Exploring and understanding audience, encouraging communication, announcing excerpts and celebrating book releases. Just basically talking about websites... and the occasional cupcake.

August Wrap-Up

by Emily Cotler
August 31, 2010 – 4:08 pm

wrap-up header

NEW BOOKS:

JANE PORTER released She’s Gone Country earlier this month. I got to read this book months ago and loved it. AUTHOR WEBSITE BONUS: Check out the Readers’ Guide for the book — a great tool for book clubs! Even better: be a cover girl yourself! (Seriously, check this thing out. It’s easier than it looks, super fun, and a cool prize. How do I know it’s easy? Er, that’s me in the example photo.)

SUSAN ANDERSEN released Burning Up today. AUTHOR WEBSITE BONUS: Catch the story behind the story in Susan’s Between the Covers feature. If you enjoy finding out where ideas originate, this is a great, quick read.

MONICA MCCARTY released The Hawk, book two in the Highland Guard series, also today. AUTHOR WEBSITE BONUS: Loads more fantastic info in Monica’s Special Features section for the Highland Guard series. You haven’t checked this out yet? Wow. Are you in for a treat!

NEW-AGAIN BOOKS:

SUSAN ANDERSEN’s Obsessed was re-issued for the second time on August 1. It was originally published in 1993, and was re-issued for the first time in 2001.

LORI FOSTER’s The Watson Brothers got a second life when it was re-released on August 3. Originally published in September 2008, it contains the stories of Sam, Gil, and Pete Watson. My House, My Rules, Bringing Up Baby, and Good With His Hands.

HOPE TARR’s A Rogue’s Pleasure, originally published in 2000, was re-issued as an e-book on August 16.

NEW EXCERPTS:

DIANE GASTON posted an excerpt from Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress, Book Two in Diane’s Three Soldiers Series, due out in September.

MAYA BANKS posted an excerpt from The Darkest Hour, due out in early September. It is the first book in her Kelly series. She also posted a new sneak peek for Four Play, due out in October.

GERRI RUSSELL posted a sneak peek excerpt from her novella The Border Lord’s Bride, which will be published in the anthology The Betrothal, headlined by powerhouse Mary Balogh, due out in late September.

JENNIE LUCAS posted an excerpt from The Virgin’s Choice, due out in the UK in October. It will be released in North America under the title The Bride Thief in January 2011.

STEPHANIE TYLER posted an excerpt from Lie With Me, the first book in her new Shadow Force series. It is due out in late October. She also posted a new sneak peek for Promises in the Dark, book two in the Shadow Force series and is due out in late November.

LAURA LEE GUHRKE posted a sneak peek from Wedding of the Season, due out in late December. It is the first book in her new series, Abandoned at the Altar.

More coming next month!

Posted by Emily Cotler •• Filed in Fun Site Features, The Book Business, Working on the web, Wrap-ups •• Comments (2)

Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner Stand Up

by Emily Cotler
August 26, 2010 – 2:02 pm

Today, on this 90th anniversary of Women’s Right To Vote (yes, folks, it’s less than 100 years old!), let’s take a moment to look at how far we still have to go.

2010-08-24-17

Jodi Picoult

The past week sparked controversy as Jonathan Franzen’s latest book approaches release and the critics work themselves into a frenzy over it. Why do the “white male literary darlings,” as New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult puts it, get so much praise while writers of commercial fiction are largely ignored? Picoult and Jennifer Weiner, also a #1 New York Times bestselling author of women’s fiction have been tweeting (check out their twitters here and here) and commenting to the press that critics’ acknowledgment is completely uneven. Today, they were interviewed by Jason Pinter on The Huffington Post. Weiner notes:

If you write romance, forget about it. You’ll be lucky if they spell your name right on the bestseller list.

2010-08-24-jw2009

Jennifer Weiner

It’s a very good read. Both women’s comments are intelligent and witty and not at all whiny, as it is so easy to be when getting into this subject.

For related reading, please check out my blog post from last summer, when Eloisa James and Julia Quinn were extensively featured in USA Today. Such focus, though richly deserved, is still very rarely given.

Posted by Emily Cotler •• Filed in The Book Business, Working on the web •• Comments (0)

Shhh… The Designers are Working

by Emily Cotler
August 13, 2010 – 7:30 am

I love watching the team work. As art/creative director I am definitely part of the process, but I don’t have my hands on the mouse or the the sketchpad. We have design summits here — stretches of time where Misono and Estella turn off email, and I don’t bug them with new or little things (this is saying a lot as things come in all day long here, everyday), but I pop over there every hour (give or take) to discuss and analyze where things are going. All we focus on is creating the design at hand.

Yesterday, when I wrote most of this post, there were stunningly beautiful creations in progress on the monitors across the room. The designs had been unfolding, layer by layer. These things take time, and experimentation, and a lack of interruption. Estella worked for about a half hour trying to create an impression of light without actually going for a literal shaft of light. It had been coming from different directions, and at different intensities, and by different techniques. She finally found one that sat well with her and quietly moved on. It’s so sublime, and it looks effortless, but I know she churned the brain cells on it.

While this was going on Misono created a curve, then adjusted it, then tilted her head to the side and moved it. She straightened her head and moved it again. Then moved it back. Then she did did nothing for a whole minute, fingers poised on her trackball. Then she started creating again, adding dimension, and now she is blurring only parts of the edge. It’s — oh, there’s that word again: sublime.

I love that word. And it’s so hard to achieve. Beautiful things being created here this week.

Posted by Emily Cotler •• Filed in Creative, Understanding Audience, Web Design •• Comments (1)

The Dwindling Relevance of MySpace

by Maxamaris Hoppe
August 10, 2010 – 10:14 am

Since 2008, MySpace has been been making regular and large staffing cuts. In 2009, comScore reported that Facebook had twice the global traffic as MySpace.

Back in February of 2010, one of the CEOs quit, and it was seen as a really bad sign. Back in the heyday of MySpace, bands flocked to MySpace music in an effort to connect with their fans in a medium their fans were already using. Today, I know many people who only go on MySpace to find new music and tour dates from their favorite artists. The powers that be over at MySpace have been saying that they’re going to refocus according to that trend. They recently acquired iLike, a music service, and revamped their music section. However, they have been talking about moving away from social networking and focusing on entertainment for years without much follow-through, so time will tell. It’s also important to keep in mind that there are plenty of other places to get your music and if someone goes to MySpace for a music page, there’s nothing making them browse around the rest of the site.

In July 2010, MySpace started to beta test a cleaner (and more Facebook-like) profile template and bought out another social networking service: Threadbox. This seems to indicate that, no matter their claims to focus in music, they’re still trying to resuscitate a dying form of social media. They’re trying, but nobody’s optimistic and, more importantly, nobody is excited, which is what MySpace needs to get any popularity back.

Of course, who knows what might catch on, but it’s pretty well accepted at this point that unless you’re an indie band, a MySpace logo on your website looks antiquated and maybe even a little weird.

Posted by Maxamaris Hoppe •• Filed in Understanding Audience, Working on the web •• Comments (1)

“Sign my Nook, please.” (or: Awesome Things from RWA, Orlando – Part 2)

by Emily Cotler
August 4, 2010 – 11:12 am

All hail this wonderful new booksigning happenstance. Please join me in a melifluous chorus of “Niiiiccccce!” in response to this new fabulous Best Fan Behavior:

Pamela Palmer signing the back of a fan's Nook at the RWA big benefit booksigning in Orlando, July 2010. (Photo: me)

“Sign my Nook, please.”

Fans didn’t just buy books to support literacy programs, I saw a quite a few people handing over their Nooks for authors to sign. The backs are easily removed, and replacements come in different colors. One reader said her plan was to hang signature-filled Nook-backs in rows on her wall.

I love it!

And what’s on my eReader? I have a Kindle app for my iPhone, and I am slowly reading Edward Rutherfurd’s massive tome, New York whenever I find myself with a few minutes without a book in hand (I still love paper!). But Max has a Nook, and I just transferred my HarperCollins eARC of Kathryn Caskie’s The Duke’s Night of Sin to hers and plan to ensconce myself with it tomorrow afternoon. I am calling it “working” (I have the BEST job).

And in case you missed the previous post, Awesome Things, Part One lauded the incredible accomplishment of Julia Quinn hitting the RWA Hall of Fame. Let’s all take another moment to say “yea!”

nookshelf

photo courtesy of Barnes&Noble.com

Posted by Emily Cotler •• Filed in Booksigning Tips, Events, Understanding Audience •• Comments (1)

Home ·· Profile ·· Services ·· Web Portfolio ·· Print Portfolio ·· Web Redesign ·· WaxBlog ·· Contact ·· Site ·· Client Login

© 2008-2010 Waxcreative Design, Inc.