New Website!

It’s been a long time since I blogged here, and that’s not only because I’ve been busy, but because I’ve been working on some big changes, and I wanted to be sure of them before making any sort of announcement.

 I started this year thinking, not for the first time, about the sort of stories I most want to write – and whether I’m writing just for the fun and satisfaction of it, or whether Ialso hope, like most writers, to be able to make it financially worth my while.

 We’re all aware that lesbian fiction is a niche genre, and that within that genre there are even more niches to write in – whether romance, mystery, and so on. Lesbian romance can sell very well within our genre, but my preferred genre to write in – horror – does not. Absolutely, it does not. Nor, really, would I expect it too, considering the lesbian reading community is so small.

 Unfortunately, this fact leaves me in a difficult position. If I want to make significant money writing lesbian fiction, I must write romance (and the terrific sales of my romance novel Don’t Go There only served to prove this). If I want any hope of making significant money writing horror fiction, I must go mainstream.

I want to continue to write what I love best – my horror/supernatural suspense books. And I don’t want to have to subsidise them by writing romance. I do have a couple more romantic stories I’d like to write sometime, but I don’t want to have to consider them my bread and butter. I’d prefer they remained strictly optional.

 So, what does this all mean? Along with setting up a brand new website and blog, I’m also two thirds of the way through an ‘alien invasion’ horror story. While it has a lesbian character, she’s only one of several main characters, and while the story is enriched by her sexuality, it is not bound up in it. It is a book intended for a mainstream audience – though I would like to hope that there are several of you readers who would pick it up anyway, because you simply like my writing.

 I will also be putting out regular, free short stories on my new site, the first of which will hopefully go live tomorrow. I have a mailing list you might like to join, to hear about new releases and special deals, and you can sign up over at the new website.

 It’s been an incredibly busy year so far, and I haven’t done half of what I hoped so far. My website Sapphica Books, for indie published lesbian literature is up and running, and if you have books there I haven’t listed yet, and you’d like to have the extra publicity and availability that Sapphica Books brings, then don’t hesitate to contact me. I’m building the list all the time, and have some great things planned for later in the year.

 I’m also still writing blurbs on a professional level, so if your blurb’s a bit sad and needs tarting up, pop on over to The Blurbist, and find out about all that good stuff.

 I do hope to see you all over at my new site, where you can find free stories and keep up to date with new and forthcoming work. I will still be writing lesbian fiction – for those of you who only read that – but it will be only occasional. Having said that though, I can pretty much guarantee that my mainstream stories will also feature lesbian and gay characters, alongside the straight ones.

 Thanks for reading – and oh, by the way, author T.T. Thomas tagged me for The Writing Process Blog Tour, so head on over to kategenet.com and have a read of that, and a look around. Cheers!

Filed under: Writing Journal