Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy discussion
Paranormal Romance
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Trouble finding a particular book?
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This happens to me a lot too. With Sands I've never been able to find the first one in the series. I used to be a lot pickier about reading series in order. I've kinda let that go because I've found I often don't like the first book that much. If I had started with the first I wouldn't have gone on to read the Carpathians, Dark Hunters or Darkyn. I would have missed some of my favorite books.
There's always Amazon to get a particular book (even out of print), and I've had very good luck ordering books at Borders - they arrive within a week. Plus, if you order them, it flags them for the staff that they should look into carrying more by that author. (At least that's what a friendly salesperson told me.) As a final resort, several author websites have instructions on how to get hard-to-find books. Good luck!
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This is why I pleaded with Bantam to put something on the cover of SHADES OF DARK (July '08) because it's book 2 in the Gabriel's Ghost series. They said they can't as it's against corporate policy or style or whatever. I worry readers will pick up SHADES not knowing they need to read GABRIEL'S first. It's bad enough when you can't find the books in a series; to me it's worse if you don't even know it's a series. ::sigh:: ~Linnea
If I find an author that looks like I might like them I’ll go to Amazon first to do a search and see if it’s part of a series. Print out the list of books and try to find it at a used book store first, then head to Hastings as they tend to keep whole series on the shelf. If I can’t find it, only then I’m I forced to order through Amazon to buy it new or their used section.
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Most of the publishers I know of at least put a series name on the books so that if they don't tell you the order, then you can look it up online or at the authors site. What Really kills me is the small press authors *such as myself* having problems getting shelved so people can FIND the books, and if they wont do it at all, then some of the stores say they dont and cant order the books. Talk about stonewalling!
I can't second this enough - authors, please forward these messages to your publishers and insist that they include a list of the series in order (preferably numbered!) somewhere in the front material of the book. I had the very irratating experience just a couple weeks ago of browsing the bookshelve and deciding to give a new series a chance, only to accidentally pick up the most recent book in the series instead of the first book in the series. The publisher had listed the series in reverse order - SO NOT HELPFUL! It's ridiculous to have to research every author's website before buying a book. This is such a simple, fundamental marketing principle - cross selling. The most annoying aspect to me is that IT'S ENTIRELY FREE ADVERTISING FOR THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR - you just have to fill an underused page in the front of the book with an ordered list of the series and update it before the reprint. AND, it sells to the best customers of all - the ones that have already tried your product and are willing to buy more. Does no one in the publishing industy study marketing?
Totally silly but fact, Fangirl. Susan Grant had the same problem with Dorchester for her "Star" series (Star Prince, Star King, etc.). When I moaned to her about Bantam's decision NOT to put "sequel to..." or something of that ilk on the front (or even the back!) cover, she told me her trick: she put it in the acknowledgments. Which is what I did for SHADES OF DARK. That's assuming readers will read it. If they do, they'll find a note thanking them for waiting for the continuation of Chaz and Sully's story that started with Gabriel's Ghost. That's the best I could do.Boggles my tiny blonde mind, too, yes. ~Linnea
Anita, As I told Fangirl, Bantam isn't the only house to do that. I believe their rationale--and I'm guessing from what I've heard from other authors who have the same issues--is that if a book says "Book #3" on the cover and #s 1 and 2 aren't on the shelf, the reader won't buy #3. So they lose a sale. They'd rather have you buy 3, realize when you get home it's a series and then you go seek out the rest of the series.So yes, they do study marketing. But not, IMHO, in a way that assists the reader.
Pre-Internet this was a lot more problematic than now, IMHO. At least with the Internet, if you're ordering online (ie: BN online or such), you can pull up the author's entire book listing at that point easily. If you're in a B&N "brick and mortar" (which is how the publishing industry defines physical stores), use their store computers (the ones there for public use) and the same info should be available.
Not perfect and NOT reader-friendly. But the best I can suggest.
My editor has no control over "Book # whatever" on my covers. That's far above her head/rank. We've discussed this. She knows. ;-) She's an author herself and her husband is, too.
However, if you do attend a reader/writer conference (other thread, I know) and you're at the bar with the editor from Big NY Publisher, TELL HER how annoying it is not to have that info on the cover. Authors complaining mean little to editors. Readers nicely and politely whining ;-) mean a lot more.
~Linnea
Stella, you're preaching to the choir. ;-) I came out of small press. I hear you.Again, it's corporate but has more to do with return-ability as well as financial soundness. Chain bookstores don't "own" the stock on their shelves. It's akin to a consignment situation. What they don't sell, they return. Most small presses don't have the warehousing facilities to allow for that.
When I was small press, I targeted the indy bookstores, who often will buy a book outright. There are some indy-type chains. You can also query UBSs as many will take small press new books and sell them.
If you want to email me off this list for other ideas, I'd be glad to help. I spent almost 5 years struggling in the small press market.
It's one of the reasons I'm so fond of the RT con. ;-) I'd not have my NY career if it wasn't for RT, their people and the readers and other authors at RT. ~Linnea
Linnea,One of my publishers goes so far as to offer booksellers a 50% discount, and full returnability, and its slow going but they are getting some notice and are getting shelved, even if its one store at a time.
Another publisher gives a 40% discount, and full returnability, and that company has a lot of issues getting the books shelved for a number of reasons, from the size of the book for the amount they charge to the cover art.
Still the third is much larger then the other two, offer a 20% discount, no returnability and because of that I cant even get them to order the damn book for signings... thats difficult.
Oddly, I have found that the Indies are not (atleast in the Nort East of the country) receptive to stocking, infact nine times out of ten they dont even wanna deal with it. It really kinda bites, but I'm sure you know.
I do have a question though for everyone, and its a shoot off of the statement about one of my publishers:
the size of the book matters, As a read I know, but what do you consider a bad cover that you would be turned off the even read the book?
A bad cover for me is anything that looks "old." or "Corny." I know it's awful to say it, but true. Like I've never read Mary Janice Davidson because her covers are so corny it doesn't look like anything I'd enjoy. Lindsay Sands "Love Bites" cover is another corny example.
And please know I mean no offence by any of this.
Turn Off Cover Art: Anything that looks like traditional romance cover art a la 1970's. If it's got a photo of a Fabio wannabe with a woman fainting in his arms, hair wind swept back and models in period costume, I won't even read the back cover description. I personally like illustrated cover art better than photos. Even digitally altered photos look better as cover art to me than straight up photos. I guess I like cover art to look a little like art.
I agree with Anita. No Fabios. Gag!! I like very clean/simple covers. Maybe with just the title and a little blurb, and a small piece of art... Nothing too over the top.
See these are all GREAT insights! I'm a cover artist and while i have done all my own covers, I have over 100 print covers under my belt. I'm always striving to design and to create covers that people would look at to consider to buy *though I'm sure all artist are like that* and I do agree some covers don't accurately depict the book, or the mood of the book. *if your interested, you can see my portfolio: http://stellaprice.devantart.com/gallery It doesn't have all my work, but the stuff i love that i have done.Some small press publishers have some freaking wonderful covers *i absolutely LOVE the covers coming out of Juno and Liquid Silver books* and some of them have covers people cringe over... Its always nice to see what non- e readers *and by that I mean people that like the paperback* think of the covers on the books they buy.
And of course... i gave you the WRONG link:http://stellaprice.deviantart.com/gal...
is the right one.
That's strange, I found BDB L. Revealed at B&N/ Borders. Amazon, though has really great deals on used and new books, there is also the option of asking your local librarian to borrow the book from another library which has it? Sorry you couldn't find it, once you do though it will have been worth the effort :D
OMG! I had no idea Book Mooch existed! This thing is awesome. What a great way to get rid of books with out feeling like you're wasting money.
As I have started reading various paranormal romance series, I sometimes can't find a book in the middle of the series. I can usually find the first few in a series, and the more recent ones. But there's often one in the middle that I can't get a hold of easily.
Case in point, in J.R. Ward's BDB series I went to five different book stores trying to find Lover Revealed. I found multiple copies of the other four books, but none of that one. I finally had to order it from amazon.
I have bought all of Lynsay Sands' Argeneau Vampires series except the fourth Tall, Dark, and Hungry. I just had to order it too. I think I'm going to end up ordering Private Demon by Lynn Viehl because I can't scrounge up a copy of it either.