Auction for Romance Readers

The Bacon Free Library is having an auction, and what an auction!

It’s going on right now, until 29 October

This is my stuff here. Also at right.

But I’m not the only one. At least a kazillion other romance authors have put together some splendid swag.

Here is a fine opportunity to get books and other lovely things, and support a library at the same time. Libraries are our friends. That’s where vast numbers of us got hooked on reading, and numerous others became inspired to write our own books. Do you remember the first library book you ever read? Or the first librarian you ever talked to? Or maybe simply a time when you made a wonderful discovery, thanks to a librarian. A librarian introduced me to The Wind in the Willows, which remains one of my very favorite books.

Please stop by the site and see what’s on offer. I hope you’ll be tempted.

Those Puzzling Messages from Amazon UK

Marguerite Gérard, Lady Reading in an Interior

Loyal readers in the UK recently alerted me to an upsetting development. They have received messages from Amazon UK telling them they can’t get copies of A Duke in Shining Armor. These readers had pre-ordered (thank you!) and things were OK, I guess, until the recent message arrived, telling them things were not OK.

Well, that can't be right, can it? No, it isn't. I checked.

Here’s the good news: A Duke in Shining Armor will definitely be available in its various formats—print, eBook, audio, etc.—in the UK/Australia/New Zealand. Sometime on or near the U.S. release date, it will magically reappear on Amazon (fingers crossed).

But for complicated reasons, apparently having to do with who has what territorial rights where (we’ve been in this surreal world before, alas), Amazon won’t allow us to have preorders. Or something like that. Until they decide they will (which could happen, too.)

Really, I do not understand, and probably wouldn’t even if Amazon explained. I would just put my head on my desk and cry.

It’s all part of the dreaded business of international contracts, which I discuss here, and which, I’m grieved to say, has come up many times before on this blog.

The Clarendon Hotel, pictured here, plays a crucial role in A Duke in Shining Armor.

Image: Egerton, The Leech, from the Fashionable Bores series, 1824, courtesy Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

Once again, dear reader, thank you for your patience. I’m sorry this contract business tries it so often. But we are learning how to work around these technical difficulties, and this time, I trust you will get the book, in the form you prefer, sooner rather than later.

In compensation for this and other trials you’ve endured on behalf of my books, I am planning to send out exclusive content via this blog as well as posts in advance of those that will appear in the various other places where I yammer on about something or other.

Dukes Prefer Blondes News: Amazon Has a Deal For You

I'm happy to announce another bargain for my readers.

Dukes Prefer Blondes, the fourth book in my Dressmakers series, is a Kindle Monthly Deal.

Just $1.99 from 28 August through 2 October.

Please be aware that Amazon might not show the sale price immediately. I'm told it might take a day for the $1.99 deal to appear on the site.  But as one of my faithful website blog readers, you deserve to be the first to know.

If your email reader isn't a Kindle, there might still be hope. Very often other retailers lower their prices to compete. I can't promise this will happen, but it's worth checking your retailer later in the week.