2017 Reader Survey Results

Last newsletter, I conducted a brief survey to see how I could better serve my readers. They say writers don’t have bosses, but in my opinion that’s simply not true. Readers are our bosses, in a way. If we make them unhappy, they won’t come back.

The survey consisted of three questions. Thank you to everyone who participated, and for all your kind comments. It makes this writer very happy. =)

Here are the results.

Question 1: What would readers like to see in my monthly newsletters? Most said excerpts/sneak peeks of upcoming releases, giveaways, short stories/flash fiction, or what I’m reading for fun now. I’m backing away from my release-a-short-story-a-month schedule in favor of writing longer works, since you guys like longer stories. (See last question.) Readers said they want to know what comes after happily ever after. Pregnancy, what their lives are like, etc.

Question 2: What are your favorite paranormal creatures to read about? I’m focusing on writing paranormal romances right now and wanted to know which creatures I could branch out into to prevent burn out. Everyone loves werewolves, with vampires and shapeshifters (tiger shifters, bear shifters, dragon shifters, etc.) coming in second place. Witches came in fourth, and angels came in fifth. Vampires are a personal favorite of mine (the first series I ever wrote, under a different pen name, was about vampires), as are witches. Don’t know when I’ll get to it, but I have a cool series in mind about witches. I’d like to expand upon my “witch mafia” idea. Think The Godfather meets The Craft. I’ve honestly never been a big fan of angels/demons storylines. If you have one in the book, you typically have the other. The only exception to that rule is Larissa Ione’s fabulous Demonica series, but I think I’m just in love with the way she writes. I did come up with an idea about lost souls/damned souls trying to redeem themselves after an eternity of sin. Think more past lives, karma, that sort of thing. So I might go in that direction. Someday. =) The Fey are another favorite of mine, and I have a cool trilogy in mind featuring them. We’ll see when I get to them. I might write that trilogy after finishing this next werewolves series just to take a break from wolves. I love ’em, but it’s good for my creative side to recharge with a totally different world and different creatures.

Question 3: How long do you like your books? Mostly everyone likes longer works (something over 100 pages). Most prefer novels. Something not too long, but not too short either. I feel like I do better when I write longer works, so that’s going to be my main focus. With the exception of Forever, which will be a long novella, I’m going to stick to novels. If the story goes longer, fine. Shorter, fine. I loosely outline my books and tend to play it by ear when I write. I like to let the stories breathe and try to give them as much room as they need to grow and be told properly. Part of the process I’ve developed over the years. =)

I’m sure I’ll have another survey next year as my newsletter base grows. I like to keep up with what everyone likes. Thanks for taking my survey. If you didn’t get in on it this year, there’ll be more. I hope you stick around when I release them. =)