Did you recoil?
Truth be told, you were supposed to. That title was chosen *because* that phrase is so jarring, especially for anyone who has actually had this insult hurled at them personally. It hits you smack in the face. Like a fist.
There are a couple of reasons I specifically wanted to title this story this harshly, reasons that seemed like a good idea the last two years I was circling the runway of Sofie and Fletcher's romance. I mean, I'm writing a story based on Beauty & the Beast, which has the underlying moral that only if we look underneath a beastly exterior can we find something worth loving.
Giving it such an unlovable title seemed a no-brainer.
Truth be told, I've had some second thoughts about that.
My trepidation began in earnest when I attempted to coordinate advertising for my story. Thanks to the "profanity," it limits where and how I can promote the book. This was prior to publication, which threw me into crisis control immediately. Do I recover? Do I re-title? Do I really want such a minor thing derailing what could possibly be the best book I've ever written in my life?
After some back and forth, I finally decided to stick with the name. The reasons I chose the name were still completely valid. Not only that, but I believed in the vision of the book AND trusted my audience to understand where I was coming from when I wrote it.
Still, sales did not match the quality of the book. And that might have had nothing to do with the title. People buy and read books for a variety of reasons. They might not have been turned on by the blurb. It certainly doesn't adhere to any popular trope or trend. There are no vampires to be found. No millionaire businessmen to whisk a newly minted young woman away on a sexual awakening. It's not The Next Whatever Book Made the Biggest Splash Last. There's no hot sex, just a slow burn romance that gives flawed people a chance to find their way to their happy ending. It's a re-imagining of the fairy tales we grew up with, enhanced by the real world around us, rather than a mere escape.
In fact, because I'm me, I peppered my fairy tale with painful truths. Like all my other books, this book dares to throw spotlight on ugly realities. One of my favorite reviews thus far had this to say:
"This powerful book completely surpasses the breaking of boundaries, smashes them to smithereens with a size 10 heel, sets fire to the debris and casually walks away as the pile of broken boundaries explodes behind." - Awkword Reviews
Swoosh, dunk, amirite??
But yet, several reviews have stated that they had to work around the "unfortunate" title just to read the book. They ultimately gave the book 4 or 5 stars, and the book currently enjoys a 4.74 rating on Goodreads as well as a 5-star rating on Amazon and Netgalley.
What I had hoped would be that the first wave of brave readers would encourage others to look past the caustic title and get to the meat of this beautiful fairy tale. And it's still early in the game. That might happen the way I want it to eventually. The book is selling. People are reviewing. Slowly but surely people realize you can't get to the rose without suffering a few thorns.
It's a Ginger Voight book. Y'all know what to expect by NOW, right?
"Controversial topics are the main theme focused on in this book, and Ginger Voight does it well. There’s racism, sexism, homophobia, sexual assault and drug addiction to name a few. The author is unapologetic in her narrative of the worst of human nature. However; this book isn’t full of resentment, it’s full of the joys of rising above bigotry, bullies and your own self-doubt." - Awkword Reviews
Still. I'm impatient. And for the first time EVER, I want EVERYONE to read this book. Normally, I know what I present isn't all shiny and perfect. I'm gonna piss people off, it's a given. But this book? This book is the best I can do. It's one of the most emotional books I've ever read, in the most beautifully painful ways. It's everything I love and I know in my heart you'll love it, too. I'm so certain of this, I'd be pushing this book all over the place even if someone else had written it. It's a book begging to be read. This means that on any given day I'm half-tempted to recover and re-title just because I really want you to read the book and I don't want there to be any excuses for you to miss it.
Do I trust my vision?
Do I trust you?
Do I fold and attempt a softer touch with a prettier, more forthcoming cover?
Decisions, decisions.
So far, I haven't folded. The reason for this is because I truly, truly believe in the statement I was trying to make with this book. The reason that it is titled so harshly is because this was an insult I've heard my whole life whenever I dared go against the grain, and nothing is more "against the grain" than flipping the script on familiar narratives. Suffice it to say, I've heard this insult more than once. It's an insult that is supposed to keep me in a box, an ugly box of someone else's choosing, and this book was my way of breaking the fuck out of it. They gave me an ugly moniker, thinking I deserved it, and this is what I decided to do with it. For a society that wants to use descriptors like "fat" and "bitch" as weapons against us, I wanted to deliver the most beautiful tale I could and wrap it up in the trappings society has given to me as one of the outliers to the feminine ideal. I'm not pretty. I'm not soft. I AM a big, fat bitch.... one big enough and badass enough to pull a diamond out of an ugly clump of coal.
There are people who think we give insults power by claiming them as identifiers. They don't find defiantly claiming words like slut or bitch or any other hateful slur an act of empowerment. I am not one of those people. When it comes down to it, these words are mere descriptors that only have as much power as the hearer gives them. And let me tell you something about my big fat bitch, Sofie Vincent. She doesn't give a rat's ass if you call her fat OR a bitch. It's her world, yo. We're just living in it. And it was a world she crafted by being in your face, not changing a damn thing you don't like about her and not playing nice about ANY of it.
If I fold to fear and change the title, Sofie HERSELF would come kick my ass. And rightfully so.
Here's the thing about writing a Beauty & the Beast type of story: You can't be fearful of the beast. I mean... he's a BEAST, FFS. He's not even all the way human. He has claws and fangs and fur, with a ferocious roar meant to keep everyone away. Yet lovely Belle is tasked with finding the beauty of him anyway, which is supposed to make her even lovelier. It was a testament to the strength of her character she could look beneath said fur, fangs and claws and see a vulnerable man worth loving. She had to do it every single incarnation of the B&B story, whether animated, live-action, or the 1990s goth romance TV show. Belle from Once Upon a Time had to look past Rumpelstiltskin and find the man inside.
At no point did ANYONE think to change anything around to "Beauty and the Difficult to Love Guy". At no point did anyone "pull back" to give this story a softer touch. No. He's a beast. The worse he is, the grander her love - the more miraculous the love story. His beastly exterior makes the whole thing more beautiful. Hence why there are romance novels titled with "douche" or "bastard," and nobody blinks an eye. And let's not even get started with "cocky."
You see where I'm going with this. The rules are different for heroes and heroines, and I'm totally not chill about that.
To me, the most feminist thing I can do is unflinchingly present to you the most beastly woman I can, on par with the beasts we've seen in this fairy tale. The whole reason I wrote the damn thing was because I was pissed off that (beautiful) women are continually tasked with taken broken, fixer-upper dudes with a ton-o-baggage and using their (beautiful) love to transform them into (beautiful) romantic heroes.
Granted, Belle isn't getting it on with the furry guy - she waits until he's human again. BUT, the love story started way before that, in all his scary imperfection.
Where, I wondered, were the romantic heroes that could look past a beastly FEMALE exterior and do the same?
Why is that story discouraged in our culture? Why is it SO unfathomable that we can tell the tale of a girl falling in love with a literal ANIMAL but we can't find a good guy to love a big fat bitch without her transforming FIRST to attract him?
I set out to prove that this kind of fairy tale was, indeed, possible. I braved Sofie's beastly bitchy exterior to rip a fairy tale right out of her frozen heart. I can do this, because I'm a big fat bitch myself. She doesn't scare me. If I was a reader and I saw this title, I would have been ALL OVER IT. I grew up in the 80s, y'all. Bitch was the standard. Who did you really want to be? Krystle Carrington? Or Alexis Colby?
If you want to be where the power is, you get used to the idea people are going to call you a bitch. You can either ignore it or embrace it. I think my choice in this matter is crystal clear.
I kinda had to for my own personal reasons. The die was cast in 1985, when I misplaced a book of poems I had written at school. It sucked hard losing them because this was before computers. I had no backups. Just a notebook full of earnest poems written by a hopelessly romantic teenager. And anyone picking up this book would have known exactly who that hopeless romantic teen was, because my name was on every page.
I finally got that notebook back before the end of the year. I think somehow it got circulated around to someone who was kind of a friend. She was more popular, but she was nice to me when the occasion called for it. And she liked my poems and knew what it meant to me to lose them.
I was so happy to get them back again, but of course the happiness was tainted by the fact "Big Fat Bitch" was written all OVER that book. Some anonymous dickwad decided to shit all over the work I had painstakingly created with hateful graffiti I couldn't help but miss.
It is because of this person I have not yet (and likely won't) re-title my book. It would take someone offering me a LOT of money to do so, and even then I'm likely to put up a fight.
It is not every day in one's life they can take an insult and transform it into a beautiful fairy tale, but that's exactly what I did. They will tell you that living well is the best revenge, but nuh uh. I'll take this ANY day. Talk about your mic drop.
There are plenty of reasons people won't read me, that's nothing new. I break the Rules often, with cheaters, cliffhangers, I even kill off people occasionally, putting the HEA right in the crosshairs if the story calls for it. I dare to talk about "real" things in escapist places, delving into issues like body image, fat shaming, food disorders, sexual abuse, cheating, trauma and violence. I've even written about a mass shooting at a L.A. area nightclub, long before that became a horrific reality. I have stated early and often that if you need a trigger warning to read a book, my books probably aren't for you. I go THERE, wherever "there" happens to be for the story I'm telling.
And I go there OFTEN.
Even in my beautiful fairy tale, there are some jagged edges as I tackle the #MeToo crisis on a Hollywood set.
I combine it all. I throw hope, love, despair, hatred, violence, sex, kindness, empathy, abuse into the blender and hit "frappe" on a regular basis. I talk about politics and religion in my books because NOTHING is as ripe and full of conflict. Besides, I've always liked to play with ALL the crayons in the box, and I always buy 64-count or higher because I want more options, not more limitations. You'll get it all in my books and I rarely ever apologize for any of it. Obviously I don't want to add to anyone's pain, so I'll warn you if I think you need it, and hug you in case it hurt. It hurts me too, so I understand.
Basically it's a blanket warning that covers everything I write, because I tend to write all the things I've been through. Let's just say my entire LIFE has needed a TW and leave it at that. If writers are tasked to "write what you know," I'm forced to remove my own bandages hair by painful hair. It's gonna suck.
But it's gonna get better. It all has a point, I swear.
Be comforted that you have a big fat bitch at the wheel. I'm used to slaying monsters on the regular. We may drive through some dark places but I'll get you to the other side safely. You have my word.
I guess all I'm really asking is that you take another look. See past the thorny exterior. The best fairy tales always ask us to look a little deeper, so why should my books be any different? Open the cover. Find the beauty inside.
It's there. I promise.
BELLE would read (and love) the book, as is. Just sayin'.
Towards that end, I have decided to enroll BFB in Kindle Unlimited so that if you're still on the fence, you can take a chance on it for free within the service. You don't have to risk your money on this. I'm perfectly prepared to earn it. And I'm 100% certain if you read this book, you'll "get" what I was doing with it.
Good luck my brave readers.
And if you have ever taken a chance on me, know how grateful I am that you saw all the thorns but held out hope for the rose anyway. Like I said, there are a LOT of reasons you might not want to read my books, and I've heard them all. That so many have read my books and championed my stories and all my imperfect characters gives me hope for the world in general. It is because of YOU that I knew I could release this book, even with this jarring title, and still create a fairy tale worth reading.
Enjoy BIG FAT BITCH and hang on tight.
SHATTERED, the Scar Trilogy is up next. N' you ain't seen NOTHIN' yet.
Until then... be my guest for the only fairy tale I could write.
