you know what's completely absent from the sub-genre of

[james_davis_nicoll]

women who gave up careers in the big city to move to a small town, run a small business, find a new romance, adopt or foster a couple of kids and solve crime? Women who decide/discover at age 40 that yeah, they really do prefer to be romantically involved with women over men.

Why is that?

[They exist, I just don't get sent them for some reason. Time to go button hole my editors on this matter]

Comments

Slightly off topic

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

Am I right in believing (or did I dream it) that there are imprints of detective novels that are essentially sold only to libraries who want crime novels by the yard?

Re: Slightly off topic

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

If so, I am unaware of it. If libraries are buying them, though, it must reflect some demand from the patrons.

Re: Slightly off topic

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Can't remember where I got the impression. I will have to track down one of the books I am thinking of and investigate.

Re: Slightly off topic

[nicosian.livejournal.com]

That would explain a lot.:D

growing up, the main library in my hometown had an entire spinner rack of L R Hubbard. ( multiple copies of his work). I wondered how that had to happen. It wasn't a scientology heavy town. Maybe a crate of em got mis-shipped to that library, I'll never know.

[maruad.livejournal.com]

All mt local libraries had sets of his books as well. I suspect that so few people actually request specific books or authors that it is very easy for a couple of people asking for an author to influence the discretionary spending at a local branch.

Re: Slightly off topic

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Yes. Severn House and Five Star exist pretty much only for libraries' benefit. Five Star is owned by Gale/Cengage, a publisher of reference books.

There are also a couple of romance imprints that are similar.

Re: Slightly off topic

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Five Star publishes romances as well as mysteries (if you already knew this, please ignore).

Re: Slightly off topic

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I had forgotten! They also used to do Westerns, didn't they?

Re: Slightly off topic

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Back in the stone age when I was a librarian, they did. They became almost the only reliable source of new westerns by the time I left the library in 2008.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Constable in the UK was this in the 90s, but I think they are now defunct. (Pity, as one series they published I really liked, J Robert Janes's novels set in France during WWII, has only just restarted).

[maruad.livejournal.com]

I liked Janes books though they are a very dark.

Re: Slightly off topic

[pmcray.livejournal.com]

In the UK, Robert Hale, perhaps Collins Crime Club. I remember a lot of them in Ingol library in the 1980s.