Monday, October 25, 2010

A Trip to the Bookstore

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Borders on School Street in downtown Boston. It's a terrific store, kitty corner across from the Old South Meeting House right on the red bricked Freedom Trail. My daughter picked up the newest Rick Castle book (still bewilders me a bit that a fictional author can hit the NY Times list, but that's marketing for you! ;-)) and my DH got the newest Vince Flynn title.

I'm waiting till October 26th to pick up my next book. It'll be my friend CL Wilson's Crown of Crystal Flame. The best way to support an author's work is to pre-order or buy it on the release day (or as close to it as possible). Books hit best seller lists not by virtue of the number of actual books sold. It's based on the velocity with which the book flies out the bookstores during that crucial first 2 weeks after the release date.

But I spent some time wandering the romance stacks and saw no books from Dorchester at all. Not that I expected to, but it was sad all the same. That means none of my Emily Bryan books are in the big box stores any longer. They aren't available in print on the Borders or B&N websites, though you can still get ebooks of them. Amazon has a few copies of my titles left in their warehouse, but once those are gone, they're gone.

Not finding any Leisure or Lovespell books was like reaching an abrupt "the end" to a story I wasn't ready to stop reading. I'm sad not to have my work available in print. Not that I dislike ebooks. I've started reading on my phone and find it so convenient. But in the most recent RT BookReviews, readers were weighing in on Dorchester's decision to move to ebooks only (with tradepaper coming months later) and the comments were overwhelmingly negative. Not everyone is ready to to read their romance on a screen.


However, I was very encouraged to find LOTS of Kensington Brava titles in the bookstore. When my first Mia Marlowe book comes out next May, it should be widely available in print and as an ebook simulaneously (and is already available for pre-order at Amazon, B & N and Borders!)


As you know I've been see-sawing between this blog and my Mia blog for a while. Since my career is turning in a new direction, I'll be moving exclusively to the Mia Marlowe blog starting November 3rd. We'll have a grand Moving Party with guests and give aways. I hope you'll join me and will click to follow that blog if you haven't done so already.

Thank you for your support here. We've been through quite a bit on this blog--my whirlwind 50 day/50 blog tour for Vexing the Viscount, going through my bout with cancer back in 2008, the fun of Red Pencil Thursdays (something that will carry over to the Mia blog!) and through all the changes in the publishing industry that lead me to this new chapter in my life. Thank you for being an important part of my writing. Thank you for being my friend.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I'll hug Emily and bid her farewell, but there'll be a cup of poetic mead in my longhouse for Mia. *g*

I am a C.L. Wilson fangirl. I love that series as much as cheesecake. Her world building is amazing. I will have to break my book-buying embargo to pick that one up. I had to ground myself from picking up anything new because my TBR pile, which once had a place on my coffee table has now spread like an infectious disease. They are everywhere.

I'm so sad about Leisure and Lovespell. When I was in HS and still writing horrible slit your wrist with a spork angst, I swore one day I'd write for Lovespell. I loved their books. And Leisure, wow. So many of the horror greats have written for Leisure. Hardly any of the big houses publish horror anymore and when they do, it's someone iconic like King. Who is fabulous, but there's no one taking chances on the new horror authors.

So, the moving party. Do you need me to carry anything? *wink*

EmilyBryan said...

Just bring along a couple of your hunky heros to serve the cyber drinks, Saranna! Thanks.

Nynke said...

Oh Saranna, you said cheesecake again! My mouth can't help but water, even though I just finished two midnight snacks... ;) And "slit your wrist with a spork", heehee... (I hope no one actually tries that, but it makes me laugh).

On topic, though: I'm looking forward to the moving party! And I hope I'll find a good ebook format that I can actually read on my Android phone instead of just on my laptop. I think I'll have to look into that a little better, and/or wait a few more months until they come up with some really convenient solution. I do like to read on my phone, especially when I'm on a train or in bed. Reading with a notebook precariously balanced on its side is not the greatest idea ;).

EmilyBryan said...

Nynke--I have a Kindle app on my Adroid and it works great, but really eats up the battery. I have to recharge almost every night, but it's a great way to read ebooks. Is Amazon available in the Netherlands?

Unknown said...

Oh, I'll bring my horde of pillaging (yet well-mannered) waiter Vikings. :)

Nynke- Yes, I'm all about the food. Speaking of cheesecake, I'm making a pumpkin cheesecake later this week...

Deanna said...

I've switched completely over to eBooks now for all my fiction reading and with the Kindle I've started doing non fiction reading in eBooks too.

I've been reading on my phone / handheld since 2001, so it's been a long journey for me and I'm enjoying seeing how the technology has evolved.

Emily, do you think your books are going to be unavailable for sale from Amazon in Kindle format pretty soon? I've got them in my wish list at the moment and I've got lots of books in my TBR pile but I don't want to end up not having the books, so if I have to, I'll get the books right away. What do you think?

Thanks for the C L Wilson intro. I've looked her up and I'm going to bookmark her as someone to try.

I'm definitely coming to the party.

EmilyBryan said...

Daz--I wish I had a crystal ball to see what's coming down the road for Dorchester. They still hold the rights to all my Emily Bryan books and can offer them for sale in whatever format they choose. The changes at Dorchester came with no warning to the authors at all, so if there is anything that might cause my books to not be available (like the dreaded B word-bankruptcy) I won't know till it's a done deal. If you want my books, time may be of the essence.

CL Wilson was also a Dorchester author who recently moved to Avon to finish her fantasy series. She's a wonderful cross between Tolkien and Feehan. I think you'll love her work.

Nynke said...

Saranna - pumpkin cheescake, wow... I can't even imagine what that would taste like, but if you're making it, it must be good :).

Emily - Kindle for Android! Good idea! I've downloaded it just now and I'm looking forward to giving it a go :). Thanks!