Rebecca Norinne's Blog, page 3

Real Talk from an Author Thinking About Quitting

REAL TALK TIME.

On a good day, I suffer from anxiety. On a bad day, anxiety *and* depression. Professionally speaking, I'm having more bad days than not, and unfortunately, all these scandals in Romancelandia aren't making things any better.

I know I'm not the one who's work was callously stolen, and I probably have very little right to weigh in on #copypastecris, except it's hard to stay motivated when thieves, scumbags, and liars make more money in one month than I made all last year. In 2017 and 2018, I burned myself out trying to rise above the noise. Did it work? Not in the least. In fact, my last two books bombed horribly. And here you have people stuffing books making Kindle All Star money, people blatantly ripping off other authors, and every other scandal you can think of that would sour one on the industry. And even when these assholes get caught out, they don't stay caught out. They can create a new pen name and come back. In fact, many of them have.

It's enough to make a person want to throw in the towel.

In fact, I threw in a pretty big towel back in November when I canceled the release on ONE PERFECT HOLIDAY. My creative spark had completely died. The characters wouldn't talk to me. The words wouldn't come. What was the point in writing a 55k-word book that would be bought by 200 people at $0.99? (In case you're wondering, that'd earn me approximately $70.) Thankfully, I make my own covers so I don't have to factor in those costs, but when you think about all the money that goes into launching a book, I would have been way in the hole--again.

I *loved* NOT QUITE PERFECT. I thought it was a fun twist on a trope that can sometimes be sketchy. Unfortunately, the only people who've read it are the people who got it for free. And even then, not so much--one recent review started out by saying the book was sexy professor/student love story. It's no surprise then that I wasn't motivated to write the next book in the series.

And that brings me to today. I have all these ideas for books, but the anxiety and depression that riddles my brain has me asking myself, "Why bother?" Because I love writing? Well, yeah. But I hate feeling like a failure even more than I love the creative process. With writing, I feel good for a few minutes when I write a scene I enjoy, but then the doubt creeps in, totally annihilating any of those endorphins.

"Keep trying," author friends tell me. "Have you tried ads?" others ask.

Do you know how much money I've spent on courses trying to learn how to make FB ads work for me? Let's just say it's more than Jamaila and I have made on the entire River Hill series. And my ad results? Abysmal. So either I spent money and didn't learn anything, or I spent money and my books are garbage that no one wants to pay for. Either way, how does one NOT feel like a loser in that scenario?

"Try changing your covers," they say. Done. (See: The Vintner’s Vixen, The Distiller’s Darling, The Baker’s Beauty, and Lucky Star.)

"Think about reworking your blurbs." Done a hundred times over.

"Have you changed your titles?" Where I can, yes. (See: Protect Me, Declan, Eoin, Liam, and Donal — incidentally, the name change on these hasn’t worked AT ALL so I’m thinking of going back to their original titles. If no one’s going to pick them up, I may as well hold onto what I loved about them.)

"Have you invested in PR?" Don't even get me started.

"Do you have a tribe?" Yes, and they're great.

So now I'm staring into the void of another abysmal month and my anxiety, depression, and this terrible thing known as Imposter Syndrome has me left with conclusion: I suck.

And if that's the case, why bother?

Ash & Rae have gotten a makeover

Writing a book is a very intense process. You pull words and emotions out of yourself that maybe weren’t there before. You inhabit your characters’ souls, and delve into their biggest fears and desires. As if that wasn’t hard enough, once you’re done you have to pick a cover and a short blurb that encapsulates your story and makes people want to buy it*. And here’s an ugly truth most people won’t tell you: sometimes this part is much, much harder than actually writing the book. In fact, I think it’s the part I am least successful at.

Case in point: the book previously known as ASHES TO ASHES.

You may have seen me do a huge push for it this summer. I had a number of book bloggers sign up to review it — and they loved it — but none of those reviews helped with sales. In fact, Ash and Rae have been nearly dead in the water since then … and that hurt.

I begrudgingly acknowledged it was time to do some soul searching and additional market research. What that research told me was that the title didn’t help people understand what the story was about. ASHES TO ASHES said nothing about the words within. In my head, this is the story of a woman burning everything to the ground and then rising above to find love. Appropriately, with a man named Ash. I thought the title was clever. Buyers? Not so much.

In fact, I ran a focus group last month and almost unanimously no one realized it was a bodyguard romance. People told me they loved Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner’s The Bodyguard and if they’d known this had a bit of the same feel, they would have gobbled it up immediately. They also told me that it needed to be in Kindle Unlimited, because that’s how they test the waters for an author they’re not familiar with.

Taking all of this into consideration, I set out to give Ash and Rae and makeover. And I think what I’ve come up with hits the nail on the proverbial head. Hopefully you agree and will love this story as much as I do.

PROTECT ME
A Bodyguard Romance

He was the mistake I never forgot. Now my life depends on him.

When an obsessed fan takes things too far, my team calls in the big guns for my protection. There’s just one catch: the bodyguard assigned to protect me is the one man from my dark past that I never forgot. Now we’re on the run and all I want is to forget about the danger I’m in. To lose myself in Ash’s strong, capable arms. 

I told myself it was only sex, but I’ve done the unthinkable and fallen in love with a man I can’t have. I should walk away before it’s too late, but I’m hooked. And now it's not just my life that needs protecting—it’s also my heart. 

Buy Now for $0.99


Read for * free * in Kindle Unlimited

* While the I love the process of writing, this is also a business for me, and in order for it to stay one, I need people to pay me for my words. Art and commerce have long been linked, so I don’t think it’s speaking out of turn to talk about this side of the industry. Yes, a lot of us write for the love of it. But we also enjoy getting paid too.

Win 21 Signed Paperbacks!

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Fall in love with The Baker's Beauty

The Baker’s Beauty released on Wednesday, October 24, and Jamaila and I are so proud to introduce you to Sean Amory and Jessica Casillas-Moore. He’s a little bit broken after a tragic moment from his past (okay, a lot broken), while she’s struggling to carve out a future for herself amidst a changing career landscape and a loud, overbearing family.*

We hope you’ll download The Baker’s Beauty and that this story of love, loss, and redemption will warm your heart.

Amazon | Apple Books | Nook | Kobo

* While I usually write the heroes and Jamaila tackles the heroines, we flipped the script on this one. Given that Jess is half Mexican it made sense for me to take on her story as I grew up in a mixed family (my white father married a Mexican American woman and I lived with them from the time I was nine until I left home for college). A lot of what you see with Jess’s family is inspired by my own experiences with such a large, vocal brood.

Fun fact: I’d fully forgotten what a dustpan was called until I was telling my then-boyfriend-now-husband to bring me the palita and he had no idea what I was talking about. See also: flip-flops were chanclas and you did not want grandma to beat you with one, and when a girl wears short shorts and you can see her ass cheeks, said grandma would complain about her nalgas hanging out.

NOT QUITE PERFECT Cover Reveal

Introducing NOT QUITE PERFECT, the first book in my all-new Rocky Cove series.

✫★✫✫★✫✫★✫✫★✫

Growing up in the coastal New England town of Rocky Cove, the Witherspoon siblings lead perfectly charmed lives. But they're all grown up now, and when it comes to romance, their track records are kind of a mess. Join Victoria, Jack, Drew, and Alex as they discover that when it comes to relationships, the best ones are often perfectly imperfect.

✫★✫✫★✫✫★✫✫★✫

Coming September 26 to Amazon, iBooks, Nook, and Kobo

I can't believe I met the perfect man ...
On the ferry to my mother’s wedding, I met the most amazing man—his love of Faulkner notwithstanding. Professor David Carstairs was funny, intelligent, and had the sexiest hands I’d ever seen. 

A conversation about classic American literature led to a romantic dinner at his house ... and then a whole lot of dessert afterward. I’d never done anything like that before, but what we had was something special. 

Unfortunately, everything came crashing down the next day. Because my supposedly perfect professor? His dad just married my mom, and now he’s my stepbrother! 

Thanksgiving dinner just got a whole lot more complicated.

I've finally found the perfect woman ...
En route to watch my father marry yet another young gold digger, I met the perfect woman—her hatred of Faulkner notwithstanding. Victoria Witherspoon was kind, witty, and had the most kissable lips I’d ever seen. 

We spent the day together, and then stayed up all night exploring each other’s bodies. I don’t do relationships, but for someone as perfect as Victoria, I was ready to make an exception. 

If only her mom hadn’t just married my dad, putting the object of all my fantasies firmly in the “off limits” category. 

And I thought the holidays were awkward before.

✫★✫✫★✫✫★✫✫★✫

PRE-ORDER FOR $2.99
Amazon ☛ https://amzn.to/2B53ME9
iBooks ☛ http://bit.ly/NQP_Apple
Nook ☛ http://bit.ly/NQP_Nook
Kobo ☛ http://bit.ly/NQP_Kobo

On writing "to market"

I’m going to get a little controversial up in here for a sec, so if you want kittens and rainbows, keep on scrolling.

All right then ...

Authors are being told that in order to be successful and make money, we need to “write to market.” My problem with this advice is that our market fucking sucks right now. It has been highjacked by the bookstuffers and scam artists who largely convinced Amazon buyers that romance novels—regardless of category—were sex fests featuring grunting alphaholes who needed to breed virgins in their mountaintop cabin.* Oh! And these books should also be way over 400 pages and cost less than a dollar. I don’t know about other authors, but that’s not why I started writing. 

But instead of trying to take back the market, many authors are continuing to flood Amazon with books that match the tropes set forth by the Chance Carters and Cassandra Dees of the world. They may be gone, but their legacy lives on. 

Blurbs that may as well read like this are still being held up as the ideal by gurus and experts:

I’m a fuck machine. 
She’s a Virgin.
I shouldn’t want her but I do.
And she will be mine.
I always get what I want.
And that’s to fuck her.

This, my friends, is what I call the grunting alphahole blurb.

Obviously, I’m joking here ... except not really. The advice is to stick to super short sentences with lots of white space. Also, don’t tell the reader what the book is actually about. And you have to make it from the alphahole’s POV (because let’s be honest, the heroines are just cookie cutter stereotypes there for the guys to knock up—their stories aren’t important). And don’t forget to play up the sex. Always talk about how he can’t wait to tap that ass.

I get it. Sex in books is fun. I love reading a sexy tale. Hell, I love writing them. But that blurb above? That book above? Nope.

I want to write smart, complicated women who fall in love with men who are unlikely partners for them. I want to study the human condition and all the paths men and women (or men and men and women and women) can take to fall in love. 

But I’m going to be honest: it’s fucking hard to get a foothold and build a fan base when that’s what the market has grown to expect. True story: I sent out my newsletter with a cover reveal and a pre-order link and was told by a few subscribers they’d stopped buying my books because they cost too much. Apparently, $3 is too much to pay a writer who has spent months of their life chained to her desk writing a good book and then paying for professional editing. (Thankfully I do my own covers, or else you could add hundreds on top of what I already spend.) I tried not to seethe reading those responses, but then another subscriber complained that my newsletter used to offer freebies and since I haven’t done that in months, they were unsubscribing. This is what our market has become. This is how a vast number of readers have been trained.

And I’m sorry, but ain’t nobody got time for that. 

So to hell with writing to market. 

I’m going to keep telling the stories I need to tell, at a pace that doesn’t run me ragged, with blurbs that feature full sentences *and* the heroine’s story, while pricing them at least at $3.99. This means I probably won’t put out as many books a year. It means that I won’t be guilted into giving my work away fo free. It means that when people ask for recommendations, I’m going to tell them about folks like Sarina Bowen, Melanie Harlow, and Penny Reid— wonderful authors who write with heart and soul and have managed to carve out a successful niche fo themselves. They’re the authors I want to strive to be like, not these flash-in-the-pan fraudsters who’ve ruined a really great thing. 

And with that, I’m stepping down off my soapbox. 

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*Example of text from one of these books: “I’m claiming you as mine. Right now," And then he impaled me on his big, throbbing cock, tearing my himen in two.

Yes, hyman was spelled wrong and the comma after “right now” should have been a period. See? No editing.

A Tanya & Aidan Update (Dublin Rugby #5)

I've been asked a lot about Tanya and Aidan lately and when their story is coming, so I thought I'd take a moment to give a public update.

If you've read RUCK ME, you know their back story. If you've read BREAK DOWN, you know their current situation. 

If you haven't read either book, you should probably click out of this post now.

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.

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(Spoilers commencing in 3, 2, 1 ...)

I had every intention of writing Tanya and Aidan's story. I had the best happily-ever-after planned for them. They both deserve it.

And then two Irish rugby players were accused of raping a girl they met at the bar hours earlier. I'd cheered for those guys. They weren't my favorite players in the world, but I happily clapped, stomped, and screamed when they played well. And as you can imagine, I was disgusted by the details that emerged from the trial -- not just of these two guys, but of some of their fellow teammates -- and I knew I couldn't work on that book. I was too heartbroken.

So I tabled WING IT until my heart didn't hurt quite so much. But that day never came. Even now, sitting here writing this update, my hands are shaking with rage over what that girl endured, how she was vilified in the public, and how those scumbags got away with rape because they're famous white boys.

It's a story as old as time. 

I want to give Tanya and Aidan the ending they deserve. Really, I do.

But I can't.

As authors we pour our hearts and souls into our characters -- into our stories -- and my heart can't handle this right now. Especially when the likelihood of people buying this book is slim-to-none. I won't lie to you. With each successive release of the rugby series, my sales get lower and lower. Poor Donal and Liam. I know the world tells you it's crass to talk about money, but this is my job. I need to sell books. I will happily break open my chest and pass my bloody, beating heart to my readers ... if it is going to be worth it. And living in a state of perpetual heartbreak while I get this book out only to lose money just isn't worth it.

I may come back to Aidan and Tanya someday. I've toyed with making it a short newsletter exclusive. I may still do that someday. Alas, that day is not now.

I hope fans who loved my writing in this world will stick with me as I explore new love stories, and new couples, and create new worlds. 

Meet Sean & Jess, the third couple from the River Hill Series

Welcome to River Hill, where one couple is learning that life can be really sweet ... and a whole lot of spicy.

After tragedy struck, Sean Amory left his job as a record executive in L.A. to go back to his roots. He’s come home to River Hill to work in his family’s bakery while he decides what to do with his life. Somehow, the warm ovens and fresh dough are soothing to his raw edges—and the gorgeous woman he sees jogging past every morning as he opens up the shop has another effect entirely.

Jessica Casillas-Moore’s former life as a beauty queen led to her current gig as a lifestyle consultant for a dozen local TV stations, but it also means she hasn’t eaten carbs since she was fourteen. But smelling them won’t ruin her career, so she makes a point to route her morning run past The Breadery, River Hill’s most delicious site. When she meets the handsome baker, sparks fly ... and cupcakes get frosted.

Opposites really do attract, and it turns out that Jess and Sean just might be made for each other. But when his past rears its ugly head and her future comes calling, they’ll have to figure out how much they’re ready to give in order to get what they most want.

Lucky Star is FREE this week on Amazon

Looking for your next great beach read? Love a friends-to-lovers romance with lots of angst? Want to get a behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood that's inspired by a true story? Then pick up your FREE copy of LUCKY STAR: A HOLLYWOOD LOVE STORY.  ⭐ https://amzn.to/2KJgWex

Five Star Review for Break Down

There are some reviews you're not expecting so when they come in, they're that much sweeter. Such was the case of the five star review for Break Down (Dublin Rugby #4) from The Romance Reviews, a notoriously picky outlet. And wow, what a review it was. Honestly, I didn't even know they were reading it! 

While BREAK DOWN was incredibly erotic, mostly it was this brilliantly written and emotional tale about this couple learning to fall in love and the challenges that come with opening your heart and hiding from the world. I recommend this to fans of any type of romance!

“5 star shaped doses of the feels for BREAK DOWN! 

When Dublin Rugby player Liam Donnelly is given a lowball offer from the team after 10 years and an injury that kept him sidelined for awhile, he knows he’s at a crossroads. He can give up the game he loves, or he can accept an offer to play for Edinburgh, and an opportunity to start fresh. After being blackmailed by the first man he’s ever been intimate with, Liam is terrified to act on his desires, but maybe, just maybe, moving to Scotland will give him the fresh start he needs to figure out what he really wants. And after meeting Chef Lachlan MacLeod, he immediately knows it’s him. 

Lachlan wants Liam, bad, but he isn’t interested in being the secret plaything to a confused man. Liam tries to stay away, but the need to explore his darker fantasies is just too strong. He doesn’t expect to fall for Lachlan, or for the chef to be the one who will change his life forever. 

Oooh, ya’ll, it’s been awhile since I’ve read an excellent MM read, and BREAK DOWN is it! Daaaamn these dudes are sexy, I most definitely wanted to figure out a way to jump into my Kindle just so I could soak up their chemistry in person. Their connection was absolutely powerful, but my heart broke for both men. Lachlan wants nothing more than to be able to show affection for his man in public, and while Liam wants that too, he is so terrified of being outed that it’s debilitating at times. While BREAK DOWN was incredibly erotic, mostly it was this brilliantly written and emotional tale about this couple learning to fall in love and the challenges that come with opening your heart and hiding from the world. I recommend this to fans of any type of romance!

Bottom Line: No OM/OW or sharing; MM sex, some condom use; no BDSM/kink; no sexual assault; no violence/murder.”

— The Romance Reviews