Lori Devoti, paranormal romance and urban fantasy author

In my short time really paying attention, I’ve decided this is the pervailing attitude among authors. Seems like every time I flip on my computer or drag myself to a conference, someone is foretelling the death of some sub-genre or another, or saying how having your book published in one month rather than another is sure to be poison for your sales. It’s enough to make your head spin.

For months the chant has been no historicals - particularly not American set. And you can almost hear the stampeding feet of historical authors racing to contemporary. At RT we heard contemporaries are flat and erotica and paranormal are hot. Sue Grimshaw (Bordersgroup) quoted a 35% increase in erotica sales this year. This statement caused a bit of a stir among some people, but a 35% increase of a small market is still a small market. Not to put down erotica, just saying I think people take any little grain that drops on their heads and begin racing around creating panic. Sheer panic.

So what is it? Are Westerns dead? Are contemporaries barely scraping by? Is everyone secretly closeted in their houses reading erotica - tossing aside tamer novels in disgust? I doubt it. I’m sure all of these bits have some truth in them, but I think the key is to keep a cool head, write what you like and relate too, and weather the storm. Sure you can add a little spice if you like, but don’t twist yourself into a pretzel trying to be something you aren’t. In the meantime, grab your helmet and hunker down - you don’t want a big ole hunk of non-selling-historical sky to hit you.

Oh, and the next big thing? Gothics - get writing. ;-)

Check them out! Don’t miss the link for more photos at the bottom of the page. :)

and may be doing it for days. How can two adults and two munchkins create so much work??

Got my first non-previously-known-to-me fan mail. Pretty darn cool. :) I had an earlier one from a friend that I saved because it was just so wonderful. I plan on reading it every time I get a blah review.

Enough about me…what else happened at RT?

Okay, after Mr. Romance, my next favorite event was the book buyer panel. The conversation was very lively and informative. Although I did kind of wonder if in the future they might want to arm the panel members with tasers to fend off the rush of authors. Elbows and evil looks were a flying. Not from me, of course, I was the picture of well bred decorum. ;-)

The panel was made up of executives/buyers from Levy, Borders, Waldenbooks and Cowlie. The main discourse was on getting more sales - something near and dear to all of us in the room. However, there seemed to be some difference of opinion on how best to accomplish this.

The men from Levy talked about looking to the DVD business for ideas. Now, we have heard this before with the idea of including extras like alternative endings and such in books, but that isn’t what they were talking about. What they were referring to was more variety in pricing and size. Specifically, the new taller paperback was mentioned. Levy seemed very supportive of this format, Cowlie didn’t (won’t fit in current displays; their customers want cheaper, not more expensive). On pricing the idea of pricing “new releases” at the current rates and discounting older re-releases seemed popular with everyone. I think we can all agree there is nothing more annoying than paying full price for what you think is a new release only to discover you read it in 1992.

Paranormal and erotica are major growth areas, and I have to say the entire conference seemed focused on these two markets - everyone seemed to read erotica and vampires. (Later I’ll post a picture of me and my pretty pink book right next to Delilah Devlin of Ellora’s Cave. We joked that they couldn’t have put two more different looking books together, but differences in covers can be deceiving, we had a great time chatting.)

Back to the panel, Levy also talked about ways to build new authors - great idea if you ask little ole one book me. But seriously, it does make sense. Right now so much of the market is kept going by just a few authors. What would happen if one or two of them quit writing? Why not try and diversify some? Levy mentioned leaving the bottom shelf of their best-seller displays for a new or upcoming author. I’m not sure how they will pick them, but it didn’t sound like it would be just a paid position so good luck to all.

There’s more, but I’ll stop for now. If you are an author who didn’t get the chance to attend, I highly recommend this panel. I think it is a regular part of RT and well worth an extra effort to be at.

Till later

Lori

what else is new?

Just got back from St. Louis/RT/my book launch party. It was a great time. Hi, to everyone I met!!

I think my favorite event was the Mr. Romance contest. It was a complete hoot. Everyone did a great job and it was really entertaining. The very best part though was a St. Louis County police officer who was there on security duty. The expression on his face was priceless. I even had my friend take my picture with him. I’d post it, but when I asked his permission he turned twenty shades of red and said no. :(

I kicked off my week by dropping my brand new four pack of eyeshadow into the toilet. Yes, I fished it out with my bare hand and seriously considered whether it could be salvaged, before remembering I had room mates who might question my general hygiene if I did such a thing. Then later in the week, while my room mate was showering, my entire make up bag fell to the ground- right next to the eye-shadow-eating toilet - destroying two of my blushes. Perhaps this was a message of some type?

Also went to a fabulous dinner hosted by Kensington Books, and met other Kensington/Brava/Zebra authors. It was a really fun and friendly group.

Lots of parties, lots of nice people, and lots of late nights. When I think of more, I’ll post it - plus pictures.

Lori

p.s. On the business side, Kensington annouced they are adding an erotica line. They are really interested in getting submissions so if you write erotica, pop something into the mail to Hilary Sares or Audrey LaFehr. Good Luck!!