some financial news posts

The story people are watching today: The crisis at American International Group deepened as the insurer was hit with downgrades by four rating companies late on Monday, giving the New York insurance giant precious little time to sell assets and receive loans to preserve its existence.

And for those of us looking at our own investments: It's too late to panic," said Zachary Karabell, president of independent consulting firm River Twice Research. "And if it's too late to panic, it's probably time to calmly look at what's going on in light of opportunities."
"Selling doesn't recoup your losses," he added. "It just realizes them." Some useful reading here, if not all of it stuff I agree with.

And for those of you wondering about recent deals: Bank of America’s $50bn (€35bn, £28bn) acquisition of Merrill Lynch, announced on Monday at a hastily arranged press conference, will go down as a signature moment in the history of Wall Street.

Fascinating, in a sphincter-clenching, queasy-making sort of way. The best explanation I've seen so far is of Wall Street et al having a sick gut, and not being able to digest all the bad credit it's been gorging on. A simplification but not, I think, an inaccurate one. Problem is, we're all sitting underneath the monster as it has a bad case of the shits....

some news, some amusement, both with financial ties (because it's that kind of a day, apparently)

It's not all doom and gloom on the financial front: CURSE THE DARK (book 2) and BRING IT ON (book 3) are [finally!] being reissued as $6.99 paperbacks! Yes, I can say this with assurance because I have on my desk the solicitation covers for both books.

Numfar! Do the Dance of Mass Market Joy!

Alas, it is delayed joy, because they will not be in your hot and needy (and fiscally prudent) hands until March 2009. But you will be able to pre-order them! When? Soon! I promise. In the meanwhile, though, if you like having all your books in one format, I'd avise ordering the trade editions before they go out of print...


Meanwhile over on Smart Bitches, they point out that the male model for "Dreamcatcher" was recycled from another earlier (print) book. Before anyone faints away in horror, let me assure you that this is not uncommon in series* books (if you look at a lot of media tie-ins, you may notice that the actor/actress is simple redressed and placed in a different backdrop, courtesy of Photoshop, not that I'm naming any *coughMurderSheWrotecough* names). There's only so much budget, and model fees are expensive, while stock art is cheaper. Same goes for anthologies or backlist reissues. Plus, in my case, "Dreamcatcher" is an e-book only so the cover is really a moot point -- why hit the budget for that?

For the record, I am amused rather than po'd, and have tweaked my editor on the topic already (it's an art department/publisher thing, so all editors can do, realistically, is lodge a protest and say "toljaso" when they get busted).

That said, there's been a run of the same thing on higher-profile books, especially in the chick-lit and literary end, and apparently people are less amused by that. I understand -- I'd be seriously pissed if this happened with Luna, or Pocket. Individual titles have different expectations from series, and nobody wants to discover that their highly anticipated novel got someone else's redressed hand-me-downs....


* 'series' does not mean "related books by one author" but "books published as part of a series imprint, i.e. Nocturne." Confusing, I know.