writing romance novels

Can You Finish This Project?

Even if I decide
to continue with
the Romance Novel business,
the business will change.

Right now,
I write series books.
It takes about 5 books
to complete an overall storyline.

That’s 2 years of publishing time.

With the way things are going
in the Romance Novel Industry,
I don’t know
if I would have 2 years
of publishing time.

I don’t know
if I could finish that project.

Not completing a project
is frustrating for everyone.

My readers would be angry.
I would be disappointed
in myself.
It would be a mess.

So, if the Romance Novel Business
continues,
I’ll write
standalone stories instead.
I’ll focus
on shorter projects.

Ensure you have the timeline
to complete
the projects you’re tackling.

If you don’t have the timeline,
focus on shorter projects.

F*ck that agent.
I hope everyone she represents
looks for someone else
to partner with.

Because, of course, writers
need to make money.
Writing might be a great job
but it is still a job.
And writers need to eat also.

Also…
no one works with an agent
for fun.
That is purely a business relationship.

Make certain
the people and businesses
you partner with
have the same view
of your future
as you do.

If they don’t,
look for someone else
to partner with.

Track Your Progress

Many social media platforms
remind users
of what they posted
1, 3, 5, 10 years ago.

It shows people
how much or how little
they and their world
has changed.

I track my progress
similarly.
I’ll look at stats
from 1 year or 2 or 10 ago.
And I wonder
at how much I’ve progressed
and how much I’ve learned.

I was a dumba$$
10 years ago.
I didn’t know
a fraction of
what I know now.

I’ve also published
close to 50 stories
in the past decade.
That’s a HUGE accomplishment
and it inspires me
to push forward.

Track your progress.
Use it for inspiration.

Know Your Hard Limits

A wet bulb temperature
(100% humidity)
of 31C/87.8F
will kill a healthy person
in three hours.

That’s a hard limit.
Nothing we can do
will change it.

We could stay still,
hydrate,
sit in the shade,
and none of that
would help us.

While building our businesses,
it is important
to set our hard limits
also.

One of my hard limits
with the romance novel business,
for example,
is I would never
write a romance novel
that didn’t have
a romantic happy ever after.

A romantic happy ever after
is my definition
of what a romance novel is.
I wouldn’t try to trick
the reader into reading
a different type of story.

Decide now
what you would never EVER do.

Write it down.

Stick to that hard limit.

Spite Is A Valid Motivator

Every time
one of my writing buddies
has
a book release,
she says,
“Take that Professor” X
“You said I would never
be a writer.
You can suck a$$
because look at me now.”

And then she laughs.

She is fueled
by pure spite.

And…
it works for her.

I once received
a review
that said
my action-packed romance
had too much sex in it.

I crammed the next story
with as many sex scenes
as I could fit into
the plot
BECAUSE of that review.

And that sex-filled story
sold VERY well.

Spite is a valid motivator.
Embrace it!

Refine Later

The first draft of my stories
consist of basic action,
dialogue, emotions.

I am vomiting the huge chunks
of the story
onto the page.

Once I do that,
I can evaluate
which of those big pieces
are worth saving.

THEN I refine the story,
smooth it out,
worry about word usage
and grammar
and all the detailed stuff.

It makes no sense
to refine a scene
I won’t be keeping.
That’s wasted time
and effort.

Developing other products
follows a similar process.

We figure out the big stuff
– our target market,
the aspect of the product
that appeals to them,
whether we’re creating,
for example,
a fruit punch
or a fruit cocktail.
We make
those types of huge decisions.

THEN we decide
if the package will be blue
or green.
THEN we determine
if it will be promoted
with Facebook ads
or Google ads.
THEN we refine
the product.

Wait to refine a product
until the big decisions
have been finalized.

AI And The Romance Novel Industry

AI is currently
writing essays.

I suspect
soon,
if it isn’t happening right now,
many of the Romance novels
writers outsource
to ghostwriters
will be written by AI.

At first,
human writers will do
quality checks.
But soon,
the need for those human writers
will be eliminated.

The market will, then,
become flooded
with those types of romance novels
(products).

I have been preparing
for that future.

I write in a small niche
that won’t immediately attract
the AI handlers.

I write long series of stories
in an intricate world
with interacting characters.
That is a bit more difficult
for AI to duplicate.

And I’m assuming
my business will go away soon.
I’ll ‘retire’
and do something different
with my time.

Changes are coming.
It is best to prepare
for those changes,
even if that means
you’re preparing
for a time
when your business is no longer viable.

More Than Money

I make a solid living
from writing, publishing and selling
romance novels.
The money allows me
to write full time.

But I also write romance novels
because romance novels
changed my life.

They sell love, hope
and optimism
and, at certain times in my life,
I really needed all three
of these things.

As that additional non-financial reason
was very much needed
when I was starting up
the romance writing business.

Because the money
doesn’t flow
day 1 of being a romance writer.

As with most start ups,
it took a few years
for the romance writing business
to be profitable.

I suspect I would have quit
during those lean years
if I was only writing romance novels
for the money.

Business builders
need a non-financial reason
for starting businesses.

Because there WILL
be times
when the cash isn’t flowing
or the cash is being
reinvested.

What is your non-money reason
for starting YOUR business?

An Entrepreneur’s Schedule

Whenever I tell people
I’m a writer
(a business builder),
they usually say something like
“It must be nice
to set your own schedule.”

I admittedly DO
have a little bit of flexibility
as to when
I’ll complete tasks that are
invisible to the reader
(customer).
But any task that the reader sees
is usually set.

Because I want to be
part of their schedules
and my readers’ schedules are set.

I also want to become
a habit
and habits usually happen
on a regular schedule also.

We get our coffee
at 7 am every day.

We start a new book
at the beginning of the week.

We wear casual clothes
to work
on Fridays.

If we want to be successful,
we have to align
our schedules
to our customers’ schedules.

For me,
that means releasing a book
every three months
on the third Tuesday
of that month.

It means sending a newsletter
around the same time
EVERY month.

It means starting the promotion
for that new release
the same number of days
before that set release day.

Most of my schedule
and most of every successful
business builder’s schedule
is set by the customer.

We don’t truly
do things whenever
we want.

That’s a myth.

We’re Buying The Way It Makes Us Feel

There’s an ever-going argument
posed by new writers
about whether or not
a Romance Novel
should have
a Romantic Happy Ever After
(or, in some cases,
a Romantic Happy For Now).

These writers
don’t understand
Romance readers
(or any customers).

Romance readers
are buying how the story
makes them FEEL
at the end of it.

They are buying
the Romantic Happy Ever After.
They’re plunking down
their cash
expecting to get
that happy,
all is right with the world
glow
in return.

THAT is what they’re paying for.

Seth Godin
shares

“Most of what we encounter
is driven by emotions,
and our emotions are always relative.
When we’re shopping for a car
or an avocado,
we’re buying the way it makes us feel,
not how it would make someone else feel.”

Understand what your customers
are buying EMOTIONALLY.
And it is ALWAYS an emotion.

Then give them
that emotion.

Tag: writing romance novels