HI THERE . . . IT'S ME, RICHARD—THE ROMANCE WRITER
Hello, there. Yes, I’m still alive. Yes, I’m still writing. I just haven’t been writing online. Yeah—I know. No way to run a fanbase. I cringe as I write that word. It’s hard for me to believe I, now or ever, will have fans.
It’s part of what many authors and others have come to know as the “impostor syndrome.” We pretend to be real authors—or artists, musicians, teachers, athletes, engineers—whatever you dream about becoming. I mean, who’d believe I am a real writer, least of all me? Who am I kidding?
Well, writers write. And I have been doing that. I’m working on not one but two actual manuscripts, the last two books in my Second Chance Romance series: His Kind of Music, and Latent Hearts. The thing is, I’m not so good at the other parts of the “author” business—publicity, marketing, selling. It’s hard enough to write this stuff well. You expect me to sell it, too?
The answer is yes. Because no one else is going to do it for me. So, in between writing and editing novels, I’ve been thinking about all this other stuff. What am I really doing here? The answer to that question has led me–and I hope you—to this new Facebook page.
I had another page, called Men Doing Romance. It was supposed to be about the concept that men can write good romance novels, just like the ladies have been doing for centuries. While there are more and more men doing what I’m doing, it’s still a genre dominated by women.
But I’ve discovered it isn’t really about that. It’s about ME writing romance stories. So, I started a new Facebook page to replace the old one. This time it’s called, more appropriately, Richard Writes Romance (love the alliteration).
How will this be any different than the last one? Besides focusing more on my journey rather than that of male romance writers in general, it will be:
1. More consistent. My plan is to post here at least once a week. If I can’t do that, I will make every effort to compensate somehow, doing posts early and scheduling them etc. What I post is another matter, which leads me to . . .
2. I will avoid sales pitches the vast majority of the time. Yes, I will post about new books coming out, but those are relatively few and far between. That leads me to . . .
3. My goal is to publish a book every six months. That is a real challenge, since between Beta readers and Editors, my work is in the hands of others, somewhat out of my control. It also means when it is in my control, I must be much more productive. The two books at a time model I’m working with at the moment will likely become the rule rather than the exception.
4. What I do post here will be sent via my website blog and will also be posted to my Instagram channel.
5. I’ll try to keep things short, so you don’t have to read through pages of boring stuff to find anything interesting. This will likely be the longest post you’ll see here in the future.
6. Instead of selling books, I’ll try selling me by recounting my journey as an author, the challenges and the triumphs (if any).
7. I’m not really looking for comments here. If you like my writing, reviews are a great way to show it, on Amazon or elsewhere. But don’t expect lengthy discussions, here or elsewhere about what I’m doing.
That’s enough for one week. I will be closing my first Facebook page, Men Doing Romance, after the end of 2023, so if you want to keep up, transfer your following to this page. I thank you, especially if you’ve read this to the end. I appreciate you, more than you’ll ever know.