Thursday, December 28, 2006

Peeve of the day and other stuff!

This isn’t a rant. A peeve is milder than a rant and since I’m still feeling rather mellow instead of being very annoyed, I’m slightly miffed. I was visiting a blog earlier and the blogger – Emily a new reader blogger, was reviewing Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I noticed that the cover she had was obviously a reissue as it sure was different than the copy that I have. And that reminded me of one of my peeves.

Now this is directed at publishers not authors – I know they have no say; thus I know it will never get read by anyone who counts; not unless I email it, but I’m kind of annoyed at the number of reissues of books that are still readily available. The reissues of Nora Roberts are by far the worst of them. It seems her books are sometimes only a couple of years old before they’ve been reissued once again with a whole different set of covers. Of course the price has also gone up.

Sherrilyn Kenyon/Kinley MacGregor’s books are also among those that the publishers have reissued in, what to me, is a totally unnecessary way. I was at the book store not long ago and they had the original copy of Master of Seduction and sitting right next to it was a reissue with a different cover – and a higher price tag. Another similar thing happened not long ago when I went to purchase a copy of Lucky’s Lady by Tami Hoag. One day there was an older version sitting on the shelf at Wal-Mart and not too far away was a reissue with a different cover. I didn’t get it at the time and went back the next week. The older (and less expensive) issue was gone. I had a mind set to read that book so I like a lamb led to slaughter, bought the newer version but I was still pretty ticked off. Although, FWIW, the book was a mighty good one. It was written way back when she was still writing primarily romance.

Johanna Lindsey is another romance author who seems to have a lot of reissues sitting on the shelves. It puzzles me aplenty because you can pick them up for a song at UBS’s. I’m always tempted to ask a customer at a regular book store who has picked up one, why they don’t just check out a UBS as they would be paying way less than half the price for the ones sitting on the regular book store shelves! So far though, I haven’t quite had the nerve.

I don’t understand why, when many of these books are so readily available, some even still on the shelves at regular book stores, the publishers are reissuing them so soon after the original release. – Oh wait – what am I thinking? It’s the money of course. All right, I don’t understand why readers would purchase books that are so easy to find at UBS’s when they are either a) by a very popular author thus sure to be many copies around or b) a book that has been released within the past few years and has now been re-released. I suppose they aren’t as savvy as some readers who are a wee bit cynical and check the release date on almost every book they buy unless they know it’s a new release.

Of course this bothers me even more because some of the older books I’ve been trying to track down for ages haven’t been reissued; Dance by Judy Cuevas for example. Laura London aka Tom & Sharon Curtis is another author I’d love to see re-released. Ditto with Teresa Weir and Laura Leone. In some cases this isn’t true. It’s great to see some of Laura Kinsale’s earlier works being reissued and released for the newer generation of romance readers. And thankfully without the Fabio cover! They were risqué and provocative for their time, but I prefer the newer covers. And I was pleased to see that some of Loretta Chase’s hard to find books have been reissued. Lion’s Daughter and Captive of the Night were both very HTF. Now if they re-release Lord of Scoundrels with a different cover, that would be great.

So with my peeve of the day covered, onto better news!

I found a few new romance centric bloggers over the holiday. I love when that happens. First off there is Kristie. I did a bit of a double-take when I first saw her name on Wendy’s blog. Then there is the aforementioned Emily, another new to the blogoshpere romance blogger. And I also found Meghan who has been around longer but I just happened to find thanks to the Romance Reader Ring. We share great taste in music *g*.

And because I love the chance to win Free Books!, the ladies at Sanctuaries Finest are giving away books if you link to them or add a copy of their logo. Being as I can’t figure out how to copy the picture, I’ll just have to settle for mentioning and linking them.

And finally - speaking of pictures, it looks like those of us who use Hello - a feature of Picassa will be loosing it in the new year. Since I use Hello and actually know how it works, the thought of it going the way of the Dodo has me terrified. If anyone could let me know how the replacement works or an easy alternative, I would be ever so grateful! I need to be able to do pictures. That's the main reason I bought a digital camera. I'm not a happy camper that something that works so well and I have pretty much mastered is leaving me.


'til later,

14 comments:

farmwifetwo said...

I just put my tree in my blog a few days ago. I just got a digital camera so didn't do it earlier. Need to download more. Want to send some kid pics.

I just loaded the picture into photobucket (www.photobucket.com) and linked in the http:(etc) link. and VOILA.

Tree.

I like it b/c I can link them into the bb I play on as well. Or just send the link to friends instead of sending them the picture. Quicker in the land of dial-up. Although, XP does a decent job of shrinking them.

Actually I lied. I had to email myself the pic first, to shrink it. Resave to My Pictures. Then download to Photobucket... but it worked.

S.

Kristie (J) said...

Farmwifetwo: Photobucket eh? I've heard of them. I think a few other blogger use them too. I'll have to give it a try once Hello is gone, which will be at the beginning of 2007 I think *sigh*. I'll be having to exercise that organ a few times coming up I'm guessing. Thanks for the suggestion!

romancelover said...

Hello? Picassa? Gosh, I feel like I've been out of the loop for 2 years...this is nuts!

I'm with you on unnecessary reissues. I would love for houses to reissue some old Balogh regencies, old Kleypas novels or Judith Ivory's...but no...let's all reissue books that can easily be found in bookstores. So frustrating!!!

Suisan said...

I'm with you on the reissue thing. I don't understand the rhyme or reason behind it. Especially since they seem to reissue the same ones? If they're that popular, then don't we have them already? I dunno. CLearly I'm missing something.

Kristie said...

Thanks for mentioning me in your blog!!! I hear the twilight music entering...

CindyS said...

Okay, I'm confused but that's normal. I use Picasa and download the pictures from my camera into this program. Then I will go to Blogger's board and there is an 'add picture' button. A new screen will come up asking for the file name or something - there is a browse button that I click on and I go to My Pictures on my computer and scroll through (sometimes it's by date or if you save a batch under a certain name) until I find the picture I want and then choose it.

When blogger was being a bugger (like normal) I would hit the 'blog this' button at the bottom of Picasa and post the pics to my test blog and then copy the HTML code from my test blog into my real blog.

How was that? Confused? Hey, you learned how to download music onto an mp2 player! *sigh* I'm jealous ;)

As to re-prints, they are the reason why I stopped buying certain authors. With new covers etc., and some wonky thing with the copyright dates, I would end up with a book I had read years ago. Uncool.

I also have problems with 'branding' in how books by one author will have the same look or even similar words in the titles. How am I supposed to remember if it was Dead Creepers or Dead Crawlys that I last read? Meh.

CindyS

Stacy~ said...

I've never tried Hello or Picasa, but I have used Photobucket. So far it's done the job for me quite well.

Kristie I totally agree on re-issues. I picked up Mary Balogh's book "The Gilded Web" only to find out it was a re-issue. Had no clue (though I prbably shoulda turned to the first few pages where the author explains this LOL. Still, I think a book should clearly indicate that it's a re-issue.

If I don't get a chance to stop by, have a Happy New Year :)

farmwifetwo said...

Cindy, I saw that feature when I loaded my tree. But since I already have an account in photobucket and I still had to do the "shrink" step, I put them in my online photo-album first instead.

Kristi (j) do you find that Cnd's are nearly so techno savy as the American's or Europeans. I have a terrible time getting my friends to read my blog. One of the purposes was to not have mass emails. But my American friends from the bb... I get email replies regularly.

S.

Jennie said...

On the reissues, you're right, Kristie, it's just about the money. Most readers (not like us:p) wouldn't even realize that it's a reissue, they just see a pretty up-to-date looking package and buy it. Publishers do go a bit nuts, I agree. But the prices on massmarket books especially are going up a lot right now, because the profit margin on them is so low. So when they have a book that works, they want to milk it for all it's worth.

romancelover said...

A lot of people had no idea that Ivory's "new" release was actually a re-issue with a different title. Very clever Avon...very clever.

Kristie (J) said...

Romancelover: Ya - that was pretty sneaky wasn't it? It's been so long since she's had a book come out when we first heard about this one - it was Yea! Finally! But thank goodness we on-line readers found out it was a reissue. Mind you it's an old one and probably HTF - and it's nice that it's come out again, but renaming it just doesn't seem quite right. Luckily I have the older version - unread - but I have it. Although it does give me hope that Dance and Bliss might be reissued soon!

Jennie: it is so much about the money isn't it? But I still don't really get why reader keep picking up the reissues of reissues of reissues of say Nora Roberts when they are so findable at UBS's. And she is often coming out with new ones anyway,

Farmwifetwo: I don't know. Most of my friends read my blog although they often skip or skim what they call the romancy parts (and you know who you are *g*). And my sister is the smartest person I know as computer or "techie" things go. And little known fact - Debit Cards made their debut in Canada, in fact in London Ontario so I'm thinking we can hold our own.

Stacy: I don't object to reissues in general. I think the original Gilded Web and many of her other earlier books are pretty HTF and there are some I'm looking for by authors. And I'm glad they are reissuing the old Jennifer Crusie books too. It's the reissue after reissue after reissue of the same book and/or one that hasn't been out that long.

Cindy: I haven't tried just using Picassa. I should give that a try too. The way I do it, I download all the pictures into the test blog then copy and paste. You're way sounds easier.

Kristie: You're welcome. I love finding new or new to me readers blogs so I'm always thrilled when I do!

Suisan: Exactly!!! Now if they would start reissuing those HTF classics of yesteryear it would seem to make more sense to me.

Romancelover (again *g*) Yep! I know there are a lot of readers who would love to see more Mary Balogh's older books such as her regencies released. Although I think they are slowly doing that with The Secret Pearl & The Gilded Web. Sadly I didn't like either The Gilded Web or the third in the series, but it's nice that others are getting a chance to read them.

Wendy said...

Kristie:
I stopped using Hello when it got unpredictable (right after Blogger launched it! LOL). I store my photos on my free Geocities (Yahoo) account. I use Photobucket for my work blog (that the public can't see - sorry!) and have found it easy to use.

I'm totally cool with reissues. As a librarian, they're my best friend. However, I can't stand it when the publishers change the title! The "new" Judith Ivory being a prime example. I find it deceptive and sneaky.

nath said...

You guys lost me for Picasa and Hello and Photobucket :P So I'll skip that part of the discussion.

On the re-issue part tho, it's pretty useless for some authors like Nora Roberts. I mean, how many times are you planning to re-issue the same books? I'd understand if it was out-of-print... but her Irish born series and some others, please. Stop. Enough.

As for some other books, well they can re-issue it if they want as long as it's cheaper. Like I just bought Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas at 6.99$. That's all right :P

Amarjaa said...

I'm with you about the re-issues, especially with the every fifteen seconds reissue thing they have going with Nora Roberts and some of the other more popular authors. It used to be that re-issues came years and years after a book's initial release. ;/ I guess I agree with the others: it's a money thing.

Btw, I love your new layout! It's totally hot. ;)

 
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