I accidentally turned this post into a draft yesterday or the day before.  Sorry.  Amazon bestseller rankings fluctuate fast, especially with all the free books being downloaded, so these screen shots have changed.  One additional nugget: The contemporary romance list has been taken over by indie authors, both paid and free lists. How much money as publishing lost? Probably a lot.  How much money have authors put in their pockets?  Probably a lot.  (Yaaaaay!)

Some indie author primo advice mavens such as Konrath say bestseller lists don’t mean booty, but they sure are fun!

I’m trying to get an AA list on Heart’s Desire.  I’ve been trying for weeks.  Just sent another e-mail.  They say they allow an author to choose two categories, but they added the free Kindle as a non-removable category which left me one.  Only one category that I can classify this book in?  It’s a problem because my characters are black, and there are special subgenre categories under African American  for books by black authors with black characters.  These books have readers looking for these particular books.  I want those readers to find my book.  The lists are far smaller, so HD will appear far closer to the top.  I want to be at the top of a list. Publishers have special AA departments with people paying attention to what is doing well in that niche.  If an author is noticed doing well, it could be a good thing for that author.  I want money.  These are the reasons why I’d want HD in an AA category.

But Heart’s Desire is a contemporary romance. If I was of any other race, I’d put my book in the category of its genre, no matter what the race of its characters.  So FUCK IT ALL, I put HD pack in contemp romance.  I guess the lists aren’t that fun for me after all, dammit.

Right now, it’s 54 in contemporary romance, trending down to the 70s or so.  But the cool thing is I’m next to Nora Roberts!  See, here’s a screen shot to prove it.  Whoo-hooo, Nora.  Yeah, I’m aware the paid list is an apple compared to the orange of the free list, but still.

Brenda Jackson has been on the top 100 in romance forever with her free book, Irresistible Forces.  I downloaded it when it was in the top 100 in free Kindle books, but haven’t read it yet.  It does not have a black person on the cover, but has a flower.  Is this one reason why so many were downloaded?   Who knows?! She is number 24 in contemporary romance, on page two.   I only screenshot page 3, because that’s me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not the only AA author on page 3 either.  I spy Sylvia Hubbard.  Congrats, Sylvia!  In light of all the darker romance editing hubbub recently, Sylvia lists her editor on the product page!  She doesn’t have an AA category either.  I will email Sylvia for Twitter lessons because she’s truly awesome there in contrast to my social media lameness.  Generous too, so I know she’ll give me some tips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If most AA romance authors didn’t exclusively put books in only AA categories on Amazon, how would we affect the majority romance bestseller lists?  Brenda Jackson has a paid Kimani romance in the top 100 that isn’t released yet.  It will be on fire once it’s out.  It’s on page 5 of the paid list, and I notice it’s listed not only in contemp romance but in MC and AA romance too.  So it’s possible to get those added categories in order to see oneself really high up on at least some bestseller lists.  These are all of my sisters who are on the top 100 in contemp romance.  Most publishers and indie authors put their books in the AA categories for the advantages of the niche.

I went and looked at Adrienne Byrd’s and Maureen Smith’s top sellers and they aren’t categorized in Contemp Romance, or in Maureen’s case, paranormal romance.  They are categorized by race only in AA and/or MC.  If these and other authors were added to their genre lists and not categorized by black race, I bet they’d be making the Amazon genre romance lists quite a bit darker.  That would be interesting to see.

 

 

 

 

Read More

I was sick all last week with the plague. Ick. Okay, it probably was a cold or flu, but it was awfully snotty.

What was worse is that the plague sidelined me going through this story, which I like a lot, but I wrote it from my head directly to the page. This means it’s a godforsaken mess. I need to get to it, and that is going to delay my newsletter. It’ll be next month, okay?

The freebie first book of the series is dropping in ranking on Amazon, but I think it’s doing quite well for what it is. What’s good is that the other books in the series, the ones I make money on, are picking up sales, as planned.

I have new covers for my Eastman series and it is being re-edited! UPDATE:I wrote a new post on editing and decided it was better to combine it with this post.

I wanted to get my e-books up on the major online retailers by Christmas.  To do this, I rushed. I also had no money.  So, I made my own covers, and went over the scans myself (why the hell all the dropped periods?).  I was cross-eyed and exhausted, but the books were posted and I was mostly satisfied with them.  (These books were published by Harlequin).

But now, that I have the money to invest in professional editing and more professional covers (a subjective judgment), I’m doing it.

The process is just starting and will probably take several months to get all the books done.  I am stunned at what I missed, but anybody could.  A writer does not an editor make.  It’s a separate skill.  Often, I see what I expect/want to see, not what is really there.  Our brains outrun our eyes.

The editing is costing me a frickin’ fortune (and that is with a generous price break and payment arrangements out of the kindness of their heart-thank you), but I’m sure it’ll be worth every penny.

Self-published authors should really think about making an investment in their work in this way.

I have been reading and buying more IR romance, and occasionally I’m horrified at the amount of errors.  In one instance, although I felt the story had promise, I simply couldn’t get through it, solely because of the errors.  Even books that I liked and would recommend are riddled with errors.  These books are being priced higher and higher.  IMO, authors should reinvest their earnings back into their books, especially if they didn’t have the money at first–if they want to appeal to romance readers across the board and be taken seriously.

Take the time and money to reinvest in your work.  In my opinion, it’s necessary to break out to the next level.

 

Read More