Lori Devoti, paranormal romance and urban fantasy author

This week only Drystan is appearing on the eHarlequin boards. Stop by and ask him a question!

FICTION: GENERAL/OTHER
From Publisher’s Marketplace….

Paula Reed’s HESTER, as cryptically alluded to in the conclusion of Hawthorne’s classic The Scarlet Letter, the story of what happens to
Hester Prynne and little Pearl when they travel to England to find notoriety, intrigue, love, fortune, and social success, but must also face the most formidable Puritan of all, Oliver Cromwell, to Nichole
Argyres at St. Martin’s, at auction, by Kristin Nelson at NelsonLiterary Agency (NA).

Yay, Paula!! Watch for it people!!

The Ledoux Curse by Debra Cowan.

In 1688, a jealous French nobleman cursed the Ledoux family—if a Ledoux woman fell in love with a man, he would die, damning her to a life of loneliness and guilt.

Despite her mother and grandmother’s warnings, Aubrey never believed in the curse. Until she fell in love with Jeff Wyrick. Until Hallowe’en night five years ago.

After that horrible night, Aubrey pushed Jeff away, vowing never to see him again or admit her feelings, even to herself. Even when he appears on her doorstep with those chiseled features and eyes that melt her resistance.

But Jeff didn’t come back for a meaningless night with Aubrey—he came back for a lifetime. And he’s willing to risk everything, including his life, to be with her.

But first they must break The Ledoux Curse.

She has blogged before, guest type of things, but now her agency has officially jumped into the Net. Here’s the link…

I was going to write about something fascinating today–the two new pairs of shoes I bought this weekend–but then I came across this article on Borders not picking up a couple of well know SFF writers’ latest novels. This is not, in case anyone is wondering, the sign of the sky falling/bad economy. This has been going on for some time. In March at the NINC conference there was a lot of talk of what happens when your numbers go down. It isn’t pretty. Bookstores base their orders on how many copies of your last book they sold. So, if you have a stinker (for whatever reason, could even be the bookstores fault like books never taken out of boxes) your next book’s orders (and thus print run) will reflect it.

I know a number of authors who have had to change their names because of this. Some of them have been told to change their name and let no word that they are the author of the previous stinker leak out anywhere. In other words that previous name/author is dead, buried in the back yard of publishing with their stinky numbers (hopefully). I know of a book from a smaller publisher that wasn’t published AT ALL because the bookstore orders weren’t there to support it. Yes, the publisher could still have sold the book online, but it just wasn’t going to give them a big enough potential earning to make it pay.

This is just another unfortunate fact of publishing. And in case anyone thought it–it isn’t just Borders. They just happen to be the ones mentioned here. Target ordering or not ordering a book can have a HUGE impact on its success. It’s just that we expect bookstores to duh carry books. But have you been in a bookstore lately? Have you seen the inventory? It is overwhelming. We publish a hell of a lot of books in this country. It is darn hard to stand out.

So, what’s the answer? I don’t know–but you could go to Borderstores.com and order Gregory Frost’s book. (I was on a panel with him at Wiscon and he seemed like an upright guy.) That might show them there is a market for books they doubt. (Or another retailer if you prefer… BOOKSAMILLION.COM or Chapters or Amazon.)

And you can do that for every author you love–pull rather than push marketing. Meaning you search out the authors you love, to make sure they keep writing. Because in the sea of books, if you wait for them to be pushed at you…they may just disappear.

Edited to add: Also check out Tobias Buckell’s response to his book being skipped. Also looks like an upright guy–might add his book to your To be bought list. :)

Just a quick post to let you all know I haven’t completely jumped ship. I’ve been writing, and writing some more. I have a big hunk of my YA done. I’m still not sure exactly where I am going. Well, that’s not true I know where I am going, I’m just not sure what overall slant the book will take. I have a couple of subplots going and I need to pretty them up some. Pick one and shove it more to the forefront. I also need to fix on a tone and how big a part the romance is going to play. Those are pretty much revision things for me, but I may cheat and print it out early. Then the last bit of first draft can be more focused.

I have until the end of next week to finish it, then I’m diving back into my next Nocturne. Its working title is Dark Destiny. I take a very bad character from Dark Crusade and make her good–tricky. I stopped writing on it for a while because I hit a big ole “this is so not working” snag. I think, thanks to some conversation with my sister and mother, I have that worked out. I’m going to toss it around with some friends this weekend too–then hopefully all will be straight in my head. It is really hard to write when you have that nagging knowledge that something isn’t right.

I’m also planning my big blog blowout event 30 Days of Vampires. I have a lot of guest bloggers and interviews set up. I’m also going to have prizes! One big prize and then probably a prize every Friday. Fun, fun, fun. Tell your vampire-loving friends.

And on a personal note, birthday parties are finally over here. They are fun, but time sucks. I will miss them though once the kids outgrow them.

Let’s see…there has also been a lot of talk around the Internet about what is going to happen in publishing due to the state of the economy. Here are my thoughts…in bad times I’ve heard romance sales actually increase. Now that may or may not be true this time, but I don’t think there is any reason to run around screaming the sky is falling. Also, side note–bookstore sales were UP in August. Again, may not hold true for future months, but another reason not to play chicken little. And finally, if the bad economy hits publishing, it hits publishing, but me sitting around worrying about it and projecting it will do nothing to prevent it and might actually make it worse. So, don’t be an Eeyore, CYA and move on. That is my motto on that.

Have a great weekend!!

That is how many words a day I need to write to hit my goal finish date on my YA. This does give me weekends off. It is very doable, if I get my mojo back. I’ve been dragging for some reason. I need to get myself in gear. Go Lori! Go Lori! Yeah, not quite enough.

When I am done with that I will have to write even more words per day to hit my goal finish date for Dark Destiny–my next Nocturne. Well, not the next Nocturne to be published, the next one for me to write. It’s a booger. As in things are not clicking together in it. Because of that I have decided to set it to the side while I finish the YA. Meantime, I’ll try and sort out the issues with Dark Destiny so when the arrives that I have to start writing on it again, I will be raring to go. (That at least is how it works in my head.)

I am also doing copy edits on my next to be published Nocturne, Dark Crusade. And some revisions–nothing horrifying. Although any revisions when you first hear about them take on Godzilla proportions and horror. I’m expect that now–so smack my initial reaction down pretty fast. I did not even once throw myself on the ground or stomp my feet. ;-)

Okay, it isn’t fancy, but I think it is clear. I put together this map of my version of Yggdrasill. I say mine, because Gunngar for example is totally my invention.

I also updated the Unbound world glossary and list of key characters.

I’m not in advertising sales or even the newspaper business anymore. Apparently there are predictions that one in FIVE car dealerships could fail this fall. One in FIVE! Car dealers and Realtors were my main customers back in the day.

This would so not be a good time to be trying to make sales numbers. The thing about sales is you are always fighting against your own success. So, if you had a good year last year, you have to have an even better year this year or look at a big pay cut. Not the same year–noooo, better.

Anyway, this is just fugly.

I am not big on book signings. I have never done one all by my lonesome. The last one I did was with two other authors. One writes historical fiction with a romantic subplot, one writes historicals for Harlequin. The signing was in the mall and the bookseller was fabulous. The store was fabulous, but apparently I or more accurately my book was scary. I was signing Guardian’s Keep at the time. See the cover? I love that cover. But people would look at it and get this nervous look in their eyes, then quickly step toward one of the other books. It was rather amusing. I thought about getting a poster that said BE BRAVE!! TOUCH THE BOOK! But I was in polite author mode, not obnoxious me mode so I behaved myself.

Anyway, I am setting up a few signings for Holiday with a Vampire II. Mainly because it is a Christmas release and it just seems like a real opportunity to alienate more people with my scary sexy books. Alas, the cover is a tad mild…;-)

I have one scheduled so far at the Waldenbooks at WestTowne Mall in Madison Wisconsin, hosted by bookseller extraordinaire Tom Cox. I realize most of you are not anywhere near Madison Wisconsin to come visit with me, but I thought I’d share a site where I am posting my appearances and where you can find book events near your own home–or post your own if you are an author. It is pretty cool in my opinion. Check it out and find something fun and booky to do this weekend.