Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Bitchery reader Amanda sent us a link to the following Q&A, Burning Questions on BookPage, where a bookstore owner wrote in searching for an update on one of her favorite authors, Barbara Bickmore. Ms. Bickmore has had a hard time finding an American publisher for her books, according to her own reply, and then offers the following piece of information:

I do make a very nice living from Europe, and it does make me a little sad that America isn’t interested anymore. I don’t write romances, where there is nothing more than the man and woman getting together and then being torn apart and the rest of the book is about their getting back together. My books are too complex for romance readers.

Further proving that the creature rendered by the juxtaposition of a dumbass, a computer, and a very, very large publishing advance respects no boundaries of ethics or even intelligence, evidence has surfaced that Kaavya Viswanathan not only borrowed from Megan McCafferty, but also lifted passages, descriptions, and possibly dialogue from Sophie Kinsella’s Can You Keep a Secret?

While not as pervasive or damningly identical to the phrases lifted from McCafferty, the similarities are striking enough to be noticed, and to create a new flurry of “no comment until the situation is examined” responses from the publishers, agents, and ‘book packagers’ involved. Viswanathan’s book has already been pulled from the shelves of bookstores at the request of the publisher, but is available online at half.com and on eBay.

My personal favorite from the Times article:

In an e-mail message, a spokeswoman for Alloy Entertainment, the book packager responsible for several hit series of young adult novels that also helped Ms. Viswanathan develop the concept for “Opal” and craft its first four chapters, said: “We are continuing to refrain from offering comment on any matter relating to Kaavya at this time.”

Sounds like they are going to wash their hands of her, don’t it?

So now I’m going to dust off my Duchess Cuntington Crystal Ball and look into the future - I see… a book deal… a big...advance… with six numbers for Kaavya Viswanathan… to divulge the “dark secrets” of the publishing packaging industry… and reveal how Alloy pressured her to finish the book by any means necessary, thinking that ... no one would notice if she borrowed from established, successful… recently published books by...well known authors. The victim, she will be, yes.

Oh, the future, it is not so hazy today at all.

Professor Sarah S. G. Franz sent us the following announcement from Eric Selinger at DePaul University - if you’re interested in academic discourse on the most awesome subject of romance novels (and who isn’t?!) check out the following:

Hello, everyone! Since there isn’t a listserv out there designed for academics who study and teach romance fiction--or, at least, there hasn’t been since the demise of Romance Novel Studies, a while back--I’ve taken the liberty of starting one.

Introducing (drum-roll, please): RomanceScholar! Not the greatest title, perhaps, but I only had 14 characters to work with, and I wanted to get across the fact that this is a list that aims to foster scholarship in the field of romance fiction, even if we do end up spending some time simply suggesting good new books to one another. (Which counts, in my book, as “fostering scholarship.” How else to get things written on the work we love?)

I realize this list may not be of interest to everyone on RRA, but I hope that even if you aren’t interested yourself, you’ll still spread the word or forward this message to anyone else you think might take an interest: colleagues, friends, teachers at other levels, etc. (I know I’d love to talk about how we TEACH these books with anyone who faces those challenges, at whatever level!)

To subscribe, visit http://mailman.depaul.edu/mailman/listinfo/romancescholar

The instructions are pretty straightforward, but be sure to open your “confirmation email” and click on the link or hit “reply” as instructed to activate your subscription.

Anders pointed this out ten days ago in a comment but I somehow totally missed it: SMART BITCHES HAS TOTALLY MADE IT INTO WIKIPEDIA.

Holy fuck on a fuck cracker!

WHEE!

Now I’m just waiting for the Wikipedia editors to notice this and put in a request for deletion....

UPDATE FROM SB SARAH

While there was a request for deletion, a few noble souls have updated the definition of “Smart Bitches” on the Wikipedia to reference the GoogleBomb efforts against Bill Napoli.

Furthermore, “Napoli” is listed on the bottom of the entry regarding the definition of a GoogleBomb as a recent and popular example of the trend, though the Smart Bitches are not specifically attributed for the effort. (Hmmmm.)

But, if you look at the entry for Sen. Napoli himself? Well, get me a plate of them fuck crackers with a side order of holy crap:

Napoli’s statement gave rise to the slang term “to napoli,” which the Smart Bitches pioneered. The verb “to napoli” means to brutally rape someone in the manner that he described.

Candy and I recently received an email from Kate of Brisbane Romance Reading Addicts, a Brisbane-based bunch of romance fans. She likes our site, and she likes romance, but man, she does not like the state of romance sales in the land down under:

The major book chains (Dymocks is equivalent to Borders) don’t carry romance, or, if they do, they display them in one of those cardboard fold out shelves. Harlequin’s lines (regardless of the fact that there is a Harlequin branch in Sydney) come out months late, or incomplete. And author visits, tours, or conferences? Non-existant. So I wrote my thesis about, well, basically, about how romance readers survive.... I published the first chapter of my thesis (seriously cut down) in Queensland’s major daily paper on Saturday.

Well, as they say in Oz, good on you! Breaking sexual barriers? Focusing on female professions before the advent of feminism and equal rights movements? Ideological shifts in the attitude towards women’s sexuality? All things we know and love about romance here at SBTB. Nice to see a newspaper publishing the social and political timeline of romance novels, right up to the advent of erotica.

Now, while I do empathize with the lack of author tours from the US to Australia, I have to say that to fly to Oz from the US? Damn expensive. Beyond the reaches of most touring budgets, I am sure.

But interest seems to be growing: Kate has been asked to put together a review column for the Courier Mail, and certainly getting romance good press and getting a fair review that considers the romance novel with the same weight as any other published fiction is indeed a VERY good thing, if you ask the Smart Bitches.

Now, I must ask: how did you come up with the “Top Fives” that appears at the end of the article? And who has some suggestions as to how to help the Aussie romance readers find better buffets of books from which to choose?