Top 10 Romance Book Promotion Sites

This is part of the WriteZero Top 10 Book Promotion Sites Guide for Authors & Publishers

This particular post covers the Top 10 Book Promotion Sites for Romance books

The Top 10 – The 10 Best Romance Book Promotion Sites

1. Bookbub
   1. Main Pro: Very good results, subgenre specific Romance lists, reaches a lot of readers, and almost all authors make back the money they spend (sometimes a lot more)
      1. Has individual lists for many Romance subgenres – Contemporary Romance, Historical Romance, Paranormal Romance, New Adult Romance, American Historical Romance, Romantic Suspense, Time Travel Response, Dark Romance & Erotica, and Erotic Romance
   2. Main Con: Takes only 10% to 20% of submissions. Your book has to very polished to get in
2. Books Butterfly
   1. Main Pro: Good results, subgenre specific Romance lists and blogs, and reaches a lot of readers
      1. Has individual lists and/or blogs for the following Romance subgenres – Romance, Steamy Romance, Romantic Erotica, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy Romance, Shifter Romance, Historical Romance, BDSM, Dark Romance, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense, Young Adult Romance, Clean Romance
   2. Main Con: Has multiple books per category per day. If your book is not polished it might fall into the 10% of books that do not do well
   3. Disclosure: Books Butterfly is our Sister Company which has sold $1.8 million of book promotion packages in July 2014 to now (June 2020)
3. eReader News Today
   1. Main Pro: Very large site with a large email list that has been helping authors and readers since 2010
   2. Main Con: Not really any cons except they don’t have romance subgenre lists. Do note that they don’t take Erotic Romance and Dark Romance but do take Steamy Romance in some cases
4. Robin Reads
   1. Main Pro: Very good upcoming site that gets good results
   2. Main Con: Very selective and take less than 10% of books that are submitted. You have to have a very polished book to get approved for a promotion
5. FreeBooksy & Bargain Booksy
   1. Main Pro: FreeBooksy is a Top 5 site for free book promotions, including for Romance. Bargain Booksy is in the Top 10/Top 15 of sites for paid book promotions for Romance
   2. Main Con: Not really any cons. Please do keep in mind that Bargain Booksy (to promote paid books) is not really at the same level as sites like RobinReads and eReader News Today, whereas FreeBooksy (to promote free books) is very strong and perhaps even #3 after Bookbub and Books Butterfly for promoting a free romance novel
6. Book Sends
   1. Main Pro: A large and very trusted site that has been helping authors for 5+ years
   2. Main Con: Not really any cons except it doesn’t have romance subgenres and just a general romance list
7. My Romance Reads
   1. Main Pro: A large site focused completely on Romance
   2. Main Con: Not really any cons
      1. My Romance Reads is not as well known as some of the other sites on this list. Perhaps they don’t do much marketing
      2. They do get very solid results
      3. It’s crazy to us that people know about hundreds of book promotion sites and somehow don’t know about a Top 10 romance book promotion site like My Romance Reads
8. To Be Updated – We are still finalizing which romance book promotion sites out of the Honorable Mentions make it to the #8, #9, #10 slots in the Top 10 Romance Book Promotion Sites list
9. To Be Updated
10. To Be Updated

Top 10 Romance Book Promotion Sites – Details & Insights on the Top Romance Book Promotion Sites

#1 BookBub

Bookbub is the largest book promotion site and the best. It gives positive return on investment on the Featured Deal promotions (not saying every author will make back the money they spend, just that most authors will)

Please Note: For this post we will only discuss and consider the Bookbub Featured Deal promotion package. This does not cover Bookbub New Release promotions and this does not cover Bookbub Pay Per Click Ads. This recommendation and ranking is ONLY for the Featured Deal promotion from Bookbub

Bookbub Featured Deal Key Qualities and Aspects

1. Strengths
   1. Excellent Results
   2. The biggest promotion site with 15 million email subscribers (from a 2019 interview; their website still says 10 million) and 3.6 million Facebook Fans
   3.  Genre Specific email lists, including for many romance sub genres
      1. You are getting a very specific, tailored set of readers. Readers who have chosen to specifically get books in the categories they are interested in
   4. Bookbub has individual lists for the following Romance subgenres
      1. Contemporary Romance
      2. Historical Romance
      3. Paranormal Romance
      4. New Adult Romance
      5. American Historical Romance
      6. Romantic Suspense
      7. Time Travel Romance
      8. Dark Romance & Erotica
      9. Erotic Romance
   5. It’s very strong in all Romance genres
2. Negatives
   1. Only approve 10% to 20% of books submitted
      1. If you keep submitting, if your book is well polished they will eventually take it
      2. Easier to get accepted for the free book promotions
   2. They will only take books with a decent number of reviews
   3. Run only 1 to 2 books per romance sub category per day so there are only 10 to 20 spots a day
      1. Of those 50% to 60% to Large Publishers and Medium Publishers
      2. That leaves just 5 to 10 spots a day for Self Published Authors
3. Keys to Improving Your Chances of Getting Accepted by Bookbub
   1. Keep submitting. This is the most important. Don’t take rejections personally and just keep submitting
   2. Book must have reviews
   3. Books that are wide (not exclusive to Amazon) supposedly have a higher chance of being accepted
   4. Make sure you have a professionally designed book cover
   5. Make sure your book is well edited
   6. Make sure you follow the Bookbub guidelines
      1. If a book is not accepted, then please wait a month before resubmitting it
      2. If a book is accepted, then don’t submit the same book again for 6 months after it is run
4. Key BookBub Links for Authors
   1. Submit your book deal at – Bookbub Submit a Deal
      1. Requires you to get a free account at Bookbub
   2. Partners Overview (Partners = Authors) – Bookbub Partners Overview
5. Pricing
   1. This is the Pricing Page for Bookbub Featured Deals
      1. Please Note: While these prices might seem high, you will almost always make back the money you spend
      2. Bookbub has the best Return on Investment of all romance book promotion sites
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
   1. Very Strong for $1.99 and $2.99. Above that sales will start dropping
      1. For self published authors the drop off is more drastic at prices above $2.99
      2. Free, $0.99 and $2.99 are the price points you should go with at Bookbub if you are a self published author
      3. $0.99 and Free work superbly well
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
   1. Super Strong. $0.99 is the best price for Bookbub (for Bookbub Featured Deal)
      1. Add on a few more of the romance book promotion sites and BookBub Featured Deal will take you to the Top 100 in all paid books
      2. Promotion packages from the other top book promotion sites should be set up in the 2 to 3 days right before your Bookbub Featured Deal date, or on the same day as your Bookbub Featured Deal
8. Strength for Free Promotions
   1. Super Strong. A BookBub Featured Deal will usually send you to the Top 20 in the Top 100 list at Amazon (the Top 100 Free Books list)
   2. You can get promotion packages from other top romance book promotion sites and get a Top 5 spot
9. Strength for Full Price promotions
   1. Full price promotions are rather recent and we do not have enough data or input from authors

We recommend Bookbub very strongly. If you can get Bookbub for your Romance Novel, it is an automatic purchase

#2 BooksButterfly

Disclosure: Books Butterfly is our Sister Company which has successfully run $1.8 million of book promotion packages. This includes over $600,000 of Romance book promotion packages

Books Butterfly is the 2nd largest book promotion site with 4 million readers and the #2 choice for most Romance sub genres

Books Butterfly Key Qualities and Aspects

1. Strengths
   1. Very strong results for well polished books
      1. 90% of books promoted get good results
      2. 10% of books promoted do not do well
      3. Generally, the more polished your book is, the better it will do with Books Butterfly
   2. The 2nd biggest book promotion site with 4 million readers
      1. 3.3 million readers on Apps
      2. 280,000 readers on email lists
      3. 121,000 readers visiting the blogs and websites
   3. Dedicated Email Lists or Blogs or Apps for the following Romance sub genres
      1. Romance
      2. Steamy Romance
      3. Christian Romance
      4. Clean Romance
      5. Romantic Suspense
      6. Romantic Erotica
      7. Paranormal Romance
      8. Fantasy Romance
      9. Shifter Romance
      10. Historical Romance
      11. BDSM
      12. Dark Romance
   4. Very strong in nearly all romance sub genres
      1. Exceptionally strong – Steamy Romance, Dark Romance, Shifter Romance, Contemporary Romance, Christian Romance, Clean Romance, Historical Romance
      2. Strong – BDSM Romance, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy Romance
      3. Medium Strength – Young Adult Romance, Romantic Erotica, Romance Suspense
      4. Weak – Erotica, New Adult Romance
   5. There is a guarantee on packages for $0 book promotions and $0.99 book promotions
      1. If you miss the target amount of sales/downloads, then you get store credit to re-run the book for no charge, so that you can get the remaining sales/downloads
      2. You can run for the exact amount of store credit you have, so there is no requirement to add more money
2. Negatives
   1. Not as Selective as Bookbub
      1. As opposed to Bookbub which takes 10% to 20% of books submitted, BooksButterfly accepts between 10% to 70% of books submitted
   2. [Perhaps the biggest Negative] Results depend on the amount of polish you have put into the book
      1. There is more than one book per category so the amount of polish put into your book matters a lot
      2. If you have an unpolished book, then your book will not do well
      3. If you have a polished book, then it will do well
      4. The more polished your book is, the better it will do
   3. Guarantee has certain conditions
      1. Firstly, the guarantee is only for $0.99 book promotions and $0 book promotions
      2. Guarantee only applies for books over 150 pages
         1. Please also note that Books Butterfly will usually not accept any book under 150 pages in Romance (for Non Fiction the requirement is over 50 pages)
      3. Guarantee only applies for $0.99 books if the book has never been free in the past
      4. Guarantee does not apply to books that have been run with Bookbub
3. Increasing your chances of getting accepted by Books Butterfly
   1. 5 main things Books Butterfly curation team looks for
      1. Good Reviews. If you have no reviews then the bar for the other 4 categories becomes higher
      2. Professionally designed cover
      3. Professionally Edited Book
      4. Preference to Repeat Customers
      5. No misrepresentation to readers – Book Genre and Book Length should be clearly conveyed, absolutely no fake reviews, no miscategorization of book genres, no cliffhangers, no cheating
   2. Please don’t submit an unpolished book as it is very unlikely to get accepted
   3. Romance specific requirements
      1. No cheating
      2. No cliffhangers
      3. If there are Trigger topics, then a Trigger warning
      4. If no HEA (Happily Ever After), then a warning that there is no HEA
      5. A cover suited to Romance
4. Key Things to Keep in Mind when promoting with Books Butterfly
   1. Books Butterfly will usually be your best choice in Romance if you can’t get Bookbub
      1. There’s no other book promotion site that comes close to Bookbub and Books Butterfly in size
      2. Books Butterfly has a unique combination of email lists, apps for Kindle Fire, apps for iPhone, blogs, and websites
   2. If you do get Bookbub, then in general you don’t need any other book promotion site
      1. You do have the option of getting Books Butterfly to stack it with Bookbub and increasing results further
      2. For $0.99 books it would mean taking you higher and a very good chance of hitting the Top 100 in the paid lists
      3.  For free books, Bookbub alone will take you to Top 20. Adding Books Butterfly gives you a realistic shot at Top 5 and even #1 if you are in Romance
   3. Books Butterfly will accept new books, even without reviews, if you are a Repeat Customer or can otherwise demonstrate a good history of high quality books
      1. This makes it perfect for new release promotions
      2. This also makes it a great choice when making a Bestseller Push
   4. Books Butterfly will not accept – books under 150 pages, books with cheating (hero cheating on heroine), cliffhanger endings
5. Pricing
   1. Books Butterfly book promotion packages for $0.99 deals – $0.99 Book Ads at Books Butterfly
      1. If going for a Bestseller list then Bestseller Push 7 and Platinum 100 are the two best choices
   2. Books Butterfly book promotion packages for over $1 books and paperbacks – Over $1 Book Ads at Books Butterfly
      1. All Month Push is the best option and also the most popular
      2. If going for a longer promotion then 3 Month Push and 1 Year Push are good options
   3. Books Butterfly book promotion packages for free books – Free Book Ads at Books Butterfly
      1. If aiming for the Top 100 Free Books list, then Top 100 Push and Pure Pearl are the best options
   4. Books Butterfly book promotion packages for Box Sets – Box Set Ads at Books Butterfly
      1. If going for a Bestseller List then Box Set 300 is the best option
      2. Please Note: Box Set packages are only for actual Box Set which have 3 or more books of full length combined into one box set
         1. Anything below 500 pages is not considered a box set
         2. Short story box sets are not accepted unless there are New York Times Bestselling Authors or USA Today Bestselling Authors included
         3. Multi Authors Box Sets are accepted
6. Books Butterfly Strength for Over $1 promotions
   1. Very strong for $2.99 book promotions
   2. Strong for over $1 book ads up to $5 for ebooks and up to $14 for paperbacks
   3. Results vary for over $1 books ads for ebooks priced over $5 and paperbacks priced over $14
      1. The higher you go over $5 the lower the sales
7. Books Butterfly Strength for $0.99 promotions
   1. Very strong for $0.99 book promotions
   2. Exceptionally strong for $0.99 box set promotions
8. Books Butterfly Strength for Free Promotions
   1. Very strong for free book promotions
9. Books Butterfly Strength for Full Price promotions
   1. Decently strong for full price book ads for ebooks
   2. Decently strong for full price book ads for paperbacks and hardcovers

We recommend Books Butterfly strongly. It is the #2 choice for most romance sub genres

Disclosure: Books Butterfly is our sister company

#3 – 2 way tie between eReader News Today and Robin Reads

Both are excellent choices, either alone, or to add on to your main book promotion with Bookbub or BooksButterfly

#3A – EReader News Today

EReader News Today is a Top 3 Book Promotion Sites in most book genres, including Romance. It’s been helping authors and readers since 2010. It also keeps its prices surprisingly low and is very good value for money

In Romance eReader News Today is Top 3 on the Paid Side (to promote $0.99 romance books) and Top 5 on the Free Side (to promote free romance books)

eReader News Today does not accept Erotica but it does accept Steamy Romance. Their lists include some steamy and some mildly steamy books but do not include erotic novels

1. Strengths
   1. A very large book promotion site that is Top 3 to Top 5 in size and results for most book categories, including romance
   2. Very good results
   3. Very reasonable prices
2. Negatives
   1. Very few negatives. EReaderNewsToday is a very large book promotion site, very trusted, and it offers book promotion packages at very reasonable prices
   2. A few things that are more ‘things to keep in mind’ and not negatives
      1. eReader News Today do not accept erotic books and mostly have ‘slightly’ steamy titles
         1. From their lists, slightly steamy romance seems fine. They do not take erotic books and we could not find any Dark romance or BDSM Romance so those may or may not be accepted. You can just email them
      2. Authors must submit two weeks in advance of their desired date and no earlier than a month in advance
         1. So you have a narrow window of submitting between 2 to 4 weeks in advance of your desired promotion date
      3. Results are best for $0.99 book deals and free books
         1. To be fair, nearly all book promotion sites do better with $0.99 book deals and free books
      4. The Book of the Day feature (one of their best offerings) gets sold out months in advance
   3. There are not really any negatives. If you can get approved here, you should submit
3. Things to do to Get Accepted
   1. eReader News Today has a very good section on Requirements on the Book Submission Page at eReader News Today
   2. Requirements
      1. The Book must be available on Amazon
         1. They also promote at Barnes & Noble Nook, Google Play, Apple iTunes, and Kobo
      2. The book must be Free or on sale
         1. Free, discounted to $0.99, always at $0.99
         2. eReaderNewsToday also promote $1.99 and $2.99 and $3.99 books. This is a more recent change so we don’t know very much about how they do with $2.99 and $3.99
      3. Full Length Books only
         1. Books must be at least 125 pages. Exceptions for non fiction, cookbooks, and children’s books
      4. The Book you submit must not be promoted by eReader News Today in the last 90 days
   3. Factors taken into consideration
      1. The Cover – books with professionally designed covers do much better with them
      2. Reader reviews – no minimum review requirement
      3. Books must be Professionally edited
      4. Book being discounted is a positive. Permanent $0.99 books are also promoted
      5. Content – No erotic books and no controversial content
4. eReaderNewsToday Key Links and Key Things to Keep in Mind
   1. Book Submission Page for Free and Bargain Book Submissions
   2. Book Submission Page for Book of the Day Submissions
   3. Their contact email is bookpromos@ereadernewstoday.com
   4. They schedule book promotions up to 30 days in advance
      1. You must submit at least 2 weeks before its promotion date
   5. Promotion includes their website, their social media sites, and their daily newsletter
   6. If your book is not discounted by 6 am EST on the promotion day, it will not be included
   7. There are no refunds or rescheduling if you mess up the pricing
      1. This is very important. Authors tend to mess up pricing very often and most romance book promotion sites can not accommodate your book if you miss your spot
   8. Book must be discounted at Amazon to be promoted. They mean it should be free or $0.99 or whatever your discount price is
   9. Cancellations and Rescheduling
      1. For rescheduling you need to let them know at least one week in advance
      2. Cancellation must be done at least one week before promotion date
5. Pricing
   1. The pricing is listed on their Book Submission Page
   2. This is very good pricing and eReader News Today has one of the best Returns on Investment of all book promotion sites (second only to Bookbub)
   3. The prices are also very approachable
      1. Contemporary Romance free book promotions are $45
      2. Contemporary Romance $0.99 promotions are $60
      3. Contemporary Romance $1.99 promotions are $75
      4. Contemporary Romance $2.99 promotions are $130
   4. For ‘Book of the Day’
      1. Price is $60 for books priced below $2.99
      2. Price is $160 for books priced above $2.99
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
   1. Unknown. This was recently introduced so we haven’t heard that much about it from authors
   2. Please note that EReaderNews says that best results are seen with $0.99 books
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
   1. Very strong. One of the Top 3 book promotion options in most book genres
8. Strength for Free Promotions
   1. Very strong. One of the Top 5 book promotion options in most book genres
9. Strength for Full Price promotions
   1. They do not promote at any price over $3.99, so Not Applicable

eReader News Today are a very good option for Romance book promotion and we recommend them strongly

#3B – Robin Reads

Robin Reads is a Top 5 book promotion site. It is a trust site and Top 5 for Romance book promotions

We find RobinReads very interesting because it takes the Bookbub Model (very low acceptance rates to ensure results are very good; only 1 or 2 books per genre per day) to extremes. They are akin to a smaller, more selective Bookbub

1.  Bookbub accepts only 10% to 20% of books for its Featured Deal (a few years back it used to be 20% to 40%)
   1. Robin Reads takes less than 10%
2. Bookbub runs just 40 to 50 Featured Deals every day
   1. Robin Reads runs just 15 to 20 deals and offers a day

What this means is, that if you get accepted, your book is almost guaranteed to do well. A real winning situation for you

Let’s look at Robin Reads from a Romance Book Promotion perspective

1. Strengths
   1. Large Size and Good Results
   2. 194,000 readers
   3. Very Selective – take less than 10% of the 100+ submissions they get each day
   4. Very reasonable prices
   5. They have dedicated categories and sub categories for Romance
2. Negatives
   1. 10% acceptance rate (lowest of all romance book promotion sites) so difficult to get in
   2. Not really any other negatives
3. Things to do to Get Accepted
   1. Please read the Robin Reads Author Signup page and their FAQ for Authors page
   2. Price must be Free or $0.99
   3. Book must be free of Errors
4. Robin Reads – Key Things to Keep in Mind
   1. Their selection criteria include – whether the date you requested is available, quality of the book cover, book description, reviews (quantity and quality), book genre, fit with their readers
   2. Discounting your book is your responsibility
      1. So make sure you have the book discounted well in advance of the book promotion date
      2. Much like other top romance book promotion sites, you must ensure the book is discounted for the promotion
   3. Robin Reads does not promote preorders. However, you can submit a book before the ASIN is available
   4. They have a Premium Featured Slot
      1. One for Featured Free
      2. One for Featured Paid
   5. Romance is often sold out 2 to 4 weeks in advance or more
5. Pricing
   1. In the $50 to $100 range for Romance Free Book promotion packages
   2. In the $50 to $100 range for Paid Book promotion packages
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
   1. Do not promote books over $0.99
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
   1. Very Strong
8. Strength for Free Promotions
   1. Very Strong
9. Strength for Full Price promotions
   1. Do not promote books over $0.99

We recommend RobinReads strongly. They are an excellent romance book promotion site. They are even more selective than Bookbub and if you get selected there is a very high chance your book will do well

Interlude

We will add the #6 to #10 romance book promotion sites in the future. We are finalizing some details

#5 BookSends

More Details coming soon

1. Strengths
2. Negatives
3. Things to do to Get Accepted
4. Key Things to Keep in Mind
5. Pricing
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
8. Strength for Free Promotions
9. Strength for Full Price promotions

#6 Free Booksy and Bargain Booksy

More Details coming soon

1. Strengths
2. Negatives
3. Things to do to Get Accepted
4. Key Things to Keep in Mind
5. Pricing
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
8. Strength for Free Promotions
9. Strength for Full Price promotions

#7 My Romance Reads

1. Strengths
2. Negatives
3. Things to do to Get Accepted
4. Key Things to Keep in Mind
5. Pricing
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
8. Strength for Free Promotions
9. Strength for Full Price promotions

#8 – Coming Soon/To Be Decided

1. Strengths
2. Negatives
3. Things to do to Get Accepted
4. Key Things to Keep in Mind
5. Pricing
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
8. Strength for Free Promotions
9. Strength for Full Price promotions

#9 – Coming Soon/To Be Decided

1. Strengths
2. Negatives
3. Things to do to Get Accepted
4. Key Things to Keep in Mind
5. Pricing
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
8. Strength for Free Promotions
9. Strength for Full Price promotions

#10 – Coming Soon/To Be Decided

1. Strengths
2. Negatives
3. Things to do to Get Accepted
4. Key Things to Keep in Mind
5. Pricing
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
8. Strength for Free Promotions
9. Strength for Full Price promotions

 

Honorable Mentions – Top Romance Book Promotion Sites just outside the Top 10

Please Note: This section is incomplete. It is going to be completed in the near future

Presented in no particular order

A – Genre Pulse

1. Strengths
2. Negatives
3. Things to do to Get Accepted
4. Key Things to Keep in Mind
5. Pricing
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
8. Strength for Free Promotions
9. Strength for Full Price promotions

B – Book Gorilla & Kindle Nation Daily

1. Strengths
2. Negatives
3. Things to do to Get Accepted
4. Key Things to Keep in Mind
5. Pricing
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
8. Strength for Free Promotions
9. Strength for Full Price promotions

C – Fussy Librarian

1. Strengths
2. Negatives
3. Things to do to Get Accepted
4. Key Things to Keep in Mind
5. Pricing
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
8. Strength for Free Promotions
9. Strength for Full Price promotions

D – One Hundred Free Books

1. Strengths
2. Negatives
3. Things to do to Get Accepted
4. Key Things to Keep in Mind
5. Pricing
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
8. Strength for Free Promotions
9. Strength for Full Price promotions

E – Buck Books

1. Strengths
2. Negatives
3. Things to do to Get Accepted
4. Key Things to Keep in Mind
5. Pricing
6. Strength for Over $1 promotions
7. Strength for $0.99 promotions
8. Strength for Free Promotions
9. Strength for Full Price promotions

Even within Romance Category, Sub Category Matters a Lot

Romance has the following sub categories (this is an illustrative list, not a comprehensive one)

1. *** General Romance
2. Contemporary Romance
3. Fantasy Romance
4. Historical Romance
   1. Regency Historical Romance and Scottish Historical Romance are becoming large enough to become separate categories
5. Paranormal Romance
6. Romantic Suspense
7. Romantic Comedy
8. Gay & Lesbian Romance
9. *** Adult Romance
10. Steamy Romance
11. Shifter Romance
12. BDSM Romance
13. Dark Romance
14. Erotic Romance/ Romantic Erotica
15. *** Christian & Clean Romance
16. Christian Romance
    1. Christian Historical Romance and Mail Order Bride Romance are becoming large enough to be separate categories
17. Clean Romance
    1. Clean & Wholesome Romance has appeal for both Romance readers and Christian readers and is now considered a separate category by some book stores
18. *** YA & NA Romance
19. New Adult Romance
20. Young Adult Romance

Each Romance Book Promotion Site specializes in some of these categories

Please be sure to pick a book promotion site that is good for your specific romance sub category

Please also keep in mind that many of the book promotion sites do not specialize in Young Adult Romance, and focus more on Adult Romance

Young Adult Romance is one of those categories which has huge viral hits like Twilight. Why does Young Adult Romance have such big hits despite being a medium size category? Perhaps because teenagers are so connected to each other that when a book takes off it spreads very quickly in YA Romance and becomes an out-sized hit. And then the adults start reading it and it becomes an even bigger hit

These huge hits make authors think Young Adult Romance is some big huge category and it’s a great place to make lots of money. It’s not. There is not enough room in Young Adult Romance to support even 10,000 authors. In Reality Young Adult has more like 100,000 authors

It’s a very tough category to do well in, and you should not bank on the lottery ticket chance of becoming the next Twilight

Important Tips to Increase Your Chances of getting Accepted into the Top Romance Book Promotion Sites

These are the most common requirements

1. Professionally Edited and Professionally Proof Read Book
2. Professionally designed book cover
3. Good review rating
   1. Some book promotion sites will take your book without reviews, provided the editing and book cover are high quality
      1. Also helps if your other books have good reviews
4. Discounted, ideally to $0.99 or $0
   1. Most sites promote Free Books, $0.99 books, and $2.99 books
   2. Some sites promote books at higher prices
5. Submitted well in advance
   1. Lead times vary from a few days to a few weeks
      1. RobinReads has the longest wait times and you have to submit 2 weeks to 4 weeks in advance of your desired start date
      2. eReader News Today will only accept books at least 2 weeks in advance of your desired start date
6. It’s your responsibility to ensure the book is discounted during the promotion date/dates
   1. Please keep in mind that most promotion sites will not give you a make up slot if you mess up the pricing

To better understand what these mean

1. Professionally Edited and Professionally Proof Read means
   1. No mistakes or typos or grammatical mistakes
   2. Definitely no mistakes in the first chapter
   3. The writing flows well i.e. it is well edited
2.  Professionally designed Book Cover means
   1. Well done cover
   2. The cover designer knows what genre conventions are and does not break them
   3. The cover designers know what types of cover sell well in that genre and creates a cover that will sell well
      1. Yes, Book Promotion Sites will look at this factor before accepting
3. Good Review Rating means
   1. Review Rating over 4 stars
   2. Good reviews
   3. The more reviews the better
   4. If no reviews, then all other criteria must be met and surpassed with flying colors
4. Discounted, ideally to $0.99 or $0 means
   1. Please check the website, for each romance book promotion site listed above, to see what price books they promote
   2. Make sure they promote the price point you want to promote
   3. Make sure you get the correct book promotion package
5. Submitted Well in Advance means
   1. The earlier you submit the better
   2. Most promotion sites require 3 to 7 days notice
   3. A few romance book promotion sites do accept last minute submissions
      1. However, this is a special thing and not something you should take for granted
6. It’s your responsibility to ensure the book is discounted during the promotion date/dates. This means
   1. You have to go into Kindle Digital Publishing (kdp.amazon.com) and other ebook store dashboards, and set up the discount YOURSELF and make sure it is set up
   2. You have to check on Day 1 of promotion that the price discount is actually done. In 5% to 10% of cases the store will mess up the pricing and you must contact them to get the pricing chances done
      1. Another option is to start the discount one day before your promotion dates with the book promotion site

A few other things to keep in mind

1. Book must meet the site criteria
   1. Most book promotion sites have a minimum length requirement (usually 150 pages, though some will take over 100 pages)
2. Some promotion sites don’t take Erotic Romance but will take Steamy Romance
3. Some promotion sites have Specific Requirements when accepting books
   1. BookBub will not take a book as a $0.99 deal if it is not ‘discounted’ from a higher price
   2. Books Butterfly will not promote a book as a $0.99 deal if it has been free in the past
4. There is usually a limit on how often you can promote a book
   1. BookBub will not accept the same book more than once every 6 months
   2. Books Butterfly will not accept the same book more than once every 4 months, except for some special cases
   3. BookBub will not take more than one book from the same author during a month
   4. Many book promotion sites require at least a month’s gap before submitting the same book again

Romance Book Promotion – Biggest Mistakes to Avoid

Here are the biggest mistakes romance book authors make, and ones you should avoid

1. Promoting a book in the wrong category
   1. Please make absolutely sure you have your book in the right categories at Amazon
   2. Please make absolutely sure you submit for the right book category at the romance book promotion site
   3. You can go into kdp.amazon.com and contact them and add 10 categories for your book
      1. Each and every category must be RELEVANT to your book
2. Breaking Genre Conventions
   1. Romance needs to have a Happily Ever After (HEA)
   2. No Cheating
   3. Books written by men hardly ever sell well
   4. Books written by non American/British authors hardly ever sell well
      1. If you are not American or British then get a pen name
      2. Else you will have to be 3 to 4 times better than everyone else
   5. If your book has cliffhangers, make it clear in the book description
      1. Please note that, to the best of our knowledge, none of the top romance book promotion sites allow books with cliffhanger endings
      2. Please don’t trick them by hiding the fact that the book has a cliffhanger ending
         1. They will never work with you again
   6. Romance book covers need to have a handsome man or a beautiful couple on the cover
      1. If you think we are wrong, and that your idea of having a puppy/balloon/park bench/salami sandwich on the cover is valid, please go check out the Bestseller Lists in Romance and in every Romance subcategory
         1. There are no Puppies
   7. Romance needs a lot of polish
      1. Romance has a LOT of money
      2. Romance has a LOT of competition
      3. This means the books need to be very polished to have a chance at success
      4. This also means the book cover needs to be top notch
3. Promoting a book that is not polished
   1. Please don’t be the author who doesn’t spend on proper editing and doesn’t spend on a proper book cover and then spends $5,000 promoting that unpolished book
   2. First, get a proper editor
   3. Then, get the book proofread
   4. Then, get a world class cover
   5. Spend money on book promotion and marketing only after you have a polished book
      1. If not, you are throwing away your marketing money
4. Putting a lot of money into the FIRST book they have written
   1. Regardless of how good of an author you are, the first book you write will not be your best work. In fact, it is likely to be your worst work
   2. Regardless of how good you are in another book category, the first book you write in a new category will not be a good book as you will have zero experience with the new category
   3. Please do not put your entire marketing budget into your first book
5. Burning bridges with the book promotion sites
   1. The book promotion sites are like bookstores. They put your book on the shelf. Most of the time readers buy the book. Some of the time readers do not buy the book
      1. We have only included book promotion sites in the Top 10 which work 70% to 90% of the time
      2. When the book promotion is not successful it is not because the Book Promotion Site hate you and did something on purpose to make your book miss
         1. It is usually one of these three reasons
            1. Your book is not a good fit for that book promotion site’s readers
            2. Your book is in the wrong category
            3. Your book is not polished enough
   2. If you are rude to the book promotion sites, you might get some temporary satisfaction of blaming them for readers not buying your book or your book not being polished enough
      1. However, there are only 10 to 20 marketing channels that work
      2. Of those, 5 to 10 are book promotion sites
      3. If you burn your bridges with book promotion sites then you are cutting off half your effective book promotion channels
         1. Absolutely no point if losing a marketing channel forever because one book didn’t do well
6.  Using Fake Reviews
   1. Ideal is lots of good reviews
   2. Acceptable is a few good reviews
   3. Not ideal but might work is Zero reviews
      1. Some book promotion sites do accept books without reviews if the cover and editing are top notch
   4. Fake Reviews will get your book rejected at every top romance book promotion site
      1. What is worse, readers instantly recognize fake reviews and don’t purchase such books
      2. Gone are the days of 2011 and 2012 when you could get fake reviews and trick readers into thinking your book is amazing
7. Shortchanging Readers
   1. Selling a short story for $2.99 does not work
   2. Short stories in general do not sell
   3. Trying to give less and less and charge more and more does not work either
   4. Giving away a book as free when it is just 1/5th or 1/10th of a book and ends in a cliffhanger, does not work
      1. Well, it does work. Readers get invested and then they want to buy the rest
      2. However, some readers get mad and give bad reviews
      3. Also, the romance book promotion sites don’t accept such books
   5. Romance is very competitive and gimmicks like cliffhanger endings and 40 word short stories for $2.99 do not work
8. Assuming Romance is a very easy category to sell books in
   1. Romance is extremely competitive
   2. Romance also has authors with huge backlists
      1. Author who had 25 books under contract and got back the rights recently
   3. Romance has authors of very high quality
      1. This is a factor most people don’t realize
      2. There are not only New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Authors
      3. There are also RITA Winning Authors and HOLT Medallion Winners and Golden Quill Winners
9. Assuming Romance has a lot of money
   1. Yes, romance does have a lot of money
   2. The amount of competition means it is not easy to get a chunk of that money
10. Assuming Romance is a good category to Get Rich Quick in
    1. Romance is actually the absolute worst category to get rich quick in
    2. There is lots of competition
    3. There are lots of talent authors
    4. Authors are not loners here and cooperate on things such as Box Sets and are formidable opponents
    5. Readers are wary and if you are trying to pull a fast one on them they will avoid you ever after
    6. Readers have zero tolerance for being tricked
       1. Even if you do manage to make a fool of them they will leave you negative reviews and sink your book

Romance Book Promotion – Important Insights for Improving Your Results with Top 10 Romance Book Promotion Sites

The 7 fundamental rules which will improve your results with the top romance book promotion sites are

1. Get the Book Genres perfectly right
   1. By far the biggest determinant of success is whether or not your book is put in the right categories
   2. This applies both to the book store – Is it in the right book categories at the book store, where readers will purchase the book?
   3. And to the romance book promotion site – Is it in the right book category at the book promotion site, where readers will decide whether or not to try out the book?
   4. If either is wrong, your book will not do as well as it could and should
   5. The best way to think of this is – If you are selling cheese, and you put it in the meats section of the grocery store, it is going to sell less than it would if you put it in the cheese section
2. Make sure your book is very polished
   1. Most important is that after first writing the book, you rewrite it and polish it for readability and smoothness (flow)
   2. 2nd most important is to get a professional book editor and get it well edited
   3. 3rd most important is to get it proof read and have all mistakes and typographical errors fixed
3. Get a very good book cover which matches the Romance genre, and also matches your romance sub genre/sub category
   1. Your Book Cover (and to a lesser extent your book page and author profile) are the PACKAGING of your book
      1. Just as you would not put Cheese in a box that says ‘Chocolate’
      2. Just as you would not put your Cheese in a half torn cardboard box with ChIsE scrawled in crayons
      3. You must make sure the book cover is excellent
         1. It must be very pretty and must catch the eye
            1. Just as Cheese in the grocery store is competing with hundreds of other cheeses and the packaging must catch the eye and convey quality, the cover of a book must catch the eye and convey quality
         2. The book cover must fit the book category the book is in
         3. The book cover must not break genre conventions
   2. One of the biggest mistakes authors make is they pick terrible looking and/or inappropriate packaging for their book, and then fall in love with it and refuse to change it
      1. If you were producing and selling iPhones
      2. If for the first batch you put your iPhones, by mistake, in boxes that showed horrid looking $50 flip phones
      3. Would you say – I have a sentimental attachment to that ugly box and though I am selling an iPhone I want that low quality cover?
         1. No, of course you wouldn’t
         2. Why then are you falling in love with that sales killing book cover you made yourself in Photoshop or bought for $10 on the internet?
4. Plan things very well. Schedule things as far in advance as possible
   1. The better you plan and schedule your book promotions the more successful you will be
   2. Firstly, this ensures you actually get the spots and dates you want at the top romance book promotion sites
   3. Secondly, the earlier you start thinking about your book promotion, the more ideas and insights and problems you will uncover
      1. You will greatly increase your chances of success by planning out things and executing on your plan as early as possible
5. Have a clear main target and focus on that
   1. If your book promotion’s aim is to become a genre bestseller, then focus completely on that
   2. If your romance book promotion’s aim is to get reviews, then focus on getting reviews
   3. If your romance book promotion’s aim is to get lots of sales then figure out what drives sales volume and focus on that
   4. If your romance book promotion’s aim is to make more money than you spend, then focus on marketing avenues that have high Return on Investment
   5. Please keep in mind that Romance book promotion is difficult
      1. The best way to be successful is to set one main target and focus on that
      2. The corollary is that the best way to fail is to set 3 or more targets and not have enough time for any
      3. In some cases you can pull off 2 main targets
         1. However, we very strongly recommend focusing on one main target
6. Discount the book to the right price and for the entire promotion duration
   1. Pricing the book is a very straightforward thing to do and yet it is one of the biggest reasons for a promotion failing
   2. The store is going to mess up your pricing 5% of the time
      1. Have a plan to respond and fix the pricing
   3. You are going to mess up your pricing 5% to 10% of the time
      1. Plan and make sure that doesn’t happen because most romance book promotion sites will not give you a do over
      2. Make sure you have the book discounted properly and everything is as it should be
7. Make Things Crystal Clear to the Reader
   1. Let people know on your book page what the book category is, who it is written for, and that it is discounted for a limited time
   2. Your Book Cover must fit the genre conventions and must make it absolutely clear to readers that your book is the right category for them
   3. Your Book Title (whenever possible) must include Category and Sub Category
      1. Lost Little Lonely Dragon (A Dragon Shifter Romance)
      2. works much better than
      3. Lost Little Lonely Dragon
         1. Which could be a kids’ book, or a paleo-zoologist having an existentialist crisis
   4. Your Book Description in the very first paragraph must include
      1. That there is a limited time discount (if you are discounting it during the book promotion)
      2. What the book category is
      3. Who it is written for
      4. One Hook or Unanswered Question
   5. Your Author Profile must very clearly say what category books you write and who your ideal readers are
      1. It must include the photograph of a real person, ideally you

How to Get more Reviews from your Romance Book Promotion

The number of reviews you get will depend on

1. [Primarily] How polished and well written your book is
   1. If you are not getting as many reviews as you would like, the solution is totally in your hands
   2. Rewrite the book to be better
   3. Write more books and write them better than you wrote your earlier books
   4. Polish your books more
2. [Primarily] How many books you sell
   1. For every 1,000 books you sell, you should get 1 to 10 reviews
      1. Any less and you really, really need to polish and rewrite your book
      2. Any more and you have a gem
   2. One of the most straightforward ways to get more reviews is to sell more books
3. [Magic] How well and how appropriately you ask your readers for reviews
   1. Ask them often enough that they know you would really appreciate a review
   2. Don’t ask them so often that it gets annoying
   3. Ask them very politely
   4. Ask them at the point of Maximum Reading Pleasure
      1. Asking on the last page of the book is one very good idea – that’s the point at which they are happiest (provided you wrote a good book)
      2. This is why books had back matter and that back matter linked to the author’s other books
   5. Ask the readers who contact you to leave a review (if they have good things to say)
   6. Ask your most loyal readers to leave a review (they must be loyal for a reason)

All three factors are very important

Unfortunately, many authors ignore all three of these factors and look for other ways to get reviews (fake reviews, reviews from friends and family (which are also not allowed))

The three methods listed here are the only three ways that actually work – write better, sell more, ask for reviews at the point of Maximum Reading Pleasure

Becoming a Bestselling Author by Leveraging the Top Romance Book Promotion Sites

We will consider three types of Bestseller status

All three require you to discount your ebook to $0.99

Becoming a Category Bestseller at Amazon

To become a bestseller, as in almost every thing in selling books, you have to pick the right book categories and sub categories

The Game is Won or Lost in the Picking of Categories

That’s a mantra to live by if you’re an author

The number of sales required to Become a Category Bestseller at Amazon are

1. 10 to 30 over a week for a very small category
2. 30 to 100 over a week for a small to medium category
3. 100 to 300 over a week for a medium category
4. 300 to 1,000 over a week for a large category
5. If you can get 1,000+ sales in one day you can even go for Top 100 Bestseller in the entire Amazon store (ebooks store)

To maximize your chances of becoming a Category Bestseller at Amazon, you should pick the following categories for your book

1. 2 or 3 large categories
2. 2 or 3 medium sized categories
3. At least 3 very small categories
4. 2 or 3 small categories
5. This ensures that even if you miss becoming a category bestseller in a large or medium category, you will at least become a category bestseller in a small or very small category

While KDP (kdp.amazon.com) will only let you set 2 or 3 categories through the dashboard, you can email KDP support with a list of 10 categories and they will add all 10 categories for your book

1. You must make absolutely sure you do not put any wrong categories
2. Put only categories that are a VERY GOOD FIT for your book
3. Be sure to put a mix of very small, small, medium, and large categories

Becoming a category bestseller is doable for any author, and you should definitely take a shot

It also gives you very good marketing practice

Becoming a Top 100 or Top 1000 Bestseller at Amazon

This is much tougher

It is not recommended for authors to try this with their first book. It is also not recommended for authors who are very new to the market

First get a few books under your belt. First figure out what book promotion sites and marketing channels work for you and your books

Everything in this post is for ROMANCE books. It will not apply for other categories as the recommended marketing methods are ones tested for Romance Novels

Once you are more familiar with books and publishing. Once you better understand how the stores work and how marketing works. Then you can aim for one or both of

1. Top 100 Amazon Bestseller
   1. This requires 1,000+ sales in a day
   2. You also have an outside shot of getting this if you get a steady 100 to 300 sales a day for 7 days
   3. To get 1,000+ sales in a day Bookbub is a necessity
   4. Bookbub alone can get you to the Top 100 some of the time
   5. To increase your chances you should supplement your Bookbub promotion with
      1. 2 to 5 of the remaining Top 10 Romance Book Promotion Sites
         1. Books Butterfly will get you 50 to 150 sales over a 3 to 7 day period (depending on the book promotion package) and is a good choice to run starting a few days before your Bookbub ad
         2. Robin Reads and eReader News Today are good to get you 30 to 100 sales within 1 to 2 days
            1. They are good to run either the same day as Bookbub, or 1 or 2 days after
      2. Very focused Facebook Advertising
      3. (In some Cases) Very Focused Amazon Marketing Services Ads
   6. It’s critical to not do anything illegal or questionable
      1. Most common methods of manipulating sales will lead to your sales rank getting blocked and will kill the entire promotion
         1. You should not gift copies during the promotion
         2. Don’t do giveaways
         3. Don’t have your friends buy your book
            1. This includes Facebook Friends
         4.  Definitely don’t have your family buying the book
         5. Only use methods that work and are trusted
      2. Even ‘new and innovative’ ways to manipulate sales results are a no-go
         1. Please remember that there are a million+ authors and they have tried every possible way to game the system
            1. If you try anything illegal you will sink your entire promotion
            2. You will lose all your money
            3. You might even get banned from the store
2. Top 1,000 Amazon Bestseller
   1. This requires 200+ sales in a day
      1. Sometimes less. However, to be on the safe side aim for 200+ sales in a day
   2. You also can get this by getting 300 to 1,000 sales over the course of a week
      1. The more the better
   3. To get 200+ sales in a day, you either
      1. Get Bookbub
      2. OR
      3. Use a combination of 3 of the Top 5/Top 7 Romance Book Promotion Sites
         1. Books Butterfly + eReader News Today + Robin Reads should be enough to get you to the Top 1,000
         2. Please note that sometimes even one of these sites will take you to the top 1,000
            1. At our sister company we do see a healthy percentage of romance book promotions reach the Top 1,000. Authors who use other romance book promotion sites along with ours regularly reach the Top 200/Top 300 and sometimes even the Top 100
            2. However, to be absolute sure you should try and use all three of these romance book promotion sites
            3. If you can’t get one of the three, or if you want to be extra safe, then use Book Sends and My Romance Reads
   4. If you pick your categories well, you can get BOTH
      1. Top 1,000 in the Kindle Store
      2. Top 10 in your Book Category
         1. We don’t mean all of Romance (as that requires reaching the Top 10)
         2. We mean a sub category of Romance
   5. This is very tricky because authors often underestimate how hard it is for books by self published authors to break into the Top 1,000 in the Kindle Store
      1. It’s much better to go all out and get 100 sales more than required, than to be complacent and miss out by 10 sales
      2. While hitting the Top 1,000 is not considered that big a deal by some people, it is still very tough to accomplish

For Top 100 you really do need Bookbub. Otherwise you will end up spending way too much across other book promotion sites and other marketing avenues such as Facebook

For Top 1,000 you can get by with a combination of Books Butterfly, eReader News Today, and Robin Reads. You can also replace 1 of these sites with 2 or more of – Book Sends, My Romance Reads, Bargain Booksy, etc

It’s all very straightforward if you have a very polished book and if you plan and schedule everything well in advance

Becoming a New York Times or USA Today Bestselling Author

This is really tough. It’s a topic for a separate post and we will cover this separately

If you are a self published author, there are three main ways to aim for the really big lists (New York Times Bestsellers List, USA Today Bestsellers List)

1. Do it with a multi author box set
2. Do it with your own box set
3. Do it with a standalone book

The first is ideal. You can split the marketing costs. You can reach all your existing readers (across 5 to 10 authors it can become quite a large number of readers)

The second is doable. Be prepared to spend every waking minute neck deep in marketing and planning for months

The third is very difficult. If you don’t have a lot of money or a very large reader base, think twenty times before embarking on this path

This is too big of a topic to cover in this post and we will discuss it later

Going for one of the big bestseller lists costs an incredible amount of money and effort and has a relatively low success rate

We definitely do not recommend this for someone who is a new author. We recommend this even less for someone who has not put a ton of effort and blood and sweat and tears into their novel

Romance Book Promotion Sites vs Facebook Ads

Please Note: We will expand on this section later. This too, is a topic that merits a post of its own

These two promotion methods can be used in conjunction. In fact, you will have to use these in conjunction as each is specialized at different things

1. Romance Book promotion sites are very good for launch boosts, for getting spikes, for breaking into bestseller lists
2. Facebook Ads are very good for getting consistent sales over a longer time period
3. Facebook Ads are also very good for supporting a push that you do centered around the big romance book promotion sites
   1. When pushing for Bestseller Status, or promoting a book launch, each incremental sale has high value
   2. The Top Romance Book Promotion Sites will form the major thrust of your promotion
   3. You supplement that with slow and steady sales from Facebook Ads

Stacking together Romance Book Promotion Sites and Facebook Ads, when done right, amplifies the effect of each

Romance Book Promotion Sites vs Amazon Marketing Services

Amazon Marketing Services will work for 50% of authors and won’t work for the other 50% of authors

Within the 50% of authors for whom Amazon Marketing Services work, for half of them (25% of authors) AMS will give decent to good Return on Investment

If you are in this 25% – Congratulations! You’ve found a good marketing channel which can supplement the larger channels (Facebook Ads, Romance Book Promotion Sites)

For authors for whom Amazon Marketing Services work

1. Please do not use Amazon Marketing Services at the same time as Romance Book Promotion Sites if you are measuring effectiveness
   1. There are lots of reporting issues when using both together
   2. Use them SEPARATELY to figure out what works
2. It’s good to use Book promotion sites to give your books a jump in the rankings
3. Then after that switch over to using Amazon Marketing Services for steady and slow sales

Amazon Marketing Services are a bit different from Facebook Ads in that they are hard to make consistent and for some authors (50%) AMS won’t work, and for another group (25%) AMS Ads won’t give good Return on Investment. For the remaining 25% of Authors, AMS will work and give good Return on Investment

As there are a shortage of good promotion methods, it is somewhat important to research and see if you fall in the 25% of Authors for whom Amazon Marketing Services will give good return on investment

Now let’s end this post with the last section

The 3 Golden Rules of Romance Book Promotion & The 3 Core Skills for Authors

The 3 Core Skills for Authors are

1. Knowing What to Write (Finding Product Market Fit)
2. Writing Very Well
3. Marketing Very Well

Any author who can master 1 or more of these Skills will be very successful

Any author who can get very good at all three of these Skills will be successful

Please read this post on Levels of Mastery of The 3 Core Skills for more details. The better you get at these three skills, the more success you will have as an Author

The 3 Golden Rules of Romance Book Promotion are

1. Listen to the Market and Give the Market EXACTLY what it is asking
   1. The Market Always Wins
2. The Game is Won or Lost in the Selection of Genres
   1. Firstly, this applies to picking the Right Genres To Write In (Knowing What to Write)
   2. Secondly, this applies to picking the Right Genres In The Book Store to Put Your Book In
   3. Thirdly, this applies to picking the Right Genres & Sub Genres at the Romance Book Promotion Sites to Promote Your Book In
3. Product Market Fit (picking the right market to write in, and writing the right book for that market) trumps everything else
   1. Instead of spending 2 days thinking about What to Write and then spending 2 years on writing and marketing
   2. You should spend 3 to 12 months researching the entire books and publishing market and figure out what the best categories to write in are FOR YOU
      1. Only then should you start writing a book