Urban Fantasy

We are working on a feature for the May ‘07 issue of Romantic Times BOOKreviews, and I was wondering if you are familiar with the term “Urban Fantasy”?

The reason I ask is because when I mention it to some people they think I mean Urban Lit, which is also known as Street Lit.

The way we are defining Urban Fantasy is a parallel world going on in today's times, a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Did you know we are giving away original comic book art for Buffy and Anita Blake comic books? Details are in the March issue of RT!) What sets this apart from paranormal romance is that there is no Happily Ever After in the book, although there may very well be an ongoing romance in the series.

We ran into this with Karen Marie Moning's new fantasy series that launched in February with DARKFEVER. We tagged it fantasy, but not in the same vein as Science Fiction/Fantasy. It's the genre that Laurell K. Hamilton and Kim Harrison write in as well.

In addition to an in-depth feature on this emerging new genre, we will have a rare interview with Jim Butcher who is best known for his Urban Fantasy series the Dresden Files which tells the story of wizard Harry Dresden who solves crimes in modern-day Chicago.

The series is published by Roc, and its ninth book, WHITE NIGHT, is due out April 2007, in hardcover. In January the Sci-Fi Channel picked up the series for 11 episodes starring Paul Blackthorne (24, Presidio Med) as Dresden. It can be been seen on Sunday nights at 9 EST in the hour before the popular Battlestar Galactica series. Our interview will reveal how Jim likes the series and if it’s true to the books.

Vampire author extraordinaire Charlaine Harris (who is leading the Vampire workshops for the RT convention) just e-mailed me to say Jim Butcher will also be attending this year's RT convention. Yippee! I am putting together a special workshop and inviting Butcher, Kim Harrison and Marjorie M. Liu (and a few other Urban Fantasy writers) to lead the panel so writers can learn first hand how to jump into this new market. This will be an awesome workshop!!

So back to the question: Are you familiar with the term Urban Fantasy and do you use it when referring to the books (and the ones like them) that I have mentioned above.

I look forward to your response,
Carol Stacy

$1 Off Coupon for Susan Wiggs' THE WINTER LODGE

Receive $1 off the cover price of Susan Wiggs' January release, THE WINTER LODGE (limited time offer: Jan 30 - Feb 4). Our reviewer gave it 4 stars (compelling, page-turner) and said this in the February issue:

"Sweet and wise, but also laugh-out-loud funny at times, Wiggs' latest boasts a multilayered plot and a crowd of one-of-a-kind characters. Even non-bakers may be tempted to try the recipes sprinkled liberally throughout."

My question is, does a coupon encourage you to go buy the book? Publishers and authors rack their brain trying to come up with ways to get readers to buy a book and if this is a promotion that readers respond to then maybe more publishers will use coupons.

What do you think?

Carol Stacy

What Do You Want to See in a Historical Romance?

The debate continues on whether or not historicals will once again be in favor with readers and publishers.

My theory is that if they are selling well (and as a result publishers are cashing in on them) then we will be seeing more published in the future. If not, we won't.

If historicals are going to make a comeback readers have to support the genre by purchasing the books new — even though they may be tempted to pay less for them on the many used book sites that are selling practically new books as used.

It doesn't matter if a book is 5 years old or 5 minutes old. If it's sold as a used book it will not get credited to the overall sale of the book.

What does this mean?

If there are 50,000 copies of a title distributed in bookstores and only 10,000 sell as new books then that translates to a 20% "sell through" for the book which publishers consider extremely low. This low sell through will be interpreted to mean it's not a popular book.

Let's say the same 10,000 books (mentioned above sold as new books) then circulates as a "used book" and goes on to garner an additional 30,000 readers in the used book arena. That means that the total number of readers for this book is really 40,000 (10,000 new + 30,000 used). If all sales were counted, 40,000 (out of the 50,000 the publisher printed) is a 90% "sell through" which is considered fantastic to a publisher. The problem is that the publisher NEVER sees the 30,000 that were bought used. They only count the 10,000 that gets logged in as new sales.

So my point is that even though you may LOVE historicals and are reading them like crazy unless you are buying them as "new books" the perception in the book industry is that historicals are not selling well because only NEW BOOK SALES COUNT.

So my question is if you are willing to support the genre and you do want to see more historicals being published a) what historical period do you want the books set in and b) what do you expect from a great historical romance?

I look forward to your feedback.

Carol Stacy,
Publisher of RT BOOKreviews