It’s time for my depressing reminder that AAR needs your help to survive. Lately, things have been a bit grim.
By many measures, we’re doing OK. In 2021, our users were up 5% and those users had almost 1.5 million sessions. We’re still, via Amazon, selling thousands of books a year. We’re publishing new, smart content every day. Our reviewers are THE BEST. Our readers are engaging in robust conversation on the site.
And, like newspapers and blog sites (HEA USA, the Romance Reader, and others) everywhere, we are struggling.
AAR supports itself one of three ways.
We sell ads – this makes up about 20% of our revenue these days.
We make money as an Amazon affiliate. Amazon used to give us 9% of sales–five years ago that number dropped to 4% or less. So many of our readers have switched to KU–not only do we not get any money from KU memberships or books read via the service, we are no longer getting the dollars from other items our readers buy at Amazon because we can only earn affiliate dollars when someone puts something in their cart after linking from our site and buys it. Despite selling more books every year, our affiliate dollars are a third of what they were five years ago. Yesterday, at Amazon, we made $3.22, mostly on books our readers found via Steals and Deals.
Lastly, you, our beloved readers, are donating to AAR. Without your support, we would no longer be here. To all of you who have donated in the past few years and continue to do so, I can’t thank you enough. Everytime I see a donation, I feel a little more hopeful and so damn grateful. THANK YOU.
We’ve been around a long time–since October of 1996–and I hope that continues. In the meantime, please consider starting here every time you purchase something at Amazon. Put a book in your cart and buy the other things you need. We’ll get a commission on it all but only if you start at AAR and put something you’re going to purchase in your cart. Consider signing up for a monthly donation. If all our readers donated $10 a month, we’d be golden. (Here’s the link: Donate to AAR.)
I’m thinking hard about the future of AAR and, as usual, I’d love your input. What do you think we could do that would improve our financial outlook? What’s worth keeping? Are we meeting your needs?
Much love,
Dabney
I must be doing something wrong. When I click on the pink link: Donate to AAR, I get an error message: Something’s not right. This page does not exist.
Don’t worry, I’ll return later in the day, once the link is fixed
Thanks
Thanks! I think it should work now.
It worked, thanks.
For me, it’s a hard call. I have been reading AAR for many years and purchased via affiliated links. However, I feel like AAR has lost touch with the general romance community and not moved with the times?
The current romance scene is booming with exciting new voices: queer, Own Voices, disability reps, historical romances that address colonialism and do on. And AAR does not feel like it’s exploring all these new voices?
And AAR is not introducing me to new authors as much as it used to? I am not getting a feel for where Romancelandia is heading, who the leading voices are, what the big current reads are, or what trends I can expect to see.
And so I as a reader am less likely to visit and see ads.
I don’t really have any suggestions – maybe recruit a few new writers and reviewers? – maybe overhaul your thinking about what AAR does and who it’s for – maybe join forces with other blogs that are struggling?
Whatever you do, I wish AAR well. You have been a big part of my love affair with romance books and I hope you manage to keep going ❤️
Have you tried using our Power Search? In 2022, thus far, we’ve reviewed 54 queer romances, 49 books by authors of color, 47 books featuring leads of color, and have written many blogs focusing on unusual romances.
And thank you. Your suggestions are helpful. <3
I don’t have the stats, but I don’t agree with some of what you’ve mentioned. AAR definitely has queer rep. And I know I’ve been introduced to authors of color here, and books with mental and physical issues represented. And we’ve had numerous discussions about those reading for escape, those reading for a challenge, and those who do both. All readers should be respected, whether they want challenging social issues addressed, or not. And AAR has been asking for new reviewers for the past couple of years. That might be a great way for you to contribute and expose us all to the books you love.
The other thing is, I want book reviews, was it well written, did the plot flow, was the pacing good, etc., not necessarily a personal view of social issues from my reviewers. For example, I left one site because the reviewers couldn’t keep from down grading every author who wasn’t progressive enough for them, even if the books were well written. After they downgraded a (imo very good) book to a D- because the reviewer (who admitted she had dealt with eating disorders) was upset because she felt one of the characters had and eating disorder and the author didn’t address it, I never went back. I think a discussion of the possible eating disorder would be great, and very enlightening, but downgrading the book that much because the subject distressed you, not so much, at least for someone writing for a well known review site.
Just wanted to throw in that I’m trying to pull my own weight here (disclosure: I’m queer and Latina) vis reviewing as many books by queer authors as possible.
Hi Lisa,
Is there any way for a new queer author to submit their book to you for review?
You can email me at dabneygrinnan@allaboutromance.com. Send me your blurb and pub date.
Thanks!
Just jumping in here to say that if you or anyone you know would be interested in joining our reviewing team, then please do let me know. We would LOVE to have some new writers join us, but finding people who can commit to reviewing a book (or more) a month and who can write reviews in the way our readers expect – concise plot description, a discussion of what worked and what didn’t, etc. – isn’t easy.
I discovered LLB and All About Romance in 1996 and was a huge fan. I visited weekly or more for years. At its heart was a love of ROMANCE and it was wonderful. Quality reviews and comments. Fun articles and interviews. It was interesting, informative and generally upbeat. Laurie and crew were amazing. LLB had a clear vision and stayed true to her focus topic: romance. Then things changed. For someone who just wanted reliable commentary, quality reviews, a few fun items and interviews along with suggestions on romance books? It was exhausting and frustrating and sad. I admit to having favorite authors and genres. But if a review sounds especially good/interesting I’ll generally try a book. Somewhere along the way it felt like romance went out at AAR. It was a steady review diet of women’s fiction, m/m and fiction with some romantic elements. (I’m sure there was still romance, but it got buried under drama.) Politics, trigger warnings and pc. Everything became an issue. I no longer felt at home here as the focus changed from a love of romance to … a love of the soap box. I gradually went from visiting several times a week to dropping in a couple times a year – if that.
Quite a bit of truth in what you say, Amers. I love good, balanced and informed discussion on any topic but sometimes even marginally “right of centre” or “unwoke” opinion can be harshly and sharply rubbished here which just shuts down discussion or leads one to avoid participation at all. I am not interested (despite having tried) in m/m or f/f stories, steampunk or YA, etc., and so I tend to ignore those reviews. Indeed, I find it nearly impossible these days to find anything vaguely defined as “romance” that inspires me to read it. In 2022 I have read maybe 6 books in the romantic genres. Reading widely but elsewhere in nonfiction or other fiction areas completely. AAR is wholly admirable in many ways but I may have outgrown it in my own way. Habit, since 1999, still clings so I still check in now and then.
That depends. I’m willing to tolerate and even participate in debates surrounding certain topics. But when it comes to having a balanced and informed discussion on anything that pushes down on the marginalized or questions ones’ personhood, it stops being a debate at all.
Did you miss out on the Nan de Plume days, where their very “right of center” opinions were not only fostered but encouraged?
I am curious if there are any blogs you are going to these days for romance reviews. Thanks for your perspective!
Most consistently? Probably smexybools.com . I’ve checked out other sites (like smartbitches and some vlogs, but that’s random). Between Kindle Unlimited and my library I manage.
What Elaine S said above rings true to me as well. I am also changing my reading habits. And going back to revisit old comfort reads.
I also read the Dear Author blog for reviews of romance and some other genres.
I do understand what you’re saying, and balancing the differing socio-poliitcal views in comments can be challenging. Plus it’s sometimes impossible to keep up with what’s going to trigger someone or not, although I personally appreciate the warnings. But I’m not sure it’s AAR that has changed focus. What I see changing is the wider romance genre. There are more ownvoice, POC and queer authors who are responding to the call for more inclusive books and books that represent more people. It’s readers that are driving the changes in the genre. Queer romance, sci-fi and steampunk, the growth of YA romance, and romances dealing with current societal issues are in demand. I think it’s appropriate for a romance review site to review all the subgenres of romance.
My daughter got a request for a synopsis and several chapters of her fantasy novel after talking to someone at a conference last month. One of the reasons they were interested is that main character has a disability (a POTS like condition, which my daughter also suffers from). they said there is a demand for disability rep in all genres of fiction.
As always you have the best and most reasoned comments on these blog threads. The romance world is definitely changing.
Well thank you, but I can be hot head at times and am working to think first and type second! There are so many smart ladies here and I’m continually in awe of their knowledge and communication skills.
While I agree with one part of this – that the site has leaned way too hard in the direction of posting reviews for mystery and women’s fiction instead of romance novels – I disagree that “M/M” somehow doesn’t count as romance. Romances with gay characters are still romances, just because they’re not heterosexual doesn’t mean it isn’t a love story.
And I especially disagree with the idea that trigger warnings don’t help readers. The comment section here definitely could have been policed better, especially during the halcyon days after that survey happened and Sarah McLean did what she did, but in both directions.
Thanks for saying that about m/m romance – I was going to come back and comment to that effect, and got sidetracked! When Dabney took over the site, we made a deliberate decision to stop categorising queer romances as “M/M romance” or “F/F romance” (or whatever) – if they’re by (for instance) KJ Charles, they’re historical romances, and if they’re by Annabeth Albert, they’re contemporary romances. That’s it.
Love is love.
The fact that they decided to put it in the same category as mystery books and fiction with light romantic elements is just odd. It might not be their cup of tea, but it’s definitely still a romance.
I’m not even sure I agree with the part about AAR reviewing too many mysteries and such, both because I read a lot of mysteries but also because there is often a love story involved, although in series books it may take several books to develop. Just because I don’t read much YA or many m/m or f/f stories – I do read some, it’s just not a focus of my reading – doesn’t mean they aren’t part of the larger Romance canon and shouldn’t appear here. My reading tastes are likely not the same as yours and vice versa, but it’s nice to know there’s a site we can both visit to find recommendations, even if there are some days (or even weeks) I find nothing of particular interest to me and on others I want to read them all.
I’m personally very flexible on that topic – if there’s a central love story and it’s important to the book, I’m fine with AAR reviewing Mysteries/WF etc. The key question as always is how central to the story is the romance? And yes, exactly.
I use your Amazon link whenever I shop there, but it’s been acting a bit weird lately. I click on it, it directs me to amazon.co.uk, and then I change .co.uk to .de instead (and leave the rest of the URL as it is) – as I usually do – but now it changes it back to amazon.co.uk. Which is a bugger when that’s not the site you want to shop at. Last time I got it to work with amazon.de 5-10 minutes later after trying several times. Today it – so far – keeps going back to co.uk.
I actually don’t mind your reminders. I love this blog.
Thank you for the reminder! Just set up a monthly donation and I hope others will too. AAR is the site I check daily!
That is so lovely to hear. Thank you!!
I support a local charity through Amazon Smiles program. What I have wondered is can I still do this if I shop through the Amazon link here? (Or is it one or the other?)
I think it’s one or the other.
It is one or the other. Bummer, I know!
Have you joined other affiliates programs besides Amazon? Apple and Google Play offer one, as does Kobo (though it’s not the easiest thing to use). For print books, I think Booksamillion has something, and maybe Book Depository–which is great, as they are worldwide. Chirp has one for audiobooks and Apple, Google, and Kobo’s can be used on audiobooks as well.
This site must drive a lot of clicks, it seems a shame not to collect affiliate income from anyone willing to give it to you.
We have found that no other sites offer us any money. We did Apple for years and got almost nothing. I have not tried Google Play. At some point, I’ve tried them all although not Book Depository. I think most people either buy real books from Amazon or their local bookstore. We’ve done the links for the latter and gotten zilch.
It’s a struggle!
That’s so strange! And very disappointing. Apple especially has been pretty good for me, and my site is much smaller than yours. Alas.
Bookshop: Become and affiliate. Sell books online. Support local bookstores.
This link is for the “become an affiliate” page at Bookshop.org. They say they’ll give 10% for anything you recommend. . . .
I find that if I’m going to buy a physical copy of a romance book, this is where I go because my local independent bookstore does not have the romances I’m interested in – or more often, if I place an order with them, it takes them longer to get it ordered and delivered than than using bookshop.org.
We’ll try that. We’ve been using a different indiebook store link and have earned nothing from them in the past year. We’ll switch and see how we do. Thanks!
I also use Bookshop for physical books when I don’t find something at my local bookstore. I buy ebooks through Kobo because I don’t agree with Amazon’s labor practices – I really try to avoid Amazon as much as possible. I just donated directly to you, though, and I will keep donating in the future!
We are using the Bookshop link now–thanks @carolinden! I hope that works for you!
Where do I find the Bookshop link on AAR homepage? Or how does it work?
The link is at the bottom of our reviews. Up until now, it’s been a link to Indiebound, but we’ve changed it this week. It’s a link to buy physical books – our Amazon links aren’t changing.
Thanks for giving this a try! I don’t buy a lot of books in paper format but I’ll make sure what I do buy are through this link.
Thank you. If all our readers used us during Prime Day, it would be golden!
I shop amazon a ton, like everything from soap and toothpaste to mattresses. So all I have to do is come here and click the amazon link and you’ll get a %? If that’s true, I’ll do it everytime. I’ve been using this site for 10 years or more and read Caz’ reviews on GR all the time.
That’s so nice to know, thank you!
And thanks for putting the word out.
I think that’s true. I’ve read the current Amazon rules and they say if you put something in your cart after clicking on our link, everything in your cart then counts. What is unclear to me is whether or not one of the things you put in your cart had to come from a site from this link. I don’t think that’s the case but Amazon’s rules are so dense it’s hard to be sure.
Where do you donate on here? I can’t seem to find it. I’ve used you guys for countless recs for great reads over the years and I’ve never just donated. Besides amazon, I’ll do it right now if I can find the donate button.
This link should work. It’s on the top right of our Home page!
Sorry, just found the donation via your paypal link. Sorry for all the comments, lol, but I’m shocked that AAR is having financial issues bc everyone I know on Goodreads uses this as a great tool. I only keep a reasonable amount of friends on GR bc I only want the amount I can interact with. But I will be letting them know about the amazon link for everything they buy on amazon, and I’ll let followers know as well. If I haven’t said it before, I really appreciate the great reviews. I’ll do what I can and hopefully others will too. Good luck, CC
We used to have a GR group when Amazon didn’t require that you go to their site from our site. It used to me that our readers could just use our link from anywhere. But that is no longer true.
Thanks for the lovely words!
After 25 years of reading primarily romance but many other genres too…spending incalculable hours mining blogs, GoodReads, LibraryThing, publisher websites, scanning Top 100 lists and other misc sources for reviews and recommendations…lurking for years when AAR was likesbooks.com and only the past few years engaging on AAR comment threads…IMO AAR is the best romance blog review site there is. Sure, there have been bumps in the road and controversies but AAR has grown, learned and when in error, addressed issues and/or apologized. The reading landscape has changed immensely over the past 5 years and AAR has evolved in response…not rapidly but in a measured way.
AAR is consistently increasing visibility and exposure to marginalized and non-mainstream authors (but my POV is biased as a cis-woman). I’ve discovered authors like Rachel Reid, K.J. Charles and C.S. Poe, on AAR, etc. If there are other authors to be aware of, I recommend readers take the opportunity to raise the profile of these authors in blog comments…or suggest topics for blog posts to Dabney. I too would like to see more disability/developmental disorder-focused romance reviews.
The community here is safer than at other sites. I appreciate the contributions of all the reviewers for AAR, there has been much more diversity in book reviews over the past few years. I hope AAR continues to be around for a long time to come!
Thank you for that vote of confidence. We try!
I just wanted to check back in and make sure that the link between amazon is working for you. I clicked to amazon through your link, made a purchase of about $18, but not books. Can you find out if that went through for you? I wan’t kidding, I use amazon about 7-10 times a month, so I’d like to know that you are getting the commissions on it if possible.
Can you email me what you got? Or what day?
That order hasn’t shown up yet but it might take a day or so. I’ll keep looking!
YES!! They showed up today. AAR got .90!
Thank you!!!
Fan~freaken~tastic!! I’ll finish up my order tomorrow, also just to let you know, they sent the wrong size gloves but that will be exchanged so it shouldn’t affect your bottom line. If it does, tell me and I’ll send it back and start over with your link. We’ll figure it out, I’m so glad I can help, I hope you guys can get the word out bc that is such a simple way to make a donation. My son has an amazon prime account and shops there frequently so I explained how to do it. Maybe, if he remembers, he’s a college kid,lol. But even if he only remembers a few times a month, it still adds up. CC
Ok, last time I’ll have you check, but I want to make sure bc Amazon is really deceptive in click links. If you click on your link, add something to your cart and then click the description to make sure you are getting what you want, it opens a new Amazon window. If you check out in that second window that popped up, you guys won’t get the money. It’s really easy for them to not give you your money if the client doesn’t know to go back to the original window and pay. Maybe you aren’t getting as much money bc people aren’t aware of this. Anyway, I just made two orders on 10/19, one for $10.73 and one for $49.68. If you were paid for these, I’ll know how to navigate it and you should get all my orders through your link. Amazon is really sneaky about it. Even charities that are set up for it are complaining to their donors and advising them to watch for that second link opening up . CC
It has actually shocked me that Amazon has continued to even have affiliate sales. I honestly don’t think they need them, not really. It’s one reason I have tried to make sure AAR has other sources of income–mainly donations and some ads–because I keep thinking it will be taken away.
I’ll keep an eye out for your purchases and report back.
Thank you for your vigilance!