Saturday, May 18, 2013

If Ranting Is What Works



If you’re a romance and/or erotica author with a Twitter feed that you’ve looked at more than once over the past couple of days then you’re likely to have seen people discussing some author moves that seem – when looked at with a skeptical eye and then passing that skeptical eye over to the Amazon rankings – a little suspect. The words ‘publicity stunt’ got tossed around and it’s hard to disagree with those voices. I won’t mention the authors here; I don’t know them, I’d never heard of them before this weekend, I’ve never read their books and I have no idea if the books are good, the voices are valid or what their motivations are. But for a new-ish author with a book she’s really proud of that’s doing alright but hardly burning it up the Kindle charts, it’s hard not to feel defeated.

I’d taken to Twitter and Facebook to say, can’t we just write good books, put them out there and hope for the best? But really, that answer is naïve. Every author knows that you have to do some degree of promotion and, unless you’re in the upper echelons of writer fame, that promotion falls almost entirely on the author’s own shoulders.

So no, an author cannot just write her book and hope for the best. She must promote it. But the question is how? How to promote? And it seems that at least two writers this weekend, either intentionally or not, have stumbled upon a good way. Put a rant up on a blog… and then watch the fallout ensue and your sales rise.

It is all well and good for me to stick my nose in the air, call myself an artiste and say I do it all for the sake of art and don’t care about the money. But first, I don’t know that I’d deign to call my work art. That seems really egotistical. I don’t know if it’s art, I just know I like it, that I strove to make it the best it could be and hoped others would find enjoyment from reading it. Second – and not to get too Les Mis on you – there are indeed children at home and the children have got to be fed. I’m not above a little hype if it’s gonna mean the hours I spent on my book are going to pay off.

But the truth is, I just can’t bring myself to fake something. And I’m not bashing those who did, if that was indeed their angle. It’s brilliance in its own way, if annoying to the rest of us. I am just really enjoying living my life as truthfully as possible. So I can’t.

Here’s my truth. I wrote a book. It’s called For Her Pleasure. It’s as dirty and depraved and funny and smutty and well edited and well written as I could possibly make it. I had a blast writing it. It was a total joy.

Should you buy it now because it will be gone tomorrow? No. Do I secretly hate you if you like it? Certainly not, quite the opposite.

Is this post going to stir things up in the blogosphere out there and boost my sales?? Probably not. But I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon… and give it a shot.

5 comments:

  1. I've read the author in question-she's done a big flip flop the past few months. In a fan chat she vowed she would never write explicit sex scenes and yet a month or two later publishes a book with said sex scenes. She was always known as a writer who skirts around the sex scenes or mentions it and it's up to you imagine what happened. When her book The Wild Ones was bought by Berkley, she added new material. That new material were sex scenes not in the original book.

    Shame on her if she truly did it for a marketing ploy. Here's the thing-if in fact she's receiving hate email, etc then she needs to take a good look at her beta readers or early reviewers and get people with a fresh set of eyes who have the balls to tell her what works and what isn't. I know of at least one blog that gives her solid 5 star ratings no matter what because they are friends with her and want to boost her ratings.

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    1. I really can't comment about the author or her editing process since I don't know her or her books. What I can say is that I would hope anyone who writes sex into their books does so with pride and with passion and with joy. If you make money off it, great. If not, you had the pleasure of writing. But to do so and then say, ha, this stuff is just smut and I was only doing it to make money shames the people who bought it, the other authors who write it authentically and the author herself.

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    2. Oh, almost forgot... thanks for commenting! I appreciate hearing your thoughts.

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  2. Replies
    1. Aw, why thank you Cheryse. I try to keep things classy. Wait a sec, what am I talking about? No I don't! Cock, pussy, blowjobs, cum.... Phew. There. Now I feel better. ;)

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