ROMANCE JUNKIES and a GIVEAWAY!!! by Marie Harte

I’m Marie Harte, and I’m the “new” owner of Romance Junkies (RJ). I technically took over in late March, but it still feels new to me. J We have over 40 stellar reviewers, and we review anywhere from 50-100 books a month.

Romance Junkies has been around since 2003. I remember being an aspiring author and checking out the website for tips. This was back before Amazon was such a powerhouse, back before the Kindle, the Nook, and ebooks that didn’t come on a floppy disk. There was no such thing as independent publishing unless you went vanity press. And the Big 6 publishers existed.

Now, it’s all different. The romance market continues to topple over on itself, it’s gotten so huge. Yet it’s still a billion dollar genre, much to the chagrin of HEA-haters everywhere. Ha! But one thing remains—authors still need reviews to get the word out about their books.

At Romance Junkies, we’re averaging over 50 reviews a month. Our reviewers choose what they want to review, so they’re more inclined to enjoy the read. We don’t give negative reviews. Some readers in the past have poked fun at us for doing this, saying we sugarcoat things. But they’re wrong. If we don’t like a book, we don’t review it. We do offer critical reviews, but these are from books our reviewers connected with. You know if it’s an RJ-reviewed book, it’s worth picking up.

It’s so easy to snark and make fun. Much harder to give critical advice and be helpful while still pointing out issues. As an author, I know how difficult it is to write your best book and still have people not “get it.” But hey, that’s the world of art. Some love the work, some hate it, some fall in between.

So as a reader, what can RJ offer you? 

We have daily giveaways. I mean, daily. The publishers and authors who blog with us are almost always giving away copies of their books. I have a ton of signed copies of books I gathered from this year’s RWA, and just as soon as my RWA roommate mails them to me, I’ll be giving them away by the box-load! 

And let’s not forget the most important thing we do at RJ--we provide a window into great romance so you can find new authors and books to love.

For writers, we offer a free platform to blog, paid advertising at starving-artist author prices, a resource page with tips and links to publishers, and of course, our bread and butter—reviews with links to purchase the books and to the authors’ websites.

Hey, authors out there! If you’d like to submit a book for review, please follow our guidelines. We get so many books it’s tough to keep up, so don’t fret if you don’t hear back from us. We might just be too busy to get to you at the moment. But we’re trying!

We’re always happy to help connect readers and authors to best enjoy romantic fiction. In the 13 years RJ has been around, that hasn’t changed. The only thing that has changed—a new website and a new owner. That’s it!

Thanks for having me, Romancing the Genres!

AWESOME GIVEAWAY!!!

We’d like to give away (to one lucky commenter on this post) a swag pack full of RWA 2016 goodies*, a mystery romance book in print*, and one large and small cover for advertising (should the winner be a writer.) To enter this contest, simply tell us your favorite genre of romance to read.

*prizes mailed to U.S. address only

♥ Marie Harte

Owner/operator Romance Junkies

http://romancejunkies.com