I really didn’t get into it when Iris Johansen and Sandra Brown started writing thrillers and suspense, but I’ve certainly continued to follow Janet Evanovich and Jayne Castle/Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick/Stephanie James.

I would look for books in certain lines — Harlequin American, Silhouette Desire and Special Editions — I think I generally went for the ones that were more “spicy” at the time, relatively so. But I obviously thought that certain authors’ books were keepers.

It is a good point about the author not needing to build a fan base, in the same way someone at a different type of publisher has to even before they publish their first book! Being published in that line means readers are more likely to buy it even though they’ve never heard of the writer, in a way they might not take a chance on a new writer as a single title book. So that’s an advantage, certainly. It would be interesting to see different sales figures for category romance authors who do actively cultivate and build their fan base and those who don’t. Not that there’s anything wrong with the latter, they might prefer to concentrate all their time on just writing the best books they can and build fan loyalty that way.

It’s rather interesting that the article describes building a fan base as “wasting” time though, isn’t it? Is that the way some authors feel about that. As if it’s a big chore to cultivate their fan base?