An eBook Deal & a New Italian Edition

Yesterday brought some nice holiday surprises. One came to my doorstep (in a downpour) and one to my email via Bookperk.

First off, we have a limited time only eBook deal on My Inconvenient Duke. From now until 2 January, it’s on sale for $1.99 in the U.S. and Canada. Since publishers don’t always let me know when deals are coming up, and it’s impractical to haunt the various bookstores daily to find out, sometimes my news does not come as far in advance as I’d like. But there’s time! If you haven’t yet read the third Difficult Dukes book, here’s a chance to do so and save a few bucks. Or maybe you’ve a friend who might enjoy Blackwood and Lady Alice’s story.

The second item was Il Duca Libertino, the Italian edition of A Duke in Shining Armor. The copies were a little damp, having landed on the stairs instead of the porch, but they survived near drowning. (It was quite a storm.) And they would be readable if only I could. But the Italian I learned in repeated lessons has for the most part either evaporated on gone into deep hiding in my brain. Also, the vocabulary I did learn was limited to beginner level. Italian is not easy for an American, believe me, especially one of very mature years. All those articles and pronouns. But it’s so beautiful that I find myself opening pages and trying to comprehend. And no, I don’t comprehend much, except insofar as I wrote the book and know how it goes. But I think we can all appreciate the cover design. It’s always interesting to see the way other countries do it—how they dress the characters, what scenes they choose, the poses, etc.

UK/Australia/New Zealand alert: "Ten Things I Hate About the Duke" Kindle now available

It gives me very great pleasure to report that the UK/Australia/New Zealand Kindle edition of Ten Things I Hate About the Duke is now available. Other retailers will follow, probably within 72 hours.

Regarding the audio editions: My agents are working on this and I should have details soon.

Thank you for your patience. We’ll try to do better in future.

International Editions from Japan and Romania

One or two of my publishers abroad use the same covers as my U.S. editions. For the most part, however, the various publishers go their own way. Titles change, and the cover art shows a wide variety of aesthetics. Some covers are steamier than others. Some look more modern, some go for a period look, in an array of time periods. Though all my recent books have been set in the 1830s, cover heroes and heroines have been dressed in clothing from the 1700s to the present day. This is the case for my U.S. covers as well, where the clothing is more modern.

I provide as historically accurate a story as I can inside, but the cover needs to appeal to the majority of readers. Many people would not find the actual clothing of my chosen historical period even slightly attractive, let alone sexy. You probably have to be a major fashion history nerd to love it and what it tells us about people of the time. And not all fashion history nerds are crazy about it, either.

But that’s history nerds and the inside of the books. Publishers everywhere are out there to sell books, and international publishers see their job the same way my U.S. publishers do: What’s going to appeal to their readers?

Here we have the Japanese edition of Dukes Prefer Blondes, and the Romanian edition of Don’t Tempt Me.* For comparison, below are other international editions of these books.

*Special thanks to Cristina Radu, for sending the cover art for the Romanian edition of Don’t Tempt Me. Ms. Radu has translated this book as well as Not Quite a Lady and Scandal Wears Satin into Romanian.

Top Row: (Brazil) Dukes Prefer Blondes, (Germany) Dukes Prefer Blondes, (France) Don’t Tempt Me, (Italy) Don’t Tempt Me, (Spain) Don’t Tempt Me