Carol Lynne, Best Author And Best Book Of The Year?
Friday, February 22, 2008Posted in: Are they high?, Carol Lynne
Are All Romance Ebooks on crack?
And you know which of her books won? The twincest one.
I mean seriously?
All I can say is, if All Romance Ebooks wanted to be taken seriously, they just took a long-assed detour. Any website where Carol Lynne is heralded as one of the best e-book authors of the year, deserves to have the piss taken out of them.
Thanks to you-know-who for the link.
Stella Price
February 23
12:16 am
Apparently it has to do with what is selling at ARe, not really what the best is, but I suppose what was BEST for ARe for the year, and really its because theres less people buying books from ARe, and the ones that are apparently are keeping Carol Lynne in the top sellers.
I haven’t read her, but honestly the covers just turn me off.
Maddie
February 23
1:54 am
I’ve read her first book and did not even finish it, it was that bad. The whole plot wanted you to believe that in redneck country there is a cop who is gay and not being harassed by his fellow officers, then the herion in this case is beat up so badly that she might not make it, but weeks later she is up to having sex with one of the heros? Yeah right.
I still do not know how she is able to spin out all of these ebooks and get all these great reviews and if you go to fictionwise ebook store her rating are good, sorry but I find that some what fishy and I do not believe it
Miriam van Veen
February 23
2:20 am
Not sure how a newbie in 2007 could crank out so much. I have a feeling she had a storebox full of manuscripts. Never read any of her books. I’m not into m/m. But she sells well, or so I’ve heard. Pretty sure that is the reasoning behind the ARe stuff.
Stella Price
February 23
2:26 am
well M/M sells well, end of story. The fact remains that women love M/M e books because they can hide the “guilty pleasure” from their husbands *those are words from a friend that ONLY reads E books in the M/M genre* I dont read M/M, i dont write M/M… and I dont dig M/M books. I would rather F/F books and scenes but thats just me. apparently the M/M market is huge… So its easy to become a “super seller” in the genre because theres such a large demand for it.
azteclady
February 23
3:11 am
Hmmm… I disagree with:
Why? Because there are very well written books m/m books that also sell very very well.
I have a feeling that the ‘best seller’ moniker, as it’s used here, is similar to some of the amazon.com rankings. After all, statistics can always be manipulated to say whatever it is you want.
Maddie
February 23
4:14 am
Sorry I still stand by what I wrote because I happen to buy another Ebook by Carol Lynne, by accident not on purpose, and that one was just as bad as her first one.
So not sure how she could win this award when there are just as many M/M let alone Ebook authors who write way better than her.
Go look at how many books she sells at fictionwise and compare it to other authors on that site, something is not right, this is only my opinion.
GrowlyCub
February 23
5:20 am
I can only assume that the ‘different strokes’ maxim is at work here, because the one I tried to read by her (sounds like the same one Maddie read) I couldn’t even finish in utter disbelief that such bad writing, plot, characterization found a publisher, but then I cannot bend my mind around Lora Leigh either… and I LOVE m/m stories… give me Jules Jones or J.L. Langley any day.
Teddypig
February 23
8:56 am
Now don’t go dissing so hard on the Lora Leigh.
She has a certain style with formula that works. The first book in any of her EC series will usually catch ya. Men of August or Feline Breeds or Wolf Breeds etc etc. It’s around the third book that you can pretty much count on being over the formula.
Teddypig
February 23
8:58 am
See, I was good!
I said nothing about Carol Lynne. I figure if you ignore it, it will go away eventually.
Karen Scott
February 23
9:27 am
Her books are as close to porn as anything I ever read. They are technically inept, and they lack the basic constructs that make a book readable. I know that she sells well, but I imagine that’s because women enjoy pornographic material as much as the next man. Some are simply too ashamed to admit it.
I’m too lazy to go and look, but was the award, voter-led? Because if so, then I suspect there was a lot of ballot stuffing going on.
Karen Scott
February 23
9:28 am
Teddy, I thought you loved CL?
Angela James
February 23
12:59 pm
Karen, I think the awards are sales based, as was previously suggested.
Karen Scott
February 23
1:12 pm
Then you’d think that the award would be for Best-selling Author, rather than ‘Best Author’. Two totally different animals.
Also, I suspect that if she’s their best-selling author, then they probably aren’t selling that many other books, period. I may be wrong of course. Real time sales figures would be gratefully received. *g*
I have no doubt that she’s selling well, because over on Total E-bound, out of their top ten, she’s written about nine of the books, which means that she’s pretty much propping the company up, but it does make me wonder how everybody else is doing sales-wise, over there.
Angela James
February 23
1:21 pm
I can only say that when royalty pay period from ARe comes around (I think it’s quarterly) I am a very, very happy girl 😛 They’re a company that’s spent money to build their business, attending conferences, doing promo, etc., they have a business plan, they’re professional in person and online, they’re serious about doing what it takes to keep growing the company and it shows–on my paycheck at least, which is where I tend to think it’s most important;)
On the subject of Carol Lynne winning this particular award, I’ve never read Ms. Lynne’s books and have no idea of her sales since she doesn’t write for us, so can’t comment on them one way or the other but I do know from my experience of watching these things at Samhain, that it’s not always the books that get the best reviews from bloggers and those that frequent a lot of these blogs that sell the best. It’s always been interesting for me to watch the phenomenon but the fact is, for as many people who would pan a book on a blog or in the comments, many, many more are buying it, and coming back for more from the author.
Karen Scott
February 23
1:48 pm
That’s no surprise to me at all, because I suspect there are still a lot of people who buy certain sub-genres who would rather die than publicise it.
I compare it to a romance reader on a train hiding the cover of that Barbara Cartland book, whilst a Tom Clancy reader would do their best to make sure that everybody knew that they read ‘proper’ books.
I hate BDSM like a fat kid hates celery, but somebody must be buying cuz authors are still writing them. And I’m pretty sure it’s the same with Carol Lynne.
I think she sucks arseholes, but there are quite clearly people out there who dig her books. They just aren’t owning up to it.
Angela James
February 23
2:00 pm
I would compare it to Cassie Edwards (pre-plagiarism, just to save ourselves the headaches). On SB she was held up as kind of the worst of the worst, in blog posts and in comments. But I don’t think anyone can argue that there are obviously thousands of people who thing and/or thought differently.
I think it’s like movies; critically acclaimed doesn’t always equal the biggest bucks at the box office.
Angela James
February 23
2:01 pm
urgh. thing = think
GrowlyCub
February 23
2:37 pm
Not all our fellow readers in romanceland have the same discriminating tastes while sitting on their butts in their lounge suits, eating bon bons. I’m starting to feel slightly superior here. (tongue firmly in cheek)
Except, ehmm, I’m not working right now, I’m wearing comfy lounge wear, and I’m eating Ghiradelli chocolates while reading romance and erotic novels… poof, there goes my feeling of superiority… grin
Seriously though, that’s what I was trying to say with ‘different strokes’ above. I try to live and let live, but occasionally it’s just really hard to follow how something that resonated so negatively with me can not only not do the same for others, but be really enjoyable for them. I’m not saying they are wrong, far from it, but just that I have a hard time understanding.
Teddypig, I read Marly’s Choice and I was literally physically ill after I finished it. As to why I finished it, good question, I’ve asked myself the same thing. I somehow could not stop, all the while getting more and more disturbed. Definitely not a case of being reeled in, more like all the ‘ick’ buttons pushed. The only other experience I can compare it to is reading Rosemary Rogers in the early 90s, except I read a bunch of hers before I realized I really wasn’t doing myself any favors.
One really ought not to feel the need to take a shower after reading a book!
What can I say, I’m a slow learner with weird hot buttons! 🙂
azteclady
February 23
3:02 pm
Growly Cub, sometimes the trainwreck factor overrides the brain.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it 😉
CJ England
February 23
5:08 pm
wonder if one of the reasons she is selling is just curiosity on the part of readers. I haven’t read her and probably never will because the whole twincest thing turns me off big time, but if that genre is something very few people do, perhaps a good deal of those sales are because people want to see just how bad it is.
You know that whole rubbernecking an accident scene mentality. They want to see what everyone else is looking at, so sales go up.
I guess only the future will tell us that.
Stella Price
February 23
5:35 pm
The awards were picked by ARe, based on sales… So the readers didn’t have any say, unless they were counting sales, which they obviously were. *shrug*
Capo
February 23
9:11 pm
One of our team members told me about Carol Lynne’s books and I had made the choice not to read any based on her opinion. But now Karen you have me tempted to read one just to see how close to accurate you ladies are!
Capo
February 23
9:17 pm
Maybe as an alternative to Ipecac?
Anonymous
February 24
5:56 am
Stabbing me in the eye with a burning hot poker would be less painful than trying to read one of Carol Lynne’s books. Horrid.
BTW- I’m not a Lora Leigh fan either. Her heroes just don’t work for me.
Teddypig
February 26
7:17 am
Well, I have come to accept my inner Lora Leigh.
I actually like a few of them. Elizabeth’s Wolf is one of her best.
I may kid about the big LL, and there is a lot you can point at… but go over to Amazon.com sometime and pull up the Lora’s Cave top ten books in print and see who keeps them in their Carol Lynne’s, and no it ain’t Carol Lynne.
Teddypig
February 26
7:25 am
The Amazon.com El Lora’s Cave Top Ten Bestselling
1. Soul Deep by Lora Leigh
2. Tempting The Beast by Lora Leigh
3. Aiden’s Charity by Lora Leigh
4. Dragon Prime by Lora Leigh
5. The Man Within by Lora Leigh
6. Kiss Of Heat by Lora Leigh
7. Elizabeth’s Wolf by Lora Leigh
8. Jacob’s Faith by Lora Leigh
9. The Courage To Love by Samantha Kane
10. Submission & Seduction by Lora Leigh
Karen Scott
February 26
10:22 am
I didn’t think Carol Lynne’s books had made it to print. Which may explain why she’s not in the top ten. (Although, I can’t imagine that EC would be stupid enough (hehe) to give somebody a ten book contract, if they weren’t selling.)
Although if EC do decide to print her books, they would have to extensively re-work her books, to make them print-worthy.
And that probably reads like I think it’s ok to have crappily edited e-books, but the print books have to be better done, but there you have it.
By the way TP, I just read Dawn’s Awakening, and I enjoyed it. It’s ten years on from Elizabeth’s Wolf, and Cassie is eighteen.
linda
March 2
4:02 am
I was just shopping at Torquere books, and everyone’s favourite author, CL is releasing an ebook in March over there. For the love of oprah, how much trash has this woman written? I thought I was safe from her at Torquere…oh,well.