What do Readers Want?

Weekend before last I spent in San Francisco with some of the biggest names in romance talking about how to increase our presence on Amazon and reach more readers. This conference was small, personal and so unique. It’s not often you can ask Belle Andre or Tina Folsom or Sara Fawkes about their success.  Not to forget Nina Lane, Delilah Fawkes, Courtney Milan, Cynthia Woolf and several other Best-selling authors that attended.

We spent the weekend discussing metadata, keywords, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Street Teams and all the other details that help sell our books. As we sat there, I couldn’t help but wonder if we shouldn’t be asking questions of our readers.

So I would like you to take the following unscientific, totally random for my own purposes survey. It’s only five questions, with a bonus round and someone (randomly drawn number), who answers will receive a free book just because they participated. The results will be tallied and shared with other authors.

Die Hard A Christmas Movie?

Yes, my husband insists that every year we watch Die Hard. This is our annual Christmas movie and while it is rather gruesome, I have to say I still love the message. This man loves his wife and would do just about anything to save her and restore their marriage. Even fight supposed terrorists. So I was surprised to see it’s number 6 on the Rotten Tomatoes Holiday Movie List http://www.rottentomatoes.com/guides/best_christmas_movies_2012/.

My favorite Christmas Movie is the classic Jimmy Stewart, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The line I will never forget from that movie is “When a bell rings an angel is receiving his wings.” That one grabs my heart and squeezes it every time. Whoever the screenwriter was, he knew just how to grab your emotions and rip them apart. I still tear up when he goes back and sees how the town would have been if he hadn’t lived. Love the concept and one of these days I want to write a modern version of that storyline.

Sylvia McDaniel asks: Is Love only for Virgins?

I’m hard at work finishing up my new Christmas novella. This one is a little different. I went back to my best-selling western series, The Burnett Brides that I had written years ago. The series, set in the old west, is about a mother who has three very stubborn sons who have not gotten married. She wants grandchildren, and they’re not even married. So she pulls some tricks and by the time the third son is married, the children wanted to return the favor of finding her true love. I never wrote that book until now.

Eugenia Burnett (be careful what names you choose in books because they stay around a long time) has sworn never to remarry. She doesn’t need a husband or want one. She’s a free spirit doing what she pleases and doesn’t need a man to boss her around. Yet she’s not given up her matchmaking ways either. Now she’s moved on to the people she knows, and she’s putting widows and widowers together. Until one widower, Wyatt Jones (think John Wayne meets Maureen O’Hara) lets her know in front of a crowded restaurant that he’s not interested in any of the women she keeps sending him except her. He wants to marry her.

I’ve had a lot of fun with this book. The story just seemed to write itself with me hanging on for the ride. I love it when books are this easy to write. But this book is special because it’s about an “Older” heroine.