Ideal Publisher (or self-pub?) For My First (and last?) Romance Book

My #1 passion is memoir. I'm working on my first memoir right. Looking ahead, I already have a solid idea for a sequel memoir, too. I occasionally even develop this sequel when some good ideas for it happen to come to mind. In short, my memoir projects are my proverbial "babies."

That said, I am exploring other genres of writing in hopes of finding other projects to try my hand in. I would of course love to make a career out of writing. Though challenging, I do think I have the versatility to at least make a valiant effort at it.

A publisher approached me earlier this year to write a humor 'pop' science non-fiction book. I loved the original idea, but then they changed the direction drastically. They still wanted me to write it! But I struggled so much adapting the sample to the "new book," I sensed committing to writing the full book by their planned deadline could spell disaster, so I bowed out but remained on good terms—they said they would be open to using me for other non-fiction projects.

They happened to have launched a romance imprint a few years ago. And incidentally, I do have one specific idea for a romantic-comedy type story that seems like it might fit in with the types of books they are seeking. I reached out and was told by their romance imprint's. editor that she was definitely curious to read about it, given my relationship with the another side of their publisher (and gave instructions for noting this in my proposal submission).

Their romance has had mixed reviews on here. It seems they are eBook only, and originally explored some type of membership community for their romance titles, but have since scrapped this model. Basically, I'm sort of unclear how their operation currently works.

Then, of course, it's incredible how self-published romance books are dominating the best sellers lists on Amazon and so forth. Of course virtually all of these authors focus much more heavily on this genre and market and have established online followings in order to reach their success (they didn't just land on the best sellers list on their first try!). But still, it makes things confusing: should I focus on this indie publisher imprint with whom I have a bit of a relationship? Explore self-publishing plans? Or perhaps focus on finding a bigger publisher with a great track record in the genre and "aim for the top" first?

Any tips, advice, or insights are greatly appreciated! Thank you

Filigree said:

Aim as high as you can. Just because you have a 'relationship' with Adams, nothing prevents you from looking around. Check on Amazon for Crimson Romance sales ranks. Are they selling well? Do they market their authors? Are you in love with, or can you convincingly fake a liking for, the romance field? It's not as easy pickings as some people think.

Conversely, do you want the hard work of effective self-publishing? It can be lucrative for some authors, but a limbo for many others. If you are plannjng to self-publish romance, you'll need to put out more than one book to build a backlist. Can you commit to that?

Have you finished this book? If so, you might look at bigger publishers with romance imprints. You also might look for an agent once you've finished it. If Adams approached you, that might mean you have enough of a platform to be interesting to a multi-genre agent.

Added: I looked them up again on Amazon. Crimson does have some strong-selling books that look well-produced. But the problem of a solo title remains: if readers like it and you don't write more, you are cutting out some sales chances. Are romance readers likely to follow you into your first-chosen categories?

Assuming your technical skill and passion are up for it in the first place, write a romance because you *want to*. Or else write a bunch of them very quickly just to cash in.

Added again: I just went through the CR, F+W thread. Sales or no, I probably would not approach them for a single standalone romance. But that's me.

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Thank so so much. Great info—lots of points for me to consider. I appreciate it!

Also, I'm curious to check out your gay romance/erotic novella! I'm a gay guy, but my idea was actually for a M-F romance.

Filigree said:

Aim as high as you can. Just because you have a 'relationship' with Adams, nothing prevents you from looking around. Check on Amazon for Crimson Romance sales ranks. Are they selling well? Do they market their authors? Are you in love with, or can you convincingly fake a liking for, the romance field? It's not as easy pickings as some people think.

Conversely, do you want the hard work of effective self-publishing? It can be lucrative for some authors, but a limbo for many others. If you are plannjng to self-publish romance, you'll need to put out more than one book to build a backlist. Can you commit to that?

Have you finished this book? If so, you might look at bigger publishers with romance imprints. You also might look for an agent once you've finished it. If Adams approached you, that might mean you have enough of a platform to be interesting to a multi-genre agent.

Added: I looked them up again on Amazon. Crimson does have some strong-selling books that look well-produced. But the problem of a solo title remains: if readers like it and you don't write more, you are cutting out some sales chances. Are romance readers likely to follow you into your first-chosen categories?

Assuming your technical skill and passion are up for it in the first place, write a romance because you *want to*. Or else write a bunch of them very quickly just to cash in.

Added again: I just went through the CR, F+W thread. Sales or no, I probably would not approach them for a single standalone romance. But that's me.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I do definitely love this one particular idea that I have for the romance (or romantic comedy) story. It's based on real-life experience (or perhaps that of my alter ego, haha) so it's a narrative I know very well. Although, no, I have not actually written the book yet (but confident I *know* the story and direction intimately enough that I could write it and write it well in a pretty swift turnaround).

Yes, the big thing is figuring out if I have other romance stories in me. I do have some other ideas, though not as developed in my head, but I guess I would kind of like to see how the first one goes before embarking on a next.