THE BOTTOM LINE
There is a change in the AA romance industry. One has to keep their nose down wind in order to get a good whiff of it and someone has to tell the readers the real deal before they look up and discover that their favorite authors are gone. And I elect myself to do the job.
Once upon a time, an author had the luxury of building a fan base. Your first book might not have been a hit, but the second one brought in just a few more readers than the previous. Slow and steady toward the finish line.
But someone changed the rules when we weren’t looking.
Publishers are no longer looking for authors they can build a career with. Now, all that matters is the bottom line-and you have less time to do it in. Remember when a book came out in January, you could still purchase it December when your money stopped being funny? No more.
Books are going faster and faster out of print and poof! They’re gone …possibly forever.
Let me put it this way. You know how in Hollywood, opening weekend can make or break an actor or director’s career? Well, that’s how it is for AA romance writers now. You have limited amount of time to bring in a certain magic number. If you fail? Don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord split you. Words like borrowing books or picking up novels from the library have the potential to give your favorite author a heart attack. If your favorite author has a book coming out in January-buy that book in January. By June when the author is waiting to hear whether or not their next book will be picked up, the powers that be are reviewing the sales of that January book.
And don’t think it’s so easy to just move to another publishing house. Those sale numbers follow you everywhere. And other houses don’t have a steady AA romance program. They are too busy salivating over the sale numbers of Street Lit. Street Lit authors have set a new standard of hustling. They will hit the street and sell out of the truck of their cars and bring in crazy numbers-that’s another blog for another time.
What readers need to know is: WE NEED YOU to show up on opening day…or rather release month so we can do what we do: ENTERTAIN YOU.
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Enough said: “WE NEED YOU to show up on opening day…or rather release month so we can do what we do: ENTERTAIN YOU.”
What I’ve noticed at some stores, the shelf life for a romance novel is 30 days. Any books not sold will be returned or sent elsewhere. The store may leave 1 copy, just in case. Now if the book is selling well; they will keep the book well stocked and keep re-ordering. Your post is definately worth re-posting.
by Shelia
on October 23rd, 2007 at 9:55 am
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I’ve started purchasing two books per pay for this very reason. We must support each other! Buy! Read! Tell a Friend!
by Julia
on October 23rd, 2007 at 10:07 am
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I have noticed this but I think it varies, based on the store. For one thing, there are many more books being published so booksellers have to make room for the new stuff. If you’re the June release fighting for shelf space, you’re not happy about all the Jan - May folks still sitting there when they’re not selling.
On the otherhand, I’m one of those folks whose “money is funny” more often than not. I keep a list of books I want to buy and read. Somestimes I don’t get to buy things for a couple of months, and most recently, I’ve noticed that I can’t find what I’m looking for when I finally get to the bookstore.
I get the buy-during-the-release-month thing. Puts even more onus on the authors for smart, innovative promotional efforts and for readers to step up to the plate.
by PatriciaW
on October 23rd, 2007 at 10:11 am
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This, unfortunately, is added pressure on authors. I don’t believe it is limited to just romance authors, but any author (all right, so mainstream novels tend to have a longer shelf life than romance, but the pressure for a big opening week is still there).
Your readers will know you have a new book coming out and hopefully will be anxious to read it, but as for everyone else, short of forcibly dragging people into the bookstores and putting the book in their hands, what’s a writer to do?
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but as for everyone else, short of forcibly dragging people into the bookstores and putting the book in their hands, what’s a writer to do?
Good question Bettye…I say content rules…continue to write the best story that you can write and the sales will follow. Readers might pick up the first book on a fluke…but if we like it we will come back and pick up the second and the third and the fourth.
I’m not a fan of romance genre (shoot me but it’s too formulaic for me) but when you started writing mainstream I gave you a chance and have been a fan since and I’ve told others as well.
Word of mouth is 80% of book sales…so hopefully your fans who enjoy your books are telling others.
xoxo
by yasmin
on October 23rd, 2007 at 11:30 am
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I usually head out with my list at the end of the month or the first week of the month looking for the new releases. My first stop is Wal Mart because of my book budget; however, I also purchase from Books-A-Million, BN, Borders/Waldenbooks and also amazon or wherever I can get a discount especially if it’s quite a few books coming out that month. I try to do my part in support of AA authors.
Bein an avid reader,I usually visit a bookstore at least once a week. I find that the stores that have AA sections, shelves stay more updated and books go faster. I have never been able to find no more than 4-6 Black romance authors in Barnes & Noble on the shelf and I wonder is this because some authors are making such a big fuss over their books being “segregated” because they want to sell to the masses; however, I see a lot of Black women buying books written by white authors; is this because they don’t know about Black AA authors or is it because of the selection?
I would think with the internet, more authors would start sending emails, videos, etc.. about their books and attend conferences such as Slam Jam to communicate releases to their readers. It’s not necessary anymore to have to do a book signing anymore to promote a book since there are so many other avenues to reach readers.
I will continue to visit apooo, Book Remarks, Urban-Reviews, Romance in Color, RAW and Romantic Times to find out what’s coming out and head out with my book budget and list.
by Lareeta
on October 23rd, 2007 at 11:33 am
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I hear you, Adrianne. I’ve often wondered what it is like from the writer’s perspective. To support my faves, I tend to purchase multiple copies of books right away, but with a new author I will wait until after I’ve read their first book before ordering multiples. So, I try to do my part to support you all.
I have noticed on sites like e-harlequin, that they don’t have a long back-list of A-A books available. So, I tend to buy from amazon or straight from the bookstore.
by Jenny
on October 23rd, 2007 at 11:49 am
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Is this to do with BET selling Arabesque, Sepia and New Spirit to Harlequin (where they’re sold under the Kimani imprint)? Could it be that there’s been a knock-on effect on other publishers of AA romances?
I have a feeling that all of Harlequin’s books are only on the shelves for a month, and as far as I know they’ve had that type of turnover for decades. But maybe that’s not what you’re talking about.
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That is what I’m talking about and YES Harlequin books do have a shorter life span-but when a 10 year old line suddenly changes, loyal readers need to know that they need to change along with it or like I stated their favorite authors are gone.
by Adrianne
on October 23rd, 2007 at 12:59 pm
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Jenny, I don’t know if you’re at all interested in ebooks, but if you go to the AA ebooks part of Harlequin’s website, you’ll find quite a lot of backlist (especially in the Kimani Romance line).
The print books only stay on the main part of the website for 3 months, I think, but the ebooks look as though they’ll stay there as backlist permanently.
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when a 10 year old line suddenly changes, loyal readers need to know that they need to change along with it or like I stated their favorite authors are gone
Yes, I can see how that would be a big change for readers who weren’t used to the Harlequin system. I’m assuming from what you’re saying that Harlequin hasn’t been doing anything to reach out to those readers and get them to change their buying habits. That’s a real pity.
Did the novels get sold as ebooks before the lines were sold to Harlequin? Is that a possible area which might lead to increased sales? I’m thinking that it might help make the novels more accessible to people who can’t reach a bookshop that stocks AA romances (e.g. overseas readers).
In my paper copy of your When Valentines Collide there’s a special offer tear-off page inside which offers readers some free books and is designed to get them to sign up to the reader service. If they do sign up for that, they’ll get all the books sent to them monthly. I suppose that might increase sales too.
Anyway, I don’t want to sound like I’m doing promotion for Harlequin, 
just trying to think of some potentially positive aspects of the Harlequin sales techniques.
Have they been saying that sales are down?
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The magic word is “restructuring”. While things are humming along on the Kimani Line, since it was a Harlequin created vehicle-those books (some) are showing up for ebook sales. But the Arabesque Line has been pretty much stripped. It’s gone from 4 releases to 2 orginals and 2 re-issues. (Some months there is only one new original title release) That’s two or three less spots for authors. Bookclub members from that line, from my understanding, are a little miffed to be suddenly receiving books they already own. So far I’ve been blessed with strong numbers, but there are so many who aren’t so lucky.
by Adrianne
on October 23rd, 2007 at 1:33 pm
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Wow! This post was interesting.
AA Romance is my first love. I fell in love with books when I saw my first AA Romance Novel on a shelf in the bookstore. Being a struggling college student, I bought the novels when I could or borrowed them from the library. I was hooked.
Now 13 years later, there are tons of AA Romance Novels and I cannot keep up. As more AA books fiction/non-fiction came out, I moved over to reading those too. I had over 300 AAA Romance books until I did inventory gave many away.
I have to admit I have strayed way from my first love. It is hard to keep up with all the new books my fav romance authors put out along with others I like.
I am slowly moving back to my first love and I know I am behind. I have SO many books I to be read at home I could read a book a week for 3 years.
I want to support authors yet how do you when you can only afford so many books and have too many at home?
by shai
on October 23rd, 2007 at 1:39 pm
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The magic word is “restructuring”. While things are humming along on the Kimani Line, since it was a Harlequin created vehicle-those books (some) are showing up for ebook sales. But the Arabesque Line has been pretty much stripped. It’s gone from 4 releases to 2 orginals and 2 re-issues.
When I went across to eHarlequin before I wrote my comments I did notice that some of the lines looked like they didn’t have very many releases but I wasn’t sure of the reason. I can see why you’d be worried if they’re talking about “restructuring”.
I get the impression that Harlequin can be quite ruthless in that respect. The Bombshell line got dropped when it didn’t perform well enough, and I’ve heard that the NEXT line is going too. One of the Silhouette lines was merged an existing Harlequin one to make “Harlequin Romance” etc.
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I want to support authors yet how do you when you can only afford so many books and have too many at home?
We’re cursed with the same problem. I have three tubs of books to read and even more tubs of books that I’ve already read and I still have to stroll down the book aisle and buy more books whenever I’m in a store. In short, I don’t have an answer to that question. You just do what you can-that’s all any of us can ask.
by Adrianne
on October 23rd, 2007 at 3:57 pm
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Thanks for sharing as I wasn’t aware of this change. How does one go about knowing when a book is released? Is this a place for book release dates? We need to get the word out about this NOW! Let me know how I can help…
Deltareviewer
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[…] Read more… Filed under Writing by Monica […]
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Deltareviewer, sites like Apooo & RAWSistaz are good about listing when books are scheduled to be released. I also send out as well as receive book announcements and I try to note when books that interest me will be coming out. I know you can get bombarded with a lot of email in the course of a week, but maybe adding the books of interest in a spreadsheet would help.
by Shelia
on October 24th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
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Deltareviewer, for the books published by Harlequin, they put up details on their website one month in advance of when the books arrive in the shops, and the details go up at the beginning of every month.
I haven’t worked out the details of how to set up notification emails, but for romances Romantic Advances has an option that you can set up so that it will email you details of new books. As far as I can work out, they have the books listed in various categories, including by publisher, and they’ve got Genesis Press, Kensington’s Dafina line and Harlequin’s Kimani lines listed. It’s a site run by volunteers, so I’m not sure how they’re getting on with keeping it updated in all the categories, but if getting notification of new titles would be useful to you, maybe you could email them and ask?
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Since I am a new romance writer this blog was very informative. Thanks 
I have been an avid reader of AA romance novels for years. I get so disappointed when I come across an author and realize that the current book I’m reading is the 3rd in a series of 10! So many times I have searched high and low to find the other books. And by chance if I do find the books on ebay or amazon it will usually cost $30 or more! So now when a new series come out, I am on it! I make sure I get my book when it’s first released! I really wish the publishing companies would be more proactive with re-releasing titles. Especially the ones that are part of a series.
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[…] Just like it’s important for people to go see a movie on “opening weekend,” authors need the support the first month the book hits the shelves. It’s all about the numbers and publishers are looking at the bottom line. Check out Adrianne Byrd’s post: THE BOTTOM LINE […]
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Adrianne Post
We’re cursed with the same problem. I have three tubs of books to read and even more tubs of books that I’ve already read and I still have to stroll down the book aisle and buy more books whenever I’m in a store. In short, I don’t have an answer to that question. You just do what you can-that’s all any of us can ask.
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All I can say is that I love to read AA romance.
My sister in-Law want even pick up an AA book if it’s written by an AA author. I ask why she said she just can’t get into it. I told her that she was just giving up because she hasn’t found a good author. You want know how good an AA author is until you give them a chance to. Just because you read one book u don’t like doesn’t mean the others are the same. But she said she couldn’t get into them so I left it at that because sister girl work my last nerve. But we all have our reason. I love all kinds of books but my heart is with AA and it will always be that way.
And anytime in Wal-Mart, or on the internet, anywhere they have books the 1st thing I do is look for an AA Books. I buy and buy I just think that when my daughter gets older she can read them. I love buying books to me it’s like buy shoes and that’s my 2nd favorite thing to buy. I have so many books at home I cant help it.
I do have a question? What about the other people who are on eBay or Amazon and they are the ones who are selling the book and the author, doesn’t profit from it. Ok ya! So they may have brought the book for the store or given as gift. But that is another way fthe author cant met the sells.
by jeria22
on October 28th, 2007 at 11:04 am
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[…] just business… My good friend, Adrianne Byrd, has an insightful post on the current state of the African-American romance industry. Everything she said about the […]
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very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
by Idetrorce
on December 15th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
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Hello! Very good site! All is done neatly, beautifully
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Hello! Good site, good content
