Tanzey Talk
March 2003
As I was putting the finishing touches on this month's newsletter and writing my column, my MS Publisher program experienced some glitches. Thinking I had them taken care of, I was devastated when I lost the entire March Gazette. Luckily, I keep handwritten lists of all the reviews that are to be included in each issue, and I had a few reviews still in my e-mail folder, as well as some notes for my column. With the help of many authors and Gazette reviewers, I was able to reconstruct the newsletter as you are reading it now. After I stopped hyperventilating, I calmed down and started sending e-mails to authors and editors I knew I'd sent finished reviews to, hoping they'd saved those reviews. And they had! Since I don't have e-mail addresses for all authors whose books we review, I set out to retrieve the rest of the missing ones from our reviewers, who'd also saved their copies. Within a couple of days, and after many hours in front of the computer, I was up and running again. I can't express enough gratitude to those authors, editors and reviewers who came to my rescue. It's quite gratifying to know there are so many fantastic people in this industry. My thanks are boundless! Now, on with the show!
Nancy J. Cohen announces she sold two more books in her humorous Bad Hair Day mystery series. Following her next release, which is Highlights to Heaven, will be Died Blond.
Sabrina Jeffries has changed publishers, signing a new contract with Pocket. She still has two books coming from Avon - Dance of Seduction (in April) and another set for March 2004. Her first Pocket release is tentatively scheduled for September 2004 and will begin a new series for her.
Next month, Connie Mason will continue her Rogues of London series with Seduced by a Rogue. And she's now working on the last book of that series, The Last Rogue, which is due out in the spring of 2004. September 2003 will see the release of Bewitched, her story about a Scottish Faery woman people believe is a witch but is really a healer with special powers. Connie also says many of her out-of-print books are being reissued, so check her web site www.conniemason.com for further info on them.
Carly Phillips is excited to announce that Cosmopolitan magazine is picking up her latest release, The Playboy, as a serialized story in their April issue. She just wanted readers to know because you're such an important reason why she writes. Look for the Cosmo issue in stores mid-March.
Susan Carroll is working on a new hardcover trilogy for Ballantine. Slated for release in close sequence in 2004, they will tell the stories of three sisters who carry on a legacy of magic. I loved Susan's Bride Finder series, so I can't wait to read this new magical series.
 Sandra Hill has been running a cover survey on her web site asking for readers' opinions on which of two covers they prefer - the cartoon or the hunk - for her new release this month, The Very Virile Viking. She's learned that her publisher, Dorchester Leisure, has decided to offer both covers for sale, which may be confusing to readers. Most booksellers will only carry one or the other, probably not both, so unless readers know the ISBN when ordering, they may get something they didn't expect. Or not realize they have a choice. To help clarify matters, I've included a copy of each cover, so you can be prepared. It'll be interesting to see how this concept works for Leisure. Personally, I prefer the hunk cover (ISBN: 0843952059) for this type of story. Even though Sandra's books are always very humorous, I'm not sure the cartoon cover (ISBN: 0843950641) represents a very virile Viking, like the title infers. He looks rather silly, but that's just my opinion.
Ballantine (Fawcett) had this same dual-cover idea in 1999 for Patricia Rice's Volcano. They offered booksellers a choice of two covers - an island with flowers (and the couple on a stepback), or the island background with the couple in the foreground - in their early sales brochures. It seems that almost all the orders came in for the cover with the couple on the front. They didn't have enough orders for the plain island cover to justify the expense of printing it, so only the "couple" cover was ever seen in stores. That's the one I have, and I love it.
OBB manager Sue also told me that this dual-cover concept was used for an early Stephanie Laurens' book, so I contacted Stephanie about this. Here's her response, "The book was Scandal's Bride (2/99) and the cover experiment was run at the request of Wal-Mart. That book had an excellent cover, both front - a wedding bow - and back - the clinch - so that's the one Avon picked, printing books with both covers - one with the wedding bow in front, the other with the clinch in front. In those days, Wal-Mart was convinced a romance had to have a clinch cover to sell. The clinch cover was only available through them, but they shelved the same amount of books with both covers, not next to each other, but a few slots separate, in most stores. And watched to see what happened. The wedding bow sold faster. However, the clinch also sold well, and ultimately (within a few weeks) they sold all books, clinch or bow, because if a reader came in looking for the book and the store didn't have the bow, they bought the clinch, of course. If anything, the experiment proved: a) romances with non-clinch covers sell at least as well as those with clinch covers (if not better); and b) ultimately it was the book, and not the 'clinch or non-clinch' argument that was more important to customers." Stephanie also added this observation, "One point you might like to address, as this is quite different to the experiment run with mine, is: will cartoon covers work on historical/time-travel? That's probably the more important aspect in this situation, as many browsing readers associate cartoony with contemporary."
For those of you anxiously looking for Night Fires, the first single-title release from Karen Harbaugh, I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit longer. When her publisher got such extraordinary responses from the well-known authors' who previewed it, they decided to give this book a bigger marketing push. Because of this more aggressive campaign, they've moved the book back to November 2003. Karen tells me that will put it closer to the release of the book she's currently working on, tentatively called Lady Blade, which she feels is a good thing. To keep up with Karen and to check out the fabulous cover, as well as read an excerpt of Night Fires, go to www.sff.net/people/KarenH.
While in Florida for the winter, Debbie Macomber is working on another Christmas book, Those Christmas Angels, which is another Shirley, Goodness and Mercy story. She says, "It will be released as a SuperRomance in November. For years, I wrote for the category romance lines, and romance readers are the very foundation of my audience. In addition to writing the bigger, broader women's fiction stories, I'm looking forward to returning to my roots in 2003 with a SuperRomance and in 2004 with a Silhouette Special Edition."
Susan Krinard relates in her latest newsletter, "I've been hard at work on my current manuscript, Kinsman's Oath, the sequel to my novella, Kinsman, from the anthology Out of This World. It has a projected release date of spring 2004. I also just finished and turned in my contemporary werewolf novella, Kiss of the Wolf,...for the anthology When Darkness Falls, to be released in October 2003. To Catch a Wolf, my next historical werewolf novel...is scheduled for September 2003. In addition, I'm researching several future projects, including the next Fane novel (following The Forest Lord), a fantasy novel set in my own fictional "universe," and possible Kinsman sequels. My goal is to write two books a year beginning in 2003, one of which will probably be fantasy and one romance." This is exciting news for her fans.
Sad to report that our industry lost another talented author in January, Sandra Canfield, who died from complications of lymphoma and pneumonia. Sandra was well-known for her SuperRomances.
Plans are in full-swing for RT's 20th Booklovers Convention being held in Kansas City, October 15 - 19, which I told you about last month. Cheryl, Sue and I will be presenting a seminar together and looking forward to meeting lots of our friends. Hope you can make it!
More big news! I'm delighted that my column, Tanzey Talk, is now appearing on the very impressive Writerspace.com web site. I've been working with Sara Reyes (who's a genius!). We will also have reviews in TheBestReviews.com, as well as direct e-mail links to the store and to me for readers' comments. As of January, Writerspace had almost 58,000 subscribers to their e-newsletter - and it continues to grow.
Stay tuned 'til next month…
Tanzey Cutter
Editor of the Old Book Barn Gazette
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“Let’s have breakfast. No, a midnight snack. Screw it; let’s go have a brandy now.”-She laughed “You don’t want brandy.”-“No. it was a thinly disguised euphemism for wild and crazy sex.” - Nora Roberts, Remember When p.38 (posted by Cartooned)
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