Cecilia Tan's Blog, page 14

Photo references for upcoming BDSM rock star romance WILD LICKS

I know, I know, I just released a BDSM rock star romance last week (TAKING THE LEAD), but I’m already getting ready for the summer release of book two in that same series, and here’s a post collecting a bunch of my visual references to my hero, heroine, and other elements in the book, which I’ll also try to tack up on Pinterest.

In book one (TAKING THE LEAD) we met Axel Hawke, the lead singer of bad boy rockers THE ROUGH. Now meet Mal Kenneally, the guitarist.

Here’s the description Gwen gives of seeing him:

On the side of the stage closest to me was the guitar player, Mal. We’d met once or twice in passing at industry functions. My impression of him from those occasions was that he never smiled and rarely spoke, looming in the background like a judgmental gargoyle. But on stage he was animated, explosive, leaping into the air with his guitar and then landing, flinging his long, dark hair forward and then flipping it back with a head toss. He still didn’t smile, but he matched Axel’s energy with a feral grimace as he sang, and then he sauntered out onto the long runway into the audience, playing a solo and practically humping the guitar as he went.

Pure sex. One-hundred percent pure sex that walked on two legs and played the guitar. When that song was over he tore his shirt off and flung it into the audience. His arms and chest looked like something from a fitness craze informercial: you too can have these abs! These biceps!

Some dark, long-haired rockers & actors to contemplate:

Ian Astbury, lead singer of The Cult in the 1980s

Ian Astbury

Ian Astbury

Ian Astbury

Here’s a video with Ian looking lovely:

Model Baptiste Giabiconi

Baptiste Giabiconi

Baptiste Giabiconi

Baptiste Giabiconi

Baptiste Giabiconi

Actor Ben Barnes

Ben Barnes

That is a very Mal look.

Ben Barnes

Ben Barnes

Mal’s dragon tattoo

Mal has a black dragon tattoo that looks something like these:

Gwen: the heroine

Our heroine is Gwen Hamilton, Ricki’s younger sister, an aspiring actor. Our description of her in the first book from her sister Ricki’s point of view is that Gwen is the “pretty one,” blond and classically pretty. I had a bunch of references but what was funny is that as the book went along, maybe because her name is “Gwen,” she grew in my head to look more and more like a young Gwyneth Paltrow.

One of the things about Gwen is that she loves how playing different roles lets her look drastically different, though, so in many scenes her hair color’s different, her makeup is different, etc. But underneath this is pretty close!

My excuse to look at engagement rings

At one point there’s a movie prop ring, which was a great excuse to go looking at engagement and wedding rings online. Like I love this one from EA Wedding:

But imagine if the two side diamonds were emeralds instead. Kind of like this:

So there you go, some visual references for WILD LICKS which comes out in August 2016! Pre-order it now: Amazon| Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Google Books | iTunes/iBooks | Indie Bookstores

Paperback cover on the left, ebook cover on the right. Yum.

Reviews & author blog tour roundup: BDSM romance TAKING THE LEAD

Reviews are coming in for my new book TAKING THE LEAD! It’s been out for one week so far. Before launch I was super-happy to have gotten great reviews in both Publishers Weekly and RT Book Reviews, but now that the book has officially launched, a slew of review sites and bloggers have posted this week! Here are some excerpts and links to the full posts:

Reviews

“I really enjoyed this sexy rockstar romance – it’s a nice easy read that kept me gripped from start to finish. …Axel is a fabulous character, he is very sexy. His bad boy image hides a soft heart and a good man. I also love his relationships and banter with his band mates and friends. Ricki and Axel had great chemistry, they were so hot together. The storyline was interesting, the characters were likable and the sex was steamy – five stars.” —JJ’s Kinky Books

“So that’s what sets Taking The Lead apart, for me at least: It’s more than just another steamy, erotic romance. It’s an emotional and psychological examination of being a feminist with also being sexually submissive.”

—Only One More Page

“Told in dual points of view, Taking the Lead was a fast and hot read that contained mild BDSM. In actuality, it seemed as though both main characters had to give up and lose control in order to find each other.”

—Escape N Books

“A hot erotic romance that has more to the story than just sex. There are interwoven story lines, including sexism in the film industry, personal and family growth, and some really good friendships.”

—Libromancer’s Apprentice

“Lots of steamy sex, a beautifully accurate representation of a D/S relationship, and a passionate love story all wrapped up into one perfect package. I recommend this wholeheartedly to people who have an interest in BDSM, in hot steamy romance, and in gentle kink.”

—Ramblings of an Avid Reader

“TAKING THE LEAD by Cecilia Tan is an exceptionally sensual and arousing erotic romance. Every sexual encounter has meaning and progresses the plot and romance. … It is hot as hell how Axel commands and dominates Ricki with his voice or the look in his eyes and how Ricki’s obedience and submission enrapture him. The closer she gets to him the deeper he falls in love. It’s easy for Axel to dominate her sexually, but he doesn’t have the power to acquire her emotional surrender. It has to be her choice.”

—Unquietly Me

“This book was sexy, intense, passionate, erotic, fun, sweet, and had an edginess to it that kept me on my edge of my seat.”

—Renee Entress

Interviews

I also did a heap of interviews. Here are some so far:

Happily Ever After:

“I do sometimes want my characters to do something I haven’t done — and if it’s something like parachuting I’ll just research it because I’m not going to jump out of a perfectly good airplane! But if it’s a BDSM thing I usually try to get some firsthand experience. You want to be accurate, right?”

Romance Beat:

“My editor and I were talking about how in the wake of “50 Shades” everyone knows about BDSM now. But if there’s no shame in BDSM anymore, why don’t we know any famous celebrities who are into it? Lots of people are out about being gay or lesbian, but Dave Navarro is the only celebrity I can think of who is “out” about BDSM.”

Butt Kicking Women:

“After Slow Surrender was so popular, my editor at Hachette said she wanted more rock stars, but this time wanted a series with a new hero in each book. I told her, ‘I can write rock stars all day long.’ And she said, ‘Bring it.’ So I did.”

Those Crazy Book Chicks

“One theme in TAKING THE LEAD that’s going to carry forward into the other books in the series is about identity, about finding “the real you.” There is so much in both Ricki and Axel’s worlds that requires them to put on masks, essentially. Axel has a public image as a “bad boy” but the truth behind that image is something more complicated. For both of them success is built on an image. But in BDSM where there is role playing, where you uncover deep, unspoken desires, there are layers of truth you can dig down to.”

Bawdy Bookworm

“Why can’t the woman be the billionaire for once? Or the sub? It isn’t money that makes someone a dom. I also wanted to write a heroine who didn’t need her hero for anything EXCEPT love. Ricki has money, power, an entire staff to support her. It was freeing to have the only reason she keeps thinking about Axel be the erotic and romantic connection between them. I loved that.”

Guest Posts

:

Joyfully Reviewed: “My Love Affair With Writing”

“Looking back at my earliest writings–which I’ve kept, in three ring binders and composition books from my elementary school days–it’s obvious to me that who was getting together with whom was always one of the things I was highly concerned with. ”

Night Owl Reviews: “Cracking an Icy Heart”

“It’s not only about the seduction, about getting to yes. Once Axel does break through Ricki’s walls of ice, it’s up to him to make the sex itself so good that Ricki will think twice before putting up those walls again. Ultimately that’s why sex has to come before love: love can’t blossom until the ice melts.”

Under the Covers Book Blog: “Last Book That Kept You Up All Night?”

“What’s funny is that I’m such a night owl — as those who follow me on Twitter know — it’s not unusual for me to stay up all night writing. So my own books keep me up all the time! But a couple of weeks ago I had a cold and had several days where I got so into the two books I was reading that I couldn’t even tell if it was night or day. Every time the cold meds wore off I woke up and started reading again. Every waking hour.”

Fresh Fiction: “Sex Has to Mean Something”

“When we see our characters making love, we shouldn’t just see a jumble of generic body parts. How our characters love, the choices they make, their preferences and likes–those are as important to getting to know them as they are to getting to know a new boyfriend or girlfriend. Do we see a side of them in the bedroom that’s hidden at other times? Or does their everyday personality come through in some unique way? A fade to black would hide those details.”

Ever After Romance: “Leading a Double Life”

“Society judges women by a brutal double standard: we’re expected to be sexy at all times but heaven forbid your co-workers or students or boss finds out that you might like to get freaky in bed. Fear of being judged not only pushes women to hide their sexuality, it may prevent them from exploring it in the first place. Put simply: THAT SUCKS. Some women fear being judged so much that they will even hide their romance novels!”

Book Lovin Mommas: “My Favorite Sidekick”

“To tell you who my favorite sidekick is we have to go waaaaay back in time in pop culture, to the days when the original Batman TV show was in reruns in my childhood. My favorite villain was Catwoman. I was only five or six years old but I was entranced by Catwoman. Yes, I was showing my interest in BDSM (and romance!) all the way back then.”

Guest blogs till to come: Fiction Vixen, Guilty Pleasures, Kimberly Faye Reads, The Book Cellar, Heroes & Heartbreakers, and a few more, I think!

Reviews & author blog tour roundup: Praise pouring in for #BDSM romance TAKING THE LEAD

Reviews are coming in for my new book TAKING THE LEAD! It’s been out for one week so far. Before launch I was super-happy to have gotten great reviews in both Publishers Weekly and RT Book Reviews, but now that the book has officially launched, a slew of review sites and bloggers have posted this week! Here are some excerpts and links to the full posts:

Reviews

“I really enjoyed this sexy rockstar romance – it’s a nice easy read that kept me gripped from start to finish. …Axel is a fabulous character, he is very sexy. His bad boy image hides a soft heart and a good man. I also love his relationships and banter with his band mates and friends. Ricki and Axel had great chemistry, they were so hot together. The storyline was interesting, the characters were likable and the sex was steamy – five stars.” —JJ’s Kinky Books

“So that’s what sets Taking The Lead apart, for me at least: It’s more than just another steamy, erotic romance. It’s an emotional and psychological examination of being a feminist with also being sexually submissive.”

—Only One More Page

“Told in dual points of view, Taking the Lead was a fast and hot read that contained mild BDSM. In actuality, it seemed as though both main characters had to give up and lose control in order to find each other.”

—Escape N Books

“A hot erotic romance that has more to the story than just sex. There are interwoven story lines, including sexism in the film industry, personal and family growth, and some really good friendships.”

—Libromancer’s Apprentice

“Lots of steamy sex, a beautifully accurate representation of a D/S relationship, and a passionate love story all wrapped up into one perfect package. I recommend this wholeheartedly to people who have an interest in BDSM, in hot steamy romance, and in gentle kink.”

—Ramblings of an Avid Reader

“TAKING THE LEAD by Cecilia Tan is an exceptionally sensual and arousing erotic romance. Every sexual encounter has meaning and progresses the plot and romance. … It is hot as hell how Axel commands and dominates Ricki with his voice or the look in his eyes and how Ricki’s obedience and submission enrapture him. The closer she gets to him the deeper he falls in love. It’s easy for Axel to dominate her sexually, but he doesn’t have the power to acquire her emotional surrender. It has to be her choice.”

—Unquietly Me

Interviews

I also did a heap of interviews. Here are some so far:

Happily Ever After:

“I do sometimes want my characters to do something I haven’t done — and if it’s something like parachuting I’ll just research it because I’m not going to jump out of a perfectly good airplane! But if it’s a BDSM thing I usually try to get some firsthand experience. You want to be accurate, right?”

Romance Beat:

“My editor and I were talking about how in the wake of “50 Shades” everyone knows about BDSM now. But if there’s no shame in BDSM anymore, why don’t we know any famous celebrities who are into it? Lots of people are out about being gay or lesbian, but Dave Navarro is the only celebrity I can think of who is “out” about BDSM.”

Butt Kicking Women:

“After Slow Surrender was so popular, my editor at Hachette said she wanted more rock stars, but this time wanted a series with a new hero in each book. I told her, ‘I can write rock stars all day long.’ And she said, ‘Bring it.’ So I did.”

Those Crazy Book Chicks

“One theme in TAKING THE LEAD that’s going to carry forward into the other books in the series is about identity, about finding “the real you.” There is so much in both Ricki and Axel’s worlds that requires them to put on masks, essentially. Axel has a public image as a “bad boy” but the truth behind that image is something more complicated. For both of them success is built on an image. But in BDSM where there is role playing, where you uncover deep, unspoken desires, there are layers of truth you can dig down to.”

Bawdy Bookworm

“Why can’t the woman be the billionaire for once? Or the sub? It isn’t money that makes someone a dom. I also wanted to write a heroine who didn’t need her hero for anything EXCEPT love. Ricki has money, power, an entire staff to support her. It was freeing to have the only reason she keeps thinking about Axel be the erotic and romantic connection between them. I loved that.”

Guest Posts

:

Joyfully Reviewed: “My Love Affair With Writing”

“Looking back at my earliest writings–which I’ve kept, in three ring binders and composition books from my elementary school days–it’s obvious to me that who was getting together with whom was always one of the things I was highly concerned with. ”

Night Owl Reviews: “Cracking an Icy Heart”

“It’s not only about the seduction, about getting to yes. Once Axel does break through Ricki’s walls of ice, it’s up to him to make the sex itself so good that Ricki will think twice before putting up those walls again. Ultimately that’s why sex has to come before love: love can’t blossom until the ice melts.”

Under the Covers Book Blog: “Last Book That Kept You Up All Night?”

“What’s funny is that I’m such a night owl — as those who follow me on Twitter know — it’s not unusual for me to stay up all night writing. So my own books keep me up all the time! But a couple of weeks ago I had a cold and had several days where I got so into the two books I was reading that I couldn’t even tell if it was night or day. Every time the cold meds wore off I woke up and started reading again. Every waking hour.”

Fresh Fiction: “Sex Has to Mean Something”

“When we see our characters making love, we shouldn’t just see a jumble of generic body parts. How our characters love, the choices they make, their preferences and likes–those are as important to getting to know them as they are to getting to know a new boyfriend or girlfriend. Do we see a side of them in the bedroom that’s hidden at other times? Or does their everyday personality come through in some unique way? A fade to black would hide those details.”

Ever After Romance: “Leading a Double Life”

“Society judges women by a brutal double standard: we’re expected to be sexy at all times but heaven forbid your co-workers or students or boss finds out that you might like to get freaky in bed. Fear of being judged not only pushes women to hide their sexuality, it may prevent them from exploring it in the first place. Put simply: THAT SUCKS. Some women fear being judged so much that they will even hide their romance novels!”

Book Lovin Mommas: “My Favorite Sidekick”

“To tell you who my favorite sidekick is we have to go waaaaay back in time in pop culture, to the days when the original Batman TV show was in reruns in my childhood. My favorite villain was Catwoman. I was only five or six years old but I was entranced by Catwoman. Yes, I was showing my interest in BDSM (and romance!) all the way back then.”

Guest blogs till to come: Fiction Vixen, Guilty Pleasures, Kimberly Faye Reads, The Book Cellar, Heroes & Heartbreakers, and a few more, I think!

BDSM Romance Writers Live Chat Friday 2/5: Tara Sue Me & Cecilia Tan

This is exciting! Something new! RT Book Reviews will be hosting me and Tara Sue Me (author of the Submissive series) in a live YouTube chat this Friday, Feb 5th at 12 noon to 1pm (Eastern US time). Her new book THE MASTER is out this week, and of course my TAKING THE LEAD just hit last week!

Want to leave a question for us to answer? Post it over at RT Book Reviews here: http://www.rtbookreviews.com/blog/87694/live-chat-cecilia-tan-and-tara-sue-me-friday-february-5-noon

Here’s the chat video stream window, embedded:

Launch day for the hottest BDSM rock star romance of the year: TAKING THE LEAD!

It’s here! First book in the new Secrets of a Rock Star series, written by yours truly and published by Hachette/Grand Central Publishing’s romance imprint Forever, TAKING THE LEAD was released in ebook and paperback today!

Join me TONIGHT (Tuesday January 26th) for a live video chat from 8:30 to 10:30 about the book! I’ll read from a steamy section of the book, take questions, and talk about my influences and how I wrote and researched it. (Yes, there’s research… there’s always research!) It’ll be on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/arkd9wjXcdA, and if you want to ask questions in advance add them to either the Facebook event or comment below!

Here are the official blurbs on the book:

Buy links:

Order the book:Indiebound bookstores | Amazon | Barnes & Noble|Kobo | iTunes | Google Play

When the rich and famous come out to play, nothing is off-limits . . .

Everyone knows Ricki Hamilton as the icy heiress living in a billion-dollar mansion, high up in the Hollywood Hills. But few realize that behind the gilded gates, Ricki is the mistress of LA’s most exclusive private club. A place where no fantasy is forbidden and no one goes unsatisfied-except for Ricki. If she had her way, she’d leave the business behind . . . until she meets the one man with the power to change her mind.

The hottest rock star in the world, Axel Hawke, has the requisite sexy look and bad-boy reputation. Yet even his biggest fans have no clue just how decadently dangerous he can be. From the moment he meets Ricki, he knows there is no other woman who will satisfy him. He can feel the heat hiding beneath her cool demeanor and he’s determined to stoke her flame.

Together Ricki and Axel indulge their every desire. The deeper they go, the more she craves. Submitting to Axel opens her eyes, and for the first time Ricki knows exactly what she wants. All she has to do is take it . . .

Praise for TAKING THE LEAD:

“Everyone knows Cecilia Tan is the queen of hot, but she’s also the queen of wit and angst and voice. Taking the Lead is a book that grabs you by the collar and gives you flirty-eyes. It will tell you, ‘Go sit, over there in the corner chair, and don’t get up until you’re done.’ You will do it-absolutely and happily-because Cecilia knows exactly what you want.”

—Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Bastard and Sweet Filthy Boy

“Cecilia Tan writes erotic romance the way it was meant to be written: full of emotion, intensity, and chemistry that’s so hot it burns the page. Taking the Lead is no exception; it’s deliciously sexy and utterly satisfying.”

—Tara Sue Me, New York Times bestselling author

“An emotional whirlwind romance. Axel is as strong and sexy as readers expect in a rock-star hero without being an overly brooding jerk. The length he goes in order to win over emotionally closed-off Ricki will melt your heart.”

—RT Book Reviews

“With a satisfying plot and an engaging cast of characters, the only thing slowing readers down will be their refractory period.”

—Publishers Weekly

Is attending RWA or RT Worth the Cost? (Spoiler: YESSS)

Registration for RWA National opens next week (on Feb 2, according to the RWA website), and so now’s probably a really good time for me to blog about the pros and cons of attending big romance cons, specifically the cost. Really, for me, the only downside is how expensive it is to attend either of the two biggies on the romance calendar, RWA and RT Booklovers (often just called RT).

I mentioned in my email newsletter recently that I didn’t attend the 2011 RWA conference in New York City because I simply couldn’t afford to. But now in 2016 I can’t afford NOT to. Here’s why.



Deciding how to spend money on a writing career is something most writers I know struggle with. There are dozens of things we can be doing to “invest in ourselves,” but picking through what’s really going to pay off and what isn’t is tricky.

Deciding to go to a convention isn’t like deciding to run an ad campaign because it’s hard to figure out if it’s “worth it.” This is different from a cost, say, if I pay BookBub $500 to promote my 99-cent sale, I can do the math to figure out my breakeven point is at 1500 sales.

It’s not quite so simple to calculate ROI (Return On Investment) with what you’re likely to spend to attend a convention–any convention–and RWA is by far the most expensive convention I’ve been to in 25 years in publishing. The hotel in 2015 was $255 per night before taxes, and the registration for the conference itself isn’t cheap, either. (RWA 2016 will be $450 for RWA members to register and $269 per night hotel.) RT Booklovers in Dallas was a little more affordable than the 2015 RWA National, but only by a little, and the 2016 costs are announced to be. (RT Booklovers in Las Vegas was $489 for published authors when reg opened, but it has price jumps every few months. If you’re just registering as an attendee there are also per-day rates, and the hotel costs are much less: only $119-$149 a night at the Rio in Vegas.)

A quick breakdown of some estimated costs on for the 2015 RWA:

Registration: $500 (may vary depending on how early you registered, includes breakfast)

Hotel: $600 (assuming you split with a roommate)

Airfare: $450 (assuming you bargain hunted but couldn’t get dirt cheap)

Food: $375 ($75 per day. New York is expensive, but assume a free meal here or there)

TOTAL: $1925

And that’s not counting taxis, airport shuttles, buying a dress for the Rita Awards ceremony, or any of that–nor your regular RWA membership. Still. You’re in the $2,000 ballpark. I was lucky: I took the train for less than $200 roundtrip, and if I’d gotten more roommates I could have whittled the cost down to ~$1500. If I’d crashed on my agent’s couch I and skimped food I could have gotten it down to ~$1,000, but really not lower than that. The question to ask myself then is: is it worth spending one to two grand to go to RWA?

WHAT YOU NEED

If you’re an unpublished, aspiring writer, the three things you need most are:

1) information about the industry

2) development of your writing skills and craft

3) access to the people who can make your career (publishers, agents, crit partners, bloggers, peers)

and guess what, even after you’re an established writer, you still need those three things, but let’s look at this as if you’re new.

CRAFT CLASSES

As it happens, all three of these things you need are found in abundance at RWA. What would it cost to “buy” these services separately? Well, information about the industry is something we do get lots of from the RWA newsletter (annual membership fee $95), and the classes offered by RWA and its chapters (varying prices). I attended two craft master classes this RWA, one with Susan Elizabeth Philips on characterization and one with Jennifer Crusie on Conflict. I also attended a fabulous panel that was as good as a master class called “How Not To End A Series,” about writing ongoing series. (Blogged here.) Last time I took one on paranormal worldbuilding taught by Nalini Singh (blogged here). I also went to a stunningly useful panel on Writing LGBT Characters. If instead of attending those four sessions I had done those classes as online workshops or gone to a writing class at my local adult education center I would have paid anywhere from $20 to $100 a class.

So let’s round it to $50 a class, meaning that was $200 worth of writing education right there on the spot. I think most people attended more sessions than that: you could probably have fit in ten and still had plenty of time to attend parties, cruise the goody room, meet people, etc. 10x$50= $500.

INSIDER INFO

I also went to a panel on “Hottest Trends.” Typically if one really wants to consult with a publishing expert on such a topic you’d be looking at minimum a $100/hour consulting fee. So let’s add $100-$200 to our money’s worth. If I’d gotten up a little earlier some days or if I’d taken sessions instead of meeting with people I could have easily attended more workshops. You can see how at a value of $50 to $100 per session in “replacement value” the cost of registration is quickly covered and likely surpassed.

I want to stress here that the quality of the craft and marketing sessions I have attended at RWA National have been off-the-charts excellent, and almost all the ones I’ve attended at RT Booklovers have been really strong also, like last year’s sessions on using bonus content.

CONNECTIONS

Then we come to item 3, though. How much would you pay for access to all the top movers and shakers in your industry? In some genres you’d be looking at a long, obscure apprenticeship toiling in obscurity before you make the right connections, or before you’re deemed worthy to join the insider “club.” In romance, it sure doesn’t feel that way. And conferences like RWA and RT have a thing called pitch sessions, where as part of your registration you get to sign up to pitch your book idea to an agent and/or an editor.

You can’t get that kind of access just from sending your submission through the slush pile. You can’t pay for that kind of access any other way. Like they say in the credit card commercials: Priceless!

Making those connections can happen sometimes through social media, but social media is still not a complete replacement for meeting in person, especially in an environment where pitching is expected and supported, and where you can get feedback on your pitch. I still say the face to face meeting with an agent or editor is priceless, invaluable, but let’s put a price of $200 on the feedback you get on your pitch. That’s about what you’d pay a “book doctor” to evaluate your proposal and give you feedback on it.

MOAR PERKS

There were a couple of other perks for attendees, too. For example, during the “Trade Show” on Saturday afternoon, when various companies and services for writers exhibited, Tom Smarch Photography did FREE author photo head shots. I’m so pleased with how mine came out! I’d been meaning to get new author photos but haven’t had the time to book an appointment and, of course, a pro photographer costs money. But these didn’t: free, courtesy of RWA. I was skeptical, given that I was convention-tired, but a good lens, good eye, and good lighting really does make a huge difference. You can get $14.99 portrait photos at Wal-Mart, but the going rate for a decent portrait photographer seems to range from $50-$200 per sitting. Let’s call it $50.

Oh and let’s not forget the swag bag and all the stuff you can pick up in the goody room. I haven’t had to buy office supplies since I started going to these conventions. Pens, notepads, Post-Its, eye glass cleaners, highlighters, hand sanitizer, lip balm: I’m now well stocked. And books. Tons and tons of free books. If you have relatives who love reading romance you’ll be stocked up for birthdays and holiday gifts! Since I actually use the post-its and pens I pick up let’s say I saved $25 in office supplies.

Now let’s add up all the things I could have gotten out of the 2015 RWA so far:

$500 craft classes

$200 consulting fee

$200 professional feedback

$50 portrait photo

$25 swag

$975 total

That’s pretty close to the grand I would’ve spent if I skimped and did the convention as cheaply as possible!

And that’s only the things I could put a price tag on.

Still, one to two grand is a lot of money. But if you meet the agent who gets you that five-figure book deal, or that editor who acquires your book or maybe even your whole series, the payoff is huge. And every other opportunity to interact with editors and agents in person also requires money and travel, i.e. other writers conferences, book industry trade shows, book business fundraisers or awards banquets, etc. Even if a publisher or agent in New York would give you a one-on-one meeting not related to the conference, you’d still have to pay to get yourself there, find a place to stay, etc.

So for the aspiring writer? To me attending RWA is a no-brainer and I wish I had borrowed money to start attending them sooner. If you’re going to put yourself into this industry, $1,000 to $2,000 is a pretty low startup cost to acquire knowledge, craft, and connections! I know I detailed RWA here, but the RT Booklovers Convention has many of the same features and also lots and lots of readers so has more of a promotional aspect, too. So once you’re established and want a venue to reach out to readers, RT Booklovers is one place to accomplish that, too.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

What happens when you’re not aspiring anymore, though, but are established? I no longer need to pitch to editors and I’ve been with my agent 15 years. But I believe there’s nothing better than being able to interact with the people at your publishing house. If RWA were not in New York, I would probably want to make a separate trip to NYC to meet with my editor separately. It’s going to cost as much to get there for that meeting as it would for the conference.

But this trip was even better than that. Because of the conference, the entire Forever team held a party at their offices, so all their authors got to go and meet people who don’t usually travel to RWA, like the art director who makes our covers so beautiful. (Elizabeth, we love you!) We met all the publicists, many senior editors, and also got to meet a lot of our fellow writers.

I can’t stress enough that making connections with other writers has helped me immensely throughout my career. And so often the opportunities to help one another come along because we got a chance to meet. When I was looking for advice on who to hire as a publicist, I got the advice of Tara Sue Me because we’d met by chance at a cocktail party at RT. When I needed blurbs for my latest book: every one of them came from someone I met at a conference. And so on.

And just because I’m a veteran writer doesn’t mean I get to stop learning about my craft, or the business. The business is constantly changing and it’s important to keep up, and there are always things to learn about writing. And there are always new bloggers and librarians to meet, other writers to connect with, and so on. There’s no replacement for attending a conference and the serendipity of connections that get made. Attending RWA and RT is, for me, part of the cost of doing business. In the future there might be some years where I choose one or the other because doing both is going to be too expensive or too much time away from writing, but right now I have them both on my calendar for the foreseeable future.

(P.S. One more tip about romance conferences. A great way to get your feet wet for not as much money is find the regional conference near you. Many of the same folks who teach at RWA National do the same presentations at regionals, which have lower registration cost and may be less far to travel. Among the ones I’ve been to and found them incredibly valuable: Moonlight & Magnolias (Georgia Romance Writers) and Let Imagination Take Flight (New England Chapter of RWA). There are many others including the Emerald City Writers Conference, New Jersey’s Put Your Heart In a Book, as well as Texas, Florida, etc! YA, fantasy, and science fiction writers, I urge you to attend some of these to get a handle on a huge amount of stuff that is applicable to ANY genre.)

Taking the Lead: new rockstar BDSM romance, NSFW preview chapter!

I’m pleased to offer up a tasty sample of my new book from Hachette/Grand Central Publishing/Forever which officially launches in six days! It’s already popped up in some bookstores, though!

On sale: Indiebound bookstores | Amazon|Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes | Google Play

I originally shared this sex scene from TAKING THE LEAD with my newsletter readers back 14 months ago, shortly after I’d written the first draft. It has since passed through my beta readers, critique partners, and my editor at Hachette, and has more depth than that early draft. (Just as much sex, though…heh.)

This segment is from our heroine’s point of view. Ricki Hamilton is a young Hollywood heiress, fresh out of business school, while Axel Hawke is the lead singer of a rock band who are just hitting it big. It’s the night of the Grammy Awards, and at one point, as a publicity stunt, Axel is supposed to joke-kidnap a mutual friend of theirs out of the audience. But Axel, who has gotten interested in Ricki, ends up making off with her instead. Here’s what happens after they land in the “getaway limo.”

(Also after all the limo scenes in the Struck by Lightning series, especially the first few in Slow Surrender, I thought it would be fun to have very very very different limo sex this time around. Remember how James doesn’t even touch Karina at first? This time I think Axel has extra hands…!)

When Axel Hawke dove into the back of a limo with me and we sped off, I was lightheaded from being unable to breathe. The moment he had picked me up I had started to laugh, and then partway up the aisle he’d switched to carrying me over his shoulder like a pirate making off with a wench. His shoulder dug into my stomach, which made me laugh harder but also made it even harder to breathe.

Maybe it wasn’t the way he was carrying me that made me so breathless. My mind was awhirl—the tabloids! They were going to have a field day! But part of me didn’t care. My fantasies of him carrying me away came roaring back, and the giddy feeling only intensified as I realized that any of the blame for this stunt was going to fall squarely on Axel Hawke, not me. I was merely the innocent bystander dragged along for the ride. Literally.

I realized I still had my arms around his neck while I fought to catch my breath. We were halfway lying down where we had landed in the spacious interior of the car. It was one of those ridiculous tourist limos, suitable for bachelorette parties and the like, the interior lights cycling through a series of colors and a miniature disco ball throwing sparkles of light everywhere. Given that he had just taken off without getting any directions, this limo driver had to have been hired by Axel in advance.

Where are we going? I wanted to ask, but I made the mistake of looking into those intense eyes of his. For a moment he looked as if he might say something.

Instead, we kissed. One moment we were staring into each other’s eyes; the next moment our lips were sealed together.

And I’d thought I was breathless before. Axel Hawke could kiss. His mouth was sure and firm, never still. He coaxed mine open, and the more we kissed, the more I wanted to kiss. He varied the pressure, never letting me take the lead but not overwhelming me, either. His tongue teased and I felt the kiss all the way down under my gown.

This was everything I wanted, but nothing that I expected. This wasn’t anything I could have imagined actually happening, and with every cell in my body focused on him, on where we touched, on the way he moved, there wasn’t any brainpower left to think about anything else.

As the kiss went on, the tingle between my legs grew to a warm center of pleasure and then to an outright ache of need. When was the last time I’d actually wanted like this? When was the last time I had let myself want anything like this?

Then I was gasping for breath and trying to understand the words that were pouring hotly into my ear.

“Should I stop?”

No, no, don’t you dare stop, I thought, but I couldn’t let myself say that. “You…You should…but…” I said weakly, regretfully.

“I’ll stop when you say the word ‘no,’ then,” he murmured. He sounded a little drunk. Intoxicated by lust? Probably his performance high. Dad used to call it the strongest drug known to man. Which was pretty funny coming from an alcoholic, but that was my father for you.

“Where are we going?” I asked, thinking I’d distract Axel.

“Sakura’s,” he answered, and began kissing me again.

And I was kissing him back. It was simply too good to stop. He flattened me under him, a hand on either side of my head, while his tongue did its wicked work, inflaming me. Lying like that, the hardness of him was excruciatingly close to that place where I ached. I wriggled under him, telling myself I was trying to wriggle away, but I was actually trying to move the hottest part of me against him in just the right way…

Then came a moment when my writhing almost dislodged him and he shifted his weight to pin me completely. To see what would happen, I tried to actually wriggle free and found his arms and legs moved to keep me in place. Being pinned like that sent my desire surging! It was like a tide that had been coming in gradually suddenly hit a wall and waves of need leapt up, splashing, swamping me.

I freed my mouth to take a deeper breath and his mouth moved down to my neck. How he knew where the spot was that was like a direct line to my clit, I don’t know—maybe he found it by luck, but once he did, he didn’t let up. The zone was just below the array of diamonds of my choker and his tongue worked it softly but relentlessly. I moaned. Why was I trying to push him away? My hands were pushing at him but he was not letting me deter him from his goal, which seemed to be licking my neck like his life depended on it. He had a bit of stubble on his chin but instead of giving me rug burn it was only making my skin tingle even more.

I was trying to push him away because it was too much, too ticklish, too stimulating, and yet it wasn’t, because when I didn’t succeed in dislodging him I didn’t shatter in a million pieces: I melted even more.

And so the game went. He didn’t let up pleasuring that spot on my neck with his mouth, and every time it got too intense for me, I’d try to wrestle him off and he wouldn’t let me. Each time I tried to fight him off and he didn’t let me win, I fell deeper and deeper into his control. I could say “no;” wasn’t that what he’d said? But I wanted to try to push him off, to see if I could, or to see what he’d do, where his limit was.

But I wasn’t close to Axel Hawke’s limit. He was single-minded in his goal to make me writhe. One of his hands strayed to the nipple that was pushing at the fabric of my gown and his thumb brushed it, teasingly light in contrast to the never-ending motion of his tongue and mouth. I felt my clit twitch with that touch.

It almost felt like he could make me come like that, without ever getting into my panties. Amazing. I had never felt a touch like that.

I tried one more time to get free. He was simply too good, too balanced, too determined…I was along for the ride, I realized. Just like with being carried from the auditorium, this was completely on Axel. It was as if my body finally caught up to what my brain had been trying to tell it and I stopped fighting him entirely. I surrendered to the incredible gift of the sensation building in my nerve endings. Instead of trying to push him away now, I was grinding against him, pulling him closer, harder, needing…something.

“I…I…” I gasped. “I’m going to come.”

“Yes you are,” he murmured against my neck and shifted position ever so slightly, letting me wrap my leg around him.

I’d never come with all my clothes on before. I’d never come in a limousine before. I’d never come in a one-of-a-kind Chanel dress before. And I sure as diamonds had never come rubbing myself off on the boner of a rock star of questionable sanity.

You can ask me later whose sanity was more questionable. I was too busy at the time screaming because I was coming so desperately, so hungrily—it wasn’t enough and yet it was too much at the same time. If he hadn’t been so firmly planted between my thighs I would have been tempted to jam my hand down there myself. But he was there: I was entirely in his control.

My spasms peaked and then subsided suddenly, like they often do, leaving me gasping and limp as if I’d been beached by a wave.

When I opened my eyes, Axel Hawke was propped on one elbow, looking down into my face with mild concern. The disco ball’s sparkles twinkled across his face and were reflected in his eyes.

Orgasm had shut off my filters. “Sakura was right. This was like the prom night that never was.”

“Prom night?” An amused half-smile dimpled his cheek. “Are you okay?”

I tried to answer the question with actual information, but that took some thinking. “Did you mean to do that?”

“Make you come, you mean? Or kidnapping you in the first place?” He sounded much calmer than I expected him to be. After all, I could feel his erection between my legs, throbbing. Maybe he knew he didn’t have to hurry because he knew I was under his spell. The thought made my insides clench hungrily, even though I’d just come.

“How about both,” I said, trying to re-engage my logical mind.

“Well, they were both spur of the moment decisions, but, once I decided, then yes, I meant to do that.” His tongue slowly swept the edge of his lip. “I hope that was all right with you.”

I must’ve been full of sex hormones at that moment because his dimple was the cutest thing I had ever seen and his eyes—which had already been captivating—I was staring at them like a thief at the crown jewels. All I could manage to say was, “Okay.”

“The publicity stunt part was planned, but I was supposed to make off with Sakura in this limo. She’s going to kill me.”

“She’ll forgive you,” I babbled. “You’re very convincing.”

“Good.” He nuzzled behind my ear. “Now let me convince you to let me under that dress, Ms. Hamilton.”

“I don’t date bad boys,” I heard myself saying, though at that moment all the reasons not to seemed very far in the back of my mind.

“I’m not asking you for a date. I’m asking you to let me under your dress.”

That sounded so reasonable. Didn’t it? “You’re not going to give me some groupie’s STDs, are you?”

He chuckled. “No. I’m clean. Are you?”

I almost told him how long it had been since I’d actually bothered to let anyone touch me below the waist. I decided he didn’t need to know that. I kept my answer to “Yes.”

“Good.” He brushed his lips over the spot on my neck where he had been licking and suckling so intensely before. The light touch made goose bumps spring up on that half of my body. “Because I hate to break it to you, but your body is mine now.”

“Oh, is it?” He’s fun, I thought.

“Mm-hm,” he said, in mock seriousness. “This spot right here is an on-off switch.” He dragged his finger over the place on my neck. “Only I can turn it on and off, though.”

“Really.”

“Yep. Some doms make their subs wear a collar to keep that spot hidden. But I don’t have to.” He warmed my neck with his breath and my entire body felt like deliciously hot massage oil was pouring over it. “Now, are you going to take your gown off, or am I going to cut it off you?”

I remembered what Sakura had said about how she suspected he was dominant and I wondered if she was more certain than she’d acted. I also really wondered what he’d do if I said he should cut my dress off. But I didn’t want to ruin the gown, even if I never wore it again. “I’ll…I’ll take it off.” I was surprised to hear my voice shook, like an actress unsure of her lines.

He lay back then and gestured at me to do so. He was the picture of insouciant self-possession, his ankles crossed, his legs outstretched in their spandex, his hands folded on his flat stomach, his hair clinging sexily to his neck and his cheek. He had some kind of a curvy black tattoo on his upper arm and part of his chest but I couldn’t get a good look at it in the disco-ball light.

I knelt on the floor, adrenaline pumping through me like it did when I was on stage or in a spotlight. I’d never liked this feeling when I did theater productions, which was why I wasn’t an aspiring actress like Gwen. I was too afraid of messing up in front of everyone.

But here I had an audience of one. One person whose opinion mattered.

I couldn’t remember where the zipper was.

“Here. I’ll start,” Axel said. He stripped off his own top in one smooth motion and then lay back down as if he were posing for a portrait entitled “Royal Pasha in Repose.” He gestured again to spur me.

Right. There was a tiny clasp hidden at one hip, and then the zipper ran up one side. I undid the zipper and peeled the gown down like white magnolia petals all around me.

“Pretty,” he said, the tip of his tongue exploring his upper lip.

My nipples tightened as if that tongue were touching them.

“Pretty breasts,” he added, as if he noticed. Of course he noticed. “How sensitive are they?”

“I don’t really have a point of comparison.”

“Show me, then. Run your fingers over them lightly, not the nipple, just the skin.”

My cheeks flushed so suddenly it felt almost like sunburn. I’d never performed for a guy before. My fingers were trembling slightly with excitement as I made light circles with my middle fingers around the outside of my breasts. Was this what he wanted me to do?

“Look down,” he said. “Watch your nipples.”

I saw they were crinkling up and standing out like buttons.

“Keep circling, don’t touch them yet.”

“Yes, sir,” I whispered.

“Mm, ‘sir.’ That has a nice sound to it.” He sat up. “Because of the sweet way you said the word.”

I blushed harder. “Sir” had been a guess on my part. This was getting more and more like an improv scene all the time. “Do you like it when I call you ‘sir’?”

“Yes. But why don’t you call me by my name? But you can only call me by my name when you mean it like that.” He moved behind me then, running his hands over my stomach and purring into my ear. “Only when by saying it you mean ‘man who owns my body and my pleasure.’ Say it.”

“A-Axel,” I stuttered.

One of his hands slid down my abdomen under the gathered waist of the gown. “You don’t sound very sure of that.” A finger slid right over my pubic bone but stopped short of my clit. “Who am I?”

“Axel,” I tried again.

“Who?”

The man who owns my body and my pleasure. I leaned back against him, touching my tongue to the back of my teeth as I sucked in a breath. “Axel,” I breathed.

“That’s it,” he said, and rewarded me with a long stroke over my clit.

I was copiously wet and my clit throbbed under his touch, as if being neglected before had made it all the more desperate for contact.

“Last chance to take your gown off before I ruin it,” he whispered in my ear as his finger switched to circling my clit.

“Don’t stop,” I answered, my belly quivering. “Please don’t stop.”

I couldn’t imagine how a man could be so good at fingering a woman without feeling what she was feeling herself. Maybe he’d had a lot of practice. Maybe he was good at reading my reactions. Maybe both. I couldn’t really think that deeply about it while his hand played in my panties like a virtuoso. He spread my lips with his outer fingers while the inner ones teased the underside of my clit, and when that ache turned white hot and unbearable he soothed it with another round of circles.

On and on and on it went, until my panties were soaked with juices and my neck was soaked with sweat, until again we reached that point where it was too much for me and I tried to struggle away from him.

Except that just like before he held me fast and didn’t let me get away, plying the pleasure onto my flesh no matter how I writhed or struggled. The struggle became heated but again there was no way I could win it.

I reached the point of surrender once more, gasping as I went limp and then a second time as he chose that moment to plunge a finger into me, the sudden stimulation from inside rocketing me into orgasm. I found I was too hoarse to scream, but I made a long moan as his finger inside me continued to wiggle and crook against a pleasure spot inside, drawing the orgasm out longer than I expected and still not letting up when the peak had passed, making me cry out in distress. “Oh God, oh God!”

He clucked his tongue. “That’s not the name you mean to call out, is it?”

“Axel!” I sobbed. He didn’t let up one bit. “Axel, oh God, Axel.”

“Are you going to come again? Come again for me.”

I had often heard orgasms described as “explosions,” but this was the first one I’d had that felt like one. Like I blew apart. And still he did not stop, his finger inside me and the palm of his hand rubbing my clit, too.

I sobbed again. “Why don’t you stop?”

“Because you begged me not to,” he whispered, doubling the pace of his efforts. “Remember?”

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, Axel!”

“Do you want me to stop now? Do you?”

I arched back against him, exploding again, screaming “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Except these were the yesses that meant I was coming, not “yes I want you to stop.” But he was merciful and let me finish coming before he slid his fingers out of me, settling to a slow, gentle massage between my legs. I could barely think: All I could do was feel. I felt incredible, every part of my body glowing, my heartbeat slowing. I couldn’t remember ever coming like that because no lover before had ever pushed me so hard. Is he that special? I wondered. Am I that special? I had an unfamiliar feeling I couldn’t define fizzing in my chest, and down below a new need, no less raging than the previous one, was burning hot.

“Mmm. You’re amazing,” he said, burying his face in my hair. “I could make you come all night long.”

I didn’t know what line I should deliver after something like that, so I said nothing. I’d had enough of orgasm and what I needed was much more…solid than that.

He gave me my cue. “Tell me what you want, Ms. Hamilton.”

“You, Axel.” My cheeks got hot all over again.

“Me? You have me.” He slid his fingers back and forth over my swollen pussy as if he knew that would make me feel empty inside.

“I want to have sex with you.”

“I am pretty sure what we just did counts as sex,” he said, sounding amused.

“Your cock, Axel,” I finally said, feeling the blush spread not just over my cheeks but over my whole body. And it felt good rather than mortifying—like my inhibitions had been ripped away by sheer need. “I want you to fuck me.”

“Are you sure? Consider before you answer. If I fuck you, I’m going to make you come on my cock.”

I growled. I wanted him to get to it now, not talk to me about it. “That’s the point of fucking, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s the point. But I’ll warn you. After you have my cock, you’ll find all others inferior. In fact, you might find it difficult to come without it inside you.” He gave me an insouciant grin. “Fair warning.”

“Prove it,” I said, trying to goad him.

“I will. When I’m good and ready,” he said. “I think you’re forgetting who’s in charge here.”

The words laced through me like a shock, sending my mind tumbling and another rush of lust through me. Why did it affect me like that when he took charge?

I’d have to think about it some time when I could think. Right now he was pulling me down to rub my cheek against his erection and even though I didn’t really have a thing for oral sex I found myself salivating. His flesh was hard as stone. I could feel it throbbing and it was like every throb was answered by one between my legs.

“You feel that?” he said. “You still want it?”

Each word he said only melted away my resistance even more. “Yes, Axel, yes.”

“Then you’ll do exactly as I say, won’t you, Ms. Hamilton?”

“Yes!” There wasn’t any idea in my mind of doing anything except exactly what he said. Wanting him blotted out any other thoughts. I hadn’t known it was possible to want someone, or something, so much.

On sale: Indiebound bookstores | Amazon|Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes | Google Play

“Chat live with BDSM romance author Cecilia Tan this Tuesday!”

This coming Tuesday the first book in my new Secrets of a Rock Star series will be launching!

To celebrate, I’ll be hosting a live video chat from 8:30 to 10:30pm that night about the book! I’ll read from a steamy section of the book, take questions, etc. Please feel free to post questions in advance either below or on the Facebook event where you can RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/202209060126813/

YouTube direct link: https://youtu.be/arkd9wjXcdA

Buy links:

Order the book:Indiebound bookstores | Amazon | Barnes & Noble|Kobo | iTunes | Google Play

Writing Advice: What I Learned from Reading One-Star Reviews

There are some lessons as a writer that one learns over and over. One that keeps coming around again and again for me is this: What some people love most about a book or story will be the SAME THING that other people hate the most.

I first learned this as an editor. I’ve edited over 100 anthologies of erotic short stories for Circlet Press and many other publishers. In these I was often culling through a slush pile of dozens–sometimes hundreds–of submissions, trying to find stories that were a fit. Every editor looks for stories that are both of publishable quality AND which meet that editor’s particular taste. But there were times when a story would be on the bubble, when for some reason I didn’t outright reject it but didn’t accept it right away either.

These “bubble” stories were often ones where I had doubts, where something made me question either my taste or whether the story was truly a “fit”–and yet I didn’t reject them right away. More often than not I “took a chance” and published the story anyway, despite my reservations. My instincts were trying to tell me something. I would rationalize it as, well, in an anthology with a dozen stories, you want variety, you want a panoply of style and theme… but almost always these “questionable” stories would turn out to be the ones that people loved the most.

Invariably what I found was that if there was a story I was questioning, but my instinct made me pick it anyway, it would be the one story that got singled out for praise by reviewers and literary critics. It would be the one story that got fan mail, the one where customers on Amazon wrote “this story was worth the price of admission.”

Interesting, no?

Same thing in my MFA writing workshops in grad school. The stories or chapters or poems that the class argued the most about–meaning some of the students hated it and some loved it–were often the ones I was sure were actually the best stories. I found myself sometimes taking a fellow student aside and telling them, essentially, don’t let the haters get you down. Sometimes you walk out of a workshop feeling like the life’s been beaten out of you because the reaction was so negative from other students. “Don’t feel bad,” I’d say. “Getting a rise out of them is the proof that you’re actually onto something, you’re writing is actually working. When the story doesn’t work, nobody really cares.” The writers by and large who were able to take that negative feedback as a positive sign were the ones who went on to publish and have careers as pros. The ones who were too discouraged to keep going…didn’t.

As I was saying yesterday when I posted about the starred review in Publishers Weekly my most recent book (TAKING THE LEAD) received, the reviews for my first book from a major publisher, Black Feathers from HarperCollins, were mixed. The reviewer for PW back in the day didn’t like my “sinless creations” and found them only for “people who don’t like sex.” Presumably the stories were simply too consensual for his taste, but that was the very thing that others (and readers) found so fresh and enticing about my work.

Nowadays, the place many writers take their beatings is in public, on Goodreads and on Amazon, where anyone can rate and review a book, even if they didn’t read it. (No really, go look at the huge number of one-star reviews that say things like “I will never read a book by this author because ____________”. Punitive one-star reviews, where reviewers down-vote everything by an author because they don’t like something they said on Twitter, or because they’re down-voting everything with gay characters, or whatever other blanket reason they’re acting out on the Internet, are not the ones to pay heed to, and not the ones I’m taking about here.)

Online reviews on places like Yelp tend to fall into the love it or hate it category. People don’t bother to review a restaurant unless they had a fantastically noteworthy meal or such a horrible one they have to vent. But with books it’s a little different. Amazon nags you to review everything you buy from them, no matter how you felt about it, so that evens things out somewhat. And Goodreads becomes a place where people review everything on their shelf for multiple reasons: they love books, they love to talk about books, they love to network with other people who love books, they want the points or cred they seem to get for having lots and lots of books on their GR shelf, they like the sense of accomplishment of reading lots of books and rating/reviewing on GR gives a concrete way of tracking and sharing that info, etc. etc. Book people have always liked talking about books–that’s part of what makes us book lovers in the first place.

Several high-profile authors took to Twitter recently posting screenshots and quotes from their one-star Amazon reviews, some even making videos of themselves reading them aloud, and the results were predictably hilarious. Check out this compilation below of sf/fantasy authors from Gollancz doing it:

There are of course some one-star reviews that just make you giggle, like one that said the reviewer’s dog had chewed up the book so they DNF’d it (“Did Not Finish”) or where the customer just seems like a total nutjob. Books aren’t the only things getting this treatment, check out this piece in Mother Jones about one-star Yelp reviews for places like The Grand Canyon. One called the desert “too hot,” while another was angry that at Badlands “the mud wasn’t even differently colored layers… It was brown.” (I confess I’ve written TripAdvisor reviews for things like the glaciers we saw in Alaska. “A+++ glacier, very icy. Would visit again.”)

But this interest in one-star reviews got me reading more of them, not the hilarious ones or the punitive ones, but the ones where people really seemed earnestly angry or upset about a book. And not surprisingly, I found the same phenomenon as in my editing work: The five-star reviews, the critics in trade publications, they would praise something about a book that made the book stand out to them…and those exact same elements would be the things called out in the one-star reviews.

I just finished a book I found delightful, Courtney Milan’s The Duchess War (The Brothers Sinister Book 1), with 906 reviews on Amazon (and happens to be FREE to download for Kindle at the moment). It’s historical romance, so it runs in some very very familiar tracks, and yet it felt fresh and new to me in many ways. For example, the wedding night scene I loved so much for being so daringly realistic–leading to a scorchingly believable honeymoon of sex and debauchery–was called out by some Amazon reviewers as “disgusting” and “disappointing.” What!! I couldn’t believe it.

The reviews for The Duchess War are overwhelmingly positive, 82% are 4 or 5 stars, what about the 27 people who wrote the one star reviews? I couldn’t believe people could possibly gripe about this book I found wonderful. But some did. Most of them boiled down to either “this wasn’t what I expected” or “this wasn’t what I wanted.” Those are perfectly legitimate reasons for a buyer to give a one-star review–and those one-star reviews are helpful to other customers who may share the same tastes–in particular on how closely their tastes hew to what has come before. Because ultimately the elements that were picked out for complaint were the same things I loved about the book!

What was wonderful to me about THE DUCHESS WAR was how it broke out of the mold of historical romance while still–for me–fulfilling the feelings I want from a historical. But for some people, stray too far from the mold and it no longer fits what they were looking for. When you go into a pizzeria, maybe you’re delighted to find they’ve got some unique topping (mango! smoked salmon! walnuts!) or maybe your stomach is turned (gross!!) or it might be good but it’s not “pizza” to you, doesn’t satisfy your craving for what you want. As writers we’re being told constantly that we have to do something new, “be creative!” and escape cliche, but the moment you do you risk disappointing readers. Perhaps it’s important to remember two truisms about writing: 1) you can’t please all the people all the time, and 2) the most important reader to please is yourself.

In my own books the majority of my one-star reviews for years and years were a clear indicator I was doing something right. They fell into two categories:

1) There was TOO MUCH SEX in this book

2) This book gave me gay cooties.

A recent one-star review of Slow Surrender gripes: “Hands down the worst book I’ve ever read. Not even 10 pages in and there’s a sexual scene.” One-hundred percent true: if I can’t get my characters into a sexual situation in the first chapter, I don’t consider what I’m writing erotica. (Btw, in the “sexual scene” on page ten our hero never touches the heroine and no one’s clothes come off. In case you were wondering how a book called “Slow Surrender” jibes with the sexual interaction starting right away.) That reviewer was at least factually correct, though. So are the ones like an Audible reviewer who wrote about

Cecilia Tan’s Taking the Lead BDSM romance got a starred review in PW!

Yesterday was a holiday for a lot of people but social media never stops and I got wind that a review had appeared in Publishers Weekly for the book I have releasing next week, TAKING THE LEAD. I was a little afraid to go read it so I made my agent read it first.

See, the last time a book I wrote was reviewed in PW, bookselling and publishing’s trade magazine, was in 1998. In that review, they panned my HarperCollins erotic short story collection (Black Feathers) by saying my “sinless creations” were “for people who didn’t like sex.” I’d called up Susie Bright after that and cried.

She’d heard that attitude before, and patiently explained that the reviewer was almost certainly male and one of those throwback guys for whom if the sex wasn’t “dirty” or “illicit” then it was only meant for “prudes” and therefore wasn’t any fun. Put another way, because the book was written by a woman to satisfy a woman’s idea of what was sexy, he was angry it wasn’t for him. The fact that everyone in my book was actually enjoying all the consensual sex they were having was a turn-off for this dude.

After that I felt kind of sorry for the reviewer, because although he’d panned my book, he almost certainly had a miserable sex life. I would encounter his attitude sporadically, always from men, in the nineties, and then I guess those dinosaurs died off because I stopped hearing it. Or maybe my message and the message of the other sex-positive women writing and publishing in those days was finally getting through–Susie Bright, Carol Queen, Annie Sprinkle, etc.–if not to literary critics at least to the bookstores and the readers.

Of course romance wasn’t ready yet for my style of BDSM and consensual power exchange, or for the level of explicitness I brought to the table, so back then my work wouldn’t have fit there, either. Thankfully that’s no longer the case, and a book like TAKING THE LEAD has all the BDSM and character angst and negotiation and arrival at consensuality that turns ME on, and it seems like both the world of romance and Publishers Weekly are super-happy about it!

They gave it a “starred” review! And I quote, they say my new series is off to a “sultry start.” The moneyshot in the review: “With a satisfying plot and an engaging cast of characters, the only thing slowing readers down will be their refractory period.” Yessss!

Read the whole review here: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4555-3363-3

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