Excerpted for Your Pleasure?
May 6th 2009
Sabrina JeffriesOn Writing! & Sabrina Jeffries
My new site is up! At last. Went up last night (go take a look at it, and let me know what you think). It even has an excerpt from Wed Him Before You Bed Him, Charlotte and Michael’s book. I actually managed to excerpt it without revealing who he really is. I was quite pleased with it … until I realized that it was, well, risque (where do you think they got the inside art?). I even used the e-word! Fortunately, my publicist used to work in the magazine industry, and she went in and edited it for public consumption. It still makes me nervous, but I guess there are worse things on the internet.
But it raised the usual questions for me about excerpts. Should I include a love scene or not? Do the hero and heroine both have to appear, or is it better to have one that sets up the story, even if it’s a prologue that shows only the hero?
Or should I even put up an excerpt at all? Plenty of readers have told me they don’t read excerpts because they then think they’ve already read the book when they open it and read the first few pages. That’s why I tend not to put the first few pages.
Of course, I don’t always have a choice–my publisher often puts excerpts in the back of my books–but I usually get to choose them. Which brings me back to my earlier question. What should I choose? I’m turning to you for the answers!
How do you feel about excerpts, on websites OR in the back of the book? Do you read them? Avoid them? Do you always want to see the hero and heroine interacting in them, or are you just looking for a compelling part of the story? Do you prefer a love scene or would you rather see something else? And have you ever read an excerpt that made you NOT want to read a book?
49 Comments »
49 Responses to “Excerpted for Your Pleasure?”
Bronte on 06 May 2009 at 3:01 am #
Love excerpts!!!!! It gripes me no end when author’s don’t have excerpts on their site. If its an author I haven’t read before I now will not buy without 1. A recommendation and 2. A good excerpt. I do like to see the hero and heroine interacting in the excerpt but I actually prefer for it not to be a love scene. I have read excerpts that have made me not want to read a book – if its bland I’m not interested.
Ayse on 06 May 2009 at 3:31 am #
I like your page Sabrina. I’m always a big fan of the tabs with drop won menus… so easy to navigate. Love the tidbit section.
I like excerpts. If I was at a bookstore and wanted to try something new I would never buy a book that didn’t at least give me some idea of what its about.
I have had times when I’ve bought a book because the excerpt sounded good, but ended up not liking the book :-/
btw I totally love the pic
Lana on 06 May 2009 at 3:33 am #
I usually don’t read excerpts in the back of books (I’m too caught up in the end of the last story), but I do enjoy excerpts on the author’s website. The key is that they can’t be too long, and I pretty much always want to see the heroine and hero interacting – after all, the key aspect of a romance novel is that interaction. I do prefer that it not be a love scene (although, wow to the wed him excerpt!) because the love scenes usually rely on chemistry that’s been built up between the characters throughout the novel – taken out of context, they don’t have full power. Plus when you re-read them, they usually lose a little something as well…
I’ve occasionally read excerpts that made me not want to read a book. The style isn’t what I like; I’m just not interested; there are words like ‘punishing’ juxtaposed with ‘kisses’…
Ayse on 06 May 2009 at 3:41 am #
I also like it that excerpts let you know whose story is next in a series
Margaret A. Golla on 06 May 2009 at 5:33 am #
I really like you website–very clean and bright. Easy to navigate. Oops, I just caught a boo-boo, unless you meant it to do this, all the books listed under the Swanlea Spinster series are listed as Book 1.
Love excerpts. Keep them short. Attention wanders. Mmmm, coffee. Bye!
Margaret on 06 May 2009 at 5:39 am #
I had to stop and clean the steam off my monitor before I could do on. Mercy! What a fabulous duo picture. Whew!
The new site is wonderful, Sabrina. Easy to navigate and easy to find everything I might be looking for. Congratulations to your and your web designer. I got side-tracked as I had to read the day by day account of your fab trip to England. Now, I’m tired. I don’t know how you all crammed all that in to just a few days. You definitely have to go back.
Margaret on 06 May 2009 at 5:41 am #
Oh yeah. I like excerpts on web sites. And at the end of a book that gives me a peek into the next one. I prefer not to have sex scenes in those as I like them kept within the context of the story.
Kathy/Cookiedough on 06 May 2009 at 6:12 am #
I loved your excerpt! steamy! oh my.
I scrounge looking for all the excerpts I can find. I use them to decide on a new author.
If it’s an author I already follow, then the excerpt on the web site just wets my appetite for the book to come out.
Sometimes I go so far as to print them. it feels like I’m holding at last a part of the book.
Lisa H on 06 May 2009 at 6:27 am #
Sabrina,
I love your new website! I just read the part about Nick, very touching and informative. Your love and delight in him come through.
I LOOOOOOVE the picture for your inner cover. Sexy, and alluring. I just love your books and can’t wait to get this one.
Yes, I do read exerpts, but usually I wait until right before I am about to read the book. I tend to easily forget what I read.
Wishing you much success with “Don’t Bargain with the Devil”!
Pesky on 06 May 2009 at 6:36 am #
Love the site!
Sabrina Jeffries on 06 May 2009 at 6:38 am #
Lana, LOL about the “punishing juxtaposed with kisses.” Although that might make me READ a book. I still sometimes enjoy those old-fashioned romances. And I agree with you about the love scenes. I’ll sometimes put a kiss scene in an excerpt, but I generally don’t put as steamy a scene as this, because, as you say, taken out of context, it’s weird.
Margaret Golla, thanks for the catch. You have no idea how many times we’ve gone over this stuff and still, there are mistakes! Luckily, it takes five minutes to fix … at most. That’s the really thing about this site.
Margaret, that trip nearly killed me! But we had such a good time. We just tried to cram so much into it. We want to go back, to fit in all the stuff we didn’t see last time.
LoriHandeland on 06 May 2009 at 6:48 am #
I like excerpts anywhere. Especially for authors I haven’t read before. Sometimes I read them and sometimes I don’t, but I always like having the choice.
It doesn’t matter to me if both the hero and heroine are in the excerpt. Compelling is the name of the game here, I think. I always have a very hard time finding a part in the book that can stand alone, so I usually go with the beginning.
I always prefer something other than a love scene because to me, love scenes take a while to work up to and reading them out of context is disturbing.
I have read excerpts that made me not buy the book because I wasn’t captivated enough. But what captivates me and what captivates the next reader will always vary.
Margaret on 06 May 2009 at 7:02 am #
Sabrina, your writing of all the stairs you and hubby climbed on your trip reminded me of a trip another on-line friend and her DH took about 10 years ago. They went to Italy. Primarily Rome, I think. Her description of their touring was pretty much the same as yours. Lots and lots of stairs and climbing up/down them. Like your DH, she had bad knees. She said that trip was what made her finally decide to have knee replacement surgery. She loved the trip but was limited by her physical disability to stay with it for the 2 weeks. She had to ice her knees down every night.
Since then, I’ve also wondered how the disabled get around. TG for wheelchair access in the USA.
Karen Rose on 06 May 2009 at 7:21 am #
First, Sabrina, YES! Great website and you look truly divine. I love the pic of you and your DH when you were young. And thank you for writing about Nick.
As for excerpts, it depends on the book and the author. If it’s an auto-buy author for me, I generally don’t read the excerpt. If it’s a new author, an excerpt is a fine way to decide and I do read them on websites.
As for love scenes in excerpts, I like ‘em. Remember, though, when I go to buy a book, the love scene is the first thing I read. I’m pretty good at finding them as I stand there in the store. So, yeah, I like love scene excerpts!
I was very fortunate to have an excerpt of SCREAM FOR ME in Cosmopolitan magazine. When I got the news from my pub house, I was staying with some friends. I said, “I wonder which scene Cosmo will pick.” My friend’s DH gave me a duh kind of look. “Which one do you think?” he asked. I immediately blushed fire. “OH!” He was right. It was my Alex and Daniel love scene on the sofa. I got a lot of reader mail saying they’d discovered my books because of that excerpt.
So my vote is YES to love scene excerpts! And yours, Sabrina, was very hot. Gotta get the books.
nancyg on 06 May 2009 at 7:39 am #
Like Lori H., I like having the option on reading excerpts. If an author is an auto-buy, I won’t read them though – I like to be surprised and *discover* the story as it unfolds. It doesn’t matter to me whether the H/H are both in the scene as long as it ends with a good hook, but I prefer it *not* to be a love scene. Without reading the story and getting to know (and fall in love with) the characters, it just doesn’t do it for me.
I already know what to expect when buying different genres. One thing that chaps me is when male mystery/thriller authors insert a love scene and it’s just not quite right. Seems like they write for male readers only! I’d rather not have one at all, just an allusion to the consummation, than a poorly written one.
I’ll read back cover blurbs in the store if it’s a new author to me & I’m trying to decide whether to buy. I don’t like it when the back cover gives too much away – I’ll put it back on the shelf then.
I find I’m more critical of hardcover releases than paperback, since it’s a larger part of my entertainment/book budget being expended – I’m more willing to pick up a new author in paperback & give them a go.
Freshechelle on 06 May 2009 at 7:40 am #
The site looks really, really good and the excerpt was …. hubba hubba…..
On your photo page, I couldn’t figure out why you had a picture of Amanda Knox, the American girl accused in the suspicious murder in Italy. Eventually I realized it was a 24 yr old you.
Great job with the site, it’s got everything: your work, history of your work, your appreciation for the details in your work, great personal stuff so readers can feel like they know you.
Best of luck with it and with your upcoming book releases.
Louisa Cornell on 06 May 2009 at 7:40 am #
Love the new website, Sabrina ! It really has everything a reader would want to know. And the excerpt from the “Cousin Michael” book is FANTASTIC !!! I’ll go nuts before that book comes out. I have really enjoyed this series and I think it is some of your best work.
I do like excerpts on websites and at the front of the book or the back of the book. It gives you a taste of what’s to come. I prefer that they feature both the hero and the heroine. A love scene is fine as it shows the heat between the characters. But a funny scene or a fight scene does that too.
Louisa Cornell on 06 May 2009 at 7:41 am #
And I agree with Margaret !! That is one HOT picture to see first thing in the morning! Made my day!
Sabrina Jeffries on 06 May 2009 at 7:51 am #
LOL, Fresh, about the Amanda Knox thing. My publicist said that she would have guessed I was 16 from that pic and the guy with me was an old perv.
I thought that was really funny, since I was 24 and he was 30, and he was closer to my age than some of the other guys I’d dated (I dated a 30-year-old when I was 19–always went for older guys).
Thanks, Louisa, for the compliments on the books and site. In fact, thanks to all of you! You’re making me SOOO relieved.
I’m off now to buy a new computer. The ancient PC I write on finally gave up the ghost, so we’re off to the MAC store today. Be back later!
Ronlyn on 06 May 2009 at 7:58 am #
Love the artwork Sabrina. VERY hot!!! Love excerpts…especially if they leave me wanting more…and I can’t WAIT to get my hands on this book!
Ronlyn *who is now dashing off because the almost 2 year old just called ‘uh oh! Mama! No come here, I good boy!’* uh oh is right…..
Booklover1335 on 06 May 2009 at 8:02 am #
I like to read the excerpts especially if the new book is part of a series. I like the excerpt to include the hero and the heroine of the story, and don’t mind if it is a love scene or not, just as long as it is compelling without being misrepresentative of what the entire story will be like.
Rachel Gibson on 06 May 2009 at 8:06 am #
The site is great and you look fabulous.
rachel
JudyPatooty on 06 May 2009 at 8:10 am #
Love your new site, Sabrina! It (and you) look fantastic!
I generally don’t read excerpts unless it’s a new-to-me author and I just want to see if I like their style of writing.
I think I’m going to right-click and save the photo! Hot!
Deb Marlowe on 06 May 2009 at 8:27 am #
LOVE the new website! LOVE the excerpt–I’ll take a SJ hot scene any day of the week. LOVE the book!
I’m so excited I’m finally going to be able to TALK about the end of the Heiress series! I think I should get a reward for keeping my mouth shut!
LOL–you all know how hard that is for me.
Connie Hettler on 06 May 2009 at 8:37 am #
To me the excerpt of a book is similar to a movie trailer, I mean someone could tell you they heard a new movie was coming out, but once you see the trailer, you simply say – “Oh, I have got see that” – same with a really good excerpt. So, see now I have to read the book, of course, I would have anyway, but now I am all a tingle with anticipation.
Your website is fabulous and you look wonderful, good luck with the upcoming launch, and I am a guarantee sell I own all of your historical books, my basement could double as a used bookstore. (lol)
Madeline Hunter on 06 May 2009 at 8:45 am #
Love the new Web stie, SJ!!! Very fresh looking and lots to surf around in. Congratulations.
My only thought/advice about excerpts is to make sure they have the final title! My publisher once changed a title after the excerpt had been printed. I still get emails from readers asking where to find that book.
I have never been asked to chose my excerpts. Or allowed to. They just appear. I have had no complaints with them, though.
evlqn on 06 May 2009 at 8:46 am #
Sabrina, checked out your new digs. It was worth the wait. Congratulations!!
I love excerpts and always feel slightly ripped off if they are not somewhere, in the back of the book, on the website. somewhere, anywhere, just keep all of us book junkies up to speed!
BTW who is the cover artist?? Do you know?
elsiehogarth on 06 May 2009 at 10:40 am #
Sabrina, congratulations on the new website. I really like the colors: Blue, yellow and white. Very cheery. I really liked Viscount Norcourt’s Advice from a Rakehell.
I love excerpts and like the interaction of hero/heroine to be non-sexual. Maybe first meeting or even an argument. I also read the back, of the book, to get an idea of what the book is about and if it grabs my interest I will buy it.
colinfirthfan on 06 May 2009 at 10:44 am #
LOVE EXCERPTS!!!!! Have to go check out your website and the new excerpt. I hate it when there aren’t excerpts. Excerpts make me anticipate the books. mmmmmm….
(I have been wanting to post for awhile but had the kids home b’coz their school closed due to two probable cases of swine flu. My son’s school and daycare has reopened after 2 days. Woo Hoo!)
Teresa on 06 May 2009 at 10:50 am #
Nice new website Sabrina!
Excerpts are very important for me. The hero and heroine definitely need to be in the excerpt so that I can get a feel for their interactions. I also like to know what they look like (i.e. hair, eyes, height, curvy, etc.) and prefer long excerpts to shorter ones.
Very much looking forward to Don’t Bargain with the Devil and Wed Him Before You Bed Him.
Nicole Jordan on 06 May 2009 at 11:03 am #
Great website, Sabrina! And I agree, you look FABULOUS!
I read excerpts if I’m on the fence about buying a book. I like them best if they’re indicative of the tone of the whole book. Otherwise I want to be surprised.
Nicole Jordan on 06 May 2009 at 11:05 am #
Oh, and I cannot wait till C & M’s book! You’ve teased us long enough, although it’s a delicious sort of torment.
Julia London on 06 May 2009 at 11:23 am #
Ooooh, I have website envy now. Very nice, Sabrina, and you look mah-velous!
I read bits of excerpts to see if I like the writing style. I rarely read the whole thing, but if the writing in the excerpt grabs me, I’m interested in the book.
Kathleen O on 06 May 2009 at 11:40 am #
Sabrina I love your site. You are a new author for me. For a long time I was not reading any historicals save for my favs of all time. But I have got back into them again and I have seen you of course on this blog. I am going to get all of your Heiresses series and read them. They sound delightful and just a ‘bit’ naughty which I love.
To get to your question, I love to read the excerpts. That is what really draws me to the book and of course there has to be that enticing cover page!! That is usually the first thing that draws a reader. But the real telling for me is what is going on in the first page of the book. If it does not hold my attention the book goes back on the shelf. Those first few lines are so important. It has to draw the reader to want to get into the bones of the story.
Good luck with your new books and website.
Janae on 06 May 2009 at 11:40 am #
I adore excerpts! If I know an author has a book coming out soon, I check their websites for excerpts. I’ve read and not read books before because of excerpts. A good excerpt need not contain an interaction between the HH because it’ll give you a feel for what the book is going to be like. However, it’s a plus if it does.
Love the website! I wish I had more time this morning to explore it. I need to go to a local bead store this morning before I have to pick up my dd from school. I did get read what you wrote about Nick. Absolutely lovely!
I cannot wait to get your new books! They both sound very intriguing from the excerpts. I’ve read Don’t Bargain with a Devil’s excerpt more than twice now, and I’m sure I’ll be back to read Wed Him Before You Bed excerpt more than once, too.
EMMANUELLE JAPPONT on 06 May 2009 at 12:11 pm #
Congratulations again for your new website, I loved it !!
About the excerpts… well I just love / need them. The H/H absolutly need to be interacting. I hate it when the excerpt I’ve been waiting for weeks doesn’t involve both H/H. It doesn’t need to be a love scene, although I wouldn’t complain. Some scenes are so charged with sexual tension you don’t really need them doing the deed… excerpts are all about teasing after all …
Sabrina Jeffries on 06 May 2009 at 1:05 pm #
Wow, so many lovely compliments to come back to, after spending two hours at the Mac store. I’m sooooo tired. But I did get a lovely new Mac to replace hubby’s crappy PC, along with some other goodies. I’m delighted y’all like the site and the excerpt. Just remember that the excerpt is … er… edited to remove some slightly more explicit language. Not much, just a little.
Ronlyn, LOL about the 2-year-old! I hope he didn’t get into TOO much trouble.
Madeline, I feel your pain over the excerpt title. When Let Sleeping Rogues Lie came out, Pocket, through some weird twist, titled the excerpt of my novella for Snowy Night with a Prince with the WORKING TITLE of Let Sleeping Rogues Lie: Once a Rake, Always a Rake. I have errata on the website about it. Still, I regularly get e-mail about it. How did Pocket manage to do that? I don’t get it. Drives me nuts.
Judy, that cover is SO hot! I was thrilled when Pocket sent it to me.
Sabrina Jeffries on 06 May 2009 at 1:34 pm #
Deb, just remember you can’t talk about it for another month and a half or so (June 23rd). But I know what you mean–I want to talk about it SO bad. I’m not used to not being able to talk about the hero of an upcoming book. It’s killing me!
Kathleen, I do hope you’ll try the books and let me know what you think. Who ARE your favs of all time?
Thanks again to all of you for the congrats and compliments on the website. It means so much to me!
Cail on 06 May 2009 at 2:36 pm #
LOVE the new website!
i’m not generally an excerpt person. i’ll sometimes read them if the next book is coming soon. otherwise it’s too much of a tease, and i forget about it by the time it’s actually released. i think someone else mentioned they don’t read them if the break will be too long between books and i thoroughly agree. I sometimes read the excerpt when i know the book is coming out soon and want to get excited about it in advance.
I love the bit about Nick too. I was wondering if you were going to write about him in April for Autism awareness month.
Jocelyn on 06 May 2009 at 5:04 pm #
I’m one of those readers who, as soon as I’ve finished the book, wants the next one. So I absolutely adore excerpts. That said, if the next book isn’t yet completely written or edited, it may be better to leave an excerpt out. In a book that I will not name, I read an excerpt that basically gave the whole basis for the plot, but when the book came out the plot was completely different!
My mom, on the other hand, won’t read them. If she does, then picks up a book to consider buying it, the book seems too familiar and she thinks she’s already read the it…
Anyway, I am a fan of excepts and would love you to keep them coming.
Meg on 06 May 2009 at 6:16 pm #
Sabrina I LOVE the cover and inside art! Usually I don’t read ANY excerpts. It doesn’t matter where they are. But I have to say that I could not resist reading this one! And it was great how you could put up one without even hinting at who this man is! I am soooo anxious for this book! And after the day that I have had… Wow. You just made my day.
thanks.
TinaLouiseF on 06 May 2009 at 6:34 pm #
I like excerpts that tell me something about the story.
I do not care if one of the main characters is missing.
One excerpt that I read the other day did not give the title of the book, which I found to be very annoying.
By the way, I finally found Julia & Suzanne’s new books at Borders.
When I get home tonight, I’ll have to decide which to start first.
Lois on 06 May 2009 at 6:38 pm #
Well, I like excerpts, but basically on a site of an author that is new to me. . . or even new authors. . . I don’t always pay as much attention to those on sites of authors I always buy because, obviously, I’m going to read it anyway. LOL But I actually dislike reading the love scenes as excerpts – I want something more about the general plot; we know there will be love scenes, but I just want to see more about what the book is about to give me an idea as to whether or not I want to pick it up. Love scenes for me just don’t tell me anything, if that makes sense.
Lois
Sabrina Jeffries on 06 May 2009 at 9:28 pm #
You know, Lois, I’m the same way. If the author is one I already buy, I hardly ever read the excerpts. I read them to see if I’d like an author’s style. I have several books in my TBR by authors I never read, whose books I picked up solely because I liked their excerpts.
I do think it’s hard to have a love scene be the excerpt. In this case, it was hard to have anything ELSE be the excerpt. I didn’t want to give away so much that people were able to guess who Michael was. I wasn’t going to do an excerpt at all, actually, but then I realized that with a few tweaks that scene could suffice, so that’s why I put it up. But yes, I rarely have sex scenes as excerpts.
Sabrina Jeffries on 06 May 2009 at 9:31 pm #
Meg, I’m so glad you liked the cover and inside art! I just adore it.
Cail, I never know how much to write about Nick, to be honest. I don’t want to depress everybody by talking about autism all the time, but I do feel a need to educate people. So it’s a quandary.
Do y’all sense a pattern here? I’m always in a quandary!
And I’m so glad y’all are excited about the final two books of this series. I’m already starting with the release day jitters, and it doesn’t come out for another few weeks!
Pam P on 06 May 2009 at 11:06 pm #
The new site looks great, Sabrina. I may not go looking for excerpts for authors I always read, unless it’s a new series we don’t know much about, but it’s the first thing I look for when I first discover an author. I want to see if I like their voice and if they get my interest, some excerpts just pull you right in and convince you it’s a story you want to read. Usually those aren’t the love scenes, I want to see more about the characters and some chemistry (not just hot sex, lol, which doesn’t tell you much), like some scene with witty dialog between, or an emotional one, and/or something to do with any intriguing plot. I like to see an overall synopsis when a plot is crucial to the series along with excerpts.
Sonja Foust on 07 May 2009 at 7:54 am #
LOVE the new website! I think it’s a lot easier to navigate, especially on the index page. I really do like excerpts, and, now that I think about it, I guess I do prefer that both the hero and the heroine are in it. I don’t like reading excerpts of love scenes, though. Not sure why. Not helpful, I know.
crp on 07 May 2009 at 11:19 am #
I don’t read excerpts in books but I like reading theexcerpys on an author’s web site because it helps me plan my book buying001 or two months ahead of time.
Jamie on 08 May 2009 at 8:03 pm #
Love your new website. One of my favorite parts of a website is the list of books ESPECIALLY with the series connections to it. You do that wonderfully.
On that cover art. OMG!!!! Talk about sex on wheels with that picture. Where do you gals (or your publishers) find these pictures? My only fault is that the picture doesn’t always match the description of the heroine/hero – especially in the chest area. I do like a clean chest myself and most heroes are hairy. What is your personal preference?
On the excerpts — I like to read them. I think an excerpt should be something that makes you want to read the story even more. So – I say NO to the love scene and spoilers, but YES to the setting up what the story is about. I would like to see a scene with both of the characters normally. But in a case like Charlotte and Michael (which I CAN’T WAIT TO READ!!!) I think you can do Charlotte thinking about seeing him, what she thinks he looks like and all. To be honest, from the views that Michael has been an older man. I assume Charlotte feels the same way.