Question for my fellow romance writers. My debut novel is about to be released on Kindle. Yay. My question is about marketing. To say I have no clue is an understatement. The fun of my book is the twists and turns. I purposely withhold info to tease the readers. Most of my beta readers loved the surprises while one said they were an unnecessary plot device (I considered her an outlier and ignored her feedback haha) So when I'm creating marketing posts for say Instagram, should I use spoilers? On one hand, I don't want to give away the plot, but at the same time I want to entice readers.
For example...my MMC abducts and drugs the FMC, but she turns the table towards the end of act 1 and drugs him back, setting up a crash landing and forced proximity. That moment is pivotal.
Should I spoil it with marketing? and if I did, would that ruin the reading experience?
Ok that premise sounds delicious but I would definitely not spoil it.
Maybe just leave it vague like, MMC thinks he has it under control when he gets the fmc’s presence through any means necessary… until he learns he isn’t the only one willing to take drastic measures
Right! I want my readers to clap when she bests him. She falls for his manipulations at first, but she totally turns the table on him. Its so satifying, or it should be.
Oh that’s good. Well put
If spoiling helps you to make people thinking your book is commercially good and get more sales? Sure why not, but spoiling is usually promoting the semantical elements of books which doesn’t work if you don’t have an audience that is exposed to your writing long enough to quickly understand what you mean. The cold market would buy the most stupid stories ever if the selling elements (copywriting) are good enough.
Beta reader’s feedbacks are irrelevant because they read the books, and you’re trying to selling it to people that haven’t (but good for predicting retention). I would say you should start with facebook ads library (free), to see the scripts, the copies that big names are using, try to mimic them but in your own way. Then you go from there.
I’m less concerned about spoilers than I am about content warnings. If you’re writing dark romance with drugging and abductions, then you need to respect your audience and provide that information upfront.
I’m not here to yuck anybody’s yum, but that’s not most readers’ definition of romance, so be transparent. That way, you will attract your target audience and deter anyone likely to give you poor reviews due to subject matter.
Best of luck!
Trust me I have TWs. Last thing I need is a bad review. This is part of my blurb.
Note: This is a full-length standalone romance with a satisfying HEA and no cliffhanger but does contain dark themes that may not be enjoyable for all readers. Themes to consider before diving-in include abduction; light power dynamics; drugging; torture of MCs; graphic violence and profanity.
While I agree with the other commenter about TWs, I would have to say mentioning that as a part of the marketing is super exciting! I’m already interested in the plot with what you said
Basically my MMC is bounty hunter. He comes along and charms my FMC. She falls for it. Enter some chase scenes. He drugs her and while he is occupied she picks up the syringe and drugs him back. Meanwhile his ship has been sabotaged.... Enter part 2
Helloooo I am eating that up!
I wrote the whole book around that one scene lol. Trust me, its good. But I dont want to spoil it. I mean that scene sets up act 2 and 3. So im conflicted. The readers know the MMCs ship has been sabotoged. She doesnt so, when she drugs him.. my readers should be like go girl and like like noooooo at the same time.
Nop, no full spoilers. Romance readers don’t buy twists,they buy promise. What converts is signaling the experience and tropes,not the exact chess moves. If you spoil the reversal beat-by-beat, you steal the dopamine hit they’re paying for. Science side, this is about curiosity gaps and reward prediction error. You want readers leaning forward, not feeling like they already saw the trailer ending.
This is where a lot of debuts struggle ,they confuse mystery with vagueness. Good marketing is specific without being literal. If you ever map your book’s tropes, turning points, and angles, you’ll see you usually get 5–10 spoiler-safe hooks you can reuse everywhere. Use something like ManuscriptReport to help surface those angles fast, especially for IG and ads, without giving away the twist itself.
I am not sure if you should give away the full twist in the marketing but hinting towards there being more to the story than what appears would be fun. For instance "He drugs her and kidnaps her but he isn't so sure he is the one really in charge here."
I wouldn't go that detailed, though. The suggestion above by reasonableratio is good at saying it without saying it.