It’s been a wonderful two years as of today running this service, helping launch careers and boost backlist titles, and picking up a lot of great reads for myself along the way.
This week’s newsletter, September 1st, will be the last Rainbow Shelf newsletter. I’ll email the TRS list to ask them to sign up to read.pink’s new release alerts going forward.
For both personal reasons and changes in the marketplace, this decision wasn’t taken lightly, but it makes the most sense at this point.
For new authors: build your own newsletter, focus on making your cover and blurb to market, learn the tropes, read the market, try to improve with every book you write, and think long-term. LGBT fiction has a great future, and you can still break out without TRS around.
It’s been tremendous to do this for so long. Thanks, guys. Your books are amazing, and so are you.
Promo-list specific guidelines:
- M/M newsletters are sent weekly on Fridays. Other newsletters are sent on a given Friday if there is an accepted book to promote.
- We promote four types of books: M/M (or M/M/M+, or books with bi/trans/aro/ace men in gay stories) on our M/M list, F/F (or F/F/F+, or books with bi/trans/aro/ace women in lesbian stories) on our F/F list, bi main characters (or MMF and MFF, but not MFM) on our Bi list, trans (including nonbinary, agender, genderfluid, etc) characters on our Trans list.
- You can submit to multiple lists; M/M with a bi trans man to our M/M, Bi, and Trans lists, for example.
General guidelines:
- Romance titles only. Steamy romance is okay, but not erotica. Books should have a primary or strong secondary romance plot. For lesser-represented books (such as trans or FF stories), we may accept stories with romantic subplots.
- For Weekly Deals, books must be 99 cents or free as of Friday, 12am PST/3am EST/8am GMT. No preorders. Must stay discounted for Friday and Saturday. Please submit ASIN/purchase links by Thursday at the latest.
- For New & Hot, books must have been published no more than 30 days before promo date, must not have been available cheaper before, and must be more than 99c ($2.99-$4.99 preferred). No preorders.
- An author cannot be promoted in consecutive weeks, except pre-scheduled consecutive series promotions. You must wait 10 weeks between promotions of the same book.
- Submission is not a guarantee of acceptance. We will look for books that have well-written, error-free blurbs and interiors, high-quality covers, HEA/HFN endings, professional editing, and/or good reviews.
