Gabbi Black: Finding the Right Reader (Contest)
Hello, Delilah! Thank you for inviting me here today to discuss one of my biggest frustrations as a writer — how to get my story into the hands of readers who want to read it. A struggle many authors wade through, although not so many talk about. That said, I’m always candid with your fans and so want to share some insights.
Authors often perceive a choice — write for an audience or write for themselves. Now there’s a Venn diagram where those two intersect. For some authors, that overlap is large; they’re writing what readers want. For others, there’s only a sliver. They’re either writing what they think will sell, or they don’t care about sales, and they’re writing the book of their heart.
Like most authors who publish, I try to live in the overlap. I’d like to write books that speak to my heart but also that readers want to read. Let me tell you, that’s often harder than it seems.
A couple of years ago, I signed up to write a billionaire romance for a charity anthology. This was my first time working with the amazing ladies at The New Romance Café. The first story I wrote was a Gabbi Grey MM romance short story. I loved it. So I decided to keep it, and I wrote a Gabbi Black erotic BDSM short story.
That one was the story I submitted. I loved Mistress Miranda’s interactions with Grant, and how he sought her out after their epic catharsis scene (a little stalkerish, but she acknowledges they had unfinished business). The story gets steamy, there’s a reveal at the end, life’s good. Feedback for the story was generally positive.
As I tackled another project after that, which referenced the catharsis scene, my editor asked if she’d somehow missed the scene. I replied that with the constraint of just 5k words, I hadn’t been able to include it. She said, basically, she wanted the scene!
Okay.
I had a cover that I loved and knew I was going to indie-publish the short story. I took a gamble and rewrote the story and included the BDSM scene. Instead of Grant merely talking about his emotional pain after the fact, I had him endure it. He was known around the club for being a masochist who could take anything doled out by the Tops. He basically gave Miranda carte blanche to try to break him. He thought himself unbreakable.
She proved him wrong.
But he needed to deal with the guilt of something that happened years ago — and she forced him to do that while supporting him all the way.
When I was finished, the story was double the length. My editor whipped it into shape, and I was ready to release. I published it and then got it in a promo where a couple thousand people downloaded it for free. I thought I’d given a clear synopsis and the blurb was pretty obvious about the content of the story.
Yet, in the end, I didn’t necessarily find the right readers. My ratings are not great on the story and although some reviews are encouraging, some aren’t.
I hadn’t found my audience.
I’m persistent, though. The book is still free on all platforms. The back matter directs readers to my other books. I have faith that, eventually, the short story will find the right readers.
I’ve gone on to write several more BDSM stories, and they haven’t found the right audience yet either. Still, I persist. I love bringing my personal BDSM experience into my tales. I love the high stakes of catharsis scenes. Or the drama on and off the dungeon floor. Or just that kinky can also be fun.
I soldier on.
Anyway, that’s one of my stories about trying to read the right readers. I have three pennames and have struggled with all three (I’ve given away thousands of copies of the Gabbi Grey billionaire story and haven’t see much read through with that either…).
If you’re interested in reading about Mistress Miranda and Grant, I encourage you to pick up the free short story — available at all retailers I can get into. As a prize, I would like to give out a copy of Grant’s Gambit on audio. I have US and UK Audible codes. A quick note: I bid on the narrator for a charity auction, and I think he did a fantastic job. I was thrilled to donate money and was lucky that I got a great performance in return. Okay, let me know — if you find a free book, do you stockpile it? Do you eventually read it? Might you be willing to try another book by that author? Leave a comment and Random will choose a winner. If you don’t enjoy audiobooks, I can provide you another book from my back catalogue. Good luck!
Grant’s Gambit
About the Author
Mistress Miranda, after one of her most magnificent BDSM scenes, plans to relax and unwind in the safety of her luxury condo, high above her beloved city of Vancouver. She has rules about how intimate she’ll be with a submissive, and she plans to stick to those edicts.
Grant Adkins willingly submitted to the formidable Domme tonight. And she’d topped him in a fantastic cathartic scene. But he’s not ready to call it a night just yet. He’s breaking the rules by following her home, but he wants to have just one more encounter. Then he’ll let her go.
But when things heat up, his walking away in the morning feels far more difficult than either planned.
Grant’s Gambit is a 10k dark, erotic, billionaire BDSM short story with a cathartic scene, holiday cheer, and a surprise pile of money.
Links:
Universal Link: https://books2read.com/Grant
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Grants-Gambit-BDSM-Short-Story-ebook/dp/B0CDCPKW2X
Add it to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195508407-grant-s-gambit
Even though Gabbi Black is a firm believer in happy endings, she makes her characters work for it in every romance she writes, no matter what the genre. From contemporary to BDSM, they are penned early in the morning in her home in beautiful British Columbia while her trusty ChinPoo dog keeps her company. She also writes gay romances as Gabbi Grey and small-town romances as Gabbi Powell.
