Romance Writers New Direction

In Self-Publishing?
A number of romance authors have formed a collective to create a brand to help readers find “high quality self-published books.” Their brand, Rock*It Reads, will appear as a logo on the book jacket.

According to USA TODAY Rock*It Reads is a group of New York traditionally published authors who are also self-publishing romances. The difference is, according to a spokesperson for the group, they will only produce books that can match or do better than books produced by the big publishing houses. Their goal is to correct what they perceive as sloppy to non-existent editing in many self-published works which seriously detracts from the reading experience.

There are 11 current members in the collective; they expect to expand. Monica Burns, Cheryl Holt, Vanessa Kelly and Mia Marlowe are a few of the members. They have a website: RockItReads.com and they will be publishing a column to keep everyone up to date at BarnesandNoblesReview.com

Never Too Old to Write

When does a writer stop writing? Herman Wouk, author of The Caine Mutiny, Winds of War and many other novels is 96. His latest novel, The Lawgiver, is due out in the fall of this year (Simon and Schuster). By the way, his agent is Amy Rennert of the Amy Rennert Agency in case anyone is interested.

 Here’s What’s Selling

Continuing the copycat tradition of agents and publishers, Dollbaby has been picked up by Dorman Books. The novel by Laura L. McNeal was pitched “in the tradition of The Secret Life of Bees and The Help.” “Tradition of” is the new buzz word for agents when they ask writers trying to sell their work some variation of - “What book is it like?” Whatever happened to original?

Another novel “pitched in the tradition of” is Adelle Waldman’s, debut The Love Affair of Nathaniel P. It is apparently copying the themes and or the format of Benjamin Kunkel and Claire Messud. Book is due out in summer 2013.