my local cvs had a huge stack of books

There's a shopping cart of books at the front of the store--all tumbled in there, almost all romances, most of them Loveswept (Dorchester, right?) They're 90% off already marked-down prices.

Don't they do the cover-stripping returns any more? The lady at the front counter didn't know. We agreed that the hero on this Susan Grant cover looks like he's smirking and he's wearing blue eye shadow. I had to buy it for his uber-snarky expression. And the thing on his arm that might be a harness or a boa constrictor. His arm is scary. Plus the eye-scarring colors.

When I went looking for the old display of books, which used to be fairly extensive, I couldn't find it.

I bought a huge stack of books--mostly romances--at 69 cents per book...Then I came home and buried my head under the covers in despair for the world of mass-market romance books, because if the CVS doesn't have it, where else will these titles go face-out in our lives? Answer: Nowhere.

This little bit of doom and gloom brought to you by sleet in late January.

Comments

  1. Susan Grant2:48 PM

    Not so gloom and doom, but I can see how one might take it that way. Let me tell you about this book, Once a Pirate. It was my debut book, and it is still in print. It came out in 2000. Ancient history. Security lines at airports were short, the twin towers still stood, my kids were little and learning to read. Now they are driving and looking at colleges, and lordie knows how much this world has changed. But that book is still in print. How many authors can say that about theirs? Not too many, midlist, at least. OAP has been in bins before, all over the world (I saw some in Sydney some years back). That is what Dorchester does. Baclkist is their bread and butter. Bless them. They do periodically dump what they've printed. Then at some point print some more. Hey, not a bad thing. i've gotten new readers this way. And they mentioned that at some point they will put a new cover on it. Maybe this isn't gloom at all, Kate. Maybe they are getting rid of the old ones to make room for the new! I heard it may be reissued with a new cover. As for this horrible cover, only the first in a long career of wretched covers (a buyer for a big chain told me that they often speak of me in hushed wonder that i have somehow managed to remain published all these years with some of the worst cover luck imaginable) this actually was Stef Ann Holm's cover originally. I remember first seeing my first cover as an idealistic brand-new author and wondering why the characters didn't look anything like the ones in the book. How was I to know it was recycled, plucked out of a box in a storeroom when it came time to give me a cover. And so my bad-cover luck history began... :)

    So anyway, my point is not so gloom and doom. This book and maybe many of the others you saw, has more lives than a cat. Where will your (as an example) book be in a couple of years? A forgotten memory? Or tempting bargain hunters from a bin at a low-end pharmacy store. Me, I'd choose the latter. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kate3:11 PM

    okay now that's a great answer. Makes me feel a lot better.

    And, heck, I'm not worried about the fact that I'm giving away my book, I ought to think of your 69 cent book the same way: an opportunity to find a new author.

    Come to think of it, that's how I found several great writers--book sell-offs at the library and at a (sob) going out of business sale at a local bookstore.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kate3:13 PM

    Still.

    I hate that the CVS doesn't have that big display any more.

    ReplyDelete
  4. sybil1:18 PM

    This book has gotten fab reviews and I has it because of that. You should read it.

    And be happy to own it ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jessa Slade2:15 PM

    I too have found many favorite new authors in UBS and libraries. If they capture my imagination, then they capture my wallet too :)

    And I love Susan Grant's good attitude toward bad covers, remaindering, and everything else. Brava.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Phyl11:58 PM

    I went to my CVS and there was no big bin of books. No little bin of books either. Not fair. I want some $.69 books, too.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

more fun and hi-jinks at RWA.

To the Board of Directors of the Romance Writers of America: It has been brought to our attention, by several of our romance authors, that your organization no longer considers Medallion Press, Inc. a legitimate publisher according to your guidelines. We were surprised we did not receive official notification directly, but instead discovered it was posted on several RWA internet loops. Accordingly, we request this letter be published in its entirety in the RWR Report so all members may understand the nature of the process that eliminated Medallion as an RWA approved publisher. We will also send copies of this letter to all our own RWA member authors. We are dismayed you declared Medallion Press no longer a legitimate publisher. In July of 2004 we met all of your qualifications without incident by showing sales of 5000+ copies of USA Today Bestselling author Nan Ryan's The Last Dance. Several months prior to Book Expo America 2005, we received a call from your office alerting us to
Read more

No snark. Bad puppy. No. (Review stuff.)

A two star Amazon review on His American Detective: "Bodice ripper about gay men by a woman." and I'm longing to comment "don't you mean a waistcoat ripper?" God, no. Stop me. The reviews rarely rattle me any longer -- except when I spot a truth in a bad one. When that happens, I actually lose sleep. This means I still care about writing.  Speaking of reviewers and writers: A couple of days ago, a writer said she was tired of getting white ladies writing reviews of her books. She had an excellent point in the long run: her stories are meant for a particular audience and she wants them to resonate with those people and get more reviews from them.  But that first line was just....horribly obnoxious. I say this from my POV of course. Not a white lady who writes reviews -- but as a review grubber.   Anyone who disses any reader (especially ones that give honest reviews) deserves to be cast into the pit of being ignored.  
Read more