EREC: erotic romance

Things I wonder about....

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:02:00 +0000

Why does the banner for Blade Publishing have rises, and eye, a candle and smoke... but no blade? Nor does the Storm Moon Press banner show a moon? Perhaps it is just too obvious?

Why Lulu's new forums filter the words "gay" and "lesbian" along with a range of more predictable swear words and common insults. Not to mention why they are filter vocab at all.

1RomanceEbooks seems like a great site but surely they could have chosen a name that doesn't seem such a blatant riff on AllRomanceEbooks. And why is it so hard to work out which publishers they carry?

"Nuit Blanche"

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:41:00 +0000

"Nuit Blanche"
film by Arev Manukian
score by Samuel Bisson

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:19:00 +0000

Can you idenitify this ebook reader?

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:54:00 +0000

I am reading a study that compares ease and effectiveness of ready an ebook versus a conventional book. The ebook doesn't compare favorably when it comes to comprehension or eye strain. The thing is they do not specify the screen type (front lit, back lit, e-ink?). Does anyone know what sort of reader this is?

* Kang Y-Y, Wang M-JJ & Lin R. (2009). Usability evaluation of e-books. Displays, 30, 49-52.

Bulletin: PLIST update

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:39:00 +0000

As of the latest update the PLIST includes 70 epublishers with a focus on erotic romance. It's a crowded marketplace!

Manga obscene materials conviction

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:22:00 +0000

Wired reports that a man has been convicted and given a six month custodial sentence for the possession of manga depicting "obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children." Thus ruling that these manga are not exempt due to having serious literary or artistic value.

This is the first known American conviction based solely on imaginary drawn materials not involving actual children. He was convicted of "Possession of Obscene Visual Representations of the Sexual Abuse of Children" and "Mailing Obscene Matter".

The manga the conviction was based upon are reputed to be: Mikansei Seifuku Shōjo/Unfinished School Girl, I Heart Doll , Kemono/The Animal Sex Anthology 3, Otonari Kazoku/Neighboring House Family, Eromon, Kono Man_ ga Sugoi/This Man is Awesome and Hina Meikyū/Doll Labyrinth.

Many comic and anime groups and graphic novel celebrities such as Neil Gaiman have spoken out against the case and the conviction. While mainstream coverage has been less sympathetic with headlines such as "Hardcore comics sidestep porn law" and "Child porn row exposes manga's dark side".

See also
The judgement (pdf)

[MARKET] Beautiful Trouble Publishing

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:48:00 +0000

Seems to be a new one pretty much every day....

BTP Website

"Publishers of the most adventurous and daring erotic romance novels and eBooks on the net!"

Hmm. In my book that would be Noble Romance, but I expect it depends on who you ask.

[MARKET] Moongypsy Press

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:15:00 +0000

Moongypsy press

"It is a place where we value the humanity of each individual and treat everyone, even outsiders, with the respect they deserve as fellow participants in the dream of life. We are all people who care deeply about each other and give encouragement, support, and shoulders to lean on in times of distress."

"PLEASE BE ADVISED
We do not accept stories centered around serious illness, gay, bi, lesbian, highly explicit/graphic sex, BDSM, GBLT, ménage or anal intercourse. NO sex with minors."

Sigh.

See also:
Absolute Write thread

[MARKET] Wilde Romance

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:06:00 +0000

Wilde Romance

"Our newest division of Wilde Book Publishing has arrived. Wilde Romance offers paranormal, suspense, fantasy, science fiction, mystery and erotic romances in both eBook and hard cover. Whether you like sensual, sizzling or hot, we're sure you'll find the best romances right here.

Stayed tuned for our Grand Web opening, when we roll out our newest authors and their sensual stories."

Arrived, but not open?

They also offer fee-charging editorial services : /

p.s. I was expecting this to be an M/M press given the name, but apparently not?

[MARKET] Sugar and Spice

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:53:00 +0000

Sugar and Spice

"We are looking for books from Mainstream Romance and Erotica, to Paranormal and Dark Horror ... Interracial and Multicultural manuscripts are welcome!"

Publisher: Kelly Ann Pearson

Book Bloggers and Publishers Online Conference

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:41:00 +0000

I was recently sent an invitation to the Book Bloggers and Publishers Online Conference. I am happy to promote the event to anyone interested and I note that many erotic romance epublishers are already listed as attending.

Will I be there? Frankly, no. I am very bah-humbug about the phenomenon of members of a community paying money (in this case a $20 fee) to have access to each other through free-to-use venues like Ning. The joy of the internet is that most of these people are easy to find online for free.

And the one large publisher represented, Simon & Schuster, is on my naughty list for having a shocking record when it comes to author exploitation (rights grabs etc). (As for Lori Perkins, no comment).

But if anyone here is going, I would encourage you to send me a guest post about how it goes. I am probably just being too goddam cynical. Mid-American winters have that effect on me....

LOL

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:12:00 +0000

You know how being a little bit enlightened can illuminate that you are mostly... well, not? Like 'some of my best friends are gay', or 'I value Mexican culture, Taco Bell is the best!'

That is kind of where I would file the Youtube trailer "Erotic Romance is for MEN too!" or as one comment says: "SHOCKING NEWS FLASH!!!!!! Men Like Porn As Much As Women Do!!!!!!! You may be on to something here, ever think of getting government funding to do a study?" After all, a fourway MFMF with a male POV character isn't exactly Barbara Cartland to begin with?

I was interested to see the book had four 5-star reviews on Amazon, before I noticed that they are contributed by the book's editor, at least one author from the same vanity press, and other people who seem less than impartial in their responses to the one 1-star review. Classy.

RomBlogs

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:22:00 +0000

One of the current memes wandering around the romance fiction blogs like a disoriented penguin seems to be 'which are the popular romance blogs and what do we think of them/they think of us', including the comments section at KS's which reads like one of those awkward high school moments where to girls fall out and everyone else is supposed to decide which side they are on.

So, to spin this in another direction here are some of my picks for 5 romance blogs that seem to be under-appreciated. If you feel like posting 5 picks of your own please drop me a comment and I will link to it. Spread the love.

* Save Black Romance
SBR has a thoughtful quality that means I approach every new post expecting to read something that is, well, worth reading.

* Book Utopia
The book review not only tell me about the book but allow me to factor in differences between my taste and the reviewers. Really informative.

* Cynical Woman
Blog of Helen E H Madden. I love the cartoon and slice of life commentary. Although it does remind me why I chose not to have children sometimes....

* Authors of Erotic Romance
A low key but charming blog, laced with useful information.

* Elisa Rolle
Always has a nice mix and good coverage of M/M.

Reader Recommendations:

* Gerry's Book Reviews

See also:
On clicking with cliques

[MARKETs] eTreasures, Omnific

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:25:00 +0000

eTreasures Publishing is celebrating their "grand reopening" with mangled website and new romance line.

Omnific Publishing, despite the name seems to be specialising in romance. Due to open Feb 16th.

Astatalk, Twitter and ebook piracy

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:47:00 +0000

Astatalk is one of the more pernicious sites offering file-sharing in a way that encourages ebook piracy. They recently opened a Twitter account which made it blatantly obvious just what proportion of the books made available there are not legal copies (i.e. almost all of the files tweeted by them). Within a fairly short period of time this account was closed by Twitter due to "strange activity".

Or as one asta talk member said: "HI!!! I'm not sure if this is the place to report it but a few days ago, you create a twitter account ... Well, a few romance authors found out about this place and they are really pissed off and they are having a campaign to remove astatalk. I'm just letting you know... so we could be a little more discreet so the place doesn't get close down! :D"

More than a few, Skippy. And while the staff at Astatalk my not lose sleep about copyright and piracy and all that jazz--apparently Twitter, as a U.S.-based company pays a little more attention to the legal niceties. Thank you, Twitter.

Dog Ear jumps on the Romantica Train

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:27:00 +0000

Self-publishing service Dog Ear Publishing seems to have noticed that a lot of people want to publish romance. Their latest Google AdWords campaign reads:

Bring Your Passion Alive
Publish your romantic novel, story or "romantica". Let your heart free www.dogearpublishing.net

This does bring a few questions to mind:
1) How long before they get a threatening letter from Ellora's Cave for trademark infringement?
2) Are those "ironic" quote marks?
3) How exactly is one mean to parse: let your heart free? Is it rental advice?

Bah, Humbug

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:24:00 +0000

Okay, I am going to say it. The Diagram/Bookseller prize for oddest book title of the year annoys me. I think odd books titles are interesting. But they generally pick a lot of plain descriptive titles for niche books. So they are actually laughing at the book, its topic and/or its readership.

This year's long list, for example includes: Budgeting for Infertility. People can't have kids. Fertility treatments cost a fortune and your insurance company probably won't pay for it. The adoption process isn't free either and there are dozens of scams aiming to fleece would be parents. Isn't it odd some people can't have kids and don't have huge stacks of money to throw around.

There is also Dental Management of Sleep Disorders. What is odd here? Is it that people have sleep disorders that can ruin their health? Is it that dentists are real medical professions who have a crucial role in diagnosing and treating these disorders--sometimes even saving someone's life?

Oh and The Changing World of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Is it just considered odd to mention bowels, because we are all too immature to accept that anyone, anywhere can have a serious conversation about the latter portion of the digestive tract? Why on earth should anyone write a book about ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. The half million people in the US suffering from these painful and debilitating conditions should just stay quiet about it rather than do odd things like publish books with the word "bowel" in them, or just accept that their condition--which often causes deep depression, is never going to change?

The Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin? Um, they do make cheese in Wisconsin, damn good cheese. Bondage for Beginners? Not everyone gets started by being abducted by a passing sheik. The True History of Tea. Um, I am sure it has one. Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes, so a lot of crafters know geometry--why shouldn't they? Advances in Potato Chemistry and Technology... need I go on?

Really, Booksellers, make a bit more of an effort to find some truly odd names. Not just point and laugh at any title that makes a passing reference to poop or potatoes.

Does anyone here have mad Blogger skills?

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:02:00 +0000

Re: http://www.erecsite.com/2010/02/blogger-ends-ftp.html

I am stuck; it looks like there is now just no way for this blog to continue to appear at this address under Blogger's new system. If any of you know of a good way to deal with the end of Blogger ftp as we know it, please email me or comment here.

Blogger Ends FTP

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:00:00 +0000

Blogger is going to stop supporting the ftp process by which this blog is published. I hope to be able to transfer to custom domain without too much disruption. But if things go a little wiggly, this may be the reason. Full details below:

Dear FTP user:

You are receiving this e-mail because one or more of your blogs at Blogger.com are set up to publish via FTP. We recently announced a planned shut-down of FTP support on Blogger Buzz (the official Blogger blog), and wanted to make sure you saw the announcement. We will be following up with more information via e-mail in the weeks ahead, and regularly updating a blog dedicated to this service shut-down here: http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/.

The full text of the announcement at Blogger Buzz follows.
Last May, we discussed a number of challenges facing[1] Blogger users who relied on FTP to publish their blogs. FTP remains a significant drain on our ability to improve Blogger: only .5% of active blogs are published via FTP — yet the percentage of our engineering resources devoted to supporting FTP vastly exceeds that. On top of this, critical infrastructure that our FTP support relies on at Google will soon become unavailable, which would require that we completely rewrite the code that handles our FTP processing.

Three years ago we launched Custom Domains[2] to give users the simplicity of Blogger, the scalability of Google hosting, and the flexibility of hosting your blog at your own URL. Last year's post discussed the advantages of custom domains over FTP[3] and addressed a number of reasons users have continued to use FTP publishing. (If you're interested in reading more about Custom Domains, our Help Center has a good overview[4] of how to use them on your blog.) In evaluating the investment needed to continue supporting FTP, we have decided that we could not justify diverting further engineering resources away from building new features for all users.

For that reason, we are announcing today that we will no longer support FTP publishing in Blogger after March 26, 2010. We realize that this will not necessarily be welcome news for some users, and we are committed to making the transition as seamless as possible. To that end:

We are building a migration tool that will walk users through a migration from their current URL to a Blogger-managed URL (either a Custom Domain or a Blogspot URL) that will be available to all users the week of February 22. This tool will handle redirecting traffic from the old URL to the new URL, and will handle the vast majority of situations.

We will be providing a dedicated blog[5] and help documentation
Blogger team members will also be available to answer questions on the forum, comments on the blog, and in a few scheduled conference calls once the tool is released.

We have a number of big releases planned in 2010. While we recognize that this decision will frustrate some users, we look forward to showing you the many great things on the way. Thanks for using Blogger.

Regards,

Rick Klau
Blogger Product Manager
Google
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

[1] http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/05/ftp-vs-custom-domains.html
[2] http://buzz.blogger.com/2007/01/blogger-custom-domains.html
[3] http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/05/ftp-vs-custom-domains.html
[4] http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55373
[5] http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/

Edited to Add: Migration deadline extended to May 1

[MARKET] Class Act Books

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:18:00 +0000

[Website]

"Romance and Erotica Romance Novels - We are always looking for those novels in any romance genre and sub-genres that will stir a reader's heart."

BJ Haynes, Publisher

Mike Resnick on old school porn novels -- Jules

jules.jones@gmail.com (Jules Jones) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:57:00 +0000

One of the links that turned up on my feed this morning was a friend linking to Mike Resnick's article about his days in the 1960s/1970s porn novel business. I don't think Emily's linked to this in the past, and it's an interesting (and entertaining) article about that niche and time in publishing.

Friday Links

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:31:00 +0000

Amazon Removes Macmillan Books

What to do? Professionalism and public image -- reviews

This is the title of a typical incendiary blog post

Top 5 Best Movies About Writers

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:40:00 +0000

Books, plays and movies about writers are often painfully self-indulgent, but I thought I would share a few that I think are worth watching. Please add your own :)

#5) I Capture the Castle (2003)
This is just one of those charming, picturesque movies that is enjoyable in a low-key way. A blocked novelist moves with his daughter to a crumbling, rural castle. The two rather unconsciously Bohemian daughters compete for the interest of their handsome landlord. This is a coming or age story, a romance, a period piece and just a very enjoyable, very British, movie that is all about personal choices and morality--without being at all judgemental or cloying.

#4) Total Eclipse (1995)
Based upon the relationship between Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud (nineteenth century French poets), this movie is just eye candy. Especially if gay sex and poetic angst and a young Leonardo DiCaprio tickle your fancy. Even if you are not into the M/M aspects this is a great movie about a man with waning powers falling under the spell of a young but completely destructive genius--kind of a romance-tragedy.

#3) Gothic (1986)
This movie covers a few days Byron, Shelly, Mary Shelly, Clair Clairmont and Dr Polidori spent together on a country estate. An interlude that saw the genesis of both Frankenstein and The Vampyre. Mary Shelley (then Godwin) has told conflicting accounts of exactly what happened at this interlude of complex relationships, inspired ghost stories and lurid dreams--and this movie embellishes the know facts to an over-blown extent. This movie has very over-the-top styling and you have to just 'go with it' to really enjoy its gothic kitsch eighties charm.

#2) Deathtrap (1982)
This is a rather static thriller that revolves around a couple of plot twists that make it hard to say anything with out spoiler-ating it. Featuring Christopher Reeve at his most gorgeous, and Michael Caine as a burned out playwright. This really is a writers movie in an almost stilted and self-conscious way--but it is so clever I loved it anyway. The movie opens with Caine character watching critics eviscerate his latest play, and anticipating the visit of a student who has written a inspired debut thriller. His wife begins to suspect that he is planning to murder the student and steal the play... but is he?

#1) The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
So, some people seem to think paranormal romance is a new invention. I beg to differ. The Ghost and Mrs Muir is about a widow who moves to a remote cottage, to find it is haunted by a hot-tempered sea-captain who does not want to share his abode. Out of this initial hostility they develop a very sharp-tongued but ultimately rather touching romantic friendship. When her funds run low the ghost comes up with the idea of having Mrs Muir write and publish his memoirs. The scenes in the publishers office are great fun. The romance is more sentimental than sexy with a downbeat ending, but this movie has been a favorite of mine for decades. Based on a 1945 novel that I have long been meaning to read, if only I could find a copy.

RWA starts to cave in?

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:49:00 +0000

From their Hot Sheet:

"Dear Members,
RWA’s strategic plan, as amended in March 2009, identifies the need to incorporate a uniform, objective application method to be used for conference space allocation. Many of you are aware that RWA’s Board of Directors and staff participated in a special-issue board meeting in Houston this past weekend. The agenda encompassed the findings and recommendations of a task force that was charged with reviewing the publisher evaluation system and recommending changes to RWA’s policy. Taking into account emerging trends in publishing that may offer opportunities to writers, the task force recommended that RWA adopt methods used by other trade shows and conventions and to shift its method of evaluating publishers as a whole to evaluating publishers by divisions, imprints, or lines.

Under this revised method, RWA will extend invitations to a wide pool of publishers. Invitees may only represent their non-subsidy/non-vanity publishing programs (imprints, divisions, or lines) at RWA’s conference. Space for spotlights, workshops, and booksignings will be allocated to lines, imprints, or divisions that best meet the requirements for “Qualifying Markets.” This new process of evaluation will likely increase opportunities for small presses and e-presses that previously have been excluded.

The potentially broader array of publishing companies present at RWA’s national conference in no way signals a change in our mission or core values. RWA has no intent to tell publishers how to conduct their business, but as a professional writers’ association, RWA stands firmly against any attempts to directly solicit RWA members to pursue vanity/subsidy publishing or other author-financed forms of publication. Members can be assured that publishers and agents allowed to participate at our national conference will have met this criterion.

Michelle Monkou
RWA President"

Translation: Oh, Harly-booboo--I just can't stay mad at you (?)

Audiolark and Wild Rose, up a tree... (and other stuff)

Veinglory@gmail.com (Emily Veinglory:) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:08:00 +0000

Apparently there is an arrangement whereby Audiolark will make audiobook versions of book published by Wild Rose and Changeling. [via RomanceDivas forum]

You can now get a case for your Macbook to make it look like, well, a "BookBook."