Bring on the next victim or should I say victimizer. Let's talk about Linden Bay Romance. Rumor has it that they never love the one they're with for long. It's all about the new story, not sticking with authors who work their butts off for them. As with other epublishers, we have reports of requests to add sex. It seems to be the new trend with many publishers. The internet was built for sex and they feel that to be competitive, sex it up baby. I find this a bit insulting. I don't read books to find new fantasies to diddle over. I actually read for a plot. Surely, I am not one of a dying breed.
Like any good pimp, this publisher demands sex, lesser word counts, and more from their authors. Don't deliver and they're off to find a fresh young thing that will.
Of course this is only rumors and does not reflect the views of everyone on the blog. We must cover our legal a$$.
Like any good pimp, this publisher demands sex, lesser word counts, and more from their authors. Don't deliver and they're off to find a fresh young thing that will.
Of course this is only rumors and does not reflect the views of everyone on the blog. We must cover our legal a$$.
posted by PubSnark | 6:11 AM
3 Comments:
Yes, let's talk about Linden Bay.
Victim ... or victimizer?
I think given your treatment of this publisher, your first term is more accurate. The target of a sneak attack can't really be called a "victimizer."
I'm very disappointed in this post. In your earlier 'unprofessional practices' entry, you appear to have made some attempt to contact publishers and at least try to verify the facts. At the time, I read it with a deep feeling of relief that my publisher has behaved in an entirely professional manner in the 7 months I've been there.
My publisher is Linden Bay Romance.
If you're going to run a genuine watchdog column, that's a great idea... but that requires hearing both sides of the story and checking your facts. Hell, I learned that in high-school journalism class. If you're just out to smear... well, I don't see any writers stepping up to agree with your accusations, even anonymously.
My own experience with Linden Bay started when they accepted my manuscript in 5/06. They were extremely prompt in responding to my queries and if I remember correctly, they reviewed and accepted the ms within about 2 weeks. I have always heard back from them on every issue, within 24 hours. (In one case this even involved them going to bat for me with Booksurge to get a batch of badly-printed books replaced.)
Ransom is some 94,000 words; I was never asked to cut it down, though the editors have asked that I keep future books under 55K if possible, which happens not to be a problem. If I write something longer, I suppose some negotiation will happen, and if we can't come to an agreement, I'll take the story elsewhere.
LBR still accepts mss up to 80,000 words, although they do prefer them shorter. They've been closed to new submissions since 6/06, except from the writers already under contract, which is a direct contradiction of your charge. The only new-writer manuscripts being read right now are entries for the Starlight New Writer competition.
Most of my colleagues seem to have been at LBR longer than I have; there are several who came aboard when I did, but if I'm not mistaken the company had a change of ownership relatively recently. Did you even verify that the complaints you're receiving have to do with the current owners?
As for "sex it up..." I have a trilogy, Sail Away, due out as a download on 12/15. The stories start out very mild--the first has only a fragment of an erotic dream--and progress to a fairly spicy m/m desert island episode. Explicit sex would've been totally out of character for the heroine of the first story. At no time did I receive even a suggestion to add more sex, in this or any of the other work I've submitted. I've had a editorial comments regarding plot and content, which were not only entirely appropriate but very helpful.
For the record, I write stories with plots. I also write stories with sex. It may be that I've got the balance of plot to hot that suits the LBR format. That's hard to tell--there's a great deal of variety in the books they print. I do hope LBR chooses to be a trend-setter rather than a trend-follower, but looking at e-book romances in general it seems as though romance readers have fallen into sex in a big way. My own guess is that the lust for lust will temper eventually, and serious readers, writers, and publishers will opt for good stories with sex rather than plotless porn--which I haven't seen at LBR so far. I know that there are publishers who recognize that there's a market for those who prefer romances without explicit sex, and I think that's very important.
I speak only for myself, and can only cite my own experience--but as far as I'm concerned the accusations you make are simply unfounded.
Please bear in mind that since you're running a snark blog, you will not hear "rumors" from writers who are happy with their publishers. There's a "contact" button at the LBR site that will send your query directly to the authors; I earnestly encourage you to use it and ask Linden Bay's writers what we think of the publisher and how we have been treated.
And if you're really watching out for writers, as your blog title suggests... might I point out that by calling my publisher a pimp, you are calling me a whore? That's beyond snark and way over the line of insulting.
I'm signing my name to this. It's a pity the people who are feeding you rumors don't have the nerve to do the same.
never in 11 publishers and close to 30 some books out have i ever had a publisher ask me to sex it up so i don't know where your facts are coming from. i've had a publisher say that stories without it don't sell that great so we aren't going to take it in the first place, but they've never forced me to add sex for the sake of sex.
Thank you all for posting. That's what this column is about.
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