ancy Friday’s Beyond My Control is a follow-up to her groundbreaking 1973 book My Secret Garden, which detailed real women’s sexual fantasies that they had shared with the author through letters and video-recorded interviews. My Secret Garden was a groundbreaking book at the time, though today you might find an average issue of Cosmopolitan to be more risqué. Its depictions of female sexual fantasies, which included rape, lesbian sex, and extremely explicit and specific desires, served to prove both that women have fantasies, and that their fantasies are just as colorful, intricate, and transgressive as male sexual fantasies. As mundane as this idea may appear today, it was both liberating and eye-opening at the time of its debut. Thirty years after its publication, Beyond My Control picks up where it left off.

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hanks to Dominique Raccah, Sourcebooks CEO, for this.

n the ongoing debate about the pricing and release dates of e-books, Dominique Raccah, CEO of Sourebooks, is voicing her opinion.  The debate was recently sparked by Sourcebook’s decision to wait to release the e-book version their popular title Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse until after the hardcover copy’s release.  She is of the opinion that a model for publishing in which an author and publishers can actually be sustained by their book sales needs to be developed, and she doesn’t think this is possible when e-books are priced at $9.99.

This raises a question for me.  In fact, during a recent Q&A panel at CBC University I asked Dominique if e-book are cheaper to produce than printed books, and her answer was startlingly vague.  So I’ll pose my question again.  Are e-books as expensive to produce as printed books?  It seems to me that they must not be.

In any case, you can read her full article on the subject over at Booksquare.

I know this for a fact, because I’ve heard their CEO, Dominique Raccah speak. She’s all for e-books, and recently she just teamed up with Smashwords, a young company that produces DRM-Free e-books, to release 14 DRM-Free romance novels under their Casablanca imprint. The best part? At $6.99, they’re cheaper than amazon will sell them.

atiebabs at Babbling About Books, and More, interviews Dave, a publicist from Sourcebooks on what his job entails.  His response?  Lots and lots of research.

Headlining Time Out Chicago’s Books section this week is Jonathan Messinger’s review of Another New Calligraphy, a new independent and very small press run out of Chicago.

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was lucky enough to attend the Chicago Book Clinic’s “University,” a.k.a. day-long seminar, this week.  The meeting was in Glenview and was comprised of five different seminars and lectures that had to do with publishing (in various ways).  The event was in Glenview, so I hopped the Metra, walked through a bit of suburbia (where they apparently don’t believe in sidewalks) to get there. ¶ View In Entirety… →

he Horrid Henry series is for children, and each book contains four short stories with illustrations by Tony Ross. Horrid Henry is a little boy who is constantly getting into trouble, and can’t seem to get along with anyone around him. I got the chance to read four of Simon’s books, which equaled twenty-eight short stories about Henry attempting to get what he wants, often by throwing tantrums and exasperating his parents and friends. ¶ View In Entirety… →

Publishers Weekley reported this morning that Sourcebooks, Naperville superstar, has expanded their New York and Connecticut office.  They’ve added three employees in New York one and a half employees in Connecticut, bringing their total number of employees up to 75.  We’d like to offer our congratulations and our compliments on their fantastic work.

…if you fill out this five-question survey.  The coupon lasts for the entire month of May.  Perhaps you could use it to check out Delectable Desserts, or Beyond My Control, selected for our April 2009 Featured Books from Chicago Publishers.

“There’s a dessert for every family, every season, and every occasion in Delectable Desserts, a charming collection of more than 250 classic, sweet, and sugary dessert recipes, organized by month of the year.

“Warm up with Apple Bread Pudding in January, welcome spring with Brandied Peach Mousse in April, perfect your pies in August, and get cozy with Ginger Cookies and Carrot-Pumpkin Cake in November. There’s a sweet and seasonal delight for every family and every occasion in this charming collection of classic desserts.

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“Thirty-five years ago, Nancy Friday became one of history’s most controversial figures and helped launch the sexual revolution with the groundbreaking mega-bestseller, My Secret Garden, exploring for the first time in the public arena the true nature of women’s sexual fantasies.

“The revolutionary and renowned journalist is now releasing Beyond My Control: Forbidden Fantasies in an Uncensored Age, the much anticipated follow-up to My Secret Garden that reveals the next level of sexual fantasy as it exists today for both men and women: the forbidden, the unmentionable, the controversial.

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he news keeps pouring in about Sourcebooks. To promote their popular children’s series Horrid Henry, Sourcebooks is teaming up with Books Are Fun/Imagine Nation Books to send 125,000 Horrid Henry books into classrooms across the U.S on April 1, 2009. The book made a splash in the UK, selling 12 million copies and spawning a TV show. At the back of each book is information that kids can use at http://www.jabberwockykids.com/ to get a free Horrid Henry chapbook and poster.

n case you were interested in purchasing any of our four featured titles from Sourcebooks (Unfinished Clue, A Seat at the Table, To Serve them all My Days, and Moonflower and the Pearl of Paramour) or any other titles from them, they’re offering free shipping this week as a St. Patty’s Day deal. Just use the code SPSBFS09 with your order.