Halloween is not the first, nor the last, holiday to be derailed by the pandemic this year. Kids won’t plague the streets in search of sugary treats, and festivities might only involve a party of one, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way to revel in a devilish spirit. Grab yourself a cup of hot cider, some fun-size candies, and a cozy blanket to settle in with these spooky reads for an evening of fun and fear.
romance
Marketing Romance Through the Ages
By Mary Williams
One word: Fabio
Designing Romance Covers: What Works?
By Dani Nicholson @danielluhh72
What’s the best way to design a book cover for a genre you aren’t familiar with? What if it goes wrong, despite your best efforts?
Marketing Ooligan’s First Romance Title
By Dani Nicholson @danielluhh72
Iditarod Nights will be the first romance published by Ooligan. It’s wonderful to blaze a trail, but what does this mean in practice? How can you market a book with no prior contacts and little experience in the genre?
Going All the Way: The Challenges of Editing Sex Scenes
By Olivia Rollins
The Bad Sex in Fiction Award teaches us several things: first, many novels contain profoundly cringeworthy sex scenes; second, even great writers often flounder when they try to write about sex; and finally, there are plenty of editors who (perhaps begrudgingly, or perhaps because they too are at a loss for how to approach this subject) are letting these giggle-inducing scenes sneak through to publication. This state of affairs might lead us to wonder, Why is it so hard to write about sex? And, more importantly, what can editors do to help?
Different Places, Different Faces: Book Covers in the US and the UK
By Meagan Nolan
As the cover of a book communicates to the potential reader what lies within, many conventions have emerged to highlight certain genres, such as an old photograph that promises a memoir, or a shirtless muscular man that promises a romance novel. To investigate further, we’ll look at four popular books sold in both the US and the UK and see what each cover has to say about the same story.