2,052 words
11 minutes read time

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I don’t have a lot going on, though I’m keeping busy.

For the past two months I’ve been working on re-editing a couple of my older titles. Rescue Me was re-edited from cover to cover. I updated the copyright page, back matter, and About Me page. (It was nice to add Pim to our family!) Then I decided to do Faking Forever, and that book has been taking a bit of time. Like, I don’t know how I was writing, but man, maybe I had stick shoved up my ass. All I can say is, this editing pass will definitely make the book sound better. More relaxed, more conversational. It’s a good story. Too bad pretentious writing kept it from shining because it’s nothing I would have wanted to read.

Those two projects have taken me longer than I’d like, editing practically sentence by sentence, but that’s okay. I think I’m still fighting a little burnout from getting my King’s Crossing serial out there. That wrapped up five years’ worth of work, and I might still be coming down from the adrenaline high. But, putting out Loss and Damages was hectic in its own way, so working on a couple of books that just need some polish has been a nice break.

I uploaded Rescue Me‘s updated files to KDP without an issue and did the same on IngramSpark. IngramSpark took three days to send me a new cover template for the changes I had to make to the spine (they don’t have the 10-page grace that KDP has, so I had to tweak my cover to reflect the 1500 words I took out of the book), so if you need to update to IngramSpark, use the Lightning Source template generator instead. It’s the same template and they sent it to my email in a couple of seconds. I even went so far as to swap out the links in my Canva tutorial. I’m one of the most patient people I know, and even I wouldn’t wait three days for a template. I also scheduled Loss and Damages on Amazon. They put the ebook’s preorder up in just a couple of hours and they scheduled the paperback without asking for copyright proof. I’m always a little on edge dealing with them, but this was smooth, so I’m thanking whoever for that.

I ran a Facebook ad for my Loss and Damages ARCs, and among my newsletter, a boosted Instagram post, and the FB ad, I was able to giveaway 110 copies. I sent them out on good faith, not asking them to fill out a form or give me their email address, and I just hope that next month they show up and post their reviews. My Booksprout campaign did okay, and I gave away 20 out of 25 copies available. I’ve already gotten some good feedback, a kind soul posting on my author website in the comments of one of my blog posts. I was a little hesitant about this book, but I think I was just too close to it and I hope my lingering doubts are unfounded.

I changed the header on my FB reader group page and also my author website, but Facebook flagged my page for sexual content and I had to change the banner and delete it off my timeline. I think that fixed it, since it says there are no violations on my page now, but Facebook took away the privilege of being recommended, not that that matters too much. I only post anyway so my page doesn’t look empty when I run ads off it. But, it was a reminder that someone is always watching what you do so if you’re depending on something, it’s best to keep your nose clean or not get too attached. They’ve made a lot of changes anyway, letting their AI tools take over more and more of the targeting and someone in an ads group I’m in on Facebook theorizes that their ads will be all but useless coming as soon as next year. They want the click money, you want the click-through and the sales, and those aren’t always the same. I might write a different blog post on the subject, but I wouldn’t be surprised if authors stop using Facebook ads entirely if we lose our ability to choose our target audience.

In other news, I decided to change what I’m going to work on next. It’s not a secret that I’ve been struggling to reconcile how much better I’ve been feeling with where I am in my book business. I want to lighten up and find some balance while not feeling guilty and thinking everyone is going to forget about me, and I thought maybe going back to writing 3rd person when times were simpler and I was having more fun would be the answer. But whenever I started thinking about the book I have in mind, all the scenes were still in first person. I’m afraid after writing 15+ books in it, I won’t be able to shake it that easily, and well, all my third person books have been stagnating so there’s not a lot of sense adding to the backlist.

So, all that to say is, writing another standalone feels like a better fit than starting my hockey duet, and since I can’t get first person present dual POV out of my head, I’ll write it in that and put it under my initials instead of my full name. I haven’t figured out an occupation for him yet, but I guess it’s safe to assume that he’ll have money. He may not be billionaire status, but I’m not sure if it really matters at this point. It will be a small-town second chance, and I already have a tentative cover for it. The story is about a man who has to go back to his hometown because his grandma who raised him is dying. There he finds out the real reason his high school sweetheart broke up with him after high school graduation. Then I’ll have published (?) written three standalones in a row, so my hockey duet will mix it up. I’m trying not to think of timelines because I don’t want my books to be like that anymore. I understand that consistency is key to building a loyal audience and I have Wicked Games almost ready to go so that will give me extra time to write.

The problem is, I don’t want to publish as I write. I think it puts a lot of pressure on authors to write faster because it feels like people are waiting for the next book (whether that’s true or not). There’s a perceived expectation, and I don’t want to feel like that. I see others experience it, like they’re taking too long to write the next thing, and that’s a bad place for mental health. On the other hand, I really don’t want to feel like my books are just products I have to dress up and put on a shelf. I would like to find a happy medium between writing the next book but knowing I have my ducks in a row for the readers who are waiting for my next release. I think one of the best ways I can do that is put more time between releases. I’ll put out Loss and Damages in September, then maybe not even worry about publishing again until September of 2026. Being I already have Wicked Games almost done–it just needs a couple more editing sweeps, a blurb written, then formatting–that would give me plenty of time to write and not feel stressed out. I can take a page out of traditional publishing’s playbook and completely relax my publishing schedule.

How that would go over, I have no idea. And to who? Me? I’ll still be working on what I love, so maybe it won’t affect me that much, but I don’t have a real reader base to know if readers would get annoyed with me or not. As far as I know, and this is just an observation, not a pity grab, I don’t have a core set of fans. No one that interacts me with on a regular basis on my FB author page, maybe some people who open all my newsletters, but I haven’t gotten any new subscribers to my blog in a long time. So I have a feeling I’m the kind of author that readers just stumble upon from one of my Amazon ads or a Freebooksy promo spot, read the book they found, then move on. That’s not bad. It just doesn’t make for a strong, lucrative career. So would slowing down to a book a year slow my royalties and visibility as well? That might be something I won’t know until I do it.

Anyway, as much as I was excited to start my hockey duet, I think I’ll wait on that for a bit. If anything, it will give me more time to write them without feeling like I’m falling behind.

Otherwise things are going so-so. Our apartment complex was sold and now we have a new property management. Only time will tell if they’re okay to work with or worse than what we had before. I also found out the same day that our workforce at my day job was reduced which always gives me a wiggly feeling in my stomach because the next set of terminations could include me. Somehow I dodged this round, but I don’t think that will happen forever. Sometimes I feel like getting pushed out is what I need to find better life satisfaction all around, but then it would be nice if I was smart enough to leave on my own so I won’t have the panic that comes with being fired with no notice. So, I guess time will tell then too, but of course I couldn’t help but feel that it would have been nice if I could’ve turned my books into some kind of a career so I could quit if I wanted to or at least had a safety net. I’ll just have to keep buying lottery tickets. I probably have a better chance of winning than writing a bestseller.

So, you know, I still have stuff going on but I’m slowing down and doing things I neglected while I wasn’t feeling well. I’ve been cleaning out closets and going through clothes. Our front closet was a mess and I got rid of about ten pairs of shoes and five or six hoods that came off my kids’ winter coats when they were small. I had a million string bags from when I was running races, and donating some of that felt good. I still get an itchy feeling, like I’m not working fast enough, I’m not doing enough, but I know that’s just a phantom feeling of hustle culture and trying to make a mark in an industry that’s saturated. I’ll have to remind myself, often, that what I’m doing is enough and that it’s okay to pay attention to other areas of my life, even if that’s just resting after a long shift at my day job.

Besides that, everything is okay. I’m not online much because everyone is so nasty, from people making fun of Audra Winter and her 6k preorders for a book that needed editing to what the current administration is doing. Scrolling on Facebook is terrible, it’s just AI images and commentary written by ChatGPT. Nothing feels real anymore, and I don’t know if it’s me or what, but when I open up my FreeBooksy, BargainBooksy, Red Feather Romance, and Fussy Librarian promo newsletters, the covers have gotten terrible. It’s such a shame because they used to be decent places to find new readers but I really don’t want my book to be sandwiched between two covers that look like Photoshop vomit. I don’t agree with gatekeeping, but the quality of those newsletters aren’t what they used to be. I’d like to know what their open and click-through rates are.

I think that’s about all I have for today, but that’s enough. I’ll talk to you next week. Enjoy the last month of summer!