The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.
I write military romantic suspense/thrillers with beefcake covers and used to do the convention rounds with an author co-op of 7-8 other authors. All the other authors were writing in science fiction or fantasy genres. The interest in my books was nonexistent until I started getting invited to participate in convention panels. People started hunting me down after the panels to buy my books. I found this to be consistent across all the different genres. The authors who spoke on the most panels, sold the most books.
I don't read genre romance, but most stories have a love story. Would I stop at a romance table? No, but one of my friends writes romance, so I'd stop at hers as a courtesy. With so many books and so little time, we must curate our reading. In my twenties, I read a ton of police procedurals. Haven't touched them in 35 years. Wouldn't stop at a table full of those, either.
I write military romantic suspense/thrillers with beefcake covers and used to do the convention rounds with an author co-op of 7-8 other authors. All the other authors were writing in science fiction or fantasy genres. The interest in my books was nonexistent until I started getting invited to participate in convention panels. People started hunting me down after the panels to buy my books. I found this to be consistent across all the different genres. The authors who spoke on the most panels, sold the most books.
That's been my experience too, Trish, though I'm not in romance. I had SO MANY people come to buy books from me at the last event where I spoke!
Those panels are gold1
I don't read genre romance, but most stories have a love story. Would I stop at a romance table? No, but one of my friends writes romance, so I'd stop at hers as a courtesy. With so many books and so little time, we must curate our reading. In my twenties, I read a ton of police procedurals. Haven't touched them in 35 years. Wouldn't stop at a table full of those, either.