Historical and Contemporary Romance Author
Since last week, the online publishing world has been ablaze with the news that Harlequin is changing the royalty rates it pays its authors from 6% of cover for category romances and 8% of cover for single title books to 15% of net and 25% of net. This change is retroactive and applies to authors who are “actively writing for…
After watching the stunning uptick in the Kindle rankings for low-cost romances on Wednesday (see yesterday’s post for the details), I’ve been giving even more thought than usual to digital book pricing. There have been a plethora of posts from various industry professionals bemoaning the rise of the 99-cent novel and its supposedly harmful effect on authors’ (and, by extension,…
I feel like a real chatty Cathy this week, with posts that are literally all over the place in terms of topics, but yesterday was particularly eventful, and I have musings I must share. So, as many of you probably know, possibly because you received it, Amazon sent out an email yesterday highlight six 99-cent romance titles that were highly…
I’m sure there will be a follow-up post to this where I’ll explain the situation that led me to write it in more detail, but for several reasons, I can’t discuss all the facts just yet. I do, however, think I can share this one–and it’s something I’m a little ashamed to say I obviously didn’t do. Specifically, authors, when…
As of this morning, I reached an interesting milestone on sales of my self-published short story. I’ve now earned $1,000 from it. That amount is a net, including the $250 advance I was originally paid by the editor of the anthology it first appeared in, less the cost of the cover art. The reason this is interesting is because the…
Which is a good thing, since unless Cobblestone has slipped the schedule, it will be available for purchase later this afternoon! Here it is: It’s not an exact match to the first two covers in the series because the artist who did those is no longer working for the publisher (mainly, I think, because she has too much other work…
Ever since the Judy Mays incident, I’ve been thinking a lot about teenagers and romance novels. Like many authors of more “graphic” romances, my website’s front page includes a disclaimer that my books are meant for people over 18 years of age and suggests those under that age ought to skedaddle. But do I really believe that? Do I really…
Today, Gail Carriger, author of the Soulless series (books I have enjoyed, by the way), wrote a post urging her readers to buy her upcoming book in print rather than digital format. I’m not going to address the substance of her post in any significant way. A lot of the things she says about the publishing industry are true. Even…
I said during the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention back in April that, judging from the number of panels on the subject, self-publishing was the new black. And in the two months since then, the pace has only accelerated. Authors who were cut by publishers back in the first midlist publish in 2006 are now resurfacing, my favorite among them being…
I just got my first Amazon review for THE REIVER where the purchaser felt that 99 cents was too much to spend for such a short story. I do feel a little bad about her experience, because it seems she relied on the file size to indicate how long the book was, and apparently the last version I uploaded has…