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.
