How 2026 is Treating Me So Far

Posted on February 2, 2026 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,354 words
7 minutes read time

flatlay flowers on a cream sheet. piece of cream-colored paper that says January 2026 in a script font

It’s hard to believe that by the time this blog post is published that the first month of 2026 will already be over. There’s nothing scarier than looking back at time that’s gone and realizing you didn’t do anything. Time is a finite resource, in some ways more valuable than money, and no matter how hard you work going forward, you just can’t make up what could have been. That’s why I really dislike the phrase “Give yourself grace.” That’s fine, when you really really need it, but if I gave myself grace for all the times I’ve wanted it, I’d have half a book and two blog posts done. Not really, blogging and writing is what I love best in the world besides our new cat, Pim, but sometimes you have to get your words down first then indulge in what you consider grace (the new season of Bridgerton, anyone?).

black and white tuxedo cat lying on crumpled up grey bed sheets (Yeah, she was "helping" me make the bed.) — Pim for the cat tax

Anyway, so 2026 is already 1/12 over, and while that doesn’t seem like much, summer will be here before you know it.

January was full of little crappy things that sucked my time away from me. I had to get a hair cut, then I took a few minutes afterward to color it because I’m not getting old without a fight. My car needed an oil and battery change and that took half the day. My son needed to go to a doctor’s appointment, and I had a dental cleaning. Then I finally put my big-girl panties on and scheduled maintenance to fix our toilet and replace our sink faucet. I hate having workmen in the apartment and with my previous health issues, not having an accessible bathroom triggered my anxiety. They were here for two hours and I managed, though I was working and had the double-whammy stress of not having a bathroom and being trapped at my desk. I was able to get through it, and now I don’t have to worry about it anymore. They gave us a new toilet, which I didn’t expect, and they chose a pretty faucet for the sink that I like looking at.

So, I’m trying to check things off my list, and last month it just seemed like everything happened at once. This month I’ll still be nickel-and-dimed out of my free time as I have to get my taxes done–unless I push that back to March–my daughter has a new-patient appointment at my dental office which I am very thankful for because they’ve told me in the past that they had reached their capacity for the insurance we have, and I have to make us appointments at the post office to get our passport applications submitted. I want to go to Florida this summer and having a passport is the only way my daughter can fly because she doesn’t have her driver’s license yet. I figured since she’s going through the paperwork and hassle that we all should, but that means figuring out a time when all three of us can go–which has to be on one of my days off work.

So, yeah, I’m giving myself some grace because those are things that I just can’t get out of, but the frustration is there because I want to get Wicked Games ready so ARCs are available in March, and mostly, because I just like working on my books and when I’m doing other, necessary garbage, that time is gone.

I did manage to finish re-editing Captivated by Her, but getting the second book in that duet, Addicted to Her, re-edited will take me a while, and I won’t have that duet re-released until probably spring at the earliest. I’m changing out the covers as well and I always order proofs when I do that. I’m hoping that once I get the things that I only need to do once every six months out of the way that my free time will open back up.

I also want to find time to do some marketing things like trying Bookbub ads again. The last time I tried was back when I was wide and I didn’t have my first person backlist. With all the AI garbage that Facebook is trying to shove on us in the ads dashboard and them taking away the ability to target bigger authors, it just feels like Bookbub ads might be easier and have just a tiny bit better ROI. I mean, I’m hoping that’s the case, not that I heard it from somewhere. But I won’t run ads without researching–I have to reacquaint myself with the platform to make sure I know what I’m doing and how much to bid, or I’ll sound like every other clueless person who says ads didn’t work for them. I get BookBub’s newsletter, and right now I’m going through their Ultimate Guide to BookBub ads, and you can read it here or bookmark it if you’re interested: https://insights.bookbub.com/ultimate-guide-bookbub-ads/. What’s also a plus is that their ad graphics are a lot easier to put together because they literally tell you what works. Facebook lets you guess, and the creative you make could break your ad and you won’t even know it. I just feel like with how little time I have that choosing a platform that doesn’t have so much guesswork is the way to go.

But there is a time and place for Facebook ads and if you want an up-to-date tutorial on which kind of ad to choose (such as traffic vs. engagement) and how to turn off all the AI stuff and choose the interests for your audience that are available, you can watch David Gaughran’s most recent tutorial here:

He doesn’t go into much of what actually makes the ad, like the description, headline, and primary text, and I think those are really important. It’s like the cover, title, and blurb that work together for your book. If you don’t have the right description, primary text, headline, and graphic, any one of those broken cogs can take the whole thing down (or drive cost-per-click up). So, definitely look into that part of it as well because the backend and the front end work together.

Sales are slow, which is why I’m looking for other ways to get the word out. I keep seeing that Trial Reels on Instagram is the way to go, but I still feel pretty deflated after TikTok started labeling my carousels as AI and putting that level of commitment into a different social media platform doesn’t sound appealing. It never did, but now it feels even worse. I’ve been trying to post to Pinterest, and I’ve been able to make a few pins and a few boards, though nothing that would move the needle in any significant way. On the plus side, making a pin is very easy and for the amount of time it took me to make a TikTok carousel, I can make three or four pins. Mostly it’s just another platform a reader might stumble upon and realize I’m an active author who is consistently publishing books.

But yeah, that’s been the first four weeks of 2026 in a nutshell, and I’m just going to be keeping on, keeping on. My main goal is getting Wicked Games ready, and then I can loosen up a little bit. I announce books and create deadlines so I have something to work toward. With a slow sales dashboard in a climate where a new release barely does anything because of all the content out there, it would be easy for me to just let the things that use up my free time take over. Announcing books and keeping to a timeline for anyone who just happens to be waiting keeps the spark from dying out.

This is a short blog post today, but nothing has caught my eye online to complain about, which actually is probably a good thing. Keeps my blood pressure low.

I hope 2026 has been going well for you all too! See you next week.

Monday Musings: Offensive jokes, plagiarism, and paywalls

Posted on January 26, 2026 by Vania Margene Rheault

2,078 words
11 minutes read time

flat lay of pink turtleneck sweater, cup of coffee with cream in it and two cotton ball tufts text says:Monday Musings:
Offensive jokes, plagiarism, and paywalls

Hello, hello, from the frozen north. You know it’s cold when you have to warm up your car so when you actually have to go somewhere it will start. Of course, you get bonus points if you can do that wearing flip-flops and shorts and a tank top. Only two more months of this business and then hopefully spring will come, though that’s never a guarantee. I was equally inspired and disheartened that so many Minnesotans had to demonstrate in this weather but it makes me proud to live here. I saw a picture of Minneapolis’s mayor and he’s not looking too good. I would imagine he hasn’t gotten much sleep since ICE came into the city. Stay safe and warm, y’all. No matter where you are.

For the past few days I’ve been busy listening to Wicked Games. I find so many missing words and typos that no matter how clean I think my manuscript is, this step will unfortunately be part of my editing process forever. I re-edited Captivated by Her between the last read-through and this listening pass, hoping to keep from getting too bored and zoning out while “Samantha” reads to me. When I’m done listening and I have it formatted, I’ll re-edit Addicted to Her, the second in that duet, while I wait for Wicked Games‘s proof to come. I never used to work on two things at once, but it helps keep my eyes fresh. It will still be a couple of months before Wicked Games is ready for ARCs and I have my duet’s new files uploaded to KDP, but I should be able to start writing my hockey duet this spring. If all goes well, I’ll be done writing them by the end of the year.

Lately I’ve been thinking about paywalls and what the point is. I mean, besides the fact that they make a creator money (and I truly believe certain content creators deserve to be paid). I’ve been scrolling Substack a lot, the reciprocal patting each other on the back and the “you got this” attitude amusing at times. It’s like LinkedIn Lite, where motivation is plenty but solutions to real issues are vague or hidden behind paid subscriptions. What’s really funny is that all I hear on Threads is “Be careful where you put your money” then I’m over on Substack where I could become a paid subscriber until I’m broke. I mean, being a writer with limited funds myself, I get it, the hustle is real, but I also blog and create content, and I guess I just don’t think I have the information or life experience worthy enough to pay for.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t people who do, such as publishing insiders like Kathleen Schmidt and Jane Friedman, or nonfiction writers like Claire Taylor and Becca Syme (if they have paid subscriptions), I’m sure have content worth the cost. But then I see other authors set up a paywall for things that might not be valuable to certain audiences . . . or at all. There’s an author who gives marketing advice behind a paywall, but he’s a trad author, so how would his marketing advice help me? Even if trad authors have to do most of their own marketing, he has distribution channels and connections that I can only dream of as an indie. I saw another author offering a branding class, but he hasn’t published in close to three years, so is his class worth the money? I won’t name these authors because I’ve gotten in trouble for that in the past, and honestly, what they think their experience is worth is their own business. It just makes me wonder how people determine what their words are worth and how everyone else determines if their words are worth the price.

A couple of years ago I tried putting a Ko-Fi link at the bottom of my posts, but it felt kind of icky and I stopped doing it. Every once in a while I’ll get an email or comment that asks if they can pay me or thanks me for not charging for the information I post. I don’t charge because I don’t think my experiences are that valuable. I can tell you what my life is like as an indie author who does everything herself, but that’s only valuable if what I’m doing is working. My .26 cents might impress someone, as it proves a reader saw one of my books and liked it enough to download it and start reading, but I have a hard time believing that my .26 cents is worth your .26 cents.

It’s just interesting to think about, and of course, that’s Substack’s whole reason for existing. They want you to make money so that they make money. That’s not so difficult to understand, but not just anyone has experience and information worth paying for. Not in my opinion, at least. Especially since a lot of what you need to know about the publishing industry is free somewhere. Even if that means stitching together bits and pieces of ten different blog posts to figure out what you need to know. And, I guess it doesn’t need to be said, but just because you pay doesn’t mean that information is correct, either. So, I’ve just been mulling that around. As a writer and an author, you’d hope that what you have to say is worth something, but there are a lot of writers and authors out there. Especially on Substack who are very eager to pat you on the back and tell you to keep going.

Yesterday I was checking my email and came across an email from James Blatch who pretty much took over the Self Publishing Formula after Mark Dawson’s fall from grace. I left Mark Dawson’s Facebook group a couple years ago when he was outed by someone on Reddit for plagiarizing. Mark stepped back from everything that was Self Publishing Formula related, including the podcast. It’s not that I really cared if Mark Dawson plagiarized. I mean, people make mistakes, blah blah, but the fact that he never publicly apologized for it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Authors get slammed for pithy “apologies” all the time, but even in that case, I’d think something would be better than nothing. So James took over the podcast, and then after a bit shut it down completely. He started up a new podcast with Cara Clare, and that lasted for a while, but in the email I got yesterday, James says she’s stepping back to focus more on writing. He says he’ll have another co-host on the Self Publishing Show, but I have a difficult time thinking that it will be Mark.

I really liked Mark and James’s podcast. They had a lot of informative interviews and their recorded intro, “There’s never been a better time to be a writer” always gave me chills. I don’t know if I’ll give the new podcast a chance. I like staying on top of the indie industry, and listening to a podcast while I did chores or ran errands was an easy way to do that, but Mark’s silence after the plagiarizing thing never sat well with me. Even just a “I’m learning, I’m listening” statement that authors issue when they’ve done something wrong ~~and got caught~~, would have been better than the nothing he gave us. And, you know, I just kind of feel like he was such a prominent figure in the indie community that he really did us dirty just going underground. If you have the balls to do it, have the balls to own it and apologize.

If you’re interested in the podcast, you can find it here on YouTube or wherever you regularly listen: https://www.youtube.com/@LearnSelfPublishing
James describes the first comeback show as (taken from my email):

Episode 434 (Feb 12th) I will introduce my new co-host! A closely guarded secret until then.
From that episode onwards we’ll alternate between discussing the latest issues and taking your questions with guests. I don’t want to do the type of separately recorded interviews I used to, so guests will join us as a third wheel in a more casual environment. I want the Show to add value to your indie life. If there’s a subject or a guest you want to see, just drop me a line support@selfpublishingformula.com and we’ll respond.
If you used to subscribe to SPS, it’s likely your subscription is still live and you’ll see episode 433 on your feed in two weeks. If not, just search The Self Publishing Show on your podcast platform of choice. I can’t wait to be back in the SPS hot-seat!

Probably curiosity (and my FOMO) will have me listening just to see what the podcast is going to be like–and who he chose as his new co-host. I’ve been searching for something that I can vibe with, the other podcasts out there not doing it for me. I will keep you posted and report back.

Threads isn’t short on drama, and I saw that author Ruth Stilling was getting slammed for something one of her characters said in the book, Within Range. The character says, “It’s Valentine’s Day, so I came to make sure that you weren’t. hanging from your ceiling.”

social media graphic. blue background. hockey stick and puck. sonogram pictures hockey skates illustrate couple. text on torn paper: "It's Valentines Day, so I came to make sure that you weren't. hanging from your ceiling." — taken from Threads post: https://www.threads.com/@pagesofpassionyxe/post/DT4F8M7jE4i

I like looking at something from both sides, and I can see how, with the right couple and the right set up, this could be potentially funny. We don’t know the couple from just that line. There could have been lots of jokes like this throughout the entire book and someone who hasn’t read it would never know that’s just how they are. On the other hand, I write about depression and suicidal ideation in my books, and in the first book of my rockstar trilogy, before Olivia met Sheppard, that’s how her fiancé killed himself. And I many many years ago, one of my friend’s husbands took his life that way. So, I can definitely see how it can be very tasteless as well.

I don’t think it would be difficult to choose a different “joke” but on the other hand, we can’t censor ourselves because we think we’re going to upset someone. If we truly did that there wouldn’t be horror or thrillers. I suppose you can say that with those genres you’d expect upsetting content and in what looks like what is a romcom, upsetting jokes could come out of nowhere. It really depends on the person. I was suicidal for many years, even landed in the ER once getting my stomach pumped, but that line didn’t bother me and it wasn’t triggering. I just think at some point everyone who writes is going to write something that upsets someone. I know with this blog I’ve made some people upset and there’s no putting yourself out there and avoiding it.

There’s no real answer to this, because for as many people who are bothered, there are going to be just as many or even more who aren’t. I think we’ve all written something and then thought, “Yikes. Maybe I need help.” But then we laugh it off because we’re just over here making shit up. In the way I bought Colleen Hoover’s latest book because I saw some people on Threads making fun of it, I kind of want to buy Ruth’s book to see what all the fuss is about. I’m writing hockey soon. I can call it research. I dug up the link for you if you want to read it too: https://www.amazon.com/Within-Range-Blade-Kings-Book-ebook/dp/B0FTTL3Q4M

That’s about all I got this week. I’m just trying to use every free moment I can to work on my books. Last week it felt like all my free time kept getting eaten up with chores, errands, and little things like getting my hair cut and a dentist appointment. The next biggest things I need to take care of are making us appointments at the post office to apply for our passports and getting my taxes done. I still haven’t added up all my book spend for 2025 yet, and I’m waiting for my work to release our W2s, but hopefully I can take care of that in the next couple of weeks. If life could just slow down for me, that would be great.

I hope everyone is doing okay during these turbulent times. Stay safe out there!

I’ll see you next week!

Not So Hardcore Anymore

Posted on January 19, 2026 by Vania Margene Rheault

2,298 words
12 minutes read time

male-presenting shirtless weightlifter holding dumbbell. kneeling with one knee on a weight bench. text reads: not so hardcore anymore. — This isn’t exactly what I meant, but he’s yummy to look at.

There are a lot of things that I just don’t care about anymore, and maybe with what I’ve seen and what I’ve been through, how I’ve been treated and where I am now compared to where I wish I was, that you would consider that statement as apathy. But I don’t think I’ve fallen that far. It’s more like, I’ve lost the will to put out all the dumpster fires I see every day and would rather just step back and roast marshmallows with the flames.

As we get older, it’s common that what used to be important no longer is, and I can tell every day when I see fights online that I’ve softened. There are a lot of indies out there who speak with their whole chest about things that matter to them, and their version of facts can either be right or wrong or somewhere in between.

I’ve written this blog for ten years now, and when I dare scroll backward that far, I can feel the heat on my face from my own flames. I was very “This is how you do it if you want to do it correctly” and I didn’t leave a lot of grey area. It was my way or the highway, and man, I don’t even have a highway anymore. I have a path, through the woods, that goes to a lake, where I sit and watch the ducks.

Going back and reading my older blog posts is almost cringe in a way. That you had conviction is supposed to make you proud, that you had the nerve to stand up for yourself, or in my case, the industry/readers, but usually all I sounded like was a pompous idiot who hadn’t been in the trenches long enough to realize that I’m not going to be right all the time. Not even some of the time. I only thought that I was.

Here are some of the things I’ve stopped fighting about.

Craft is a personal choice: I’m not going to argue with you (anymore).
Probably one of the biggest things I don’t care about anymore is how people write. Especially romance. In 2019, I was pretty against writing romance in first person. Not because I didn’t like reading it–I enjoyed Hunger Games and Twilight like everybody else–but from a craft point of view, I didn’t like the dual first person idea of a romance. The “I” belonged to one person, not two. Which, fine. I can see where I was coming from, but then what the fuck was I thinking when I started Zane and Stella and what would become my King’s Crossing serial in December of that year? I couldn’t have been that appalled by it.

Now days, I don’t care who writes what. Write a chapter in first, then the next in third, then the next in first if you want. Some authors actually do that. I don’t care anymore when the idea before would have made me throw up in my mouth a little. The thing is, I don’t have to pay for it. I don’t have to read it, and I don’t have to write like that. So live and let live. If you want read that stunning piece of craft critique, you can do so here: https://vaniamargene.com/2019/07/22/changing-your-point-of-view-how-you-write-and-thoughts-on-1st-3rd-past-and-present-tense/

Trigger Warnings: To add them or not to add them.
Another thing I don’t care about anymore is trigger warnings. You may be surprised to know that I was against them, or at least, I wasn’t for them, and I’m not sure when I changed my mind. This year? Last? I used to say stupid shit like, “Life is triggering.” I was callous and agreed with people who said to “Just get over it.” I didn’t consider them spoilers–I have never thought spoilers ruined books–only that books about life can be hard. But that’s the whole point. Life is hard, and if a warning can help a reader avoid more hard, why not add it?

The only thing with adding triggers anywhere to your book now is that Amazon takes that to mean it’s full of naughty, filthy things, and they’ll bury it. Or so some authors say. Publishing a book on KDP is like playing Russian roulette, so I never wanted to take my chances adding something to the blurb or author’s note in the front matter that could get my book locked in the dungeon or taken down completely. I should make up a list and put it on my website, but the only list I have there so far is for my King’s Crossing serial because yeah, those books are full of some shit.

Do I think you should add trigger warnings to your books? I think they should be somewhere accessible for your reader to find so people can choose if they want to read your books or not. It’s okay for people to self-select out. It’s the best way to keep readers happy and avoid bad reviews.

When should you redo a book? Whenever you want.
Back when I first started writing, I would get frustrated when I saw authors redoing their books after they were already published. I had this kind of purity rule that I followed and believed that once you published a book you shouldn’t go back and re-edit it or change the cover because people had already spent money on that edition. It was kind of a strange stance, especially since I’ve re-edited and re-covered many books since I’ve been publishing. In fact, re-editing and updating the cover and blurb is encouraged these days to give older titles a little breath of fresh air. It’s smart marketing when you have time to circle back to older work. I’m re-editing my Cedar Hill duet now, and I have new covers made that look fabulous. And of course I’m going to do the whole cover reveals and ads and treat them like new releases because these are good stories and mediocre covers and so-so writing was holding them back.

My blog post, When Should You Redo a Book, https://vaniamargene.com/2017/08/08/when-should-you-redo-a-book/, goes a little deeper and discusses old books completely redone with new titles, covers, and ISBN numbers. I’ve known indie authors who have done this too, trying to give their debuts a better second chance. I always figured that was too much work–to pull a book, waste an ISBN, get a new cover and title. I figure, let that one go and just write a better book next time. The blog I linked to was written back in 2017, a year after I jumped into the indie trenches with both feet. I should probably just unpublish it because I talk about trad authors like Robyn Carr, and when their backlist gets revamped and re-released, they probably don’t even get a say, or if they do, they agree because who wouldn’t want to breathe new life into a thirty-year-old book? New cover and title could mean thousands of new readers who weren’t familiar with that particular story.

So, yeah. My viewpoint has definitely changed. Do I think you should go back and redo a book from top to bottom? You do you, boo, because one day ten years from now, I might wanna do it too.

Should you write a series? If you can handle the commitment.
Because I started publishing back in 2016, I repeated, and believed, a lot of the advice that was thrown around back then. There was no reason not to when you could listen to any six-figure author tell you how they built a readership and made all their moola. But, as Exposé sings, seasons change, and 2026 isn’t the same as it was back in 2016. When I wrote this blog post– https://vaniamargene.com/2019/09/02/why-i-wrote-a-series-and-why-you-should-write-one-too/— back in 2019, I was very much in favor of writing a series, and a lot of what I believed is still somewhat true. Read-through is good, if you can get it. More ways to market–free/discounted first in series, boxed sets.

But since then, I’ve changed my mind (you can read why here: https://vaniamargene.com/2025/09/22/is-writing-a-long-series-worth-it/). I put a lot of time into my King’s Crossing serial. Five years, to be exact, and while I love love love Zane and Stella and Gage and Zarah, it’s really nothing I want to do again. Even if there is nothing to support my theory that short attention spans and second-screen syndrome are keeping readers from wanting to read a long series, with the way my life is now, that level of commitment doesn’t even seem possible.

Do I think you should write a long series? It depends. Do you want instant gratification? If you do, a series is not the way to go. It takes time to complete a series, and with the number of complaints I see online about readers waiting until a whole series is available to start (which is completely understandable, in my opinion), if you don’t want to write the entire thing first, definitely adjust your expectations. You might find it’s not worth it. You have to go into writing a series for yourself–because you love the world and love the characters. If you think you’re not going to have the motivation to finish, don’t start. A six book series could be six standalones, two trilogies, three duets, or a four-book series plus two standalones, etc. Easier to chew through, yeah? As for me, it will be a long time, if ever, before I decide to do another long series. I still have two out of six of an interconnect series that I wrote during COVIID on my computer, so, we’ll see. I’m not dead yet.

You can be consistently inconsistent, and it’s perfectly fine.
I still think if you want to get anywhere, content is king and consistency is queen. Showing people you’re in the game to stay is pretty important with so much content out there now. Lots of authors are flash-in-the pan. Their debut sinks, they lose heart and disappear. I talk a lot about where I am in this industry and how sometimes it feels like it’s not far enough, but I wouldn’t have all that I do if I hadn’t built it on ten years of consistent work–this blog and my books. But. But, you can be consistent in lots of different ways. Consistency isn’t the same for everyone, nor should it be. Maybe in this blog post I wrote back in 2021 I was just a little too hardcore about making sure readers know what to expect from you (https://vaniamargene.com/2021/12/20/buzzword-consistency/), especially since I’ve stopped being that consistent too. I’ve done billionaire for a bit, but I’ve been kind of moving into romantic suspense and small town. I’m going to write hockey next. The important thing is you don’t lose your joy. Stay happy. That’s the only consistency that matters.

I’m not really sure what other hills I was ready to die on nine, ten years ago. There are some things I still believe, maybe not super hardcore like I used to, but there are still things that make sense to me, like not cross-posting the same content everywhere. Twitter isn’t Threads, Threads isn’t Facebook, Facebook isn’t Instagram, Instagram isn’t Lemon8, and Lemon8 isn’t Pinterest. There are different ways those audiences consume content and certain content does better than others. Don’t give the algorithms even more reason to ignore you. Besides, if you have the same people following you everywhere, give them something different to look at.

I still think books should be formatted properly, but with tools like Vellum and Atticus and free software on sites like Reedsy and Draft2Digital, that’s not so much of an issue anymore. I just bypassed one book the other day because he put spaces between every paragraph. That’s okay for nonfiction, but his book was a thriller. I wanted to buy it to support him, but I wasn’t going to read it formatted like that, so there was no point in spending the money. I would have said something, but he didn’t ask and I’m not that person anymore who gives out unsolicited advice. Maybe someone else will tell him. Otherwise, he’s probably going to miss more sales than just mine.

I suppose the only other thing is that I still believe in buying stock photos. There are a lot of authors putting free stock on their books, from sites like Unsplash or Pexels, or using stock from Canva if the have Pro, but I just would never chance it. I use Canva Pro photos on here sometimes, for the graphics, but I’m not trying to sell anything using them. Book covers are different, and it’s part of the “do things professionally and cover your butt” philosophy I’ve always had. Selling books is a business, and Amazon gets a bad rap for trying to cover their own butts and regulating the authors who publish there. Honestly, I can’t even imagine what a headache it would be, policing hundreds of thousands of authors. So yeah, I still think it’s better to buy your stock from a reputable source. It never hurts because you never know when KDP will ask for copyright proof.

As time goes on, I’m sure more of my beliefs will change. Sometimes there’s a better, or best way, to do things, and sometimes . . . there just isn’t. Or if there is, that “best way” varies from person to person. I think in the end, we all want the same thing: happy readers. It’s the way we get there that can be different, and I’m happy minding my own business and doing things the way I want them done.

Do you have any hardcore beliefs? Let me know!

I’ll see you next week!

A Culture of Distraction

Posted on January 12, 2026 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,720 words
9 minutes read time

a woman washing dishes while watching something on a tablet

text says a culture of distraction on green box

I used to watch Sullivan’s Crossing. I say “used to” because I kind of bailed on the show like I do most shows I watch. I get bored or I’d rather work on my books. I might go back to Sullivan’s Crossing at some point, if there’s nothing else to watch, but I mostly stopped because I hated the way Maggie and Sydney treated the men who liked them, or, in romance-novel speak, their love interests. I know the show writers just wanted to devise drama for the plot, but even knowing that didn’t stop me curling my lip whenever one of their scenes came on.

I went into that because everything in the universe is connected, and I started getting emails from Reddit about people talking about that show. I engaged a little bit, enough to know that I’m not alone in my dislike and my reasons why. But there was also one exchange that I’d like to show you here:

r/SullivansCrossing icon
Go to SullivansCrossing
r/SullivansCrossing
•
11d ago
Squishy1011

Does anyone else wonder why they are still watching and press next episode anyway?
This show has some of the laziest writing, ever! One of my pet peeves is how often the characters say ‘besides’ - no one actually says it in real life. It’s like neighbours reproduced by an amdram group! All of the actors are beautiful but the make up is all the wrong shade for all of them! Then I find myself singing ‘time and time and time again!’ As the next episode blares out. I am also acutely aware I’ll be so sad when it’s finished. I’ve never had such conflicting feelings for a show before!

ndftba
It's really comfy to watch, like you don't have to focus so much, or make up theories. It's just relaxed drama.

pearly1979
i like shows sometimes that are mind of mindless. The scenery is gorgeous and there is serious eye candy as well. I do a lot of crafting and knitting hats, so its a show i can watch while doing that and not be bummed if I miss something lol.

My mind went in a couple of different ways when I read that. The first was, why are you watching something you really don’t want to watch, and second, as a romance author, I felt bad for Robyn Carr (who wrote the books Sullivan’s Crossing is based on) and the producers of this show. No one wants to be told that their content is “kind of mindless” or is made up of lazy writing.

We’re living in an age where our attention is constantly split between two or even more things. TV shows turn into background noise while we do chores or cook, we scroll on our phones when we shouldn’t like at a movie theater and behind the wheel, or we have a conversation with someone on speakerphone or FaceTime while we shop. It’s almost like if you do one thing at a time you’re failing at life.

I think what bothers me the most when it comes to talking about distraction and split attention is the lack of respect that goes along with it. What do I mean by that? I’ll tell you a little story.

Two years ago I hired my last beta reader. I didn’t pay her very much, but I was supposed to be helping her set up a beta reading service, so it was a win-win situation for both of us. I paid her and emailed her my manuscripts. She was an avid reader and I had known her for a long time, so while I felt a bit apprehensive because we’d had some conflicts in the past, I pushed them aside. She did read, but occasionally I’d get messages like, “At the auto shop waiting with my husband and reading your book,” or “On a road trip with the family, reading your book,” and I started to wonder just how much attention was she giving my story. It turns out she missed an important callback that resulted in some skewed feedback. Meaning, she forgot what a character said, or possibly missed it completely, which made what another character said later in the book not make sense to her. I didn’t need a math degree to put two and two together. She was reading while she was distracted.

Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed. Since then I haven’t bothered to find other beta readers or give my manuscripts to anyone else. I realized that no feedback is better than bad feedback and we can’t always guarantee that our money is going to pay for quality.

When you’re a new writer, accurate feedback is really important. You’re still learning and leveling up your craft depends on useful, thoughtful, and relevant critique. What is a new writer going to do if they can’t find someone who’s willing to actually sit down in a quiet space and give their words the attention they deserve? And why offer to beta read or help someone if you’re not going to do the work that’s required and expected? I’ve seen other beta readers say they’re settling down to beta read a client’s work and that they’re reading with the TV on for background noise. I can understand if that’s part your process, but not everything needs to put online. If you’re charging the going rate to beta read or edit for someone, it might be better to keep that kind of detail to yourself.

When people don’t pay attention while reading they can come back with questions, accusations, or even complaints, and an author can lose confidence that their writing is good and that plots and character arcs make sense. Books require a person to be present while they consume those words or the meaning, nuance, and themes can get missed entirely. Is that going to be the author’s fault? Was the plot too complicated? Were the characters too complex? Was the prose too purple? How is an author going to know? Maybe the real reason that reader couldn’t follow what was going on was because she was playing Bingo with her grandma at the VFW. I mean, things happen.

Distraction is also bad news on the author side. I used to be able to listen to music while I wrote, but I can’t do that anymore. I start listening to the song instead of writing, and now when I have a writing or editing session, I do it in silence. Sometimes I’ll pick up my phone and scroll, and I’ll ask myself if I’m going to write/edit or scroll because I can’t do both. That’s enough to get me to put my phone in another room and focus on the task at hand. Editing while distracted is just an invitation to edit more typos into your manuscript rather than fix what’s already there. Readers deserve respect because they invest in an author’s work twofold: they pay to read and give hours of their time as well. The last thing an author needs is a reader saying, “What was that?” at the end of their book because a main character had five careers, her hair changed colors six times, and there’s a plot hole big enough for the Grand Canyon to fall through. The setting of Sullivan’s Crossing is beautiful, but it’s not that important.

That’s not to say that a comfort watch is invalid. In these times finding comfort and a little peace where you can is more important than ever. Being able to sit and watch something relaxing is critical to mental health. Our brains aren’t meant to work twenty-four hours a day, seven days week, and authors and writers are often encouraged to take a break and fill their creative wells. Maybe that means doomscrolling while sitting through bland dialogue and watching a shirtless and sweaty Chad Michael Murray chop wood. But that doesn’t mean every show on TV needs to be that way and dumbing down scripts and books isn’t the answer to a culture that’s becoming used to doing two or three things at once.

What is the answer then? I’m not sure. I’m at a place in my career where going without feedback isn’t ideal, but having beta readers who will read with only one eye on the paper isn’t any better. We can’t police how people live, and putting a clause in a contract asking people to please don’t beta read or edit while watching TV or playing Bingo probably won’t work. People will do what they’re gonna do. But I don’t think it’s wrong to expect the service providers you pay to give you quality. Important callbacks, breadcrumbs, twisty plots, and complicated character arcs demand attention, not someone singing the theme song to Sullivan’s Crossing under their breath while they read.

What made me think of this topic was the Substack article I read a couple of weeks ago, https://thecreativegood.substack.com/p/what-is-second-screening-and-why, about screenwriters at a certain streaming service being asked to dumb down their writing. People scroll on their phones while they watch TV causing them to miss important details during a show. This article reinforced what has already been circling in my brain for a while now, especially when it comes to long serials and series where it’s imperative that readers pay attention from the very first page so the very last page makes sense.

In the article Jamie Feldman argues that dumbing down isn’t the answer, and of course it’s not. We can’t dumb down everything to appeal to the people who can’t put down their phones because that means people who do want to invest time and attention in a murder investigation or kidnapping case will get left behind. There will always be people who want to turn their phones off and get lost in a world to forget their own for a little bit, and those are the people who we should create for. If that’s who you want to create for. Maybe Robyn Carr doesn’t care the show based on her books is considered “mindless comfort.” She’s getting paid either way regardless.

I’ll keep writing my twisty books and it will be a reader’s loss if they’re distracted and can’t connect the dots. I’m not going to take responsibility for someone’s lack of focus and I won’t take feedback personally. Maybe one of the most important rules in writing craft is to trust your reader, and I will. I will trust them to remember what a character said on page 100 so the callback on page 300 makes sense. And if a reader decides my books are too complicated, they can self-select out and find lighter fare. That’s completely reasonable and won’t hurt my feelings at all. There are an unlimited number of readers out there and an author for everyone to enjoy.

There’s a time and a place for split attention, and only you can decide when and where that is. I’ll keep my attention on things that matter: my books and projects and the books and projects I help other people with. No matter how tempting Sullivan’s Crossing‘s eye candy is.

If you read Jamie’s Substack article, tell me what you think of it. The idea of dumbing down content to appeal to distracted consumers is interesting and I’d love to start a conversation in the comments.

Have a great week, everyone. See you next Monday!

Ten Years in the Industry. Reflections and Lessons

Posted on January 5, 2026 by Vania Margene Rheault

2,277 words
12 minutes read time

This year, 2026, marks the tenth anniversary of the first book I ever published. The Corner of 1700 Hamilton is a speculative contemporary romance told from his and hers POVs–the first novella in his, the second novella in hers. I wrote it specifically to publish, and beyond that, I’m not quite sure what I was thinking. Well, I know what I wasn’t thinking. Genre, building an audience. What my brand was going to be moving forward. I had discovered indie publishing where everything is made up and the points don’t matter. (H/t to Whose Line is it Anyway where their slogan fits what indie publishing used to be pretty accurately.) I made the cover myself in Word and formatted the manuscript using a KDP Word template to get the margins, gutters, and page numbers right. Since then I’ve edited it a couple of times and redid the cover probably about five times now. I always cringe when I see someone reading it and I should probably just take it down since it’s not worth selling–it still has some telling and a strange plot–but I guess it’s not hurting anything. A reader will know real quick if they want to keep going after the first paragraph.

Anyway, I don’t need therapy to figure out why I wrote it or why I keep it up for sale. I wrote it to feel part of the writing community and I keep it on Amazon for nostalgia.

You’d think after ten years I’d have something meaningful to say about it all. Some deep philosophy about writing and passion and how much it means to me that my books carried me through some of the toughest times of my life, namely, a divorce, a health issue that fucked me up for a good five years, and breaking up with a man who said he loved me and wanted to marry me but then treated me like garbage. Writing was the one thing that was with me through all of it, and honestly, I’m a little surprised that I don’t have any triggering feelings toward my pen name. I started publishing under my initials in 2021, a year after I started having health problems, and those problems pressed down on me while I wrote and published every single one of my first person books. Luckily, that isn’t the case, and I can reread my backlist without feeling anxious, only regret that my health issues took away from the experience of writing them.

I’ve seen a lot in the past decade, but no, I don’t have anything deep or profound to say. I’ve made plenty of mistakes, and of course, anyone who does make mistakes wonders what their career trajectory could have been like if those mistakes hadn’t been made. Doing my own covers, not working with an editor when an honest one was a lot easier to find. I’m sure publishing subpar books hurt me in ways that can’t be measured. Even now, though I’ve gotten better at doing covers and self-editing, taking every step of the publishing process upon myself is probably slowing me down. Changing how I do things would take a lot more money and a lot more work now than say, six years ago. COVID changed the publishing landscape in many ways and with AI, finding an honest editor who won’t just run your manuscript through ChatGPT or ProWritingAid is its own nightmare. Then after you find one, or hope that you have, you need the money to pay, and with no money coming in, it’s harder to find the money to go out.

I thought I’d write about all the things I’ve learned in my ten years of publishing, but I’ve written about that in some way, shape, or form, for years and I don’t know if it’s worth repeating those lessons. Mainly, because, well, writing a good book doesn’t ensure success. Writing an amazing book, putting a fabulous cover on it, and writing the most enticing blurb is only the first entry on a very long list to find readers. Luck plays such a huge part in an author’s success, and for a long time I pushed back against that, saying stupid stuff like, “The harder you work, the luckier you are,” and “Be prepared to take advantage of opportunities that may come your way.” Those two things are true, up to a point, but they don’t take into account pure luck, like an influencer getting a hold of your book or word of mouth by the millions. Luck like that happens, we see proof of it every once in a while, but no matter if the stars align or what your horoscope says, you can never predict or manufacture it for yourself.

So, what have I learned during my ten years writing and publishing? I’d say….

Trends last longer than we think. (If you wanna chase vampires or write something like Heated Rivalry to get in on the action, go for it!)
One of the most common pieces of advice I hear for authors just starting out is not to chase trends. Write the book of your heart then figure out the rest later. The problem is, writing a trendy book could be the book of your heart. Every book I decide to write is the book of my heart or I wouldn’t write it. If you want to write something that’s trending right at this very moment, do it! Trends take years and years and years to fade, if they do. E. L. James put billionaires on the map and that was fifteen years ago. Take a look at any top 100 romance list and you’ll see that billionaires still sell. Hockey isn’t going anywhere. It’s not merely sports romance anymore, it’s its own romance subgenre. Write what you want because the more people who pile on a trend, the longer it will stay. Just make sure you include what readers are reading the trend for. Keep up with reader expectations but add your own twist to stand out.

Why I started thinking about marketing before writing.
This one might get some flack too, but it’s true. After you write your book, It’s too late to try to figure out tropes, categories, genre, and who your readers are. You’re not going to rewrite it if you realize mashing four genres together wasn’t a good idea or you have no idea what your tropes are. Or if you think your audience is older but your characters are barely out of their teens. Deciding genre, what tropes you’re going to include, what the ages of your characters are and who they’ll appeal to before you write will help you position marketing efforts once your book is done. Knowing your genre and category will also help you create your cover so it fits in with other books. I understand why this gets pushback–thinking of your book as a product instead of art first puts a bad taste in people’s mouths–but I’d rather think of reader expectations than be disappointed after I publish because no one wants to read it.

What ads taught me.
It takes a lot of honesty and market knowledge to admit when a book isn’t working. The cover’s off, the title’s weird, and the blurb is bland because you were too afraid of revealing spoilers when you wrote it. You don’t have enough social proof–reviews, a series not finished–to make your book look desirable, and you lose money on clicks or even worse, you don’t get any clicks at all, just a low number of impressions that make it look like the ad platform was trying to show your book to someone.

Probably the biggest complaint I have ever seen in my ten years in the industry is people saying, “Ads don’t work for me.” They don’t for a reason but it’s not for reasons anyone wants to hear. I’ve lost money on ads, and I don’t blame it on anyone but myself. The blurb could have been better or the cover wasn’t right. Over the past ten years, I’ve learned that my covers didn’t always hit the genre mark and blurbs need a hook, motivation, stakes, and consequences. Your keywords need to be on target as well as your categories so the ad platform knows who to show your ads to. If your ads don’t work, it’s fixable. You just have to be honest with yourself about what needs fixing and do the work to make the changes.

What people really want when they complain.
If you know me, you know I’m a fixer. I’ll happily redo your cover if my skills allow or help you brainstorm a new blurb or look at your product page and tell you what’s keeping readers from clicking that buy button. Unfortunately, it took a lot of people telling me to mind my own business to realize that when they complain about sales they don’t want a solution, they want validation that their choices are solid so they can blame something else. I see it a lot on social media– “Why aren’t my books selling?” “Why aren’t I being invited into author book promos on Bookfunnel?” “I made this cover, tell me what you think!”–and I have learned to scroll by. I only hurt myself when I try to give an honest opinion to someone who doesn’t want it. I’ve learned to mute perpetual complainers and to keep scrolling past people wondering why their $8.99 ebook isn’t moving. I’m not going to lie to someone to make them feel better. They don’t want to hear the truth so I’ve stopped trying to say it.

You never get time back.
Probably the saddest lesson I’ve learned is that you don’t get time back. You don’t get a book launch back. You don’t get the time back you used helping someone who didn’t appreciate it. Making mistakes is how you learn and the lessons you learn making those mistakes need to compensate for the time you lost. Anyone who hears that I’ve been writing and publishing for ten years and not making a living wage would have a right to be confused and baffled. That’s why there are days I take my success, or what there is of it, so hard. I’ve been consistently writing books and publishing them for ten years. But they weren’t always written to market, they weren’t always well-written or well edited, and they didn’t always have good covers on them.

During the past ten years I’ve moved forward in other ways. I know how to make a nice cover-to-market in Canva now (depending on the genre and what I can find for stock photos). I know how to format with Vellum. I know how to edit–just ask the last couple of people I’ve edited for. I know what goes into a nice-looking graphic. The knowledge I’ve picked up since I started self-publishing is priceless, and the number of people I’ve been able to help writing this blog for the past ten years means a lot in a different kind of way. There are many authors who don’t touch the nonfiction side of indie publishing. They don’t blog about the process, they don’t speak at indie cons like NINC and Author Nation. It wasn’t a path I consciously chose for myself either, but I wouldn’t do it over. If I felt like that I would take my blog down and stop giving my time to it. What I can do is measure my time and use it differently. Use what I’ve learned to put out books that don’t need work after they’ve been published. Choose more carefully who I help. Guard my time and don’t waste it doing things I don’t want to do like post on social media. Don’t watch that webinar if I don’t think I’ll get something out of it.

I like to look ahead and plan, but ten years is a bit out of my depth. I’d like to say in five years I wrote my breakout book that turned things around. Maybe I will. If I do, I’ll have long, nicely edited backlist holding me up.

I’ve had a lot of fun these past ten years and my writing saw me through a lot of turmoil and trauma. Now I’m easing back into a life that’s not so bumpy and I’ll keep writing.

If you just found me, hi, and welcome. Let’s keep learning together. And if you’ve stuck with me, thank you. Let’s hold each other up for the next ten years.

I’d like to thank a lot of people who have helped me in some way, especially at the very beginning. They aren’t all around anymore, some taking their books down and pursuing other things. I’ve lost track of quite a few people who wrote under a pen name then faded away. You can’t keep tabs on someone who never quite existed. But here they are in no particular order and their Amazon links if they’re books still available:

Joshua Edward Smith: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Joshua-Edward-Smith/author/B0144PO138
Jewel E. Leonard: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jewel-E.-Leonard/author/B01APTIMY6
Alia Stephens: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Aila-Stephens/author/B0775W5X84
Gareth S. Young https://www.amazon.com/stores/Gareth-S.-Young/author/B005L7YH2E
Mollie Wallace (unpublished)
S. Hunter Nesbit (delisted)
Thomas Jast (delisted)
R R Willica (published under a pen name she kept private but is now delisted)
D. D. Syrdal https://www.amazon.com/stores/D.-D.-Syrdal/author/B00VTVDKNS
Lexi Miles https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0196OSLBU
Brickley Jules https://www.amazon.com/stores/Brickley-Jules/author/B01M1Y9DIB

Then the few that wrote or had social media under pen names I can’t remember or who have disappeared: Al, Holly, Tori, and Mr. Blackthorne whose naughty writing prompt actually inspired what turned into A Heartache for Christmas. SMH.

Thanks for playing!

My 2025 Year in Review

Posted on December 29, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,960 words
10 minutes read time

evergreen tree branches with a couple of christmas ornaments like bulbs, stars, and snowflakes. navy background. gold text reads 2025 year in review

I first started this blog talking about all the hideous things that are happening in the world, but no one wants to read that. We’re all hoping that 2026 will be better. Despite who’s in charge, my year was okay. I’ve been reading some of my old blog posts, like my 2024 year in review, my Word of 2025, and my 2025 Mid-Year Recap to compare how things have been. Last year I sounded kind of sad, and I was. I was letting go of a dream to turn my writing into a career. It’s really hard when the question is, “Other people have done it, why can’t I?” and the answer is, “There’s no reason, it just wasn’t meant to be.” That’s fine. I believe in Karma and Fate and all that good stuff, so this year I made an active effort to let a few things go, not work so hard, and stop spending so much money. Let’s see how things turned out:

Books/Novels/WIPs

Number of Books Written: 2
I wrote Wicked Games at the beginning of the year, and I finished Bitter Love on December 18th. In my other blog posts, I had planned to go in a number of different directions. I still want to finish the series I started a couple years ago. I have two books out of a planned six done, but in the end I was too burnt out to take on a huge series like that. I was also planning to write a hockey duet, and that too, just seemed to be too much. I will still write them, since both books are mainly plotted out, but this year I stuck with standalones, and I’m happy to say that I reached my amended goal of two.

Number of Books Edited and/or Re-edited: 4 + 1
From January 1st to the end of August, I edited Loss and Damages for a September release and re-edited Faking Forever, Rescue Me, and A Heartache for Christmas. They all needed it, since my writing style has changed. I’m learning how to relax and write in a more conversational tone, and I am so happy that I took the time to do it. They sound so much better. Then in September, before I really dove into Bitter Love, I edited a book for a friend. Because of the changes at my work and how long the book was, I needed all of September to get that done. Even though the words aren’t mine, I’ll count it. Time and effort is time and effort.

Number of Books Published: 4
The second half of my King’s Crossing serial released–Shattered Fate, Shattered Hearts, and Shattered Dreams–and in September I released my standalone, Loss and Damages. Going forward, I’ll never have that many in one year again. Even though they were all saved up, I’m just not working that fast anymore.

Royalties for the Year:
I didn’t say how much I made last year, and I’m on the fence with whether or not I should say this year. It’s kind of tacky, but, in the name of transparency, what the hell. There are still two days left before this blog posts, but I normally write ahead and schedule my posts and the unaccounted days won’t amount to much.

Assuming a decrease in the Kindle Select payout, among that, Kindle sales and paperbacks, I made $1,677.89. I continued to run Amazon ads, but even though I kept track of them better this year, I still spent a whopping $713.50. I said somewhere that I wasn’t going to run any Facebook ads this year, and I didn’t. I boosted some Instagram posts which cost $211.22, and that was a lot easier on my nerves. Together, I spent $924.72, but I also spent money to run my business such renewing my WordPress websites, my Microsoft 365, Booksprout (that I have since canceled), and Canva. I also paid for two Goodreads giveaways, one for Cruel Fate and one for Loss and Damages ($198 together), and two Written Word Media features ($225 together) for Cruel Fate and A Heartache for Christmas. I haven’t totaled up the exact numbers–I only do that for my accountant–but it’s fair to say that after all that, I’m in the hole.

I keep saying it’s fine, and it is–or it must be because I keep doing it. I sold 184 books, gave away 4,419 (though that number will rise because I’m in the middle of a Stuff Your Kindle Day), and had 304,169 pages read in Kindle Unlimited. I’ll keep doing what I do because I love seeing people read my books. Last year I gave you a list of my books in order of how well they sold. I’m really grateful that my King’s Crossing serial is at the top of the list this year. I put so much time and effort into those books, it’s really nice to see that people are reading from beginning to end. This is a screenshot from Book Report which is a Chrome extension:

1 Cruel Fate

2 Cruel Hearts

3 Cruel Dreams

4 Shattered Fate

5 Shattered Dreams

6 Shattered Hearts

7 A Heartache for Christmas

8 Rescue Me: A Steamy, One Night Stand Billionaire Standalone Romance

9 Twisted Alibis

10 Twisted Lies

11 Twisted Lullabies

12 Captivated by Her: A Steamy Billionaire Romantic Suspense Novel

13 Faking Forever : A Steamy Fake Fiancé Billionaire Standalone Romance

14 Give & Take: A Steamy Baby for the Billionaire Contemporary Romance

15 Addicted to Her: A Steamy Billionaire Romantic Suspense Novel

16 Safe & Sound: A Steamy Second Chance Billionaire Romance

17 Loss and Damages

18 Lost & Found: A Steamy Friends to Lovers Billionaire Romance

Website/Blog Stats

My Canva tutorial on how to make a full paperback book cover is still the most popular blog post on my website by far. Earlier this year I updated it to reflect Canva’s glow-up and I chose a different book because I didn’t end up using the cover I demonstrated with.

all-time stats: Updated! creating a full wrap paperback book published june 13 2022 views: 14.1k 8 likes, 27 comments

I posted 57 times for a total of 94.7k words.

screenshot of wordpress stats: 2025 year in review 57posts, 94.7k words, 272 likes 102 comments

It’s crazy to think that I blogged enough to fill a whole book. I really don’t have much to say about my blog accept that I still enjoy doing it and it’s easier now that I’m feeling better. For a while I was treating my blog as more of a diary, but after I finally figured out everything that was wrong and made changes. I started writing more about what was going on in the indie community rather than how my mental health was making me feel about writing. I’m back on track and saving personal updates for maybe once a month or so and focusing on indie news and scandals and my thoughts about all of it instead.

I gained 27 subscribers this year, which I’m thankful for. I still get anywhere from 50-100 visits/views a day, mostly on my Canva tutorial, but my IngramSpark tutorial is a close second and also people still like to read about my thoughts on K. C. Crowne. From what I can gather from my stats. indies are searching for instructions on how to do things and also for information that’s based on fact. I see so much misinformation online, and I’m happy to share my experiences and what worked for me.

I paid my renewal fees up until 2027 for both sites so I don’t plan on going anywhere. I like writing about the industry and where I think publishing is going. Sharing keeps me in the loop and it’s always good business to know what’s going on even if you don’t think it concerns you.

I’ll try to find more authors to give interviews and write guest posts in 2026 since people seem to enjoy them. A. K. Ritchie was a particular favorite, and I’m glad I reached out to her when I saw her response to a particular post on Threads. I’m excited to keep blogging, so if you haven’t subscribed, you should. I blog every Monday and some Thursdays if I have extra thoughts to share. I am a writer, after all.

Health Update

I’m okay, better than I have been since all that dryer sheet nonsense started five years ago. This year I stopped drinking our tap water, and that made a big difference. I used to be able to drink it without a problem but I guess my body started being sensitive to the chemicals in it. I’m not on any medication now except the skin cream for the lichen sclerosis that I’ll have for the rest of my life and my vitamins and magnesium. I have nerve damage and scar tissue from my hysterectomy, but on good days I barely feel it. I would still like to lose a bit of weight, but with my job the way it is, I have to be really choosy with what I do with my free time and that will probably always be writing or napping because every once in a while I need to catch up on my sleep. This will probably be my last health update. Nothing health-wise is impacting my writing anymore. Now that my physical stuff is under control, my anxiety has gone away. I can think about my book business with a clear mind and accept that a lot of my success, or lack of, isn’t in my control. So, while I’m not perfect, I’m better than I was at this time last year, and every day is a step toward feeling even better.

What’s next for 2026?

What’s next for next year? More of the same, only with a more relaxed attitude. I’m going to have fun and dedicate all of 2026 to my hockey duet. They might take a little while to get done since they’re going to be long and emotionally heavy. Not to mention all the world-building I’ll have to do from scratch such as player and team names and cities. I’ll publish Wicked Games in May and Bitter Love sometime after that but I don’t know when. Either at the end of 2026 or just wait until the beginning of 2027. I need to pace myself so there aren’t gaps between books. Even if that means I publish just one book a year I’d rather do that and be consistent than publish right when a book is finished and then not know when I’ll publish next. I also want to re-edit my Cedar Hill duet, so I’ll be doing that as soon as Wicked Games is ready to go. I already made them new covers, and they look amazing! I’m really excited to blow the dust off them.

As far as my personal life, things are good. With my kids’ help I have money for bills, and my sister, daughter, and I are planning a vacation to Florida sometime in the summer. I haven’t been there for many, many years and we’d like to visit our mother’s grave. I miss the ocean, too. I’m grateful I’m feeling good enough to want to go and my daughter is looking forward to it since she’s only flown twice and the first time she was too young to remember.

We can always want more, and I did, for a long time. More sales, better health. I’m finding that sweet spot where I don’t need more anymore. After the five years I’ve had health-wise I’m so grateful and thankful for where I am now, and it’s the same with my sales. I’m so grateful for everyone who reads my books, and even if that’s only one person a day, that’s one person who saw my cover, read my blurb, and gave my book a chance. That’s all any author can really hope for, and I hope my damaged heroes and courageous heroines keep them coming back.

I don’t have a word for next year nor am I going to share any motivational quotes. Do what you can to be happy. Keep a flicker of hope alive. Don’t let things that are out of your control get you down. Keep the people close who want to be there and walk away from those who don’t. They aren’t worth your time. People will come and people will go, but always remember your worth. It’s always going to be more than you think it is.

Happy 2026, everyone, and good luck!

Last Author Update of 2025

Posted on December 22, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

2,117 words
11 minutes read time

desk flatlay. black pen. cream book that says last author update of 2025 coffee with cream and plant that looks like baby's breath

I can’t believe the year is almost over. This year has been terrible in a lot of ways (we all know what I’m talking about) but for me personally, this year has been full of small wins that added up to big things. I won’t get into all of that now–I’ll do a proper author recap of 2025 next week–but I did want to talk about what I’ve been doing the past little while and offer my opinions on a couple things that KDP has been rolling out.

First, I finished Bitter Love. At 86,448 words, it’s a little longer than I thought it would be, but I took my time writing the ending, giving Jesse the last chapter/epilogue and then a side character her own epilogue. This is the first book I’ve written where a child has been a prominent secondary character, and though I haven’t had a seven year old for a while now (my youngest is twenty), I hope I was able to portray her accurately. She has the “official” epilogue that’s set ten years later, as I wanted readers to see her family through her eyes and tell everyone how happy she is in her own words. I’m not sure what readers will make of it, since I think doing that kind of thing is getting more into Women’s Fiction/Family Drama territory, but it felt right to write it even if it might not fit the romance genre as a whole. Because I don’t have a proper newsletter, I can’t offer it as bonus material. I mean, I could add a Bookfunnel link to the back of the book, but since I don’t collect email addresses, I think it’s just smarter to add it to the book itself and if readers want to read it they can, and if they aren’t interested, they already have Jordan and Jesse’s story in its entirety.

I think it’s fun to play with epilogues like that, and I did it with my rockstars. The books were about Sheppard, Eddie, and Brock, but the epilogue at the end of the last book was told in Dalton’s, the band’s manager, point of view. I haven’t gotten much feedback so I have no idea if readers enjoyed it, but I think it adds a little extra and helps wrap up the story in a way readers might not expect.

I was going to re-edit my Cedar Hill duet, but since I’ve announced to my small newsletter (who’s left, anyway) and on other social media, that Wicked Games will be out in May, I suppose I better get Seth and Avery ready first. Time can go by so quickly and editing can take a couple months at least–editing the Word document, listening to the manuscript, and then proofing the proof–so I think I should start on that to give myself extra time for ARCs if needed.

As I said in a previous blog post, I’m not using Booksprout anymore. I’m not even sure what I’m going to do for reviews. Putting the Bookfunnel link in a Facebook ad was a total failure. I mean, not in terms of people being interested and downloading the book (I gave all my available copies away), but in terms of getting reviews as a result. I think it’s necessary to publish with a few reviews at least, but I have to admit, not using Booksprout anymore makes me a little scared of the number of reviews I’ll have during launch month. Still, there’s no point in paying for something that’s not delivering, but it’s too bad that punishing the many also punishes the few who did enjoy my books and left honest, legitimate, reviews. I can only hope that my true fans on that platform are following me other places so they know where to get future ARCs if they want them.

So that’s my plan for the next little while–get Wicked Games‘s cover finalized and blurb written so I can do the “reveal stuff” while I’m editing, get it formatted and make ARCs available, and then after the ARC period closes, put it up on preorder. I hope that doesn’t take me until April, but who knows. With the changes at my job, everything I do takes me twice as long, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it does.

I’m going to start 2026 with a clean slate, and I decided to redo the logo for my Coffee & Kisses Press imprint. I’ve been publishing under that imprint for ten years, and when I first created it when I bought my first batch of ISBN numbers, my son and then-fiancé made it for me. Back then we were told to draw our own so it’s “ours.” I understand that a graphic made in Canva doesn’t belong to me, but I bought the stock images from DepositPhoto and the font is a free-for-commercial-use font. I changed the colors and added an element that I also purchased from DepositPhoto. I bought the standard license for each photo because I don’t plan on selling merchandise with that logo on it. I think that will be good enough, though my son would probably draw me something else if I asked.

Mostly, I just wanted to get my ex-fiancé’s name off the copyright pages of my books. We haven’t been together for a long time now and it’s funny and a little aggravating that I’m still scrubbing him out of my life. At least I can get his grubby paws off my books and Wicked Games will be the first book to use my new logo. I like what I came up with and I’m glad I decided to do it.

Now that I got my updates out of the way, I wanted to talk about two of the things that KDP has rolled out recently. One is allowing readers to download ePubs and PDFs of our book after they purchase a copy. This requires DRM (digital rights management) to be turned off and you have to go into your bookshelf, click “edit book content” of each ebook, and select the box that tells them you understand that you’re allowing readers to do that.

I saw a lot of opinions about it online, everything from authors being happy their readers can keep copies of their books to authors automatically assuming that readers are going to pirate their books or give their books away. In my ten years of publishing, I have never enabled DRM on my books. I’ve always known that DRM won’t stop my book from being pirated and it’s just an inconvenience to readers who want to read across their devices, say from the Kindle app on their phone to their Kindle, to their iPad that has the app on it. DRM traps them to one device, and maybe there really is only a handful of readers who read across multiple devices, but I didn’t want to inconvenience them. What bothers me about the whole thing is how little I see authors trust readers. There’s a hostile suspicion that I can’t understand, and maybe I never will. Because when it comes right down to it, how terrible is it really, if someone loves your book and innocently emails their friend a copy? It’s not any different than passing around a paperback. So, I don’t know. The second I read that email from KDP, I went into my bookshelf and checked the boxes to all of my first-person books and made them available to download.

The only thing that gave me pause was wondering if they were going to do a full review of each book since they’re making you resubmit to publish. I know that some of my older books have keywords they don’t allow now, like KU and Kindle Unlimited, and I didn’t want an unpleasant surprise of having a book stalled because of that. But each book only took about forty-five minutes to be approved, so I can only assume they acknowledged I checked the box and moved on. There are going to be a lot of authors either enabling DRM for the first time or checking the box, so hopefully they did what they could to streamline the process.

If you have naughty keywords, I wouldn’t worry about it, but I also wouldn’t change anything else while you’re in your book’s contents. Simply check the box and publish again. Save changes like a blurb refresh for another time. I hate messing with my books after they’ve been published. KDP is so finicky you never know what could cause them to flag your book. I mess with them as little as possible.

Going forward I’ll always check the box and let my readers download and keep what they paid for. Trying to restrict reader movement is fruitless and in the end, I believe you’ll come across looking stingy and hostile. Especially when you blast your choice all over social media pointing fingers at innocent readers. In these days of AI, appearing sincere, friendly, and trustworthy will go a long way in earning reader trust.

The other thing Amazon did was add an “Ask About this Book” feature to Kindle ebooks. If you’re not familiar with it, you can read about it here: https://writerbeware.blog/2025/12/12/kindles-new-gen-ai-powered-ask-this-book-feature-raises-rights-concerns/

I don’t have a lot of opinions about it other than no matter how you feel about AI, it’s here to stay. While I have been straddling the fence on this blog, neither fully condemning it nor fully embracing it, I do have personal moral and ethical lines I won’t cross. I don’t use it to write. I don’t use it to generate pictures. I see the usefulness in using it to write ad copy and hooks. I see the usefulness in it for organizing thoughts and creating checklists. No matter how you use it or don’t use it, the best thing you can do for yourself and your book business is to not make any sudden decisions because you’re angry. I see a lot of authors jerking their books off Amazon because they don’t want AI anywhere near them and they might regret that later.

The thing is, AI is everywhere and even if a book platform isn’t using AI now, they will eventually. Kobo put out a disclaimer in May saying that they will never use an author’s books to train AI, but even they say they use AI to “identify and quarantine books containing hate speech, child sexual abuse, or other harmful content that violates our guidelines.” So AI, even of their own creation, is processing books put on their platform. When every distribution platform uses it, authors will have nowhere to go and they’ll be right back to their biggest earner anyway.

Amazon is all about customer satisfaction, and they must have some information that put “Ask About This Book” into motion. We’ll never know what that information is, but Amazon never does anything without a reason. I don’t fully trust them, but we’ll see what happens. I’m not going to pull my books down. I don’t have the mental energy go to wide again and I don’t see the point when other platforms are going to be doing the same if they aren’t already.

This will be my last “Favorite Things” segment since my 2025 recap is usually pretty long and I don’t need to make it any longer. There are so many tools and services in the indie space and I’ve tried to highlight a few of the books and things I like best. So, for this last one, even though you probably know about him already, I’m going to mention Dave Chesson’s Kindlepreneur. He has three FREE services I’d like to share and they are not affiliate links:

QR code maker. I’ve used this before, and I love it. I think it’s especially cute you can add a logo or picture in the middle of the code. https://kindlepreneur.com/qr-code-generator-for-authors/

Barcode creator. There’s not a day that goes by when I’m not seeing someone asking about barcodes to go with their ISBNs. There’s no need to buy them from Bowker. They don’t have anything that Dave’s barcode creator won’t do. https://kindlepreneur.com/isbn-bar-code-generator/

Amazon Ads Class. If you need a free class that will teach you the basics, then this is for you. Not all people use ads the same way, and through trial and error you’ll find a combination of bid, daily budget, category or auto ads that will work for you. https://kindlepreneur.com/courses/free-amazon-ads-course/

That’s all I have for this week! Make sure you check back next Monday when I go over my 2025 recap. Thanks for reading this far. Have a great Monday!

Putting a Price on Writing and Publishing a Book

Posted on December 15, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,998 words
11 minutes read time

person wearing sneakers standing next to stack of books (only feet and books are visible). text on cream square overlay says putting a price on writing and publishing a book

This is an age-old question: How much does it cost an author to write and publish a book? This comes up a lot because after the book is finished, edited, formatted, the cover made and blurb written, paying for book set up on a distribution site then paying them for said distribution, authors would like their money back.

But, unfortunately, that isn’t so simple.

Before I started writing, I used to run. I’m not sure how I even started, but it got to the point where I was running six or so miles a day, five or six days a week. Running, though while considered free (much like writing), is anything but. I developed tendonitis in my left ankle, and this required buying new shoes every three to four months. I had to buy Brooks Adrenaline, and they were at least $120.00 a pair at the local running store–I shopped a local, small business store. Then all the running clothes, Garmin watches, race fees, gym membership fees to run in the winter if the temperatures and snow were bad, and protein bars, shakes, and other health food, I was spending just as much or even more to run as I do right now running my book business (pun not intended).

Then we have to factor in time. At my peak, I could run six miles in an hour. I never really got better than that, and that was fine. Having a new personal record (PR) was fun, but nothing I worked toward. After that hour or so of running, I had to cool down, stretch, then shower. And sometimes I would go longer than six miles, especially in the last year or two when I trained for a half-marathon. When you’re not very fast, running ten or eleven miles takes a long time. While my kids were in school and I did the longer runs on my days off, running could easily eat up most of my morning.

I mentioned all that because I wanted to give you a real life example of why I understand, and not only understand, but I’m okay with, spending money on my book business. I spend a lot that could be considered a “waste.” Two websites, paying for things like a Red Feather promotion on a standalone book (no read-through, you see), paying the Goodreads fee for their giveaways, a business email even though I don’t run a newsletter anymore, author copies and postage for reviewers who prefer paper, Bookfunnel for distribution of my reader magnet and ARCs. When I started writing instead of running, all my running money kind of shifted into this new hobby, and I didn’t think much of it at all. It was just something I had to do. New shoes to stay healthy, check. Websites to look legit, check.

But, writing costs more than just what it does to your wallet, and that’s mostly what I wanted to talk about. There’s an old adage that says, “If you don’t spend money, you’ll spend time,” and that’s especially true in indie publishing. On top of everything I listed above, indies pay for a lot of things, and if they don’t pay, they have to learn how to do those things themselves. There are free tools to format your book, like Reedsy and Draft to Digital, but there’s a learning curve to get familiar with even the simplest software. Then you have to learn a different kind of software like Canva or Bookbrush to make graphics for marketing.

Posting those graphics isn’t easy, either. Learning the algorithms of a platform takes a lot of trial and error. Not all social media platforms are the same, and their audiences respond to different content. Some authors cross-post which can work, but not often. I’ve never been a big fan of cross-posting, mostly for that reason. So we have to learn all the quirks of each platform so our posts are seen by at least some people. Then we have to learn ad platforms and those are changing all the time. Just when you think you have things figured out, they change the way you have to put an ad together and it can eat up hours of your time relearning where everything is.

When we spend time writing, learning craft, being a good literary citizen by helping others, reading in your genre, and marketing, we are not doing other things like spending time with family and friends, chores, errands, taking the dog for a walk or playing with your cat. There’s an emotional trade-off happening, and it can make you feel guilty when you want to work on your book but you’re pulled in the opposite direction. Lately I’ve been a victim of this. Our cat Pim, who has been with us since June, knows I’m a sucker. When I’m trying to write, she’ll come into the bedroom, sit near the bed, and stare at me. She’ll stare at me until I get up, go in the living room, and play with her. Her favorite thing is chasing after a crumpled up piece of notebook paper. Sometimes she’ll bring it back in a cute little game of fetch. Her previous owner didn’t tell us she liked to play this game–he might not even have known–I figured it out because I took the time to get to know her. So, she definitely knows that if she stares long enough, she’ll get me off my butt. But, that’s a half an hour or forty-five minutes I could have been writing.

Here she is for the cat tax:

black and white tuxedo cat lying on the floor staring into the camera. amber eyes, brown carpet

This past year I’ve been trying to let go of the urgency I feel when I’ve spent too much time away from writing, and it’s been happening more and with changes at my work. My writing time has been cut in half, but my personal obligations have stayed the same and so there’s a push/pull that happens when I want to write but want to do other things too, like play with Pim, go to a movie, or go for lunch with my daughter. Over time this can create an emotional toll that we don’t even realize is there.

So, when we talk about how much it costs to write and publish a book, there are hidden expenses we pay that can’t always be calculated.

But the same holds true for “getting our money back.”

At the beginning of 2025, I made peace with the idea that my books would never turn into a full-time income. But when your sales dashboard is all zeroes, it’s good to remind yourself that positive return on investment (ROI) can be just as hidden as the emotional costs of writing and publishing.

Here are some of the things I’ve gained since I started writing ten years ago:

The skills you learn along the way
There’s no denying that even with my BA in English, my writing and editing skills have significantly improved. I’ve read quite a few self-editing books since I started my indie journey, edited for friends, and of course, written millions of words. There’s no way I could have gotten ROI like that without actually doing the work. I’ve developed an eye and can make passable, if not decent, book covers. I’m getting better at writing ad copy (thanks for nothing, TikTok!). All those things add up to valuable ROI, and I know this because without my time in the indie trenches, my resume would look pretty bleak.

Being part of a community
I know I’ve bemoaned the state of the indie community–it seems like deteriorated along with Twitter after Musk bought it. But I know that my opinion is valued because I get thousands of hits on my blog every year. I’ve made friends and connections these past ten years, even if more people have fallen out of my orbit than have come into it. Runners, as well, have a strong community, and when I was still running but had started writing, I was in both and that was the best feeling in the world. In fact, I thanked both communities in my acknowledgments in the last book of my running trilogy, Running Scared. In that book, my MMC isn’t part of the running community but he falls in love with a hardcore runner who is hired to be the city’s university running coach.

I miss being a part of the running community, but being an indie is very rewarding too.

Emotional Satisfaction
In running circles there’s a saying, “You only regret the runs you didn’t take.” I don’t think that can be so easily applied to writing, but I know that if I have time to write and don’t, it’s the same guilt factor. There’s an emotional satisfaction to lacing up, just like there is when you sit down, stay off socials, and use an hour to put 1,000 words down. I know for me and most other authors there’s nothing better than opening up that envelope and holding a proof of your book baby in your hands. You worked hard in more ways than one to get to that point in time, and you should always be proud of yourself.

Long-term Impact
Two years ago, the director of the Fargo, ND marathon, Mark Knudson, whom I mentioned in my acknowledgements above, died when he lost control of his bicycle and was hit by a truck. The running community was devastated. He had put so much time into getting the Fargo Marathon off the ground, and for his life and contribution to be so suddenly ended was traumatic for everyone who knew him.

The longer you’re in the writing community, the more impactful that time is, even if it doesn’t feel like it. The time you spend blogging, helping other indies, and of course, the books you write, all contribute to a lasting legacy.

Writing and publishing a book has concrete, evident costs, money and time, and also hidden ones like hits to your mental health, lost time with family and friends, and choosing to write rather than do something else you also enjoy like watching TV. But there are more rewards than just sales and KU page reads.

So, when we’re asked, “What’s the cost of writing a book?” The cost is higher than most of us imagine, but the rewards, like skills, connections, creative satisfaction, and legacy, are far richer than anything you could ever report to your accountant.

I only have a couple weeks of my “Favorite Things” segment left, and this week I’m highlighting a new self-editing book by Angela James. I love a good editing book, and I cannot wait to dig in. This is her bio on her website:

Helping fiction authors build strong stories—and stronger careers

Hi, I’m Angela James. I’m a #1 New York Times bestselling indie editor and author career coach with over two decades in publishing. I help authors write better books and build sustainable, satisfying careers—on their own terms. Whether you’re indie, trad, or hybrid, I meet you where you are and help you get where you want to go, using clear editorial feedback, coaching, and frameworks that support both your storytelling and your career growth.

Together, we create stories that connect with readers, and an author business that works for you.

Edit Your Way: (Plot Twist: Forget the Writing “Rules”) is available from your favorite retailers (AKA, wide). Here’s the Amazon link and book cover: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G63FR1Q8 (This is not an affiliate link.)

book cover. text says. edit your way plot twist; forget the writing "rules" angela james new york times best selling editor

That’s all I have for this week. Next week I’ll do an author update and the week after that, my year-end recap. It’s hard to believe this year is almost over, but the timing for the other two blog posts works out perfectly.

I hope the holiday season (and all the cold temperatures!) haven’t been too hard on you. Have a good week and I will see you next Monday!

Under Fire: Talking about Hot Takes

Posted on December 8, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

2,077 words
11 minutes read time

bonfire in the dark on some rocks. mountain silhouettes in background

I’ve seen a lot of hot takes online recently and I thought maybe it would be fun to talk about some of them. I know most hot takes are just engagement or rage bait (like arguing that a romance doesn’t need a happily ever after–if you don’t want to write a happily ever after ending, your novel is a love story–see the movie that is actually called Love Story with Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal where she freaking dies at the end) but there are are some hot takes that are worth discussing. When we talk about writing, publishing, and marketing, there is no one way to do things, and we can get caught up in the drama of opinions equalling fact or causation equalling correlation which usually is never true because there’s always going to be an exception that proves the rule.

Let’s go over some of the ones I’ve seen recently, and I’ll give you my opinion.

Releasing quickly doesn’t always mean writing fast or using AI
I’m kind of surprised more people don’t realize this–that an author can write a book or five, get them all prepped, and not do anything with them until they want to publish them. I think a lot of this stems from the idea that authors don’t sit on books, only because their own impatience dictates that they publish the second their book is ready.

If you’re a slow writer and have been working on a book for the past three years or whatever, I can understand the excitement of releasing the second your book is put together (edited, formatted, and cover done and blurb written), but for some people, waiting until they have a launch strategy is normal. Also, some authors like to rapid release books in a series to drive read-through. And while we, okay, I mean I, think it’s a pipe dream, there are authors out there who do this for a living and have the time to write for eight hours a day. They aren’t scrolling Threads or Twitter–they’re getting their books written because their paychecks depend on it. If you’re going to accuse someone of using AI because they released six books this year, take a step back, check your jealousy, and admit there are plausible reasons for how that’s possible.

Prologues and epilogues are fine . . . if done correctly
Talking about prologues and epilogues is always going to irritate some people because it’s not only a matter of preference, it’s a matter of craft.

Of course there are going to be prologues written by new authors who think they need to use one to “set up” the story rather than sprinkle in the details readers need to know throughout. They haven’t written enough to understand how to do it, so they info dump all the “important” parts first thinking a reader needs to know all that before they start reading the “real” story.

I’ve only written two prologues in my life, and that was in books one and five of my fantasy series I’ll never publish. Did it work? I’d like to think so. The series is about a women who gets pulled back in time because she’s a Healer and a sorceress needed her power. Then I added another prologue to the end of the last book where her ex-boyfriend also gets pulled back, and then later finds her living it up engaged to a prince. I thought it was quite clever, actually (don’t tell me it’s not), but then I switched to contemporary romance where prologues aren’t used as much.

Romance authors like to use epilogues, and there those make sense. Readers love a glimpse at the happy couple years later, and a lot of romance authors write more than one epilogue and use them as bonus material for newsletter signups. Sometimes I label my epilogues epilogues and sometimes I just label them the last chapter and put “three years later” or whatever at the top. I don’t think it really matters. With the way my “newsletter” is a blog on my author website now, it doesn’t make too much sense to write bonus material unless I wanted to pay for email collection on Bookfunnel. I don’t care about it that much and by the time I get done writing a book, I’m really not in the mood to write ten different endings. It’s one of my greatest faults as a writer is to say “See ya!” practically before I type the last period.

Whether you love or hate prologues and epilogues, either writing them or reading them, that’s personal taste. If you write a prologue make sure it serves purpose beyond an info dump, like letting us into the head of a murderer in a thriller, or letting your reader take a peek into the foundation of a world like GRRM’s prologue in Game of Thrones when the book opens beyond the Wall and the men of the Night’s Watch encounter the White Walkers.

When it comes to prologues and epilogues, it’s essential to know where your story starts and where you want it to end. Make each word count.

Tropes don’t take the place of stakes
A while back there was a lot of heated discussion about those book graphics that have the cover of the book on it then the squiggly arrows that point out the micro-tropes. Like this:

black background. cover of Twisted Alibis by VM Rheault. man looking down, stage in background. arrow graphics pointing to hot, wounded rockstar, slow burn, betrayal and murder, rating (four stars) reconnecting with family and friends, depression rep — made with a template in Canva

People were saying that they love them because they give you a quick glance into what the book is about, others said they hated them because it’s just a long list of spoilers. I’ve been of the mind that spoilers don’t spoil a book. After all, a happily ever after in a romance is the biggest spoiler of all–it’s the couple’s journey to get to that point that matters. And that’s where stakes come in. There’s no hook, there’s no exciting plot, without stakes, motivation, and consequences. What will the couple lose choosing love? What will they gain? What will they lose if they go their separate ways? Is what they will gain be enough to make up for that loss?

It wasn’t that long ago that I read a romance blurb that was packed full of mini-tropes. Small town, second chance, fake dating. You name it, and it was in there. But what the blurb lacked was stakes. What did they lose if the fake dating scheme didn’t work out? What did that couple stand to lose if the MMC didn’t stay in the little town he left so long ago? What would she lose if he leaves? Her heart? The blurb sounded exciting until you dug just a little deeper and realized that blurb could have been the blurb of any small-town, second chance book out there. Nothing made it that author’s. Nothing in that blurb screamed, “I’m different! Read me!”

I think arrow graphics can definitely be used as a quick “at a glance” vibe for your book, especially if you add something that is unique to your characters. And I wouldn’t worry about spoilers. If a little spoiler can ruin your entire book, you better rethink that plot.

Not everything is Amazon’s fault
I’ve defended Amazon quite a few times in the past on this blog. I know they have their flaws, just like any other employer or company that you do business with, but a lot of what I see isn’t just Amazon, it’s authors refusing to take responsibility for their actions, like missing a preorder date and having their privileges taken away or not ordering stock in time and blaming Amazon for not getting their books to them during the busy holiday season. I actually saw someone on Threads complaining that it will take six weeks for their books to come, and that it happened to them last year. Like, if you know this is going to happen but don’t take the steps to avoid it, then all you’re doing is blaming someone else for your own mistake.

I know that Amazon isn’t perfect. They’ve shipped my books with a body lotion order and that could have had a poor outcome. I have also seen pictures of books coming damaged because they weren’t packed correctly. I’m not saying they’re entirely blameless, but instead of making Amazon the eternal bad guy, it would be nice to see some people just taking ownership of their actions like the adults they are.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
Indie authors have a lot of freedom, and that can be great. We can re-edit a book and upload new files or change our covers whenever we want. We can run ads or not, use social media to promote our books or not. We can take five years to put out a book or we can publish twelve novellas in a year. We have 100% say in how we run our businesses.

But we should use that freedom wisely because I see a lot of hot-take behavior from indie authors that makes me squirm. I see authors canceling preorders, airing their dirty laundry on social media, making fun of readers for their reviews, making fun of other authors for what they like to write. The list is endless.

We are in an era where nothing online seems real. There is so much AI and so many scammers out there that it’s difficult to parse through for real and true information. I read a Substack article by Claire Taylor and she was saying that one of the most important things readers will be looking for going forward is trustworthiness and integrity from the authors they choose to read. I think this is a valid point and really important. Do what you tell your readers you are going to do. Have follow-through. And be kind while you’re doing it.

Your peers and coworkers need to know they can trust you too. Don’t say you’ll send out author copies for an event if you don’t think you can. Don’t sign up for book conventions and then back out. Don’t say you’ll help a fellow indie and then change your mind. I know life happens, and so does everyone else, but at some point you have to look at yourself and ask if you’re dependable. If not, you need to figure out why and what’s going on in your life that you need to change.

I think Claire is on the right track when she says that trustworthiness, integrity, and dependability is going to be your number one marketing strategy next year. How are you going to show up to your readers? As 2025 draws to a close, it might be a great time to think about that.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. And what kind of person will you look like if you do?

Hot takes are hot for a reason: they spark debate and can hurt feelings. They can ruffle feathers, not only for their basis of truth (or not), but because they force us to question ourselves and our beliefs. And what do we think of the people who have a different opinion than we do? I like listening to hot takes. Some of them are valid, some are pure BS, and some challenge what I think.

In the end we all make our own choices–write a prologue or not, save up your books before publishing or not, follow through with that promise or not–but remember, hot takes were made to get attention, so keep your cool . . . at least where people can see.

As part of my “favorite things” segment I’ve been including until Christmas, I want to highlight the Authors Guild YouTube channel. They have great content like where to find your readers, querying tips, and how AI is changing the publishing industry. You don’t have to be a member of the Authors Guild to watch these videos.

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to learn about the publishing industry, this is a great channel to subscribe to. There are some videos geared more toward traditional publishing, but as an indie, I think it’s important to keep up to date on what’s happening in publishing as a whole.

Look here for a list of their videos and you can subscribe to their channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AuthorsGuild

screenshot of the Authors Guild youtube channel header. AG in green circle
Authors Guild
@AuthorsGuild
•
2.77K subscribers
•
199 videos
More about this channel
...more

Subscribed
The oldest and largest community of writers resouces guidance support

That’s all I have for this week! Thanks for checking in and I’ll see you next Monday!

Dealing with Digital Anger: When AI Gets it Wrong

Posted on December 1, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,873 words
10 minutes read time

Last week I had a shock when I went on Facebook. I had a notification that said they removed a photo due to explicit content regarding a minor. The picture was from eleven years ago, and knowing that, I can guess what it was: a picture of my daughter on our bed snuggling one of our cats. Harmless. I would never put anything online that had the potential to hurt either of my kids, and the accusation, from nothing more than a Facebook bot, upset me a great deal. I felt dirty and gross, and honestly, confused because that picture had been up for eleven years.

It didn’t help that this came after TikTok decided a couple of my carousels were made with AI, and in a fit of anger, I deleted both of my profiles. It wasn’t the accusation, not really, but those two carousels performed worse than most of my others and I assumed that was the reason. I wasn’t going to put time into making content for a platform that was going to accuse me of doing something I wasn’t doing and then punish me for it by shadow-banning my carousels and videos and suppressing my account. Especially since whenever I scrolled I saw lots of AI content with a ton of likes–so you know those videos and carousels were being shown. Maybe I was too sensitive and had a knee-jerk reaction, but I had also gone a few rounds with them before with a different account. I had my videos and slides taken down for going against community guidelines when I would post steamy scenes, but then I’d see other authors post much steamier than what I was and not only get away with it, their posts were pushed to the “for you” page.

Then, if that wasn’t enough, I was scrolling Instagram, and my boosted post showed up, but the description wasn’t what I had written to go along with the graphic. I had forgotten to turn off the AI option to rewrite my description, and while that version wasn’t too messed up, it didn’t sound like me. Going forward I’ll turn it off, but it was an irritating lesson all the same.

I wasn’t able to let go of Facebook flagging my photo for a long time, and writing this post after the fact is probably a good indicator I still haven’t. I’m more upset about the loss of my TikTok account since for once I was having a bit of fun creating content, and I was getting likes and saves of my carousels. It’s disappointing not to be able to use a platform a lot of authors are using to push their books, and the hypocrisy behind why I can’t or why I won’t will rub me raw for a long time. I could have appealed–not doing so probably just seemed like an admission of guilt–but I also know from experience that once TikTok starts eyeing your account, it’s almost impossible to get them to leave you alone. So, for my mental health, I gave up.

Incidents like this aren’t going to go away. In fact, as AI usage ramps up, things like this will continue to be a common occurrence. Fighting it seems like a wasted effort, like bailing out a sinking boat with a spoon, so what can we do to at least not hang on to things that are beyond our control?

Get out if/when you can, and if not, be prepared to fight
There are certain things that get shut down that you may not want to live without, like your Facebook Author Page that you run ads off of, or your Amazon KDP account, if we’re being drastic but still realistic. Accounts like that are shut down simply because bots make a mistake and when it comes to Meta and Amazon, talking to a human to get things resolved is almost impossible. Some never win against Facebook and some only win against Amazon if they have an advocate like a representative from the Alliance of Independent Authors reaching out on their behalf. Sometimes it’s not easy to walk away, but it’s better for your mental health, like me deleting my TikTok accounts. I didn’t want to. I really didn’t because I was in the mindset to try to use that as a real way to reach readers, but I wasn’t going to put up with a platform that undermined all my work, especially when what they were accusing me of wasn’t true.

If you decide to fight, having a plan will help. Figure out who you can reach out to, be it someone at Alli or an IP lawyer. If you decide to walk, make peace with it the best you can. TikTok’s hypocrisy will rub me the wrong way for a long time. I just need to get into the groove of posting somewhere else, like IG, which doesn’t seem like it has such arbitrary guidelines to follow.

Remember that it isn’t your fault
This is a big one with me and that Facebook accusation. I would never post anything that would hurt my kids and knowing they took down a photo because of something like that will make me feel icky for a very long time. I know that there’s no way possible for a human to look at the amount of content that gets posted every day, not to mention all the content that has accumulated over the years, but that doesn’t make it better. And the hypocrisy here too, makes it sting because we all know Zuckerberg was at Trump’s inauguration, and Trump has a questionable reputation at best.

No matter what platform is giving you a hard time, there’s a 99.9% chance that what happened isn’t the result of what you did. (There are always going to be people trying to game the system, and unfortunately, when things like this happen to people who haven’t done anything wrong, they’re collateral damage.)

Don’t let AI hurt your feelings or make you feel bad. There are plenty of real people who will do that for you.

Find alternatives
Fortunately, there are a lot of places to hang out online. I don’t need Facebook. In fact, after that happened, I was tempted to take the app off my phone. I rarely post on my personal page and only post on my FB author page a couple times a week, if that. The only thing I would lose not posting there anymore would be the ability to run ads, but I could still do that if I didn’t scrap my account altogether. Instagram is a good alternative to TikTok and there are other places that I could post to that I never have before like Pinterest. I’ve heard Lemon8 is popular but they’re owned by the same people who own TikTok so I’d probably end up with the same problems. Best not to repeat any of that. But finding one platform that you like that you can commit to will take some of the sting away of having to avoid others.

Or figure out what you can live without…it might surprise you
Once I got over the anger of having my carousels tagged as AI, getting rid of TikTok didn’t seem so bad. Even though I was getting good at it, making carousels took time. Not only did I have to make the graphics in Canva, but I also had to pull the snippets. Not having to do that anymore was actually a blessing in disguise and took off a lot of pressure I didn’t know was there. I was trying to build an account from scratch and every post save and like encouraged me, but in both good and bad ways. You start to build momentum and don’t want that to stop. I was able to blame TikTok for stepping away instead of myself, but whether it’s a valid excuse or not, it was a relief. I know I said above it felt like a loss when I deleted it, but I can always turn my carousels into Reels. I just haven’t taken the time to do that yet.

You may decide not to post on social media at all, and that’s fine too. Finding different ways to get your book seen, like running ads and buying promos, can fill in some of that gap, but AI is everywhere and it may take some testing to see if you’re jumping from the pan into the fire. I haven’t run FB ads for a while, but I hear turning off the AI components is getting harder and harder to do. Instagram is still easy when you boost a post. Find the toggle on the right and turn it off.

Screenshot of Instagram boosted ad page. Enhanced ad toggle is on the right (pink arrow).

Whatever you do, take care of yourself
When it comes right down to your choices, you have to do what’s best for you. When the universe closes a door it opens a window, or something like that, and maybe something that feels like the end of the world actually opens you up to other possibilities. I used to really miss Twitter, but I don’t anymore. There are a lot of nice people on Threads, and getting away from the toxic environment was good for my mental health in the long run.

Will Facebook ever take down another photo? Maybe. I have a lot of pictures of my daughter when she was small cuddling on our cats. How Facebook decides what’s explicit, I have no idea, but it could happen again. I’ve had my FB account for seventeen years and I might just take ten minutes every day and start deleting albums from around that time. No one is going to go back and look at those pictures anyway, so there wouldn’t be a big loss in getting rid of them. They give you an option to download before you delete, so that’s always something you can do too, if you think you need to purge some old content there. It sucks you have to do it at all, but since I’ve become an author I’ve started to very carefully weigh what I put online anyway.

You can’t control the bots, the mistakes, or the algorithms. But you can control where you go next. AI is here to stay, so take precautions, take care of yourself, and if you let him push you around, let him push you somewhere better.

As part of my “favorite things” segment, I’m highlighting romance author Jennifer Probst’s nonfiction books and her Substack. I love the down-to-earth way she thinks about writing and publishing. I have to admit, I’m a bit behind and I only read the first one, but the other two are on my list, and I read her Substack whenever she publishes a new one. You can find the links below (they are not affiliate links.)

graphic of Jennifer's book covers. l-r: write naked, write true, write free. background is a peach color

Write Naked: A Bestseller’s Secrets to Writing Romance & Navigating the Path to Success
https://www.amazon.com/Write-Naked-Bestsellers-Secrets-Navigating-ebook/dp/B01N16FESI

Write True: A Bestseller’s Guide to Writing Craft and Achieving Success in the Romance Industry
https://www.amazon.com/Write-True-Bestsellers-Achieving-Industry-ebook/dp/B08FLGFLL5

Write Free: Personal Essays on Craft, Career, and the Writing Life
https://www.amazon.com/Write-Free-Personal-Essays-Writing-ebook/dp/B0G1D358TW

If you want to subscribe to her Substack, you can do it here: https://substack.com/@jenniferprobst

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

	Vania Margene Rheaul… on What do you NEED to be a write…
	Anonymous on What do you NEED to be a write…
	Vania Margene Rheaul… on Not So Hardcore Anymore
	Brandi Easterling Co… on Not So Hardcore Anymore
	Vania Margene Rheaul… on Ten Years in the Industry. Ref…

Love it? Share it!

Love it? Share it!

Love it? Share it!

Love it? Share it!

Love it? Share it!

Love it? Share it!

Love it? Share it!

Helping fiction authors build strong stories—and stronger careers

Love it? Share it!

Love it? Share it!

Love it? Share it!