hrj

You do know that you're at the top of that "one or two" that I want more of? I am immensely grateful that you take my work seriously. But you can't get the word out single-handedly. For the most part, I'm working in a data vacuum. Even among those who I know are aware of the book, I don't know who has actually read it, and of those, who has talked about it in places I don't have access to. All I know is that I see a lot of books similar to mine getting a lot of public buzz and what I see as the biggest difference is that they're put out by "known SFF publishers". (I honestly don't think the lesbian thing is an issue, I think the lesbian press thing is an issue.) I see individual (not big-name) reviewers saying "People who like [well-known author] would like Daughter of Mystery," but I need to make the jump to [well-known author] telling their readers, "Hey, you should check out this book, I think you'll like it!" Or an even larger number of respected SFF reviewers (in addition to you) saying, "Here's a book you aren't likely to stumble across but you should really give it a try!"

I don't always follow Good Author Protocols. Sometimes I do jump in on threads and say, "You know that type of book you're asking for recs on? Mine matches it perfectly." But I know in my heart that this is counterproductive in the long run. Every author thinks their book is the best thing since sliced bread, so nobody pays any attention to what an author says. And I don't yet have a critical mass of people who aren't me saying, "That type of book you're asking for recs on? This one matches it perfectly!" It's frustrating. My book has been out for five months now; why am I not famous yet????" :)