Member News & Events
Speakers & Workshops |
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Market News |
Member Update |
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No speakers or workshops scheduled for December.
Monthly chapter meetings are held the second Saturday of each month at the Piccadilly Restaurant inside Richland Mall, Waco, Texas.
Christmas Party:
The chapter's Christmas party will be held at Kristi Goldberg's house on Dec. 12, starting between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. A map will be in our December newsletter. The menu is Mexican food. Kristi is preparing the main dish, and we are to bring side dishes, salads and dessert.
White Elephant:
We will have our usual white elephant auction at the Christmas Party. So bring anything you want to auction off. Maybe we can convince Leo Sullivan to be our auctioneer again this year. And yes, I have it straight from the horse's mouth that Gini and Jim are hard at work creating more wonderful things for our auction.
Compiled on December 1998
Ellen Edwards, recently of Avon, is now Executive Editor at NAL. (Orange Blossom 11/98)
Bertelsmann, the German media conglomerate (the largest US publisher), will buy a 50% stake in Barnes & Noble's online venture: barnesandnoble.com, creating a gaint bookselling powerhouse on the Internet. Bertelsmann, which owns Random House, will pay 2000 million for this stake. Barnesandnoble.com is second only to Amazon.com in book retailing over the Internet.(LERA Lyrics 11/98)
Harper Collins' operating profits increased 200% on flat revenues, according to the June 30 annual report of parent company, News Corp. New Harper CEO Jane Friedman attributed the improvement to a reduction in title output (25%) and to reduced returns--down $57 million world-wide in the past year(LERA Lyrics 11/98)
Wal-Mart Stores has sued Amazon.com and claimed the Internet company is stealing trade secrets. In the lawsuit filed in Benton County, AK., Wal-Mart asked for an injuction against Amazon.com to prevent the company from trying to duplicate proprietary technology.(LERA Lyrics 11/98)
Leisure Books is starting a new humorous romance line similar to S/H's Love & Laughter or Yours Truly lines. The line will be called A Wink and a Kiss. Word count is around 90,000 words and subgenre will be considered. The books should be humorous but the romance should be the focus of the story. Query editor Alicia Condon at 276 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10001.(The Galley 10/98)
Melissa Senate, former Silhouette senior editor, has opened the MelissaSenate Contemporary Romance Manuscript Critique Service. This service offers writers a detailed critique (2 single-spaced pages or more) including revision suggestions, for complete manuscripts, partial manuscripts, synopses, and query letter synopses for contemporary romances only. For more information and specific guidelines and prices, e-mail Melissa Senate at [email protected].(The Galley 10/98)
The National Writers Union (NWU) is warning that new on-demand publishing systems, such as Ingram Book Co.'s Lighting Print service, pose a serious threat to the rights of authors. "On-demand publishing could be a valuable new technology," said NWU President Jonathan Tasini, "but it is being developed without the involvement of authors. We want to ensure that writers' rights are an essential part of the equation." The new on-demand systems are designed to make available single copies of out-of-print titles in response to a customer's order.(The Galley 10/98)
Yours Truly (YT) and Love & Laughter (L&L) are being combined into a new line called Harlequin Duets, to be handled by editor Malle Vallik. Submissions should be addressed to her attention at the Toronto address. In the future, there will be two Duets per month, and each Duet will contain two full-length books -- so there will still be four books per month. They will sell for $5.99. Royalties are being split between the two authors, so the rate will be 3% of the $5.99 cover price. The launch month is May 1999. Individual books are still 50,000 words, so each volume is 100,000 words, hence the price hike, with a coinciding increase in net royalties for the authors even though they'll be splitting them.(Words of Paradise 11/98)
The last of the Loveswept titles will be published December 1998. That's 4 contemporary series titles a month, gone. We'll miss them. Readers will miss them. However, the romance genre is still growing. Within the past year or two we've seen new lines created:
Now comes the news that next spring Harlequin Superromance will go from 4 titles a month to 6. Another 2 slots a month for series romance!(RWA's Web Site)
Kensington Publishing Corp. spoke of starting a new line of contemporary series romances (for regular retail distribution; not a Wal-Mart deal, like Precious Gems). Kensington is now accepting submissions. The details are available at RWA's Web Site under the "Members" section.
Market news is for information only. Even though items obtained are from reliable sources, everyone is encouraged to check before submitting.
Compiled on December 1998