My Recent Comments

Thanks again, everyone, for your kind words!

It's been fun doing this Q&A, and I'm so happy to see so many of you seem to be enjoying Spice and Spice Briefs. Thank YOU for participating this week, and thanks to Dee for setting it all up.

Have a great weekend, and if you're anywhere near my neck of the woods, good luck with the snow storm!!!

It HAS been fun watching Spice develop into what it is today. It only launched in May 06, so it isn't even two years old yet. But, I was working on an erotica program almost three years before Spice launched. It evolved out of an innovation team project and I was the editorial component (along with reps from marketing, sales, DTC, art, etc...). So to me, it feels like Spice has been around a very long time! 

Is it what I expected? Yes and no, because I really didn't know what to think. It was totally new ground for me, having been on the commercial lit side of the business prior to that. In some ways, it's much better than I imagined -- the scary unknowns haven't been so bad, and in a lot of cases the hurdles I expected never came to fruition. I remember there being a lot of nervousness from the upper management and shareholders about having an erotic imprint, and quite a few people wanted us to tone the sex way down (???). But the team had a strong vision about what the line would look like, and we held firm to that vision. In the end, there has been none of the backlash that we anticipated about covers and content, so that's a huge success in my book!

I can say that I'm blown away by the level of editorial we've acquired to date, and the packaging is better than I could have hoped for. It's easy to sit around a board room table and SAY you want high-quality editorial and spohisticated covers, but another thing entirely to make those things a reality.

We're still in infancy stages in the grand scheme of things, but I couldn't be more delighted with the response we've had from our accounts, our readers, the media and all our colleagues in-house.

Jodie, if we've already acquired/published an author's Spice Brief, the process becomes easier for subsequent SB submissions. Clearly the writing is something we like and would theoretically like to see more of for the program. Authors under contract can send future submissions directly to me as opposed to going through the SB inbox. It's just a bit of a perk for contracted authors to speed up the process for them.

Good morning, Vickie!

Translations of our books are done by the publsihing country, not by us in North America (so the Poland office will look after the Polish translation, for instance). Depending on the office, they'll use either in-house or freelance translators. And sorry no, they don't work with the authors on the translations. Heck, they don't even work with me! 

Dee, thanks for raising that point about rape happening off screen. Yes, absolutely that's something entirely different than what I was talking about with rape/sex scenes.

What I don't want to see is a rape scene that turns into a consensual sex scene, where the victim is turned on by her attacker's brutality and suddenly, hey! It's great being raped!

If a character gets raped in the book as part of the plot (or as part of her back story) but isn't something sexual, that's perfectly fine.

Hi Amanda, thanks for your kind words! We're just as glad to have you writing for us.

Yes, it has been our intention all along to explore the idea of publishing an anthology of some of our Spice Briefs in book form. How many titles and which ones remain to be seen, but I think (and don't quote me) the first volume could be in 2010.

When we contract a Spice Brief, we retain the right to publish in print form down the road. However, there's no guarantee that SBs will appear in print, it simply remains an option open to us.

Sorry I've been AWOL this morning, ladies. But my meetings are more or less over and I'm all yours for the rest of the day. And just a heads-up that I'm only around until noon tomorrow, so be sure to get any last-minute questions to be by then!

I'm off to see what's been posted since last night...

Lauren, I do like your idea. But I'm curious why you'd do this as an anthology instead of a straight novel?

Oh, right, yes...you're all asking about Sci-Fi, Urban Fantasy and the like! Sorry, meant to reply to that one earlier.

Here's my honest opinion on Sci-Fi, Paranormal and Urban Fantasy...

It's been my experience that they're hard to do in erotica. Why? I'm not entirely sure. First of all, I don't see too many of them. And the ones I do see are only...ok.

Some of what I see in these three genres is just too hard-core, meaning that there's just too much of the fantasy element. And then I also see a lot where the fantasy element is really silly and weak, and you can tell the author has thrown in a random vampire/alien/whatever because they're hot right now, but with none of the necessary background or research.

I'm definitely not opposed to them, I suppose I'm just very picky that they have to strike the right balance between otherworldliness and erotica.

Jayne...please...for the love of all that's holy...do not encourage the clowns!!!