So, I wrote a soap opera...

In The Stars Part II Trailer Out Now!

♥ It's a labour of love. ♥

I've blogged about it before. Hiding Behind The Couch - my series about nine friends.

I've blogged about it a good few times, in fact, because I have a problem.


It. Sells. Bugger. All.

It sells so much bugger all it made me do that one word to each sentence thing!

It doesn't get many reviews either, even though I can see that the first two novels are being downloaded from my website.

Because, you see, the first two books are free.

Book four is technically free too, as it's available in instalments from Smashwords, with 'user sets price'.

So what's going on?

When it does get reviews, they're generally great.

I've done interviews in the press and online. I've run giveaways, taken part in blog hops, made video trailers...

I can't even be bothered to list the rest of the things I've done here, but the bottom line is this:

It's contemporary fiction. And that's a MASSIVE category. And people say, "Hey, Deb. Why don't you list it as something else?" But, the trouble is...

It doesn't fit ANYWHERE else!

• Book one is characterisation - there's some story in there too, but it's your introduction to the nine people in this fictional world - a world like just like ours. They could be your friends. They may well become your friends if you read the series (soap opera).
• Book two is a murder mystery - does it get solved? Maybe.
• Book three is, if anything, gay male romance (with no sex!) - it's a lot more besides.
• Books four and five are all of the above!
• The novellas are festive and romantic, mostly.

In short, the series to date covers FOUR YEARS of the lives of The Circle - a group of nine friends. Life is not all romance, festivity, murder mystery. Sometimes it's just...

LIFE!

So how to sell this thing?

Because, as the writers out there will know, we can write for two reasons.

1. To make money, in which case we write what sells, market the hell out of it, and keep selling out. Unless, of course, what we write is what sells, and that's just jammy!
2. Because we have to, we need to and, most of the time, we want to and we love it.

I write for the second reason - I write this series because it's there. Always there.

During the past few weeks, I've written two stories for the Love's Landscapes Anthology (more on this another time, but they're called Checking Him Out and Sugar and Sawdust, and will be available from Goodreads and MMRomanceGroup.com Summer 2014).

And at the end of writing those stories, The Circle was still bloody waiting for me to pick up where I left off. However mad it sounds, I missed them while I was away.

So, you see. I'm going to keep writing it. I don't even care if it sells. I just want it to be read!

My solution?

I realised last year that what I'm writing is actually a literary soap opera. Maybe it needs its own theme music!

But whatever, if you read this post and would like to read my series, I will send you the full set of ebooks for free*. I ask for nothing in return, but I would hope if you like it, you will tell people - review it on Goodreads, your blog, Amazon, tell your friends, invent your own pyramid marketing scheme - whatever. And if you do any of this, tell me, so I can revel in your oodles of praise. (Or sob into a hanky.)

All you need to do is email me and tell me whether you want epubs or mobis, and it's yours. No strings.

*Books 1-5, inclusive, and the novellas, Beginnings, First Christmas and Breaking Waves.

My email address: debbie (insert squirl here) beatentrackpublishing.com

For more information on the series, visit www.hidingbehindthecouch.com or www.debbiemcgowan.co.uk

Oh, and one last thing: Book Five is out in June! It's called In The Stars Part II - if you haven't read anything else before now, you can read the synopses of books 1 and 2 on my website, or jump straight in at book 3 (The Harder They Fall), or even 4 (In The Stars Part I), at a push.

As always, thanks for reading! Here's another heart, to demonstrate my unwavering love: ♥