So today is the first year birthday celebration of my first indie release – yay! The Breakup Project released a year ago, and it’s been a fun ride on the Indie Author Express.
This past year I’ve tried all kinds of new things, including (and not limited to): rapid releasing books, co-writing a book, writing a rom-com (Daring Mr Darcy, out February 14 as part of the My Funny Valentine collection), finally doing a newsletter magnet (get your copy of Originally Yours for free here!), redeeming books rejected by publishers and discovering readers love them anyway, working on an audiobook, and joining many, many joint author promos as I continue to pivot from being known for historicals to my personal sweet spot, contemporary romance.
Part of that has involved refining my genre to something a little more specific, so while I love writing sports romance, and have a new series coming out next year, I also love writing small town romance (partly because I live in one), such as the books in the Muskoka Shores romance series.
Which leads me to my questions for you today.
Writers love to know what readers like to see, so I’d be very grateful if you could answer the following questions, as it will help with future planning. So, please, take a moment to answer the following:
- Do you have a favourite trope? (eg friends-to-more, enemies-to-lovers, mistaken identity, marriage of convenience, fake engagement, nanny, royalty, rock star, etc)
- What is your favorite setting? (eg small town, big city, mountains, farm, ranch, island, lake, etc)
- Do you have a particular holiday / seasonal book you love to read? (eg give me all the Christmas books now! NYE books, etc)
- What season / theme do you think should have more books? (eg Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Bastille Day, Australia Day, etc)
Big thanks for answering my little survey. As a thank you, you can download your copy of The Breakup Project, a NYE friends-to-more, brother’s best friend fun romance filled with relatable characters, real settings, banter and swoony romance for FREE! (And grab the next two books in the series while they’re on sale here).
I trust your 2022 has been filled with many great and enjoyable reads, and that 2023 will see more exciting books and authors to discover.
Happy 2023 to you!
Carolyn Miller lives in the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, with her husband and four children. A longtime lover of romance, Carolyn loves drawing readers into fictional worlds that show the truth of God’s grace in our lives. Her Regency and contemporary novels are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Koorong, etc
1. Probably: enemies to lovers, fake relationships, mistaken identity, marriage of convenience.
2. Small towns, or rural settings in general.
3. Right now I’m reading the sequels to The Christmas Box (which was also made into a fabulous movie).
4. I do like Christmas books, but I think it would be nice to see books that focused on other times of the year. Like: Easter, New years, etc.
Thanks so much for answering! I agree- Christmas is great but more books about other seasons and holidays, please!
1. Tropes: friends to lovers, marriage of convenience.
2. Small towns, rural.
3. Christmas – partly because that’s the most common seasonal /holidaybook available
4. Easter, Autumn
Yes to all of this! Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts.
Happy Holidays Carolyn from SW Michigan.
1. Troupes: second chance at love for older couples, enemies to lovers.
2. Small town settings with a view in a country not the US. I would love to see more stories set in South America, Africa, Asia and Australia. This retiree enjoys traveling the world – no passport required or jet lag or long lines at airports.
3. A fun New Year’s read is Rachelle Ayala Happy Goose Year. Delightful with an older couple and the fowl antics of a goose. Reminded me of being a preschool goose herder in Berlin.
4. This reader enjoys reading books with a holiday or festival setting. In May our town has a Blossom Parade and Holland, MI has the Tulip Festival around Mother’s Day. Michigan is a large fruit growing region – so there are Cherry, Peach, and Apple Festivals. Few books are written about Father’s Day, Veteran’s Day. What type of regional festivals are celebrated in Australia? What about Chinese New Year or Diwali or Hanukkah?
Ooh, yes! Here in Australia we (obvs) have Australia Day, although that’s become a little problematic in recent years as many First Nations people view it as invasion day. We do have certain holidays as legacy of our British roots, so the Queen’s Birthday (the King’s birthday now!), Boxing Day and time off at Easter is also important. Anzac Day is another important one when Aussies and New Zealanders remember soldiers lost at war. Thanks so much for your answer!
#1 friends-to-more, enemies-to-lovers, mistaken identity, marriage of convenience, fake engagement, mail order brides etc
#2smalltowns, mountains, dessert
#3 I love reading Christmas stories all year long. so picking a favorite is difficult.
#4 birthdays, Easter, fourth of july, memorial day, labor day, love all books in the four different seasons
Awesome! Thanks so much for answering!
1. second chance, small town
2. small town, mountains
3. Christmas and fall
4. fall
Yes to all of the above!
#1 : an older couple finding love for the first time, friends to more.
#2 : small town, coastal
#3 : Christmas
#4 : Australia Day is rather controversial at the moment, so probably not the best choice. Book week would be fun though.
Ooh, you’re so right! Book week would be super fun!
As long as it’s clean romance I read it. Having a dog or a baby in (or both is even better)
Ooh, thanks for sharing this!
1) ALL, though I will admit marriage of convenience is barely at the tippy top!!
2) All, equally
3) All, equally
4) All, equally
To be honest, a good book that draws me, regardless of trope, location, etc., is all that I need!!
1. My all time favorite is Amish romance. Next is second chances and geezer (mature aged) stories.
2. Small town, lakes, and beaches.
3. Definitely Christmas.
4. I think Easter needs more. And Fourth of July.
Mostly as long as it is clean Christian stories, it is good.
Thank you.
I’ve never heard of ‘geezer’ stories until now (I don’t know if geezer romance has the right kind of ring about it ;). And yes, we definitely need more Easter books, don’t we?
You are right, “geezer” romance would not sell well 😅. But at 71 years old, I do enjoy reading older people stories.
See, I think marriage of convenience in contemporary is hard to do (I’ve only ever attempted it a couple of times in my historicals!). Do you have any you recommend? Could be a good challenge for me!
Alexa Verde’s A Marriage of Convenience is really good! Also, I know of two more coming out next year that are going to be really good!! I’m proofreading one of them now, and I’m Beta reading the other one. So, once they’re out next year, I’ll tell you names and authors!! I know there are others, but this is off the top of my head!
1. I tend not to like the way tropes are used all the time as book descriptions now (I know it’s how everyone does it so you have to to allow searches etc) as a good book is so much more than the trope, but I do love a marriage of convenience story
2. Any setting is good with me, I love finding out more about life in different places
3. I always read Christmas books, I haven’t come across many other holidays
4. I would definitely be up for reading books set in different seasons, Easter is such a wonderful celebration I think it would be great to have a Christian romance set at Easter.
Thank you for the book!
Happy reading to you, Ruthie! And yes, getting all tropety tropey in book titles and descriptions can look a little too obvious somewhere, can’t it?
Tropes – I really like enemies to more, mistaken identities and friends to more the best.
Settings – I like small town settings or international settings. Any place I can visit vicariously really.
Favorite Holiday/Season – I like books set during any seasons really, with summer probably being my favorite season and Christmas my favorite holiday setting.
Season to see more of – I think books set around Easter would be fun to see more of, Valentines Day too as there aren’t a lot of clean ones I know of set for that holiday.
It’s always fun to visit international settings, isn’t it?
1. alphas
2. any
3. any
4. Australia Day
Yes! It’d be interesting to do an Australia Day book that wasn’t going to prove problematic for some readers. A good challenge!
Marriage of convenience older couples are nice
Any time of year is fine
Any setting is great
Yes!
1.Do you have a favourite trope I like enemies to lovers,fake relationship or marriage,Amish romance, secret baby or child, second chance romance
2. What is your favorite setting I think small town romance
3. Do you have a particular holiday / seasonal book you love to read? no
4.What season / theme do you think should have more books? mother day or father’s day
Ooh, yes! That would be fun. I think those holidays / special days might need a novella, as it’s hard to imagine 90k words devoted to a single day. Although a good challenge, right?
1. Friends to more. 2. small town romance 3. Love them all. 4. I love them all. Thank you for sharing. God bless you. Happy New Year.
Thanks so much for replying. Happy new year to you too!
As one of the other readers said I really don’t like how books are labeled as xxx trope as they are often more. If I read secret baby trope I will probably give it a wide berth if instead the blurb makes it sound interesting without saying secret baby I may read it. the same with enemy to more to me an enemy is someone is just that an enemy like in a war or a bully and victim so to see enemy to more It makes me think not what the writer intends. probably not a big fan of tropes covering the arts
As for locations it depends. I like small town, or hamlet, mountains or lakes or sea depends on the story.
Christmas stories this time of year but otherwise not really. still waiting for a Christmas in Hawaii book.
As for other holidays its hard to have a book on a single day. In Canada and America they have a lead up to there Thanksgiving so that works. Easter also has a lead up with Lent and most countries who celebrate besides America have a 4 day weekend.
The days I think could work really well would be ANZAC Day or Remembrance /veterans Day (A book where the hero or heroine are organising a group of veterans to visit the War Memorial (in Canberra, or Washington as the Vietnam Memorial is very moving.) Or even for ANZAC day a hero/heroine going to Kokoda or Gallipoli. Of course when you write these I want a mention as sourse of inspiration! (Just kidding)