I was thrilled to see Engaging the Earl hit some exciting highs this month.

The fourth book in my Accidental Peers series made it to number one in Historical Regency Romance and Romance Series. Thanks to all of my readers for making this happen. You guys are the best!

And to my new readers, who were enticed (by the $.99 sale price) to take a chance on a new-to-you author, I truly appreciate it! As always, I love to hear from readers, so let me know what you think.

Amazon says its ebook sales rose a whopping 70 percent in 2012, but sales of traditional “treebooks” rose just 5 percent in December, the lowest growth rate ever in the online retailer’s 17-year history as a book seller.

In a statement, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said, “We’re now seeing the transition we’ve been expecting. After 5 years, eBooks is a multi-billion dollar category for us and growing fast.” Amazon also says its total customer count is now over 200 million.

Just because print sales are way down at Amazon, that doesn’t necessarily mean treebooks are on their way out. At the New Jersey Romance Writers conference in October 2012, a panel of editors from major traditional publishing houses said overall ebook sales seemed to be leveling off and they expected regular treebooks to be around for a while.

You can read more about it in this article from Publishers Weekly.

Publishers Weekly is reporting Amazon will bid to acquire the assets of Dorchester, a publishing house which has been in financial trouble for more than two years.

According to PW, if the deal goes through, Amazon will pay all outstanding royalties owed to Dorchester authors. Amazon would acquire 1,900 active titles in many of the genres it already publishes in, including romance and westerns.

PW quotes Amazon as saying its authors will have a choice as to how they want their books published going forward. The final auction is on August 28.

According to PW,  the auction process was triggered by the owner of Dorchester’s parent company, who is owed $3.4 million. The publisher has struggled in the aftermath of the drop in demand for mass market paperbacks.

Dorchester’s troubles have been frustrating for authors and their agents, who’ve struggled to get owed royalties since their titles have continued to sell. Many authors have unsuccessfully attempted to get their rights reverted back to them.