jmc_bks | Books to look for

Bought a copy of the Romantic Times Book Magazine last weekend. I wanted to read the gossip column about the internet that referred to authors behaving badly. Eh.

Skimming through the mag, I am reminded why I don't buy it or subscribe. It has what might be useful information for those writers looking to get published (not me). Lots and lots of ads. A listing of the books nominated for the Virginia Romance Writers Award (only read 3 of ~30 books listed). It seemed much more like a club newsletter than a professional magazine, except on slightly better (but not really good) paper than most newsletters.

Of the kajillion books reviewed or advertised, these are the ones I'm interested in:

The Grail King by Joy Nash (Roman Britain historical)
Hocus Pocus by Teresa Roblin (paranormal)
Ask for It by Sylvia Day (historical)
The Man She Thought She Knew by Shari Shattuck (mystery)
The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner (fantasy)
End in Tears by Ruth Rendel (mystery)
Winters Child by Margaret Maron (mystery)
Snow Blind by PJ Tracy (mystery)
The Abortionist's Daughter by Elizabeth Hyde (general fiction)
Caridad Pineiro's SIM (forgot the title)(category romance)

I'm struck by two things: first that there are so many historicals, since I read more contemporaries than historicals by choice; and second, that in an adzine directed toward romance readers, my nonromances choices outweigh the romances.

Current Mood: contemplative

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From: (Anonymous)

I looked for this issue too but couldn't find it. I'm not a fan of the magazine either. I haven't looked for one lately, but last time I did, too many clinch cover type pictures and since they kept it next to the sports magazines, there were always too many guys around. I didn't want to be caught looking at those pictures. Also it has/had one of my big pet peeves in magazines - all those little inserts that fall out as soon as you open it. Since I think most of the time the reviews aren't worth the paper they're printed on, it's such a rah rah magazine for writers, it just wasn't worth the money for me.

Kristie(J)

From:

jmc-bks.livejournal.com

I've finished with my copy. Want me to drop it in the mail?

From:

davidgallaher1.livejournal.com

I'd think that would b a great magazine to work for to get your foot in the door as a Romance Writer.

From:

jmc-bks.livejournal.com

It probably is. When I flipped through it, I wondered how many of the columnists were unpublished romance writers.

From: (Anonymous)

Hi jmc,

I very much appreciate your feedback on Romantic Times BOOkreviews magazine and I am particularly interested in the comment you made saying, "It has what might be useful information for those writers looking to get published (not me)," and I was wondering if you could further explain what you mean by this in order for me to better understand.

We review over 250 new books each month. We are a magazine to help guide readers to what books (in the women's fiction category) are out each month. We realize reviewing is subjective and we do not expect all readers to agree with our reviewers all of the time but we are a book review magazine intended to let them readers know which books are out for the month s o I am a little confused as to how this makes us a magazine for aspiring writers.

The other thing I wanted to comment on is that ads are a part of any magazine. Just take a look at most major magazines like Cosmo, W Magazine, even Better Homes and Garden. People who advertise in a magazine hope to reach a target audience, which in our magazine, are the readers. Our ads are all book-related so they are of interest to our readers.

In answer to your closing comment:
"'m struck by two things: first that there are so many historicals, since I read more contemporaries than historicals by choice; and second, that in an adzine directed toward romance readers, my nonromances choices outweigh the romances."

We review the books that are being published and cannot control how many of each genre are out for the month. That's the publisher's call. We just review. But I do have to say, by far, there are more contemporaries/romantic suspense books reviewed, i.e. published, each month compared to historicals.

The next comment, "in an adzine directed toward romance readers, my nonromances choices outweigh the romances,"

I would like to clarify that we are no longer strictly a romance magazine. We have not been for a few years.As the market expands so do we. Our goal is to let readers know about books they may want to purchase in all categories of women's fiction.

I hope you will take the time to respond (you can also email me personally at cstacy@romantictimes.com) because, as the publisher of Romantic Times BOOKreviews, I am genuinely interested in why you drew the conclusion you did and I hope to learn from your response.

Sincerely,
Carol Stacy
Publisher

From: (Anonymous)

Hi Kristie,
I think you have us confused with another magazine since we do not have inserts that fall out of the magazine (I too hate them :))

I am not sure when was the last time you saw a copy of Romantic Times BOOKreviews magazine but in the last couple of years we have revamped our reviews considerably and have worked very hard with reviewers to get them to give their gut reaction to the books they read and not, "rah rah," them.

I want to also share some exciting news!

Starting with the September issue (which will begin shipping next week) we will have a new review format that we hope readers will love. For starters the "opinion" paragraph will be the first thing you read followed by the book summary. The length of the entire review will be the same but the information in the opinion paragraph, we hope, will better qualify the star rating given.

The new format looks awesome and makes it easy for readers to skim through the 280 books we reviewed in the Sept. issue.

I would love some feedback on this new format either on this board or in a private email to me at cstacy@romantictimes.com.

Thanks for taking tthe time to provide feedback on our magazine.

Sincerely,
Carol Stacy
Publisher

From: (Anonymous)

Most of our reviewers and columnists are just readers however we do have a few who are aspiring writers. Our policy is that if a reviewer gets published they can no longer be a reviewer for us because we feel that is a conflict of interest.

Hope this helps,
Carol Stacy

From: (Anonymous)

Carol - I do admit it's been a while since I read one. They don't stock them in most places around here and it can be very hard to find - even in extensive magazine sections. But if I find one, I'll check it out. Have you cut back on the beefcake also? Because I know a lot of readers enjoy it, it's just not my cuppa. While I enjoy looking at a good looking guy as much as the next gal, sometimes I get a bit uncomfortable at the objectifying of people - men or women.
JMC - If you want to send it to me, sure - I'd love to read it, since it looke like it's changed some since the last time I read one.

From: (Anonymous)

From:

jmc-bks.livejournal.com

Ms. Stacy,

Thank you for your thoughtful post. I will take the time to respond, likely by email at the address you posted.

Thank you,
jmc

From: (Anonymous)

Kristie,

We have cut down on articles about cover models however we do spotlight the winner of the Mr. Romance contest and we do promote out Mr. Romance contest when we have all of the contestants confirmed.

You are correct that many readers LOVE when we do stories about the cover models but we have limited our coverage considerably.

I hope you will look for us in a Waldenbooks or Borders Expresss store because beginning with the September issue we will be in with the books as well as in the magazine racks. Also for your convenience there is a listing on our website of stores that sell Ropmantic Times BOOKreviews magazine. http://www.romantictimes.com/magazine_stores.php

Again I would love to hrar your feedback,
Carol