My beef with...

Avon - And what is it that they do to some authors?
They seem to suck the soul write out of them. I posted http://www.hwforums.com/2035/messages/23167.html recently on AAR in reply to someone’s comment on Lorraine Heath newest book and maybe because I’m bored to tears here at work and feeling guilty at even being on the internet during working hours but believe me, it there was anything I could do, I would do it, but I was in an angry frame of mind when I posted. But she is the perfect example of WHAT AVON DOES WRONG! They take the original author and replace them with pod author. They get rid of all originality, all imperfection, all things that made their stories and characters such a joy and so very memorable. Then, except for the odd medieval, they lay all their eggs in the (what I think of as) ‘historical’ basket. All their books take place within approximately a 50-year time span and only in London England, except for the odd country party. And except for the odd Lisa Kleypas hero, all the heroes are members of the ton. And even she succumbed to the pod when it turned out Nick Gentry the hero of Worth Any Price turned out to be a titled guy. Enough already. No more! Please, no more! And of course every hero is drop dead gorgeous. Have you ever seen pictures of the men in those days? Not attractive. They publish nothing outside of their tiny little box. Nothing, nada, zip! Even Susan Kay Law, the last hold-out Western writer is moving to historicals. There books are unrealistic. The book I just finished reading; Something About Emmaline wasn’t a bad book until the end. **SPOILER** Then wonder of wonders, surprise of surprises, the heroine turns out to be not the daughter of the highwayman but the daughter of a baron/earl/marquis/duke - I don’t remember which and I don’t care. And of course once this comes out, everything turns to sunshine and flowers and all is beautiful; forgetting the fact that the bio father left his pregnant, mad wife and never came back. When I read that I thought oh shit, why’d they do that? They sanitize their books to the point of unbelievablity; virgin widows, fake rakes, etc., etc. It sends me on such a sugar sweet overload I can’t handle it.I’m terrified of what they are going to do to Laura Lee Gurhke’s new book. For those who aren’t familiar, there is a husband and wife who have been mentioned in her last two books. They have lived apart for years and the husband anyway has been a very bad boy as relates to other women. Avon have a hero who cheats??? I can’t see it. Ms. Guhrke has recently switched to Avon and already I see her becoming more and more of a Avon pod author. This is the same author who wrote the wonderful book Connor’s Way about an Irish convict who moves to America not to long after the civil war and becomes a boxer. Would Avon publish such a story.? Not bloody likely. And another book Breathless; the story or a divorced woman who works for a living in very early 1900's mid America. Again, I can’t see Avon publishing such a book. I LIKE variety in my books. I LIKE imperfection in the hero and heroine. I have slowly given up on all Avon authors with the exception of two, Lisa Kleypas and Laura Lee Gukrhe. Until they show signs of originality, Avon will only get about 15 bucks a year out of me.
Avon wasn't always this bad, but the aliens took over their publishing planet.