Melani Blazer

That’s my mantra for the day.

I’m writing this… actiony, guns and…fighting and well, without giving away too much of the story, it’s one of those in which the plot threatens to become some giant, mutant pacman and gobble up all the allocated word count without letting me get in much more than a kiss and hint of the romance to come.

But it never comes.

This has made me think about a couple of things. Don’t mind my rambling or seemingly unconnected thoughts here, I *Am* still on cold meds…

I’ve read for as long as I an remember. As a kid of it was the Black Beauty and Trixie Belden series, but before long I was begging to buy books (I found my parents rarely said no to money for books, bless them) and grabbed every opportunity to visit the library to explore the shelves there. By the time I was 13 or 14, and my best friend was 16, I was reading more and more adult books and less of the YA’s. I was lucky enough to grow up when Harlequin/Silhouette did a YA romance. There was also an abundance of YA historicals, some big thick books I latched onto immediately that were about 60% a young girl growing up in a particular setting and 40% romance–usually with someone other than what her family would have chosen for her. They were rich, fullfilling and even educational. But always very evenly balanced.

During those teen years, my grandmother realized my love of reading. She’s an avid category romance fan, but will read anything romance, really. She was in a circle of ladyfriends who traded off books by the boxful, initialing the inside front cover after they’d read it to avoid duplication. My grandmother would lend me those, and I’d easily spend my summer devouring a few a day, along with some Stephen King, Mary Higgens Clark and others.

What happened there was the molding of a lifelong romance reader.

So why’s it so hard to remember the romance while writing this particular book?
Beats the *bleep* outta me.

Here’s where I go off tangent…There’s all this discussion that started with the Samhain/Kensington print announcement and the expansion of the Ellora’s Cave/Simon & Schuster anthology program. I’m getting all this from Dear Author, so check out this post for links…

It really has less to do with these arrangements/agreements/etc than it does author branding and the concept that each book an author writes is better than the last. Anymore, I call it the big reprint riot. Authors are panicked their “old” books are going to be picked up and put out there for the world to see. I’m really on the fence here, because what can be good for one can be bad for another. In the case of one author, she’s concerned that her new fans–fans of her mainstream romance (hot but not erotic) will suddenly see new paperbacks with her name on them and “assume” they are similar, and wow–they are not. Could this turn off some fans?

Readers aren’t likely to look at the copyright date and recognize that it is an old book.

Says one of the 2 Ja(y)nes of Dear Author. There couldn’t be a truer statement.

The same author above is also concerned that reprints will hit the shelves around the same time as her new books. Will she be…literally…competing with herself for sales? Ouch.

On the other hand, some pretty damn good ebooks are going to hit the shelves and be available to reader who might not have otherwise picked them up. Who’s gonna argue with that?

And here’s the bit that ties this in to the initial part of the post. I don’t know Iris Johansen and cannot confirm whether I’ve read anything of hers. (If I did, it was back in those devour everything I could teenage years when, sadly, I paid more attention to the story than the author.) But to see the statement within the post about this author denying she wrote romance. Gah! They suggest she wouldn’t want her backlist reprinted because she’s completely jumped genres. When she did have something brought back she edited out the romance. OMFG. Give it to me! I need it. My story NEEDS romance.

In a haphazard way, I’ve come to this conclusion. Don’t sign the contract if you think you’ll EVER, EVER regret it. Be proud of your past work, it’s proof you’ve done better. If you’re getting reprinted, embrace it, EDUCATE the fans best you can with contests, newsletters and an online presence–website/blog whatever to try to avoid the confusion for readers on what’s really new and what’s new to them. (In most cases there’s little more you can do)
Above all, embrace the romance. It’s the HEART of the story, even if it’s not the focal point.

Now, back to writing for me. I promise. I’m getting my hero/heroine out of the line of fire (temporarily) and gonna let them fall in love. (then back to the line of fire and let them test their love… of course!)

Note: I *Did* warn you about me and cold meds, remember?