Yesterday,
was the release of my 4th romance story
(for sale – I’ve released many freebies).
What I’ve learned over the last 15 months
is that connections sell books.
Connections in a number of ways.
The book must connect with readers.
There needs to be an emotional link
between the book and readers.
If I don’t cry when I re-read my story,
my readers won’t cry.
If they don’t cry,
they won’t love the book
enough to mention it to other readers.
The book must connect with other books.
Readers, especially female romance readers,
invest in worlds.
They want to get to know
the characters in that world.
ALL the characters.
I still get requests for the story
of the bad boy lawyer in my first novel.
The book must connect readers to other readers.
Romance writers do this
by incorporating inside information
into their books.
The jewelry store in the first book
belongs to the bad boy in the second book.
His name is not mentioned.
Only careful readers, true fans, picked it up.
When they pick this up,
they want to tell friends.
They can only do that
if the friends have read the book.
The eBook Test has a list of
11 axioms in publishing today.
Many of those axioms
are about connections.