I’ve bought a few books as research. Sometimes, working in London does have its advantages, especially when you’re as central as I am. I’ve targeted authors who write similar stuff to myself just to see what their first books were like and what level they were writing at (taking into account the editing some of them get, or don’t, but that’s a different matter).
I have, however, come to the conclusion that London either hates Lara Adrian, or she’s banned from bookstores in the capital, as I couldn’t find her stories anywhere. I checked two Border’s, a Waterstones, W H Smith and Blackwells. That’s pretty much all the big name bookstores in the UK, and none of them had her. She wasn’t listed under Fiction, Romance (where they had a separate section) or Horror. I’ll have to buy her book online. It’s probably cheaper there anyway.
Speaking of books in sections. I’m stunned at how inept Waterstones and Blackwells are at putting books in the right places and catering to Romance. Border’s have it right. They’ve got a Romance section and all the big paranormal romance names are there (except Lara Adrian of course!). You’ve got your Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christine Feehan, J R Ward, etc, all neatly laid out with the other Romance novels. Blackwells had everything together, with only separate Crime and Science Fiction. Not even separate Horror for me to check. Waterstones went one worse. Not only did it throw all the paranormal romance authors into Horror (if you ask me, most paranormal romance couldn’t be considered horror!), but when I did find a Romance section, it was big enough to fit around 40 books and was just a bookshelf-cart hybrid… ready to be wheeled off out of sight no doubt!
The most amusing thing about Waterstones was that they didn’t have a proper Romance section (Hello, biggest selling genre?) but they did have a whole bookshelf for Erotica. Idiots.
While in Border’s I noticed something that tickled me. They’ve got a huge display in their Oxford Street store for a new ebook reader called Iliad. It’s chunky, comes in a huge box, and can be yours for just £399!!!! ($800 for our American friends). Well… I can really see that taking off! Not. It’s little wonder that ebooks just can’t compete when people charge ridiculous sums of money for the readers and then cripple us by adding DRM so you can only download it to one bloody machine! (grr)
Enough whinging for now. I’m writing this on my laptop on the train home and I’m supposed to be finishing off a Gothic Romance short for an anthology.
