You may or may not have heard that I released my latest book
(and first novella), Vanished, on
September 17. I say you may not have heard about it because I’ve basically done
zero promotion for it aside from mentioning it on Twitter and Facebook and my
website. It’s an absolute failure of marketing, something that would undoubtedly
cause the more seasoned professionals to shake their heads and cross me off
their list of semi-intelligent creatures.
Frankly, I wouldn’t blame them. But what I know that they
don’t is that Vanished breaks the
Cardinal Rule of Romance. I’ll sort of spoil it for you here. The three letters
most appropriate for describing the ending are not HEA or HFN. They’re WTH.
So you see my dilemma. How do I market a book that I think
has some very romantic moments but doesn’t have the required ending? To which
review sites do I submit? I’ve labeled it gay fiction and suspense. I would
prefer to call Vanished a romantic
suspense novella, but adding that word “romantic” sends tremors of fear down my
spine. I can hear the ranting and raving from here. I don’t want to deceive
people. That’s just stupid.
I’ve never wanted to conform to expectations. I don’t want
to be pigeon-holed. I want to be free to write the story my characters tell me.
Hopefully I’ll do it well enough that you’ll follow me into the next adventure,
regardless of what it might be.
With Vanished I wanted
to do something completely different. I had two main goals to accomplish with
this one: write something for my dad to read (i.e., not Riley), and explore
what happens when you wake up one morning and your husband isn’t there anymore.
I failed at the first, but I hope I succeeded in the second.
So, what do you say? Are you willing to take a chance? Will
you go on this adventure with me? Or do you require an HEA/HFN every time? Let
me know in the comments.
If you're ready and willing to take a chance, click the Books button at the top of the page for buy links.
I would go with gay suspense, although I found it quite romantic. It's in my top ten books this year. So write the sequel already. xxx
ReplyDeleteYes, I'll go on this adventure with you. I just purchased a copy for my kindle. I'm looking forward to reading it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, guys! Let me know what you think of it, Sandy. :)
ReplyDeleteI'd think using "romantic" would work; I'd imagine most would catch on to the difference between a romantic suspense and a suspenseful romance.
ReplyDeleteAs for the review side of things, "Vanished" is in our "to buy" list for late September, and from what you've written here, that's probably how I'd categorize it when posting. However, I'd probably also stick a note in the actual review mentioning that it's not a standard HEA/HFN romance...just in case, because people do get huffy about this kind of stuff.
Adrienne, I'd be happy to provide a review copy so no one has to purchase it. Please email me with your format requirements and I'll send one over. :)
DeleteIt's been interesting to see the pre-read reactions versus the post-read reactions with this one.
Cross-posted + my two cents here: http://jkhogan.com/discussion-hea-in-romance-a-must-have-or-an-old-school-formula/
ReplyDeleteWeird. Never used openID before...
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