Love in Dark Settings

I had written that I'd want to read a particular author's work before buying a book by them. lee_rowan pointed me to a free short story by that author at All Romance e-books.

My reply:

(*Rushes over to All Romance.*)

However (not to sound ungrateful, which I undoubtedly do), this seems the proper time to explain why free online samples and free short fiction aren't of much use to me when I'm deciding whether to buy a book.

( Read more... )

"If you really don't want to post actual warnings, a generic 'I don't warn' statement is better than nothing. Though, please always warn for mpreg and watersports. That way I can find stories I want to read. I mean avoid. Umm, yeah."

--Not giving credit on this one, for obvious reasons.

Below, a slightly edited version of my response to Jane Carnall's post about the warnings issue. Only likely to be of interest to folks in the fan fiction community.

( Read more... )

I think it's past time I blogged about this, because, while most of the published authors reading this probably know about it already, some may not. And readers are affected by this news as well.

Google Books is making arrangements to have a monopoly on offering digital access to out-of-print books. A deal that it made with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers allows it to sell access to all out-of-print books that are still in copyright (read that a second time) unless the copyright owner opts out of the settlement. Alternatively, the copyright owner can make a claim in order to receive a share of the profit on the books by them that Google sells.

( Why I like Google Books )
( Why I don't like this plan )

Regardless as to how you view the matter, authors should take a look at the Google Book Settlement site. The site provides instructions on how to opt out of the settlement or (alternatively) to make claims to receive money. The deadline (which was supposed to be May 5) has been extended to September 4.

This is long enough that it deserves its own post. I visited a couple of D.C. bookstores on April 22 and compiled a list of all the m/m books with contributions by authors whom I recognized as being from the slash, yaoi, or genre romance communities. (I use the term "m/m" here as a convenient short-hand to refer to books from those communities. Of course there are many authors of gay love stories who don't belong to those communities, but I didn't list their books.) I thought you guys might be interested in seeing how far writers from those communities have made it onto the shelves of bookstores.

( Lambda Rising )
( Borders )
( My conclusions )

I'm working on a story for my Hurricanes Gustav and Ike Report at True Tales about how Hurricane Ike has affected the slash and yaoi communities. Anyone here want to contribute their anecdotes, for the record?

( Why I never want to cover news in the slash community )