Anything But Vanilla - the third kiss...

Anything But Vanilla was launched in retail two weeks ago. I'm not sure how many will be left on the shelves in your local Walmart, or in Barnes & Noble - they will have a new set of books to fill the slots by now so you have to be quick.

Thank goodness for the internet, where they'll be available until stocks run out and to download to eReaders while there's a demand.

So much has changed in our book buying habits since I started writing. It used to be the dash to W H Smith (in the UK) to buy the new Mills and Boons on the first Friday in the month when the new titles hit the shelves so that you could be sure to get your favourite authors. Then the numbers of books and series published increased to the point where they split them up and released new books in two batches. I'm not sure if that was more excitement, or just confusion.

The supermarkets got in on the act,  giving women the opportunity to add the treat of a romance to the weekly shop, and taking the place of the corner shops and newsagents that had once stocked the books - although since it was only the bigger branches it meant that some people were no longer able to pick them up since that usually involved a car journey. Always winners and losers - it's been a bumpy ride.

Amazon appeared in our lives and those of us with access to the internet no longer had to hunt the shelves of charity shops to find old backlist books by favourite authors - they could be delivered to the door. It made used books big business - good for readers but hard for publishers, authors and booksellers (who, unlike the big charity bookshops that were opening, actually have to pay rent and staff) and who need readers to buy new books to stay in business. If they aren't making a living there are no new books.

And then the eReaders gave "one-click" a whole new meaning with instant gratification, no waiting joy when a favourite author released a new book. Plus the "try before you buy" first chapter downloads for authors you didn't know, but whose book blurbs intrigued. And adustable print size for those of us whose eyesight has never been great and are deteriorating with age.

Now you can not just read anywhere - on your phone, your tablet - you can buy a book wherever you are and here to tempt you to download that first chapter is another moment from Anything But Vanilla - another #KISSkiss.

And it's also available direct from Harlequin US and Harlequin Mills and Boon in Australia and on iTunes, Kobo and Sony - there are links on the sidebar as is Elle's story, Tempted By Trouble.

How many stars...? Online reviews.

All authors love great reviews that give us four or five stars and we truly appreciate any reader who leaves an honest and thoughtful review, even if the book wasn't to their taste. Word of mouth is what makes a book fly.

But there are moments when a writer just wants to beat her head against her desk.

This morning I had an "alert" for my book Dangerous Flirtation at Barnes and Noble. I clicked to see what it was about and discovered I had three new reviews. Two were five star. Great.  Well, not so great, actually. They weren't reviews at all, but a couple who appeared to be using my book page as a contact site to fix up an illicit date - no doubt inspired by the book's title. :)  Interesting. A story idea...

But then, someone who objected to them using the review system as a dating site, ticked them off. To do that, she had to give the book a "star" - you can't leave a comment without one. Since she hadn't read the book, didn't give a hoot about the author, or the fact that writing happened to be the way she paid the bills, she casually gave it a 1 star review just so that she could make her point. This is like giving a coffee shop a bad review because you didn't like the customers sitting at the next table.

Instead of having no reviews - no problem - I now had three non-reviews that made the book look like a 3 star read.

Reviews are for those who have read the book and have something specific to say about it, even if it's just that they hated it. For everything else there is a button on the site specifically designed for reporting this kind of inappropriate use of a review site.

I've just used it. Three times.

FAME AT LAST!

My cover was on the TODAY SHOW! They were filming in Barnes & Noble, doing a piece on the fact that romance novels are recession proof -- in tough times we get a happy ending where we can find it -- and the Secret Baby got in there twice!

See if you can spot it here!