I’ve been involved in the epublishing market since close to its inception as a potentially profitable fiction market, ie around the late ‘90’s, early 2000’s. I slipped into it by accident – I write unabashed romance and I live in the UK, where if you write romance, it’s Mills and Boon or nothing. Sagas, which until recently filled the market, are more about a woman’s life than they are about romance and an American reader wouldn’t class them as romance.

Anyway, once M and B rejected my historical, because it’s in the first person, (“Yorkshire,”) I had nowhere to go, so someone suggested the USA. The big publishers seemed impossible, so I tried epublishing, figuring it would be a good stepping-stone. I’m still there.

But boy, has it changed! It’s no longer a stepping-stone, but an end in itself. Now what I have to say concerns certain comments I’ve seen recently by people who ought to know better, but maybe it’s because they can’t see the numbers. Any more than I can give them.

However, any study of any market will tell you that the top 20% of companies makes 80% of the profit. It’s called the Pareto rule, and although the numbers are obviously not exact, it’s true for almost every market you can think of. It’s true for New York publishing, it’s true for epublishing, too.

In New York, the big five (six?) make far more than all the other small publishers, and that’s not even thinking about the self-publishing outfits. It works the same way in epublishing, although detailed figures aren’t available and authors are constrained by their non-disclosure agreements with the publishers so they can’t give them, which is why I can’t tell you my sales and earnings in any detail. There must be a large audience of people who don’t participate on the message boards, the blogs or the loops who just buy books, because sales are now very healthy indeed.

I write for three of the biggest epublishers – Ellora’s Cave, Samhain and Loose-Id, and my income is – well it’s in five figures, which is what a midlist New York author can expect. This is not unusual for an author for the largest epub houses, and it’s no longer confined to the erotic only. My Samhain historicals are highly sensual, not erotic, and I’ve featured in the Samhain list of top ten sellers several times, as have other non-erotic authors.

I am fairly prolific, but a lot of that is reissues. My editors are as exacting as you’ll find anywhere, sometimes more so, and I have at least two for each book, and extra editing for print releases. I’m not showing off, I’m just tired of people saying that epubbed authors earn miniscule amounts, and then quoting someone from one of the smaller epubs. The majority of sales don’t lie there. Authors write for them for various reasons – to get into the market, because they’re friends with the owners, because they’re happy with the editing and cover art the house offers or because they expect the house to grow and want to grow with it.

It’s now very difficult to get a book accepted by the bigger epublishing houses. The bigger epublishers spend a great deal on cover art, the website and other incidentals, so it’s not true that it’s cheap to produce an ebook. And the author gets a bigger cut, too, than they can expect in New York. And barriers to entry are rising – art is more expensive, editors demand a proper salary, and promotion and website costs are rising, too.

However, asking a hardback price for an ebook is a marketing decision, not one of economics, and I’d be unhappy if anyone was asked to pay $12 or more for one of my ebooks, unless I’d written a book the length of “Lord of the Rings.”

Concentrate on where the majority of sales are and you’ll find an expanding, dynamic market which is changing to reflect the nature of the changing market. Ellora’s Cave now has a new website, Jasmine Jade, which encompasses all its imprints. Samhain has just acquired Linden Bay Romance, to increase its scope and its roster of authors. Harlequin has made major investments in putting its books out as ebooks, and the marketing team there is one of the sharpest you’ll find anywhere. They have good reason for doing so. I’m not even touching on the new readers like the Kindle and Sony. Suffice it to say that they’ve helped to boost sales, too.

While I’d love to write for New York or London, or both, it’s no longer my sole career path. Epublishing has been good to me, even considering the Wild West days, and I sincerely believe it’s the way of the future. Not least because last year I made the decision to get my new books in e-format whenever possible (I just ran out of space). And I no longer feel I have to defend the industry. I can afford to shrug and walk away. Just trying to put a few misconceptions right, that’s all.

Is everything hunky-dory in the epublishing world? Of course not. But it’s no longer something that can be swept under the carpet, although its position as the red-headed stepchild of the fiction market will probably stick with it for a while.

Kiss Me Again by Dee Tenorio will be released by Samhain Publishing on September 16, 2008. Scroll down for an excerpt from this upcoming contemporary.

An unforgettable man. Irresistible temptation. One last chance to get it right.

Magazine layout artist Kira Weston knows all about frustration. She wasted three years loving Ethan Roarke, a man who played her body like a fine instrument—but wouldn’t let her anywhere near his heart.

She doesn’t believe for a second that Ethan needs her to pretend they’ve reunited in order to deflect his boss’s carnal advances. Once Kira realizes he thinks she’s dating a gigolo, however, the urge to teach him a lesson is more than she can resist.

She only meant to torment him with seduction without fruition, but suddenly revenge is the last thing on her mind. This could be the one chance she long dreamed of when they were together—to finally break down Ethan’s emotional walls.

Or get over him once and for all.
Read the site excerpt here.

E – X – C – E – R – P – T

“Who are you and what have you done with my ex?” Kira asked.

“Stuffed him in a box and shipped him to Timbuktu?”

She could really go for this cocky side of him. It made her feel a little reckless. A little wild.

“But if you’re not interested, I understand,” Ethan said, taking her from her mental warfare right as she was setting her cross-hairs. “It was a crazy idea. You go back to dating your new boyfriend and I’ll see if someone else around here might be able to help me out.”

“My…my what?” Someone else? Wasn’t it bad enough he had Rita pawing the blood out of him? And what did he mean her new boyfriend?

Oh, God, had he talked to Charley?

“I heard about you and Devin Hanson the other night.”

The Sicilian was toast. “You think I’m dating another man? Already?” How could he think that? How could he even imagine? The urge to smack him was nearly as strong as the urge to blow him sky high with his own idiot plan.

“No.” He crossed his arms, making the muscles in his still exposed chest flex beneath the open shirt. Totally illegal use of physical attraction.

She ground her teeth and waited for him to continue.

He didn’t disappoint. “I think you’re sleeping with one.”

Why the smug sonofa- “I am not sleeping with Devin Hanson,” she growled, tightening her hands into fists that itched to throttle him. She’d been without sex for six aching months, and if Betsy’s desperation to pair her off with Devin was any indication, most people could tell. “Don’t you think if I was sleeping with him I’d look like I was sleeping with him?”

“Well…” He took a second to look her up and down, his lips twitching as he considered. “You do look a little sour.”

“Because I was saving your ass from the Wicked Witch of the Sixth Floor!” He better not have any plans for his testicles because they were going to be kicked up to his throat in a minute.

“Seventh floor.”

“Whatever!” she snapped, pushing against his chest so she could take a deep breath without having to touch him. Then she pushed again until he gave her a whole foot of space. “Who I sleep with is none of your business.”

“I know it’s not.”

“All you need to know is that I’m not sleeping with you.”

“Duly noted.”

She could happily kill him. String him up and kick him until he begged for mercy. Except he wasn’t even arguing. Typical Ethan. Rile her up, then leave her there alone. And he wondered why she wouldn’t share her ice cream after an argument.

She should go home and be perfectly capable of moving on after this. Hell, she should call Devin and tell him she wanted numbers one, two, twenty-seven and fifty-two on his weird little menu, and see how long it took to do all the others.

But all she wanted to do was crack that smooth veneer of his and get to the man beneath-if only to strangle him.

“As long as that’s clear, then I don’t think we’ll have a problem.”

He frowned, his eyes darting to the side as he most likely tried to figure out where his train jumped the tracks. “Does that mean you’ll do it?”

“Oh, I’ll do it.” She brought a fingertip to the edge of his collarbone and dragged it down the middle of his chest. Then pressed herself against him like a kitten to the sunlight. His eyebrows disappeared into his hairline and it was all she could do not to laugh. “But I want something out of this arrangement, too.”

She could tell the instant he thought he knew what she meant. His eyes warmed and his smile widened with an “I knew it” grin. “Maybe we could come up with a workable situation for both of us. I doubt Devin knows how to take care of your needs the way I do. You deserve more than some pointless rebound relationship based on nothing but sex.”

When she spoke, breathy against his cheek, it was in a voice she knew could get his eyes rolling in his head. “Are you offering to rebound me, Ethan?”

He nodded, slowly. “You could call it that.”

She smiled, already back in her panzer, flicking the protective cover from the brightly glowing “Fire” button. “Would you give me everything I ever wanted in a lover?” she asked, as if she were still ruminating.

“Anything.” His voice sounded the way it did when they were in bed, his body nestled deep inside hers while he asked questions just to hear her scream yes.

He wouldn’t hear that today.

“You’ll be my rebound and I’ll be your what? You don’t need me to tell Rita to go to hell.” She allowed their bodies to rub close, sensitizing every vulnerable nerve ending.

“You’ll get me past the Wicked Witch and in to see the wizard. If I can’t get this business off the ground by the new year, that’s my problem.” He moved his hips gently against hers, taking her earlobe between his teeth to nip lightly. “We both know I can give you what you need.”

When he did that, she wanted to pull him closer or, better yet, to the floor, but she was a woman on a mission. “If I do this,” she continued, smoothing her hands up his chest, feeling his lungs expand beneath the warm, rippling muscle. She held the words in a moment longer to enjoy the sensation of blowing him out of the water. There was a solid ka-boom as she opened her mouth and pushed the mental “Fire” button. “No sex.”

He let go of her ear, pulling away like he’d swallowed her earring and got it lodged in his throat.

“For the next month or so you’d have to be the lover you weren’t when we were together. Attentive, exciting and passionate outside the bedroom. You’d have to take me out and make me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. Satisfy my every desire…which is to be wanted, by the way. Not had. It’s to be talked to. Openly. Honestly. In return, I’ll play your adoring fiancée until you can get Rita to leave you alone or the year plays out.”

“That’s not even six weeks.”

She nodded. “Still have those enviable math skills, I see.” She moved past, turning him at the shoulders and allowing her body to graze his with a little return torture before heading forward to the door with the switch to her hips that had never before failed to make him ache.

“The deal’s over after New Year’s. Take it or leave it.” She didn’t want to give him time to think about it. She wanted him working on instinct. Impulse. Need. Ethan with time to think was an Ethan with time to escape. So, she kept her back turned and no matter what he said, she had every intention of leaving.

He actually managed to hold out until she opened the door to his office, just like she knew he would.

“I’ll take it.”

It looks as if another e-publisher has disappeared without trace.

Anyone with Shadowrose publishing needs to check with their editors, the group owner, etc. Two websites,

This link and this one both blank. I tried a Google cache search, but that came up with nothing.

Reports from authors seem to be that they are owed royalties and haven’t received official releases for their books. Anybody know anything about Shadowrose?

One hella smart author, Shannon Stacey, posts on RtB today and talks about ebooks. No wait, it is safe… you will see

Will Martinson, the town doctor, already has a heap of troubles on his plate, what with a pregnant whore, an ailing friend and a sheriff with a bad habit of shooting people. The last thing he needs is a strong hankering for a woman who think it’s her duty to turn a man’s life upside-down.

Eliza Jane Carter is a woman on a mission. She’s going to improve the lives of the women in Gardiner, Texas before moving on to the next town. But when her finances take a turn for the worse and her chaperone heads for the hills, Eliza Jane is stranded in a town full of riled up menfolk, a gun-happy sheriff and one handsome doctor who makes her question everything she ever believed about the love between a man and a woman.