Total Hotness Tuesday

I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves...

MECHAD BROOKS

Dorchester to their Authors

The following was posted on one of the loops that I receive daily. The forwarder wishes to remain anonymous but she did say the many established authors have left Dorchester. Also, Dorchester did not say this e-mail was not to be forwarded. I'm just posting this now and I'll put my two cents in at a later time.

Dear Anonymous Author:

Don, Chris & I have been working to contact as many people as we could
before sending out a blanket announcement regarding some of the new format
changes many of you have already read about. Unfortunately, news broke
online before anticipated.

Given the many changes in the publishing industry over the last several
years, Dorchester has made the decision to more tightly focus its
distribution models so that we may fully capitalize on the most profitable
emerging technologies.

Starting with September titles, we will be moving from mass-market to trade
paperback format. This will delay new releases roughly 6-8 months, but it
will also open many new and more efficient sales channels.

And we're pleased to say all titles will be available in ebook format as
originally scheduled. The substantial growth we've seen in the digital
market in such a short period-combined with the decline of the mass-market
business-convinced us that we needed to fully focus our resources in this
segment sooner rather than later.

Dorchester has always been known as a company ahead of the curve and willing
to take risks. As bookstores are allocating the bulk of their capital to the
digital business, it only makes sense that we do the same. Everyone keeps
hearing that the industry has to change if it's going to survive. We're
excited to be at the forefront of that change and will continue to keep you
posted on further developments.

And to help answer some of the questions you might have:

When will my book be coming out?

Ebook editions will be out in the month the mass-market was originally
scheduled. The trade paperback will follow roughly 6-8 months after. We
have tentatively rescheduled many of the Sept.-Jan. titles through June or
July 2011. But we're still working on books scheduled farther out.

Why the delay?

Some of the delay will be in reformatting the typeset mass-market so that it
better fits a trade size. But most of the extra time is so that the sales
force we're working with will have a chance to sell books in to the
accounts. Just like mass-market, stores will be placing their orders about
4-6 months before the books are printed.

I read in an article that these are print-on-demand. Does that mean they
won't be offered to the general market?

We've partnered with Ingram Publishing Services, who will be selling in
books to libraries, Borders, B&N, Books a Million and all other retail and
wholesale accounts that we've called on previously. But by having many more
sales reps, we'll also be able to target accounts, such as many independent
stores, who have not ordered our books in the past. Just as for mass-market
books, stores will place their orders and we will print to fill them. Books
will be on the shelves for readers to browse. However, using
print-on-demand technology, we will not have to keep as many books in
inventory incurring warehousing fees. Books will be available for reorder
just as they are now, but we will only have to print as many copies as we
need instead of a minimum of 5000.

What happens to backlist titles?

We're currently in the process of changing warehouses, but once set,
reorders will continue as normal. When a book goes out of stock, we will
make the determination of whether to reprint-just as we do now. Reprints
will most likely be in trade format, though we haven't completely ruled out
the possibility of some staying in mass-market.

Thank you for your patience and support as we make this transition.

Best,
Leah

Leah Hultenschmidt
Editorial Director
Dorchester Publishing

RWA 2010 Recap PART ONE

Hello to all my friends out in the blogosphere!

I know it's been a while but as I've said before, if you really want to keep up with me, you can find me on Twitter.

It's been a busy time since I last blogged. This whole last week I was in Florida attending my very first RWA Conference. I've been to RT several times but never really gave a thought to to attending this conference which I now know was a mistake.

I'd first like to thank all the staff at RWA who worked their asses off to put this together after the flood at the Opryland Hotel. They did an awesome job.

But really? Mother fucking Florida in the middle of mother fucking July? It was like the Devil's armpit there. I told several people that God had abandoned us. No way He could live there and He was punishing us. Still, as long as you stayed inside the hotel, all was well. But DAMN! It didn't even cool off at night.

That being said, everything came together amazingly.

My CP Tricia and I decided to attend this year because our other CP Viola Estrella was nominated for her first (and in no way last) RITA award. Unfortunately, she didn't win but still, it was a landmark nomination because it was the very first e-book to be nominated. A fact that I think RWA grossly undervalued. In my opinion, there should have been more fanfare. But whatever. Her name and her book will be remembered for that.

The thing that made me most happy though, is that I got to see La Nora. Of course, in true Monica fashion, I spit on her. Yeah. I have a tendency to spit sometimes when I talk and that was one of those times.

Awesome.

Nora gave a GREAT keynote speech. She talked about what it took to be a writer. My favorite quote and one that I'm going to get made into T-shirts was 'Ride the Hard.' My mind went to oh so many bad yet delicious places! If you get a chance to get a copy of this speech, do it. I was so inspired. Tricia and I came home determined to ride our hards all the way to New York. I'm working on putting a synopsis and querying agents.

And writing. Most of all writing.

I also met some AWESOME people. Of course there was Jessa Slade and Delilah Marvelle. These lovely ladies are kindness personified and my best night was sitting at the pool with them as well as Vi and Trish and talking shop. Career planning, publishing, the future of our industry. It was one of the best conversations. Ever.

I got a shitload of books. Like ten times more than RT. I swear, when I see books, my brain shuts down and goes into MUST HAVE mode. I grabbed everything I could. I have gotten more books in the past three months than I can read this year. But I'm going to try. Really hard. Though I will have to fit reading in around my writing and not the other way around.

I saw Nalini Singh. We had a room on the same floor and I swear she thought I was stalking her. I wasn't. This time.

I also think I freaked out Carolyn Jewel. I follow her on Twitter and when you read someone's tweets it's like you know them. So when I met her at RomCon I kind of approached her like I knew her. I didn't. But she was so sweet and lovely that when I saw her again at RWA we were BFFs. (Not really. At least not anywhere but in my own mind.) As such, I talked to her as though we were best gal pals. She humored me. But I saw the glint of "this bitch is crazy" in her eyes but I promise her I'm not going to be hiding in her bushes. I'm in CO, she's in CA. At least until RT next year.

KIDDING!!!

I was happy to get an ARC of her book though. It was like a stroke of luck because they were all gone and then one got returned and I snatched that shit up.

But the real highlight of my trip was sitting next to Donald 'Mother Fucking' Maass at the RITA awards. Another thing for which I need to thank Delilah and Jessa. Oh, and he's hot. I'd never seen a picture of him but wow. He was not what I had expected. And I did take Keri Stevens's advice not to lick him and thereby commit career suicide.

Random bits:

-Lisa Kleypas is gorgeous in person.

-Teresa Medeiros is funny as hell.

-Cynthia Eden continues to be the sweetest person on the planet and she told me she loves me. The feeling is mutual.

Okay. That's it for this installment. Next time more about the week and why RWA is better than RT. If you're a writer.