Desire
Well, after "Deflag" as my last post, you have to admit that "Desire" is a) alliterative and b) probably more likely to attract readers.
In this case "Desire" refers to the Silhouette Romance books "Desire" line which I have written quite a few books for in the past 10 years. In fact, I haven't written any since 2002, but that doesn't stop me participating in their blog and the Desire authors website. This week I'm the featured author in the blog -- and presumably Shelley the webmistress is going to put up The Antonides Marriage Deal as the featured book which, as it is a Harlequin Presents, will likely confuse people -- but maybe we can talk about that there: What the difference is between a Presents and a Desire, why you should care, why marketing does care, and what's an author to do if she doesn't have a split personality? But that's over on the Desire blog which I hope you'll drop in at if you're interested in romance book lines and why one is one and another is another.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . the "deflag" is gone. It wasn't too traumatic. I even left one flag on, and wrote on it myself to alert them to the answer to the question the copyeditor asked. Next time I see Theo (aka The Santorini Bride) it will be in the 'galley' stage, which used to be page proofs, but is now a computer print-out of the manuscript. That's when we get to the really nit-picky stage. I used to think that after the galleys nothing could go wrong (with the manuscript, not in life -- or in covers). But years ago in my book Marry Sunshine I had Austin, the hero, as a little boy, have carved his initials and the heroine's in a tree. He had carved: AC + CB = TURE LOVE. And in the book he told the heroine, "Only one thing's changed: now I spell better." But some helpful last minute correction done by some nameless soul (heaven knows who, no one will admit it) changed the TURE to TRUE, thereby, I'm sure, thinking they'd saved the day -- and in fact, ruined the whole line.
Another nameless soul did the same thing to the very last line of The Antonides Marriage Deal. See if you catch it. Made me wince, but then, I'm only the author.
In this case "Desire" refers to the Silhouette Romance books "Desire" line which I have written quite a few books for in the past 10 years. In fact, I haven't written any since 2002, but that doesn't stop me participating in their blog and the Desire authors website. This week I'm the featured author in the blog -- and presumably Shelley the webmistress is going to put up The Antonides Marriage Deal as the featured book which, as it is a Harlequin Presents, will likely confuse people -- but maybe we can talk about that there: What the difference is between a Presents and a Desire, why you should care, why marketing does care, and what's an author to do if she doesn't have a split personality? But that's over on the Desire blog which I hope you'll drop in at if you're interested in romance book lines and why one is one and another is another.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . the "deflag" is gone. It wasn't too traumatic. I even left one flag on, and wrote on it myself to alert them to the answer to the question the copyeditor asked. Next time I see Theo (aka The Santorini Bride) it will be in the 'galley' stage, which used to be page proofs, but is now a computer print-out of the manuscript. That's when we get to the really nit-picky stage. I used to think that after the galleys nothing could go wrong (with the manuscript, not in life -- or in covers). But years ago in my book Marry Sunshine I had Austin, the hero, as a little boy, have carved his initials and the heroine's in a tree. He had carved: AC + CB = TURE LOVE. And in the book he told the heroine, "Only one thing's changed: now I spell better." But some helpful last minute correction done by some nameless soul (heaven knows who, no one will admit it) changed the TURE to TRUE, thereby, I'm sure, thinking they'd saved the day -- and in fact, ruined the whole line.
Another nameless soul did the same thing to the very last line of The Antonides Marriage Deal. See if you catch it. Made me wince, but then, I'm only the author.
posted by Anne McAllister at 9:26 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home