Romancing the Blog | Romance Authors and Readers Who Blog

It’s easy money after all. The deal is done. All the hard work accomplished. The author is just looking for an agent to close the deal points for her romance novel and give her the best contract boilerplate possible.

Why would any agent turn that down?

Well, let me tell you because this week I did just that. An author rang me up who had a solid offer from a wonderful romance house already on the table. Crazy to pass that up!

For me, this job isn’t about the easy money. My job is about being passionate about the work of the authors I do decide take on. I want those authors for their whole career—not just for one book because there is already an offer.

I have to believe that I’ll be passionate about all the future books. Now, there is no guarantee that’s going to happen or even that the author will stay for the long-term (as authors do often switch agents), but I have to believe in that possibility in order to say YES.

And that is why I passed. When the author contacted me, I requested the manuscript in question so as to give it a read. In this instance, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. It obviously was somebody else’s—in fact I already knew that a NYC editor was interested and that another agent had already offered representation.

So the problem was obviously just me—and let’s take a moment to appreciate that we all have different tastes, different likes and dislikes, because that’s what keeps this genre interesting and fun to read.

I’ll be blunt: I don’t get book videos.

As a reader, they generally do nothing for me. And as a web designer involved with author promotion, I’ve been struggling to understand the value vs. the cost of them. So in an effort to educate myself and perhaps shed some light on the situation, I’d like to take a closer look at this promotional tool, from my perspectives as a reader and as an industry professional. (And I want to note that I don’t offer book videos as part of my services, never have and probably never will, so these are my unbiased observations.)

AS A READER

The reader in me agrees with author Brenda Coulter’s opinions on book videos, as written in her July 2006 blog entry Those boring book trailers:

Lately I’ve been seeing an awful lot of book trailers, which means I’ve seen a lot of awful book trailers. What’s a book trailer? Nothing more than a 30-second hyped-up slide show with a soundtrack.

[…]

Listen, I’m no marketing expert, but I am a bookbuyer, and one who uses the internet daily. That means book trailers are aimed at me. So when I say they aren’t impressing me, maybe some of the authors and publishers who are so excited about the things ought to pay some attention.

[…]

Frankly, the trailers just aren’t clever enough to induce anyone to link to them and make them go “viral.” As I mentioned earlier, they’re just slide shows. They suggest movement by jiggling the photos and spinning them and zooming in and out, but those of us with broadband are used to watching real video clips on the internet, so we’re a hard bunch to impress.

Most of the videos I’ve seen contain still photos, so the “slide show with a soundtrack” bit sums up pretty well why those don’t interest the reader in me. There’s nothing that grabs my attention about the zooming in and sliding back and forth on stock photos, set to what I’m assuming is a stock audio track, and text that amounts to just a slow, agonizing presentation of the cover blurb of the book.

The next tier of videos, those containing stock footage (i.e. video clips instead of still photos) aren’t much better. It’s basically just a slight upgrade, and their ability to hold my attention is just slightly higher. The final and most advanced kind of video is the one using live actors and original footage. One example of this is L.A. Banks’ trailer for her Vampire Huntress series. If I were into vampire books, this one might piqué my interest, but I have one major problem with it: it’s way too long.

Here’s the deal. I have a short attention span. And I don’t think I’m the only one. Authors are advised that they have to hook their readers’ attention with the first paragraphs of a book. If you apply that mentality to a book video, then it has to do some major attention grabbing in the first scene. And then with each second that passes, keeping the viewer’s attention just becomes exponentially more difficult. IMHO, a great book video is only 30 seconds long. If it goes on for more than 60 seconds, you’ve lost me. It takes me 30-60 seconds to read a cover blurb, so if a video drags on for longer than that and doesn’t offer me anything the blurb doesn’t, then it’s a waste of my time.

Besides length, my other beef is with the cover blurb aspect I just mentioned, the “slide show with a soundtrack.” In most videos, there’s just too much text. And the pace of the text is much slower than the pace at which I read, so half of the time I’m just watching the zooming and fading effects of the photos and said text while I’m waiting for something new to appear. What I liked the most about the Vampire Huntress trailer I linked to above was the narration by the protagonist. It gave a fresh perspective, and it wasn’t just an abbreviated version of the cover blurb. Another good example is Sandra Hill’s Pearl Jinx. This one is way too long as well, but the banter between the hero and heroine is fun and unique. It didn’t make me want to read the book, but it came very, very close. Bottom line is, I don’t want to read the blurb in the form of a slow book video. I’d be surprised if there are any readers who do.

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I have this little book called SPOKEN LIKE A PRO by Mim Harrison that I ordered from Levenger Press. It’s subtitled: an insider’s guide to the language of professions. I also own a couple of books on slang, and I’ve bookmarked a few web sites. They’re all great and wonderful and seriously not enough.

For the reader in me, I love, love, love feeling as if I’m getting a peek into a world that’s new and unfamiliar. Note I said a peek. I don’t want to be immersed in the world of the actuary, even though I think it would be interesting to know what an actuary does. I don’t need to come up from reading a book feeling confident that in a pinch, I could fly that F-18.

In essence, I want to feel smart, not actually be smart.

Warning: Tangent Alert

I believe that the skillful blending of tidbits, slang and atmosphere, told simply with simple language is the key to some very successful novels. Take Grisham’s books, for example. Specifically, THE FIRM. That was an incredibly easy book to read, but he never spoke down to the reader. Grisham made people feel smart. As if they were “in the know.” A door was opened, and it was very welcoming. We could feel smart about lawyer stuff without having to have gone through any of that time consuming and headache inducing law school business.

Same thing with THE DA VINCI CODE. Secret societies! Insider tips! Hints of treasure and scandal! Kind of like reading the National Enquirer for religion. Again - even though the topics could be considered quite heavy and inscrutable, Brown made them totally accessible. It made perfect sense to me when I learned that a large number of people who’d read TDVC had not read another novel in their adult lives. ::boggle::

Tangent Over. Thank you.

Often what makes me feel smart when reading is when I’m given tiny little pieces of insider language. I don’t even need to understand the word or words, oddly enough, but if well-written and I get the meaning from the context, I feel smarter because I could actually use those words-I-don’t-understand in a sentence! I could make other people feel dumb for not knowing those words! YeeHaaa! (Oh, sorry, did I type that last bit out loud?)

I know it’s important to get the facts straight. We all try our best. The internet is a wonderful thing, as are research books, etc. But there’s nothing, in my mind, that puts us square into the writing-smart category as the well-turned detail. Often, that comes in the form of slang. Not just pop vs soda vs coke, but the slang of a specific environment. I would be very grateful if someone came out with a book on law enforcement slang by agency, by region, by city, by town. I would equally be grateful for a slang book on the military. Again, not in big lumps, but very, very specific according to branch, rank, location, etc.

The book SPOKEN LIKE A PRO covers restaurateur, retailer, airline pilot, cookie baker, pharmacist, television promo producer, hotelier, printer, symphony orchestra musician, venture capitalist, waste manager, perfume maker, Broadway company manager, microbiologist and magician. So far, I’ve been able to use it for my books that take place in Hush hotel.

It leaves me wanting more. Much more.

Have you found other books like SPOKEN LIKE A PRO? If you’re in a field that has an insider language (and most fields do) have you found a reference book that is chock full o’ slang and juicy tidbits?

What insider books would you like to see?

And what books made you feel smarter after you read them?

I had this deep, meaningful, discussion-inspiring topic planned for today. I’ve been thinking of writing it for weeks. But when the time came to write it this weekend, it wouldn’t come. It’s a topic that I still plan to write about…maybe next time, but this time around I scrapped it.

Which left me sitting on my couch, looking around the living room wondering what was wrong with me—a topic that’s interesting and will spark discussion. Why don’t I want to write it? Answer: Because I’m tired.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one, but this week, I’m tired of talking about “issues” in romance and publishing. I don’t want to talk about plagiarism, ethics, epublishing, RWA, authors behaving badly, mean girl bloggers, bankruptcy, fan fiction, racism, erotic romance equaling porn or any other issue. I’m tired. That doesn’t mean I don’t want insightful posts, that I think we shouldn’t have critical discussions or that romance should be full of nice girls and that if you can’t say anything nice you shouldn’t say it. I don’t mean that at all. But instead of seeing a romance reader post about how, recently they find problems with every romance they read, and leading me to wonder why they’re reading romance at all, I want to hear about why people love romance. Not to be corny, but I want to celebrate romance.

I want to tell you that I’ve loved romance for over twenty years. That I’ve been reading Nora Roberts for most of those and that I’m completely delighted that her online and in-person persona are just as fun, classy and interesting as her books. That I’ve met a number of romance authors whose books I can’t wait to hand to my daughter some day and say “This book is fabulous. I met the author and she’s funny, amazing and kind. I hope you’ll read it and love it as much as I did. As much as I do.”

I want to tell you that I love romance because of the happily ever afters, the emotion, the characters I can relate to, the unique story lines that transport me to a new time, a different place, an unusual setting.

I want to tell you that I love romance because it takes me away, it makes me smile and makes me cry. I love it because it’s made me who I am, it’s given me an outlet when I didn’t have another and it’s led me to friends I’d have never made otherwise.

I want to tell you that I love romance because of what it is to me, despite what people who’ve never read it might think, despite what people on the outside looking in might see, and that I’ll continue to love romance in spite of its issues, its foibles and its warts.

I want to tell you that I love romance.

And now, because I’m tired, because I think you might be tired, I want you to tell me why you love romance. Remind me. Remind yourself.

So much is made of “world-building” in books these days. If I think back ten years ago, I’m not sure I remember that term being used. I’m not sure I cared. I just wanted to read good books that carried me away.

I think the first time I even thought about world-building was through the Harry Potter series. I mean, how could you not? What a world we were introduced to.

But you know what? I am ashamed to admit this, but I skipped over a lot of narrative in those books (and trust me there is an abundance). I adore HP, but paragraph after paragraph of description I do not. I am not a description person. I like to visualise a lot of that stuff on my own. I like dialogue, action and adventure.

In almost any book I read, I likely skim over a lot of narrative. Not anything that contributes seriously to the plot, but, for example, when the author starts describing the room… “the chair was covered in a thick red velvet, with gold brocade and set opposite a Damask (not even sure what this is) couch, in an equally hideous colour. The wallpaper had pretty little flowers in green, red and gold, with…” My fictitious example is horrible, but hopefully you get my meaning.

I just don’t care that much about the room. Unless the heroine is going to peel the wallpaper from the walls and use it to smother someone, I don’t care what it looks like. I want a general idea and then I want to move on. I want snappy dialogue and kick-butt action. I want suspense that makes me lean forward as I read. All the other stuff is just decoration.

Now, to be fair to HP, a lot of that description was needed because some of those rooms contributed to the storyline (room of requirement or whatever it was called). I definitely needed to know the staircases moved and the pictures talked. I do realise I miss a lot when my eyes glaze over and I move on. I’ve never missed anything important to the plotline, though.

It’s funny that as I type this I realise that many of my favourite books have a lot of narrative. So, I must get something out of them. Interesting. Perhaps I should switch my topic to how I skim over sex scenes in books too. Gasp!

When you read are you looking for everything laid out in minute detail or do you want to create and visualise the book’s “world” for yourself? Or does it depend on the book?

Should I dare ask about sex scenes? Because I don’t mind sex in the books I read, however I don’t need quite so much description. Once again, I can leave some things up to my own imagination. I have a pretty good one. Really.

The last romance novel I read was a big stinker. The characters were boring; the heroine a utter moron and the hero? A classic rogue, hard and evil, turned idiot by his love for the undeserving and quite possibly slow heroine. I spend too much money on romance novels to be treated this way. That’s hard earned cash I spend hours each week making at a job that’s the exactly exciting (that’s best left for another post). I feel betrayed each time an author of mine (I’m very possessive with my favorite authors) decides to write something they seem to have put together in two days. I’m done. No more Miz Nice Gal! I’ve decided to implement a “3 Strikes and You’re Out” Rule to apply to books by my favorite authors. The rule clearly states that if your books fail to give me butterflies and orgasms three times in a row, you’re out. Yep! Say goodbye to my money. Take your book and shove it..and yada yada yada. I’m sure the authors are shaking in their boots right now (snicker). I feel like if we all did this, we’d be guaranteed better novels, more innovative and original plots, heroes and heroines that don’t remind you of the town idiot.

Am I the only one noticing the deterioration of quality here? I feel betrayed!

I’m the kind of person who gives people the benefit of the doubt time and time again. I’m one of those annoying people who always have to make excuses for someone who’s screwed them over. “Oh, they were abused as children” or “Their husband treats them like crap.” Yep, I’m that person. Well, actually…I was that person. I’ve recently been doing a lot of motivational reading, as well as journaling and reevaluating my life and the choices I’ve made. I noticed that I waste a lot of my time making excuses for people, spending time with people who don’t appreciate me or care about me. I also read books that don’t do anything but frustrate me and cause my IQ to drop to two digits.

I read romance novels to feel good, to be inspired, to get the butterflies I may or may not get in my personal life. When I continuously shell out $7.99 for books by favorite authors that don’t even come close to making me happy, I hurt myself, as well as my wallet. It’s time for change. I think I’m inspired by all the political debates lately. The candidates are constantly talking about change. Change is good and it’s time to get on with it. I’ve reached my limit. Have you reached yours?

Have you given up on any of your favorite authors? What brought this about?

Novelist B.J. Hoff recently posted the following on her blog, Grace Notes:

I’ve also been asked about “symbolism” in my work, and while some may exist (there is always symbolism among the Irish, don’t you know?) I have to admit that it’s not my doing. To my knowledge, I’ve never intentionally tried to inject symbolism or deeper meanings into my fiction–and if I were to try, I’m fairly certain I’d make a royal mess of it. My standard reply is something to the effect of “it’s whatever you want it to be, whatever you understand it to be.” My preference is simply that readers read my work for story. And my own reading preference (in regard to fiction), is also to read for story. Not to interpret. Not to search for deeper meanings. Not to unearth examples of symbolism.

This need to interpret, to find different layers of meaning or symbolism in fiction seems to contend that the obvious has no significance, only what is veiled or hidden….

I couldn’t agree more. Heavy doses of symbolism in a novel always detract from rather than enhance my reading experience. I don’t enjoy it when an author digs her elbow into my ribs–Get it? See the significance? Did you catch my cleverness here? Didja?–and I don’t understand why an author would want to pull me out of a great story to marvel at her insight and subtlety. If she wants me to think she’s clever, all she has to do is take me for a thrilling ride. I won’t actually give her cleverness a thought until the ride’s over–but as soon as I do come back to myself, I’ll scramble to find more of her books.

B.J. Hoff continues:

…any deliberate effort on the part of a writer to inject meaning or significance or symbolism is not only futile, but manipulative as well.

Those efforts are futile. If a reader doesn’t catch the symbolism, what has been added to her reading experience? And if she does catch it, she’ll step outside of the story world to contemplate the construction of the novel. She might then resent the author’s heavy-handed attempt at Sending A Message, particularly if that message is political or religious in nature. (Those who know I write romance novels from a conservative Christian perspective might be itching to ask if I don’t try to “convert” my readers or teach spiritual lessons. The answer is an emphatic no. I just tell stories.)

A reader falls into a story when she has found meaning in it. But it’s her meaning, a personal interpretation of and reaction to the people and situations in the world of the story. She isn’t thinking about the author’s skill, but about herself–how she feels about what she’s reading. While she inhabits the story world, she is aware only that she is thoroughly entertained and perhaps deeply moved; she is unlikely to welcome any attempt by the author to pull her aside and teach her a lesson.

Once an author has written and published, her novel must be “finished” by readers. Whether a given book is good or bad is highly subjective; an author may believe she has produced a great story, but that’s not her call to make. It is the readers who will determine whether her book is good or bad. We all know that beautifully written novels (I’m talking about mechanics, not story) can fail to touch hearts, while those by less talented authors often shoot to the top of the bestseller lists. That’s because for the vast majority of readers, a gripping story trumps everything. Clever dialogue, evocative descriptions, and splendid characterization are wonderful additions but not necessary. (Anyone who doesn’t believe that has never read The DaVinci Code.)

How do you feel about the use of symbolism in romance novels? Can you spot it when an author has attempted to “deepen” a story through the use of symbolism? Do those hidden messages tend to enhance your reading experience, leave you feeling manipulated, or affect you not at all?

Thing the first:

In light of some recent events, I will admit I had second thoughts about posting this particular column, but you know, the subject matter is one I’ve been mulling for quite a while and forgive me if I sound a wee bit defensive, but I don’t want what’s going on in the outside world to stand in the way of my enthusiasm for talking/writing about a topic that I find fascinating.

Thing the second:

I know that there are a lot of tremendously accomplished writers out there who are already aware of everything I’m going to write about and I know I’m going to come off like a baby who’s discovered his hands for the first time. “Hey, those funny things! They’re mine! And whoa, lookie there—look what I can make them do! Hey there, Mr. Hand!” So forgive me for sounding like an utter newbie—this is isn’t so much me trying to educate or anything other than trying to parse out what I’ve been going through.

Okay, all that said, here goes.

Recently, I started a new project. Yeah, yeah, I know—those of you who are writers are sitting there going, “Big whoop, Barb—I mean, it’s nice and all, but what makes this so special?” Read the rest of this entry �

I came home the other night to the following message on my answering machine from a good friend who’s a pharmacist: “Now, between your tampons and your pregnancy tests, right there in the family planning aisle, you can get an at-home paternity test. Yes, that’s right, you’ll never have to worry about who’s the baby daddy ever again.”

For the low, low price of $29.99 (plus that pesky lab fee of $119.00), the IDENTIGENE DNA Paternity Test Collection Kit allows anyone with the cash and access to the possible DNA donors to gain paternity answers in three to five days. To be certain this will severely cut down on participants for The Maury Show, but how this will be used and how it will affect previously stable family units remains to be seen. Our definition of what constitutes family and familial obligation is being pared down to the genetic level without taking into account the outside influences that nurturing can provide. DNA is not going to go away, and access to testing will only get easier.

In the book world, we’ve rarely had to deal with the Baby Daddy question (secret baby books aside). Books, like the phyla Rotifera, reproduce asexually—one author the sole creator of his or her novel—only breaking that parthenogenic reproductive cycle when added creative genetic material (otherwise known as a co-author) is needed. We expect that though our books may be based on themes and ideas that have been used before, the words are the author’s own.

The Cassie Edwards plagiarism scandal has exposed not only our own knowledge and ignorance on the subject of plagiarism and copyright, but also fiction’s possession of its very own Paternity test—Google Books. Had Kate, the inciting force behind textual search of Edwards’ novels, not been struck by “passages written in a distinctly different voice, and out of idle curiosity…decided to Google certain phrases and sentences,” we may have remained in ignorance. But probably not for long. Whereas before direct knowledge of the source texts would have been required to make such quick detection, all Kate had to do was type a phrase into the Google search box and hit enter. No long days combing books in the library to verify vague suspicions, just a quick type and click.

While Google has long been the tool of the professor or teacher struck by suspicious linguistic fluidity in an otherwise technically deficient term paper, it has been held in contempt by fiction and nonfiction authors alike who see its existence as encroaching upon their copyrighted material. Understandable seeing as how Google’s plan to digitalize everything without any real acceptable compensation is in direct contradiction to the words found on the copyright page of every novel:

“No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission…”

How ironic that the tool that allowed the Edwards’ investigation to take place is in direct contradiction of the goal it was used to serve.

Is Edwards the only one out there with unknown Book Daddy contributors? Probably not. The others just haven’t been identified yet, and their chances of staying under radar are becoming slim. In the last two years Kaayva Viswanathan’s plagiarism of Megan McCafferty and the Dan Brown/Holy Blood, Holy Grail case have expanded the public’s knowledge of what does, and does not, constitute plagiarism and copyright infringement.

With materials posted online for anyone with computer access to find, the writing world has become a much smaller place. Even with just bits of copyrighted pieces accessible through a Google Book search anyone can become a plagiarism sleuth, and where once the onus of responsibility to cite sources fell to the author, now even an overworked editorial assistant can alleviate or confirm suspicions when it comes to passages that differ from the author’s voice stripping publishers of plausible deniability.

We’ve entered a new world thanks to the technology provided to us, one previously (and only recently) inhabited by the academic realm. Technology is not going to stop changing or evolving, and Google is adding more and more books to its search engine every day. It is up to the book community, both writers and readers, to find ways to use this technology to police and teach. How we do it remains to be seen, but it will affect both how we write and how we read on a world wide level.

Here are two publishing contest ops we thought our writing visitors might be interested in:

Red Sage

Instant Seduction: Harlequin Presents Writing Competition!

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