Sabrina A. Fish's Blog, page 4

Magic Systems in Fantasy Fiction

*NOTE: This post was moved from my old blog. Unfortunately, any comments that were made on the original post, didn't make the transition. I love the Fantasy Fiction genre. The greats like C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Mercedes Lackey, and Anne McCaffrey (just to name a few) introduced me to the wonder of this fabulous genre as a child and other greats like Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, Brandon Sanderson, Anne Bishop, and Patrick Rothfuss (again, there are SO many more) continued to feed this love as...

Diomere's Exile WINS Again!

Thank you to everyone who voted in Paranormal Romance Guild's Reviewer Choice Awards! I'm excited to announce: Diomere's Exile Won 3rd Place!! 1st and 2nd place were taken by NY Times/USA Today/Amazon Best Sellers with extensive book lists, so I'm feeling pretty proud to be included in this group of winners. Reviewers see a lot of books throughout a year and it was such an honor to be selected in their end-of-year favorites list. Winning on top of that? Icing on the cake, friends!

Think Outside the Box to Find Readers Romance Authors!

For an author, figuring out where to find readers outside a library or bookstore can be intimidating. This can be especially difficult in the highly competitive, guilty pleasure genre of romance. But if you think outside the box, you WILL be successful.

We all know that historically, romance has enjoyed a rather underrated and negative reputation. I've lost count of the times I've heard this genre referred to as mommy-porn, guilty-pleasure reading, and smut, but then it's a predominantly female written and read genre, so the reason why isn't so hard to figure out.

When you ask people what genre they read, many won't admit to reading romance. They'll say they read suspense, contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi, etc, even if those books are actually romantic suspense, contemporary romance, fantasy romance, and sci-fi romance. So figuring out how to find your readers face-to-face or online can be difficult.

This is where creative thinking comes to play.

First, let's take away the romance part of your genre. What is your romance sub-genre? Chances are, many of the fans of that genre DO actually read the romance versions as often or more often than the non-romance forms of that genre. So we need to find them.

If you're a fantasy/paranormal romance author like me, you want to think about where fans of the fantasy and sci-fi genre hang out. Fan Conventions occur all over the world for these folks to celebrate books, movies, TV shows, comics, video games, and art. There are also comic book, gamer, toy, and art stores who attract these people to shop and hangout.

Still struggling to think of where to find your readers? How about some examples?

Say you write super-hero fantasy romance like an author friend of mine. Rather than do a signing at your local book store or coffee shop like most authors, why not do one in a comic book, gamer,  or toy store?

Do you write medieval fantasy romance? Why not purchase booth space at your local medieval fair or pop-culture convention?

Do you write sci-fi romance? Then the next Alien Con or paranormal expo might be an amazing fit for you.

Readers are out there. They want to find books in the genres they love. Many of them are also hopeless romantics who can't resist a good love story. So next time you find yourself floundering about where to find them, remember to...

Keep Calm and Think Outside the Box!
Sabrina A. Fish is an award-winning fantasy romance author from Oklahoma. She loves hearing from readers and other writers. If you'd like to read more of her thoughts, check out her books, or see her upcoming events, then visit her website: www.SabrinaAFish.com

Diomere's Exile is an Award-Winning Novel

This past week, I traveled to Denver, Colorado, for the 2017 National Readers' Choice Award Ceremony as a Top 5 Finalist. I don't mind admitting that I didn't expect to win since this is the first romance novel I've written. So imagine my surprise when my name was called!!! Diomere's Exile 2017 National Readers' Choice Award WINNER Paranormal Category I'm ecstatic! And the cherry on top? I turned in this series' 2nd book, Diomere's Healer, to my editor a couple of weeks ago. She said she thou...

World Building Wednesday- Economy

NOTE: This blog was originally posted on my old blog. Unfortunately, any comments it had were lost in the move. Today, I'm participating in the Worldbuilding Wednesday blog hop. Go HERE for details. In every fantasy novel, whether in the romance genre like mine or not, worldbuilding is an extremely important aspect of the story. You have to create every aspect of the made up world from the various cultures and peoples to the weather and magic systems for each. You may not include all the deta...

Making Connections

This past weekend, I attended the 2017 OWFI Conference...okay, so I did more than attend. I was the conference coordinator who played a big part in putting it together. And it was a HUGE success!!! If you knew how many nights I lay awake worrying about everything going right, you would totally understand why I am so excited about that. It was such a great experience seeing it all from a behind-the-scenes perspective. And SO much fun. So much fun, in fact, that I've agreed to do it again, exce...

Long Book Series Woes

Remember that moment when you found a new author, LOVED the book, then realized that there are multiple books already published in the series? You were SO excited! OF COURSE, you binge read them ALL...in two days...because who needs sleep, right?! So you decide to follow the author, subscribe to their newsletters, and pre-order all future books in the series. You also check out the author's other series and find that you like them too. Cue another binge reading session. Then it happens. A new...

Weight Loss. Easy? No, but It's Worth It

Since puberty hit and I developed hips and breasts, I've struggled with weight. Not a surprise, really, as this is a common issue in my family. When I started writing seriously, I became more sedentary, further exacerbating the issue. As many of you are no doubt familiar, dealing with weight is a roller coaster ride of extreme highs and lows. Mostly lows. If I just didn't enjoy food quite so much... *sigh* When I became pregnant some years ago, I knew I'd have to be very careful to eat only w...

Books That Make A Lasting Impression

I'm currently reading Assassin's Gambit by Amy Raby, and today I found myself thinking about where I left off last night when I finally put the book down and went to bed. And I realized, I was sad. See, in the book, the main character is a female of mixed blood living in a world where both sides of her heritage look on her with disgust because of the circumstance of her birth. And she realizes that she really doesn't belong anywhere. When I figured out that my sad mood was because of a book,...