Buy Me at the Brenda Novak Auction

The Classic cover

I have two offerings at Brenda Novak's auction.The first is all five of my books, including the hard copy of that first Sweet Romance from 1983.  I'll dedicate them any way you want.

This is the 1983 book

The auction doesn't say that I'm going to throw in about 10 pages of my draft of The Spymaster's Lady along with this.  The actual sheets with notes and writing on them.  It's the scene just AFTER Grey and Annique make love in the bathtub where Doyle and Grey and Adrian are in the office talking.   I found the pages stuffed into some old papers and I figger whoever buys the books might as well enjoy them.

The five books (and draft pages) are here.

The other offering is a 20-page critique of your manuscript.  I will try to be kindly and useful.  That's found here.

Romance covers ... what's wrong with them

This is what I hate about Romance covers ... even covers that are well done.

Look at this:

I picked these up at random from four genres.  First thing we notice is these covers are, like, different from one another.  The covers have something to do with what's inside the book.

Look at the titles --

The Gunslinger
The Shoemaker's Wife
Clockwork angel
Mockingjay
Iron Daughter
In Sunlight and in Shadow
Tigers in Red Weather
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Outlaw Album

The titles relate to what's in the book.  They're different from one another, and memorable.
There's no sense that the reader has to be hand-led to these books by having the covers and titles shout across the store -- "Generic YA!" or "Generic Mystery!"  

These distinct and memorable covers are picked from a couple of 'best of' lists: Here are six historical fiction covers.  Here's a round dozen YA covers.  Now we got a whole hundred of SF&;F covers. And here's a pack of ten mystery / suspense books.  

EDITED TO ADD:

Some of those covers above are, admittedly, best seller types.  Are bestsellers the only books to get good, distinctive covers?

Not so much.  Look at what they do with covers in a very small, very specific genre.  Cozy mystery shows us that a small genre doesn't have to mean cookie cutter titles and covers.  Here.  Cozy mystery are midlist books with individual, story-directed covers.   Publishers can afford to do this.

 

All three covers are recognizably cozy mysteries.  All show different aspects of the cozy mystery genre.  You aren't going to mistake one cover for the other or one title for the other. 

How about another niche genre where the books are midlist books, not national bestsellers.  Wanna see some Inspirational Romance covers?

I won't argue these are great art.  I won't say these are thrillingly original.  But see how the covers are talking to the reader?  They're saying there's an individual story inside this book and it matters.

 Now let us look at Historical Romance, 32 romance books, shall we? These are all well-regarded popular books.  Picking out some random covers.

And we have a passel of women with their clothes falling off. Sometimes, men with their clothes falling off. Sometimes both.
Forgettable covers. Essentially these are the same cover decked out in different colors.

Don't get me started on the trite, interchangeable, forgettable titles.

To Desire a Wicked Duke
After Dark with a Scoundrel
One Night is Never Enough
To Tempt a Rake
The Perfect Mistress
Seducing the Governess
Unveiled
Scandal of the Year
The Countess

Eight out of nine, perfectly forgettable titles.

What does this say to the world about Historical Romance?
It says, "One Romance book is like another."  It says, "No story inside this book, Ma'm. Just pick one at random."

This is so much lack of respect.
I hate this.

I'm a Finalist

I finalled in the RITA for 2011.  This is a great honor and just so generally cool I am rendered pretty much speechless.

Black Hawk is one of eight in the Historical Romance category.

To wit:


Always a Temptress by Eileen Dreyer (Grand Central Publishing Forever; Amy Pierpont, editor)

The Black Hawk by Joanna Bourne (Berkley Publishing Group; Wendy McCurdy, editor)

(That's me.  Look.  There I am.  Me.)

The Danger of Desire by Elizabeth Essex (Kensington Brava; Megan Records, editor)

Heartbreak Creek by Kaki Warner (Berkley Publishing Group Sensation; Wendy McCurdy, editor)

The Many Sins of Lord Cameron by Jennifer Ashley (Berkley Publishing Group Sensation; Kate Seaver, editor)


Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt (Grand Central Publishing; Amy Pierpont, editor)

Silk Is for Seduction by Loretta Chase (Avon Books; May Chen, editor)

Unveiled by Courtney Milan (HQN Books; Margo Lipschultz, editor)


As you can see -- these are major players here.  I am taking my joy from the Finalist position in the gather-ye-rosebuds-while-ye-may school of reality.