byemilyveinglory

MARKET: Fireborn Publishing

Emily Veinglory — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:48:00 +0000

Fireborn Publishing is seeking "everything from romantic, through all heat levels of romance, and erotica." The take lengths from 5000 words and up. Currently short on M/M ad ménage, The current site seems to be a bit of a placeholder, hence the Web 1.0 coding.

MARKET Adore Publishing

Emily Veinglory — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Adore Publishing is seeking "urban fiction, African American romance, street lit, woman's fiction, and interracial romance". Their website does not exactly fill me with confidence. I am going to guess the two owners of this startup are also the two authors they currently list.

Spero Publishing acquired Eternal Press and Damnation Books

Emily Veinglory — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 09:41:00 +0000

In a move that came to a surprise to many of their authors, Eternal Press/Damnation Books and all titles under contract have reported been acquired by Alan Leddon of Spero Publishing. At least some of the related announcements for and communications with authors are occurring on their Facebook page.

Spero Publishing seems to be a small publisher of children's and role-playing game books. There is not much to suggest an ability to easily onboard and skillfully market a large catalog of genre fiction.

Do Third Party Sellers Deliberately Create Duplicate Listings on Amazon?

Emily Veinglory — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 16:06:00 +0000

I keep noticing duplicate listings for my books on Amazon. Only the paperback format, and marked "This item is only available from third-party sellers." And listed by a single third party seller at an inflated price.

It is no mystery how the duplicate listing is created. Even a small difference in just the title of the data entered will create a separate listing, not connected to the real listing where customers can by the book new and at list price. In these cases the new listing is generally created by putting brackets around the title.

This as now happened often enough that I think it is a deliberate tactic by these sellers to avoid having to compete directly with the properly priced books. Even if their listing gets much less traffic it has some chance of winning them the sale.

I keep reporting these listings, some of which now incorrectly say my titles are out of print. But it seems to take careful explanations to several tiers of customer service every single time. Amazon is quick to crack down on a lot of things, currently deleting reviews on the east suspicion of impropriety, but how long will it take them to catch on to this little scheme?

Erotic Poetry Open Calls (2015)

Emily Veinglory — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 14:08:00 +0000

October 1st: Coming Together: In Verse is a collection of erotic poetry and risqué verse edited by Ashley R Lister. Sales proceeds benefit Hope for Paws.

September 15th: Bare Back Magazine is planning its first anthology in celebration of its 10th anniversary of publishing erotic stories, poetry, reviews, art and news online.

Open: Clean Sheets (unpaid) Poems on a broad range of erotic themes. We are interested in provocative poems about all types of lifestyles and cultural perspectives, all forms of sexual play, and insights on the nature of eroticism.

Pony Play Goes Mainstream (?)

Emily Veinglory — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 20:19:00 +0000

As self-publishing and e-publishing become more accessible, a number of niche markets are becoming more visible online. One of them being pony play, an equine role-play fetish that the informed eye sees glimpses of in sundry places like Madonna concerts and couture fashion shoes. But the literary aspect of pony play has recently begun moving from underground to overt.

Works could be found where people literal turned horses fell in love in that form (Wind in Cairo, 1989). And even collections like Donna Barr's "Transformations" (Lulu, 2006) which focus on becoming a horse (or horse-like) as a distinct fetish interest.

However it is only more recently that works like the Victorian-era Copper Horse series by Miss Merikan have appeared on Amazon (See more examples here). If earlier prose works of equine roleplay exist, they must be from the ephemeral world of direct order erotica, and no obvious record remains.

Many mainstream works of pony play display intricate work building to make the fetish elements of being a human pony a natural part of the social order, often by using a historical setting where considerable imbalances of powers existed between people based on race or class. A rather perilous path that these earlier authors have negotiated skillfully (but less nuanced works are likely to follow).

A kink that was fading into obscurity is finding a new and more diverse audience through writing that blends the fetish core of the pony play concept with worlds where the more ridiculous aspects of its "reality" are buffed beautifully away.

Eventually we will probably see the mainstream media suddenly "discover" this modern trend that has it roots firmly planted in 100 years of kinky history.

Nine Star Press / Valentines Open Call

Emily Veinglory — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 19:33:00 +0000

Nine Star Press is launching in November of this year (2015). They are seeking "LGBTQA romance fiction, literary novels, and erotica shorts." They have a special call for Valentine’s Day 2016 stories.

Bizarro Kindlerotica

Emily Veinglory — Sat, 26 Sep 2015 19:55:00 +0000

I think there is now official a growing literary love child between erotica and bizarro fiction. Bizarro fiction has often included erotic elements but in fairly haphazard way.

Now it seem that as erotica grew beyond the tamer paranormal options and tentacles into Bigfoot, Dinosaurs and other monsters some writers have embraced the goal of brining erotica the most unlikely figures you could imagine.

Clippy the Microsoft Office animated assistance, the late President Lincoln, the MacDonald's Hamburglar... they all star in erotic ebooks available on Amazon. And Leonard Delaney is the crown Prince of Bizarro Kindlerotica land.

Bizarro Kindlerotica finally reach a place even I find rather dubious (aesthetical and legally) with author Lilith St. Augustine and the story Kim Goes To Jail: An Erotic Story--a transparent reference to county clerk Kim Davis. (With a blurb clearly trying to shelter under the category of satire.)

Harlequin Wine

Emily Veinglory — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 19:22:00 +0000

As Jezebel reports, Harlequin is bringing out wine under labels based on their earliest pre-category covers. No doubt a way to monetize and reinforce some romance genre clichés, without having to worry about paying a dime to the authors or illustrators from the original book.

And as for the advertising slogans. Um, yeah. That's not actually very romantic at all IMHO. More sort of literally objectifying and all three advertisements clearly position the consumer as male.

Of course if someone wanted to send me some Vintages by Harlequin I would not be above trying them out. But when it comes to parting with my own money, I will wait and see what the Amazon reviews say first... and they would have to be pretty damn good to get part an advertising campaign that also seems strikingly "vintage", and not in a good way.

See also:

Press Release Sept 24, 2015

Secret Cravings Publishing closed

Emily Veinglory — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 13:32:00 +0000

Secret Cravings Publishing, closed 8/31, reportedly due to bankruptcy. Which is pretty much the worst kind of bad news for authors as it ties up their books for a long time and puts them right at the end of the queue as creditors.

Will there ever be a single 'go to' Romance Community? (And which ones do you use?)

Emily Veinglory — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 18:09:00 +0000

Today Diversion Publishing launched a new online romance community. What the press release lacks is a link to said community, it can be found here. It is meant to be "publisher neutral" and this is reasonably plausible in that Diversion's Ever After Division was been an e-bookstore and services provider, but never home to their own romance titles.

To my eyes the new community website looks deressingly pink, girly, sweaty-torso-ed and... well like a blog.Because,,. It's a blog. Right? Damn it, I have fallen for another Press Release Puff Job.

Which is a pity because I do think there is a bit of a hole in Romanceandia where a real pan-romance site with forums, wikis, resources etc could fit in. One is mainstream and business-like, and that swerves around the kitschy low tech populism of the Romantic Times forum, the cloying insularity of Romance Diva's, the dated fading charm of All About Romance....

Or a I being too harsh? Which romance community sites do you use? Which would you recommend?

When is a book not a book? (for GST & VAT)

Emily Veinglory — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 14:36:00 +0000

Photo credit: Roberto_Ventre / Foter / CC BY-SA

Australia has just followed the United Kingdom in explicitly not exempting imported e-books or audio-books from goods and services tax (GST). In both countries conventional hardback and paperback books are exempt from tax as being "activities in the public interest".

The double standard is fairly obvious. It is based on "intangibility" of format, not the actual function or benefit of the product. It is easier to scrape all digital products together and make a money-grab than uphold the principle of fair and responsible taxation that focuses on the benefits society as a whole.

Chicago Teachers Union struggles with the concept of "fiction".

Emily Veinglory — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 13:39:00 +0000

Apparently mistaking BDSM kindle erotica for a hard-hitting [pun intended] documentary, the Chicago Teachers Union is reportedly trying to get "The Teacher's Strike" by Gabby Matthews withdrawn from sale.

I am normally and ardent supporter of both teachers and unions, but in this case The Chicago Teacher Union needs to pull its head out of its collective ass. Pursuing this action will only promote the book and make the union look like humorless prudes with a very weak grasp of the civic principles that they are meant to be teaching to the nation's youth.

The Union hangs their case on the logo appearing on the teacher's shirt on the cover. However the author and publisher can probably easily hide behind the broad cover of parody and satire--if they even need to.

At the end of the day, this is fiction--not someone trying to cause confusion, disparage or divert money that would otherwise go into the union's coffers

Sexting is Good

Emily Veinglory — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 09:02:00 +0000

garryknight / Foter / CC BY

A press release starts with the usual negative tone:

"The practice of sexting may be more common than generally thought among adults. More than eight out of 10 people surveyed online admitted to sexting in the prior year, according to research presented at the American Psychological Association’s 123rd Annual Convention."

I mean how often is the word "admitted" used in relation to good things, or even neutral ones? But then the actual results of the research are described:

"...the researchers found that greater levels of sexting were associated with greater sexual satisfaction, especially for those in a relationship ... The researchers also found that greater levels of sexting were associated with relationship satisfaction for all but those who identified their relationship as “very committed."

So, sexting people are more committed to their partners and more happy with their sex life.

MARKET Nightchaser Ink

Emily Veinglory — Sun, 09 Aug 2015 18:55:00 +0000

Nightchaser Ink is seeking submissions in several genres including romance and erotica.

Why Romance Covers Look So Formulaic

Emily Veinglory — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 19:56:00 +0000

A recent article by An Goris is either rather clever, or a very complicated way of stating the obvious. I'll let you decide. You can read the whole thing here.*

Goris describes how romance covers are deliberately made to look superficially the same to the general public (e.g. semi-naked clinch) but include subtle differences that romance readers can decode (e.g. gal in leather pants means paranormal). (A "double semiotic code")

She goes on to say how the generic features are necessary for non-romance readers to distribute, acquire and generally support the delivery of romance from the people who make it to those who read it, by those who don't give a crap about it. And these cues have to be very unsubtle because romance fiction is sold not only in bookstores but a wide variety of other general retailers.

Because these deliverers of product are not interested in, or educated about, genre romance the cover art has to be very uniform and overt for them to get the message. And this in turn creates and reinforces the general impression of romance as "...formulaic, overly sexualized and more than a little ridiculous" and gives an impression of low quality** assembly line production. Especially as non-romance readers are not able to decode the subtle variations that indicate what is distinctive about each title.

So basically the argument is that the clichéd and repetitive part of romance covers that the general public disdain, are made that way because the general public does not understand anything more subtle--and romance fiction requires these people to understand how to transport, stock and sell it. While romance readers benefit from the publishers ability to encode nuanced detail on top of this standard template.

Or as this is phrased in academic-speak***: "...far from being a random or coincidental effect, this semiotic pattern is a deliberate strategy ... public intelligibility of its material code is an important consideration for a book that circulates in a wide variety of cultural and commercial spaces..."

* "Hidden Codes of Love: The Materiality of the Category Romance Novel" by An Goris
** See: Romance, gender, and the measure of a 'real book'
*** (Because while romance needs to be easily recognized to be effectively traded, academia only respects maximally pretentious phraseology.)

Gemstone Romance backer Graeme Reynolds believes in the author blacklist

Emily Veinglory — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 09:05:00 +0000

The idea that authors can get blacklisted for sharing their thoughts online is generally treated as a myth. But it does serve a useful purpose in that you sometimes find small presses, usually start ups, who do believe in it. And these are publishers to avoid.

Case in point, Gemstone Romance.

A poster by the name of Anne noted that "Horrified Press" was not looking particularly promising as "newish startup without publishing/editing experience". And that they seemed to be associated with another startup, Gemstone Romance.

Graeme Reynolds replied with more information about Horrified press and "Gemstone Romance is a separate entity, which I am funding and am applying the Horrific Tales business model to, but is being run by Charlotte Courtney. I am simply providing financial, technical and business support to the venture. It will use a different editorial team..."

He then added: "Also, a word of advice to Anne, who wrote this post. Probably not the best move to make when trying to get business from a publisher. Consider yourself off the shortlist for Gemstone Romance. Best of luck in whatever you do next."

Which both seriously undermines his claim of total editorial independence between Horrified and Gemstone, and is some grade-A unprofessional passive aggressive bullshit. Time will tell if he decides to try and backfill that hole or just keeps digging.

...Of The Moon

Emily Veinglory — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:08:00 +0000

The Wild Webby West that is Amazon Kindle has brought us bigfoot erotica, dinosaur erotica, and even Clippy (the Microsoft Office animated assistant) erotica.

But I still found myself just mildly scandalized by the trilogy-closing effort by Catherine De Vore. Can anyone beat this (so to speak) for a seriously out there kindlerotica cover?

New Market (sort of): Canelo

Emily Veinglory — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 19:43:00 +0000

UK-based epublisher Canelo is looking for stories with "mass appeal" in several genres including romance. The founding partners are Iain Millar, Michael Bhaskar and Nick Barreto. They claim a royalty rate of 50-60 percent which I assume to mean percent of cover price. (Submissions via agent).

Comments on articles about Canelo seem to be about 1/2 skepticism about that royalty rate being sustainable, and about half other epublishers saying they have been offering rates that good for years and it is totally no big deal. (See here and here).

Canelo talk big about being the future of publishing, the next generation of digital publishing, blah blah blah. It is a little hard to see what they are doing that is so distinctive so far other than being British men with nice hair.

NPR top 100 romance novels

Emily Veinglory — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 14:39:00 +0000

Have I been living under a rock?

The NPR top 100 list for romance includes three erotic romance titles, two of them from Ellora's Cave, and none of them familiar to me. They seem to be neither old classics nor recent red-hot sellers.

Nature of Desire -- Natural Law by Joey W. Hill (Ellora's Cave, 2008)
Liberating Lacey by Anne Calhoun (Ellora's Cave, 2015)
The Lady's Tutor by Robin Schone (Kensington, 2000)

Sugar and Spice Press: Closed (?)

Emily Veinglory — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 19:19:00 +0000

I am told that Sugar and Spice Press (2010-2011) is closed and has been for some time, although their website and Facebook page are still up (but extremely out of date). Confirmation would be appreciated.

The John Havel Thing

Emily Veinglory — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 08:37:00 +0000

World of Kindle eBooks
[July 20] John Havel tries to prove some really rather nebulous point by plagiarizing a romance novel and uploading it to kindle, and then posts about it on Hustle in a crass and insulting way. He concludes that because he managed to rip off Anna Cleary, Kindle is bad an you shouldn't buy self-published books.

Reactions to John Havel’s article in The Hustle[July 22]
Various people, including the author of the book, indicate this was a dumbass move. Because, well, it was. Seriously what was the point here?

Dear John, pull your head in. Kindle is sometimes a bit lax in their screening but you actually committed a crime. Grow the fuck up and take down the post where you joke and boast about it whilst also being casually racist and very condescending to the romance genre.

Dear Hustle, what next? Perhaps a laddish tale of stealing cars because security systems suck? A little light sharking, just for fun? Or maybe hire some bloggers who know that ignorance of the law is, as has always been the case, not an excuse. Although this may be one case of plagiarism where I actually believe the guy really is that stupid.

Send in the Clones

Emily Veinglory — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 15:52:00 +0000

Old is the New New

Emily Veinglory — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 19:46:00 +0000

I will admit to being a bit baffled by the latest campaign to promote traditional newspapers. "Smart is the New Sexy". Mostly because this is not the 1980s and this particular campaign is about 35-years shy of being hipster ironic.

When I saw it my thoughts, in order, were:

1) Sexy is the new sexy. Sexy was the old sexy. Sexy will always be sexy unless you somehow think there is anything wrong with just plain sexy, meaning it needs to be replaced with something else.

2) I like newspapers. I read newspapers. I read the New York Times in an airport just yesterday. But this is nothing that makes words in the average newspaper smarter than words in a magazine or on a website. In fact on the previous flight I picked up two competing Chicago papers and at least three of the front page stories were word-for-word, picture-for-picture identical. Freelancers may be smart, but newspapers are starting to look pretty damn idiotic.

3) Lets pair our product with a girl in stiletto heels so it becomes insta-sexy. Um. Yeah. Is that the nest advertising companies can come up with these days? Then there is the ad copy. Holy fricking jalapeno Christ. Try this: "When you want to find out what they're talking about in Washington, D.C., or find the best deal on that pair of shoes you've been longing for, your newspaper has you covered." This translates as: we desperately want readers in the female 25-45 demographic and we think they like shoes.

5) Then there is the main blurb: "The "Smart is the new sexy" industry promotion ads reinforce the value of newspaper media to existing and prospective consumers. The ads speak to the timeless merits of newspaper journalism, newspapers as vehicles for savvy shoppers, and the community insights and information that newspapers provide. Collectively, they reinforce the enduring draw of our medium among print audiences while engaging those consumers who come to newspapers through their many digital formats. All advertising materials are still available to newspapers that wish to run them in print or online. Interested newspapers may download print and digital files for each ad using the image buttons on the right rail." This translates as: You think the Newspaper Association of America is naff, and you're probably right.

Bonnier buys Totally Entwined Group

Emily Veinglory — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 09:54:00 +0000

It seems that the authors at Totally Bound and the other imprints learned about this at about the same time as the rest of us, albeit through the nicety of a direct email.

"Bonnier is acquiring the whole company and its imprints Totally Bound Publishing (romance), Pride Publishing (LGBTQI fiction), Finch Books (YA), Evidence Press (crime and thriller) and Celebritease (celebrity authors)."

So, from proliferating imprints like a crazed hydra, to being sold on lock-stock-and-barrel in a matter of months? One wonders what that is all about.

A Question of Book Reviewing Ethics: What Say You?

Emily Veinglory — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 16:03:00 +0000

POD People requests that authors interested in having a book reviewed send a query email, not a copy of the book. This is not something we do just to make authors' lives more difficult. This site has more than one reviewer so if the the query piques a reviewer's interest the book needs to be sent directly to the interested reviewer. Sending an e-book to our main address just maximizes the chance of it being lost, spam-blocked, or otherwise going astray. Of course people do it anyway. No biggie.

In recent weeks, however, several authors have gone one step further and sent us a Kindle gift certificate for the book they want reviewed. These queries are not forwarded to our reviewers. I had hoped that if they were not accepted the author might get their money back (because even when sent by the author, these gift certificates are not free).

Images_of_Money / Foter / CC BY

However, Amazon Customer Service have informed me:

"Amazon.com gift cards don't have expiration dates. You can use your gift card whenever it's most convenient for you. Though the seller will not be credited back, once gift card is applied in your account, it will be saved as an available gift card balance in your Amazon account."

So if the author is simply throwing the money away, is there any reason I should not just take the transferable gift certificate and run? I would not do it just because it feels wrong, but whether I don't claim the gift certificate, or claim it and spend it on a box of pumpkin spice-flavored peeps instead, the author is out the same amount of money. So should it really matter to them?

In any case, then I came across this thread. Based on what these Kindle users describe my advice to any author that sent a kindle gift certificate to the podpeep email account is to contact Amazon and ask for a refund. That is the only way you will recoup your pointless expenditure.

TL;DR version: do not send us Kindle gift cards of books you want reviewed.

Mark Lawrence publicity opportunity

Emily Veinglory — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 10:02:00 +0000

If you have self-published a fantasy book you might be interested in this opportunity to get some high quality blog reviews.

SFWA Opens to Consideration of Self-Published Authors

Emily Veinglory — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 09:59:00 +0000

"....the membership of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has approved bylaw changes that enable SFWA to accept self-publication and small-press credits for Active and Associate memberships in the organization. We are using existing levels of income but are now allowing a combination of advances and income earned in a 12 month period to rise to the qualifying amounts."

New Indie Book Reviewer

Emily Veinglory — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 16:32:00 +0000

A new site has opened for review of self-published books.