Mid-listers / Pet Author
Mid-Listers
I was at Keishon's when I read her blog entry: It's hard to get published you say? How hard is it to get noticed among the gazillion books published? Yeah. That's right. It's damn hard. As readers with blogs - let's help the mid-listers get noticed.Then I thought, who are mid-listers? How does one define a mid-lister? Is Adele Ashworth a mid-lister? Kayla Perrin? Lydia Joyce? Diana Norman? Michele Albert? Elizabeth Chadwick? Jo Beverley? Do we go by publishers' definition? Or is it a matter of familiarity with authors' names? I mentioned Johanna Lindsey to a reader friend recently and she didn't recognise the name. Never read her books. I quickly discovered that she is not the only one as I found four more readers who didn't recognise the name either. Does that make Johanna Lindsey a mid-lister now? Anyhow, I completely agree with Keishon on giving mid-listers some bit of help, so I plan to create a weekly blog post about a mid-lister. Of course, that is once I figured out what defines a mid-lister. :D
Pet Author
Every book reader has at least one pet author they are willing to campaign to death. Mine is, no doubt, Theresa Weir. Heck, I once recommended her books to a traffic warden who ticketed me for parking my car illegally. The traffic warden was nice, actually. As she ticketed me, she noticed Weir's book on my passenger seat and asked if it was any good. I gushed like crazy while she handed me the ticket and then after listening to my sales pitch, she jotted down Weir's name on back of her ticket pad. Surreal, I admit, but I went off feeling good, even though the fine was hefty enough to piss me off for the rest of the year.
Since WEir no longer writes romances as she's now a mystery author, I thought it was time to find myself a new 'pet author'. Pet authors I used to campaign were, as far as I can remember, Anne Stuart [before The Widow and later], Adele Ashworth, Tiffany White, Connie Brockway [before her Bridal books], and Laura Kinsale.
Do you have a pet author? If so, name your pet author. And, if you are up for it, explain why.
Be good, be bad & be safe.
posted by lost at 3/14/2006 03:21:00 pm
11 Comments:
It's odd, isn't it? I can't remember where I saw it, but somewhere I read someone pondering whether Don't Look Down would be Jennifer Crusie's breakthrough book. [Might even have been on one of her blogs.]
That startled me, because I would have thought of her as fairly successful rather than midlist - at least my local Waterstones stocks her, and stocks her in the fiction section rather than in their a-nice-bookshop-like-us-shouldn't-stock-this-stuff romance/erotica cache.
3/14/2006 04:39:00 pm
Hmmm....I'm not sure who my pet authors would be. I'm fickle as hell.
Gennita Low?
Patti O'Shea?
C.J. Barry?
Susan Grant?
P.C. Cast?
Lori Wilde?
Robyn DeHart?
Margaret Moore (complete with Scottish setting)?
Linda Winstead Jones
Kate Lyon
Candice Hern
Amelia Grey
ehh.....lots
Er..not that I'd consider these my pet authors. More just ones I'd consider mid-list that are on my shelves.
3/14/2006 05:41:00 pm
I tend to have pet books more than pet authors. That said, I think Cheryl St. John and Cheryl Reavis might fall in this camp for me. For mysteries it would be Jennifer Apodaca, Deborah Donnelly, and Loren Estleman.
3/14/2006 06:03:00 pm
When I think of mid-list, my first thought is "not a best selling author"--yet. I think most authors flounder here.
I agreed with everyone you listed with the exception of Jo Beverley, I think she's pretty popular.
Author's I've read this year that I'd consider mid-list:
Pamela Clare (reading now)
Donna Lea Simpson
Adele Ashworth
Marjorie M. Lui
Juliana Garnett
Vicky Taylor
Diane Gaston/Diane Perkins
Candace Camp
Caroline Linden
Jeane Westin
Julia Justiss
Minda Webber
Victoria Bylin
Pet Authors:
Juliana Garnett, but this is a little tough as she hasn't had anything new in several years.
Diane Gaston, new to me this year and I like her voice
Mary Spencer, I've always liked the books she written under this name I wasn't that impressed with the Susan Spencer Paul?--did I get that name right?
3/14/2006 07:08:00 pm
"Every book reader has at least one pet author they are willing to campaign to death."
Aint that the truth! Mine is Sarah McCarty, I've loved everything she's written so far, and I know that as an erotic romance author, word of mouth is really important, so I pimp for her whenever there's an opportunity.
Shelby Reed and Katherine Allred are other pet authors that I have.
I seldom pimp big name authors because I feel that they don't need as much help, rightly or wrongly!
I have no idea what the definition of a mid-lister is either, does it go on book sales or name recognition?
3/14/2006 08:44:00 pm
no, none of them. I've heard of them. Seriously, I think once you hit the NYTimes extended 100 list, you're no longer part of the big huge pool of midlisters. I think almost everyone you and other posters have listed have managed that. . . .
3/15/2006 12:21:00 am
My pet authors have all been ebook authors lately--bonnie dee for instance. And I'm my own pet author naturally. pat pat pat..(whoops better go somewhere private for that.)
3/15/2006 12:23:00 am
To me a mid-list author has no books on the shelf unless she has a fairly current one - even though she has a number in her backlist. Michele Albert is a good example. She has quite a few books she's written - but none of them are on the shelves.
And as for my Pet authors - that does sound a bit doesn't it - I have 4. Pamela Clare (gee - no surprise there *grin* - whose latest book just came out - except not in Canada grrr, Wendy Lindstrom, Bonnie Vanak (I loved Cobra and the Concubine and she has another coming out in August I think - with a real awsome cover I will be blogging about, and Tara Janzen. Of those 4, only Tara Janzen has all her books on the shelves. Wendy Lindstrom a couple in a few stores. Neither Pamela Clare or Bonnie Vanak can be found.
3/15/2006 01:18:00 am
I think being midlist has more to do with how hard it is to get a new contract than it if the books are out there.
Only a very few authors always have books on shelves in every book store--especially when it comes to romance. So many hundreds of titles come out every year-- Wish I could recall the number.
3/15/2006 06:44:00 pm
why oh why aren't we allowed to edit after posting??!!
3/15/2006 06:44:00 pm
I have no idea what midlist is. Or who the authors are. Of course, I tend to avoid publishing discussions. You know the lists of topics I avoid is starting to get longer than my arm. Hehehe.
Anyway, not sure that I have a pet author that I "promote" on a regular basis. There are several that I like that I don't get the notice they deserve though if that's what's meant. Donna Fletcher, Stobie Piel and Josie Litton come immediately to mind. Oh, and Deborah Simmons. I seriously hope she hasn't stopped writing because I haven't seen anything from her in a year or so.
3/15/2006 07:03:00 pm
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