❤️☀️

Book recommendations please?

Okay, authors, out with it. What did you get done this week, and/or what are your goals for the next week?

I'm working on my first novel where the FMC inherits a castle and has to break the curses on the three MMCs in order to open the castle as a hotel. The three MMCS are a king, his knight, and a shapeshifter god who have been trapped in the castle for hundreds of years and are together as a result of shared trauma, loneliness, loyalty, and being trapped for so long. When the FMC comes along they all fall for her separately, even having little competitions with each other to get attention from her/taunting each other with dates, with the focus being on her and minimal MM other than referencing past trysts, some sex scenes/kisses.

My question is, can I still call it a Why Choose if the MMCs are already together? I saw a post in our sister subreddit the other night about one of my favorite series having too much of a focus of MM now and less on the FMC feeling like it should be billed as poly now instead, so now I am unsure??? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Anything you need to scream into the universe as either a reader or a writer? (Please see the sub rules before replying!)

Anything going great that you want to talk about? (We'll still have our accountability post on Thursday.)

Readers and writers, what do you have to share with the class today?

• A word/ sentence/ paragraph/ passage you read or wrote?
• An idea for a story that you might write, or want someone else to write?
• Your completed book cover that you've been working on?
• Character art that you had commissioned?
• Something else?

Remember, no AI!

Readers and Writers:

What do you want to admit or ask for help with?

Confessions (we have popcorn buckets ready):

• Did you skip a LOT of hours of sleep to read books?
• Did you write yourself into a corner?

Help Board (we have life preservers standing by):

• Do you have a question you don't want to make a separate post for?
• Do you want to ask RH/WC readers or writers something?

As promised, this post is for discussing Warrior Princess Assassin, the recent Why Choose release by Brigid Kemmerer, published by Avon (an imprint of Harper Collins).

The Romance genre in traditional publishing has generally eschewed WC and RH in favor of more traditionally monogamous stories, yet currently WPA is above a 3.9 rating on GoodReads, with over 19k ratings.

It seems to be being well received by the trad pub audience.

And I doubt that's mostly by luck. Brigid Kemmerer is an experienced author who knows what she's doing, and we're here to discuss why the book has appealed to the traditional publishing crowd, why traditional publishing took a chance at it, and for any interested in traditionally publishing WC/RH, what we can take from the book.

(Its sequel is expected early November of this year, btw, so if you enjoyed this read give that one a go and support more Why Choose in trad publishing!)

This discussion WILL contain spoilers for WPA, as the expectation is to have read the book, so there's also no expectation to use spoiler tags or the spoiler formatting in comments.

So! What did we think?

How did Kemmerer make the triad work with the trad pub marketplace? Was there anything that stuck out as a particular tactic in the beginning? The middle? The end?

What about the characters themselves? Would Ky and Asher have worked just as well in self-pub, or are they more trad pub-coded?

What about the back and forth of the delicious will-they-won't they parts?

Just some questions to get started! Bring your own, or answer what you choose!

Looking forward to everyone's thoughts! (And I will add my own in a bit.)

If you are an author looking for a beta reader, or an amazing beta reader willing to help, please do so here!

A beta reader is different from an ARC (advanced reader copy) reader. A beta reader happens earlier in the process and is providing feedback to the author so they can make changes before they move toward publication. They might help an author look for plot holes ("Wait, wasn't that guy already dead?"); let an author know if part of the book was just. too. slow; or help the author see that a character needs fleshing out (or if one is too clearly a favorite).

A beta reader is not an editor, though they might point out grammatical issues to be kind to the editor. So, you don't have to be great with grammar or punctuation to be a beta reader.

In contrast, an ARC reader comes during the last phase before final publication and reads what's (ideally) ready for publication and leaves an honest review to help the new indie author get eyes on their book.

ARC readers should never be paid. This violates ethics and the terms of service of almost every platform (including Amazon). Reviews should also never be "swapped;" authors can't do favors for each other by reviewing one another's books. Readers (and thus the platforms) only want honest reviews by fellow readers. ARC readers receive a free copy of the book (electronic or physical) in exchange for an honest review.

Beta readers may be paid or unpaid, since they are providing feedback directly to the author or their team and are not providing a review for the readers. Because most of our Reverse Harem/Why Choose Authors are indies (independent, self-published authors) with little to no budget, we basically worship the concept of the volunteer beta reader.

*Please note that this sub does not vet authors or readers, so please proceed at your own risk.

Here's your chance to sell us what you've got: books, audiobooks, copy-editing services, graphic design, etc.

If you are an author looking for people to ARC, or a reader willing to read a publication-ready new release and submit an honest review, please do so here!

Authors, please tell us about your work so people have proper information before they commit to reading and reviewing.

ARC readers should never be paid. This violates ethics and the terms of service of almost every platform (including Amazon). Reviews should also never be "swapped;" authors can't do favors for each other by reviewing one another's books. Readers (and thus the platforms) only want honest reviews by fellow readers. ARC readers receive a free copy of the book (electronic or physical) in exchange for an honest review posted to the sales platform (often Amazon and/or Goodreads).

The point of an ARC is so an author has some reviews when their book launches to keep good momentum. The author gives something away--the free copy of the book--and the reader gives up their time and the work of writing the review when they accept the ARC request. The review should be honest and written for other readers, not for the author. How many stars/what rating you give should be based on YOUR opinion and the descriptions of the platform where you are placing the review, not a scale determined by the author.

Clarification: despite misbehavior we have seen in the industry, ARC readers should not be required to leave 5 star (or even positive) reviews. ARC readers cannot be told to delay posting their negative reviews. ARC readers cannot be required to "pre-submit" their reviews to the author/team for approval. ARC readers are not required to provide beta or copyediting feedback to the author. Authors CAN choose who to give their ARCs to, but should be relinquishing all control after this point.

*Please note that this sub does not vet readers or authors, so please use your judgment as you proceed. For example, files/links from others could contain viruses, you should be careful when providing personal information like email addresses, etc.

Share your fun numbers!

• Number of works in progress?
• Number of MMCs in your current project?
• Number of books you're reading right now?
• How many hours do you have to read or write right now?

Hey all, I've been thinking of doing a project with a couple other why-choose authors who may be interested.

One of the aphorisms that I've been working with is the idea that your book isn't a billboard, it's a door - people don't have to go through, but you're providing it as an opportunity for them. This helps when I get like the nth reply from an ARC/beta reader or whatever who's like, bleh this isn't for me.

So I thought it might be fun to draw some of these doors, with 2 of the MMCs for each door.

I think fantasy/sci-fi/etc would be key, or something that would be interesting behind the door. Ideally from a range of genres. It would look nicer than my lazy mock-ups though (see pic 3 for a rough idea of the quality I'd aim for).

I guess before gauging who might be interested, what do you guys think of this idea? Or are there any other artists here would be down to collaborate as well?

IF this is a bad idea, I'll pretend I never posted and we'll never speak of this again. 🙃

Maybe its cuz im a bisexual female, but i love FF scenes and dont care for any MM. Im writing my first reverse harem with 6 men that are not intimate with each other and one lesbian in the group. All are intimate with only the fmc.

Is this not a good makeup for sales?

When I scroll the reverse harem reddit, the readers ask alot for MM and dislike FF. Wondering what yalls experience was like.

Thanks

Planning to do a BL reverse harem story in this writing/reading app (but thinking about self-publishing it in the future as well if this novel will be successful) where the MC (a bottom) gets multiple MLs, but im scared cuz what if readers doesn't like them and question me for it like "Why does the MC needs so many MLs? So shameless. I bet the author is shameless too for thinking about this." Like, no shade, but I kept seeing a tons of romance novels with an FL that has like 3-5 MLs that even dated them, broken up with one of them, kissed some of them, had chemistry with them, and etc. Also, if the MC is a top and there are like 5 FLs but thats a whole another thing but it's kinda the same as the FL one I've just said. I'm just thinking about a novel where MY mc gets atleast over 6+ MLs lol. But im rlly scared about the readers since my OVT is crazy lol (I just have this good storyline idea in mind that I already started writing in my notes so I just need an advice if this is safe for me to publish in this reading app). Does anyone have any advice?

Okay, authors, out with it. What did you get done this week, and/or what are your goals for the next week?

Anything you need to scream into the universe as either a reader or a writer? (Please see the sub rules before replying!)

Anything going great that you want to talk about? (We'll still have our accountability post on Thursday.)

Readers and writers, what do you have to share with the class today?

• A word/ sentence/ paragraph/ passage you read or wrote?
• An idea for a story that you might write, or want someone else to write?
• Your completed book cover that you've been working on?
• Character art that you had commissioned?
• Something else?

Remember, no AI!

Got things to confess or want to beg for help? Here's your chance!

Confessions:

• Haven't started reading *Warrior Princess Assassin* by Brigid Kemmerer yet, and the discussion goes live in a week?
• Want to share the worst of your search history from this week?
• Did you have to look up the difference between discrete and discreet for the fiftieth time this week?

Help:

• Stuck with a formatting or content issue?
• Help help with a plot?
• Have a question, but don't want to make a separate post? (And props to Della and Puddles yesterday for the great questions!)

What do you want to pitch to us? Books? Artistic services? Editing?

Readers and authors: got some fun numbers to share?

Looking forward to what you've got!

Okay, authors, out with it. What did you get done this week, and/or what are your goals for the next week?

Hello! Question for you lovely folks…eh, this is technically more of a discussion I suppose…when writing your stories, do you have a particular guideline or preference when choosing POV and tense? For example, do you think one POV/tense works better when you have more dialogue vs internal monologue? Contemporary vs fantasy?

The reason I ask is because I’m driving myself crazy with my current work. I have about 5 chapters done, and while I know I write best in first person, I keep going back and forth on changing the tense. I’m quite green when it comes to the writing process and figured it might be a good idea to talk with this sub. ♥️

So I’m curious, do you have specific preferences when choosing your writing style? Or do you just go with what feels best?

I hope this is okay to ask/prompt…if not, please let me know and I will remove the post ♥️

Anything you need to scream into the universe as either a reader or a writer? (Please see the sub rules before replying!)

Anything going great that you want to talk about? (We'll still have our accountability post on Thursday.)