Lori Devoti, paranormal romance and urban fantasy author

Let’s just say he doesn’t mince words….

In general I agree with him that the case is without merit and a little unsettling, but I don’t agree that…

People who hear about this suit will have a sour taste in their mouth about Rowling from now on. Her Cinderella story once charmed us. Her greedy evil-witch behavior now disgusts us. And her next book will be perceived as the work of that evil witch.

I read most of the books and liked the first ones. But J.K seems to have a glow about her for most readers that I don’t quite get, and I don’t think her fans will see this at all as Orson Scott Card believes.

I’m blogging over at Romancing the Blog today, on the ins and outs of what being a “bestseller” means–or not…

Another link on the Harry Potter vs. RDR case.
Julie Aherns from the Fair Use Project says this…

“It simply is not the case that authors can exploit copyright law to prevent analysis and commentary on their work.”

The article then goes on to ask how it would be if authors could sue reviewers for talking about their books…interesting. ;-)

I have to say more and more I am siding with RDR on this one. They aren’t stealing actual prose, just reporting on who and what happens in the books. How different is that than a review? And it isn’t different at all from the Lexicon web site. I understand Rowling being upset, because as the creator you would feel you should be the only person profiting from your work (although actually many reviewers profit from their reviews through ad sales), but feeling something and the laws actually supporting you are two different things. And there are reasons for these laws–or more accurately the interpretations of them. Because, that is what this will come down to–interpretation.

It will be interesting to see what the outcome is. Here’s the link.

Interesting interview with lots of good bits. Definitely worth a read.
Here are a few snippets…

It’s not the first novelists that are in jeopardy or the stars, but the repeat midlist – but then, it’s been that way for quite a while, hasn’t it? Every account can call up sales figures instantly now. First novelists have no black marks against them, no large returns or tiny sales, so anything is theoretically possible. But if an author has published four books to static or declining results, there’s no way to hide it, and it’s very hard to convince an account not to order accordingly.

This is one of those cold hard facts people never quite believe…well, believe it. :)
Here’s another one on promotion…

The book always comes first – always. If you don’t have a good book, published at the right time, then none of the rest of it matters. After that, websites are useful if they’re well done, give readers a reason to come back, and act as a vehicle for collecting names – there’s nothing like that email blast to fans shortly before publication to concentrate your sales early. Conferences and book festivals are fine as long as you’re having fun, building contacts, getting your name out there, and not spending so much time at them that you’re neglecting your first job (see above!). Blogs – I probably shouldn’t be saying this to you, JT, but sometimes I wonder if all the time and energy spent on writing a blog might not be better spent on…well, you know what I’m going to say.

Okay, go read the rest…

I love a man who speaks his mind.

Thought this might interest some of you.

In an effort to make editors seem less like something to be hunted in the wild, (My first editor, Hilary Sares, made that comment at a conference once–I thought it was pretty darn funny, and true.) Harlequin is starting podcasts with their editors. To learn all about it, and plug in, check out this release.

Sometimes there are things just worth passing on, don’t you think? I found a few today.

The first is about Cheetah Girls author Deborah Gregory feeling she was used by Hollywood. People always think selling to Hollywood in any way automatically brings with it a huge payoff. But considering how many novels Gregory has written and the time frame, when you break it all down it is far from a staggering amount. She does get that prestige though…must be enough for some.

Still on the money theme, here are two blogs about what average advances are. I’m sure neither of these are scientific, but they are interesting. Link one and Link two. On this same note, you can get a feel for romance advances by visiting Brenda Hiatt’s Show Me the Money page. Again, this isn’t exact. It all depends on who reports, plus there are some groupings that may not be the best. For example, if you look at Hiatt’s listing you will see that Kensington and Zebra are lumped together, meaning Zebra, Brava and Aphrodesia are lumped together. Since two of these come out first in trade paperback and one in mass market, the dollars given probably don’t really represent any of them accurately–but for a general overall look, it’s still an interesting list.