Confession

Tropes? What tropes?

Confession: When I wrote my first book - Charlie’s Will - I hadn’t heard of tropes, demonstrating a shocking disregard for genre research. I didn’t research current trends, covers and top sellers either.

And this wasn’t decades ago. I’m talking 2019 - my book was released on 4 January 2020.

Oh, and this will make you laugh (or think I’m bat-sh*t crazy). I didn’t know it was on pre-order on Amazon either. I didn’t even know where to look. I uploaded it between Xmas & New Year for a January release. When it dropped, I had 8 books sold. (Pre-orders, of course, which I was unaware of). I immediately did the maths - 8 books per day x 365 days. Winning!

And then nothing. For days. Until one fabulous unknown-to-me reader wrote the first review - a five-star cracker - and sales began to drip through.

And I began to learn. (I was working full-time with a 2.5hr daily commute).

But back to Charlie’s Will - a best-seller on Amazon in AU, UK, USA. Accidental best-seller perhaps? Or maybe I did a few things right.

Here’s what I did.

• I wrote the story I wanted to write. I didn’t think about beats, tropes, character arcs and all the important stuff (I hadn’t done any writing courses, so ignorance ruled).

• But you know what got me through? My life-long love of reading. My reader's brain subconsciously developed the story.

• I still don’t know if this (or any of my books) meet the rules around beats and character arcs … do I want to find out? Probably not.

• Cover design. I didn’t look at what was trending in my genre. (I wasn’t even across all the romance genres at the time). I commissioned a watercolour artist friend to paint the background picture for my cover. I could see the homestead in my book in my mind’s eye. (The original hangs on my study wall - actually, I have six paintings hanging there now). While my covers don’t conform to the genre, I like to think I created my own little trend here - and readers LOVE the covers.

• And marketing. Yes, I’ve been in small business and wasn’t afraid to build social platforms and engage with readers. I started a Facebook group about 18 months ago (now with a modest 441 members) and a good portion of them are active and engaged. I’ve tried Amazon ads without much success. I started running Facebook ads when my second book was released late in 2021, and until this year, they worked well. I’m launching my Christmas novella - Barrington Magic - without paid ads. I may be sorry. I’ll let you know.

• Collaboration. I’m a natural collaborator. I created two anthologies with five authors (including myself) in 2021 & 2022, I do newsletter swaps and joint author talks. I invite fellow authors into my FB group to engage and share their news and releases. I’d rather collaborate than compete.

• Craft. Always learning. Again, not from doing a course (slaps hand to forehead). But other books give me the confidence to try something new. Moving from two POVs to multiple at book 8. In book 11 (Christmas novella - Barrington Magic) I’ve got several POVs, but one of them, a child, is in first person to help capture the small person’s limited view of the build-up to Christmas. The others are third person. Is it a no-no? I don’t know, but early readers are loving it.

Back to tropes. Yes, I know what they are now, but I confess I don’t think about them much until I’m doing my keywords for Amazon and marketing channels. And would I follow a genre trend. Nope. I write what I like. My new series (2026) is a shift from my small-town romance/women’s fiction stories, but not a big one. I think my readers will come with me.