I was going to blog about the Amazon fiasco that erupted today, but so many people have already said things so much better than I can at this point that I think I'll just include some links and blog about something else.
You can find out the story on the #amazonfail at Booksquare. There's also more up at Dear Author and Smart Bitches. It was also covered on the Los Angeles Times' Blog. Amazon has responded as reported in Publishers Weekly that it was a tech glitch, but I have a difficult time believing that. The books involved were far too targeted for a random technical problem. Dear Author posted against the tech glitch argument before Amazon even put it forward.
There's a petition posted here if you're interested in protesting Amazon's idiotic stunt.
This didn't only impact GLBT books or erotic romance, BTW. One of my books, IN TWILIGHT'S SHADOW, was also de-ranked on Amazon. Why? Maybe because Amazon categorized it as Erotic Horror. Never mind that it's a paranormal romance between a man and a woman. Never mind that of all my books, it's the one with the least amount of heat. There's one consummated love scene near the very end of the book and that's it. None of this mattered to Amazon. They just arbitrarily tagged it. So it's not just GLBT books or erotic romance. It could easily hit any romance writer and impact anyone who reads romance as well.
And I said more than I thought I would.
And now for something completely different.
In the last blog, I mentioned that I knew nothing about Troll's heroine, not even her name. What I didn't mention is that I was trying to rectify that. I have a sense of her and I thought that might help me hunt down who she is, so I took a pad of paper and started writing down women's names. This was last Wednesday, but nothing set off any bells and I conceded defeat.
Thursday morning, as I was sitting at the Evil Day Job (EDJ), Grace showed up. Grace was one of the names I'd written down for Troll's heroine, but that's not who Grace is. She belongs to the other world/series that I've been working on putting together. It didn't take long to get a sense of who she was and I pegged her for Royce's heroine since she seemed to fit him the best, but no, she's going to be Mick's heroine. Yes, it is one surprise after another sometimes. First, being shocked that a heroine shows up out of the blue when she's not the one I'm trying to come up with and second, that she's going to fall for a guy that I totally wouldn't have guessed.
Information started flowing once I figured out who she was paired up with and it turns out Mick isn't quite as lackadaisical as he led me to believe. They're not a bad fit after all. I also discovered that she's an army brat and that her father knows and respects Mick, although she doesn't realize that.
It was actually a pretty exciting morning having this coming in. Of course, it's all about who the h/h are and nothing about the plot for their story, but this is how it works for me. It's almost always characters first and then I start to get a vague notion of what the book's about.
Now I just need Royce's heroine to arrive and then I'll have all three couples set. No stories for two of them and just a general idea of the over-arc, but it's a starting point. Of course, it's Troll's heroine I need to show up. Please.
You can find out the story on the #amazonfail at Booksquare. There's also more up at Dear Author and Smart Bitches. It was also covered on the Los Angeles Times' Blog. Amazon has responded as reported in Publishers Weekly that it was a tech glitch, but I have a difficult time believing that. The books involved were far too targeted for a random technical problem. Dear Author posted against the tech glitch argument before Amazon even put it forward.
There's a petition posted here if you're interested in protesting Amazon's idiotic stunt.
This didn't only impact GLBT books or erotic romance, BTW. One of my books, IN TWILIGHT'S SHADOW, was also de-ranked on Amazon. Why? Maybe because Amazon categorized it as Erotic Horror. Never mind that it's a paranormal romance between a man and a woman. Never mind that of all my books, it's the one with the least amount of heat. There's one consummated love scene near the very end of the book and that's it. None of this mattered to Amazon. They just arbitrarily tagged it. So it's not just GLBT books or erotic romance. It could easily hit any romance writer and impact anyone who reads romance as well.
And I said more than I thought I would.
And now for something completely different.
In the last blog, I mentioned that I knew nothing about Troll's heroine, not even her name. What I didn't mention is that I was trying to rectify that. I have a sense of her and I thought that might help me hunt down who she is, so I took a pad of paper and started writing down women's names. This was last Wednesday, but nothing set off any bells and I conceded defeat.
Thursday morning, as I was sitting at the Evil Day Job (EDJ), Grace showed up. Grace was one of the names I'd written down for Troll's heroine, but that's not who Grace is. She belongs to the other world/series that I've been working on putting together. It didn't take long to get a sense of who she was and I pegged her for Royce's heroine since she seemed to fit him the best, but no, she's going to be Mick's heroine. Yes, it is one surprise after another sometimes. First, being shocked that a heroine shows up out of the blue when she's not the one I'm trying to come up with and second, that she's going to fall for a guy that I totally wouldn't have guessed.
Information started flowing once I figured out who she was paired up with and it turns out Mick isn't quite as lackadaisical as he led me to believe. They're not a bad fit after all. I also discovered that she's an army brat and that her father knows and respects Mick, although she doesn't realize that.
It was actually a pretty exciting morning having this coming in. Of course, it's all about who the h/h are and nothing about the plot for their story, but this is how it works for me. It's almost always characters first and then I start to get a vague notion of what the book's about.
Now I just need Royce's heroine to arrive and then I'll have all three couples set. No stories for two of them and just a general idea of the over-arc, but it's a starting point. Of course, it's Troll's heroine I need to show up. Please.
