The other day I was surfing the net looking for links to a new website I'm helping with and I discovered what I felt were some valid questions by authors regarding the website. I wanted to address some of those questions here on the Moonlight Romance Authors Blog to hopefully clear up any misunderstandings regarding it.
1. One complaint was that there was no About Us page and that made the visitor feel as though the site was not legitimate. Okay yes, there is not an About Us page, however that does not mean it is not legitimate. In order to lay that question to rest, here is the answer to it, Free Romance Fiction is the brainchild of myself (Regina Paul) and another friend who writes romance Patricia Richardson. We are both published romance authors and wanted to find a way to help get the word out about our books as well as accomplish two other goals: help other authors get the word out about their books, and help readers find new authors to read, as well as the occasional free story by their favorite author.
2. There was another comment that there was "advertising on the first page." The only advertising on the front page are my and Pat's covers of our latest releases and jj Keller and Linda Sole's covers for theirs because they very kindly provided a free story for readers and I wanted to repay them for doing so with a month of free premium advertising.
Unlike some websites that fill their free space up with Google Adsense ads that make it difficult to even read the content there especially when they put it in between the paragraphs of the story you are trying to read, we decided to provide an advertising opportunity to authors. Whatever revenue, if any that is generated from the ads goes to the upkeep of the website that is all. And the rates are lower than even many of the review websites which offer the same thing to authors. Since we are just beginning we didn't think it was fair to charge an arm and a leg, and also, it's not for the purpose of "getting rich" as many people use Adsense for, but simply for upkeep of the site.
We do have some of the submission information on the front page but that is because we are trying to reach authors and wanted to show some of the advantages to submitting right on the front page. The cover links are in the different sections depending on what genre the story fits into, when you click on the link it takes you to the PDF of the story. These aren't on the front page because we wanted to put stories in their particular genre giving visitors a chance to go and check out different kinds of free stories. I hope that explains why we don't just have a jumble of coverlinks on the front page.
3. Another point made was done in the form of a question: Why should I as an author submit a story to your website when I can just do it myself and PDF it and add it to my blog? This is a very good question, and of course you certainly can do that. The advantages we think are that when you post a piece of romance fiction to Free Romance Fiction.com you are helping not only yourself (you get a free month of premium advertising if you submit a story by midnight October 31, 2008, and a banner that points to the page with the coverlink to your PDF'd story), but giving readers a chance to check out your writing, and hopefully go and buy your currently published books. After all that is the main advantage and hope to offering a free story, to get readers to buy your books. Another advantage could be the opportunity to network with other published authors as well, if you so choose.
I hope posting these here helps to lay to rest any questions authors or organizations that work with and for authors have. Please don't hesitate to contact me personally via either
tiwatz@yahoo.com or
submissionsfreeromancefiction@yahoo.comthe main e-mail for freeromancefiction.com. I will be more than happy to answer any other questions or concerns any author or organization that works with authors has and I hope if you have you'll contact me.
