.A loyal reader of this blog sent this ling with an excellent question: Wonder if they have (or will have) any research on book marketing
.They might not be buying books, but they are buying. $500 million in one week buying.
.This goes along with the recent stories about taking more time away
from the electronic world
Dear Dr. Sue,
My novelistic abilities are making me crazy. The very thing that enables me to be a writer is torturing me in real life. I find that I am projecting my imagination onto already stressful situations and making them almost untenable. For instance: a family member needs surgery. I not only play out scenarios - complete with dialog - of what it will all be like, how it will go, the possible ways it could go wrong, how I will react, how he will react, and exhaust myself emotionally. I spend untold hours trying to imagine what the family member is thinking, inventing a depression and then playing that out to its disastrous ends. I picture him going through untold tortures. I can see it all! I write the scenes. I know how to do that. I make my living doing it. I try to write the other scenarios - the positive ones - but keep going back to the scary ones. It's as if I am luxuriating in the terrible drama of our lives that I am scripting. And making myself anxious and exhausted.
How do I turn my writer's mind off?
A Writer, through and through
Dear Writer,
Your letter provides a vivid example of the pitfalls of the creative imagination. I think most writers have suffered the stress of living through fantasy scenarios that are much worse than the real-life situation. Some of us are able to find relief in scripting a more hopeful series of events; others--especially in such difficult circumstances as you describe--find that the effort to focus on the positive feels false and even frightening.
Many of us have had the experience of being blindsided by a tragic or frightening event. Sometimes we respond with an unconscious resolve never to be surprised by bad news again. Thus, when we confront a potentially dangerous situation, our impulse--often mysterious to us--is to project the worst, often in excruciating detail. Your sense of "luxuriating in the terrible drama" may actually be an expression of your psyche's desire to take care of you by preparing you for the most dire outcome imaginable.
As you have experienced, this "technique," however well intentioned, serves only to deepen your anxiety and to drain energy that would be better used caring for yourself and your relative. Since you have been unable to divert this creative energy to happier images, you may wish to try an exorcism.
Write down the horror story in your head. Include the most dire, terrifying details that come into your mind. Illustrate it if you wish. Don't worry about literary quality, but be sure to describe your nightmare as completely and accurately as you can.
When you're finished, take the manuscript to a fire-safe place. Crumple each page, saying aloud as you do so, "I release these ideas. They no longer have power over me." (You may feel silly, but do it anyway--voicing intentions is much more powerful than just thinking them.) Then burn the pages. If you have saved the story on your computer, delete the file. Resolve to be done with negative scenarios.
Then, try to stay in the present. This is not easy to do, especially for a novelist, but it is probably a more realistic goal than substituting a sugarplum fantasy for your worst nightmare. Focus on what you see, right now, in front of you. Are there small (or large) ways you can help? If you think you see signs of depression, ask the family member what might make him feel better. Stay with him, in the moment, realizing that this is all any of us can really be sure of, and use your writer's imagination to find ways to make the most of it.
Be sure to keep up with your own self-care routines as well. It's easy to let these slide as we become immersed in others' more pressing issues--but regular exercise, a healthy diet, and, especially, sufficient sleep can help stabilize your moods and enable you to be more fully present.
Susan O'Doherty, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a New York City-based practice. A fiction writer herself, she specializes in issues affecting writers and other creative artists. Her book, Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity (Seal, 2007) is now available in bookstores. Send your questions to her at Dr.Sue at mindspring dot com.
Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers
Q: What commission is considered standard in print ad biz vs. the web ad biz vs. the radio ad biz? Do some ad folks work entirely on commission?
-- JA Konrath, Chicago
A: Nowadays, advertising agencies rarely work off the old “standard commission” model.
Standard commission used to be 15% of the total cost of the media buy. So if a TV network, radio station, magazine, newspaper, or billboard company was charging $10,000 for a media schedule, they'd sell it to an accredited agency for $8,500, and that agency would keep the difference ($1,500) as their fee.
In advertising terms, the $10,000 media schedule would be called the “Gross” cost… and the $8,500 charge (after taking out the commission) would be called the “Net” fee.
This process is similar to how interior designers get discounts on home furnishings that are not available to the general public. Media vendors are motivated to give this 15% commission to agencies because they’re the ones holding the purse strings on their clients’ ad budgets. The more TV and radio stations play ball with the big agencies, the more future business might flow their way – sometimes from multiple accounts on the agency’s roster.
But several things worked to destroy the old commission structure. First, the advertising business became more competitive, with some agencies agreeing to take less than the standard commission to win new business. For example, if it was a really big client, the agency might agree to only keep 11% of the commission, then rebate 4% to the client.
That led to agencies “unbundling” their departments in order to cut overhead. So instead of “full-service” agencies – which offer creative work, account planning, media buying, commercial trafficking, and research under one roof – you started seeing companies specialize in one thing, like media buying. Thus, purchasing advertising space became like shopping at Costco – where you generated more savings by buying in bulk.
Meanwhile, a wave of mergers hit the advertising landscape, as large conglomerates bought up ailing shops in order to share resources (like back-room accounting), leverage media spending, and provide a Chinese menu of client services. There are now 6 holding companies, like Omnicom, that control a large share of the global advertising and PR spending.
The fallout of all this unbundling and merging is that everyone now charges something different. A client like Burger King might have a media buying agency that works for 2% of their gross media spending, while having a brand-planning consultant on retainer, then paying a flat annual fee to a separate creative boutique.
From a client’s perspective, the benefit to paying a flat agency fee instead of commission %:
From a client’s perspective, the benefit to paying off commission % instead of a flat fee:
From an agency’s perspective, the benefit to getting paid a flat agency fee instead of commission %:
From an agency’s perspective, the benefit to getting paid off commission % instead of a flat fee:
Internet is the one media form that came along after the old commission model. So online media vendors generally work in NET and do not have commissionable rates. To buy certain online banner ads, you don’t even need to hire an advertising agency, just fire up your computer and download free software.
To sum up… if I’m a freelance media buyer, and I need to place one newspaper ad for my client, and I know in advance I will get paid a flat fee of $500 to do that job, the conversation might sound like this:
Me: “So what’s the cost for a half-page, full-color ad in your Metro section?”
Newspaper: “$9,000.”
Me: “Is that commissionable?”
Newspaper: “Yes.”
Me: “Would you sell it to me for $8,200 instead? I once got a beer coaster signed by James Patterson. I could mail it to you.”
Newspaper: “I love James Patterson! You sure drive a tough bargain… $8,200 it is.”
Me: “So that’s $8,200 Gross, which translates to $6,970 Net.” (less 15%)
Newspaper: “Correct. Would you like to get invoiced in Gross or Net?”
Me: “Net.” (because I’m getting paid on a flat fee instead of commission)
So the newspaper would send me a Net invoice for $6,970, which I would then add on $500 for my fee before sending a final bill to the client for $7,470... which is considerably cheaper than the $9,000 the client might've been charged if they'd tried placing the ad on their own.
And that’s how advertising gets negotiated. Once signed beer coaster at a time.
Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE and is currently on submission. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.
It's Starting to Feel Like a Marathon!
I'm not quite sure I have really recovered from the New York Comic Con. The event was three times larger than the first one which happened only three years ago. I dont know if the final tally is in yet but I hear attendance was between 60,000 to 70,000 people. There were some grumblings that it was happening so close to Passover but we also had the Pope come to town for a gig at Yankees stadium. NYC and pandemonium, can it really get any better?
Congratulations to Lance Fensterman, Jay Williams and Mark Dressler for their efforts. Passover weekend was really the only slot available for the Javits to hold an event of that scale and the guys from Reed did a pretty good job. Sure there were a few burps in programming but when you run something on that scale and it's really only in it's infancy, there are bound to be growing pains.
Kudos also go out to Janna Morishima and the other folks behind the panel programming. There were a great deal more programs aimed at professional development than we had last year. There were plenty of fan programs and publisher panel events. To me, it seemed like just about every base was covered.
The highlight for me had to be the Comics in The Classroom panel. Alex Simmons, Peter Gutierrez,Lisa von Drasek, librarian at Bank Street School, and Kent Worcester, professor at Marymount Manhattan College all did a fantastic job of describing the value of using comics and graphic novels in any educational setting. Alex spoke to how he could use Iron Man to teach kids about science (retro rockets, cooling agents etc..) and sociology. He nailed it with a perfect 5 minute summary.
THE best thing any publisher, author or editor can do at one of these conventions is to sit in on a program to hear just exactly how teachers and librarians use your books. It is seriously mind altering. If you want to make better books or sell more books-do not miss out on any presentation that is run by these folks.
Giving Good Panel
Ok, I dont know if anyone has ever addressed this before but, should you find your self invited to moderate a panel, please do your home work and ask good questions! We have all sat in on a program where you could actually hear the paint peeling from the wallls. This is because the moderator just wasnt prepared. So, moderator person-talk with your panelists. Prime them. Ask them what kind of questions they would like to hear as well. It will help you give good panel. So good that people will want to....well light one up and celebrate.
That Comics in the Classroom panel was seriously good panel.
NJLA, BEA, ALA and The NYC Dept of Education!
Have you ever been to Long Branch, New Jersey? What a place! I was there with Bill Barnes of www.Unshelved.com doing a presentation on selecting Anime and Manga for the New Jersey Public Library Association. It's great to see that the rooms continue to fill with even more people in the audience. Thanks again to Sophie Brookover of www.popgoesthelibrary.com and the folks at the NJLA for inviting me to come speak.
Now, Book Expo is only a week or two away and the trip to the west coast is looming. After NYCC I feel like I need to get out of the water and take a nap before the next major surf contest starts. Book Expo has announced a day of graphic novel programming and that is pretty exciting news. We get some ten panels and workshops on the subject. It all kicks off with the Graphic Novel Authors Breakfast featuring some fantastic talent. Jeff Smith who created Bone will moderate. Art Speigelman, the Pulitzer Prize winning creator of Maus will be on the panel as well as Jeph Loeb, a comic creator and creative force behind the hit television series Heroes will join in as will Mike Mignola. Mignola is the genius behind the Hellboy graphic novel series and movies. Seating is very limited so click here to register to http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/en-us/registernow.cfm.
After Book Expo there is the American Library Association show which will take place in Anaheim. The summer show is usually a pretty good time with plenty of panels and a lot more foot traffic on the show floor than what we see during the Mid-winter event.
NYC Department of Education and Graphic Novels.
Yesterday was a moment that I will mark as a high point for the graphic novel movement in education. The people at the New York City Department of Education have invited me and my counterpart, Janna Morishima to do in-service presentations to public school librarians in the five boroughs. My first gig was in Harlem and it was just amazing. This was an opportunity to provide these librarians with an historical perspective of the format and an understanding of how we reached this moment.
This will culminate with a great day of programming for all of the librarians in the NYC schools in the fall. This is, as far as I am aware, the first time a city and school system of this size, has formally embraced graphic novels as valuable reading tools. Such a great moment.
Teachers can rock like the librarians.
I got a note from Kai-Ming Cha(Library Journal) on my last column where she says "Real acceptance may begin when the average classroom teacher doesn't scold a child for reading a graphic novel or comic book. This day will come." Yes, it will. In deed it will come very soon!
Ok, there's a lot more to tell you about but that will have to wait for the next posting: Miami Beach, Jimmy Gownley and one really damned good reason for graphic novel publishers to apply age ranges to their books.
John Shableski works for Diamond Book Distributors as a sales manager with a focus on the independent bookstore market, public and school libraries. He's been a panelist at Book Expo, a moderator for library panels at the New York Comic Con, a guest speaker at library events, regional book shows and a symposium coordinator. He is currently collaborating on several graphic novel symposiums across the country. He can be reached via email at shjohn@diamondbookdistributors.com
"Avon A, an imprint of Harper-Collins Publishers, has teamed up with the fashion-forward handbag maker, The SAK, for "Book in a Bag"--a year-long giveaway of The SAK's chic bags filled with the newest "fashion fiction" by writers like Kerry Reichs, Marian Keyes and Jean Reynolds Page."
This is an article about why critics are disappearing from traditional media at an alarming rate written by Michael Ventre. Here are some interesting outtakes --- and its worth thinking - after you read it - what the implications are for the book biz.
The simplistic “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” has wormed into the lexicon to such an extent that it has caused impatient audiences to skip past the criticism and get right to the verdict. Because new generations of filmgoers seem to be looking less and less to publications like The New Yorker, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek and many others to find out about upcoming films and are turning to Web sites like rottentomatoes.com — which provides an approval rating based on a collection of reviews by critics — newspapers and magazines are shucking their ranks of critics in alarming numbers.
In recent months, David Ansen of Newsweek, and Jan Stuart and Gene Seymour of Newsday, took buyouts from their employers. Nathan Lee of the Village Voice was laid off, as were several other critics at other dailies and weeklies around the nation.
In short, it appears today’s movie fan wants to know if he or she should go see the movie, and would rather skip over the reasons why.
Why should people listen to the 2,000-word opinion of a film scholar and historian with years of experience when they can find out about “Lars and the Real Girl” from a high school geek writing on an iPhone?
The proliferation of online critics has been described as a “democratization” by many who enjoy getting their movie information from various sources throughout the land. Kevin Koehler runs a site called pretentiousmusings.com, which is included in rottentomatoes.com’s roundup of critics. He has a different take entirely. He feels most movie critics have written their own obituaries because they’re just not very good. He is not a fan of most of the film critics found in traditional print publications.
Continue reading here.
And then here are readers repsonses.
Too many critics
Leave it to Netflix
Too Elitist
Critics Preach
From The NYT Blog Measure for Measure - this speaks to all writers.
David Mamet on passion about what you do and more.
An article on the the next generation of Facebook.
Book Beat by David Milofsky on: Online reviewing boosts unsung authors
There's only so much critical analysis even the best reviewer can provide in a small space. Given this, one might wonder if reviews are really that important in terms of book sales. The short answer is that they are.
"They absolutely sell books," says Cathy Langer, lead buyer for the Tattered Cover Book Store. "I very regularly help customers who come in holding review clippings, sometimes multiple clippings. Or they mention that they saw a review here or there, or heard it on NPR."
Stephen King does it for Entertainment Weekly and Patterson does it for iVillage. This fall under the marketing strategy of going where the audience is rather than getting them to come to you
This essay by Joshua Henkin, author of MATRIMONY first appeared on Books on the Brain.
These days, when my four-year-old daughter sees me putting on my coat, she says, “Daddy, are you going to a book group or just a reading?” My daughter doesn’t really know what a book group is, but in that phrase “just a reading” she has clearly absorbed my own attitude, which is that, given the choice between giving a public reading and visiting a book group, I would, without hesitation, choose the latter.
I say this as someone who has never been in a book group (I’m a novelist and a professor of fiction writing, so my life is a book group), and also as someone who, when my new novel MATRIMONY was published last October, never would have imagined that, seven months later, I’d have participated in approximately forty book group discussions (some in person, some by phone, some on-line), with fifteen more scheduled in the months ahead. And this is while MATRIMONY is still in hardback. With the paperback due out at the end of August, my life might very well become a book group.
Part of this is due to the fact that my novel is particularly suited to book groups. MATRIMONY is about a marriage (several marriages, really), and it takes on issues of infidelity, career choice, sickness and health, wealth and class, among other things. There is, in other words, a good deal of material for discussion, which is why my publisher, Pantheon/Vintage, has published a reading groups guide and why MATRIMONY has been marketed to book groups.
But I am really part of a broader phenomenon, which is that, as The New York Times noted a few months ago, publishers—and authors—are beginning to recognize the incredible clout of book groups. I recently was told that an estimated five million people are members of book groups, and even if that estimate is high, there’s no doubt that book groups have the power to increase a novel’s sales, often exponentially. I’m talking not just about Oprah’s book group, but about the web of book groups arrayed across the country that communicate with one another by word of mouth, often without even realizing it.
I make no bones about this: I participate in book group discussions of MATRIMONY in order to sell more copies of my book. But there’s a paradox here. On several occasions, I’ve driven over four hours round-trip to join a book group discussion of MATRIMONY. You add enough of these trips together and it’s not surprising that my next novel, which was due at the publisher last month, is nowhere near complete. I have spent the last year publicizing MATRIMONY as a way of furthering my writing life (writers need to sell books in order to survive), and yet what I love to do most—write—has had to be placed on hold.
I say this without a trace of resentment. I lead a charmed life. I get to write novels and have other people read them, and if I, like most writers, need to do more than was once required of us to ensure that people read our books—if writers now are more like musicians—then so be it. And in the process, thanks to book groups, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting far more readers than I could have imagined and have learned a lot more than I expected.
So I want to speak up on behalf of book groups, and to offer a few cautions, and a few hopes. First the good news. From coast to coast and in between, I’ve found a huge number of careful readers from all ages and backgrounds who have noticed things about my novel that I myself hadn’t noticed, who have asked me questions that challenge me, and who have helped me think about my novel (and the next novel I’m working on) in ways that are immensely helpful. I’ve certainly learned more from book groups than from the critics, not because book group members are smarter than the critics (though often they are!), but because there’s more time for sustained discussion with a book group, and because for many people the kind of reading they do for a book group marks a significant departure from the rest of their lives, and so they bring to the enterprise a great degree of passion.
Speaking of passion: I don’t want to give away what happens in MATRIMONY, but something takes place toward the middle of the book that has, to my surprise and pleasure, spawned shouting matches in a number of book groups. I haven’t been one of the shouters, mind you, but I’ve been struck by the fact that MATRIMONY has proven sufficiently controversial to make readers exercised. I’ve been trying to determine patterns. Sometimes the divisions have been drawn along age lines; other times along lines of gender—on those few occasions when there is another man in the room besides myself!
Which leads me to my hopes, and my cautions. First, where are all the men? True, my novel is called MATRIMONY, but men get married too, at more or less the same rate as women do. Yet my experience has been that women read fiction and men read biographies of civil war heroes. And women join book groups and men don’t. Yet those few co-ed book groups I’ve attended have been among the most interesting. And if, as seems to be the case, book groups have led to an increase in reading in a culture that otherwise is reading less and less, it would be nice to see more men get in on the act.
Second, if I were allowed to redirect book group discussions, I would urge the following. Less discussion about which characters are likable (think of all the great literature populated by unlikable characters. Flannery O’Connor’s stories. The novels of Martin Amis. Lolita.), less of a wish for happy endings (Nothing is more depressing than a happy ending that feels tacked on, and there can be great comfort in literature that doesn’t admit to easy solutions, just as our lives don’t.), less of a wish that novels make arguments (Readers often ask me what conclusions MATRIMONY draws about marriage, when the business of novels isn’t to draw conclusions. That’s the business of philosophy, sociology, economics, and political science. The business of the novelist is to tell a story and to make characters come sufficiently to life that they feel as real to the reader as the actual people in their lives.) But this is all part of a longer and more complicated discussion—perhaps one we can have in a book group!
Finally, if I were a benign despot I’d make a rule that no book can be chosen if over half the members of the group have already heard of it. This would take care of the biggest problem I’ve seen among book groups, which is that everyone’s reading the same twelve books. Eat, Pray, Love. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. Water for Elephants. Kite Runner. I’m not criticizing these books, some of which I haven’t even read. I’m simply saying that there are a lot of great books out there that people don’t know about. There is a feast-or-famine culture in the world of books (just as in the world of non-books), such that fewer and fewer books have more and more readers. This is not the fault of book groups but is a product of a broader and more worrisome problem, brought on by (among other things) the decline of the independent bookstore and the decrease in book review pages. For that reason, it has become harder and harder for all but a handful of books to get the attention they deserve.
Joshua Henkin is the author, most recently, of the novel MATRIMONY, which was a 2007 New York Times Notable Book, a Book Sense Pick, and a Borders Original Voices Selection. If you would like Josh to participate in your book group discussion, you can contact him through his website, http://www.joshuahenkin.com, or email him directly at Jhenkin at SLC
FULL COMMITMENT
Recently, I had the privilege of reading a friend's novel in manuscript. I was gripped by the thrilling, fast-paced story that unfolded on the surface, and intrigued and moved by the underlying themes of loss and reconciliation. I was also struck by another phenomenon.
My friend had asked me to look for instances of awkward phrasing, inappropriate usage, and repetition, and I did mark a number of passages that seemed to warrant rethinking. What fascinated me was the distribution of these problematic passages.
The manuscript contains scenes of powerful drama and high emotion. The writing in these is consistently graceful, evocative and poetic. The prose sweeps the reader viscerally into the action and the internal life of the characters.
It is in the connective tissue--the narrative nuts and bolts, obligatory backstory, and descriptions of settings--that the writing sometimes becomes awkward and self-conscious.
When I discussed this with my friend, she told me that this issue had surfaced over a decade ago, with her first novel: "I could have fifteen pages of a sex scene with not one mark and then 20 marks on the next five pages of transition," and the pattern has never changed. She asked if I had any ideas about why this happens.
I thought about my own social shyness, and how it disappears when I'm engaged in a discussion on a topic I'm passionate about--and about the stories of mothers who find the strength to lift cars off of their toddlers. When our hearts and our passions are engaged, we are often able to marshal resources that are unavailable to us under normal conditions, I said. We bypass our internal censor and act from our instincts and inner wisdom when we are fully committed.
My friend was disappointed in my answer. "I was hoping you had a more provocative reason that might cure me of awkward writing althoghether," she said.
I don't. But we can't be the only writers who struggle with this issue.
What do you think?
Susan O'Doherty, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a New York City-based practice. A fiction writer herself, she specializes in issues affecting writers and other creative artists. Her book, Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity (Seal, 2007) is now available in bookstores. Send your questions to her at Dr.Sue at mindspring dot com.
There's a lot of creativity in marketing when there's money to spread around. This article explores a few new movies and what they are doing. Makes my mouth water... It's not unusual for a movie to have millions to spend in marketing... but 85% of books have less than $2000 and only a handfull get more than $250,000.
Here are some examples of movie promos from the article:
— "The Love Guru," in which Mike Myers plays a self-help swami who heals a hockey player's broken heart, is being promoted during broadcasts of NHL playoff games.
— "Speed Racer" has promotional partnerships with Hot Wheels race-car toys (naturally) and with Esurance, the insurance company whose commercials already looked like the Japanese animé from which the movie derives.
— "Iron Man" is sponsoring look-alike contests through local comic-book stores. (And last night at Tin Can Tavern in St. Louis, competitors performed the Black Sabbath song "Iron Man" in the video game "Guitar Hero".)
— "Sex and the City," which the president of marketing for New Line Cinema has touted as "the Super Bowl for women," is being promoted through Houlihan's restaurants, Skyy vodka, Mercedes-Benz and so many localized events around the country that potential partners are being turned away.
Starred Library Journal Review. Booksense Pick for September and 2007 Highlight List. Starred Publisher's Weekly Review.
THE REINCARNATIONIST. "A fascinating story of reincarnation that is one of the year's most ambitious and entertaining thrillers." - David Montgomery - Chicago Sun-Times
Finalist for the Gumshoe award for Best Thriller of 2006.: The Venus Fix
"One of the year's best thrillers." -- David Montgomery (reviewer for the Chicago Sun et al.)
"M.J. Rose is a bold, unflinching writer and her resolute honesty puts her in a class by herself." - Laura Lippman
James Patterson: Thriller: Stories To Keep You Up All Night
I'm a proud member of this anthology that's gotten stars from PW & Library Journal!
Lying In Bed
After years of toying with the idea... my first erotic novel. In stores May 30th. Order now.
The Delilah Complex
"Erotic, suspenseful, impossible to put down. M. J. Rose acknowledges sexuality's power - and danger - in a highly original thriller that keepsyou guessing right up to its surprising final twist. I loved it." - Joseph Finder
Finalist for the Anthony Award: The Halo Effect
"Utterly fascinating! Fans of Kay Scarpetta will be equally captivated by sex therapist Morgan Snow, whose job has her too often confronting the dark-side of human nature." - Lisa Gardner
Finalist for the 2004 Anthony Award for Best Original Paperback
Sheet Music
"No one writes so simply and superbly about such lush things as food and sex as M.J. Rose -- and at the same time, gets deep inside the heart and mind of a wonderfully complicated heroine. Literate and page-turning."
-- Caroline Leavitt - author of Coming Back to Me
Finalist for the CT Book Award: Flesh Tones
"Intensely erotic and compelling, Flesh Tones explores the disturbing realm that lies between love and obsession."
-- Tess Gerritsen, author of The Surgeon
In Fidelity
"Rose offers a well-crafted study of infidelity, wrapped within the context of a psychothriller. ... a fast paced-tale ... altogether a satisfying blend."
--Kirkus Reviews
Excerpted in Susie Bright's Best American Erotica : Lip Service
"M.J. Rose blends the dark eroticism of Anais Nin with the lusty cravings of Erica Jong, and delivers a refreshingly open look at a modern woman's sexual coming-of-age."
-- Katherine Neville, Author of The Eight
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