Skater, a clean read for you
08/02/2013
If you click on the above screenshot, you will notice something remarkable.
- This is an actual email that Amazon.com sent to a friend of mine.
- Amazon.com did actually suggest to my friend that she should buy "Skater in a Strange Land."
- Amazon.com did group "Skater" with a number of books on the same topic: ice hockey.
- And yet, you can tell by the covers of the other books that "Skater" isn't selling what the others are.
I am proud of the cover of "Skater." It was done by Streetlight Graphics and I think it beautifully captures the mood of "Skater." The silver, icy flourish of the title is superimposed over the mysterious, wintry blue of the background with its old-style buildings and snowflakes.
But it is clear that "Skater" is hard to categorize. Although it is about ice hockey and romance, it is not an ice hockey romance. In addition to the romance, it has elements of the classic sports story; suspense and political intrigue; steampunk; and flat-out travel and adventure.
It is certainly not a "steamy" ice hockey romance like the ones it's grouped with here. Romance novels are a very large market, and sports romance novels have their niche. Attractive men, and intimate relationships, can be found in every walk of life, and book covers are used to advertise that fact.
No, the romance of "Skater" is based on anticipation rather than fulfillment. So even though our hero, Sherm, is tall, athletic, and with a ruggedly handsome face, and even though our heroine Rachael is young, elegant, and with eyes "dark and shiny like black coffee in a white mug," there is on purpose a dynamic of old-fashioned courting and waiting.
Which is why I felt it was good idea to sign up on the "Clean Indie Reads" blog, which is a site dedicated to promoting books that are free of offensive or explicit content.
Someday I may write a book that resembles so many of those popular reads out there. In Borschland, however, it'll stay clean.