thanks for your prompt replies! i'll respond to both in one post, if i may:
1. The Kindle price: I agree. In fact, I'm stunned that somebody already bought a copy at $9.99. One reason it was listed at 9.99 was that I wasn't ready to kick off my marketing campaign yet, and I didn't want people to buy it just because it was cheap, since Gemini Tiger is NOT a typical Nora Roberts-ish genre novel. It's written in the idiom of a "dime novel" romance (although I see someone tagged it as "Romantic Suspense," a confusion I'll try to clear up in a moment) for a reason, and I'm test-marketing it to that audience, but I don't want paying customers to feel like they got ripped off. Once I develop, through trial and error, a "pitch" (not a blurb, a blurb is a recommendation from another author) that accurately conveys the nature of the book to readers, I'll drop the price to something closer to 1.99 or even .99. I'm not out to make money selling Kindle books, I'm just doing marketing research.
2. This book is never, ever, going to be a best-seller. It's a "niche" book, sometimes called "Dark Satire" or "Social Satire," (although it's not really a satire like Catch-22, and it's NOT a parody of a romance novel, but the main character Cress does make fun of people who seem to conform to pop-culture stereoptypes. But it's a serious, dramatic story with comic relief—see my problem?) but Amazon doesn't seem to have a genre called either one of those. It's more of a "prickly protagonist" romance about a single mom, like The Scarlet Letter, or Tess of the D'Urbervilles. In other words, Cress is a character most contemporary readers don't think highly of in everyday life, but the book attempts to generate some sympathy for her without smothering her in pity. In fact, Cress's refusal to wallow in self-pity is what drives most of the plot. Modern readers wouldn't judge Tess or Hester today, but they do like to throw stones at the kind of women you see getting multiple paternity tests on Oprah. Like Cress, for example. But it's also a humorous social commentary, like Election, or the movie Drop Dead Gorgeous (which was never even a book) which means that, before I die, I might sell a thousand copies.
3. I've actually sold quite a few softcovers, and a surprising number of readers have LOVED it. But they were the last ones I thought would like it: Women over 35 Who Read Romance Novels. Go figure.
4. The biggest obstacle to selling this book on Amazon is the severe limitations of the "Search Inside" feature. I have another website,
http://geminitiger.tommyjonq.com where readers can read the first SIX chapters for free, and that works a lot better. I may go ahead and post the entire first half of the book, a marketing technique used by computer game comapnies called "shareware." And being able to pick the thing up and read different parts at will, like in a bookstore, has been the most successful of all. But that kind of test marketing is the most expensive, and again, it's not like I'm ever going to sell a million copies of this book.
5. Just because Gemini Tiger is my first novel, does not mean that I haven't written anything since then. And yes, I've won awards (even prestigious ones,) but not for books like this one. Nor will I. And no, no major publishers have ever been interested in it, (although some agents liked it for themselves, but never felt anyone would actually pay money for it.) for reasons I understand perfectly well. Why do you think I'm selling it myself?
6. "Babydaddy Personality Disorder" is a joke. Well, a pun. Cress shows obvious symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder/MPD/Whatever, but a lot of patients in BPD group therapy or support groups, under the heading of, "It's not me, it's HIM!" call it "Boyfriend Personality Disorder" or "Babydaddy Personality Disorder." If you don't get it, then the book is probably not for you. You have plenty of company.
7. I've worked in publishing and media for 25 years. Until a couple of years ago, trying to publish a novel (a fool's errand even for big companies; the vast majority of novels just simply don't make money) no one else wanted would have cost me around $25,000 or so. Since I'm stubborn, and since it is now possible to try and find that "niche market" without spending much money (technically, I've already made a profit,) here I am. And rest assured that your feedback is priceless. Thanks!
8. As I understand it, "Romantic Suspense" is usually a romance about a woman in danger from others, often a boyfriend/husband/whatever. In Gemini Tiger, Cress IS a danger to others, especially those who deserve it, including her ex-boyfriend. Again, there's no real genre for that, unless you can suggest one.
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