Friday Fun Facts: Some 2014 Romance Stats

Happy Friday, everyone!
Whether you're a reader or a writer, you might find these statistics, published in the recent Romance Writers' Report, kind of interesting. I know I did! (Consider these, authors, when you're thinking about target market)

• Women make up 84 percent percent of romance book buyers, and men make up 16 percent.
• The U.S. romance book buyer is most likely to be aged between 30 and 54 years.
• Romance book buyers are highly represented in the South.
• Romance book buyers have an average income of $55,000.

• How long have been reading romance: 
• 35.1 percent: 20 years or more
• 20.6 percent: 5 to less than 10 years
• 20.4 percent: 10 to less than 20 years
• 16.1 percent: 2 to less than 5 years
• Top 10 popular romance tropes: (1) friends to lovers; (2) soul mate/fate; (3) second chance at love; (4) secret romance; (5) first love; (6) strong hero/heroine; (7) reunited lovers; (8) love triangle; (9) sexy billionaire/millionaire; (10) sassy heroine
  

Most-important factor when deciding on which romance novel to buy (ranked from most to least important):

(1) The story
(2) The author
(3) Price
(4) Review
(5) Part of a series
(6) Back cover copy
(7) Cover art
(8) Recommendations on a social media site
(9) Deal/bundle/bargain/special offer
(10) An endorsement by another leading author

E-book pricing: The $6 range is considered a "fair price" for e-books.

Interested in reading the whole article? Here's the link!

Writers' Wednesday: Notes on Promotion

Hello writers! You probably know by now that I try to share information with fellow authors whenever I can. Today, two pieces of info when it comes to marketing and promotion that you may find interesting:

1. Make sure you have a newsletter. Time and time again, I have read this piece of advice as one of the best. It costs very little (even free, depending on the subscription service you use and how many subscribers you have) and it's a great way of connecting with readers. I recently switched from YourMailingListProvider to MailChimp (cost reasons) and have been happy with how user-friendly MailChimp seems to be. I also recently ran a contest through Fresh Fiction, on the recommendation that it was a good way to gain subscribers -- I had 985 people enter the contest/subscribe to my newsletter, and when I sent out a new edition this past Monday, a few things happened:

A. 2 addresses bounced as spam (I had been warned about this but was relieved to see that the spam addresses were so low).

B. 28 people unsubscribed. That's not great, but that still means that I have over 900 new subscribers for my newsletter.

C. I had a nice sales bump of Cocktail Cruises yesterday and today, which I will attribute at least in part to the newsletter mention and also to my second point of today's post...

2. Don't hate the bad reviews. I'm running a blog tour right now of Cocktail Cruises, and while most readers have really enjoyed it, yesterday's did not love Sex on the Beach (#2 in the series). Among other things, she didn't like the heroine (even though she admitted that once the heroine started to change thanks to the hero's influence, she liked her a lot more). At first, I cringed. I mean, we want everyone to love our babies, right? But then I thought, OK, well everyone has an opinion. And when I had a sales boost yesterday, I thought perhaps at least some of those purchases came from people who read the review and maybe wanted to see for themselves. Remember, readers often buy books just because other readers are talking about them -- not necessarily saying good things, but just talking.

(Want to read the whole review? It's right here).

Write on, friends!

Monday Mentionables: Time for a Cover Reveal!

Okay gang, here it is, the cover for my upcoming novella, SETTING SAIL, which will be available ONLY as part of the Passionate Kisses 2 Boxed Set until mid-2015. Do you love it??

This story takes place about 3 years before the first book in the Cocktail Cruises trilogy, Tequila Sunrise, and introduces readers to Toby and Bryce (among other characters) before they became heroes in their own books. I LOVED writing this story and can't wait to share it with you all! It's romantic and a little more on the sweet side, and I think the cover captures the mood perfectly.

A quick peek: 

When real estate agent Jason McClintock discovers his billionaire client's latest target is the historic diner owned and run by his high school crush, Pearl DeVane, things get more than a little complicated. Does forging a successful career mean giving up everything from his past, including the only woman to ever steal his heart?

Haven't preordered your copy of the Passionate Kisses Boxed Set yet? Here are all the links: 

Amazon http://amzn.com/B00QL8OHEK
iBooks: http://bit.ly/1G2Cs1z 
Nook: http://bit.ly/12tDwwy
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1G3j9Ft