Quacking Alone

In today’s economy most of us are on budgets that are beyond tight.  Never have we needed hope, optimism and a belief in the future more.  And never could we afford it less. 

Traditionally published romances average around $7.99 and new releases by some publishers top the $12 mark.  If you’re trying to make a house payment and keep your lights on – how can you justify spending that money for a book?  Most of us can’t these days.  We simply can’t. 

Yet you can pick up many indie romances for as little as 99 cents.  I published The Duke of Eden on Amazon as a serial before I finished the full.  There are 3 parts of the serial up at Amazon.  Each sells for 99 cents and the full sells for $2.99.  It’s easier to pick up the book in 1 installment, but if your budget won’t allow it, then pick it up a piece at a time.  Most writers who sell serial stuff only put out little chunks, a chapter or so at a time, making the whole book much more expensive than just buying a regular novel. 

I didn’t do that.  I put out big chunks of Duke and only charged 99 cents for each.  And when I published the full for $2.99, I left the serial up, even though it costs me higher priced sales of the full.  Why?  Because I get it. I’m with you.  I understand.  I’m in the same place you are with my budget and I refuse – I absolutely refuse- to unpublish the lower priced option.

Many folks haven’t tried indie romance.  Somehow, they consider indie work to be inferior and unworthy.  Or that’s what they’ve heard, anyway.  Well, in today’s economy when traditional publishers don’t consider your bottom line, maybe this is the best time to give indie romance a shot.  Lord knows, the news is full of gloom and doom.  Creditors are calling, nasty letters come in the mail and many of us are paying bills in chunks.

More than ever, people need regular doses of the kind of hope, optimism and happy endings that they get from romance novels.  Remember the old commercials that talked about “Miller time?”  Well – it’s INDIE TIME. 

Most indie romance sells for $2.99 or less.  You can pick up A Faerie Fated Forever for free at almost every ebook site on the planet right now.  Don’t let the high prices charged by traditional publishers deprive you of the hope and optimism that helps fuel you to keep on keeping on until it gets better.  And it will.  We all know it will. 

By the time things improve, I hope that indie romance has become your first choice.  Indie authors are doing some of the best, most creative, most cutting edge work out there. Once you go indie, you may not want to go back.

And why should you?

There’s a thread the indie authors at the KDP Forum have been watching.  It’s a Kindle thread about hating indie authors – and no, I’m not linking it here.  Some of the posters are hoping that Amazon will ban indie writers.  I doubt that will happen, not just because Amazon makes a lot of money from indies, but because I think Amazon realizes that a varied marketplace is the best fit for a varied world.

Some folks like indies and some don’t.  That’s fine.  If you don’t like indie authors, you shouldn’t buy our work.  Fair enough.  I have no right to force my indie books on someone who prefers traditionally published work. But banning indies?  The group has no more right to deprive others who like indie work of it than I do to force them to read it.  Respect is a two-way street folks.

But reading that thread and then reading some of the reader comments on some of my work have caused me to go back and check a couple of things.  There are comments talking about grammatical errors and misspellings through a couple of my books.  I’ll fess up to needing to fix Brotherly Love in which I kept spelling lose (as in my mind) with loose (as in my accounting methods). 

But the other books referenced?  There’s a comment talking about all the typos and spelling errors in A Golden Forever.  I ran back over that one, and couldn’t find the errors.  However, I ran across several sections where I’d used colloquial phrases or people who spoke differently.  In those sections the spelling is different.  But I really know that scared isn’t spelled scairt. I just spelled it the way the character spoke. 

There are a bunch of places where I write the way the work flows and sometimes that’s not grammatically correct.  But my B.A. is in English.  I underestand grammar and (mostly) I even remember the rules when I write. But I don’t let ‘em fence me in. Sometimes. I don’t like. Fences, rules or people who. Avidly. Support. Either. 

There are surely misspellings in my work.  But I’m going to make it my mission to re-edit everything and to run it through a neat site that checks spelling, grammar, style and punctuation.  I’ve made enough on my e-books to finance that, and I’ll do it because I don’t want any of my “human errors” to keep people from enjoying my books.

Having said all that, I realize that there are readers who won’t like my work for reasons as wide and as varied as today’s virtual bookshelves.  Most of the time I write over the top and take it way past what readers anticipate or expect.  For stretches in my books a lot of the “action” is internal – a conflict a character is having with himself or herself.  I enjoy mind hopping. It’s one of the reasons I read romance instead of watching it on TV – I don’t just want to know what happenned, I want to know why it happenned.  Why it HAD to happen. 

Some readers don’t like it as far over the top as I write it.  Fair enough.  Some readers love the trip and email me asking about the next journey.  Love that.  I’m gonna do the additional editing I can do and then have ErrNET follow behind to catch what I miss.  But the editing site will see some style choices as errors and I’ll disagree and leave them in, just as they are. The style has to stay true to the work.

There are people who don’t like any indie work.  Others just don’t like my work. And there are some wild, free spirited readers who’ll go over the top with me and yell because I didn’t take ‘em higher. You’ll forgive me if I’m just a bit more partial to the last group.

Fences can only confine you if you stay on the ground and refuse to climb to see how high you might go.  And if you keep climbing, you might get to the top and jump off to find that you can fly.  I’ll meet you there – flying over rules and reality, over borders and boundaries, past can’t and must. 

If you’re grounded in reality and rooted by rules, then my work isn’t for you. You won’t like it no matter how it’s edited or formatted.  If you’re a dreamer who opens a new reality with each book then you might like the view from over the top. I’m always happy to fly with readers who have spirits big enough and open enough and wise enough to know that limits are only figments of our imagination.

Yesterday, about suppertime (dinnertime if you’re not Southern), our internet connection got restored after a full day’s absence.  In my ecstatic, gluttonous boogling around the internet after supper, I ran across The Romance Reader’s list of the Top 100 Romance Novels.   It makes for fascinating reading. 

The list was composed from reader’s nominations of over 1500 books by over 500 authors.  The books with the most votes made the list, which actually contains 109 books because there were several ties.  Although there appears to be a variety of books, the first thing that impressed me was further evidence of how loyal readers are to their favorite authors. 

I noted that several writers appear over and over again.  For example, the first book on the list is “Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon.  Four of her other books made the list.  I’ve got to say, I disagree with “Outlander” being anywhere in the Top 100.  I don’t like the book.  I picked it up a few months back as a free read and made it all the way through, certain that at the end there would be some kind of amazing happy ending to make all the misery between the lead couple worthwhile.  It didn’t happen.  I hear that there is some sort of HEA for the lead couple in a later book, but that’s not good enough. If there’s no HEA, then in my book, it’s not a romance.

Again, Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Linda Howard appear several times and I heartily agree with both.  Linda Howard’s “Dream Man” has a permanent place on my keeper shelf as does Phillips “It Had to Be You” – and her whole Chicago Stars series.  I love both of those books, but I don’t think either one should be at the top. Other authors who appear a number of times are Julie Garwood (Love her stuff “The Secret” lives on my keeper shelf), Judith McNaught (“Whitney, My Love” also lives with me), Nora Roberts, Georgette Heyer, Amanda Quick, LaVyrle Spencer and Mary Jo Putney. 

For me,  the #1 Romance should be a tie between Kathleen Woodiwesses’ “The Flame and The Flower” and Johanna Lindsey’s “Gentle Rogue.”  That was one of my first thoughts when I saw this list.  It led to the BIGGEST SHOCKER OF THE LIST – NONE OF LINDSEY’S MALLORY NOVELS MADE THE LIST AT ALL.  Only 1 of Ms. Lindsey’s books made it – a scifi romance called “Warrior’s Woman” which I’ve never read and which only came in at #68, tied with a bunch of others.

Who were the readers voting for this list?  In my book, James Mallory, from “A Gentle Rogue” is the perfect romance novel hero and the Mallory series taught me how series romance should be done.  Ms. Lindsey was robbed, I tell you, robbed.

My second shocker dealt with another of my favorites series romance writers – Julia Quinn.  NONE of her books made the list.  None.  Hello? What was in the Kool-Aid these people were drinking?

 My final and happiest shock from the list?  How very few of the books were “paranormal.”  There was no horde of vampires, zombies or werewolves – Hallelujah.  The absence of large numbers of these books from the list gives me hope for the future of our genre. 

Mind you, I do think that more contemporary romance should make the list.  My WIP is a contemporary as are 2 of my others (Griffin’s Law and The Billionaire’s E-mail Seduction).  The next time anyone puts together a Top 100 list I hope it contains few to no werewolves, zombies or vampires and features a lot more contemporaries.

Peruse the list and let’s be grateful to the good folks at The Romance Reader for putting it together- even if none of my books made it either.

I love historical romance. The news around us is so very grim. Our economy has been down for so long that it keeps dragging us down with it.  So many people are unemployed, underemployed or working two or three jobs to survive. The worse today gets, the more tempting historical romance looks.  In trying times historical romance is an oasis from the desert of reality.  I get that. I really, really get that. 

But you know what I think too many people forget, overlook or don’t realize? Contemporary romance done right provides the same kind of escape. It may provide an even better escape. Think about it.  We can see our world, our time in new and exciting ways by reading contemporaries.  Contemporaries remind us that times can get better, will get better.  They can even inspire us to change some things we’re doing in order to make our reality a better place to live.

So, let’s hear it for contemporary romance.  

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In MaryAnneia people, places and things have personalities.  Sometimes they’re happy, sometimes they’re sad and sometimes they’re just in a mood to piss me off.  Yes, Virginia, things have issues too. Or at least – my things do.

For example, take my office computer – please.  Nah, I guess I’ll keep it.  In fact, some days, I’d fight you for it.  Others, I’d throw it across the parking lot and dance on its digital corpse.  I have a love/hate relationship with the thing.  In the morning, it doesn’t want to wake up from its long nap. I don’t either, so I sympathize. By the time she’s up and perking, I’m mighty glad to have her help.  But she’s a drama queen.  When I’m heads down on a deadline, focused on whatever words I’m writing at the time, most of my attention is not on the machine. And the machine doesn’t like that. So she’ll throw up a weird error or suddenly, for no apparent reason, Word, Outlook, or Practice Advantage will die.  I’ll yell at her and Glenda, my co-worker in the next office, will chuckle and encourage me to teach the PC who is the boss.  (I pretend I am).

My car - a little red P.T. Cruiser – is my baby.  Like a baby, sometimes she gurgles and purrs and boogles right along. And sometimes she doesn’t.  I often stroke her and encourage her. But sometimes I yell – like when I know the idiot in the other lane is trying to speed up to get in front of me. “Don’t let the jackass in, P.T., I’ll scream.”

Don’t get me started on my ice maker.  It exists to aggravate me.  It’ll be churning right along and then, for no reason, it refuses to sweep out the ice cubes so that more water can pour in.  Or cubes get stuck half in and half out of the sweeper.  And there I’ll be, with whatever kitchen implement I can grab, pouring or poking or prodding. All the while, I’ll be inventing new vile names for the beast until my 14-year-old, Sam, yells in, “You tell it, Mom.”

It hadn’t occurred to me how much of MaryAnneia has crept into my books until I read a reader comment. 

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I’ll blog about this later but for now – a teaser.

My books present a world I’ve created. Whether its Regency England, the old West, Scotland, or today’s America, if it’s in my book it’s that time period done my way. History is always the backdrop for the story, characters might say or do anything, the hero will fall bat-bug crazy in love and there will be a happy ending.

Are you bold enough to travel over the top with me? Check out my Complete List Of Books and pick up one (or all of ‘em) and find out if you’re game enough to drop your perception of reality and believe in an over-the-top kind of happily ever after.

Recently, I ran across this interesting piece from Joy Online written by John Boakye of The Mirror. It asks whether the reader believes in love at first sight.  As a romance novelist, I find the question very intriguing.  The author of the piece, Mr. Boakye,  suggests that we express and experience love “based on our cultural background, age, sex, education and life experiences.”

Mr. Boakye recounts his own experience of falling in love at first sight with the lady he later married.  He says he was driving along a road when he saw a tall, beautiful lady standing by the side.  It affected him so strongly that he drove into a ditch and amongst the people who came to help was the beautiful lady.  She said that she’d felt the same sensation when she first saw him.

The piece describes love at first sight as feeling that you’ve met “the most romantic person on earth” and you’ll do anything and everything to capture his attention. You see the person as “flawless,” are full of happiness and joy when they’re around and will follow him anywhere.  This person came straight into your heart and stole it away.

The piece says that others are more inclined to accept the scientific explanation of the phenomenon. 

 According to scientists, when you see a person of the opposite sex, the brain stimulates a cocktail of chemicals like epinephrine into the nervous system. This gives you a pleasant outlook of life and makes you react romantically towards him or her.

The greater the stimulation, the greater your emotional feeling. People then react differently, depending on their age, sex and self control. What we call love at first sight is, therefore, nothing special because it could happen to anyone at any time.

The piece says that others don’t believe in love at first sight and think the strong attraction to one special person is a “false sense of love because true love goes beneath the skin.” 

I’ve written a lot about love, but generally more in the “fated soul mate” sense than in the first sight sense.  It’s an interesting point to ponder — Do you believe that love at first sight exists?

It’s a Free Faerie Friday.

That’s right, my book A Faerie Fated Forever is still FREE on Amazon for the Kindle, on Barnes & Noble for the Nook, on Apple for the iPad (have no i-way to provide link), and on Smashwords formatted for nearly every device on the planet.

Grab it, read it and review it.  It’s a Free Faerie Friday – get yours today!

As I’ve mentioned before, my book, A Faerie Fated Forever, went free almost everywhere this week.  I say almost because the old saw about not being respected in your home must be true.  I own a Sony Reader but the Reader Store hasn’t picked up any of my recent stuff – I reduced the price on The Forever Series Bundle,  I put out Duke of Eden,  and just recently I made Faerie free.  Peeps who shop at the Sony Reader Store – email the store and ask why they haven’t picked up the changes!!!  

But I digressed. I tend to do that a lot.  Perhaps it’s a hazard of being a writer.  Or perhaps it’s just me. Anyway, Faerie is free at the Apple iBookstore, it’s free at Barnes & Noble, and on Monday, Amazon (very graciously – thanks a billion, billion to the amazing folks on the Kindle Digital Publishing staff) matched the price.  I’ve been able to see the progress and the reviews on B&N and Amazon, but I can’t see what’s happening at the iBookstore – my current budget doesn’t allow for an i anything. 

The reader reviews have been very positive for Faerie.  There are reviews that aren’t as positive for some of the others. For example, A Sixth Sense of Forever is Boz’s story and it’s very polarizing.  It’s a love it or hate it kind of thing, but that’s okay.  I thought Boz stayed way too level-headed during Niall’s story in Faerie and Colt’s in Golden. Boz was due to have the cover ripped off his cool.  But in a weird way, the one (as I post this, but that could change any second) review up for Sixth Sense mentions the heroine turning into a dominatrix.  I swear I think it’s helped sell the book this week. 

Because the truth  is - all reviews are important.

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Hi y’all.  Just popping in to let you know that my book, A Faerie Fated Forever, which has been free for a few days on B&N, Apple, KOBO, and Smashwords, just went FREE at Amazon.  Pick it up for your Kindle by clicking HERE.  

After you check out the view from over the top of love by reading Faerie, I hope you’ll boogle by my author page on Amazon and check out some of my other books.  Two sequels to Faerie are out – A Golden Forever and A Sixth Sense of Forever. (I love both but I have a special place in my heart for Golden.)  Don’t forget to pick up my other historicals, The Duke of Eden and Brotherly Love.   I’ve also got 2 contemporaries – Email Enticement and Griffin’s Law – that take place at the intersection of love and the law.

Happy Reading!!