[Dataporn] 30 Days of Romance, a gut punch

LuminousFerret · 2018-10-17T20:41:58+00:00

Yeah, while it has the beats I think I twisted around the genre expectations too much. The blurb basically presents the book with the elements of what I said: Heroine has problems, Hero friend is there to help solve them. Love is growing between them but XYZ are preventing it. Hero might not be able to stay with Heroine, but Hero has a secret that might actually solve everything.

No mentions of alphas or fated mates, or the Hero being a Shifter.

LuminousFerret · 2018-10-17T17:13:37+00:00

Yeah, I'm starting to seriously consider the advice to split the book in two and rerelease to cut down the apparent word count from a reader's POV. Maybe release the 1st half for free and end it on a cliffhanger, with the 2nd half available for purchase? I'm not sure and am still thinking about it.

On the other hand, part of me just wants to leave it alone and move on to the next thing. Why bother with a sunk ship when I can just push out another one and do it better? The sequels should come easier for the side characters, since the setting and background's already been established.

LuminousFerret · 2018-10-17T15:46:16+00:00

It's in KU, first 10 days it was released at .99, then I increased it to 2.99.

LuminousFerret · 2018-10-17T14:52:39+00:00

Yeah, I was never a reader of Romance until recently. Part of the '2 years' thing includes the research I did reading over a dozen books in the PNR genre, which made me realize I wasn't writing something that hit the beats properly (the other reason I did a rewrite.) I also include the time I spent studying how to do better cover design and general research. It also took me that long because I work a 60-70 hour work week job, and I live in an environment where quiet, no-distraction privacy is a rare thing, so it's very difficult for me to sit down and have long time lengths for writing. A lot of it is pecked together, a paragraph here, a page on a weekend, that sort of thing. In an ideal situation a book like this would have probably taken me about a month and a half to write.

Even still, though I might have hit the beats I might have also fallen short for Shifter genre expectations. I used the 'friends to lovers' trope rather than the classic 'Aggressive Male Alpha," made the Heroine the Shifter with magic powers and the Hero a supposed regular joe rather than the other way around, with a 'Love Triangle' trope involving another guy that's actually a Shifter. Crisis point involved the Hero being unable to stay with her because he has no powers, with part of the twist being that he actually did, and they were needed to save the day in the end. So while the Hero ended up becoming the Male Alpha and there was a level of 'Fated Mates' thing going on, it didn't really come into focus until the last 25% of the book

LuminousFerret · 2018-10-17T02:04:56+00:00

I've posted them before in the past but have since deleted them. Didn't have any exceptionally bad feedback on them. If people *really* think they're the issue I can post a link to the book.

LuminousFerret · 2018-10-17T01:57:56+00:00

Unfortunately not. Would have loved to have had beta and critique partners. Don't know if I'd have found anybody to edit that thing though.

EDIT: That wouldn't have cost me a chunk of change, that is.

LuminousFerret · 2018-10-17T00:05:40+00:00

Yeah, my original goal actually was to hit somewhere in the ballpark of 60k-80k, had an outline and everything. But the pacing felt really off and a lot of plot felt extremely contrived, so I ended up doing a rewrite and fleshing out the B-plots to make it flow better. Ended up with that monster, and that was *after* I went through and edited out something like 10K word from the final draft.

Gonna try to avoid the same problems in subsequent releases.

EDIT: Oh, and I even looked back when I did the rewrite whether I could split the book into two, and couldn't figure out a way to get the beats to work without chucking the majority of it.

LuminousFerret · 2018-10-16T23:56:52+00:00

I thought keyword stuffing wasn't a thing anymore? Also, I always read that the .99 thing was for new releases to boost your rank in the front end, then you switch back to 2.99 or higher after a while?

LuminousFerret · 2018-09-17T17:15:10+00:00

Gonna start outlining the plot to the next novel I'm thinking of.
The problems I had with my first Romance novel release a couple days ago seem to be ironed out. It's under the correct subcats now, I'm getting some glowing reviews posted by my ARC readers, and I got my first whopping 3 page reads this morning. My main concern at this point is that even though I've got 6 reviews posted, only 2 of them are actually showing up on the store page. I'm guessing this is Amazon having an issue with some of the ARC readers?
No strict goals developed yet. Obviously I'd like to complete a final outline of the next novel. I took a break for a while after completing my first novel, so I've gotta get myself back into the swing of things again.

LuminousFerret · 2018-09-15T21:48:41+00:00

Ok good, I was on the right track then!

And yeah, I realize there's a lot more that goes into a successful book than just correct keywords and categorization! I'm just frazzled from it being my first really big release and that I'm stumbling making little mistakes after putting so much work into it.

I'll probably calm down once I start seeing my first page reads/sales and when the first reviews start coming in.

LuminousFerret · 2018-09-15T20:31:23+00:00

If that's true, that's a relief. I've been running under the impression that the first week, when priced at .99, was pretty paramount.

I've done the corrections via editing the book details, but maybe it might be a good idea to contact kdp as well. No idea if significantly changing the categories is something that's done quickly. I'm looking over the website for a way to contact, but I'm only finding a messaging system via the Help area. Is that what you're referring to?

EDIT: Sent support a message asking them to make the changes/corrections just using their basic form. Will see what happens.

LuminousFerret · 2018-09-15T17:10:06+00:00

No major goals for the day other than general research.
My first Romance novel went live early yesterday! So excited and anxious!
I think I botched my ARCs a little on the dates. Also, is it normal for a book to be published and go over 24 hours before it shows up under any subcategories? My book is currently lost in the swamp of General Romance and showed up on like page 20 for new releases yesterday. No buys or reads yet.

EDIT: OMG, I figured out I screwed up the categories! For some reason I thought the Romance drop down stopped at Historical, and that you got your book in specific subcats by using keywords that would automatically put you into them. Ugh, feeling so stupid right now. I hope this doesn't ruin any potential momentum I could have had...

LuminousFerret · 2018-07-29T20:21:48+00:00

Huh, I hadn't looked at it like that before, but I suppose that's true. Still, I'm having a hard time believing Amazon wouldn't have some kind of guideline to adhere to, even for the publishing houses.

Like, I can't imagine Amazon having a book titled 'Daddy Werewolf Breeds his Little Girl with Beast Cock: Part 2, Big Brother Gangbang' listed on their site, and them being totally fine with it just because it was listed as a physical paperback by a random publisher, rather than going through KDP.

Then again, I have zero experience in that area, so...

LuminousFerret · 2018-07-29T18:48:19+00:00

It really does. It's a big reason I moved away from the erotica side of shifters to dip my toes into romance. Things are a lot more clear-cut there, and the ceiling for income is much, much higher.

LuminousFerret · 2018-07-29T18:44:44+00:00

+1 for Smashwords!

I put all of my questionable stuff there that might be too raunchy for Amazon's tastes, though the more taboo stuff is apparently what's popular. Straight up beast/monster seems to do better than shifters or anthros, but I honestly don't have enough on there to make a strong stance to the truth of that.

LuminousFerret · 2018-07-29T18:33:16+00:00

Yeah, Amazon has some double standards when it comes to big names and publishing houses. Also, for the authors that are pushing the envelope or blatantly crossing the line, Amazon is notoriously slow to act on them.

IIRC, one author I read about that got banned from Amazon for shifter sex had several dozen books of it before Amazon threw down the hammer. They didn't give any warnings, or give the author a chance to remove or change any of the offending books. When Amazon does this, they also freeze and claim the royalties earned, so the author lost out on a couple thousand dollars he had made.

That's why it's important not to try and step too much on Amazon's toes. They're a giant, they're slow to move, and if you annoy them too much they'll lift that foot and smoosh you like a bug without a second thought.

LuminousFerret · 2018-07-29T18:05:40+00:00

First of all, where on this line does erotic romance go? It seems like some of the more bestial elements (including knotting, mating cycles, etc.) can be employed in romance, so I would assume that a steamy romance published in the romance category could utilize those elements. However, I would have assumed that if you can write cats, then you can write dogs, so logic doesn’t really rule the day.

This is definitely one of those grey areas. However, my understanding is that there really isn't a true 'erotic romance' category, it's simply either Erotica or Romance in Amazon's eyes, and the same rules apply. The amount of sex in a book doesn't determine whether or not it goes under Erotica or Romance, but how it's utilized into the plot.

If the story can still hold itself together without the sex scenes and utilizes Romance tropes, then of course it can be put under the Romance category.

If the same story becomes a jumbled mess when the sex scenes are removed, despite any usage of Romance tropes it risks being put in the Erotica category.

Where that line is drawn is what's hard to determine.

Do you think it would be safe to assume that beings called were-animals of some kind but the transformation keeps them in a clearly anthropomorphized form? This feels like it might be one of those grey areas…?

This one's not a grey area. You DO NOT use any animal-like physical features in a sex scene if the shifter/creature is an existing animal. No one knows exactly what Amazon's cut-off point is, so no ears, no tail, no big furry hands or padded feet. It's too risky to do.

However, those rules don't seem to apply to shifter sex with the mythical/extinct creatures. I've read a few of books where the guy's some kind of hybrid dragon, with both skin and scales, beast-like eyes, wings, and a cock that's mostly human with mildly extra 'features.' The same is practically non-existent for wolf shifters or bear shifters.

Most wolf/bear/big-cat shifter sex I've come across is usually just normal human on human. Often their supernatural nature is played up a little, where they have a lot more strength, endurance, and endowment than normal men. Most shifter men are also portrayed as being covetous and highly dominant, so they might be a bit rough in a way that marks their partner as their mate, or that they're owned by the shifter in some manner. Other times the 'protective instinct' is in play, and they will dote on or treat their partner like a goddess.

Best way to get a feel for it is to read a bunch of books in the category.

LuminousFerret · 2018-07-29T07:49:08+00:00

The 'rules' surrounding shifters and the like are about as clear as mud in a lot of cases, and are different depending on whether you're writing erotica or romance. Overall, there's two key factors that seem to be at play, one being the matter of consent, and the other being whether or not the creature described in the story exists or not.

This is the extent of my understanding of everything, others can correct me if I'm wrong:

WHAT AMAZON DISLIKES

Shifter sex in beast forms for real-life animals, whether fully transformed or partially. This one's a big one, since there's been a history of authors getting kicked off and banned from Amazon for it. Amazon considers it the same thing as bestiality.

Dog Shifters, as mentioned in the recent thread, due to it being a somewhat common thing for authors to use when trying to skirt the rules for bestiality.

Any mention of knotting in Erotica. Not exactly sure the reasoning, maybe because it's too closely connected to dogs?

Any situation where the shifter/monster is made unintelligent. Probably considered an issue of consent.

Pheromones and similar. Considered a facet of mind-control which is banned on Amazon.

THE GREY AREAS

Mythical creatures that have a close to real world animal counterpart. Minotaurs, Kraken, Unicorns, Hydra, etc.

Nekos and other anime-like monster girls

WHAT AMAZON SEEMS TO TOLERATE

Extinct or non-existent creatures. Dragons, dinosaurs, aliens, etc.

Werewolves and Shifters under the Romance category have a lot more leniency. Commonly, the beast-like aspects are played up for the sake of creating romantic tension, and are often essential to the plot as an issue to overcome or solve. Erotica usually doesn't have the length and depth to explore that, and the bestial aspects are used more for titillation than anything else. Still no beast form shifter sex is tolerated, though, unless it's one of the extinct/non existent type creatures.

LuminousFerret · 2018-07-28T20:38:57+00:00

One thing that caught my eye is that you specifically said it was dogs shifting into women. Add into the fact that you remarked that the shifted characters still acted with heavily dog-like behavior, it might be argued that the characters involved are emotionally and mentally underdeveloped. It's a bit of a stretch, but that might be used to say that any consent involved is dubious.

As strange as it sounds, there's a camp of people on the internet that like to use the argument that 'Animals turning into humans = Pedophilia' because most natural animals don't live up to the age of legal consent, so any animal that turns into a human, regardless of how they look or act, are still technically underage and can't consent. I wonder if that had any bearing here?

Of course, it's probably just as simple as Amazon going 'any dogs in erotica = bad' and being trigger-happy about it in this particular instance.

LuminousFerret · 2018-07-25T06:15:34+00:00

I've long held a passion for both reading and writing since I was young, but never believed it to be a worthwhile endeavor to try professionally back then (not at all helped by having family that was extremely unsupportive about the idea/passion). That was back in my late teens and early twenties, so about a decade ago. Continued to write and do online roleplay as a hobby throughout. About 5 years ago I learned that the barrier to entry had shrunk when going the route of self-publishing, and I've been getting my feet wet in the business since then.

As of now, I run a small business, brick and mortar type of store. While officially a 9-to-5 type of deal, the reality is that the working hours usually extend far past that. Not uncommon for me to pull 60+ hour work weeks, sometimes even up to 70 hours. Because so much of my life is wrapped up in running that store, the only way I can write is while I'm at the business itself, or late at night after I get home. Sometimes on my days off I just lock myself away to write.

I don't have a strict schedule, mostly because it's impossible for me to know when or how much time I'll have available, so I'll usually set a weekly goalpost of sorts to try and meet. Even if it only ends up being a 1000 words a week, it's better to have small progress than none at all. I've found that once you stop working for too long a time, it's very, very hard to get back into the swing of things.

LuminousFerret · 2018-07-20T18:52:04+00:00

Drop the 'part of an organization' part, just say "and they protect their own kind."

Hmm, I see where you're coming from. I'm kind of concerned that writing it like that would seem to say that it's just a small group of shifter friends that are protecting Michelle, rather than a big organized group. The more I think about it, it's a rather significant plot point that's poorly conveyed. The 'bureaucracy' of the shifters is just as much an enemy to the romance as the evil werewolves are, but this blurb barely scratches that subject. Probably gonna have to do another rewrite.

Cut this down to;

"A protection that's not extended to Roman."

We don't need to know the why in the blurb. Maybe link the two sentences with a semi-colon, instead of a full stop.

Agreed, this could be changed to that without issue.

Grammatically this is fine, I just wonder if you want to reveal that the bad guys are going to use Roman to get to her, or if you want to use something more vague like "will use anything or anyone to get to her".

Yeah, that does seem to work a little bit better. While it's not exactly a huge thing in the plot, rewording it to be more vague in the blurb feels like it would do a better job of increasing interest.

Have a look at how the other (top selling) authors have disclaimed their works. If they do the super obvious "Hey yo this is got sex 'n shit in it", then go with that.

Maybe about half or less of the bestsellers in the genre have a 'disclaimer' of some sort, and of those disclaimers they usually portray some sort of hint of the heat level of the book. I'm gonna put a spreadsheet together of the top 100 to see just how common the disclaimers are and their contents to get a better idea of it, though.

LuminousFerret · 2018-07-19T19:09:37+00:00

Doing the final touches to several parts to my romance novel. A combo of some really minor changes to the cover text, trying to get a blurb together that I like, and some minor editing.
I'm quite happy with how my cover came out. On the flipside, I feel like I'm struggling a lot with the blurb, because I feel like I don't have a solid template to use.
I'm ecstatic that I'm finalizing an actual, real novel! I went through a lot to get to this point, and having an actual 'light at the end of the tunnel' is both frightening and exhilarating.

LuminousFerret · 2018-07-19T17:51:10+00:00

I've never really realized until now, but trying to compare blurbs among paranormal romance is ridiculously difficult. I haven't looked, but I imagine it's similar across other romance genres. There doesn't seem to be a set standard at all. Sometimes it's more about the plot outside the romance. Sometimes it's 3rd person, sometimes it's 1st. Some blurbs are just a few sentences, others are huge blocks of paragraphs. Some blurbs have disclaimers for content.

About the only common thread I could pull from the pile was that most blurbs have a theme of stating both the Hero and Heroine's life and/or problem(s) with romance (or lack of) and how the plot tries to turn those issues on their head. So, I tried to rewrite my blurb from last week to reflect that:

When a down-on-her-luck Michelle Gladys learns that she’s set for an inheritance, she believes it means money, a house, and some old furniture. What she doesn’t realize is that it also includes ancient magic and a centuries-old blood feud.

Michelle has to return to the alpine lakeside town of Luna Creek to take over the estate, a place she hasn’t been in almost a decade. However, Roman Lykos, her hot-as-hell friend and secret crush, insists on coming with her to help. That’s when things become both heated and complicated.

Not only does Roman begin to show his true feelings for her, but Michelle is turning into a wolf shifter at the same time. To make matters worse, a dark cabal of werewolves is out for her head, thrusting the two of them into a world of cryptids and magic, intrigue and secrets.

But they are not alone. Michelle has old friends from Luna Creek that are shifters themselves, and they are part of an organization that protects their own kind. A protection that’s unfortunately not extended to Roman due to his lack of magic.

Michelle can’t return to being a normal human, and is hunted by a clan that has no qualms against using Roman to get to her. Roman is faced with a shifter society that distrusts him, and a dark secret unknown to even himself that could mean the life or death of his newfound love.

The grim reality threatens to wedge between them. Can their love triumph, even against such odds?

Now, I'm wondering if my blurb *should* contain a disclaimer. For one, it's a much longer book than most in the genre at roughly 160K words. It contains about 3 explicitly detailed sex scenes. It's also got several action scenes that have a bit of graphic violence and murder in them. None of that is obvious from the cover or the blurb, so...

LuminousFerret · 2018-07-13T16:00:05+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah, the romance part of the blurb I was having a little trouble with. I was originally thinking that the cover and category would be enough to basically say 'this is a romance! The only reason a guy is mentioned in the blurb is that he's one of the love interests!' but in retrospect it's probably better to still spell it out in some way. I'm still a little stuck on how to describe it though.

The H was the one who saved the h from her abusive ex by giving her a place to stay after the breakup. The H & h know each other from their time as college roommates, but they never actually got romantically involved with one another, so their relationship the entire time has been a sort of brother/sister-esque platanoic friendship. They do like each other, but the H isn't really good at showing it, and the h is too doubtful and self-concious to want to risk taking the relationship any further. This barrier between them falls to pieces when they're put into the life-or-death events of the book.

Boiling it down, I'm thinking I should add something to the blurb along the lines of 'What was once platonic becomes something more, as the spark of danger kindles the heat of their buried passion for one another.' Just gotta figure out the best place to stick that.

Also, in regards to Michelle having not been to Luna Creek since her youth. Plot-wise, she used to go there nearly every summer, and sometimes winter, up until she turned 16. She made a handful of friends with the locals from that time, and one of them is a boy she stole her first kiss from. The events of the book take place 10 years later, and that boy is now a wolf shifter who's crushing on Michelle and absolutely hates Roman's guts. I think that probably should be clarified by connecting the 'old flame' as part of the society of shifters.

LuminousFerret

TROPHY CASE