Links, Fun & Games
To follow the proceedings of Digital Book World 2012, the hashtag #dbw12 is a mix of reaction and reporting. Alas, my reporting ended after lunch, as I had to take a break from the conference and go home. I am not sure if I'll be back tomorrow, but the hashtag is full of folks reporting from the different panels.
One highlight today; a full hour in the morning of the opening day devoted to lessons learned from romance ebook publishing, featuring Julie Cummings from AllRomance, Raelene Gorlinsky from Ellora's Cave, Liate Stehlik and Angela James from Carina Press.
The panelists discussed DRM, pricing, and the ways in which digital publishing has created a more adept and flexible publishing model that's better positioned to treat readers as customers and to take charge of their own customer service relationships. Two years ago, romance was part of an afternoon session – this year it was among the first sessions on the main stage. Most excellent.
From Ruth: here's a review from a reader at Amazon that takes into account many, many grammatical errors in a Carole Mortimer book published by Mills & Boon:
The story is 180 pages long. At 250 words per page, that is a total of 45,000 words which can be roughly broken down to 6,400 sentences. Out of these 6.400 sentences there are 178 sentences that end with ellipses (…); 121 sentences that end with ellipses followed by a question mark (…?); 93 sentences that end with a dash (-); 26 that end in an ellipsis followed by an exclamation mark (…!); 11 that end with a dash followed by a question mark (-?); 9 that end with an exclamation mark followed by a dash (!-) and 2 that end with dash followed by an exclamation mark (-!).
Whoa.
Sporcle quizzes are a quiet obsession of Hubby's, but I think this is the first one I've done better on than he has! Sporcle has a new quiz all about Harlequin romance heroes.
I got all of them with 4:11 seconds left. What's your score and time?
Thanks to Matt and Catherine both for the link!
Paul Bogaards' Tumblr post about the hierarchy of book publishing received a lot of Twitter traffic – and thank you to the many folks who pointed out that Smart Bitches is #53. As Secret Agent Dan said, “You're above the Pulitzer!” Which made me laugh – that's hilariously cool. Thanks, Mr. Bogaards.
Categories: General Bitching, The Link-O-Lator
Links and News and a few Coupons
Author Jim C. Hines has recreated several UF covers. This is so awesome, I don't know where to put my eyeballs first!
The insulin pump site is what makes it extra more awesome. High fives to you, sir!
I am waiting for the 'oops my ballgown is falling off my shoulders and is totally open in the back' pose. When's that coming, Jim?
What poses would you like to see Jim recreate?
In May 2011, a reader asked me about author Alison Richardson, who wrote a series of Spice Briefs. I was contacted by Ms. Richardson, who was very flattered that readers were looking for her. I have a message for you on the original entry from Ms. Richardson.
Unraveled by Courtney Milan is this month's book club pick, and it's after rebate at AllRomance – but only until the 15th, so if you're thinking about it, the rebate period is running out soon!
I'm a media sponsor for the 2012 Tools of Change in Publishing conerence, which will be held February 13-15 at the New York Marriott Marquis. As a media sponsor, I have a 15% off coupon code for anyone who is thinking of registering: toc12sbtb. This is a Big Conference, and often leaves my brain full of ideas and amazing things to think about. I look forward to it each year. It's an intersection of those who technically and digitally create books and those who market them – it's a meeting of many brains, basically.
Later this month, I'll also have a pass for the whole conference to raffle off here, so stay tuned.
DocTurtle's first two chapters of The Iron Duke are going up on Tuesday, so if you're reading along, get ready! More shall be arriving from the doc soon.
And finally, I found a few coupons for Kobo and Harlequin:
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Get off an eligible Kobo book. (That means Not Agency).
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Save an EXTRA 10% on all Harlequin Ebooks with coupon code SAVE10AFFO. Ebooks only, until 3/31/2012.
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Spend or more and get OFF your order on Harlequin eBooks with code SAVE5DOLLARS. Expires 03/31/12. Jane also reported a coupon SPEND4E11.
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Bathing while you read? LUSH is having a 2-for-1 sale on any product made before November 2011. Everything eligible is marked on the website – including the Sex Bomb for the bath, which is among my favorites.
- Devil's Bride is still on sale for .99, and is, for me, still as addictive a book as ever. I picked up my paper copy while cleaning the room it lives in, and half an hour later people came looking for me. Pick up your own addictive .99c digital copy at Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo.
Categories: Ebooks, Free or Cheap Ebooks, General Bitching, The Link-O-Lator
Links and Stuff
Big huge mazel tov to Barbara Vey, who will be published in “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Family Caregivers.” Vey's story is about her role caring for her mom during her mom's terminal illness. If you've never heard Barbara speak about anything, go sit and ask her random questions because she's hilarious.
But if she talks about her mom, it'll make you teary, because her mom was one special lady – which is not a big surprise since Barbara is entirely awesome.
Congrats to Barbara on her upcoming publication!
Via Tina C. an amazing set of pictures: when you paint a room white and give kids thousands of colored stickers, art happens.
Back in October, Deirdre Donohue interviewed me for the USA Today “Life” section and the rest of the interview is online at the USAT Happy Ever After blog. Yay for not being restricted by column inches (huh huh. Inches).
So, what's up with you this week? Tired of being back after the vacation? What are you reading?
Categories: General Bitching, The Link-O-Lator
Two Links for the Second Night of Hanukkah
They don't have anything to do with Hanukkah per se, but There's Two Of Them, and tonight is the second night of Hanukkah. I am wild with the connections, aren't I?
First: From the charming and clever department, Brian O'Leary's holiday retelling of The Night Before Christmas, only with ebooks.
And Second: This is a cool Kickstarter project: The Monster Alphabet Board Book, created by Darren Gendron and Obsidian Abnormal, the folks behind HelloWithCheese.
Each letter of the alphabet is a different monster – and given how many of you are (a) parents of young kids and (b) total monster geeknerds, I figured you might like to know about it.
For or more, donors get two copies of the book. I'm going to keep one to read to my kids, who will be totally giddy about it, and give one away here once its published. Stay tuned in the new year for funky monster options!
Question: have you ever funded a Kickstarter before? This is my first. It was fun – and very easy!
Categories: General Bitching, The Link-O-Lator
Links! It’s like we’re online or something!
Ever wondered who your Perfect Regency Hero might be? Carolyn Jewel is here to help.
My results? The Brooding Duke, which reads in part, ” chances are good he'll win you in a card game, take your virginity later that night then put you to work as his valet.”
AWESOME!
Graceful curtsey to Elizabeth for the link!
If you have a Sony Reader AND a Sony store near you, you can trade in your old unit for a credit, PLUS the Sony WiFi PRS t1BC is on sale for .00 until December 24, 2011.
Graceful curtsey to Lisa for the link!
Samhain has launched Retro Romance, old out-of-print titles brought back digitally. There are five launch titles from authors Debra Mullins, Karen Kay, Kate Donovan, Sharon DaVita, and Patricia Hagan. Have you read these books or these authors? Any recommendations?
I'm running in circles trying to figure out my opinion on this one: Superheroines Urge You to Self Examine Your Breasts in some PSAs from Mozambique.
The comments are as divided as my opinion on this one. The campaign walks an interesting line. On one hand: attention getting for something that's important. On the other, very sexualized and comics are very male-oriented already.
Yet again, some breast lumps are found by men who are fondling their wives or girlfriends, so awareness of both genders is a good thing.
What do you think of the ads?
Graceful curtsey to James L for the link.
ETA: Last call! No, not for the bar. The bar around here is always open. Last call for proposals for the Romance Area for the Popular Culture Association's 2012 Annual Conference, which is being held in Boston from April 11 – 14, 2012. So if you've got a paper with feisty Lacanian analysis of the preponderance of raven tresses and violet eyes in romance, that would be a great opportunity. (Seriously, academics talking romance is brain-splodey awesome).
Categories: General Bitching, The Link-O-Lator
Saturday Morning Links
So if you’re going to the AWP conference in Chicago next February-March, you should keep that Thursday evening free so you can come hang with The Rumpus as we host a reading to benefit 826 Chicago. Details are still being hammered out, but scheduled to appear are Sommer Browning, Nick Flynn, Cheryl Strayed and yours truly. I’ll try not to stink up the joint too badly.
I have no way to segue into this: a brief history of the grades of maple syrup.
Why science majors change their minds. Count me as one of these people–a chemistry major undone my by inability to integrate an equation. I’m not sorry it happened.
Who cares if eyewitness testimony is incredibly untrustworthy? Not the Supreme Court, by all accounts.
The Economist argues that subsidizing artistic folk is a good thing for society. Well, duh.
When is an anti-bullying law not really an anti-bullying law? When it includes a hole big enough to drive a Star Destroyer through it.
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Filed under Poetry | Tags: Links, Morning, Saturday | Comment (0)Erin Rose’s Tech Links
You can now look at the interior of (public) buildings with Google Street View.
It’s sad that he’s dead and all, but Steve Jobs might not be the best role model.
Patent lawyers have turned their sights on social networking sites.
Edible spray paint. I don’t trust it.
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Filed under Poetry | Tags: Erin, Links, Rose’s, Tech | Comment (0)Erin Rose’s Tech Links
Another volte-face: Research now suggests that your cellphone isn’t giving you cancer.
If constantly tweeting just isn’t enough for you, maybe you need a portrait made out of your tweets.
Facebook could be fined for keeping data that users have deleted.
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Filed under Poetry | Tags: Erin, Links, Rose’s, Tech | Comment (0)Erin Rose’s Tech Links
There are a bunch of new Kindles if you’re into that whole e-reader thing.
Your car will soon be able to read your mind if Nissan has its way.
So just how long does your cellphone company keep your call logs and text messages for?
Just what the Internet needed: another venue for semi-anonymous slurs, like this new site where you rate your exes.
Today I learned: everyone who Googles zombies is from the US, UK or Japan.
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Filed under Poetry | Tags: Erin, Links, Rose’s, Tech | Comment (0)Links! They are ON the INTERNETS
A+
This week I am back at the Kirkus (which I call The Kirks for short, and picture Kirk Cameron, Kirk Dougas and Captain Kirk doing a very elegant line dance around the Kirkus headquarters) talking about ferocious heroines – the ones who are so violent and so strong it’s rather startling when you read them at first:
A step beyond merely strong heroines, though, are the fierce heroines. Sometimes I love reading about ferocious heroines. Sometimes angry, sometimes violent, and always incredibly strong and determined—I love heroines like this. They can be violent and do things I’d never do in my life, like kill a staggering number of other characters before the last page of the book. They can be brusque, cruel, demanding and harsh—but as much as I dislike people like that in real life, there are times when I love reading about women like this in romance.
Sales? Sales! Book 1 in Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassins series is on sale digitally for .99 [Kindle | Kobo | BN | WORD Brooklyn]
Holy crap, I love convenience pricing as effective promotion. I so bought it, and gifted it, too.
Ladies and Gentlemen: the Academee Awarde for Most Awesome Response to a Typo Ever goes to Susan Andersen. *wild applause*
And finally: Jim C. Hines is owed a beer by me for this thought-provoking post. Cheers to you, dude. And high fives to MizKit and Sheila for the link.