Comments on: The Anatomy of a Potential Bestseller

By: Laurie

Laurie — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 21:25:53 +0000

This sounds more like a historical romance than fantasy. I haven’t read this author before, but the blurb and sample intrigue me. However, the cover didn’t grab me.

By: Karen H in NC

Karen H in NC — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 14:46:59 +0000

Based on Bonnie Dee’s comments about Gaslight Fantasy, this all makes more sense to me, but I’m still confused about the talk of castles and kingdoms and such. I’ve only read a couple of steampunk short stories and my jury is still out on those. I still have my doubts about this book.

By: Tamsyn

Tamsyn — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 13:58:20 +0000

The sample excerpt is okay but not enough to really grab my attention. And I think the cover could be better. But the blurb sounds fairly good so if there are a couple more interesting excerpts or snippets, I would be interested.

By: Pam P

Pam P — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 04:10:13 +0000

I guess try and refer to that alternate world in the blurb and/or excerpt. I think the excerpt seems heavy on the erotic romance, rather than go that way, how about choosing a different excerpt focusing on the alternate reality to make it clearer.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 02:58:23 +0000

ps I read many books from indie presses and find my interests are usually piqued more by small press than mainstream best sellers.
The tagline A Gaslight Fantasy or something like that would draw my intrest and help sell the book to me as being something more quirky and interesting than a standard histoical het romance.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 02:54:40 +0000

I had previously listened to two of Bonnie Dee’s audiobooks, the “gay Tarzan” one, I think called Jungle Heat, and the steampunk novella whose name I’m afraid I’ve forgotten.
Jungle Heat I bought as an avid gay historical romance reader, expecting a fun but sleazy jungle romp, and was surprised by how smart and deep it was, and how utterly absorbed I was by the story.
The steampunk tale was enjoyable and inventive, but was too short to really be well developed. To be fair, it was well written, but felt like it was a piece of a bigger story than had been abandoned.
I have on the basis of my enjoyment of Jungle Heat read up a little on Bonnie Dee’s other books, and was intrigued by how different the characters seemed just from the blurbs. Even the hetero romances were shockingly different from pretty much anything else I was familair with. An Asian heroine in a Western setting romance? A vulnderable and non alpha male tattooed man hiding out with a more mature widow? These were real departures from standard romances and I like to read about different things, so Bonnie Dee has remained on my watch for list, even if I haven’t had a chance to read anything else by her yet.
The cover is attractive, handsome man with a background in dark colors grabs my eye. To be honest the back cover blurb didn’t grab me. I wasn’t terribly interested in the heroine who sounded weak and needed a wild man to mature her, but the sample was good and did get me interested in reading more in spite of my inital reservations. To be fair, it’s a hard sell to get me to read hetero romance. My impression of Bonnie Dee as writing from the pov of minorities and the disenfranchised would help me take a chance on a title that didn’t at first glance seem like my thing. The price seems very reasonable.

By: jodi

jodi — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 02:49:00 +0000

lol–guess I must be slow because I thought it was a “fantasy.” Didn’t realize it was a steampunk. Sort of like the UF with the hot woman with the tattoos, I guess I’ve come to expect steampunk to look a certain way. I thought it was a medieval fantasy. I’ve come to realize I’m very influenced by covers.

By: Carol L

Carol L — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 01:49:21 +0000

oops, comment posted before I finished. Sorry.
I wanted to say that I didn’t pay enough attention to the Genre–Fantasy. I too thought it was Historical Romance.
I did like the cover which would then bring me to the back blurb. I’ve never read Bonnie before but I would read it because I’d love to read any new Author (to me) and see if I liked it and the genre which I haven’t read many books on..
Carol L.
Lucky4750@aol.com

By: Carol L

Carol L — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 01:45:05 +0000

I am sorry to say

By: angel

angel — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 21:34:39 +0000

From the cover, I have assumed it is an historical romance all this time. Surprised to discover it is fantasy. I second the suggestion of adding “gaslight fantasy” to the cover. I have to admit, the blurb isn’t enough to entice me to buy. Price point is fine in my opinion for author I don’t know, if everything else had enticed me to buy. I would consider downloading while it was free in order to read a full-length digital.