News just confirmed: Barnes & Noble have bought Fictionwise for$15.7 million.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/03/05/ap6129756.html 

Moving into ebooks in a big way, B&N are looking to buy straight into the market, rather than building the business up from within. If they want to give Amazon a run for its money, that’s probably the wisest move.

Better late than never, I say.  Here is the first in a new series of columns.  All the latest and best news from Harlequin!  Read on to get the scoop….Harlequin Celebrates – December 2008

Hi everyone! We’re Amy, Aideen, and Malle from Harlequin, and we’re thrilled to be bringing you news through The Good, the Bad, the Unread – especially since 2009 is a big year for us. In 1949 Richard and Mary Bonnycastle of Winnipeg, Manitoba started up a little publishing company—Harlequin! That makes 2009 our 60^th anniversary, and we’ve got lots of special treats for our readers to celebrate. Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect throughout 2009:

•  16 free ebooks

• New editions of bestselling authors’ very first romance novels (including Debbie Macomber, Jayne Ann Krentz, and Diana Palmer) with the “Famous Firsts Collection”

• An exhibit of 60 years of Harlequin cover art in New York City [Ed. Note: Yay NYC!  I'm goin']
  

• Man of the Month revs up again in Silhouette Desire, beginning with An Officer and a Millionaire by Maureen Child in January (we’ve included a “Browse the Book” widget so you can read the first chapter here, too)

• “Series Spotlight” on a different Harlequin imprint each month, with their own special events and products. Here’s an exclusive look at our spotlight schedule!

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But you’re probably wondering what’s new in December, right? Harlequin does have some new goodies from this month, too!

First, Harlequin Medical Romances are now available in eBooks for the first time—so if you have a thing for hot docs (and really, who doesn’t?), you can get these books (which aren’t available in stores) right away.

Here’s something we’re sure you’d be interested in—from Dec. 23-31^st, we’ll be having a FREE eBook a day in our eBook Store! Just a little holiday gift from Harlequin.  [Ed.note: Now I'm really sorry I didn't get this up sooner]

December also sees the publication of great new titles, including:

Olivia Gates – who writes sheikh books for Silhouette Desire – makes her paranormal debut with Mortal Enemy, Immortal Lover (Silhouette Nocturne Bites). It features an immortal half-vampire, half-demon hero who falls in love with an Eradicator, a breed of human with special powers trained from childhood to eliminate all demons. Gulp!

 Vampires also collide with the holidays in the Holiday with a Vampire II anthology by Merline Lovelace and Lori Devoti. Who says spooky heroes only come at Halloween?

 Some miniseries that are being wrapped up this month: A Holiday Mystery at Jenkins Cove gets tied up in Christmas Delivery by Patricia Rosemoor (Harlequin Intrigue) [Ed. Note: See my review]. The last of the Saxon heirs gets hitched (and a baby) in Tessa Radley’s Pregnancy Proposal (Silhouette Desire), the conclusion of her New Zealand-set series The Saxon Brides. The Billionaire in Penthouse B by Anna DePalo is the sixth and final book in the Silhouette Desire series Park Avenue Scandals, about the sexy secrets and adventures of the residents of a glamorous Manhattan building (and even if you missed the rest, the whole series is also available in the Park Avenue Scandals eBook Bundle). And yet another Desire series is concluding this month: Gifts from a Billionaire delivers its last surprise just in time for Christmas with The Tycoon’s Secret by bestselling author Kasey Michaels.

Need some—ahem—warming up this winter? We’ve collected twelve naughty holiday-themed novellas by authors like Jane Porter, Alison Kent, and Michelle Reid in the Red Hot Holiday Bundle.

Finally, with Christmas just around the corner, here’s a bit of inside scoop: eHarlequin’s top ten Christmas books of 2008…

1. All She Wants for Christmas by Stacy Connelly
2. Christmas Crime in Colorado by Cassie Miles
3. Who Needs Mistletoe? by Kate Hoffmann
4. One Magical Christmas by Carol Marinelli
5. Once Upon a Christmas by Holly Jacobs
6. Holiday with a Vampire II by Merline Lovelace and Lori Devoti
7. The Duke’s New Year Resolution by Merline Lovelace
8. Mistletoe Reunion by Anna Schmidt
9. Yule Be Mine by Jennifer LaBrecque
10. Marry-Me Christmas by Shirley Jump

We hope you all have a fantastic holiday and happy new year! We’ll be back in January to give you more news about a new enriched eBook from Harlequin Presents, more sales and giveaways, and what’s going on for our first Series Spotlight on Silhouette Desire.

 Happy reading!

~Amy, Aideen, and Malle

Writing is a precarious thing at the best of times, and stories are starting to emerge about authors having difficulties. On this blog, Sara Reinke announced that no more books in her Brethren series will be coming out with her present publisher.  And Gennita Low is having problems, too, with the release of “Virtually His” at MIRA.  It seems the publisher won’t give her a release date, and the future of the series is doubtful.

I have no doubt other authors will be having problems, too. Because as far as the publisher is concerned, it’s all about the bottom line. This has happened before, for instance when a genre is oversubscribed. Look at the plethora of Regency romances a few years ago. The fallout from that was pretty bloody with some fine authors losing their gig when the genre lost its place in the popularity stakes. And some editors, too. I still mourn the loss of Hilary Ross at Signet, who fought so hard for the genre she loved.

Now I think it’s because of the recession (are we allowed to call it that yet?) And the bottom line is, if you don’t make Wal-Mart, you’re stuffed. The bookstores and Amazon don’t cut it any more. If the marketing department projects your numbers based on a Wal-Mart presence, and you don’t make it, it’s seriously bad news.

Also the print market is in long-term decline. Numbers year on year are declining, so whereas some genres will fluctuate within that, overall sales are down. Computer games, TV and DVD, all have eaten into the novel market, as well as the increasing prices of paper and transport. Publishers are moving more strongly into electronic publishing, and they’re trying to make their ‘brands’ (that’s an author or a line) more global. As yet, they haven’t done well with that, especially in the romance genre, with the exception of Harlequin/Mills and Boon who have always taken a global outlook.

They’re doing better with electronic publishing. Erotic romance is perfect for electronic publishing. A reader doesn’t have to throw an obviously erotic read in with her groceries to go through the checkout, and she doesn’t have to hide the book from her kids. As long as she keeps her reader and her computer protected, she’s golden. Other genres are slower to catch on, but they are growing. And the big publishers know they will make a great deal of money from electronic publishing. The savings made from distribution and paper aren’t being passed on to the author in the form of royalties. The big publishers are keeping them for themselves. So they’ll be okay at the other end of the transition from paper to electronic. Not that the market will ever be solely one or the other, just that the balance will slowly change. Authors are in no position to demand more for electronic sales, when they are effectively being laid off, and there is a long queue of new hopefuls waiting to take their place.

In a shrinking market like this, the best sellers like Linda Howard, Nora Roberts and others are protected. They’ve built their audience and they have guaranteed sales, so although they may drop, they won’t drop too far. The big stars who make the big advances will still do okay, because everyone needs a loss leader. The lower end authors will continue to struggle, and write for the love of it. It’s the midlist authors who will suffer, particularly the ones who are print-only.

So what’s an author to do? Once she is labelled as being a ‘bad risk’ or ‘poor seller,’ even if it isn’t her fault (she has absolutely no say as to where her books are placed or what her projected sales are) once she gets that label, it’s hard to come back. Or maybe she was doing very nicely in a genre which took a nosedive. Publishers took all and any authors because of the increased demand for the books, and now they’re getting rid of the spare fat, as they see it. Because authors are essentially self-employed subcontractors, it’s easy to get rid of them, much easier than it is to get rid of regular staff.

She can change genres, and change her name. Many authors write in more than one genre (I do, as one humble example) and that helps, too. But I don’t change genres with the market, I write the stories that speak to me. So if both my genres fail, I’ll probably still be writing in them. But it does help hedge the market a bit. I know of at least two authors who switched markets and names, and although they don’t keep their previous identities a secret, they don’t exactly trumpet it to the world, either. There must be quite a few more.

There are more and more midlist authors moving to the electronic publishers, or placing a couple of books there. It doesn’t hurt and many authors write more books than their publishers are prepared to take. Also, electronic publishing can help to keep the backlist current, and that helps both the author and the reader looking for a series that is out of print (I went through agonies trying to get my missing copies of the books in Suzanne Brockmann’s Team Ten series because I came to it late).

What am I going to do? Nothing I can do except keep writing and ensure that I’m doing the best I can. I can only promote so much, and I haven’t the budget to do it on a big enough scale to be truly significant, so I’ll do what I do. In a way I’m protected because come what may, I’ll write. I always have. I’ve been published for eight years now, but I’ve been writing all my life. So I can make sure that what I do is worthwhile even if the only person who sees it is me.

When I learned a couple of years ago that RWA was planning on hosting their annual conference in San Francisco in 2008, I immediately marked it on my calander.  Mostly because it meant I could avoid flying the “friendly skies” and drive.   I don’t know about you all, but flying for me these days is on par with getting a root canal, a bikini wax and your finger nails pulled out….all at the same time.

The conference is always great fun for me because I love chatting with authors, whether they be rock stars or aspiring.  I get a lot of good information to take back to my library day job, and I learn about upcoming titles.  As if all that wasn’t cool enough, this year, our own dear Sybil hooked me up with a dinner invitation with Harlequin’s Digital team.  Not only did I get to eat seafood while gazing upon a fantastic view of the bay, I also got to chat with the Harlequin team about their upcoming ventures.

Launching in November will be Harlequin Historicals Undone, which will be ebook shorts similar to Spice Briefs and Nocturne Bites.  These will be short, tasty, historical stories with a higher sensuality level than a traditional full-length Harlequin Historical title.  I think I speak for HH fans everywhere when I say I hope these prove to be big hits.  The HQ Digital folks told me that the Spice Briefs have proven to be quite popular, so could a sexier HH short generate as much interest?  I sure hope so!

One of the things that the HQ Digital team offers, and I think is cool beans, are ebook bundles.  For example, with one click of the mouse you can buy all the Harlequin Presents titles that are out in any given month.  Also, they’ve done an Anne Stuart bundle that featured several of her “out of print gems.”  I would love to see more of these, and I would especially love to see Harlequin really dig into their rich and deep backlist.  Reissue some of these great older titles (oh, like Nicole Jordan‘s HH titles!) in ebook format.  I’d be first in line, waving my credit card in the air.

Harlequin has really been a trail-blazer in the digital frontier.  Online Reads have been offered on the eHarlequin web site for the last ten years!  I had no clue the program had been around that long.  In that vein, Harlequin has expanded their digital content to include “enhanced” ebooks, digital audio books, and mobile content for cell phones.  There’s also DailyLit, a subscribtion program that delivers a chapter a day of a book right to the reader, either by RSS feed or e-mail.  One of the big reasons I love to pimp Harlequin?  The fact that the books are shorter, quicker reads, and ideal for busy readers.  Now they’re giving us our fix by having a read delivered right to our Google Reader or in our e-mail inbox! 

I think we all know that Harlequin has been sneered at over the years.  Those books with the dreadful titles couldn’t possibly be any good.  That they’re throw away books written by hacks.  All nonsense, and a myth further dispelled by the work of the Harlequin Digital team.  They are on the cutting edge of offering digital content, and it has shown in their sales.  Vendors who deal in ebooks have quickly learned how popular romance novels are, because much like mass market paperback sales, romance dominates over the other genres in ebook format as well.

It’s really an exciting time for readers, authors and the fine folks at Harlequin.  I can’t wait to see what the team cooks up next!

Are you as addicted to Jean Johnson‘s Sons of Destiny series as I am? We’re halfway through this series of 8 books about 8 Warrior/Mage brothers (4 sets of twins) in an alternate universe similar to our medieval times except magic is the norm. A prophecy about the disaster(s) that will happen as each brother falls in love prompts their people to exile them to an isolated island.

My favorite so far is The Master, book 3 (Dominor and Serina), but I’ve enjoyed every one of them and can’t wait for the mysterious Rydan’s story.

Huge congrats go out to Jean for this announcement she made on her Yahoo Group, MoITWF (Mob of Irate Torch Wielding Fans). Not only are The Sons of Destiny being printed in German, but they’re launching an entirely new imprint:

Yes, proof positive I’m being translated and printed in Germany!

My first book “The Sword”, has been retitled “Sons of the Isle” in German (because they have this cultural thing about how military terms and romance novels just don’t mix very well), and is being launched as part of an entirely new book imprint, “Penhaligon”.

…I’ve had to sit on this news for a couple of weeks now, because Maria Duerig, one of the senior editors at Randomhouse.de, wanted me to wait until the Penhaligon book line was officially announced through her publishing house before letting the word get out through other means. This week, she gave me the go-ahead, and so I’m going ahead by sharing this beautiful cover with all of you, yay!

I must say, -this- is very close to how I originally pictured the cover of The Sword to look–I am very pleased with how it came out! Sure, it doesn’t have any sexeh-chest-bits, but isn’t that a gorgeous cove? Straight off the rockier stretches on the west side of Nightfall Isle, I swear…

Anyway, for those of you who speak German, the website for the imprint is http://www.penhaligon.de and the website for my book in particular is: http://www.randomhouse.de/book_new/edition.jsp?edi=280654…and they’ve labeled it “Romantasy”…which I think is a particularly good way of describing the genre for the SoD series!

Don’t you just love that label, ROMANTASY? It’s perfect for these surprisingly sexy Sword-and-Sorcerer-lite books. My favorite part about these books? The characters actually use the bathroom! In fact, in book 1, The Sword, Saber and Kelly bond over a mutual bout of raging diarrhea. No, seriously!

Watch for the re-release of the previous Sons of Destiny books in mass market paperback:



And in trade:
Followed by The Storm (2 Sep 08), The Flame (2 Dec 08), and The Mage (3 Mar 09)

Think the Oscars or Grammies for audio books. [Ed. (a.k.a. Gwen): Phil Gigante's luscious voice is nominated!  Read on...]

From the APA website:

“APA ANNOUNCES THE AUDIES® FINALISTS IN 29 CATEGORIES – Winners to be Announced at Audies Gala in Los Angeles

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) will host The Audies®, awards for excellence in audiobooks, on May 30, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. The winners will be announced at a gala celebration held at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel.

As the only awards program in the United States devoted entirely to honoring spoken word entertainment, The Audies® gala brings together performers, authors, producers, publishers and media to celebrate the best of the 2007 audiobook publishing year.

Categories for judges’ consideration included Fiction, Non-Fiction, Inspirational/Faith-Based Fiction, Multi-Voiced Performance, Romance, Science Fiction, Spanish Language and much more, including a newly created Achievement in Abridgement category.”

Some nominations that might be of particular interest to TGTBTU fans (to see a pdf of all the nominees, click here):

Children’s Titles, Ages 12 +

• Bloody Jack by L.M. Meyer, narrated by Katherine Kellgren, published by Listen & Live Audio
• InterWorld by Neil Gaiman, narrated by Christopher Evan Welch, published by HarperAudio
• A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass, narrated by Danielle Ferland, published by Recorded Books
• M Is for Magic by Neil Gaiman, narrated by Neil Gaiman, published by HarperAudio
• Slam by Nick Hornby, narrated by Nicholas Hoult, published by Penguin Audio

Romance

• Beyond the Highland Mist by Karen Marie Moning, narrated by Phil Gigante, published by Brilliance Audio
• Consequences by Penelope Lively, narrated by Josephine Bailey, published by Tantor Media, Inc.
• Everlasting by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, narrated by Xanthe Elbrick, published by HarperAudio
• On Tall Pine Lake by Dorothy Garlock, narrated by Anna Fields, published by BBC Audiobooks America
• Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, narrated by Anna Fields, published by HarperAudio
• Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas, narrated by Jeannie Stith, published by Brilliance Audio

Science Fiction

• The Draco Tavern by Larry Niven, narrated by Tom Weiner, published by Blackstone Audio Inc.
• Dune by Frank Herbert, narrated by Scott Brick, Simon Vance and a full cast, published by Macmillan Audio
• The Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, narrated by Kristoffer Tabori, published by Blackstone Audio Inc.
• Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Ravens of Avalon by Diana L. Paxson, narrated by Lorna Raver, published by Tantor Media, Inc.
• Selections from Dreamsongs 1: Fan Fiction and Sci-Fi from Martin’s Early Years: Unabridged Selections by George R.R. Martin, narrated by Claudia Black, Mark Bramhall, Scott Brick, Roy Dotrice, Kim Mai Guest, Kirby Heyborne, and Adrian Paul, published by Random House Audio

Thriller/Suspense

• Daddy’s Girl by Lisa Scottoline, narrated by Barbara Rosenblat, published by HarperAudio
• Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, narrated by Stephen Lang, published by HarperAudio
• The Judas Strain by James Rollins, narrated by Peter Jay Fernandez, published by HarperAudio
• No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay, narrated by Christopher Lane, published by Brilliance Audio
• The Secret Servant by Daniel Silva, narrated by Phil Gigante, published by Brilliance Audio
• What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman, narrated by Linda Emond, published by HarperAudio

And yes, for those of you that did not notice, narrator Phil Gigante IS nominated in two different categories… cuz he’s just that freakin’ good. Of course, I think he was robbed and ALL his KMM Highlander’s audio books should have been nominated. *sniff*

…er… I mean… Congratulations and Good Luck to ALL the nominees!

BTW, I’m listening to Phil right now in KMM’s Kiss of the Highlander and let me tell you, it’s the best yet! Kiss better sweep the Audies NEXT year or I might send Gwen over to have a talk with those APA folks!