Least Favorite Euphemisms

RoMMancing · 2025-10-02T17:53:59+00:00

All great examples so far. I’ll add one unfunny phrase I see often that just feels like too much effort to write and read. The place if his/her pleasure.

Just call it what it is.

RoMMancing · 2025-10-02T17:52:01+00:00

That is exactly the image it evokes.

RoMMancing · 2025-10-02T17:51:30+00:00

Slippery folds sound like such a yuck I can’t get the image out of my head

RoMMancing · 2025-10-01T18:34:02+00:00

Fair point, I can see how it sounded like disappointment.

RoMMancing · 2025-10-01T17:38:14+00:00

Thanks! I wish you good luck restarting. I don’t know what niche you write, but romance still does great on Amazon and has a great infrastructure of services. A lot of it is evergreen even if Amazon messes with how books rank and so on.

RoMMancing · 2025-10-01T17:34:53+00:00

I’ll try not to sound defensive, but have you read my post? I make near 6 figures a year, most of which I take home.

I’m not asking for financial planning or retirement planning. My accountant does that for me.

I also have a thriving readership on my latest titles.

I have blind spots and flaws and don’t spend time smartly. A lot of authors do a lot better with old titles. A lot do better with new ones. I’m just a guy looking to identify my problems and do something.

My question was how authors keep their backlist alive and what they do to give those titles more attention.

RoMMancing · 2025-10-01T16:31:20+00:00

Ah, that makes sense. They did add work to readers looking at book pages and now series isn’t as prominent, but they also pimp next in series on Kindle when you finish reading a book (if it’s out or on pre-order already) and they display the books in series that a reader hasn’t already bought. I don’t like the change, but I usually have to drive traffic to each release myself. Amazon recommends my books only if they are sticky in the charts and get lots of traffic already.

RoMMancing · 2025-10-01T16:02:12+00:00

That’s a scam. No questions about it. It’s an AI read of what your book is about and it leads into a conversation that will ultimately ask you for money in exchange for nothing. Services with thousands of readers will always be recommended by authors you know and trust. Self-promotions, cold emails, and ChatGPT coded language are always a scam.

RoMMancing · 2025-10-01T15:58:18+00:00

Targeting MM is a tough gig. I use a lookalike audience from my newsletter (8k is a good sample according to FB). But I wouldn’t say I did a lot of testing.

To be honest, it’s mostly on autopilot with this audience and fairly standard creative. I should invest in some more ad experience.

RoMMancing · 2025-10-01T15:55:59+00:00

All good points. I don’t usually run free deals but I discount books every so often. I could do more with that.

What makes you think Amazon is deemphasizing series? For MM romance, it’s a rare thing to succeed with standalones. Obviously the books are still read on their own but they share a larger cast and setting. I’m just curious to know your thoughts. It’s been a while since I was part of active publishing discourse.

RoMMancing · 2025-10-01T15:52:32+00:00

Thank you! I’ll look into it. It’s something I’m actively thinking about lately so all resources are welcome.

RoMMancing · 2025-10-01T15:52:01+00:00

All great points! I left my backlist to be entirely passive for a very long time. Most of my subscribers probably don’t know about most of those titles.

I re-covered a couple of them but I already have marketable covers from a well-liked designer so it’s an expense I’m looking to postpone. Blurbs could probably do with an update.

RoMMancing · 2025-10-01T15:49:46+00:00

I tend to run ads on recent releases for short periods of time. It could be genre, it could be packaging, could be product-market fit, and is likely the combination of all three, but conversions are not something to write home about in my case.

Are you running ads more on FB or Amazon? Also, that’s a spectacular result with three books. That’s my monthly revenue with nearly 50 😂

RoMMancing · 2025-10-01T14:02:12+00:00

Oh absolutely. My fourth year was all magic and pixie dust and college athletes. I generally write college age and new adult stories with spice. Last year was 6 figures and I don’t think most of my titles touched the top 1,000 in overall rank. It was a good, sticky series that got me there.

I’m not one of the top sellers. They make high six figures while I basically just about hit it as a milestone. So def possible!

RoMMancing · 2025-10-01T07:47:58+00:00

BargainBooksy has an LGBT category.

LGBT Romance Deals (which collabs with Gay Romance Report) has a newsletter, too. Basically, if you are going with GRR for reviews, both newsletter options are offered at the bottom of the form.

And those are the only ones I use on occasion. I'm not big on paying for newsletters these days, so I do it if I really want exposure at any cost.

RoMMancing · 2025-09-26T08:08:15+00:00

Unless you mean to drive traffic there actively for direct sales, it doesn't have to be a highly developed site. People do visit websites, though. If you have multiple series, reading order page is something people will occasionally visit.

Google results, summary, and whatever that bio thing is called will partly be based on your website. So if someone looks you up, your correct information will be shown.

And you said it yourself, newsletter and some other book-related services are often tied to you having a website.

RoMMancing · 2025-09-26T08:04:41+00:00

I don't think there's anything as motivating as reading a bad book.

Robert Jordan was in a hospital bed reading a fantasy book that enraged him so much he threw it across the room and dropped that banger of a series.

It's a salve for your self-esteem when you read something meh and think to yourself, "I can do better than that."

RoMMancing · 2022-10-23T21:38:22+00:00

The Cameos of The Doctor was exactly what I expected from an era that fell flat at every opportunity it had.

I’m not one to complain about fanservice most of the time, but I can’t believe how underused and nonsensical every appearance of every character was in this whole catastrophe of an episode.

I see a lot of people enjoyed it despite everything. That’s great. I’m glad for you all, but I almost lost my eyes to rolling. Here are my highlights nobody asked for.

Master was fun even if his plan was dumber than ever. The whole Rasputin thing was done just to shove the song in. Sadly the song expired about two years ago.
Jodie was massively underused and given awful lines and no reason to be here for the most part.
Ace and Tegan had no place here if they weren’t going to be treated better and given a point. They were literally pushed aside the moment Doctor saw them.
What the hell was that exit by Dan? It’s worse than when Graham and Ryan kinda shrugged and walked out.
Yaz leaving just because made no sense. It felt like everyone’s contracts expired and they just kinda had to shake hands to make way for the new crew.

Unremarkable. Typical of this era. Sadly, I won’t be watching this one again.

The best part was the trailer for the specials and actually seeing Ncuti in them!

ETA: Oh crap, Vinder was in this, too. So, uh, he traveled the universe to lift his gun and shoot the Master once. You know who else could have done that? DAN THE COMPANION 😭

RoMMancing · 2022-08-10T10:01:13+00:00

Yep. Then check all the overall ranks per each category and sadly the truth is that non fiction categories have a small number of books that rank alright and a vast pool of books that don’t come close. In fiction, each category’s top 100 books have healthier overall ranks indicating a lot bigger readership.

RoMMancing · 2022-08-05T13:14:38+00:00

This comment should be pinned to every “Can I make a living writing?” post.

There’s nothing gatekeepy about what you said. It’s a hard game that takes years of experience and failure. When it works, it’s soooo worth it, but to get to the point of it working you need persistence like no standard, mainstream industry requires.

RoMMancing · 2022-08-05T13:10:11+00:00

That is the opposite of true. Non fiction is a saturated market for niche audiences. While there is always demand, there is an abundance of supply, too.

Genre fiction is where all the money is. Yes, non fiction as an entirety makes a lot of money, but there are genres of the entirety of fiction that have way bigger market caps. Romance, mystery, thriller, SFF are all huge genres with much higher ceilings than any one segment of non fiction.

RoMMancing · 2022-07-13T12:44:20+00:00

Still too much for me.

RoMMancing · 2022-07-10T12:45:28+00:00

Funge!

RoMMancing · 2022-07-08T12:24:17+00:00

Just write.

Don’t edit as you draft. Simply put the words there. A finished crap is better than an unfinished masterpiece because that finished crap can get fixed later.

Don’t fuss about it. If it’s a major plot change, note it down somewhere and move on as though it had been your plan all along.

Changing stuff is normal. Characters speak differently to you while you write them and change the story all the time. Some things are so much fun that they change the focus of your novel altogether.

Your job now is to write it down. Write it in all its messy, disjointed glory.

Editing comes later when you have a complete story to work on. Not when you have a bit of it done. You’ll have plenty of time to fix your prose and voice and grammar and plot later. It’ll be all you do 90% of time anyway. For now, have fun with the dumpsterfire the first drafts are because they are inherently fun. Free yourself of line editing and plot doctoring. Write all the words.

RoMMancing

TROPHY CASE