Time Waits For No Blogger

Boy has the world been zipping by! Time has flown and I'm still in the coop. But hey, I'm here now and this is some of the news that's happening:

The economy still stinks. Booksellers, publishers, and everyone else keep laying people off (including the big news of Feb, Editor in Chief of Publisher's Weekly, Sara Nelson herself). Sales are down. Natch.

Moving on.

E-books are still in the news. The Authors Guild and Amazon settled quick on the issue of voice software but everyone's waiting to see how that plays out. The Big A backed down, but those in the know figure there'll be some other battles on the horizon that won't be quite so polite.

A Chicago Sun Times blog by Mark Coker (founder of Smashwords and Dovetail Public Relations), who moderated a panel at the Tools of Change conference just passed, said that IDPF reports November e-book sales were up 108 percent.

Amazon's new Kindle is out and everyone and their mother are reporting on what changed for the better - and what didn't change that should have. Still don't have one because (see above comment re: economy).

And along with everyone else and their mother, Hearst has announced it will be launching a wireless e-reader (according to CNNMoney.com: "The publisher plans to introduce a large-format device this year based on electronic-ink technology.") I just gotta get with the high-tech program and figure out what all this stuff means.

While overall book sales are down, down, way down, Borders reports that a few of their categories were up, including American history books and science fiction and fantasy and, YAY, romance titles!

But don't be discouraged, all you hopeful authors out there. Deals are still being made arcross the board.

A new historical novel, The Queen's Pawn, a debut novel by Christy English (a fictionalization of Eleanor of Aquitaine) sold to NAL; Laura Lippman' new title, The Girl in the Green Raincoat sold to William Morrow; a fantasy title, Griffin Summer (griffins, mages, kings) by Rachel Neumeier has sold to Orbit (very nice, 3 book deal no less!). There's a new book out by Syrie James, author of The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen that sounds like fun: Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journal of Mina Harker sold to William Morrow. Sounds like James may have found a great gimmick!

Self-published Lisa Genova, whose title Still Alice hit the big time, has sold her next two novels to Pocket, following up on the success of such other self-pubbed to trad-pubbed notable titles: The Shack, Eragon, The Hoopster, and The Celestine Prophecies.

YA paranormals still rockin' & rollin' with The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers, Lynn Weingarten's title about teen girls with magic powers that went to Harper Children's, and Chelsea Campbell (her debut) The Rise of Renegade X to Egmont.

And books are in the media news again, with more titles being optioned, including The Life of Pi, with Ang Lee on Board, and Lucy Silga's debut Beautiful Americans going to Fox Atomic.

There are a few other choice tidbits floating around as well, including the announcement (oh, everywhere? but particularly PW) that Harlequin will launch their own teen imprint with a title(s) in August '09.

I just got a gander at the Barnes & Noble Review site - who knew? March 2, 2009's offering features romance heavyweight Eloisa James reviewing the Harlequin NASCAR title by Pamela Brittan On The Move. (And I've included the link for your reading pleasure).

And The New Yorker has its Book Club blog (ditto the link next door) to keep you in the know on loftier literary doings.

In the agency game Brendan Deneen has joined FinePrint Literary where he'll continue to rep writers in publishing and film, including all genres but (says The Swivet blog), he is "particularly interested at this time in genre YA and thrillers". Check out the agency - maybe you have what they want!

And all the guys on the NYC block are sweating it a little - one of the BIG BOYS - CAA -- is comin' to town. Daily Variety announced that talent agency Creative Artists Agency is getting into the literary game for the first time, and have hired Simon Green to broker book deals for their celeb clients (like the 7-figure deal for the Jonas Brothers photo book). The other guys are concerned that CAA, despite it's pledge that they will limit themselves to "marrying CAA celebrity clients to book deals and that the percentery will not make publishing deals for established authors", will make waves in their little East Coast pond. Other big-time talent agencies have played this game, including WMA, ICM and Endeavor, and the NYC competition is giving a lot of responses along the lines of "CAA is welcome to start any business they like, but they have to understand that if we see them as competition, we will pull back submissions, and that doesn't serve their central financial engine for packaging", a quote attributed by DV to "one heavyweight agent", who added, "If they build this department to five agents in the next two years, none of us will submit our books to them."

Well, that's mostly it for now. I'm off to a new monthly event here in the Big Apple that celebrates the romance novel in all of its glorious forms. Lady Jane's Salon, a new operation formed by authors Hope Tarr, Maya Rodale and Leanna Hieber, along with Ron Hogan of GalleyCat and Beatrice.com have banded to together and are offering author readings on the first Monday of every month at Madam X, a cool club in downtown Manhattan. Tonight's offering (the 2nd of the events) has RWA/NYC chapter member Lauren Willig - a brand new New York Times bestseller author - doing the reading along with historical romance author Jenna Peterson (and her alter ego, Jess Michaels, who writes historical romance with a side of steam heat). For the price of a gently used romance novel, or a $5 contribution (proceeds going to Maya Rodale's Share The Love charity and Beatrice.com) you can meet, mingle, enjoy a cocktail and hear some glorious words of love every month. If you're in the neighborhood, why not stop by? Check out Lady Jane's MySpace link to the right.

See you there!

TGIF - and a little something for the weekend

Lots to get into today (I missed 2 days because of layoffs that were announced out of the blue at my office, and it threw me off my game for a bit):

November 10 Publisher's Weekly:

Scholastic bought out 110 employees who took early retirement, but a small number of employees got laid off.

A very informative article, "Digital Pulse 2008" additionally polled various publishing houses about their thoughts, operations and expectation as far as digital is concerned:

Random House - "Digital and online afford publishers the opportunity to connect more effectively with consumers and, ultimately, to make more and more interesting products." And as far as the future is concerned: "People will read a lot more on devices."

Penguin: "We are still seeing e-books as a rapidly growing area, and the downloadable audio market will continue to open up further in 2009 as new customers recognize its value and potential. Penguin Groups USA's net e-book sales are up 500% over 2007 and we expect e-books to continue to sell strongly." [MY COMMENT - 500% - HOLY COW!]

Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt: "There is no doubt that this is a business that's very quickly arriving." and what might be expected in the next few years: "To put a line in the sand, and just speaking for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, I think that over the next two to five years, e-books can come up to 4% or 5% of our total business."

Kensington: "We are looking forward to a time when all of the accounts will accept just the ePub format. We've focused on rmoance and women's fiction titles, as well as gay and lesbian and mystery titles; we're looking forward to braodening our offerings. I think it's safe to say that as we make more new release titles available...the business will probablyd ouble each year for several years."

Macmillan: "We're going to see e-books not just be a sideline. W e'll see more simultaneous publications, more formats..."

Hachette Book Group: "...looking forward to e-ink devices with color screens. W e're excited about the new Sony device", and "Mobile phone distribution: We have worked with Mobipocket for several years, and now with Fictionwise and eReader on iPhone." And they expect in the next five years: "..more interactive types of content."

Under the Reviews, THE TEMPTATION OF THE NIGHT JASMINE by Lauren Willig (Dutton) in her Pink Carnation series gets a lovely review "...another sultry spy tale" and "The author's conflaction of historical fact, quirky observations and nicely rendered rmoances result in an elegant and grandly entertaining book."

Jacqueline Frank's new series debut of the Shadowdwellers , Ecstacy (Zebra)gets a nice nod "This romantic and strongly sexual story between complicated characters is made even richer by an intriguing secondary cast and efficient world building that's familiar without being lazy."

Julia Harper's "hilarious follow-up to 2008's Hot", For the Love of Pete (Grand Central) is reviewed too.

And there are a wealth of non-fiction titles spotlighted in Reviews that may be of interest to authors:

One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Hosuehusbands, Single Motherhood, and Other Realities of Truly Modern Love" (edited by Rebecca Walker, Riverhead Publising, Feb. 09), including essays by authors like Dan Savage, and ZZ Packer.

For history buffs, Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster by the inimitable Alison Weir (Ballantine, Jan. 27, 09)

More history: Banquet at Delmonico's: Great Minds, the Gilded Age, and the Triumph of Evolution in America by Barry Werth (Random; Jan. 6, 09)

And for the gruesomely inclined and mystery/crime writers: Mop Men: Inside the World of Crime Scene Cleaners by ALan Emmins (St. Martin's Dunne, Jan. '09)

Back to my insistence on how important keeping up with the business is, there is a free daily PW newsletter, PW Daily (I'm having trouble finding a working link, but I'm on it for you guys!)

Another source of the business of books: Library Journal, recommended by Jacqueline Deval, author of Publicize Your Book! AN Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book the Attention It Deserves (a marvelous guide, filled with massive amounts of terrific information for handling publicity, whether you've got $1,000 or less to spend, or $10,000 or more). See the link at right to access LJ.

And at Author Buzz you'll find a marketing service if you have the means to utilize their services. Here's from their Publishers Lunch ad: "For less than $1,000 AuthorBuzz.com reaches 370,000 readers, 5000 booksellers, and 12,000 librarians. Fr incrementally more add leaders and readers of more than 15,000 bookclubs." They get a rave from Carla Neggers, "Dollar for dollar this is the best marketing tool I've ever used."

OK, folks, I'm going to make this short after all. I'm going to a book launch party for a fellow author - just another way to get out the word about your book! (Pardon the typos and hope you enjoy the intel!)