Writing news

[osprey_archer]

Tramps and Vagabonds is now available for preorder, to release on May 9! Get it while it’s hot!

I also got a lovely review of Honeytrap on Smut Report! Which resulted in zero sales (as in, there were zero sales total on the day the review came out), so maybe hitting up review sites for reviews is not, as I had hoped, a winning sales strategy.

Comments

[asakiyume]

I wouldn't draw a negative conclusion based on just one experience and just one day.

Honeytrap isn't brand new, so it's possible that the audience of that blog already has heard of it and either bought it or not bought it. But, counterpoint, I think anything that raises a title's profile, especially when it's no longer new, is a good thing. That review gives you tons of great taglines you can use to promote Honeytrap when you, for instance, put it on sale as a tie-in to a new book launch.

I don't see how reaching out to reviewers can possibly hurt, and I feel like it makes intuitive sense in a very large-scale way:

--it keeps reviewers viable: they need interesting indie books to read so that they can make reviews. And when they make interesting reviews, they attract readers and other indie authors, so the site and the community flourishes--which will be good for you, too.
--it means there's an archive of various, varied reviews, decentralized in different sites, that people can discover.
--it helps establish you as a Name out there.

All of those things are good even if you don't BANG get a sale the day the review comes out, you know? And it costs you only time. Also, by spending time out there looking at review sites and so on, you get a familiarity with the landscape, and that's always good.

Yay, Tramps and Vagabonds!

[osprey_archer]

That's true. I must confess that visions of sales danced in my head like sugar plums and I was distressed to find not one single sale when I checked. Not even ONE? That beautiful review and NO sales? What is the world coming to, I cried.

However building name recognition IS good, it is true! And you never know when someone might read the review in the future and get the book.

[kore]

Yes! I often go looking through book sites and book sections of sites for reviews, and I almost never keep up with them. So this could have a good long tail effect!

[kore]

That is a great review!

I really liked the points that it was a greater challenge to write a happy ending for these guys, and that all the favourite kinks (OK the reviewer didn't quite put it that way) helped the reader climb the nearly insurmountable mountain of how the fuck was a happy ending possibly going to happen.

[osprey_archer]

Haha, I was reading that list of cute romance moments and I was like "forearm porn? I don't remember putting in forearm porn?" and then I opened up Honeytrap and there's Daniel mooning over Gennady's ~lean, muscled forearms~ as he plays a game of billiards. With his sleeves rolled up, of course. As you do.

[kore]

Oh fuck yeah.

[troisoiseaux]

Yay books!! (sorry, brain fried, can't word, but— yay!!!!!!!!)

[osprey_archer]

Yay books indeed!

[ethelmay]

Is it Kindle-only? I was just looking for an epub version and couldn't find any.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, it's Kindle only. It's only possible to get Kindle page reads if the book is Amazon only, and those pagereads make up 1/3 to 1/2 of my writing income. Other indie authors I know who have tried wide distribution say that the sales don't come close to making up for the loss of that income, so it's not financially viable to publish my books wide.

[littlerhymes]

That is a really lovely review!

[osprey_archer]

Yes, isn't it? I may have reread it three or four times on the day it was posted...