Monday, August 2, 2004

Taking a break

Having finished up STRANGER (its official release date is August 27), I am going to take a break from writing for a couple of days. I have some business I need to take care of, like sending out bookmarks. Besides, I just got Julia Quinn's latest, WHEN HE WAS WICKED, and I fully intend to read it. Now. Or perhaps even sooner.



Yesterday I spotted another e-pubbed author who's broken into New York. Linnea Sinclair aka Megan Sybill Baker says on her website she's signed a contract with Bantam/Spectra. (At least one of the books under contract was previously published by her e-publisher, LTD Books.) I'm always happy to see another e-pubbed author get a New York contract... it's one more defense to use against people who claim e-published authors don't write well enough to write for major publishers. Another comment I've seen is that the only e-pubbed authors who can make it in New York write erotic romance, but I gather Sinclair writes nonerotic sci-fi romance and straight fantasy, so that argument doesn't seem to apply here, either.



Am I saying Sinclair's success proves that ALL e-published authors are New York-quality writers? Nope. There is definitely some e-published cr*p out there. But frankly, I've read some New York published authors who couldn't write their way out of a paper bag, either. You can find great books from big publishers as well as small ones. The fact that a book was produced by a major publisher is not a guarantee of quality, and there are some awesome authors writing for e-publishers.

5 comments:

  1. Yay on taking a break! My breaks always involve a book, too. Only the books I read on my breaks are always outside the genre I write. So on my breaks I read fantasy or historical fiction. I found that if I read romance while I'm writing it, I can stay in "the mood" and be more focused. If I read historical fiction while writing my contemporary romances, my writing starts sounding medieval! LOL

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  2. Excellent point on the e-pubs & New York contracts. I hope to do the same thing (Awe-Struck has my full right now & I already queried Harlequin Historicals & will be querying Dorchester soon.) Gives me hope when I see things like your post :-)

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  3. Good luck on all your queries, Marguerite. But didn't I hear that Harlequin Historicals is one of the lines Harlequin is discontinuing? I think they're still publishing historicals through HQN, though.

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  4. They are still publishing them but just switching them to their subsription service & overseas market. I just heard back from Awe-Struck today ans they rejected my ms. Oh well, I know I have a good story & I'm not about to give up on it yet :-)

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  5. Oh, that's too bad, Marguerite. But don't let it get you down. There are other very good small publishers out there, as well as big ones. Hang in there!

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