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Press Release posted by Isabel Swift: Harlequin launches digital-only publishing house

November 24, 2009 by in category Archives tagged as , , ,

For Immediate Release

Harlequin launches digital-only publishing house
Carina Pressâ„¢ currently accepting submissions

Toronto, ON (November 9, 2009) – Harlequin Enterprises Limited, the global leader in series romance and one of the world’s leading publishers of women’s fiction, announced today the launch of Carina Press™,a digital-only publishing house that will operate independently of their traditional publishing businesses.

Carina Press is a digital-only publishing house whose eBooks will be sold direct to consumers through the Carina Press Web site and numerous third-party Web sites. Carina Press will publish a wide range of women’s fiction—from romance to erotica, science fiction to mystery, family sagas to choose your own adventures, horror to thriller and more, including every conceivable subgenre of these categories.

“As a digital-only publisher Carina Press is a natural extension to our business; it builds on our digital strength and leadership position. We expect to discover new authors and unique voices that may not be able to find homes in traditional publishing houses,” said Donna Hayes, CEO and Publisher of Harlequin Enterprises. “It definitely gives us greater flexibility in the type of editorial we can accept from authors and offer to readers. As well, we hope to reach a new group of readers with niche editorial.”

Brent Lewis, Vice President Digital, is delighted to announce Angela James is joining Carina Press as Executive Editor. A veteran of the digital publishing industry, James is a well-known advocate for digital publishing. James has enjoyed a long and varied publishing career including senior editorial positions at digital-first publishers. “I have admired Harlequin’s digital initiatives for years, and have always thought of them as leaders in the digital arena, so I’m unbelievably excited to join the Carina Press team,” said James. “I believe Harlequin can bring digital publishing to the next level for both authors and readers.”

Lewis added, “Angela has been a key player in growing the digital marketplace for romance. Her experience and insight is a tremendous benefit to the Carina Press team.”

Carina Press is currently accepting submissions in all genres of commercial fiction. Carina Press will consider shorter length stories, genre novels between 50,000 to 100,000 words and longer and complex narratives of over 100,000 words. Carina Press will also acquire books that have been previously released in print form, but for which the author has either retained digital rights or had digital rights revert to them. All submissions should be sent to submissions@carinapress.com.

Carina Press plans to launch in summer 2010 and will release new titles on a weekly basis. Between now and the launch, readers and writers can follow the progress of Carina Press via their blog.

For full submission guidelines and more information on Carina Press please go to http://www.carinapress.com/.

About Harlequin Enterprises
Harlequin Enterprises Limited is the global leader in series romance and one of the world’s leading publishers of books for women, with titles issued worldwide in 28 languages and sold in 114 international markets. The company produces over 110 titles monthly in print and digital and publishes more than 1,100 authors from around the world. Harlequin Enterprises Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation, a broadly based media company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TS.B). Harlequin’s Web site is located at www.eHarlequin.com. Harlequin has offices in 19 countries, including offices in Toronto, New York and London. For more information please visit www.eHarlequin.com or press.eHarlequin.com.

For more information, please contact:
Malle Vallik
Director, Digital Content & Social Media
416-445-5860
malle_vallik@harlequin.ca

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It’s About Time by Monica Stone, Member at Large

November 19, 2009 by in category Archives tagged as ,

Time is a four letter word. No matter how hard we work, we never have enough time. We can save time, waste time, lose time, make time, but we can never create time. We can kill time, find time, steal time, juggle time but still time gets away from us. Somehow twenty four hours just don’t seem to be enough time yet I suspect if we could create thirty six hour days we’d still not have enough time.

As writers we seem to constantly need just a little bit more time. Time to write of course but also time to perform those every day miracles that seem to need our time and no one else’s. Somehow only we can plan meals, sort laundry, mop floors. And if we add more commitments to our time all too often we find time for those commitments and not our writing.

When good causes come calling I find it’s easier to commit myself to a donation than to time but of course they’d rather have some of my precious time. How can we put a monetary value on something we can’t touch and never have enough of?

Then there’s the whole sleep thing. We’re told we need more sleep but again there just does not seem to be time for eight hours of doing nothing but recharging our bodies. Of course this is one of the places where we really do need to make time or we’ll find ourselves running out of time.

I understand there are some time management blogs and courses available. I’ll look into them as soon as I can find the time.

Monica Stoner

tsent@ix.netcom.com

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something.
-Winston Churchill

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e-maginings: e-Book Reader Market Heats Up by Lyndi Lamont

November 17, 2009 by in category Archives tagged as , ,

The e-book reader market is heating up this fall with the upcoming release of Barnes & Noble’s nook. B&N is hyping it as “the world’s most advanced eBook Reader, and I have to say, it looks great. It features e-ink display and AT&T’s Wi-Fi, so you can browse, buy and download books anywhere you find the network, including the B&N brick-and-mortar stores. At $259, it costs as much as Amazon’s Kindle 2, but offers the option of adding a memory card for additional storage. A nice feature is the full-color touchscreen at the bottom of the display where you can browse for titles or use the keyboard.

The only feature that has authors a little concerned is the nook’s “lend ebooks to friends” feature. Some of us are saying, WTF? Their site says books can be loaned for up to two weeks. I’m assuming they disappear from the reader at that point as library e-books do after the due date. I’d have to see that in action before I can endorse this feature.

The December issue of PC World magazine has a review of e-book readers, alas too soon for the nook to be included. They liked the Sony Reader Touch Edition at $300, but rated the Kindle 2 as the best buy at $259. All Sony and Kindle models were rated Very Good, with the Interead Cool-ER listed as Good. Two they did not recommend at this time are the Astak EZReader PocketPro and Foxit eStick Reader. Both need to do some “catching up” in PC World’s opinion. Click here here to read more.

PC World’s point about the e-book market being Balkanized is right on the mark. The problem hasn’t just been coming up with great hardware; there’s a software problem, too. And as long as publishers and distributors insist on using proprietary content it’s going to continue to be that way. It will be interesting to watch how this all plays out.

Lyndi Lamont
aka Linda McLaughlin
http://www.lyndilamont.com
http://www.lindamclaughlin.com

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As Time Goes By…we must never forget by Jina Bacarr

November 11, 2009 by in category Archives tagged as , , ,

There’s a scene in the classic film Casablanca when Résistance fighter Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) tells the musicians in Rick’s Cafe to play La Marseillaise after Major Strasser leds a group of Nazi soldiers in a rendition of “Die Wacht am Rhein” (Watch on the Rhine), a German nationalist song. It’s a powerful message about the stirring emotions music brings out in all of us–especially when freedom is at stake.

Interesting, but a similar incident happened two days after the Germans marched into Paris on June 14, 1940 in a restaurant in Montmartre called La Crémaillère. (Who can forget Rick’s words to Ilsa in Casablanca when he says, “The Germans wore gray, you wore blue…”)

An Englishman ordered a drink at the bar in this classic restaurant built in the early 1900s for himself and his companion, an American lady. She noticed a piano in the corner and started playing God Save the King to bolster the courage of her British friend.

The Nazis immediately told her it was verboten.

“America is not at war with Germany,” she said calmly and continued playing. The Germans were perplexed and angry until she explained to them that she was playing an American song called “My Country ’tis of Thee.”

Same tune, different words, but the power of playing the song in defiance remains. According to eyewitness reports, the Germans apologized, bowed, clicked their heels and left.

Let us not forget on this Veterans’ Day all the brave soldiers, both military and civilian, who have dared to stand up against tyranny.

As the heroine in my World War II novel, Cleopatra’s Perfume, Lady Eve Marlowe says, “I survived, dear reader, angry and filled with the passion to save lives and end this terrible war. The obsession that was never far from my mind comes sharply into focus. Now I will use that passion against them. The Nazis. The urge to be part of the machine to defeat the enemy is irresistible to me.”

Jina Bacarr is also the author of The Blonde Geisha , Naughty Paris, Tokyo Rendezvous, a Spice Brief, and Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs

February 2010: meet The Blonde Samurai

“She embraced the way of the warrior. Two swords. Two loves.”

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What’s in a job? by Abby Gaines

November 9, 2009 by in category Writing tagged as

One of the fun things about writing novels is the different careers and jobs I get to explore as an author, all in the interest of research. A well-chosen job adds affects kinds of aspects of a character—the pressures they face, their likes and dislikes, their ambitions, their education, their skills…. Often I choose a job for my character seemingly out of thin air, then discover that choice says something vital about my character.

Like the florist heroine who lived her life on the sidelines of her beloved foster family, always an observer, never quite allowing herself to be part of the action. Or the accountant who was striving for order and control after her hippie upbringing. Or the lawyer who’d chosen the wrong firm for all the right reasons and now found himself living a lifestyle a million miles from the one he’d always wanted.
Writing about different careers forces me to leave my desk and go experience “a day in the life”…or at least a few hours in the life… Without that impetus, I never would have attended a pre-dawn flower auction, sat in the courthouse all morning, talked with a sports psychologist and toured a funeral home without someone needing to die first.
I’m always looking for new and interesting careers to “pursue” in my fiction. Recently, I met a man who develops specialized nutrition for racehorses. Fascinating!—I’ve warned him to expect a visit from me soon! Do you have a job that you’d love to see fictionalized? Let me know, and just maybe it’ll turn up in a romance novel soon….
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