Must Read: Joe Konrath's Take on The Impact of E-Books Upon the Quality of What You Can Find to Read

Once again, Joe Konrath has written something everyone (writers and readers, which I assume is almost everyone on the planet) should read, and here's how his latest greatest begins:

Some people believe the ease of self-publishing means that millions of wannabe writers will flood the market with their crummy ebooks, and the good authors will get lost in the morass, and then family values will go unprotected and the economy will collapse and the world will crash into the sun and puppies and kittens by the truckload will die horrible, screaming deaths.

Continue reading "The Tsunami of Crap," his July 5, 2011 post on his great blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing....

Over 40 Romances: Last Chance Harvey Gets Okay Ratings

Rotten Tomatoes gives it an okay rating (75%) so maybe it's worth your while to go and check out this year's over-50 romantic comedy, Last Chance Harvey.

To sum it up from the reviews I've read, it's Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson doing their part to keep up with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give ... and that's going to be very hard to do.

Add to that, Hoffman is 71 and Thompson is 49. Poor Emma. Somethings in Hollywood never change -- note to self: romance better served where hero is not so old that he can be the dad of the over-40 or over-50 heroine. Geez.

By the way, Diane Keaton was born in 1945, Jack Nicholson in 1937 ... Keaton at 57 not only made more sense coupling with Nicholson at 66, web bios report the two stars actually dated back in the 70s.

For another viewpoint, check out SmackDown! Last Chance Harvey (2008) vs. Something's Gotta Give (2003)

Bottom line: hopefully, someone out there is recognizing a market for over-40 romance stories on the shelves and on the screen ... BabyBoomers do fall in love ... and aassuming this to be true, the best one hasn't hit yet.

Amazon Publishing Great 4 Writers?

Forbe's Sramana Mitra has some very interesting perspectives on Amazon.com's potential to help authors in the long run.

Mitra points out such things as:

Currently, book at $24.95, author receives around $1 -1.50 per book. If Amazon is acting as retailer, marketer, publisher and agent, taking 65% of the book, then author would get 35%.

Same book at $24.95: author gets $8.73 per book.

Lots of discussion of Amazon looking at vertical integration, pointing to BookSurge (see post over at Writer/Lawyer for more on that deal) ...

...best news from her article (emphasis added):

"Over the next few years, Amazon likely will use its power to build direct relationships with authors and gradually phase out publishers and agents. It will first go after the independent print-on-demand self-publishers and get the best authors from that world. Amazon will then take on the large publishers."


Makes that Amazon self-publishing company even more interesting to ponder ....

Inspirational Romance - Growing Readership Per Publishers' Weekly

Robin Lee Hatcher provides the following information about writing inspirational romance (read that to be Christian romance):

"According to Publishers Weekly (11/21/05), Romance novels have a 39.3% market share, General Fiction 12.9%, Mystery/Thriller 29.6%, Science Fiction 6.4%, and Other Fiction 11.8%. (In paperback mass market, romance has about a 55% share of the market.)

"CBA/Christian fiction falls, I believe, into that "Other Fiction" category.According to SIMBA Information (a Bowker company that is "widely recognized as the leading authority for market intelligence and forecasts in the media industry"), the Romance category was estimated at $1.7 billion in sales in 2004. IPSOS (another marketing research firm) reports that Inspirational Romance had $54.5 million in sales in 2004. While it represents only 3.2% of the total market, Inspirational Romance has grown 26% in the last five years compared to only 5.3% for the whole Romance category."

Robin Hatcher should know. She's an accomplished writer of over 56 books in both the Christian and secular arenas. As Robin explains,

"I cut my writing teeth in the historical romance market, publishing 27 general market historicals and three contemporary "category" romances before I followed my heart to write novels with Christian faith as an integral part of the story. As of this date, I've had 17 CBA releases with two more to follow in early 2006. Of those 19 CBA books, twelve would be categorized as romances (historical and contemporary). The other seven, more issues-related women's fiction, still have dashes of romance in them."

What is inspirational romance? A librarian at the Durham County library made a reading list of 24 novels she felt exemplified this sub-genre in November 2000. However, recent guidelines provided by publishers Steeple Hill and Barbour Publishing are more informative.

Accordingly, I've posted their inspiration lines below, with the publishers' descriptions of the various lines and jumps to the guidelines.

Steeple Hill

Steeple Hill Cafe - "This new sub-brand within the Steeple Hill Women's Fiction program will be dedicated to publishing inspirational fiction for the hip, modern woman of faith. This distinctively smart and spirited new line of books will depict the unique and varied situations women encounter as they learn important lessons about life, love and the power of faith. "

Steeple Hill Love Inspired - "The Love Inspired line is a series of contemporary, inspirational romances that feature Christian characters facing the many challenges of life and love in today's world. Each story should have an emotional, satisfying and mature romance; however, the characters should not make love unless they are married. These are "sweet" romances. Any physical interactions (i.e. kissing, hugging) should emphasize emotional tenderness rather than sexual desire."

Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense - " This new sub-brand within the Love Inspired line is a series of edge-of-the-seat, contemporary romantic suspense tales of intrigue and romance featuring Christian characters facing challenges to their faith…and to their lives.
Each story should have a compelling mystery or a suspenseful situation threatening the hero and the heroine combined with an emotional, satisfying and mature romance; however, the characters should not make love unless they are married."

Steeple Hill Women's Fiction - "This new Steeple Hill program will be dedicated to publishing inspirational Christian women's fiction that depicts the struggles the characters encounter as they learn important lessons about trust and the power of faith. We are looking for compelling and thoughtfully developed stories that promote strong family values and high moral standards. These complex stories are character driven. They should provide readers with an uplifting and satisfying ending, and they can be written in the first- or third-person narrative and can be single or multiple point of view."

Barbour

Heartsongs Presents -- "The main element of a Heartsongs Presents inspirational romance is the sweet love story. A very close second is the inspirational theme and content. All manuscripts in the Heartsongs Presents inspirational line should present a conservative, evangelical Christian worldview. "