← Return to Chapter 12: A Busy, Busy Year!
It was late 2000 and I was excitedly bracing myself for the release of my first single title romance Our Husband. There were a couple of false starts on the cover. The ARCs (advanced reading copies) were solid white with the front resembling an engraved white wedding invitation. (I'm away from my archives, but when I get back to them, I'll post a photo of the ARC of Our Husband.) My agent and I thought it had no personality; ultimately, the publisher agreed and redesigned the cover to feature three wedding bouquets. While I loved the jaunty font they used for my name and the title, I wasn't wild about the image because, in my opinion, it implied a polygamous marriage between a man and three women. And I was hoping for something with more vibrant colors (I'm not much for pastels). But overall I liked the comedic tone of the cover:
Original cover for Our Husband
In previous chapters, I explained the difference between a category romance novel and a single title romance novel, but to review:
A category romance novel is a romance, usually short in length, released within a publisher's "line" that has its own name, such as Harlequin Presents or Love Inspired, which are a certain type of romance that aligns with guidelines for that category. Readers who read Harlequin Presents, for example, typically read all the books released within that line because they're similar in tone, sensuality level, etc. Category romance is a win-win in the book world: readers get the kind of stories they like and authors get a built-in audience.
Single title romances, on the other hand, are typically standalone romances that are usually longer in length and sell on the strength of the author's name and secondarily, the cover, the back cover blurb, and word of mouth.
For the relative safety of writing category romance, an author settles for a lower advance, with the knowledge that their book will, over time, sell a guaranteed minimum of copies and be translated into many languages which will result in royalties down the road.
For a single title romance, the advance will be larger, but with less of a sales guarantee.
If you're thinking "Yikes, why would anyone take that risk?", I don't blame you. It does seem like a gamble. But it's difficult to make a living writing category romance. Even if you're a fast writer, it can be difficult to get enough release slots to ensure a steady income. With a single title romance, the advance is higher and so is the payment for sales into other English-speaking countries, for translations, for audiobooks, for book clubs, and if the stars align, for film and/or TV. Also, single titles are in retail outlets longer, whereas category romances are typically on display for only one month. Bottom line: authors have the potential for making more money on a single title romance.
Or not.
While print runs for category romances are relatively static, print runs aren't set for single titles until after they're "sold" into accounts. A publisher's sales force previews upcoming books with retail accounts and try to convince them to place orders based on how much confidence they have in the book and/or the author. So if a book doesn't sell well into accounts, the book will get a low print run, meaning fewer copies are in retail stores for readers to find, which puts the author at a disadvantage from the start. And this is why many single titles don't earn as much as category romances do in the long run. Here's the sales sheet St. Martin's used to shop Our Husband to retail outlets:
Sales sheet for Our Husband
I was so jazzed to be compared to some of the great writers on the sales sheet, and I was over the moon at the complimentary things St. Martin's said about me and my writing. And I was thrilled to see they saw my books for Harlequin as a springboard to bring my existing readers over to this book that had a lot of romance in it. But in hindsight I see some conflicting bits of marketing information that would result in mixed messages to booksellers—the references to my romance history and following the path of Nora Roberts (the queen of romance), but also that I was poised to become the next bestselling women's fiction writer. Also, the endorsements the publisher sought were from a mix of romance authors and women's fiction authors.
Okay, here's where I should stop to explain the difference between romance and women's fiction as the book industry sees it.
A romance novel is a book where the romance is the main story (the A story). IF there's another story in the book, it's the B story and it should contribute to or prop up the romance. In romance novels, there's a happy ending.
In a women's fiction novel, the A story is typically something other than romance (for example, a mid-life crisis, an empty nest, the loss of a loved one, a mystery) and if there's a romance, it's the B story. And in women's fiction, a "satisfying" ending is more common than a happy one.
To be fair, Our Husband is a hybrid book—I wrote the book I wanted to read:
Three women from different walks of life—a doctor, a socialite, and a stripper—find out they have one thing in common: a husband! When the magnanimous hubby winds up dead, the unlikely trio band together to track down a killer, and along the way, discover a lot more than they bargained for.
Our Husband is a humorous romantic mystery that involves a main character whose marriage is in trauma, then during a medical emergency, she learns her husband is a bigamist—two times over. And she doesn't exactly mesh with his two other wives. And along the way, she unexpectedly finds love again. It's a mix of romance AND women's fiction, which is how St. Martin's positioned it in the market. But, as I would discover, booksellers didn't know where to place the book within their store.
I loved writing this story. My agent loved this story. My editor heaped praise on it, and all the writers who graciously read it to lend an endorsement seemed to like it, too. Thankfully, the pre-orders were very promising. St. Martin's marketing department got the book some really nice coverage. Here's a page from a roundup of books in WOMAN'S OWN magazine:
WOMAN'S OWN books and movies roundup page featuring Our Husband
When I was writing category romance, the reviews I most cared about were from Romantic Times and Affaire de Coeur magazines. Now I was hoping to score a review from Publishers Weekly (not all single title books get a PW review) and further, I was hoping it would be a good review.
Our Husband did get a PW review and thankfully, it was good. Unfortunately, the same month Our Husband was released, a historical romance author released a book about three women who travel to the West to find the man they learn they’re all married to. I knew of the author, but we weren’t acquaintances. Still, some reviewers accused me of stealing her idea, or vice versa. Which is ridiculous when you consider how long it takes to get a book in and out of the publishing pipeline. It was simply a matter of story synchronicity. Still it left me (and probably the other author) feeling like my idea was unoriginal. Ack.
When Our Husband was released, I did my part, doing booksignings whenever my schedule allowed:
Booksignings for Our Husband Fall of 2000
And the book sold... okay. Not great, but okay. And as I made the rounds to Atlanta bookstores, armed with donuts for booksellers and signing stock, I made an observation that would help explain why the sales weren't all that: Borders bookstores had Our Husband shelved in the romance section. Books-a-Million had it shelved in the mystery section. And Barnes & Noble had it shelved in general fiction.
Ack.
I'd written a hybrid book to appeal to a wide audience, but had I unwittingly thrown too wide of a net? It's not a good sign when readers don't know what part of the bookstore to find you in.
But St. Martin's seemed happy enough with the sales, which made me happy. Our Husband sold into the Doubleday Bookclub which was a big deal at the time. The audio rights were picked up, and it sold into several foreign countries. It made the Target, Border’s and Joseph-Beth Booksellers bestseller lists. The Reviewers International Organization (RIO) chose it as the Best Contemporary Single Title of 2000.
It was a respectable first outing, and I was really proud of the book, despite the fact that it hadn't created any waves.
BUT fast forward to 2011, and since I'd gotten the rights back to Our Husband, I repackaged it and re-released it on my own. This time I was determined to put the cover on it I thought it should've had all along, a cover that reflected the plot and the tone of the story:
New cover of Our Husband
And this time, because online bookstores aren't limited by shelving or display tables, I was able to categorize Our Husband as romance, mystery, and comedy. Within a few months, I'd sold ten times the number of copies of its original outing! In fact, it was the best-selling self-published Kindle book on Amazon for all of 2012. When Jeff Bezos announced the release of a new Kindle device, the backdrop featured covers of some of the recent bestsellers. I was thrilled to see Our Husband on that stage!
Our Husband in the background of Jeff Bezos presentation
In fact, it sold so well on Amazon that I received an offer from their foreign rights department to publish it in German:
The German language edition of Our Husband
If you missed Our Husband, click here to get it in ebook, print, or audio (or German)!
All this to say that it's easy for authors to blame publishers for lackadaisical sales: If only they'd given the book a different cover, different price point, gotten more reviews, paid for more ads, landed more publicity, the book would've sold better. But St. Martin's couldn't have foreseen the misaligned bookstore placement. And all this to say that a book's lifecycle can be long—I couldn't have foreseen that Our Husband would find another, larger audience nearly a decade after its initial release!
But back to November 2000: With Our Husband launched, I could exhale and work on my next single title for St. Martin's, and promote the other books I had coming out.
The same month Our Husband was released, Harlequin released my romance Seeking Single Male. In Seeking Single Male, Lana, a coffee shop owner struggling to make ends meet, posts an ad for a roommate to help share expenses—but things go hilariously wrong when the ad gets mixed up with her employee's personal ad! Enter Greg, a sharp, no-nonsense attorney, who responds on behalf of his mentally challenged brother to make sure his sibling doesn't get taken advantage of. The mix-up leads to an awkward first encounter that quickly turns into a sizzling attraction neither of them can deny.
But there's a catch—Greg and Lana are on opposite sides of a rezoning battle that could close Lana's beloved coffee shop for good. As sparks fly between them, they're caught in a push-pull dynamic where desire and duty clash. With Christmas just around the corner, they both must decide what matters most—winning the battle or opening their hearts to love. And with a secondary romance brewing for Greg's brother, this holiday season promises more surprises than anyone expected!
Harlequin typically highlights holiday stories with over-the-top Christmas titles and/or covers. But for some reason, that element of the story got a little lost in the packaging of Seeking Single Male:
The original wraparound cover for Seeking Single Male
Even though it wasn't packaged as a Christmas story, I really love this cover and still think it's one of the most striking covers in my early career because it was simple and it popped. (Seeing the heart-shaped "The Personal Touch" insignia just jogged my memory that the story had to have something to do with personal ads!)
Back in the day, we called this wraparound sheet an IRIS, although I can't recall what that stands for and I can't find out anything online that would pertain to the printing of mass market book. But if anyone reading this knows, please email me. As you can see around the edges, it has all the pertinent info about the printing of the book such as on-sale date, the size of the cover and the number of pages it would have.
A few years ago I got the rights back to Seeking Single Male. I revamped it for re-release, added the subtitle "For the Holidays," and gave it what I thought was an elegant holiday cover.
New cover for Seeking Single Male (For the Holidays)
If you missed Seeking Single Male (For the Holidays), it's available in ebook now and the print version is coming November 2025. Click here to get it!
As the year 2000 was coming to an end, I received a rejection for the romantic comedy manuscript Stop the Wedding! I'd written on spec for the UK Harlequin office. The editor who'd originally asked me to submit a funny story had left the company and the new editor wasn't convinced their line needed comedy. That happens in publishing houses all the time—editors come and go, and authors are at the mercy of tastes and trends that are in and out of favor with editors who acquire manuscripts. Around this time my US Harlequin editor was pressing me for more books and since Stop the Wedding! was a finished manuscript, I offered it to her. But she decided it wasn't a good fit for the line she edited. With two back-to-back rejections for that manuscript (and many more to come!), I shoved it into a drawer and got back to work.
In the aftermath of the release of Our Husband, I realized not that much about my life or career had changed, which is pretty much what happens for 99% of all authors and 99% of all books released. Unless a book is a monster bestseller, it's kind of like a drop of water into a full bucket. There's a little ripple… then everyone moves on.
And so would I! ~
Next up: 2001 is another prolific year with 4 releases, including another single title and another interactive online story.