Kickin' it old skool

Good morning, gentle readers. I feel a little better today. Thank you again for all the well-wishes. I have an assortment of blog-o-sphere goodness to share with you all.

1. Kayleigh Jamison and some other fab ladies have a book signing party!

2. Preditors and Editors is being sued. Louise Bohmer has a fairly serious take on it, and PN Elrod...well, see for yourself. I took this more seriously until I saw that she named "Miss Snark" as a defendant. Miss Snark? For Reals?

3. Alan Wilder, formerly of Depeche Mode, now of Recoil, blogs - Music for the Masses - I think not. I must confess that the title totally hooked me, as Music for the Masses was my first Depeche album. I've been a fan of Recoil for a year or so, and hearing a perspective from someone who's escaped the corporate machine fascinates me.

"And can the musician act as entrepreneur? Is it fair to expect our scatterbrained creative songwriters and virtuosos to also hold a degree in business management? Formulating their own strategies and marketing models as they go? I mean wasn't this the whole reason record companies and managers came into existence in the first place? From my own experience, simply trying to 'stage manage' what has been a very small-level experiment has taken up most of the first 3 months of the year - valuable time which I intended to spend composing new music."

I've had this conversation with many a fellow author, and on a lesser level, it's true of us as well. It's a criticism leveled at indie presses - some it's fair, some it's not. You have to hustle to get your work out there, and yet, the biz end of publishing is draining. It's why I'm not a publisher anymore. I never wrote. There are other reasons too, my health being a biggie. Don't worry, I'm not dying, I just need to take better care of myself.

4. That actually brings me to the next question I've gotten a lot of lately, which is, am I reopening, either as AA or under another name. No. I am content to be an author. If anyone wants a suggestion of where to place your work, depending on who you are, and your writing style, I am inclined to recommend...

Lachesis Publishing
Loose-ID
Dark Roast Press
Samhain Publishing

I'm not affiliated with any of these houses as an author or admin, that's just based on observation. I will put as a disclaimer that I know Rhiannon Rhodes of Dark Roast. She was our promo queen, and her vision of what sort of titles she wants to put out is similar to Aphrodite's in terms of the "hot with plot" delivery. I anticipate good things when they launch. The rest of the rec's are based on friends of mine who have good experiences with the companies.

5. Finally, people have asked about my own work, and where I'm placing it. I haven't subbed anywhere yet. I am reediting Immortal Reveries and I want to finish some of the WIPs and then I'll start subbing. I want to enjoy the craft of writing again. So far I am. ;-)

Plagiarism rears its ugly head again

Thankfully it's not someone I know personally this time, but that doesn't make it any better. For legal purposes, do keep in mind that all of this is alleged, not proven.

Have a look at this blog, by Ash Arceneaux: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=86192280&blogID=333310574

For the tl;dr crowd, here's the highlights, from Ash's blog:

"Somebody showed me a LiveJournal where a reviewer reviewed a JJMassa book. After the initial post, a writer who found the post via Google began posting some very fervent comments about how Massa stole the story from a fanfic the commentor had written and posted some years before. According to the commentor, who's name is Amanda, I believe,she has irrefutable evidence she wrote the story FIRST. "Here's the journal where the accusations begin: Elisa Rolle Livejournal

 

JJ Massa's Book, now pulled from Linden Bay

Amanda's Star Trek AU fic

Philadelphia—the city of brotherly love. Yeah, I feel the love. Tyler winced and slung his backpack over his aching shoulder. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself off the teeming sidewalk and up the battered stairs of the old, red-bricked precinct house. The inside foyer was even more chaotic than the busy street he'd just left. The room he found himself in was peopled with glowering teens, screaming whores, a few stumbling drunks, and a plethora of independent chemists and their staff. Tyler dropped his backpack onto the desk letting the noise of its landing grab the attention of a surly looking officer who'd been flicking through a magazine. "You want something?" he growled, "Just get in line." Tyler eyed him coldly, nodding his head at the motley mass of human chaos assembled. "I'm not here to sightsee. My name's Tyler Baker." The cop's lip curled in an outright sneer of contempt. He looked Tyler up and down rudely. "You're late. Lieu expected you a couple hours ago." "My plane was delayed. I've only been in the city an hour," he began to explain patiently. "Look deep into my eyes, Baker," he said scornfully. "See any give-a-shit in there?" Tyler folded his arms across his chest. "You got a problem with me, officer?" he demanded icily.

New York, New York. So good they named it twice. ::Yeah, right:: Tom hoisted his knap-sack higher over his aching shoulder and stared with ill-disguised disgust at the crumbling red-stone exterior of the precinct house until the impatient bustling of passers-by forced him to mount the steps and walk inside. ::Shit:: The foyer was more chaotic than the street he'd left behind. The room was filled with screaming whores, sullen teens, a couple of blood-splattered drunks and someone curled up on the floor in one corner in a puddle of vomit. Tom wasn't sure whether the huddled body was a homeless guy sleeping in the station or a corpse. At the desk a couple of burly uniforms had some crack-head pinned against the wall while a third cop performed a public strip-search. He slammed his knap-sack down on the desk and the noise startled a bored-looking cop to belch and frown in his direction. "What the fuck's your problem? Join the queue." Tom curled his mouth into a sneer of derision, cocking his head mockingly at the bedlam that purported to be a 'queue'. "I'm not part of the entertainment. My name's Tom Paris." The cop returned his sneer, sliding his eyes up and down Tom's body with obvious contempt. "You're late. The Cap'n expected you two hours ago." "My plane got delayed. I only arrived an hour ago and I had to drop off my luggage." "Tell it to someone who cares, Paris."

Something is indeed rotten in the state of Denmark, ladies and gents.

eBooks and the future of publishing

If you are an eBook author, you often find yourself promoting, or (depending on how you look at it) defending the medium just as much as you do your work itself. It gets old, honestly, and many people I know in the biz tend to go in one of these two directions:

1. My work IS in print. It's an eBook, deal with it.
2. Man, if my work were in print, the world would beat a path to my door.

The truth of the matter is somewhere in between. I do lean toward option one, honestly, because eBooks are the future. Amazon and Harlequin just got into the game in big ways, so I'm not the only one who thinks so. Ask anyone who owns an iPod or other mp3 player.

So, Heather, does that mean that they'll be no more print books, ever? Well, no. Go to the mall, are we all fresh out of CDs? My music purchases are primarily mp3s now, but that doesn't mean I won't buy a CD if it's an artist I really adore and would like a hard copy of their work. However, I find as time goes on I'm doing that less and less. I get CDs as gifts, mostly - Mr K got me Tori Amos' new album as a gift, but I bought myself Siouxsie's Mantaray on iTunes and burned a hard copy.

So how does that related to my reading habits? Well, of the last six books I bought - two were print editions. The rest? Ebooks. Now, I know I'm a young whippersnapper and whatever, right? The well-entrenched romance reader, the ones Romantic Times lauds, who are "avid romance readers since their teens and currently read between 10 and 40 books a month"? Are they buying eBooks?

Let me stop here for a moment and talk about my mother. If you look at my MySpace, the only hero I have listed is my mom. She's awesome. My mom's the first person who really encouraged me to be a writer, when I was a little girl. My mom is one of RT's target readers. She's an avid Nora Roberts fan, buys at least ten single titles a month. She's sharp, professional, creative, and loyal. She's doing some continuing education right now, and she remarked to me the other day, "I'm so tired of printing out PDF files. How much did your Palm Pilot cost?"

We talked a bit about what my Tungsten does vs getting a dedicated reader, like Amazon's Kindle or the Sony Reader.

I find it extremely telling that my mother, who's a baby boomer, and not-uber techie is interested in a dedicated reader. Not that my mom's a slouch either - she knows her way around the computer, but I am still hands-down the family's alpha geek.

The main lament right now amongst writers and readers is compatibility. It's a legit complaint, and I can remember when it was a problem for mp3 players as well. Speaking of my mother again, I went with her to pick out her mp3 player, and I ended up advising her to get an iPod because I felt its interface was the simplest and most user-friendly. However, as most people know, while an iPod plays mp3s, other mp3 players don't like its digital rights management (DRM) .m4a format.

That must be why no one buys iPods, right?

Wait... ;-)

So where does that leave those of us who are indie or eBook authors? If my book's in print, the world will beat a path to my door... Well, no. One look at JA Konrath's blog will tell you that it's not so. However, that said, face to face sells books. If your work's not in hard copy, what do you do?

First of all, stop telling yourself it's not in print. It is. And don't let other people tell you otherwise, they are misinformed. Be nice about it though. ;-) And head over to VistaPrint and get some promo items whipped up. VistaPrint's highly reasonable, and you can often get author promo items for only the cost of shipping. You can make bookmarks, notepads, post cards, etc. You know what I carry on me all time, in case people ask me what I do for a living? I have my Palm Tungsten, bookmarks and my business cards. I turn on the Palm, show them how easy it is to open and read an eBook, and then I give them a card or a bookmark. Easy peasy.

Now, speaking of writing books, I need to get back to that...

I'm in the news!

And so is my dear Katrina Strauss. I am LOLing over being referred to as a "mostly nightgown novel e-book publisher."

That is fabulous.

Southern Review, Vol. 5, No. 10, October 2007 talks about the demise of MGP.

In all seriousness, I think that Southern Review did a good job of keeping his tone neutral, and in giving authors some solid information about copyright and bankruptcy law.

And in more news, I'm featured in a publisher interview at Mandy M. Roth's blog! :D

Preaching to the Choir...

Y'all know I'm a sucker for cheesecake reading. In fact, since Harlequin recently got into the ebook game I decided to check out their naughty line and see if there was anything I liked there. And lo, there is - I am currently digging Nancy Madore and Jina Bacarr. So I got this nifty little message from Harlequin in my inbox:

Instant and Portable eBooks!

Dear Heather,

Life is busy. And sometimes, it's difficult to carry around your favorite books especially if they're in hardcover! That's why I love eBooks. Not only are they easy to download, but they are instant an dportable. Plus, we never sell out! With a few easy clicks, you can enjoy over 100 new eBooks every month! Browse our extensive selection and see for yourself how easy it is to enjoy eBooks!

~~~~
Sister, you're preaching to the choir here. :D

The Demise of Mardi Gras Publishing

Mardi Gras Publishing has announced its imminent bankruptcy. Normally I don't like to comment on others' misfortunes, but I am moved to say something about this situation. Teresa Jacobs, who writes under the name Teresa Wayne, started MGP at the same time that we started Aphrodite's Apples, and at one point, she wanted to sub to us, but she wanted us to bump her book to the head of the queue. At that point we'd been done nine months' lead time on the creation of our house, and we already had authors with previous experience and contracts signed. There was a queue for submissions. She also didn't want any further edits done to her work. At the time, Kayleigh Jamison (then-EIC) and I told her nicely we'd take it if went through edits and it would go out in order received for publication. While we were reviewing her submission she began to ask a lot of questions about the publishing business, and shortly thereafter she announced that she was starting MGP. At the time, she ran the Pink Posse Review site, and I say all that so that I can link to this - Katrina Strauss' statement on MGP and the Pink Posse.

I am afraid Ms. Jacobs always been unethical. I am very sorry that when this first came to light that we felt we couldn't speak out on the matter. I am even more sorry for the MGP authors' current predicament.

And now that all that's been said, I'm gonna agree with Kitty Strauss. Back to writing. If you guys need me, you know where I am.

--H

Back from the Dead!

I'm alive, y'all!

I'm pretty excited about that. LOL. Since I've been down with the flu I have all sorts of things to talk to you all about. I'm thrilled to announce that Aphrodite's Apples has joined both EPIC and the Erotic Authors' Association (EAA). Both of these organizations are representative of what we are trying to accomplish, in terms of the advancement of both intelligent erotica, and the elevation of ePublishing.

The EAA is interested in the promotion of erotica as an art form, something that's sorely needed in today's current socio-political climate. Mainstream writers groups (I won't name names) are pulling back and treating romantic erotica as if it's a redheaded stepchild, tolerated only because of sales. Some of the smaller presses who specialize in romantic erotica are being subjected to recertification. It's crap, in my opinion. If this is mainstream professionalism, I'd rather be an indie.

EPIC, on the other hand, is exactly what I think is needed in ePublishing. I joined a couple weeks ago, though I'd been meaning to for some time. Kayleigh Jamison, our Editor-in-Chief, has belonged for a while now. I'm really impressed with the group as a whole - they are just as dedicated to quality and the advancement of ePublishing as we at Aphrodite's are. They are intelligent, professional and I'm looking forward to working with them more.

Those of you not in the biz might wonder why I'm so delighted with EPIC. Right now ePublishing is in its infancy, and we're seen as electronic Pulp Fiction. In some respects that's amusing to me, as Shakespeare, in his day was a pulp writer. Ben Jonson was considered by his peers to be the far superior author. I'd like to see a show of hands for who's heard of him besides me. Who do we study today? Will Shakespeare, pulp writer.

But I digress. Some of ePublishing's pulp reputation is deserved. There are author mills and disingenuous soulsPublishAmerica claiming to be royalty paying presses, when in reality they accept anyone and do not edit or do anything that helps the author refine or market their books.

However, there are wonderful ePresses that want to create the best stories they can, in electronic form. We certainly do at Aphrodite's. I am delighted to find so many like-minded souls at EPIC. Places like Freya's Bower, Tease and Whiskey Creek. Indeed, EPIC's site is a good place to start if you are looking for a publisher, or information on eBooks in general.

If you are an aspiring author considering ePublishing, I would urge you to look around EPIC's site. When we were creating our original contracts for Aphrodite's, we looked to EPIC to make certain our language would adhere to industry standards. EPIC, Preditors and Editors and Piers Anthony's page on ePub are all excellent resources if you'd like to learn more about the business.

A well-informed author is a more confident and savvy submitter. We have a page on the advantages of ePublishing for would-be authors. Read it, and some of the other resources I suggested. As an author, I know how much work I put into my manuscripts. Protect yourself and your work.

If you're a reader, take a chance on an eBook. I think you'll be surprised and delighted at what you'll find, right here on the web.