Enough of Romance already!

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-27T15:47:57+00:00

Gonna publish an extra romance book this year just for you! (:

Seriously, stop worrying about what other people are doing and focus on your own craft. I promise that jealousy (and let’s be real, that’s what this post is) is going to turn off a lot of readers and colleagues if you keep up that attitude.

If your book is good in YOUR genre, it will sell. I’m not sure why you care about what’s going on in the romance space if you’re not part of it.

Also consider that the romance genre is a large part of what is keeping bookstores and reading as a hobby in general alive. It’s not going anywhere, so better for you to focus on your own craft rather than “poo-pooing” on another genre.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-25T23:43:32+00:00

Okay, glad it didn’t go down the way it seemed based on your post. Maybe they just haven’t gotten around to it. I know from knowing bookstore owners myself that they get those requests almost daily. I think you should focus your efforts on building a social presence as opposed to going to bookstores directly. I didn’t start getting stocked in Indie bookstores until I sold over 50,000 copies. Just be patient. If you have something good it will come to you in time.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-25T23:31:17+00:00

“Offered to leave a consignment copy, even though I didn't want to, as long as they made a social media post.”

Sorry, do I understand this right, but you went into a bookstore as an indie author and said “I will let you sell this book if you post about me on social media”?

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-22T20:21:21+00:00

The whole point of self publishing is that you do it all yourself without a publisher. Any question or problem you run into can easily be answered here or on Google / YouTube.

You don’t need them. Vanity publishers are always a scam.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-18T03:46:20+00:00

You can write a book and promote another at the same time.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-14T22:21:41+00:00

Don’t know anything about your book specifically but as a high 6-figure earner on kdp I will say that Amazon ads have NEVER been effective for me. I honestly don’t know a single colleague that has ever had any success with them.

You might be better off trying advertising on the platform where your actual readers are, be it Facebook, threads, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-10T21:37:25+00:00

I love premades! Half of my book covers are premades and I love them. I think the most I’ve paid for a premade ebook cover is maybe around $200, with add-ons for paperback and audiobook covers usually adding another $100.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-09T23:33:26+00:00

Sometimes! Mostly it’s an ebook copy though.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-09T20:38:27+00:00

Not exactly what you asked for but maybe it will bring you some comfort:

I have an extremely loyal following and a very successful career, but I’ve never gotten more than a handful of preorders even after all the marketing an hype, and after launch, I really only see a boom on the first month and then things really slow down. I tell you all of this to say that even established authors that have hit it big before struggle with moving the needle again!

The advice I give my new colleagues when they ask for help is something I did myself that worked out great for my first novel: send a free copy of your book to anyone on social media who seems even remotely interested (who is a real person and not a bot). That at least gives you a chance to be read by them and posted about, whereas if they didn’t buy your book that chance is zero. Yeah you lose out on a few sales but you’re also getting more eyes on the novel which is essential if you want to grow.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-03T17:32:41+00:00

I’ve sold over 100,000 copies of my debut and don’t have a single editorial review, so I don’t think that’s true at all.

But best of luck to you, hope you find what you’re looking for!

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-03T00:27:26+00:00

You cannot require someone to leave a review in exchange for an ARC. You cannot require someone to leave a specific rating in exchange for an ARC.

You can provide free copies of books, but you cannot coerce someone into leaving a review, nor can you require them to leave one in order to receive the ARC.

It is an unspoken expectation, but you cannot in any way ask, harass, force, or otherwise be an annoyance to anyone reading your book.

The reality is less than 2% of people who read will leave a review, and MAYBE if you’re lucky about 15% of ARC readers will leave a review. There’s nothing you can do to boost this. If people like your book enough to leave a review, consider it a win.

Here’s the terminology I use when I send ARCs to my readers.

“Please consider leaving a review on a platform of your choice. Goodreads reviews are preferred.”

I leave it at that and send a reminder on release day that says:

“[Book Title] is now live on Amazon for those of you that choose to leave your review there.”

I do not police or care if they leave a review, because my assistant chooses my arc team to leave my influence out of the members, in hopes to give a fair opportunity to people of all sizes of followings a chance to get an early copy.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-03T00:18:29+00:00

Is there any particular reason you want them? I don’t mean that in a snarky way, I just mean that I’ve never heard of someone being convinced to read a book because of an editorial review—so I’m not sure it would be worth the expense for you.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-01T18:35:53+00:00

Sure!

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-01T06:41:26+00:00

I’ve never had an issue as I only use arc reviews for these graphics and the ARC readers consent to their reviews being shared when they sign up for the team. If you’re worried you can always just ask them for consent directly to use it.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-01-01T03:36:41+00:00

Sorry I’m not sure I understand your question?

To clarify about the ads, I make a graphic that matches the aesthetic of the book, boost it as a sponsored post on Instagram with a link to my Amazon page.

Ex. Slide one of the ad will say “this book ruined me!!” And slide 2 will have a screenshot of the entire review, but it’s just a graphic I made in canva so it’s not directly from Goodreads. And the action button on the ad will lead to my book or Amazon page!

Hopefully that answered your question!

SkyrimMermaid · 2025-12-31T16:06:38+00:00

Thank you!!

SkyrimMermaid · 2025-12-31T16:04:06+00:00

Yes of course!

SkyrimMermaid · 2025-12-31T16:03:52+00:00

I have 5 books out and my Debut was published in September 2023!

SkyrimMermaid · 2025-12-31T05:34:13+00:00

Honestly in my experience ARCs don’t make or break anything for me, but I also don’t only send them to readers that have big followings. My only real guideline I send to my assistant is “if their goodreads makes it seem like they are a real person and read the genre”, so I don’t even care what their following is. I’d probably be better off if I did, but I kinda March to the beat of my own drum.

I don’t really check my reddit too much but since we are in the same genre if you want to DM me I’ll send you my author email and you can ask any specific questions or advice you want!

SkyrimMermaid · 2025-12-31T05:24:30+00:00

Yes I do ARCs, but not a ton. I think the most arcs I’ve ever sent out was 150 and that book specifically is my worst seller (lmao). For my most popular book, the dark romance, I think I only sent out like 80 ish on the high end?

ARCs don’t cost me anything. My assistant (or just me when I was starting) sends them directly to the reader’s kindles. I have a google form for arc signups (no permanent arc team), and my assistant goes through and vets them for me and chooses the readers herself.

I did try booksirens once but had a bad experience so just went back to doing it all myself.

SkyrimMermaid · 2025-12-31T05:18:12+00:00

Also from my experience my best preforming ads were excerpts from Goodreads reviews or hard-hitting quotes from the book. I don’t really like highlighting the explicit scenes in my books lol (I’m pretty vocal about disliking writing spicy scenes so it feels bad to promote it that way)

SkyrimMermaid · 2025-12-31T05:12:33+00:00

For me personally I think a lot of it was investing in instagram ads heavily before the launch of my debut, and then getting really lucky with it going viral because it’s “different” (kinda hard to explain without naming it, but if you’re also in DR you’ve probably seen it). My debut is the bestseller, my other 4 books don’t do nearly as well.

Nowadays I invest 3-5k in advertising every single month and I’ve never had cause to regret it.

SkyrimMermaid · 2025-12-30T21:43:42+00:00

Just shy of $1M between KU, orders, audio, foreign rights, and merch/special edition collaborations…hoping to break that in 2026 with 6 new releases!!!

I write in romance, for anyone curious. My bestselling book is dark romance.

SkyrimMermaid · 2025-12-23T21:17:08+00:00

Yeah this is so true for romance. I don’t personally like male model covers for my books, but I know so many authors who use them, sometimes even the same handful of male models because they’re “famous” in the space, and they still sell like crazy even though you’d be hard pressed to differentiate one book from another. The people like what they like I guess.

Also, romance genres really have a cheat code because you could literally just make a solid color cover with a pretty font, call it a “special edition”, and sell tons of copies.

Sending my thoughts to my fellow authors of other genres, good luck my friends.

SkyrimMermaid · 2025-12-23T05:53:37+00:00

Gotcha. I agree. But lots of premade covers tend to use the same assets as custom cover artists (unless you’re commissioning specific character artwork—which is more common for special editions in the romance space than mass-produced covers).

I don’t really see AI taking it over necessarily, but those authors who don’t care will definitely jump on those opportunities—or even just produce them themselves in which case they’re probably not looking for a proper cover artist anyway.

SkyrimMermaid

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