JERR blogs too!

I wanted a simple blog hosting place, this one had a pretty layout template that matches JERR's color scheme and all, some simple bells and whistles... I thought it really was a good choice ... keep it simple and all that, but now I want to add a couple more reads to my list and I can't because it only searches the Amazon databases, and doesn't allow for manual entries.  Bleh!  I may end up looking somewhere else that allows me more options and move the whole blog there.  Did I say bleh? ... so BLEH!



Mireya

This is another post that belongs in the FAQ category.

Since JERR was first published it has exclusively reviewed erotic romance. The original founders "baptized" the newsletter Just EROTIC ROMANCE Reviews for a reason. Initially the only requirements were that all books had to be erotic romance, with extremely and bluntly graphic scenes. A couple of years ago we added the minimum length requirement (11,000 words) due to the extremely high number of super short short stories that barely had enough room for a quickie scene.

Now, what do we mean by erotic romance. At JERR we only consider erotic romance a story in which the romantic plot takes center stage, irrespective of how many main characters are involved, their gender, race, species, or whatever. Additionally, the story has to end on a positive note if not an outright HEA (happily ever after) in the classic sense.

JERR DOES NOT review any other category of romance NOR any other type of erotic fiction (i.e. erotica, erotic chick lit, etc.)

Our guidelines are specific and more importantly, are well defined and interpreted, so that our reviewers are able to do their job properly. We acknowledge that what may feel romantic to one reader may not necessarily feel romantic to another, hence, our reviewers are instructed to inform us when they read something for review that does not seem to match our guidelines, before they write their review. Fran, our head editor, and myself, take a closer look, and decide if the book should just be "shelved" for not meeting our guidelines, or if it should be made available to someone else. We do try to be as fair as possible, and not discard books without further evaluation when we get such reports.

On a final note, the guidelines are non negotiable.


Mireya

Am I the only one that is more than just a bit tired at having my intelligence insulted over and over again in forums and blogs? I promised myself I was not going to touch the plagiarism issue, however, the latest round involves those attempting to defend the author in question... and saying that there is NOTHING WRONG with plagiarizing other people's work. Now, I am not going to go into a dissertation on this issue. Not my place. I am not an attorney nor am I a scholar. I am just your average reader.

What once again was rubbed on my face is the fact that a lot of people really think readers are idiots. Frankly, I don't appreciate it. Never did. It is a personal pet peeve of mine. And it is an issue that I have seen over and over again over the past six years, spanning publishing houses, authors, and even review sites.   I am now wondering how they are going to label me for daring say this... because that is another issue: the use of "convenience labels" to dismiss difering opinions. 

I know this blog is barely read but it is going to feel good to say it: not everyone is vocal about their opinions, the vast majority of visitors to blogs/forums are LURKERS. This means they don't express their opinions, but trust me, they are reaching their own conclusions, and they are certainly NOT stupid.

What is wrong is wrong, no matter how many justifications you may try to bring into the forefront.

Respect is a two way street. Respect the readers.



Mireya

Man, writing for a blog is not as easy as I thought it would be. On top of that, all that rather nasty scandal involving plagiarism has kinda kept me distracted. For a split second I was tempted to pipe in too ... but people don't need to keep reading about it me thinks. So, I sat on my hands for a bit. As I was looking around for some distraction (I can't spend all of my free time playing Lord of the Rings Online ... though I've been accused of being a hardcore gamer heh) a little lightbulb turned on: I know, I'll bitch and moan about my review burnout! I am brilliant, but you all knew that already.

I have been a reviewer since 2003. When I first started, I was reviewing for more than three sites not to mention that I also wrote a few independent reviews for yet another site.

I reviewed for so many places because I was bored to tears at work. I am an amazingly fast reader, can put a sentence together without that much effort (thank God for good language skills), and I wanted to have as much to choose from as possible for my reading material. Hey, if you see my book spending budget you'll definitely keel over... thank God I don't spend in much else. Anyway, I used to write over six reviews a week, mostly ebooks (please bear in mind that the majority of erotic romance ebooks, at least five-six years ago, where a lot shorter than a paperback, the longest ebooks usually being mainstream romance).

Once I took over a lot more responsibility at JERR I had to quit the other sites I reviewed for. I just couldn't keep up having to hold a full time job (which stopped being boring) plus my tasks at JERR, although I continued reviewing for JERR on top of my other duties there. At times I reviewed an average of about 6 books per issue of the newsletter (average of twelve books a month).

But something changed, it started gradually, but I am now at a point in which I am fastidiously selective with what I pick for review... and this applies to what I choose as reading material as well. I used to be extremely forgiving. I almost "inhaled" rather than read every bit of erotic romance I could get my hands on. At the time, I was basically purchasing almost every single release from Ellora's Cave, not to mention a few other epublishers like New Concepts Publishing.

Thinking further about this, there definitely are a few factors that, in my opinion, have influenced me and got me to the point I now am (reviewing maybe one book every six months, and being extremely careful with my purchases):

1. Too many stories seem to be more of the same, in other words, I am finding less and less storylines that are new to me, at least in concept. Some stories read way too much alike. Is originality outright passe?

2. Poor editing. I went from being okay with mistakes to noticing almost every error. From the very silly ones i.e. in one page the heroine had green eyes ... and two paragraphs down she had blue eyes, to horrid flow (man, this is so prevalent that makes me want to scream), contrived plot ploys, rushed endings, awkward wording, you name it. This is all stuff that if an author is not able to "see" an experienced editor that has a clue would be able to catch. (This goes back to the "everyone can be an author/editor/publisher/reviewer/proofer all wrapped in one" issue which will probably be the subject of a future rant).

3. Too much sex. Yes, there is such a thing as "too much" sex in erotic romance. I always felt this way, even way back when I first discovered erotic romance and the novelty of it all had me enthralled. Most times this has nothing to do with how many sex scenes there are or how many partners are involved, or what the scenario is, or whatever; but it has EVERYTHING to do with how it is written. You can esentially have a book heavy on sex and still get (a) a romantic plot and (b) feel the emotional connection between the main characters involved in the romantic plot. Some examples of authors that do this well are Emma Holly, Angela Knight, Morgan Hawke and Tielle St. Clare.

4. There is no tactful way to bring up this one: there are too many "authors". Seems like anyone that submits an erotic story, as long as it is full of sex, is now being published. Writing is a craft, not something ordinary and common that everyone is good at. And yes, you can be a natural, but you also need to polish that gift. Anyway, I have seen stories being "published" that should have never ever seen the light of day. Seems like anyone can be an "author" now. Have a story you wrote when you were 9? Sex it up and submit it. Then again, I strongly suspect this goes back to the epublishing overload we've been seeing over the past year and a half. Submission overload in the rather tough competitive environment of erotic romance publishing.

5. Erotic romance is still ROMANCE. Sadly, losing track of that very simple and essential concept seems to be more the rule than the exception these days. An erotic romance reader is still a romance reader. Period. Right now, there is a horrendous mish-mash of erotic romance mixed with every other type of erotic fiction out there, not to mention stuff that reads like the smut you could get for free in online porn sites.

6. The novelty of it all just wore out.

All the reasons mentioned above make me wary of trying new publishers and authors, in all honesty. I fear I may end up with another book deleted from my PC's hard drive or tossed into the trash because I know not even my friends will want to read it (almost all my friends read erotic romance). If I added five authors to my autobuy list over the past year, that could be considered a miracle *sigh*

Have any of you felt this way or feel this way? If so, how long would you say have this been going on for you? Share your thoughts!


Mireya

I figured that since we now have a blog, we might as well use it to post some FAQs. This is the first one.

Every once in a while I get one of these: "I received notice (or I was told) that JERR reviewed my book... but I can't find the review! "

The first thing that everyone should keep in mind is that JERR is a reviews NEWSLETTER not a reviews website. This means that we operate somewhat differently from a reviews site. Though we do have a website, truth is that we simply use it as a repository. The reviews, under normal circumstances, are uploaded 4-5 weeks (roughly a month to a month and a half) after the original publication date of the review.

To anyone wanting to link asap to a review that is not yet available in the website, we recommend that you link to the Yahoo group that we use to mail the newsletter. However, do not try to read the newsletter from the forums. Yahoo has a word limit on posts, and all messages get a [truncated] note where the message is automatically cut off. If you need to check a full copy of the newsletter, simply log on to the Yahoo group, and on the left hand side you'll see a menu. Choose Files from that menu. There you will find full copies of all our newsletters, organized by date. It's not as easy as actually just linking to the website, but it provides a solution for those that really want to link to their review asap.

Last but not least, if after you checked in the newsletter's group Files you still can't find your review, drop me a note at mireya @ justeroticromancereviews.com (no spaces). I'll look into it.

Just so everyone is aware, last year we did have issues with the uploading of reviews to the website. We are currently working on the updates, and hopefully everything will be in place by the first week of February 2008.



Mireya

Thump! Thump! Thump!...is this thing on?? Ahem! Welcome to JERR Blogs Too!!! For those of you who don't know, my name is Amber Taylor. I am the co-owner, Business Manager and Feature Coordinator for JERR. I hope this turns out to be an interactive blog that will respectfully push the edge. Not too snarky! LOL! Is that in the dictionary?

JERR has a reputation...some good, some bad. We run a tight ship, but with as much compassion for our reviewers, authors and publishers as possible. When I looked at the profile for this blog, I couldn't help but be amazed by the fact that JERR has been going strong since 2003!! WOW! In June, we will celebrate our five year anniversary! Not an easy feat in this competitive industry. So, since Mireya gave me a forum to ramble on.....I thought it might help as we start this new interactive page in the JERR history to give you some of the past history of where we came from and how we started, leading us to where we are today. For some, this may explain why we do what we do and why some think we're nuts! LOL! Well, we probably are nuts, I think I recall the reviewers considering awarding each other with wooden dildoes...but that's a story for another day. There has been a method to our madness...

JERR began with 4 friends who met on the bulletin boards (they are an archaic form of a blog...lol) and mentored by another very good friend, an author (yes an author) to get us started...She set the high standards that JERR strives to continue to this day. She was able to help us get the connections to get the books we needed and help us out with ethical questions, industry questions etc. We were just readers...who wanted to review because we had built reputations of giving our opinions on books on the boards around the industry and so why not...lets do formal reviews. It'll be fun! LOL! The basic concept was that we were readers...not industry professionals, reviewing books for other readers. This continues to be true today and I'd like to think has set a new standard for review sites. At the time, there were a lot of authors reviewing. To us this seemed to be a conflict as many of the authors were friends, and who wants to give their friend a not so great review. This is the driving force behind all of our policies. The format was the same as it is now, an intro, an article, interview, website review and what they really wanted ...the book reviews. We set our format up to be entertaining as well as informative about issues involved in the industry and topics of all kinds related to erotic romance. We set it up as a newsletter to be the one source out there that came right to the reader. Delivered right to their mailbox every other week--rain or shine--hell or high-water--only our own death would have delayed the issue. And sometimes that is what it felt like. That still holds true today, as we have backups in place that protect the newsletter from suffering should one or more of us be out for a time. JERR is first and foremost a newsletter and we always refer to it as such...the website (though very beautiful and necessary) is an archive and information place...

I joined in the beginning and was asked to take a leadership role right away, Mireya joined shortly after, as a reviewer, but we had to drag her kicking and screaming into management...lol! Boy that took a while!! I quickly learned that taking that leadership role would not make me a lot of friends and even loose me a few. Especially as we grew. And boy did we grow! More than we ever thought possible. We grew in leaps and bounds...one day we were just 20 or 30 then 50 and then...OMG 1000 subscribers. What was once just for fun was becoming a real business. It happened quickly. There was a demand for people who would tell the honest truth about these books. Not in anyway to slam any other review site, they operated completely differently than what we wanted to do. This is an important part of who JERR is. We were determined not to put out reviews that were always positive and authors could count on it...if the book was good we wanted to give it what it deserved, but if the book wasn't.....well the reader had a right to know what they were about to spend their hard earned money on...tactfully!! Now that we were becoming recognized by authors as well as major e-book publishers, we tightened up the reins...we became more and more conscious of the quality and diversity of the product we put out, as well as the challenging ethical issues that easily arise with this type of endeavor. Many times we clashed over those quality or ethical issues. But we kept growing and have always had more books than we could review easily...but we prided ourselves and pushed ourselves on getting them done........and we did. Every I was dotted, every t crossed and the commas....well placed. We spent late hours, long weekends, and neglected our real lives to make it something we were proud to put out.

With our author mentor in the background we grew into our own entity. Running it completely by ourselves. And with success always comes controversy...over the direction we were headed, policies and ultimately who actually had the final say in what. Try as we did to be a democracy, a business has to have a leader to succeed. Thus began a huge debate and consequently a great divide in the then, current management, and ultimately lead to a series of events that broke apart the newsletter and threatened our very existence. If not for the support of Mireya, her cool head and absolutely wonderful advice (plus she ALWAYS told me like it was) I don't think JERR would still be here. I am very proud of our partnership...we keep each other in check. But, we are still here and we are going strong. Mireya devised the current management structure, complete with job descriptions. Jule took over the HUGE task of putting out the newsletter......never bending under the pressure and learned as she went...and we rebuilt. What you see put out today is a stellar newsletter that I am proud to be a part of. Aggie picked up many of my duties when my personal life was falling apart and kept those features coming as well as updating the website....I'll never be able to thank her enough for all her help...she bailed me out more than once. We finally got working on updating the website with those reviews and features and some website tweaking too! When Fran joined the management team she brought skills we desperately needed, in editing, database management...how we ever got along without her I don't know. This is our current management team...who I cannot say enough good things about .

I guess the point here is that we have had a long hard road to get where we are. Our management is as dedicated to JERR as anyone can be with no real payment. We are fanatical about anything that may be perceived as a conflict of interest because we hold our reputation dear and protect it at all costs...its what keeps us here. That isn't to say that we don't have friendships but its how you handle those friendships that counts...At all times we are aware that other opportunities may be presented to us in the form of editing, publishing or PR to become involved in that end of the business. That end and ours doesn't mix...we've all been through it, even me...and I have lived to regret it dearly. Reputations take a long time to build, but only one keystroke to ruin. Not only for the review site, but the reviewer as well. If you loose your credibility, you have nothing in this industry.

JERR stands for fair reviews and practices that make authors and publishers feel safe handing over their books for review.....though some tend to sweat a bit.!! LOL! I think that is one think that makes me most proud...an author may fear getting a review from JERR, but still wants it, good or bad. We all know reviews are subjective, just one person's opinion, but feedback, good or bad is always helpful. Especially to new careers. What good does it do to tell an author their book is perfect when it isn't? And don't think that's an easy task either, or something we take lightly because we don't. If a reviewer turns in a review that is not good we make every effort to get a second opinion, make sure it is accurately stated, tactful and not something the author will be offended by, but something they will see as constructive criticism. Most frequently a low rated review has to do with our criteria. We make sure that book meets our criteria. It's not fair to rate a book down based on the expectation that it is a romance with graphic sex included when it's really chick lit, or straight erotica or mainstream romance. Nothing is wrong with any of those genres but our rating system is based on two components. Romance and heat level. If those are lacking it rates the book down, when based on another rating system the book might very well be award winning. We wish we could review all books, but we are still a small operation with only so many reviewers and so much time.

As we approach our fifth anniversary and 3000 subscribers, look at how the industry has changed! JERR is secure in the knowledge that we have tried to change with it. Sometimes this means laxing on some things and tightening up on others. Gone are the days when every book submitted is reviewed. The volume of books we get for review is astounding to me when I think about those 20 or so books we scrounged for in those first issues. Again, we wish we could review every single book request, but in today's market it's just not possible. So we do what we can to continue to put out the best product we can. We hope we entertain you, make you think; give you the information you need about the books, the authors, the publishers and the industry in general.

JERR is the blood, sweat and tears (believe me tears) of many people. Being the only founding member left, I sometimes mourn the loss of those friendships and the empty place left behind, but I love all of our staff and coordinators and especially Mireya for her support and incredibly hard work...through everything....I can think of no one I'd rather be co-owner with.

Move over RT...JERR is here to stay!

Hey, they don't call me Amber the Rambler for nothing.........

More cheesy titles ... but whatever LOL and no, this is not going to be a summary at all ... more like a comment on the epublishing industry in 2007, particularly as it pertains to erotic romance (you all knew this was coming, didn't ya?)

Anyway, if you are like me and follow the "ins and outs" of this industry online, you probably feel like all this reads more like an "spectator's sport" of sorts than anything else. We certainly had our share of disasters to read about last year. Following are a few examples that pretty much illustrate some of the more widely known "disasters" in 2007. Now, just to be clear, none of the following scenarios is new, and anyone that has been online reading forums etc. will have to agree on that:

Scenario 1: Author/editor/artist from publisher A decides to open his/her own company. Publisher A takes things personally, considers it a betrayal ... let the games begin! This one is as old as there have been epublishers.

Scenario 2: Author A is tired of having her work rejected. Only problem is that she is too busy writing her own books. Oh wait, reviewer/advance reader/critique partner and friend Betsy will help her, let's make her editor ... Betsy is a grand schmoozer and manages to attract a few established authors. She has lots of contacts and acquaintances thanks to her work as reviewer ... she can't edit squat but she has a great nose for a good story. A VERY good thing, even if the good story is poorly written... readers are stupid and will forgive anything as long as the story is good. Things go well for a while ... then suddenly real life decides to make an abrupt appearance. Betsy has to go.... oops, there goes the publisher.

Variation on the above scenario: Author A doesn't like how things are being run by her publisher. She can do it better and earn a lot of money too. She manages to convince a couple other authors to come with her ... the only problem is that Author A didn't bother to research a few things, including what a "business plan" is.

Scenario 3: Person A keeps reading how much money these epublishing companies are making. Man, opening an online business? how difficult can that be? 'nuff said...

This type of thing has been going on for quite a while, some of the publishers that have gone under were so obscure that no one even knew that they existed ... until they shut. A few years ago the better known publishers used to try and keep things private (see Scenario A), however, with so many people now involved in the industry, it is virtually impossible to keep anything private. Hell, NOTHING is private online, but sadly, some people still believe that the word "privacy" and "internet" belong in the same sentence, and that became blatantly obvious in 2007.

2007 seems to have been a particularly interesting year as it pertains to epublishing, but let's face it, is it that surprising considering that new publishers seemed to be sprouting like weeds (since 2006 to be precise). At one point, we were getting notices of new publishers opening for business at the rate of 1-2 every month!

That is not necessarily a bad thing, right? That means more reading material for us thirsty and ever demanding readers. Competition should also force them to aim at better quality product, right? But, once you stop to think about it, it doesn't take much to realize that things are going to turn into one nasty and sometimes dirty battle ... and that the extra heat is going to force the already established publishers to become even more aggressive on their marketing efforts in order to keep their reader base and bring in more business. You don't have to be a business guru to figure out how ugly could things get in this sort of environment. Can we say rat race? Maybe it is all these years working on the legal field what have turned me into a rather jaded you know what... either way, opening a business, any business, involves a lot more than a lot of these people were prepared to face... and this without even taking into consideration the "crook-type" ones ...

In line with this, we did get more available end product, definitely ... along with a LOT more crap as well. Yes, crappy reads are not exclusive to epublishing companies. That would be a gross generalization and very unfair. However, there are only so many good and experienced editors out there, there are only so many GOOD writers. Good writers are not a dime a dozen. However, it seems like even the juvenile story written by 16-year old Mary Jane had a chance to be published. Catch my drift? Stories that were bad off the bat, or needed a ton of polishing were and are being published. It still feels like quality has been sacrificed in favor of quantity, and no matter how much this is denied or argued about, readers are not stupid, and they can see for themselves how this all is playing out. Oh yeah, I am sure sales haven't suffered at all, otherwise we wouldn't have had so many publishers open to business; but fact remains that the number of disenchanted fans of erotic romance keeps growing the more those readers are exposed to what is available to read. All you need to do is lurk around a bit in non author or publisher related blogs and forums. Places in which people speak candidly or don't fear to be brutally honest. Blogland is such a wonderful place...

Bottomline: in the end, what many of us knew or suspected was going to happen, happened, and quite a number of publishers went under last year, some not in a nice way. The biggest scandals were provoked by Triskelion Publishing and Mardi Gras Publishing. This two were literal nightmares and the material you could use to write a case study for a management class on how NOT to run a business. Other ones that came under: Chippewa Publishing and Venus Press. On the obscure side we have Twilight Fantasies (did anyone ever really heard from this one?).

To be fair, not everything in the industry was bad last year though. Some established publishers continued showing why they have been able to stay afloat for so long. Some of the new ones show promise already. A couple of publishers placed bids to buy the rights on the contracts of the Triskelion Publishing authors. Some authors from the failed publishers found new homes for their work already. A good number of authors formerly epublished are now also contracted by one or more big print houses. And it has to be said that not all the new businesses were started for all the wrong reasons, or are being poorly handled. Hopefully, some hard lessons were learned as well. I was quite surprised at the naivete of a good deal of these poor authors that got tangled in the previously described nastiness. I keep forgetting that not everyone has been online for as long as I have been ... or works in the legal field *grin*


Mireya

Not exactly the most brilliant entry title in a blog, but hey, I was a Babylon 5 fan and I just loved that particular line ... hehe my first post and I am digressing already ;)

A few years ago, Just Erotic Romance Reviews had a Yahoo Group. The group turned out to be more of a promo place and less of an interactive loop ... bluntly put, it was more of the same, as there are tons of free promotional type loops in Yahoo groups in which you see exactly the same promos in surround sound. I felt sad, because I had wanted it to be a bit more interactive, even if allowing authors and publishers to promote their product, but it ended up becoming too much of a chore to keep up with it and frankly, no one except the authors and publishers posting promos were actually showing any interest in it, though some were nice enough to try and chit chat. We ended up shutting it down.

Now probably you all are thinking that I am nuts ... I get rid of a group and end up starting a blog?!?!

Well, yeah, I am nuts, so that is a given... aside from that I wanted to give another try to interactive action. Give our readers and friends a chance to come over, see what kind of lunacy is running rampant at JERR, maybe share some news and gossip, general thoughts on erotic romance, where it is and where it is going, allow outsiders to ask questions about JERR, stuff like that.

What is this blog going to be? who knows ... I guess it is going to be what we all make it to be. However, I can tell you what it is not going to be: a promo place or an overtly snarky blog. Snarky blogs can be a lot of fun to visit and comment at, but sometimes too much is too much.

And I think this is pretty much it... for now. Want to discuss a topic in particular? drop me a note. Have a question about anything concerning JERR? drop me a note. Have a piece of news that you would like to share? drop me a note.

And for the shameless piece of self-promotion:
THE FIRST JERR ISSUE OF 2008 COMES OUT ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 13.

Last but not least, HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!!



Mireya