It's been two and a half weeks since "The Demon's Guide to the Apocalypse" was released. What happens now is...a reader black hole. Absent someone reading the book, feeling their life has been changed exponentially for the better, and blasting their joy all over social media, there's normally a radio silence that follows my books' release that persists for a few weeks until a few reader reviews start slowly trickling into Goodreads. There's not really a way around that, so all I can do is sit around and wait. And hope that readers find their way to this book and enjoy it.
Fantasy books are a hard sell in the sapphic community, as every fantasy author knows. Anecdotally, readers seem to be a lot more forgiving of romance, particularly contemporary romance, than they are of all sub-genres of fantasy. This means that what starts already as a small reader group shrinks even more if readers start to give negative reviews. After how poorly "The Lady Adventurers Club" fared with reviewers, it's hard not to worry that "The Demon's Guide" will meet the same fate. Nevertheless, it was a story worth telling. Women of color and middle-aged women deserve to see themselves kicking butt just as much as anyone else, even if there's not a huge market for that.
I was recently asked if I was working on something new now that "The Demon's Guide" has been published. The answer is no...but that could change at any time. I'm waiting for inspiration to strike, but that strike could come tomorrow. Adult, Young Adult, who knows? All I know is that as hard as fantasy is on the commercial side, I enjoy writing it above all else, so I think I'll stick with it. And keep my day job.
