Anna’s Comments (group member since Mar 21, 2017)

Anna’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

I once set out to write the woman with heart of gold and 'knight in shining armour' type but the silly woman fell in love with the farmer's son. I knew this was not what most romance readers want so the genre shape-shifted a bit, then a bit more... it now covers about 4 genres. Romance, historical (but not really historical romance), saga, romantic suspense.. and perhaps a few others.

Enjoy your writing - I'm sure you will!

Well done, Jean!

Just getting an agent is worth hearty congratulations!

Thank you, Carmel. Yes, of course, it's excitement not greed. Ahem!

Oh joy! So happy for you Amy. More to follow...

I get greedy: when I see a sale, I start looking for more every few hours.

Thank you everyone!

I saw it Carole - Australia has one review and one KU. From little acorns...

Something good happened - I've had some KU reads in Australia! Only a few pages but it's a start.

I do love Australia...

Ah... and I've missed what's been happening with your wife, Dale. Hope the meds help.

I wish there was a practical way we could help as well as sending you our hopes and prayers. When hubby is ready, please tell him he has many, many people rooting for him.

The characters drive what happens - just like real life - then something drops on them - just like real life. Sometimes I feel it's hard to keep up with them. I guess there's a lot of authors who'd say the same!

DVDs? I'll be round to your place tomorrow night. Choccies? Nice bottle of something?

Thanks for taking the time, Susan, to spell it all out. Worrying. But so good to see people taking action.

Thank you!

I think they're filming another few episodes of Poldark- hurray! There was a Poldark series in the 1970s but I was living in NZ and missed it. I wish they'd show it again on one of the Freeview 'old repeats' channels. I guess the US has similar channels.

Carole wrote: "Write on medium. It’s s built in audience. I haven’t been doing much to promote but I’ve noticed an uptick in sales in paperbacks since I started posting there. You don’t have to maintain it. Write..."

I've put this post in my diary for March with the sincere hope there will be time to follow up on this.

Oh good! Thank you!

I was slightly miffed when the Poldark TV series came out because I thought people would think I'd latched onto it when I'd started writing my first book in the series in 2006 and the TV series started in 2015.

Now, of course, I'm over the moon when someone says it reminds them of Poldark. In fact - may I quote you on that?

Zip a dee doo dah... Thank you. Zip a dee day...

I have trouble finding the time to get the books which are queuing in my head out into the big wide world. A newsletter etc. is some way down the 'to do' list. Sadly.

This will cheer you up, Alex:

https://www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing

Your genre has many more subscribers than mine. Of course, as you say, it might be that Romance writers can flick books off their wrists, like Barbara Cartland who wrote over 700 books, whereas Agatha Christie wrote about 70-80 books. Therefore, Barbara Cartland and her ilk have earned so much more.

And yes, I know that with BookBub crime writers have to pay more for their ads. This world gets you every which way you turn, eh?

Oh grr!!!!... I'm another one who doesn't do a newsletter!

Thank you, Carole. I struggle to work out which genre my series is in and I've recently started wondering whether it came under 'saga'. I thought that had to cover several generations but you've encouraged me to rummage further around the types of genres and I think I can run with saga, especially as the one sooooooon to come out has a new generation introduced.

I loved the Thorn Birds.

Alex, I always think that crime/mystery/detective novels are the most sought after. Whenever I look up how many readers a site has different genres, that seems to come top most of the time, if I remember rightly.

As for what's on TV, well you know that here in the UK, detectives are the big hits.

I like the bit where it says something like more and more romance writers are making a six figure income.

I must try harder!

Edit: just joking really. I prefer to write non-formulaic books, and they take longer for people to take a liking to. (Just kidding myself here, but a gal can hope.)

I've not had to pay $100 up front (as in buying an ad in the newsletter sites). BookBub takes from that pot as it goes along and as you can pause the ads, you can stretch those $ out over many months.

In your case, you might want to concentrate on just the US/Canada markets.

It's also better use of your money if you target readers interested in specific, similar authors to yourself rather than selecting genres. At least that is what I have found.

I'm not so keen on the fact that they don't flag up when the ad leads to a sale (or else I just haven't had any sales).