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A review by lolasreviews
Romance Your Brand: Building a Marketable Genre Fiction Series by Zoe York
3.0
Romance Your Brand didn't fully resonate with me for some reason. It had definitely some great pieces of information, but for the most part it just wasn't fully the book for me. I especially liked the bit where the author explained how she thought her lack of sales was due to the Canadian setting while in fact she missed one of the must haves for the genre. One of the last chapters also has a great worksheet/ plan where she explains how she plans out her series, I thought that was quite insightful and there were some great pieces of advice of what to keep in mind when planning a series.
Once I started the book I almost put it right back again as the first chapter was a speech the author gave in the past for a conference and it was just a very jarring start of a non-fiction book for me as I wanted to know what she would say now instead of what she wrote a while ago and it also was written for the conference with some references to it and it was just weird. After that first chapter it got better. The author touches upon some common advice like getting a good blurb or cover, but doesn't really elaborate much on those topics. I felt like there was a lot of text for little good information, especially in the earlier chapters. She says a lot and there definitely is a lot about mistakes she made and what she learned, but not as much actionable advice for other authors.
Having said that there are some great pieces for sure and the more I read the more I could see how she plots her series and why this works for her. And in the later part of the book there were some good nuggets of information that I think could really help authors when planning a series. I think other contemporary romance authors and those who write other romance genres probably get the most out of this book as that is very much where the focus, which makes sense given the title. Although I actually felt it was more about how to plan a series and think of the marketing while planning than your brand.
To summarize: while this book didn't fully work for me there were some nuggets of information I found very insightful. The first chapter was a bit of jarring start for me as it contained a speech written by the author for a conference and I didn't think it was an engaging start to the book. There wasn't as much information at first that I didn't know about and some general advice without concrete steps, but the further I got the better it got and there are some great pieces of information later in the book. I would recommend this to authors who write romance and want some advice on how to plan their series and start thinking about the marketing aspect before or while writing.
Once I started the book I almost put it right back again as the first chapter was a speech the author gave in the past for a conference and it was just a very jarring start of a non-fiction book for me as I wanted to know what she would say now instead of what she wrote a while ago and it also was written for the conference with some references to it and it was just weird. After that first chapter it got better. The author touches upon some common advice like getting a good blurb or cover, but doesn't really elaborate much on those topics. I felt like there was a lot of text for little good information, especially in the earlier chapters. She says a lot and there definitely is a lot about mistakes she made and what she learned, but not as much actionable advice for other authors.
Having said that there are some great pieces for sure and the more I read the more I could see how she plots her series and why this works for her. And in the later part of the book there were some good nuggets of information that I think could really help authors when planning a series. I think other contemporary romance authors and those who write other romance genres probably get the most out of this book as that is very much where the focus, which makes sense given the title. Although I actually felt it was more about how to plan a series and think of the marketing while planning than your brand.
To summarize: while this book didn't fully work for me there were some nuggets of information I found very insightful. The first chapter was a bit of jarring start for me as it contained a speech written by the author for a conference and I didn't think it was an engaging start to the book. There wasn't as much information at first that I didn't know about and some general advice without concrete steps, but the further I got the better it got and there are some great pieces of information later in the book. I would recommend this to authors who write romance and want some advice on how to plan their series and start thinking about the marketing aspect before or while writing.