{"id":4985,"date":"2010-10-15T22:03:27","date_gmt":"2010-10-16T02:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theseasonforromance.com\/wordpress\/?p=4985"},"modified":"2010-10-15T22:03:27","modified_gmt":"2010-10-16T02:03:27","slug":"does-controversy-sell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/15\/does-controversy-sell\/","title":{"rendered":"Does controversy sell?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Madonna<\/strong> shot a video with her nailed to a cross. <strong>Paris Hilton&#8217;s<\/strong> sex tape came out a month or so before the debut of her reality series on Fox. It seems every time you turn around, someone has a sex tape, a certain celebrity&#8217;s daughter has decided her ticket to stardom is to turn to porn, some tv news anchor has a complete meltdown&#8211;or sound off&#8211;on his bosses and an unnamed <em>faux<\/em> news anchor comedian while waving his just released book in his left hand.<\/p>\n<p>Is <strong>Madonna<\/strong> still relevant in music? Are people still talking about her? Did <strong>Paris Hilton<\/strong> go on to enjoy a certain celebrity? Did all the people mentioned or not mentioned by name above put their names not only in the headlines but on the lips of the general public? They sure did. The media covered their controversy extensively, lucrative interviews and or book deals followed. What does that tell me? Controversy is now a marketing tool whether you agree with the method or not.<\/p>\n<p>Does the same apply to romance authors? I wondered aloud to myself yesterday. First I had to try to think of a book that rattled the romance reading public because it caused a certain amount of controversy. It was hard because I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever bought a book because controversy surrounded it. I&#8217;ve bought books based on positive buzz, never negative. Then I wondered, again to myself&#8230;aloud, would I ever write a book hoping for controversy to make the book stand out in a crowd of thousands of books similar to mine&#8211;and by similar I mean a romance with the required HEA?<\/p>\n<p>My sister&#8217;s reaction was a violent <em>no!<\/em> Never. Never. Never. She thinks it&#8217;s plain wrong. I, playing the devil&#8217;s advocate, had to trot out my examples of those celebrities above and asked her why is it worse than what they did to get their moment in the spotlight or to stay relevant. Why was she criticizing a romance writer for wanting a chance at publication soooo badly that they, with foresight and a certain amount of calculation, would write a book they hoped to cause controversy. Is that wrong? After all, it is <em>not<\/em> easy to get published, especially by a New York publisher. And, if anyone knows that controversy sells, it&#8217;s publishing companies. So why not give yourself the edge?<\/p>\n<p>Even as I wrote this post, I was torn by my feelings on this particular subject. On one hand, I want to be able to write the book of my heart and have those successfully published. On the other hand, I know the reality of what it takes to be picked from a pile of many, many wonderful books&#8211;books all worthy of publication. <strong>It&#8217;s hard plain and simple.<\/strong> It&#8217;s just as hard to get agent representation; remember these folks read the good, the bad, and the ugly for a living. They&#8217;ve seen the same plot retold in a five thousand different ways. Catching their interest is only the start. Holding their interest is near impossible.<\/p>\n<p>Writing a book sure to stir up controversy requires more than writing a book pushing the boundaries. Writing this kind of book requires you write a book you wouldn&#8217;t write but for the fervent wish that it <em>will <\/em>cause controversy. The book is predicated on the desire to cause a stir, not because the writing is beautiful, not because the story is fabulous but because this book will make people talk. And they&#8217;ll talk loudly, sometimes violently, railing you as others take to the book stores to find out what all the fuss is about.<\/p>\n<p>So again, would I write this kind of book? No, in the end, I knew I would not&#8211;could not. I really have to love the kind of stories I write, that&#8217;s why I became a writer. Controversy might sell a book once, maybe even twice, but that won&#8217;t give an author a career because at the end of the day what will keep the readers coming back to read their books again and again is their story telling ability. Satisfy them in this, and you&#8217;ll have fans for life (or for as long as you keep putting out great books).<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>So the question of the day is can you remember the last romance novel surrounded by controversy? Did you buy it? How do you feel about books like this? Can you pick them out?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Comment and enter to win an advance copy of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lorainneheath.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #d65500;\"><strong><em>Lorraine Heath&#8217;s<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/a> <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>PASSIONS OF A WICKED EARL<\/strong><\/span> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cathielinz.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em><strong>Cathie Linz&#8217;s<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/a> <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>LUCK BE A LADY<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4987\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4987\" style=\"width: 218px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/theseasonforromance.com\/october_contemp_2.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4987\" title=\"luckbealady\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theseasonforromance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/luckbealady.jpg?resize=218%2C350\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"350\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4987\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to read review<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4986\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4986\" style=\"width: 217px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/006192296X?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=thesea0f-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1006192296X\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4986\" title=\"passionsofawickedearl\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theseasonforromance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/passionsofawickedearl.jpg?resize=217%2C350\" alt=\"\" width=\"217\" height=\"350\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4986\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to pre-order from Amazon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-4985\" data-postid=\"4985\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-4985 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Madonna shot a video with her nailed to a cross. Paris Hilton&#8217;s sex tape came out a month or so before the debut of her [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,83,27,36],"tags":[183,216,307],"class_list":["post-4985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avon-books","category-berkley","category-giveaways","category-miscellaneous","tag-avon","tag-contemporary","tag-historicals"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Does controversy sell? - Smitten by Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/15\/does-controversy-sell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does controversy sell? - Smitten by Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Madonna shot a video with her nailed to a cross. 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