Hiding out

...I accepted a subbing assignment at the high school today, and didn't manage to blog before leaving home.


Should be ready to post my review for How to Write Hot Sex, next week... some very informative articles in the anthology.


And with that I'm off, lunch is almost over and I'm having a fantastic day with "big kids". (They're almost like real people!)


Autumn Piper
Got romance?

Where the Private Things Are

I've noticed an alarming trend in social networking, and perhaps this topic has been covered in Twitter for Dummies or The Idiot's Guide to Facebook, but... way too many women are giving us way too much information. In fact, the term TMI may have been invented just because of this phenomenon.


Ladies. Girls. Women. Please do not "share" with the universe at large when you are... you know... whatever you want to call it--menstruating, having your period, on your cycle, being visited by Aunt Flo, Aunt Rose, or your "friend. Just don't.


To clarify, I'll provide a list of who wants to know when you are riding the cotton pony:

• Nobody.

It might feel good to complain about your mood or cramps or whatever, but I can assure you--we don't want to know. Sorry, but that's your own private pain. The rest of us--even fellow women--Simply. Don't. Need. To know. (Not mention, once you put that "out there", men who follow you will categorically discount all complaints you have for the rest of the week.) Probably if you wouldn't stand up and shout this information to a stadiumful of your acquaintances and also strangers, you shouldn't tweet it, either.


If you've already transgressed and shared TMI, don't despair. Just make a vow, here and now, to reform. To cut back your Monthly Mense Messages to, say... Never Again.


You can do this. It should remain a private little secret among the shoppers on the feminine hygiene aisle: you, a couple of other women, the young embarrassed husband, and the guy with the combover and a Cosmo magazine in hand, who darts in to grab a bottle of Astroglide. See? Sometimes we don't want all the deets.


A bit of mystery is a good thing.


Autumn Piper
Got romance?

Talkin Tuesday

I'm guest at author Rebecca Rose's blog today, doing what I do best... Talkin'. (about different hero types)


Autumn Piper
Got romance?

Lending, Shmending--My take on the Amazon hooplah

It's been almost 2 weeks since Amazon unveiled its new Kindle Lending Library, and from the uproar among authors, you'd think they've already got plans to Occupy Amazon.

So, let me (briefly) recap what Amazon offers:

Anybody with a Kindle can lend their books to friends, but only for 14 days max. Not new. At least for several years. And I honestly have no problem with this feature. The cool thing about Kindles (from an author’s angle) is that Kindle owners can’t make a copy of a book file and send it out 557 times to whoever they want, or upload it to some file-sharing site. It’s between their Kindle and Amazon. Period. (and of course, that friend who can temporarily borrow it) Do I have a problem with a reader sharing the story she loves with another reader, thus doing my publicity for me, and spreading my fan base? Never. At least with Amazon, it’s a limited thing... PDFs, notsomuch.

Now, if you have Amazon Prime ($79 per year), you can A)watch movies/TV streaming B)Get free 2-day shipping all year on all purchases and 3)Borrow (for yourself) 1 book per month, like a library book. Amazon has “over 100,000 bestselling titles” available for this.

Now this is what's causing authors to twitch. My thoughts on the matter?

• Yayy Amazon! I’ma get me a Kindle. (LOL) And one for dear daughter, too.
• People can already check out damn near all books via ebook from their libraries anyway (and if your local library doesn’t have them or doesn’t have many, try your state library system, like for me the Denver Public library gives out cards to anybody with a Colorado license, and I can get ebooks there). And true, we authors do get a tiny stipend back from OverDrive when somebody checks out our book from the library, but...
•  Hello? 100,000 bestsellers. Uh, yeah. I’ve never been in the top 100,000 on Amazon. (well, maybe once, but that was when I was buying copies of my books for a convention) They sell upward of 5 gajillion books. So the people who you’d think might possibly feel the crunch from lost sales because of this (best selling authors) most likely sell enough books that they will not, in fact, feel the crunch.
• If by some chance my book ends up in the Amazon lending library and some lady wants to read it, I am SO for it. I’m betting she’ll like it, and tell other people she liked it, which means they might, in turn, buy it (and that reader who borrowed it just might write me a good review---which I am forever salivating for).
• I’m betting most Kindle owners who opt into the program will use it to buy those pricey bestsellers (you know, the ones Big 6 pubs have decided to put astronomical prices on?) rather than waste their 1-per-month on a $5.50 or less title from Lyrical Press. Kindle owners are comprised mainly of voracious readers who see from the outset that they’ll save money on books in the longrun, because they buy so dang many.
• And the bottom line is: Amazon did it because Amazon can. Our other option includes (and is limited to) NOT selling our books there, which—as somebody who has been published with other houses which did not sell my books through Amazon, I can attest to—is virtually shooting yourself in the foot, sales-wise. Amazon has been, and continues to be, our top-selling vendor, most of the time selling as many books as all our other vendors combined.

Like it or lump it, but move on, already. If it was 30 years ago and your book was only available in print, readers could buy that hardback, read it, then lend it out to 20 of their closest friends and finally sell it on the yard sale for a quarter. That--and libraries--would've been your best means of spreading the word and growing a fanbase. And guess how many times you'd have earned a royalty? So get over yourself and get back to NaNoWriMo, already.

Piper Denna

Romance is sexy. Whining? Not so much.

Review in

I finished reading Something Borrowed. As I said before, it was different from the movie, and that's fine.


I did like the main character, Rachel. Although... honestly, if I hadn't seen the movie and wasn't confident in a happy ending, I might've put the book down, about 100 pages from the end. She really was entirely too passive for too long. Not "too stupid to live" but at one point, she spends quite a while comparing herself to "those women"--the ones who spend years as the other woman, waiting and hoping that the cheating man they love will leave his wife and spend his life with her. Time and again she planned to give Dex an ultimatum, but then let him off the hook. Rachel also spent entirely too many years supporting her witchy, shallow best friend. So it's a little hard for me to relate to her. And the book went on for too long after what was basically the end of the story--without any further resolution, that I could tell. Like a couple of trailing chapters there should've been freebies on the author's website, rather than part of the actual book. Again, back to my original assessment, that if this book had hit an agent/editor ten years later, it never would've made it to publication. At least, not without some major revisions.


Overall, I'd give Something Borrowed a: Borrow It. An okay read, but try to borrow it from a friend or library. This author will likely improve with experience, so remember him/her.


Now, from the movie, it appeared the sequel, Something Blue, would feature Rachel and Darcy's friend Ethan. But there's an excerpt in the back of this book, written in 1st person, and the main character is Darcy (the witchy, shallow friend). I read the excerpt and tried really hard to want it, but in the end, her voice hadn't captured my attention. I don't like her enough to want to read her story. So, sadly, I think this is the end of me and this series.


Next up, I'll be finishing How to Write Hot Sex, and then delving into MJ Fredrick's Beneath the Surface.


Have a great weekend.


Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!