472. Fantasy and Historical Recs Plus Behind-The Scenes with Amanda & Sarah

[music]

Sarah Wendell: Hi there! Thank you for inviting me into your eardrums. I’m Sarah Wendell, and this is episode number 472 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. Amanda and I are back with your questions. We are going to talk about recommendations and snacks and some behind-the-scenes info about running the website as a business. Ellen is looking for some recs to ease the wait before the next Tessa Dare novel, and Sue wants some fantasy recs that avoid the problem of too much plot, not enough kissing.

Thank you to Sue and Ellen for today’s questions. We will come back to the recommendations for candy and books in the next episode, Ellen. I realized after we stopped recording that I had missed that one. Thank you for your questions, and stay tuned for future episodes where we answer more of your questions from the Patreon community.

And speaking of the Patreon community, thank you. If you have supported the show with a monthly pledge, you’re keeping the show going, you make sure that every episode has a transcript, and I have a compliment this week.

To Saul A.: You are the human personification of finding a brand-new, extra-big box of untouched crayons with a sharpener on the side of the box. You make people think of creativity, possibility, and massive amounts of fun. Thank you for being part of the Patreon!

If you’d like to join, have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches.

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You know any podcast with me and Amanda is going to have an absolute metric butt-ton – yes, that is a genuine measurement – of book recommendations, and if you’re thinking, but I’m, I’m driving, or I’m cleaning, or I’m wandering my house drinking deliciousness and consuming glamorous snacks and I can’t write down book titles, do not worry: they’re in the show notes and they’re on the website at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast, and now I’m really stuck on the idea of what is the most glamorous snack; I might have to tackle that.

But that’ll be a future episode. In this one, we should get started: on with the podcast.

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Sarah: So before we get started with all of our questions here –

Amanda: Mm-hmm!

Sarah: – we need some Rec Leagues –

Amanda: Yes!

Sarah: – and I wanted to ask you, one, make a pitch –

Amanda: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: – for the Rec Leagues, so what we need, but also –

Amanda: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: – let’s talk about what makes a good Rec League request.

Amanda: Okay. So hello, everyone. I’m, I’m the one who decides usually what gets made into a Rec League and what doesn’t, and then I put it all together. First off, if you’d like to submit a Rec League, you can email Sarah or me. It’s our first names – so Sarah or Amanda – at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books dot com [[email protected] or [email protected]]. You could also submit it through, like, the Contact form we have on the site; I think there’s, like, a special drop down?

Sarah: There is!

Amanda: And we can, we can link it in the show notes, like a direct thing to where you can go.

Sarah: Yes, we can!

Amanda: First off, if it’s very broad, that’s not – like, Rec Leagues are supposed to be kind of niche, a little bit? Let me see what some of our recent ones have been.

Sarah: But not super, super niche. Like, it’s not like we’re trying to find one particular book, but we are trying to find a very specific flavor of romance.

Amanda: Yeah. Just, like, friends-to-lovers with a, in a small town. That’s kind of too broad, ‘cause there are just so many books we can give you.

Sarah: If the option is too broad, just think about all of the books that could fit into it and how long the comment stream will be, because, you know, you just, everyone has like ten books to mention. That’s, if someone can immediately think of like five titles, that’s too broad.

Amanda: Yeah. So we had one recently from Shana, who’s a reviewer on the site and is amazing, for non-inspirational closed-door romances, which I think is a good request because normally when we think of closed-door romances, we think of inspies or inspirational romance.

Sarah: Yep!

Amanda: So that was a good one. I think a lot of the favorite ones that I’ve, I’ve set up or have been on the site have been, like, media sort of related ones, like the Slytherin and Hufflepuff pairing one or, like, the Madmartigan and Sorsha one from Willow. There’s one coming up that came up in our, in the fantasy romance panel I did this weekend, and we were talking about tropes, and one of the authors, Lana Harper – who is writing Payback’s a Witch, which comes out in October – in terms of tropes, she’s like, I don’t know what you call it, but I like that Scully and Mulder vibe of, like, these –

Sarah: Ohhh!

Amanda: – kind of reluctant partners, but I don’t know what you would call it. So I think we’re going to do a Rec League for that soon. But I think if you think about what sorts of tropes or pairings or settings, even, too? Like, we’ve had people who wanted specific historical settings or specific jobs. We had one that was like, I want people who have, their, like, work life is like a graveyard shift or, like, you know –

Sarah: Night owls, yeah.

Amanda: – primarily at night.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: So if you think about what you like in media or, like, very specific things, that works really well.

I will also caution everybody to google beforehand. Like, if you just google Smart Bitches and the trope or Smart Bitches Rec League and then, you know, what you’re looking for, you’ll probably find it. Like, we’ve done this –

Sarah: And we can post a link to all of our past Rec Leagues to take a look through.

Amanda: Yeah, we have, like, a page for it.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: But we’ve, we’ve been doing Rec League for many years at this point, and even talking to our reviewers about Rec Leagues, I –

Sarah: We come up with stuff that we’ve already done.

Amanda: Yeah, I would say like maybe five out of the six suggested, we’ve done something similar to?

Sarah: And it works if it’s been, you know, a couple of years, because in that time a lot of books will have come out, but the, the problem is, if it’s too close together we’re going to get recommendation lists of all the same books that we’ve already talked about.

Amanda: Yeah, and we want to give people new stuff, not, you know, the same thing three different ways.

Sarah: Right.

Amanda: I entitled one “Horny Widow HEAs.”

Sarah: Yeah? Yeah!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: I feel, I can’t remember if we’ve done this or it’s one that I’ve wanted to do?

Sarah: Uh-huh?

Amanda: And it’s non-Christmas holiday romances.

Sarah: I think we’ve done that, or at least discussed it, but it’s still –

Amanda: I feel like we have.

Sarah: – every year there are so many romances published to holidays, especially Christmas, and they’re going to start showing up next month?

Amanda: I know.

Sarah: Yeah, I think we could probably do that one every year and get new books every year.

Amanda: I know we’ve done a Thanksgiving romance one.

Sarah: Yes, that’s definitely the case.

Amanda: But I don’t know if we’ve done, like, specifically, like, other holidays outside of, like, end-of-the-year –

Sarah: Christmas.

Amanda: – season.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: But yeah, so –

Sarah: Which you have.

Amanda: – Rec League – yeah – and if you’re worried about if it’s too broad, don’t worry if it is. We’ll usually reply with, like, hey, we’ve done that one already, and you might want to check out these posts for recommendations.

Sarah: Yeah, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll give you links if what you’ve said is too broad.

Amanda: Yeah. But we love to hear some niche ones. I think we, so far right now, the ones that we’ve come up with – and we might have one lurking in the, in the email somewhere, but right now the ones that we’ve come up with for the future is –

Sarah: Duh-duh-duh!

Amanda: – is grumpy/grumpy pairings –

Sarah: Yes, grumpy and grumpy, especially if they stay grumpy.

Amanda: Yeah. Oh, I would love like a Grinch-y, like two Grinches getting together –

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: – is what I would love to see for a holiday –

Sarah: Grinch + Grinch = HEA. I mean, that’s kind of my marriage, by the way.

Amanda: [Laughs] We have Reluctant Partners, a la Scully/Mulder. Shana had a request for queer, like, fantasy PNR, but specifically older characters? And then the one that I think Sarah came up with was a non-obvious romance partner.

Sarah: Yes, non-obvious protagonists. Not necessarily a love triangle, where the character has to choose between two, but where you know who one protagonist is, but you’re not entirely sure who the other romance protagonist is –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – until at least a good ways into the book.

Amanda: So, like, romances –

Sarah: I can think of a couple for that, but they’re much, much older.

Amanda: – they’re going to – romances with an assortment of potential protagonists that aren’t obvious or love interests hiding in plain sight.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: So those are the ones we have coming up that we’ve come up with, so that’s three.

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: But we would love, we would love some more, so if any of you can think of any or there’s just something that you’re really looking to find for your own – like, you know. We, sometimes we do Rec Leagues because we personally want them, so don’t –

Sarah: Yes!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Yes, we do.

Amanda: Don’t worry if it’s, like, a selfish request just, just for you.

Sarah: It’s not.

Amanda: But yeah.

Sarah: That’d be great.

Amanda: But send ‘em our way!

Sarah: Yes, please! We’ll have links in the show notes, or you can just email Sarah, S-A-R-A-H, or Amanda at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books dot com [[email protected] or [email protected]] and put “Rec League” in the subject line, and we will get it! We get a lot of email.

Can I tell you I am so excited that you ordered the Multipass vaccine card holder? Like, I saw that in the thread –

Amanda: I had to.

Sarah: It was a big Twitter thread of ridiculous vaccine stuff, although I do like the doormats that say If you’re not vaccinated, go away? Like, I’m a fan of those.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: The Multipass vaccination card holder –

Amanda: I had to.

Sarah: – it was, like, made for you!

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: It is –

Amanda: I had to!

Sarah: – it is entirely Amanda-bait.

Amanda: We’re in, I know it feels like a weird, dystopian thing –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: – to, like, buy cute little holders for your vaccination pass, but, like, that’s –

Sarah: That’s where we are! And I am really happy to support other people’s artistic cleverness.

Okay, we have questions. Will you start with the one from, from Ellen, and then I will tackle Sue’s question, which is a bit of a longer one?

Amanda: ‘Kay. Hi, Ellen!

“Hello! I’m desperately waiting for the fourth book in Tessa Dare’s Girl Meets Duke series that seems to be delayed until 2024 (?!?!?).“

Sarah: Ouch.

Amanda: Multiple interrobangs follow this; I get it.

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: 2024; hard to think about.

“Do you have any book suggestions to tide me over until it comes out? Any candy pairings would also be greatly appreciated.”

So, first of all –

Sarah: We are the right people to ask this question, especially the candy part.

Amanda: The – [laughs] – yes. I’m sure if you’re reading Tessa Dare, you’re reading Lisa Kleypas, but if you’re not reading Lisa Kleypas, read Lisa Kleypas. I have a soft spot for the Wallflower series; it’s older, but there’s four books, and it follows four friends.

If you – I really liked the Harper St. George series that’s out right now?

Sarah: I was going to say Harper St. George would work.

Amanda: Yeah. I think it’s the Gilded Age Heiresses series. So the first one is The Heiress Gets a Duke, which I loved, and then Elyse reviewed the second one – I think I have the book somewhere, but I don’t know where it is – and she really liked it too, so it’s got two positive grades from two different reviewers, and I really liked them. It’s Victorian instead of Regency and probably a little, slightly less fluffy than a Tessa Dare?

If you want kind of like that fluffy historical romance feeling, I’m trying to think. I think – what am I thinking of? Not Loretta Chase. Not Lorraine Heath.

Sarah: Suzanne Enoch?

Amanda: Lenora Bell.

Sarah: Lenora Bell. Or, or Vivienne Lorret.

Amanda: Or Vivienne Lorret. Those are, like, lighter –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – ones. I think Charis Michaels is doing, like, a Disney fairytale retellings with her new series? So the first one is like a, it’s got Snow White vibes. The covers are really cool. And the second one I think might be Sleeping Beauty. And the third one is like a Peter Pan-ish retelling.

So if you want lighter historicals, those are some author suggestions, and all of them have pretty deep backlists –

Sarah: Yes, that’s absolutely true.

Amanda: – so there’s a lot to, to poke around, and if you, to find a series you’d rather read or a trope you’re looking for.

Hi, Wilbur! Good-bye, Wilbur!

Sarah: He has decided that when I am recording is when he needs to eat, so you’ll just in the background hear this little –

Amanda: He’s settling on the –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – his tongue out.

Sarah: I know!

Amanda: Oh no, wait! Now he’s back, ‘cause you touched the bowl.

Sarah: I touched his food!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Better drop some kibble from the sky here, lady. There you go, buddy.

Sarah: So I have two and a half suggestions of authors’ backlists to tide you over, Ellen. One is Theresa Romain?

Amanda: Mmm, yes!

Sarah: Theresa Romain writes really lovely, thoughtful romances with a lot of layers and little, tiny – the thing that Romain is really good at is that a little detail from the start of the book will become incredibly important later in a way that just gets me right in the chest? It’s very layered, and the story sort of folds back on itself, and the things that happen in the different scenes in the beginning are important to the scenes in the, in the, in the end, so – and the characters are always so interesting? So Theresa Romain would be a really, really good place to start.

Joanna Shupe might also work as well?

Amanda: Her stuff – well, I will add the caveat that –

Sarah: Yes, I – that was my next sentence. Go ahead!

Amanda: [Laughs] Some of, a majority of what I’ve read by Joanna Shupe, and I’ve liked for the most part, have shitty men, patriarchy, and, like, women bucking the patriarchy as a theme, but, like, for example, is it the, the series that has The Rogue of Fifth Avenue –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – it’s got a trio of sisters, and – Uptown Girls is the series – trio of sisters, and the dad is just fucking garbage and pretty much tries to control his daughters’ lives, but I did love A Notorious Vow, which is one of my favorite historical romances?

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: But they can be a little darker.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. There, there’s a little bit more angst there. And, and the thing is, I’ve, I’ve cried while reading a Tessa Dare, but it’s a different kind. It’s almost like the difference between reading something that makes your eyes sting and reading something that makes your stomach hurt.

Amanda: Hmm.

Sarah: That’s two different forms of angst for me. So, like, horrible dad, patriarchy shitball is going to make, give me, like, a, a, a knot in my stomach, whereas someone doing something sentimental or, or deeply kind is going to make my eyes sting. It’s a totally, like, different location.

Amanda: I did have, like, the happy overwhelm emotional cries at the end of When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare.

Sarah: Mm-hmm! Yep, there’s always –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – there’s always rereading.

Amanda: Yeah, that’s also a good point! You can always do some rereading in –

Sarah: Or –

Amanda: – in prep.

Sarah: Or, if you want, I would recommend trying the audiobook of one of them. I recommend listening to books you’ve already read because part of your brain will already be familiar with what’s happening? At least that’s how it works for me. When I, when I listen to something that I’ve already read, I hear it differently, and I recognize different parts of the story and different things jump out at me, but I also listen to them – I’m sorry to all the narrators out there – I listen to them sped up, because as you can hear right now, I am a pretty fast talker. It also makes my brain pay attention because it’s going a little faster than normal. I listen to podcasts at, like, 1.6, which, I don’t even want to know what I sound like at 1.6 speed, but I always do a lot of podcasts –

Amanda: That’s awful!

Sarah: – at 1.6.

Amanda: Also, yeah, since Sarah mentioned audiobooks, one series that I haven’t finished on audio, but I’ve started on audio and have gotten through four-ish books that I really love on audio is the Maiden Lane series by Elizabeth Hoyt.

Sarah: And that is a big series.

Amanda: Yeah! I think it’s –

Sarah: That’ll go.

Amanda: – twelve books? And Ashford –

Sarah: Yeah, that’ll keep you occupied! [Laughs]

Amanda: – Ashford McNab, who’s the narrator, is just wonderful, and she does this voice for the hero in the third book, who is like an, a swarthy Irish river pirate, and –

Sarah: Hello!

Amanda: – it is one of the best – his name is Charming Mickey – one of the best narrations I’ve heard, especially for a woman narrator doing the voice of a male character –

Sarah: That’s awesome.

Amanda: – and sometimes that’s hit-or-miss for me. But it’s, it’s good. 

Sarah: That’s a really good rec. That’ll keep you, I mean, that’s a long series; that’ll keep you occupied for at least, you know, two weeks.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: Depending. Depending on how –

Sarah: Depending on who you are and how fast you read!

Amanda: Mm-hmm!

Sarah: All right, you want to tackle the Sue question? This is a lot of me answering –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: – but I’m curious about this. She, she, she direct messaged you?

Amanda: Oh, no. So she direct messaged me for the, for the recommendations.

Sarah: Oh, the recommendations.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: All right, good.

Amanda: Yeah, yeah.

Sarah: All right, so let me take the first part of the Sue question.

Amanda: Sure.

Sarah: Sue says – hi, Sue!

“I have SUCH a nosy question and I know you SAID to ask you nosy questions but. Anyway whatever, I’m gonna ask it because I’m curious but you don’t have to answer it in full detail if you don’t want/can’t. How does the business side of SBTB function? Are all income streams treated the same (podcast advertisers, website advertisers, affiliate links)? Is there a ‘busy’ season where you get most of your yearly revenue? How do you budget for new equipment or upgrades or new features? Can you tell it’s budget season where I work right now?”

Yes, I can tell that it is budget season where you work right now! Okay, so here’s the quick-and-dirty of the site, if you’ve ever been interested in the behind-the-scenes: I often imagine myself as a business owner out in a field with a scythe, and I’m like, well, I’ll go this way now, ‘cause I don’t know that many people who do what I do. I mean, I know there are professional bloggers, but there aren’t a lot of independent blogs that still exist that aren’t behind paywalls, you know?

Amanda: Yeah, and I like, what is it, are we at fourteen years?

Sarah: Seventeen. No, I am wrong! We will, we turned sixteen, because my older child was born the same year as the site, so whatever year he is turning is how old the site is, so the site is currently sixteen and will be seventeen in January.

Amanda: What? I thought we had the fifteenth anniversary –

Sarah: Well, we, I mean, we did, but it was two years ago. [Laughs]

Amanda: Oh. It is sixteen; holy shit!

Sarah: Yeah, the site was founded in January of 2005.

Amanda: Which is, like, positively ancient in internet time.

Sarah: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Mesozoic era of the internet.

So here’s the quick-and-dirty: the site is an LLC. I cannot believe that in two states the name Smart Bitches Trashy Books, LLC, was not taken and it was available? I could have it? Awesome. So I’ve now had a registered LLC in two states by that name. I love calling the bank; it’s my favorite thing, ‘cause then they confirm that, like, can you con-firm the bu-, business name? And I tell them, and then there’s this moment of silence, and they’re like, okay, thank you, ma’am. [Laughs]

Amanda: I, like, when I have to go to the doctor, they always double-check, like, are you still employed at this space? And you can –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: – there’s a pause.

Sarah: Yep!

Amanda: There’s a very – and I’m like –

Sarah: Yep!

Amanda: – yes, yeah.

Sarah: Sure am!

Amanda: Like –

[Laughter]

Amanda: – you don’t, if you don’t want to say it, yep, I know exactly –

Sarah: It’s okay!

Amanda: – what’s on the sheet.

Sarah: So all income streams for the site are treated the same, but I am constantly monitoring to make sure that there isn’t revenue dependency in one particular place, ‘cause I can’t control all of them. Like, for example, you mentioned affiliate revenue. So we get Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple, Etsy –

Amanda: Not Apple anymore.

Sarah: Not – Apple’s so ridiculous. They’re, they shut down –

Amanda: I think it’s just those three right now.

Sarah: And a little bit from Etsy. Little bit of Etsy revenue –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – affiliate revenue. But most of the affiliate revenue comes from Amazon, and I can’t control the percentage we get. Like, a couple of years ago they dropped the percentage of e-books from eight percent to four percent, and that was like a massive loss to our, to the revenue, so like I said, I try very hard to make sure I’m not dependent on one stream, ‘cause everyone takes a turn in the Amazon toilet, and sometimes it’s my turn.

So that’s one element. Banner ads is another element, and it’s really interesting how that has evolved, because we started running ads on the site, I want to say around 2008 maybe? And that was because authors were like, hey, would you run an ad for my book? And I was like, you want to pay me to put an ad on the site, for real? Really? That’s a thing?

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: It used to be a lot more big publishers, and as I was sitting and thinking about it, can you, can you possibly predict how many, how many advertisers we have outlasted? How many advertisers we had that no longer exist?

Amanda: Do you know the number?

Sarah: I do! ‘Cause I had to look.

Amanda: How many?

Sarah: Five. And that is not just like, this publisher merged with this publisher and – like, no, that’s not what I’m talking about. It used to be a lot of big publishers would book ads. Now it is much more small presses, indie authors, or authors who are booking their own promotion because there isn’t a promotional budget –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – from their publisher. I have outlasted All Romance eBooks, OmniLit, Samhain, Lucid, Ellora’s Cave. Like, we have outlasted several places that used to advertise –

Amanda: Those are some names that take me back!

Sarah: Fiction-wise – yeah – we have outlasted a lot of former advertisers, which is not necessarily a good thing, but it is something I have to be aware of, that, you know, businesses just stop sometimes, and they’re not booking stuff anymore. Some of them used to book a whole year’s worth of ads, and when they went out of business I was like, well, fuck. So like I said – [laughs] – I’m not in control of many of these things. I’ve got to keep, keep an eye on all of the different things.

The thing about banner ads is that I run the server, so it’s all me. Like, I design a lot of the ads, I book them, I run them, so you deal with me, and if you, and if you are an author or a person who has things to advertise and you’re thinking, I have a little bit of money; where should I put it? I’d be happy to develop a proposal for you based on availability and different platforms. Like, you’re dealing with me. I am more than happy to answer all the questions.

Amanda: And, and Sarah’s good – I will say this for her – and, like, you can tell her your budget, and she will break down what is available to you.

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: Basically, whatever –

Sarah: And I can work with literally any budget. I mean, I can’t work with a five dollar budget, but our most inexpensive option is fifty dollars for a month, so we got options.

Podcast advertisers are a different revenue source. So the other options, the other areas of revenue include the Patreon, which is where all these questions come from, and that is a major part of supporting the podcast, the transcript, and the continuity of the show. Like, I don’t do, I don’t have seasons. I’m just here every week – hello! – in your eardrums. So the, the Patreon keeps that going, keeps that element of the site going.

And there’s also, every now and again we run sponsored content, but it’s very rare, and we’re kind of picky about it. I get a lot of email about sponsored content, and a lot of it is utter garbage that has nothing to do with the community, so I, we’re very picky about that.

The thing about being aware of the revenue sources is that I know, like I said, I’m not in control of a lot of them. I don’t know what Amazon’s going to do with affiliate percentages, if they’re just going to stop having affiliates ‘cause they’ve already eaten the world! I don’t know.

The thing that most small media sites like Smart Bitches have done is create a paywall or create a membership. A lot of new sites do it, a lot of small media sites do it, and anything that’s topical and niche-focused often has a private community or a paywall. I don’t necessarily want to do that because I want people to just show up any time or find us because they googled a book or become part of the community because they are interested in hanging out with us, because we have a really lovely community!

Amanda: And I think we’ve all had the feeling of, like, googling something and finding an article that’s like, oh, this sounds really great or really interesting, and then you go to it and you read two paragraphs, and that little pop-up comes up about, like, paying for it, which –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – of course, like, you know, news and media, do your thing. If you need to keep the lights on by asking for subscriptions, go for it, but it’s also, like, disheartening to the person who just, like, googles the one thing and wants to read it, and that’s it.

Sarah: Yeah. I know people have suggested for news sites like an easy pass for different news sites? It’s like, I want to read this one article; I don’t want to subscribe to the Tampa newspaper, but I would be happy to pay for it. Like, if I could just do it like a tip jar per article, there are some article –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – articles that I would read, and I don’t want to read them reposted or sourced from another news outlet that I already subscribe to. I’d like to read the original reporting; I do value journalism. I just, I can’t subscribe to every newspaper on, in, in the whole country that has an article that I might be interested in.

The other thing about putting up a paywall is that part of what makes Smart Bitches so valuable is the community, and I don’t want to prevent people from joining the community. You know what I mean? That, that part –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – is very important. We have a really nice comments section! You do not need a radioactive decontaminate shower after you read the comments. Everyone’s pretty chill, and everyone’s very respectful! For the most part, and if they’re not, they get told to stop.

Amanda: Get the boot.

Sarah: They – well, here’s the thing: well, other people will tell them to stop before I even get there, and I’m like, mm-mm! No! Do not do that here!

So if you’re thinking, okay, well, how do we support the site so you don’t go behind a paywall, shopping through our links is a big help; being part of the Patreon is, is a big help; and just sharing the sites and turning off your ad blocker when you come to the site is a big way of helping.

Amanda: And in terms of shopping through the links, I don’t know if you mentioned this earlier, but you don’t even have to buy a book.

Sarah: Nope! Buy whatever you want!

Amanda: If you, if you go through and you’re like, maybe I’ll buy this book and then decide not to, but then you’re like, shit, I do need cat food though, that counts.

Sarah: Oh, it all counts. Sometimes I will look at our Amazon affiliate report or another affiliate report, and I’ll be like, wow, somebody bought snow tires.

Amanda: [Laughs] We hope you have no traffic when you go to work today.

Sarah: And we got a, we got a percentage. Yeah, I hope you have great dreams and that you never skid. Like, we, we, we wish you the best with your purchases when they, when there’s a piece of them that comes to us. It is deeply helpful; thank you.

The other thing that Sue asked was, “Is there a ‘busy’ season…? How do you budget for new equipment or upgrades…?” So we have some major annual events. There’s the site anniversary on the 31st of January where we usually do a big giveaway. We do giveaways for Hanukkah. Every year we do our end-of-the-year roundup of posts. We do our Gift Guides; those are going to start soon. And that takes a lot of work, because that’s a lot of compiling and, and arranging, and there’s more structural work that goes into creating things like that. So those are busy things, but I’m pretty used to the workflow and the rhythm of the site at this point? As for equipment, I don’t need that much. I mean –

Amanda: Yeah, I feel like the biggest, like, purchases was the site upgrade in October like 2015.

Sarah: Oh yeah. That was, that was massive. That was absolutely massive.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: And we have our own place. We are on our own server. Smart Bitches got her own apartment; good for her.

[Laughter]

Sarah: I’m sure it’s better decorated than my house!

[More laughter]

Sarah: But that’s the quick-and-dirty, and oh, and Amanda is a, is a salaried employee, so I have a two-employee business, and I, I am the other one, and every time I do the payroll taxes and the Social Security taxes for Amanda –

Amanda: [Laughs] She gives me a little nudge about it.

Sarah: Yeah. I’m like, when you are old and smoking a joint and drinking some wine and getting your Social Security payments, think of me. [Laughs]

Amanda: Think of me –

Sarah: Think of me.

Amanda: – and this paycheck.

Sarah: Raise a joint in my honor in your future.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Paying into your Medicaid and your Medicare, paying into Social Security. And, and we do pay the reviewers; the reviewers who write for us, including guest reviewers, get paid as well.

Let’s finish with Sue’s second question.

Amanda: Sure! So, Sue –

Sarah: Sue.

Amanda: – from the previous question – [laughs] –

Sarah: This is a continuation. This was the –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – this isn’t about business. This is about –

Amanda: Books!

Sarah: Books!

Amanda: So Sue says:

“And a different question that might be less nosy: can you recommend stand-alone or stand-alone-able fantasy romance novels? I am 2/3 through Kiersten White’s Guinevere series and there is TOO MUCH PLOT AND NOT ENOUGH SMOOCHING, *and* I have wait until December for the final book. I am not meant to suffer like this, you guys.”

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: It’s true; it’s true, Sue. Okay, so two parts, somewhat of what you asked for, somewhat of you didn’t. So I hosted a fantasy romance panel for Bookstore Romance Day on the 21st, so it’s, it’s done and gone.

Sarah: Yay! How did it go?

Amanda: But the – 

Sarah: Was it good?

Amanda: Yeah, I think so! We had Chloe Neill, which is wild, because I think Chloe is wrapping up, like, book twenty-five or twenty-six at this point? And Chloe Neill’s written so many urban fantasy series.

Sarah: Oh yeah!

Amanda: We had Leslye Penelope, who’s wonderful and gave us some hints at what she’s working on next: so there’s one that’s like a historical fantasy, like, heist trope? They, like –

Sarah: Yes. That just sold. It sounds so good.

Amanda: – like, minimal, minimal romance, but I think it’s called The Monsters We Defy, and it’s coming out of Orbit, and then she’s self-pubbing a book called Savage City. It’s not up on Goodreads yet, ‘cause I wanted to add it, but it’s like a futuristic paranormal romance. So that one is being self-pubbed. It’s not, there’s not a lot of information out. But anyway, super interested.

And then Lana Harper, which was wild, because Lana Harper is the adult pen name of an author, Lana Popovic, who writes YA fantasy, and I know Lana Popovic because she’s, she graduated from Emerson, which I did, and was a lit agent in Boston for a while, and I went to some of her talks on lit-agent-ing, and I also went to some of her book launches for her YA fantasy books! So it’s cool to see her doing something in the adult romance sphere.

But anyway, very good panel. But Sue saw that I was doing that, and I believe Sue attended and messaged me. She’s like, oh my God, I just sent in a question –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: – about fantasy romances! So I kind of gave her recommendations through Instagram DMs already. But in terms of, like, standalones that you could read, Elise Kova and Bec McMaster have some that are technically, like, part of a series, but you can read them out of order.

Series-wise, that you benefit from reading in order, that probably have some good smooching in them, of course Sarah J. Maas’s books. Lots of sexy stuff, especially as the books get later. And Leslye Penelope! Her stuff, each book is a, a different couple –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – but there is a continuing plot that probably would be best to read in order?

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: But there’s four books in the series, and the last one just came out. I’m also trying to think – I mean, if you have a KU subscription, Kindle Unlimited, there is a lot of self-pubbed fantasy romance out there that’s included, so it’s kind of low-risk to give those a try if you already have KU? I wish there were – like, YA is killing it for, like, YA fantasy romances, but I’m also of the opinion that, like, man, I want more adult content in here!

Another one I would suggest that is also part of a series, though, is Lexi Ryan’s These Hollow Vows. Lexi Ryan, who used to write very hot, erotic, like, romantic suspense? I believe this is their first YA fantasy, but there is sex in it, I believe, and it’s got, like, fae and enemies-to-lovers and that sort of thing.

So those are my sort-of suggestions that I have for Sue and everybody else, and thank you for coming to the event, Sue. You’re always a delight.

Sarah: What about Shelly Laurenston? On one hand, it’s all part of an interconnected world and past characters will show up, but on the other hand, unless it’s a specific trilogy, a lot of her books follow –

Amanda: Hmm. Oh yeah! So G –

Sarah: – a lot of her books follow a, a, a shorter, larger backstory, so if it’s a trilogy, stuff’s going to wrap up –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – in the third book. Now the problem is that Shelly Laurenston does pack a lot of plot, and sometimes book three is too much plot, not enough smooching. That is a known issue. But, for example –

Amanda: And I would say –

Sarah: – like, the –

Together: – G. A. Aiken –

Sarah: – books?

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: There’s a lot of smooching and a lot of murdering.

Amanda: And G. A. Aiken’s, that pen name skews more fantasy, whereas Shelly Laurenston –

Together: – is shifters/paranormal.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: And also Thea Harrison has some, like –

Sarah: Thea Harrison is a good call!

Amanda: I listened to some of her dragon, dragon books on audio, and I thought they were pretty good, but those are also very sexy. Thea Harrison has that first one, which I think I talked about in the fantasy romance panel, where the heroine steals something from the dragon hero, and you know dragons have hoards.

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: So she essentially steals from his hoard, and he is none too pleased about it.

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: But it’s kind of set in this, like, fantasy New York –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – sort of thing, if I remember correctly.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: But, like, like many paranormal/fantasy romances, I think it came out in the mid-2000s, maybe? It’s like a series, but each book operates on its own.

Sarah: Yeah. And if there is a larger world issue that is being addressed in the background, it doesn’t necessarily take over the whole story in one particular book, where we’ve got to wrap up all these big plot bunnies in the back! We’ve got to wrap up all these plots! That’s not how it works.

Amanda: Yep.

[music]

Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this week’s episode. Thank you to Amanda for hanging out with me. Thank you to Sue and Ellen for this week’s questions. I have more from the Patreon community: more recommendations; more discussions of candy; more chattering about random, happy, silly things. I know that y’all really enjoy the episodes where Amanda and I hang out, so I hope you enjoyed this one.

You can find Amanda and me on smartbitchestrashybooks.com. Amanda is on Twitter @_ImAnAdult and on Instagram at the same place.

Now, you know that I’m going to have links to everything we talked about, including recent Rec Leagues, where you can submit your own Rec League request – I would love to hear from you – and where you can get your very, very own Multipass vaccination card holder, because these are very important things. And of course we will link to all the books we talked about as well; never fear!

And if you would like to reach out with additional requests or you would like to make another suggestion for the requests we are fielding this week, you can always email us at [email protected], or you can leave a message at 1-201-371-3272. I love when you tell me terrible jokes.

And speaking of, I have one right now! Isn’t that amazing? This joke comes from Reddit, because Reddit has great dad jokes. Ready?

What sound does a witch’s car make?

What sound does a witch’s car make?

Broom-broom!

[Laughs] Broom-broom! It is almost spooky season and I am here for it, mostly because it is a badrillion degrees and very humid today, so the idea of crispy broom travel sounds fabulous!

On behalf of everyone here, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a wonderful weekend; we will see you back here next week.

Smart Podcast, Trashy Books is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more outstanding podcasts to subscribe to at frolic.media/podcasts.

[Whispers] Broom-broom! [Laughs]

[end of music]