I did a thing. Not sure if it counts if it was completely on accident. When I sent out my initial ARC notices a bunch of people wanted physical ARCs. I decided to offer ten. I finally got the paperbacks in and had them packed and ready to mail. I realized I had packed up an ARC for the reporter who wants to interview authors for her magazine and podcast. Oops, I quickly gathered my press release, one sheet, and some book club questions, I packed them up with a copy of my book and a personal note. This left me with one more ARC copy all packed up and ready to go and no ARC reader for it.
I made a Facebook post. I said, “I have an extra ARC physical copy, first person to fill out my ARC form and give me their mailing address will get it.” I added a picture of the mailers ready to go and went to bed. My months of posting for ARC readers had netted thirty-seven ARC readers. That’s how many responses I had when I went to bed. When I woke up, I had eighty-freaking-four!
Please, if you fill out an ARC form, follow the directions. When I checked for the first person, I had to go down to the fourth person on the list because the first three didn’t put their address. When I looked at all of the comments and chatter everyone was very excited about the mailers. They are black with shiny red lips like kisses on them. I got them because I wanted something dramatic and romantic to match my romantic suspense novel. I didn’t realize they would be so exciting. Let’s call this marketing lesson number one: an attractive image and a sense of urgency, only one available, equates a frenzy.
Since I only had one physical ARC to give, I felt bad so many people were interested and left hanging. I wanted to figure out a way to keep them interested and not feel left out. I came up with three ideas.
1. Make my website into an e-commerce site. Then offer a huge discount on my book for everyone who missed the ARC. I had to quickly figure out how to do all of that. My website is hosted by GoDaddy and it’s fairly simple to navigate. They have video and written instructions that are very helpful. I sent an email with a discount coupon code especially for those who didn’t get the one copy. More than 50% off.
2. Have a giveaway for all reviewers. I had to quickly work out how I wanted to do this. I sent an email to everyone who filled out my ARC form overnight to tell them about this. I'm having a drawing for all reviewers on December 31, 2023. They just need to post a review and tag me or send me a screenshot so I know they posted a review; I will enter them automatically. The prize is a Book Box. (Google it they’re pretty cool.)
3. Finally, I wanted to still offer them a free ARC. I sent them the BookFunnel code for my ARC.
When I woke up today, the number of people who signed-up was at ninety-four. That seems like a crazy high number for an ARC. However, I’ve only gotten five reviews out of my original thirty-seven reviewers. It’s more than the average ten percent, but it’s nowhere near enough. Because they all post in different places, there’s only one on Amazon.
I've sold nine books on IngramSpark so far. That’s two in Germany, one in England, and six in the US. I am officially an international author! Another marketing thing that sounds more important than it is, but I’ll take any help I can get. I think my total royalties for my launch is about fifteen dollars. It’s going to take forever to pay back everything I invested in this adventure. It won’t slow me down. I’m still going to write more books and publish them. It seems most successful (able to support themselves) authors start seeing some steady income around the fourth book they publish.
December 31st is going to be a busy day. In addition to my drawing for a reviewer, I signed up for a Party Room event. I have to make three posts. Two interactive and one with a giveaway. The most difficult part is going to be making sure I get the time right. It’s in a different time zone than mine. I’ve triple checked and it’s only one hour behind me, I think I have it marked on my calendar correctly. Oh, and I can’t forget about it and be a no show.
Fasten your seatbelt, complete switch of topic. I’ve been thinking about some comments I’ve gotten regarding the sex scenes in my book. Some said it’s not spicy enough. Some said there isn’t enough of it. I disagree with the quantity; I think it has quite a bit. This is a young couple, in a new relationship, so they do it a lot. I didn’t write about every intimate moment they had, but it was implied there were off page encounters. Plus, it’s not about that. It’s a Romantic Suspense, emphasis on the suspense.
With regards to the not spicy enough comment. Here’s where I am with spice level. There is a trend of violence and abuse during sex in romance books. I don’t like that. Not because I’m prude or judging anyone else’s joy, but for very personal reasons. To me, that behavior is not love, it’s not even fun. The ‘hand around her throat' during sex being, for lack of a better word, glorified scares me. Are we possibly raising girls to think abuse is, okay? It’s not just books, it’s music and film too. I am by no means saying don’t write it or don’t read it, just that it’s not for me.
I also worry, when it’s everywhere being touted as the normal behavior of every person in a loving relationship, that we may be subliminally teaching young women to be victims, and like it. If that’s the case, it scares me. I mean, has anyone checked if the accidental suffocation death rate has increased with this trend?
With all that said, I will NEVER think my feelings on this need to be forced on anyone else. Any consenting adult is free to love who and how they want IMO. They are most certainly free to enjoy every kink trope they like as much as they want. I don’t DNF if I accidentally come across choking in a book, a good book is a good book. However, I do carefully check trigger warnings for that and r@pe/sexual ass@ult. I will generally put a book with those triggers back on the shelf. I’m sorry if my feelings offended anyone, it wasn’t intentional. I'm just taking my first amendment rights out for a spin.
What are your thoughts on the rise of this type of tale? Do you think it could be a dark path for some girls? Do you love it and think my opinion sucks? You can contact me through my website or comment your thoughts below.
As always, thank you for reading!