And the prize goes to....

The Beatles Memorial Prize for Humility goes to Sheniqua Waters for her website domain of TheWorldsBestBook.com which takes the designation previously given to such pulpy rubbish as the Bible or Ulysses and bestows it on the Slave Girl.

"We're glad you decided to visit TheWorldsBestBook.com ... Here you will find out more about the newest up-and-coming author Sheniqua Waters and her breakout new historical romance novel Slave Girl ... Sheniqua Waters knows how to put "love" in a love story. She has a unique writing style and creates vivid scenes and intriguing story lines unlike any author we've seen. In our opinion, that is what makes her "The New Face of Romance".


Meanwhile the Inaugural Veinglory Prize for Chicken-Fingered Typing goes to Dark Castle Lords for the email to subscribers excerpted below (explaining that no newsletter will be forthcoming for October):

"Pam and I have gone through all the survey resutsl and will be implementing some of your suggestions next month. the first chagne you will notice will be that th enewsletter will be delivered in PDF. I have also moved the newsletter from the start of the month to towards the end of the month ... These chagnes are not set in stone and we hope you wil let us know if the changes we make are worthwhile and a benifit to YOU."

Links

The good

Crocheted Boobie Pillow (Etsy): "These boobie pillows are crocheted with worsted weight yarn and stuffed with polyester fiberfil. The nipples are either rubber baby bottle nipples or crocheted. Just let me know which you would prefer."

Frugally Marketing an E-book: "When I contracted with Red Rose in January, I started compiling my promotion toolkit."

The bad

I'm disappointed in the drama: "After attempts to talk to the owner of Red Rose, I got a brief email stating she'd turned over information to her lawyer regarding my book."

Shift to e-books to hurt bookstores, analysts say: "As the math currently works, each sale through a Nook is not just unprofitable but potentially replaces a higher-margin sale at stores," Balter wrote in a client note Friday."

The fugly

Cakewrecks: that's some spout: "I'm a little teapot, short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my..."

Links

* Dwarsligger: New paperback format idea rom a dutch company.
* A Statement from TRS [The Romance Studio] on Discriminatory Posts
* Boys Gone Wild: How Do Women Objectify Men?

p.s. the sales figures are gradually getting brought up to date. Next is the PLIST with smoke, warnings, closings, significant developments etc. If you have time, please take a look and help me to remember everything that has happened since the last update.

Rumor Patrol

Ellora's Cave/Cerridwen are sending out a 10% off coupon code, is this a first? Are recent signs of increased activity at JJ incorporated pro-active good marketing or a knee jerk reaction to market downturn?

I hear Red Rose Publishing has a $100 kills fee, which they might need to retain authors if they maintain an output at the level of Ellora's Cave but, I suspect, not with the same readership?

Edited to add:
No Ellora's Cavemen this year?

Bulletin: Red Rose andMore About Smoke--veinglory

Since placing Red Rose in the smoke category I have received several informative emails which have led me to remove this designation as of the website update later tonight.

I have also received one email suggesting malicious motives for the use of the smoke category. Please allow me to clarify. The smoke category is used based on 5 or more complaints of a non-specific nature and removed if these are not substantiated or there are 10 or more contrary reports.

If an unacceptable practice is confirmed then the 'fire' category is applied and the press becomes 'not recommended'. Thus 'smoke' is an alert, not a condemnation, although I appreciate that it is alarming for those associated with a press who know that it functions well and admirably and does not deserve to have a shadow cast over it.

I feel the smoke category is useful and worth retaining as an alert to help clarify a situation that is weaker than a 'not recommended' status but stronger than direct report of specific anecdotes. In all prior cases 'smoke' presses have either retained this status or progressed to 'fire' or 'dead market'--so it does act predominantly as an early warning system but cannot be always interpreted in this way.

I would like to thank the Red Rose staff and authors that chose to respond constructively and provide information to this site that allowed a correction to be made.

Yet another new romance e-publisher

I debated about putting the 'yet' in the title. I don't want to imply that there is anything wrong with Red Rose Publishing. Red Rose was founded by Wendi Felter who apparently has a previous connection with Mardi Gras, and who gets some degree of respect from her peers at the Romance Divas forum. They already have staff and authors on board although the website is incomplete and has some bad links it promises to be business-like and functional (devoid of the usual deformed poser vixens). The books are reasonably priced (60k+ novels at $5.99) and the royalties high (40-50%), assuming they are based on retail. All in all, a promising start assuming there is a good marketing plan behind the curtain just waiting to roll out and take the readers by storm.

Nevertheless I think the sheer number of new epublishers is something of an issue these days. I have heard ralan.com won't list new erotic romance epublishers until they have been in business a year. To my mind choosing to go with a start up is something of a separate issue to approaching one of the more established companies. For this reason I will now be listing markets less than one year old separately further down our publisher list.