? But she mentioned, like:

>> During training I learned that it wasn’t my job to solve the caller’s problems. I wasn’t a professional. I might offer contact information for local resources, but mostly my role was to listen and ask questions.

It’s like, woof!

Sarah: Pintip Dunn is very cool. That’s what we learned here!

Amanda: I was wondering what she’s, what she’s doing now. I haven’t seen anything recently, but who knows?

Sarah: Have you, have you looked?

Amanda: I’m looking now. She did a book in 2024 with –

Sarah: Hell yeah.

Amanda: – Kristin Cast. It was co-authored.

Sarah: Oh! P. C. Cast’s daughter!

Amanda: Yeah! And it was a, a YA thriller.

Sarah: Yeah, Seasick!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Page 49, lower left corner. Sing! by Vivi Greene. It, it, Amanda’s just, you know that GIF of that tiny little girl in a, in a, on the couch and she’s just waving her arms like No, no, this is ridiculous, no, take it away? That’s the gesture that Amanda is making right now. The cover is a blonde face with bangs and lips, no nose, no eyes. Blonde bangs and red lips, and it says Sing! and clearly we know who this is supposed to be.

>> America’s biggest pop star flees the spotlight to recover from her latest breakup in Maine, only to fall head-over-heels for the boy next door, but Noel isn’t interested in the limelight. When the summer ends, she may be forced to make an impossible decision: her new guy or her music.

It’s a Taylor fic! A Tay-fic, if you will. [Laughs] Amanda’s like, No, nope, nope, nope, nope.

Amanda: Over it!

Sarah: I was so surprised to find this. I was like, Oh wow, it’s really early for the Taylor clones, but nope! Not at all!

Amanda: Nope. [Laughs] Everything old is new again!

Sarah: There’s a big old section of reviews, and we skip ahead to page 99! Why are we skipping –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – to page 99?

Amanda: There’s an ad with a bunch of books – if I can get to page 99 – and one of the books, dead center, is titled Rector, and then my brain was just like, Wrecked her? Hardly knew her! And it’s a suspense novel about a priest, so. [Laughs] I was like, I don’t love that title, The Rector.

Sarah: Rector!

Amanda: Yeah, hardly knew her!

Sarah: [Laughs] Damn near killed her!

Amanda: It’s surrounded by a bunch of erotic romances and, like, paranormal romance covers, so –

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: – it’s really out of place. [Laughs]

Sarah: It’s, it is really, like, I get a lot of ad inquiries from, from authors or from people who are publishing, and it is not anywhere near the same place as romance. Like, I’m like, Why do you think that this is a good place to pitch your book? Like, there are, there are things that we review that aren’t romance, but you can pretty quickly address, like, what is the connection? For example, we have a review for a nonfiction book coming up from a guest reviewer about a book called The Divorce Colony, which was about how Sioux Falls was the divorce colony in the early 1900s because it was easy to procure a divorce there, so rich women from the east who couldn’t get divorced from their piece-of-crap husbands, you only had to establish residency for ninety days, so they would just move into a hotel and live there for ninety days and get a divorce. And this person wrote a whole nonfic book about it – I think the last name of the author is White – and I’m like, this is really cool! That is something that we’re going to absolutely put on the site. It, it’s relevant; it makes sense. Some of these books that I’m like, this, what, it is a searing memoir of my life as, like, a shoe salesman, and I’m like, Whyyy are you pitching me this?

Amanda: Women love shoes, right?

Sarah: That’s got to be it! That’s got to be it. So when you look at the self-published ads in RT it’s like, there’s just a random book in there and I’m like, Okay! Guess this guy just really wanted to be in the magazine! ‘Cause this is a weird position. But it’s right center, right in the middle.

So you wanted to look at page 104.

Amanda: Yes! So there’s another article here called “Me, My Novels & Romance in China” by Weina Dai Randel? And I remember her book, The Moon in the Palace?

Sarah: Mm-hmm?

Amanda: Did it won, did it win an RT Book Award? I think, I remember it being nominated, but I can’t remember if it won or not.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: But Weina was talking about, in the article, sort of the romance publishing sphere in China –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: – and sort of like what the breakdown is. I guess Amazon China has more than thirty-five thousand titles in Chinese novels, almost eleven thousand contemporary foreign novels, and that’s broken down by US, Britain, and Japan. She mentions that romances by American writers are not big in China, but what is popular at the time, in 2016, is YA and New Adult? And they do a lot of marketing on mobile, because a lot of teens in China have phones –

Sarah: Yes!

Amanda: – and that’s what they’re primarily reading on?

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: I just thought this was, like, really interesting about the Chinese publishing market, especially when it comes to romance and genre fiction?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: Because we just had an issue where Kathryn Falk was traveling to China to get romances released in China that also follow, like, their censorship laws.

Sarah: Which is pretty wild, considering that this year in June 2025 China has arrested several erotic romance authors who were writing gay erotica, at least thirty writers per the B, per the BBC, all of them women in their twenties, have been arrested across the country since February. Most are out on bail awaiting trial. Some are still in custody. These authors are being accused of breaking China’s pornography law for producing and distributing obscene material. Writers who earn a profit could be jailed for more than ten years. There’s a large international support for these authors, especially on social media, because they’re being arrested and prosecuted for writing queer romance, which is really kind of chilling when you look at this article from 2016 and the article from Kathryn Falk from several years earlier about moving books in the Chinese market. Like, oh boy!

Amanda: And what’s really interesting is Randel is Chinese, she’s from China, and she talked about how she, growing up, she would read things that she really wasn’t supposed to read. She says, like, There was no future for me to write in Chinese, so she –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – decided to write in English.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: And even though her book is historical fiction set in China –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – it was not translated to Chinese.

Sarah: No.

Amanda: It was translated to Thai, Hungarian, Portuguese, and Czech as of this article.

Sarah: And this is, this is interesting also, because she talks about how English is her second language. So it’s, isn’t it weird when, when what’s happening now we find in a magazine from ten or twenty years ago, and it’s just one continuum. Every now and again I feel like, every now and again I feel like the universe is talking to me. Like, hey, heads up: look at these two things in common. Like, oh, that is interesting.

On page 106 there is a fucking disaster. It’s called the “Industry News Roundup,” and it is full of links that are dead. Maybe they worked at one time, but they don’t work right now, and this is a PDF. So I got this PDF from author Shannon Stacey, who was a subscriber, got the digital magazine, and when I told everybody I was doing this she was like, I’ve got a bunch of digitals, and sent them to me. (Because Shannon Stacey’s awesome.) But you would think that the work, the links would still work. There’s not even HTML. Like, I can’t find any code – it says Read more here and here. It was not linked, and I’m going to guess that it wasn’t linked in the original either, because –

Amanda: Misstep!

Sarah: Right? Like, and it’s all such little bits of stuff, but these articles are really interesting, and I would have liked to learn more. For example, Amazon Cares If You Don’t Finish:

>> Authors found they’re earning less from Amazon’s new pay-per-page model, a result of scammers and discovered a loophole and – who discovered a loophole and forced or convinced readers to skip ahead falsely. Originally authors got a flat fee –

Or, excuse me:

>> – a flat free –

There’s a typo.

>> – for every download, but as of June 2015 were paid six-tenths of a cent for each page. Authors participating in Kindle Unlimited are paid out of a pool. The same pool goes to pay more “pages read,” and thus authors are ending up earning less. Found, find out how it works here and here.

Do the links work? No.

Here’s another familiar thing – we mentioned, like, things happening then, things happening now? Do you want to read Authors Out Thousands in Richmond, lower left corner?

Amanda: Oh my goodness. Authors Out Thousands in Richmond:

>> Lauren Calhoun is accused with absconding with author money after taking payments via PayPal and then canceling an event for readers and authors scheduled for April 30th. On April 13th Calhoun sent out a notice saying the event was canceled due to “terror threats” –

Sarah: Ooh!

Amanda: >> – and, and would issue refunds, but no one has been able to reach her since.

Sarah: >> See the report here

There’s no link. And I tried searching Lauren Calhoun; I did not come up with very much, but wow, does that sound familiar as to things that are happening this year? Nothing changes, people. If we’ve learned anything from doing this series, it is that nothing changes.

There was another one. Oh, and here’s, here’s a sad bit of news, and I don’t know why the heck this wasn’t its own article, because this was big news. Changeup at Harlequin:

>> Harlequin Blaze will cease publication in June 2017 with a “new sexy, contemporary series” launching July.

You already have a sexy, contemporary series; it’s called Blaze.

>> That same month in North America, Harlequin Romance and Harlequin Historical will become available exclusively through online retailers, print and digital, and in print through direct-to-consumer channels.

Now, to quote Steve Ammidown, Harlequin is unmatched in starting and then half-ass-ing a line. They do it all the time, and they just, they just shut down Afterglow, which they launched, what, like a year or two ago?

Amanda: I didn’t know that was finally confirmed. I know they were talking about it.

Sarah: Yeah, there was a lot of confirmation. But Harlequin Blaze? Those books were often very, very good. Some of my favorite Harlequins that I’ve read were Blaze, and shutting it down made no sense then; it still doesn’t make sense to me now. I don’t even know what their sexy, contemporary series is called now. Just bring back Blaze, guys! It was great. Just do it. Listen to me; I know everything.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: And finally, in case you were wondering, Therapy Is a Good Book:

>> What most readers have known for years, that there’s nothing that will make you feel as good as a great read, now has a name: bibliotherapy. Though the definition includes a variety of activities from reading self-help to group reads to professional recommendations, people are seeing tangible personal benefits of reading.

You could read more, but the link is dead, so I don’t know where they got this information. I don’t know where this quote is from; I don’t know who said it. This is so bad! [Laughs] This is the most interesting page, and I can’t go anywhere from here.

Amanda: We’ll, we’ll never know!

Sarah: We’ll never know. Never, never, nothing; nope, nope, nope.

And then on page 107, there’s a book.

Amanda: Yep.

Sarah: No.

Amanda: There’s a lot of books –

Sarah: There’s a lot of books –

Amanda: – on this page.

Sarah: – but there’s one that is about a certain president which we will not be discussing, and it occurred to me – I was talking to Adam about this while we walked the dog this morning – this was right before, this was July 2016. This was right before our contemporary hellscape began.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: And there’s a book about that fucking guy, an unauthorized biography from Riverdale Avenue Books. But there’s also a book called Flashes: Adventures in Dating Through Menopause. Boom-tish.

My favorite is at the bottom, though. Theresa Roemer wrote a book called Naked in 30 Days: Your One-Month Guide to Getting Your Mind, Body, and Spirit in Shape. Okay, so if you would like to be naked, you do not need to wait thirty days. You can just take off your clothes. Your body is fine.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: And that has been the book by me.

Page 118 is in the middle of the RT digital extra, where they do all of this weird, like, half promotion of review services, half like Here are a bunch of indie authors, and these are some of the most fucked-up book covers. In the bottom center of this page there is a cover, and it’s so bad I can’t even tell you what the title is?

Amanda: Okay, so I’m looking at it, ‘cause I saw the word Carpathian, and I’m like, Oh, wait a second!

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: So it says Hunt – it’s by Carolyn Haven. The – [laughs] – the title: Hundred Calorie Snacks.

Sarah: Oh, that is what it says! A Carpathian Novel! Mm!

Amanda: Well, it says A Carpathian Texan Novel?

Sarah: Oh, that’s a twist.

Amanda: ‘Cause I don’t think they could call it a Carpathian novel –

Sarah: No.

Amanda: – ‘cause Christine Feehan would have –

Sarah: Carpathian Texan, yeah.

Amanda: – shit bricks. But yeah, it, I don’t know if it’s Texan or something like that, but it’s a woman, she’s got, like, it looks like her hair is, like, wrapped up in, like, a towel after –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – she got out of a shower?

Sarah: But her eye makeup, which is massive; she’s got a big smoky eye moment happening. Here eye shadow is burgundy, just like the towel.

Amanda: And it looks like, I don’t know if it’s supposed to be blood. I’m assuming it’s blood, like, smeared, like, dripping down her mouth and her neck?

Sarah: It’s so much.

Amanda: But, like, it also looks a little brown, so maybe it’s chocolate, who knows? I think it’s supposed to be blood, but yeah.

Sarah: Page 124, there’s a small recap of the RT convention, which we’re going to do another episode about, because there is just so much to say here? But there was apparently an event called “First Base with an Author”? And it was actually baseball-themed, like, trivia? But “First Base with an Author” gives me the jibblies. Like, that is like Yikes! kind of title.

Amanda: I don’t love that.

Sarah: I don’t love that either. And I, I don’t, I don’t mean to sound like a prude, but, like, I don’t want to get to first base with an author. I don’t – why would I want to do that?

Amanda: And then the last thing that I noted, and it’s for my fellow gamers –

Sarah: [Laughs] There’s a whole excerpt in the back here. Did you read all of it?

Amanda: I did not read all of it. My fellow gamers, it is a book excerpt, and it says “Introduction to The Black Morass.” The Black Morass is the name of the book. But if you’re an old school World of Warcraft player, you will know that the Black Morass is a dungeon, and it’s a piece-of-shit dungeon, and it was so annoying to do when it first came out.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: Yeah. That’s what I thought of when I saw it. I was like, the Black Morass! Like World of Warcraft? And then I googled the Black Morass to read over what the strategy was –

[Laughter]

Amanda: – to this stupid dungeon. Yeah, so if you’re a World of Warcraft player…

Sarah: There’s a book for you: The Black Morass.

Amanda: It’s about pirates, apparently, the book.

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: So.

Sarah: So the majority of this magazine is sort of like, oh, okay, weird decisions are being made. The whole page of nothing but dead links just bums me out, man.

Amanda: Yeah, I’ve had that issue with PDFs before. I’m like, I know I’m supposed to click here –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – but the click ain’t clicking. Nothing’s happening.

Sarah: Nope. Nope, nothing.

So what did you think of this issue overall?

Amanda: I really liked some of the interesting articles they had in here.

Sarah: It was a good article issue! Like a Playboy.

Amanda: Kickstarter – [laughs] – read it for the articles!

Sarah: That’s right!

Amanda: The Kickstarter article, two of the articles about sort of romance in translation, romance being published in other countries.

Sarah: Yeah. Those are good global perspective, which I’m not usually expecting.

Amanda: I know. The, the sort of article and thoughts from historical romance authors about wounded heroes, that was really cool. I think this one, in my opinion, has some of the strongest and most interesting articles that I’ve seen?

Sarah: Yes. This was a good article – even without, even with all those broken links, that one page was really interesting.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: So why don’t we start a new file, talk about the conference? It’s going to be dishy, y’all. Come find us when we talk about the RT conference in Vegas, ‘cause this magazine has a lot –

Amanda: Vegas!

Sarah: – of pictures.

[outro]

Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this week’s episode, and yes, that is right, our bonus episode on August 26th is going to be a deep dive into the scrapbook pages of the magazine, plus our own memories of a very memorable RT Book Lovers convention.

You can join the Patreon at patreon.com/SmartBitches, or you’ll be able to purchase this individual episode if you just want this one? It is going to come with many PDF and probably JPG visual aids. I do love a visual aid.

There will also be visual aids in the podcast entry for this episode to see some of the ads and things that we’re talking about at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast under episode 681.

As always, I end with a terrible joke, and this – [laughs] – this joke is from – forgive me if you have children in the car – ishitskittles. [Laughs more] I didn’t even get to the joke! Ishitskittles: okay! Ishitskittles, I hope you’re having a great day. So here is your terrible joke from ishitskittles:

Did you hear about the person who fell in love with a ginger ale delivery man?

Yeah! She fell in love with a ginger ale delivery man, and she was Schwepped off her feet.

[Laughs] I can hear the booing! I mean, maybe it’s only in my imagination, but somebody definitely booed. Thank you, ishitskittles, for this joke! I’m going to stop saying your handle now, even though I’m actually crying, I’m laughing so hard.

On behalf of everyone here, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a wonderful weekend, and we’ll see you back here next week. And in the words of my favorite retired podcast Friendshipping, thank you for listening; you’re welcome for talking!

[end of music]