About Vania Margene Rheault

Vania enjoys reading and writing. She's lived in Minnesota all her life, and with a cup of coffee in hand, enjoys the seasons with her two children.

Writing the Book of Your Heart

Posted on April 28, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,411 words
7 minutes read time

Writers are always told to write what they love, and there’s a joke in there. We’re told that because we’re going to be reading it a million times. That’s true in a way. The editing process can be long and tedious for some, especially for those of us who can’t afford an editor and must make sure our books are as typo-free as possible on our own.

The book of your heart might be a little different than that, the characters staying with you for many, many years, so much so that you really don’t want to write anything else. You keep going back to that book, the characters, the themes, because they resonate so much with what you’re going through, or were going through at the time.

That made me think of my own journey as a writer and author, and looking back at my backlist and the books I’ve written, I can’t say that I have the “one book” that I loved more than any of the others. When I sit down to write a new book, I love that book with all my heart. I’m obsessed while writing it; I cry at the end when I’m done. I love the editing process because that means I can stay with those characters longer and make them shine. But, in all the books I’ve ever written, once they’re published, I don’t really think about them anymore, moving on to my next set of characters and beginning the process all over again.

Sometimes I do go back and read my favorite parts, a scene that I loved to write, like Sawyer and Evie in her barn talking in A Heartache for Christmas, or in Twisted Alibis, when Sheppard realizes he’s in love with Olivia but he knows he shouldn’t feel that way about her because he thinks she’s engaged to another man. But I’ve never wanted to tear a book apart and start over simply because I didn’t want to leave them yet. I did a massive re-edit of my Rocky Point series because they needed it, not because I missed them and wanted to hang around the town of Rocky Point for an extra four months.

Some of my books have been years in the making, like the book I’m editing now, Wicked Games. I did a fake cover for a blog post back in 2021, and I had to come up with a blurb for the back. I liked the blurb so much that it stuck with me, and I turned it around and around in my head for four years.

Lucy Fulbright’s time in Gull’s Point is over. Moving across the country for a job opportunity she thinks will elevate her career to the next level, she tries to look forward to the future. Since her divorce, Lucy has been struggling to find her way, and she’s hopeful focusing on her professional life is the right move.

On her last day in town, she meets Josh Graham, and suddenly she’s not sure leaving is such a great idea.

Josh is running from a past not of his own making. Hoping to find refuge in Gull’s Point, he meets Lucy, and his vow to stay away from women and the trouble they cause is the last thing on his mind.

In a desperate attempt to convince her to stay in Gull’s Point, he asks for her help.

Torn between moving on with her life and seeing where her attraction to Josh will take her, she requests a delay in starting her position.

Lucy has one more week in Gull’s Point.

Will it be enough time for Josh to convince her that their pasts have nothing to do with their future?

Four years is a long time to think about something, but the concept stayed with me and wouldn’t leave me alone. Here’s the cover I made. The “final draft” was a little different, but I deleted it out of my Canva account as I do sometimes to keep the “clutter” at bay. I don’t have the one I liked best, but that’s okay. This one will do for this post:

I often think about my books for years before I write them, like the Mafia books I’m planning to write later, probably in 2026. I’ve had the idea in my head since I wrote a short story about the characters back in 2018. I’ve blogged about writing them and I will, eventually. But being excited about it, looking forward to writing it, having it in the back of my mind for so long, that doesn’t mean it’s the book of my heart.

Is it bad not to have a “book of your heart?” I’m not sure. For one, people might accuse you of not putting your whole heart and soul into the things you write, which isn’t true, for most of us. Yeah, there are writers who only write what they think will sell, using their books as a way to make income only, skipping the “art” part of the writing and going directly to the “product” part of publishing. On the other hand, if you’re stuck writing and rewriting the same book over and over and over again, you’re never going to get anywhere. You can’t move forward going backward, or staying in the same place. So, you’d have to decide what your true plans are. Are you okay being at a standstill? And if you are, what does that mean for your business? It might mean that you don’t have one. Readers want something new to read, and there are plenty of authors out there who can and will do that for them. They don’t have to hang around and wait for you.

But, as I’m trying to lighten up in my writing and business, writing only for the thrill of it and resigning myself to the fact that this will never be a career, maybe thinking writing for the sake of writing instead of trying to build a business is okay. That doesn’t mean I’m going to suddenly spend years writing my next book. In fact, thinking about my books for so long before I write them only speeds up the writing process because I know exactly what I want to write. Wicked Games was one of the fastest books I’ve ever written, 97,606 words in sixty-two days. I ate, breathed, and slept Seth and Avery, even though they’d already been a part of my life for years.

I’m writing this post because I’m trying to articulate the fact that in some ways, I envy those who want to stay with a certain set of characters forever and ever. To feel that connection deep in your bones, to never want to let them go. I think it would be amazing, like those characters are real people, part of your life. But, I also hear of authors who need years and years to finish a book, and it makes my stomach churn. Before I started feeling like crap, I liked adventure, trying new things. I liked to travel and my curiosity was off the charts. I haven’t lost some of that, and I think staying with a set of characters would drag me down. I want to write about new characters, new experiences. New settings and create new heartbreaking backstories.

We all write differently, and write different things. What you do with your time and your business is always up to you, but you have to keep expectations in check, and not only that, but you have to keep the way the book business works in the corner of your mind when making your decisions. The latest figure I read is that there are 7,500 books published on Amazon a day. There is a lot of content out there and readers don’t need to wait for you. It’s nice to think they are, or that they will, but in reality, attention spans are short, there’s a lot to choose from, and well, just from the backlash we see when we hear that shows like The House of the Dragon or Bridgerton won’t release another season for two years, we know that people don’t like to wait for something they like.

I think maybe I do write the book of my heart, but I write it over and over again. And even if I’m not making any money, I think that’s a pretty awesome place to be.

Monday’s Author Mashup

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,782 words
9 minutes read time

easter desk flat of cappuccino, white chocolate bunnies, ribber and chocolate covered, i'm not sure. coffee beans, peanuts. gold ribbon and a white keyboard. text says Monday's Author Mashup

Slow news week this week or maybe I’m just doing my own thing and not really paying attention to what everyone else is doing. I’m editing Wicked Games still, even though I said I would let it breathe. I wanted to read it one more time before I put it aside, and I’m halfway through. Though, I’m taking my time and not working as hard on my books as I used to. I don’t really feel the need anymore, and my King’s Crossing “splash” has pretty much died since the launch of the last book last week.

It seems authors can’t get enough of using AI, and another one was “caught” with an AI suggestion in the text of her book.

screenshot of paperback book. text reads: Hezra's jaw tightened, her voice dropping to a serious note. "Div-
ination witch... maybe blood magic."
Irene's impatience flared. Her gaze turned to Zahra. "The ashes?" [Highlights start]This is already quite strong, but it can be tightened for a sharper and more striking delivery while maintaining the intensity and sardonic edge you're aiming for. Here's a refined version: [End Highlight]
Zahra stood, holding up the necklace of ashes she was using to decipher the maps. Irene's eyes locked onto it. "Keep them in your sight at all times," she ordered. "We'll take turns guarding you—and the ashes—while you work."
Zahra nodded, but Irene's sharp tone didn't waver. "So? Where
are we?"
Excitement flickered in Zahra's eyes. "The history of the sapphire runs deep... Wars, legends, empires-all tied to the goddess Nehelan-nia. These words I decipher... they almost sing in my heart. This isn't just a treasure hunt. Hundreds have died for this sapphire. It all began—"

end of screenshot text — Thanks to @alicebrookswrites on Threads. https://www.threads.net/@alicebrookswrites/post/DIk846FoqxM?xmt=AQGzcVDaz2vhgILosC41iWzu1mlJcXVGPJo2wIgvZboAvA

Apparently, she’s blaming a beta reader for inserting that without her knowledge, but the fact is, authors are responsible for what they put out into the world. I’ve had betas and editors look at my stuff, and maybe comments can get in the way during formatting, especially if you’re not resolving the comments as you go through them, but there is no excuse for things to be in your manuscript you don’t want there. I’m not going to judge her for using AI, don’t care either way what she’s doing, and I think this is going to be more common as time goes on. There are so many authors in favor of AI, Facebook group after Facebook group that want to encourage and help you write with AI that this is never going to go away. Even ProWritingAid has an AI beta-reading helper who will give feedback on your entire manuscript. And I get it, I really really do. Not just because I want to defend my own past use of Al, even if it was only with brainstorming and nonfiction stuff, but because I’ve been in this industry for a really long time and know how difficult it is to find people who are willing to help you. Not even for free or trade, but people you can trust who won’t steal your ideas or your manuscript. Someone who won’t ghost you after saying they’ll help you, or change their minds and pull out of your project halfway through when you were counting on them. If you can’t find someone you can afford and/or who won’t sell you out, Al can start looking pretty good. He’s not going to publish your book under his own name or pirate it or flake on you when he decides his time is worth more than your project. Whether you use that as validation to turn to Al and his help, that’s on you, but it’s also on you to give your readers a good book because once they know you use AI, the readers who don’t like that will never read you again. I’ve written a blog post on why you should proof your proof. You can read it here: https://vaniamargene.com/2025/01/30/five-reasons-why-you-should-proof-your-proofs/

I actually got my butt out of my apartment the other day and went for a walk.

black and white photo of a single duck floating on a choppy river. — The Red River, Gooseberry Park. Moorhead, MN

It was nice out and I wanted to get some fresh air and also feed the stray cat that I think is still living at the city park close to where I live. I’m still putting food out, but at this point, I don’t know for sure it’s the cat that’s eating it as I know there is a raccoon that lives in the park too. My daughter and I went out a couple weeks ago, and I saw something that could have been an orange Maine Coon, or it could have been a fox, but I think it moved too slowly to be a fox unless it was injured. At any rate, I still have plans to go out there with some tuna and see if I can catch it. It’s been out there since October or so, but I need to wait until it dries out a bit. It’s way too muddy and there’s nowhere to sit to wait it out.

Anyway, so I was listening to some podcasts that I had marked and I tried the Indie Writers Club with James Blatch, a podcast he started with Cara Clare after the one he was doing with Mark Dawson ended. I was hoping for a good indie author podcast I could sink my teeth into, but unfortunately, that podcast will not be it. Maybe it could be for you, but not for me. The episode I listened to was about writing a series versus a standalone, a topic I really like to talk about as I love writing a good standalone when everyone tells you to write a series, but the first half of the episode was them talking about insider stuff like a writing retreat in Aruba and getting help with your writing from Al. I’m not for or against Al and what he can do, so that part of it wasn’t terrible, but if an episode is only forty-four minutes long, maybe it’s best not to crap up the first half with junk. It didn’t seem very professional, at one point James leaving the taping to let his dog out letting Cara ramble alone, and well, I’d rather listen to nothing than that. So I flipped over to Print Run, as they released a new episode a couple of weeks ago. I like the hosts, Erik Hane and Laura Zats, an editor and agent, respectively, based in Minneapolis who own their own literary agency. Even though they’re geared more toward writers who want to query, I find that their industry talk is useful and I enjoy their banter. The episode I listened to was particularly interesting as they were talking about Trump and his tariffs, and whether or not his administration was going to inspire “the big book.” (If you’re interested in listening to the episode, you can listen to it here or find it on your podcast app of choice. https://soundcloud.com/printrunpodcast/episode-177the-jimmies-the-rock-the-tariffs.)

I like what Erik had to say when he began hypothesizing what “the big book” was going to be about. He hasn’t read the Hunger Games books, and they talked a bit about that, I guess because Sunrise on the Reaping came out last month. Anyway, so he started talking about scarcity and how he thinks that’s going to play into what “the big book” is going to be about. But not like, actual food, like it is in the districts, though that could play into our everyday struggles as food costs rise in the world’s retaliation against us, but in other ways. In technological ways. This made me start thinking about what’s scarce right now, and you know, you think privacy for one. There are cameras everywhere and even if it’s not a public camera like a street cam, CCTV, or a security camera, someone is always on their phone filming, right? So we definitely don’t have privacy. We don’t have security, as anything we put online can be stolen at any given second. We see that with people who steal viral content hoping to go viral themselves (and they often do), pirates who steal our books, companies like Meta and Amazon who go on to steal that content. Books get stolen and sold by others, book cover concepts get stolen. Human connection is also disappearing. Not the kind online but in person. If you don’t have a significant other, people can go days, weeks, or even years without a hug. In fact, online connection is replacing in-person connection, so you could say that affection is turning into a scarcity, and for some it already is.

I don’t want to write and query “the next big book,” but it did get me thinking about how scarcity affects my writing, or rather, what I’m writing about. In my book Wicked Games, Seth’s son is abducted and killed, and Avery’s sister is involved. The lack of privacy influenced just how the kidnappers were able to get away with the murder, how my characters deal with lack of privacy in the media, whether they choose it or not (he’s a billionaire and she’s an essayist who blogs), and lack of affection and love both my characters deal with because their exes cheated and left them for other people.

I don’t want to write a book that specifically tackles scarcity in its many forms, but it’s interesting to think it’s there anyway, even in the background of my writing.

My quest to find other podcasts will be long and painful, I’m afraid, as I’m pretty picky about where I give my time, especially when it comes to noise, since I have voices constantly in my ears during my day job. I know it’s why I don’t like videos, listening to people rattle on about stuff that I don’t care about. I used to listen to The Sell More Books Show with Bryan Cohen, but I dropped that after his co-host, Jim Kukral, left. Maybe it’s a brain thing, but I don’t like change, and after he left, I had a difficult time staying engaged. I might have to go back and see what his weekly podcast is like now. I’ve been exploring Bookfunnel’s podcast, but, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just better not to listen to anything. We’ll see.

That’s about all I have for this week. I can’t stay focused in the evenings, jumping around from my book to a movie then back to my book. I want to take a break sometimes, but I put a movie on and then I’m not happy watching it, so I’ll go back to my book and edit a few paragraphs, then jump over to Threads and scroll. I know I’m bored with my book because I’ve already read it a few times, and I should have let it breathe when I said I was going to. There’s also no urgency to finish it because I’m no longer on the hurry-up-and-write-and-publish treadmill that so many other authors seem to be on. I have my books scheduled out giving me a cushion, but it also takes away the excitement of publishing. I really don’t know how trad authors stay excited. Wicked Games won’t be out until January of 2026 and that seems impossibly far away.

I hope you have a good week this week. Today my sister is coming over for a late Easter thing, so I’ll be offline most of the day. I hope you are having a good day whatever you are doing, and that you have a pleasant week ahead.

Until next time!

Author Update|Mid-April Check-In

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

2,061 words
11 minutes read time

You may not be used to this level of positivity from me, but I am excited to say that I’m doing pretty good. It probably helps that I’m feeling not too bad today, physically, and that always helps. Even on my “good” days I don’t feel great, but on my “bad” days I feel even worse, so you have to celebrate the little things.

Last week I finished Wicked Games. It came in at 97,606 words, and I’m really happy that I was able to finish it. I had given myself until the end of April, thinking that my funk would last longer than it did, but I got past a slow part, came up with the last little plot point I needed to push to the end, and that was it. It helped that for the past couple of weekends I had really great word counts, and it just snowballed. I hadn’t expected it since the days I felt down I felt really down, but I should realize by now that hormones play a huge part in how I’m feeling and that how I feel at that time won’t stay. I’ve already read through it once, but I’ll set it aside now and let it breathe while I work on Loss and Damages. I have a lot to do to get the ARCs ready for July, but looking at the cover gives me motivation to get the last edits done, format it, and write the blurb.

That’s not to say that the blog post I wrote a couple weeks ago was a waste, because I actually did have a pretty big epiphany that I think I realized but didn’t understand the full meaning of until I was emailing with a friend. Back when I pivoted to first person present POV in 2020, I was actively looking for ways to build a readership and to turn my writing from what was then a hobby into a career. I did a few things they say you should do, like write a reader magnet and start a newsletter. I’ve always had a website for this blog, but I created a new one that was for my author business only. I started taking my titles and my covers more seriously and instead of putting what I liked on my books, compromised and started doing research on what belonged on commercial genre covers. I started thinking about my brand and my books as a product to sell.

Maybe I never thought that I would become a millionaire author like some of my fellow romance authors such as Elana Johnson, Lucy Score, Melanie Harlow, Sadie Kincaid, or LJ Shen, but there are plenty of mid-list romance authors who write full time and are able to live off their royalties. I wanted to at least be a mid- mid-list author, making part time wages to supplement my day job. That came to a halt this year after I did my 2024 taxes. So it wasn’t that long ago actually when I decided that I was done trying to build a career. I have all that in place–the reader magnet, the blog/newsletter, the website. My brand is pretty well established if you scroll through my books on Amazon, at least for my pen name. I’m not going to be taking any of that down, and I’ve gone into why before and don’t want to repeat myself. But, I am going to change how I come at my writing. I’ve set myself up so that I’m ahead. I’m spacing my books out to give myself time to write, but I’m back to where I was in 2017 when I was writing because it was fun and publishing was exciting. (Though I don’t think after pressing Publish the night before I’m going to wake up rich and famous anymore.)

The longer you’re in the writing community, the longer you’re exposed to possibilities, and I think that’s what trips a lot of us up. We have no idea that money can be made until we start talking to authors who are making it. We have no idea we can build a newsletter subscriber list to the tens of thousands until we start hearing about authors who are doing it. And we think, Well, if they can do it, so can I, but the problem is, just because they’ve done it doesn’t actually mean you can. Some things are possible, just not for you, and it’s a blow to realize that, you know?

It puts you in a place that you’re not sure about. I’ve given 20-40 hours a week to my writing since at least 2020, possibly earlier than that. I bought into the belief that you can’t make it as an author if you don’t treat your writing like a job, something I really hounded you guys on over the years on this blog. I scheduled time to write and cranked out books like you wouldn’t believe. Of course I had fun, you can’t do something like that if you don’t like it, but looking back now, there was an underlying sense of, I don’t know, unhinged and deranged work ethic that demanded I spend every waking second I could writing because I wouldn’t get anywhere if I didn’t. Guess what? I didn’t get anywhere anyway. I’m proud of my backlist, of course I am. But no one is reading (and the zeros on my sales dashboard over the last few days are proof of that), so there wasn’t a point in working that hard and missing all the things I missed. A habit like that isn’t something I’ll be able to shake off so easily, and I wrote Wicked Games in two months. I started on February 5th and finished April 8th. I didn’t need to write that fast except that I had the plot in my head so it was easy to get it down on paper, and I enjoyed it. I love Seth and Avery, like the twisty plot. But it is kinda crazy to be writing with this resignation that I’m writing for myself and will only be writing for myself.

I’m still doing “fun” things that indie authors do, like I just made mugs that use my King’s Crossing chapter headers and I used the font in one of the title words on the covers:

I used a promo code on Snapfish and ordered two. They’re big (20 ounces) and sturdy, and came about to be about $15.00 a piece because of shipping. I can’t sell them because I didn’t buy the extended license for the vector, but I might do another giveaway at some point or I was playing around with doing a couple book boxes and seeing if I can build a little buzz, though with the last book out today, that might be too late.

I also made some cards (the size is 6 x 4 inches) that have the QR code to my website’s subscribe page where people can download my reader magnet.

I ordered them from VistaPrint, and I paid $25.00 dollars for 25. I don’t know what I’m going to do with them, keep them in my purse and pin them to community bulletin boards and whatever. Maybe buy some author copies of a standalone and tuck them into Little Free Libraries this summer while I’m out walking. I can do these things knowing that they won’t really do anything. I’m back to where I was, many years ago.

I started reading the first book in the next series I’m going to finish, and I must have gone through it a few times already because it’s pretty clean. That’s kind of depressing because it sets up five more books and I wasn’t really in the mood to write another long series. So my thought was it would have been easier to tear up a book that needed work. It’s a cool concept though, a woman’s father creates a list of men he thinks would be acceptable for her to marry, and each book is for a man on the list. Maybe I will just write them all. The second one is already written and the third is set up in it. I have the MMCs for the fourth, fifth, and sixth, but not any plots for any of them. No backstories or love interests, so I’ll be doing a lot of brainstorming if I’m going to go through with it. I don’t know. I’m glad I started reading the first one though, because I used the same last name in Wicked Games for one of my secondary characters as I did for the main female character in the first book, and it will be a lot easier to change it in one book instead of two. I’m starting to look at cover concepts though, because I’m running out of ideas on how to brand a series, so I’m hoping that will get me excited, too.

I know this blog post sounds a lot like what I’ve been writing about before, but it really was an “Ah-ha!” moment for me when I decided to stop chasing that career dream. It was like when I went to school for human resources and decided I didn’t want a job in HR after all. All that schooling, all that tuition. Just kidding! Right? Education is never a waste, just like the books I’ve written in the past few years aren’t a waste either, but it is a shock, a let down, a broken dream. (Though, to be fair, no one dreams about a career in HR, and if you thought writers drink, you’ve never seen a group of HR reps during happy hour.)

Where am I going from here? I’ll be doing the same I’ve always done. Work on my books, publish them. But I’ll take more time for myself during the day, during the week, only write when I feel like it. Which is still a lot because it’s something I like to do, but I have different expectations, different hopes, for the outcomes of that writing. It’s not a job anymore and any royalties I earn I won’t consider as wages. Maybe I’ll break even at the end of every year after paying what I have to pay to keep my hobby going, maybe I won’t. So far I can afford to keep investing, like I worked new running shoes into my budget every six months when I was running and racing a lot. I need to focus on my health too, so maybe I’ll get back into that. I know I’d feel better if I dropped a little weight as I’ve been a slug for the past five years, but it will be a painful process and I’m not looking forward to it at all.

Now that I’ve had my lightbulb moment, I can stop thinking about it and if I do need to muse about it any more, I’ll put it on my mental health blog. I don’t use that blog anymore since my anxiety faded. That too, has been a journey full of ups and downs and the final destination was a letdown, but it’s better to know how things stand than live under the guise things will get better.

I have a couple blog ideas for the coming weeks, and an author interview in the works. I’m going out of town for a few days with my sister and daughter at the beginning of May to hit up Mall of America and the Minnesota Zoo, and after that, I’ll hopefully be setting into the lazy days of summer. I’m getting a new mattress for my bed delivered tomorrow and Wednesday I’m finally getting my hair cut. I wish that once I marked something off my list that something else would’t take its place, but I suppose that’s what being an adult is. Still, my car’s been holding steady for a while now and I’m grateful for that, and my kids are working and seem to be doing fine if not spending too much time in front of their screens, but I’m not one to judge.

Things are okay here, and I hope they are for you too.

Have a great week!

Indie News Roundup

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,417 words
7 minutes read time

The indie publishing space online last week was hopping with news, and there was some good mixed with the bad. Let’s jump in!

KDP will now allow customers to read a sample of a book on preorder
KDP will now allow customers to read a sample of a book on preorder like they do with books that are available for purchase or to be borrowed in Kindle Unlimited. I think this is great, though not everyone was happy about it. A few people I saw who were arguing might have just been eager to jump on Amazon about something, one going so far as to say this will cheat us out of KU reads–I just rolled my eyes–but most had a positive reaction to the news. This is what my email said:

Hello,

We’re excited to share that Amazon will test allowing customers to read a sample of your eBook pre-order starting the week of April 14. This feature will work exactly like the “Read Sample” feature that displays for books on Amazon today. It’ll show a preview, up to 10% from your current manuscript’s content to engage potential readers.

If you’ve already submitted your manuscript, Amazon will automatically generate the reading sample. If no manuscript is currently uploaded, then no reading sample will be shown.

I think this will be a game-changer for preorders. Before, unless you posted a sample somewhere or tried to generate buzz with excerpts, there was no way for a reader to know if they were going to like it and that might have dissuaded a reader from preordering. I’ve never put much stock in preorders because my books are in Kindle Unlimited and readers will wait until the book is live to read–meaning, I don’t get many sales. But I’ve been putting books on preorder more and more, usually just a couple of weeks so that I can have the buy-link for promo graphics and whatnot and it also frees up my mind to move on to other things. I’ve always uploaded the finished files because I don’t want accidents to happen, like the wrong file to be pushed out to readers or being locked out of editing during their quality check because I miscalculated. Some authors will put a book on preorder without a finished book or even a finished cover. I wonder if this will prompt authors to at least have the first chapter written and available for the sample. However authors end up using it, I think this was long overdue, and I’ll be watching to see if it makes a positive impact on authors’ sales.

KDP has been terminating accounts (again).
I’ve heard in various author spaces that KDP is terminating accounts again, though whether those authors have done something to warrant it, you never know. Because KDP doesn’t like to tell you if you’ve done something wrong, shooting first and asking questions….never, you won’t always know if you’ve accidentally done something to make them mad, either. Author CD Reiss has put together a Google doc that outlines the steps you should take when trying to get your account back.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PKd94sSvgD3XoFFWHaUC6Gxey2GOU6WH7cRLNpb3428/edit?tab=t.0 Various authors have said that CD Reiss is okay with this being shared, so I thought I would post it as well in case you want to bookmark it. I have it saved, but this is pretty much the main reason I’ve invested in an Alliance of Independent Authors membership. I don’t want to take on Amazon alone, and I write off my membership every year when I do my taxes as a business expense. But, if you can’t afford a membership to an author organization like Alli or the Authors’ Guild, then having a step-by-step of what to do is the next best thing. Thanks to Zoe York for reminding me it’s out there and able to be shared.

NaNoWriMo goes out of business
NaNoWriMo issued a statement last week that said they were closing their doors. I’m not surprised because of the various scandals they’ve been involved in recently, but it seems like it’s an end of an era for a lot of authors and writers who got their start participating in NaNo. I didn’t know NaNoWriMo was a thing until a woman at my day job found out I was writing something and invited me to participate. Back then, I was writing my fantasy series, but for that year’s NaNo, I stopped and started a sports contemporary romance that turned into my Tower City trilogy I published many years ago. Since then, a lot of the people she introduced me to have stopped writing, but it was a fun experience to meet at Perkins, order pie and coffee, and just sit and write a few times a week. That was really the only time I participated, actually counting my words in the website. I’ve always had plenty of time and drive to treat every month as a NaNo month, and actually November was really difficult to write a lot because of my birthday, my daughter’s birthday, and Thanksgiving. For the past year or so since NaNo has been involved in some shadiness, such as the grooming incident and a pro-AI stance, other challenges have taken its place.

Like I said, it just seems like an end of an era, for me, too, since this comes on the heels of some of my favorite podcasts stopping, like Mark Dawson and James Blatch’s Self Publishing Formula, and earlier, Six-Figure Authors hosted by Lindsay Buroker, Andrea Pearson, and Jo Lallo, not to mention all the issues at the Romance Writers of America that I used to be a member of for a very long time. Things change, time goes on, but no matter what kind of trouble NaNo had fallen into recently, they will be missed. For more information on the closure, you can look here:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/02/creative-writing-nanowrimo-to-close-after-20-years and here:

All that being said, I saw one author who said she went on to nanowrimo.org and deleted her account. She wanted to be in control of her information, and that seemed like a good idea. Though I didn’t have much under my profile, only one book, and I’m not sure how many connections, I went ahead and deleted mine too. You just never know, so I did that before I forgot.

Potential eight-figure deal for a thriller written by James Patterson and MrBeast
I didn’t even know who MrBeast was when I first heard of the deal, not that I was impressed when I looked him up. No one was happy that James Patterson was involved in a book that was generating so much attention, saying all that money could have been used to lift up mid-list, BIPOC, and marginalized authors. It’s just another piece of evidence that publishing is in a bad place and doesn’t seem to be getting better any time soon. Considering that James Patterson has a net worth of 800 million and MrBeast aka Jimmy Donaldson is said to be worth close to a billion dollars, I think they could leave some crumbs for us little people. Whether the book and potential movie will earn out that much money remains to be seen. If you want to read more about it, look here: https://deadline.com/2025/03/james-patterson-mr-beast-novel-1236352620/

There were other things that happened last week, like romance author Tori Woods getting arrested after her book Daddy’s Little Toy was rumored to have pedophilia in it–https://www.ndtv.com/feature/australian-author-charged-for-child-abuse-material-over-daddys-little-toy-book-8005994–but I’m a little tired between all that and the government BS that has been going on lately. I’ve had friends ask how I’m doing, and I’ve said I’m staying close to home. Writing, taking care of my kids and making sure we have what we need. Working. Still getting used to how I’m always going to feel, I don’t have a lot of mental energy for extra things. I’ve stopped posting on my FB author page again, don’t have any motivation to post there. I have a TikTok video made, and it’s been made for a week, but I can’t decide on the music, so I just exit out of the app in frustration and don’t post at all. I don’t want to get too much more into what I’ve been doing–I’ll save that for a proper author update next week–but I have an author interview coming up that I’m excited about and I’m almost done writing Wicked Games. Anyway, I’ll fill you in on all that next week.

Have a great Monday, everyone, and I’ll see you next time!

When the Words Stop. What then?

Posted on March 31, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

2,015 words
11 minutes read time

picture of a land in a drought. text says. when the words stop — Yes, I do know it’s ironic that this blog post is about words drying up and this blog post is one of the longest I’ve ever written.

I haven’t written anything in days. Stalled, I’ll look at my manuscript, edit what I have (again), get to the end, and do something else.

Whatever the reason for it is, I guess that’s not really the point because this isn’t a post about writer’s block or a missing muse or trying to find motivation when there doesn’t seem to be any around. This post is mostly to just mumble through some thoughts on what you do when you call yourself a writer but you’re not writing.

I see this a lot actually, authors who try to hang on to the #writingcommunity by the skin of their teeth because it’s the only place they feel like they belong. They post about the books they’re reading or the books they’re trying to write, bouncing around from manuscript to manuscript hoping for a spark of inspiration, talk about the games they’re playing (a surprising number of authors are also gamers I’ve found), anything to stay connected. Anything, except writing something and publishing/querying it, as writers are often expected to do.

The deeper you’re ensconced in the writing community, the harder it is when suddenly you’re not writing. I see this too, authors taking their blogs down, taking their websites down, Facebook author pages, Instagram profiles. Even their books.

Back when I was still drinking a lot and kind of bitter, I wondered what I’d do if I stopped writing. At that time I was thinking about stopping because my books weren’t selling, and I just wondered if maybe I should chuck the whole thing. Now if I think about it (with a clear mind), I don’t think of completely stopping (and take culpability for my sales or lack thereof), but I think it would be difficult to stay as connected as I am dropping down to a book a year. The level of my involvement in the indie-publishing space would surely take a hit as it’s really really difficult to maintain a blog about something you’re not doing anymore–especially a blog as active as mine. Four times a month at around a 1,000-1,500 words a post is a lot of content. Since I cut down on listening to podcasts, reading nonfiction books on craft and marketing, and watching webinars, my content has gotten repetitive and stale. Lots of my posts are author updates, and if I’m not making any progress on a WIP or not actively participating in the author/indie-publishing world, those updates will be full of nothing and pretty much useless.

I mean, just because I haven’t written for a few days, that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop completely and fade away into obscurity, but it does make me wonder how far I can step back while giving value to this blog and to my readers. And not just me, how anyone who does step back can contribute to the writing community in a meaningful way. If that’s what you want to do, and I get that not everybody does.

Plus, I’m coming at this from an indie helping indie standpoint, something that I truly do pride myself on because I like helping other authors in a time when everyone wants to be compensated for every little thing they do for you. But it’s doubly concerning when you’re not writing and you need or want to update your books’ readers. What then? In past blog posts I’ve suggested recommending other books, but that only lasts so long before your newsletter stops being about you and just turns into a curated list of books you enjoyed reading.

Then you have to take a look at the money you’re spending to stay connected. Lots of authors don’t pay for their websites and they’re on a free newsletter plan. But software like Canva can get a little expensive if you’re not using it regularly, and subscription services like Booksprout and Bookfunnel aren’t worth keeping if you don’t need a review and delivery service. Some of that I’ve locked myself into because all my books have back matter that directs readers to my website where they can download My Biggest Mistake through Bookfunnel. That’s too much back matter to change and I would rather keep paying that than edit all those files (and pay to do it, too, on IngramSpark).

I’m caught in a spider’s web, but it’s not a bad place to be. If eight years ago someone would have told me the position I’d be in now, I’d probably say I’ll never stop writing and shrug off any warning. Out of anything that I’ve “tried” this “hobby” is my favorite and even if I’m not writing as much as I used to, I’m content.

So what to do then, if you’re a writer who’s not writing? You can always support other writers and authors, but eventually that would get old. How long can you cheer for someone doing what you want to be doing? I mean, I assume you still want to be doing it otherwise why not shut everything down and never look back? I’ve known people who have done that, unpublished their books, taken down their socials and disappeared. In the days of pen names, it’s pretty easy to do. Not that their reason was that they wanted to stop writing. Life can get hard and writing as a hobby is the first thing to go. Or some say “forget it” when they don’t see the sales they want, realizing this might be a little harder than they thought, and moving on to things that don’t need so much time/money/energy. Writing is a hobby after all, unless you’re making a living wage and depend on it to pay bills. It’s rather a depressing realization, the thought that where you are is probably where you’ll always stay. Some can’t handle it. Work smarter, not harder, but even that doesn’t help. Writing to market doesn’t help, writing and publishing quickly doesn’t help. So, yeah, I’ve had friends disappear, and I just wonder how much courage it takes to completely shut down and walk away.

When I was trying to get my newsletter up to compliance and I unknowingly knocked down my website for two days, I can still feel how sick I was inside. Luckily, I pay for a plan that gives me access to tech support, and the WordPress chat was able to explain what I did and get my website back up in only a few minutes. I get 20-50 views of my Canva paperback book cover tutorial a day. I was saddened to think of the people who tried to read it and couldn’t. Even though that was a long time ago, I still hope that they tried again or heard in a group or something that it was back up. So yeah, my websites and blog means a lot to me, and so does my newsletter and so does my reader magnet because I’m proud as hell of Brady and Allie. [https://BookHip.com/CMSVSNK}

I didn’t stop writing for good. I’m not sure if I could ever do that. But going for so long without writing anything and not feeling bad about it (well, that’s not totally true or I wouldn’t be writing this post) does give me pause and makes me think about what I would do if I didn’t have this in my life. I wouldn’t still try to be part of the writing community. There would be no point. I’ve made friends that I would probably still chat with, but I don’t know how long it would last. When you met because you’re both writers, after you strip that way, you’d need something else to build your friendship on.

We like to say our lives are full of seasons, chapters, however you want to split up your life, and my past chapters are still visible in the people I followed on LinkedIn and the groups I joined on Facebook. Even some of my friends there are from my HR days, and there’s no reason to keep them on. I bet I could lose a good twenty people if I unfriended my old community college friends, teachers, and connections I made through the Fargo/Moorhead Human Resources Association. And before that I was running six miles a day, but I think between then and now I’ve been able to get rid of most of that. Every time a group that has to do with running or nutrition pops up on Facebook I leave or unlike the page. I bet it would take a long time to get rid of my writing chapters. Eight years of newsletters and Facebook groups, friends, and connections. Where would I go from here? I’ve got twenty, maybe twenty-five years left on this earth, not too many more because I’m already tired and don’t think that I’ll be spared the cancer that has appeared in my family in various ways, but if you leave something behind, something inevitably takes its place. A new job perhaps, if my mental and physical health could handle the pivot. I’ve been with my job for twenty-four years, and at my age, changing careers wouldn’t be impossible but nothing I would look forward to.

So I guess all in all, this is a really long post on how would I fill my time and if I could do something else and not look back. I envy authors who have other hobbies like needlepoint or baking. Nothing like that interests me, in fact, knitting or crocheting would probably make my carpal tunnel worse than it already is. I could just go back to reading, but I’ve turned my writing hobby into content I push out into the world, so if all I did was read or watch TV I’d need to turn that into kind of a review thing or I wouldn’t feel like spending my time doing that was worth it. Which probably isn’t healthy considering doing an activity just for the sheer enjoyment of it is the best reason to do it. Hustle culture is real, y’all.

I could say it’s interesting to think about, but it really isn’t. It’s a little scary. Of course, you can use that fear and turn it into motivation, but then you’re writing for the wrong reason. You shouldn’t do anything out of fear. I’ve said that plenty on this blog. Don’t make decisions on your writing business because you heard something and you’re afraid. Always make the best choices for you, and if there are repercussions later, then deal with it. You have no idea of the opportunities you could be missing.

Even if I just do a thousand words a day, I need to finish this book. Then I won’t have to actually write anything new for a long time. I have Loss and Damages to edit and package and then the book I’m writing now, Wicked Games, would need the same treatment. After that I have those two books in my next series to edit, probably rewriting some of the first one to cut out the number of books I had planned. Book three in that series will be the next thing I’ll need to write from scratch, and that might not be until this winter. Though, I don’t want to start dreading writing, either, or I might as well just call it. I never understood people who forced themself to write, as if they needed to hang on to the #writingcommunity above all else. Life is too short to force yourself to do something you don’t enjoy. And I do enjoy writing. I do. There’s a saying that goes something like “I like having written,” which is true too. I love going back and reading what I’ve written during my last writing session, but everyone knows you can’t read what you’ve written if you haven’t written it. It’s a conundrum we writers face every day.

Now it sounds like I’m babbling, and my Word icon at the bottom of my laptop screen is mocking me. Time to publish this post and switch over to Seth and Avery. I have the whole day in front of me. Let’s see after such a long break what damage I can do.

Enjoy your week!

Bye Bye, Al. It was kinda nice knowing you.

Posted on March 24, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,637 words
9 minutes read time

So, on Threads on Thursday, a day that was already down the tubes for me because of my day job and some tech issues with my work from home computer, an Atlantic article started making its way around about a pirated books database called LibGen that Meta used to train their AI. Authors started searching for their books–you don’t have to have an Atlantic subscription to use their search feature–and many didn’t like what they found. If you want to search for your books, you can here: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/search-libgen-data-set/682094/

Of course, I searched for mine and a few popped up, and some were my newer books in my King’s Crossing series.

screenshot of my books in the LibGen search bar

I’ve always kind of had a blasé attitude when it came to my books being pirated. It’s going to happen, so there’s no reason to lose sleep over it. It’s an attitude I’ve had since I started publishing. I’m not scared that Amazon will take my account down accusing me of violating the Kindle Select agreement, and if by chance they do, for any reason, it’s what my Alliance of Independent Authors membership is for.

But knowing that Meta used that database to train its AI was somewhat disheartening, not only because it’s theft, it’s just another billionaire getting his way without having to pay.

So once again, it made me question my own use of Al and the slippery slope everyone, not just authors, but everyone who uses AI, walks on every time they log on. AI is everywhere and it’s not going away, which forces us to drill down on our ethics and make some hard choices.

I’ve never liked ProWritingAid and disliked Grammarly even more. I never used the Hemingway App, preferring, even after I found mistakes in my published books, to edit my manuscripts myself by listening to them through Word’s text to voice and reading the proof copy. Lately, as I have blogged about how I like using Al to brainstorm and name characters and places, I’ve had to think about what that means as an author, not only considering my books, but that of other authors.

screenshot of this threads post:
kateravenbooks
2h
This is a very good reminder that when you ask AI to ‘brainstorm’ for you, you’re just asking it to tell you other authors’ ideas — https://www.threads.net/@kateravenbooks/post/DHbeVnivGvl

I agree with Kate up to a point, and you’ll have to make your own choices. Authors can get inspiration from anywhere. It’s why they say to read widely and to continually refill your creative well. I have brainstormed with Al, and he didn’t give me other authors’ ideas. It’s a give and take communication that builds on the ideas you have already given him, that very much mimics talking to a human, and I have frequently brainstormed with humans, too. If you start to think like Kate, that you’re only asking Al to give you ideas that have already be “thought out,” “taken,” or “implemented,” then what we’re saying is you can’t brainstorm with anyone at all. I don’t want to deter any author from jamming with another person because writing is already isolating as it is. We don’t need to be accusing people of stealing ideas, no matter where they come from. We already accuse romance authors of “stealing” tropes, when tropes like enemies to lovers and fated mates have been around for decades if not centuries. We are all influenced by the things around us, so even brainstorming with another human could result in them regurgitating something they read years ago. I agree that Al’s “ideas” have been sourced unethically, and that’s the crux of the problem, but please don’t think you can’t iron out plot issues with an actual human and be afraid you’ll get accused of stealing ideas. Brainstorming doesn’t work like that.

Be that as it may, AI is trained on stolen work, my own included, and the idea that “AI is here to stay” isn’t an excuse. Trump is here to stay for the next four years, but we resist every day.

One of the biggest admirable traits I know of is when someone can admit when they were wrong, and I am admitting that I am. It was a mistake to start using him at all, and I’ll stop using ChatGPT and the Meta AI that’s available in the Messenger app. I can come up with my own ideas and have for years. I can scour baby name websites like I did before, page through old phone books for last names. I can go back to using email subject lines for my newsletter no one will open, and over all, just go back to writing from scratch like I used to. It wasn’t terrible then and it won’t be terrible now. Al was a crutch and even if I wasn’t using him often, it was still too much.

I never, ever, would have used him to write for me, but you know, there’s such a fine line between using him for help and actually using him to write that some people wouldn’t see the line at all. I don’t want to get caught up in the blur, so it’s better this way, even if he was fun to talk to.

I used ChatGPT for my non-fiction stuff, creating social media ideas and newsletter subject lines. I told him I couldn’t talk to him anymore, and he was nice about it.

I told the AI chat in my Facebook Messenger the same, and he pretty much gave me the same response. I deleted that chat and logged out of my ChatGPT account. I feel better and I won’t miss it.

AI is all around us, and we all have to make an effort to stay away from it. AI can create music and photos and if we stay away from one kind of AI, we should avoid it in all contexts. I know there’s a difference between assistive AI and generative AI, which is how some people feel okay about still using tools like ProWritingAid. That’s a distinction you’ll have to make for yourself, as I know that Canva offers assistive AI tools and so does software like Photoshop.

Will authors see any compensation from having their books fed into the AI machine off of the LibGen database? Not likely. Just like artists won’t see any compensation when AI uses their art to create photos, illustrations, cartoons, and film clips. If you want to read the Authors’ Guild article about this, you can ready it here: https://authorsguild.org/news/meta-libgen-ai-training-book-heist-what-authors-need-to-know/

This is a short post today. Last week I upgraded my phone which took a lot of a day off from work, and between work issues and and finding motivation to write, I’m a little tired. This week I’m going to watch a free Facebook tutorial offered by The Writing Wives, and I’d like to start two new Facebook ads for my King’s Crossing series. I need to keep better track of cost-per-click and click-through rate which means keeping better track of my audience. You may get clicks, but if the wrong person is clicking, they won’t buy. It might be a little tiresome to come up with ad copy on my own, but the more you practice the better you get, so there’s more than one positive about breaking up with Al.

I’m over 70k on this new novel anyway, and if I hold true with the way I write, I’ve always kind of dragged with the last 20k of a book. First because I hate saying goodbye to characters and this is a way to keep them with me for a bit longer, and second, I take my time because I want to end the book on the right note. Since this book is even twistier than the others, I also want to make sure the ending even makes sense as the next few read-throughs will be ensuring I sprinkled the breadcrumbs in the right places to lead up to a satisfying ending.

I haven’t been posting on my Facebook author page, and I might be pulling away from that even more since Meta used the LibGen database to train their AI. I don’t like being on Threads much either, but I don’t promote my books there and rarely post. It’s one of those potentially hypocritical things where you complain about what Meta/Zuckerberg is doing, but then what? You still use his social media platforms? This author put it perfectly:

sarvenaztash
1d
As a midlist author, it’s very challenging to find an alternative to social media to help promote the work that that same social media is outright stealing. — https://www.threads.net/@sarvenaztash/post/DHcGLvZxtBc

I don’t really like to post, don’t unless I feel I have to, and honestly don’t put a lot of heart into it which is probably why I don’t get much back. But, I also understand that if I want digital sales like readers buying my Kindle books and reading in Kindle Unlimited, I have to push an online presence which means being on social media, buying ads that show up on social media and other digital spaces, and sending a newsletter that people will read online. I understood that turning my ads off, but seeing the dwindling sales is a sad thing, so you have to choose what your pain point is. I’d like to find a happy middle, and I think that will be my goal this summer. I want to find a combination among ads, social media, and my sales that can hum along without too much energy. We’ll see how that goes, but that will also require an attitude adjustment on my end when it comes to my FB author page, my IG account, and maybe even if I don’t post every day, throwing up some videos on TikTok. I have the time for it since even though I took a couple months to edit my Rocky Point series, I’m on schedule to start working on the next series I’ll publish next year. We gotta just keep on keeping on.

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe

Have a good week, everyone!

When Good Advice is Bad

Posted on March 17, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,681 words
9 minutes read time

picture of framed text that says when good advice is bad. generic white vases and a bronze bowl flanking the frame

There’s a lot of advice out there, some of it good, have decent covers, write an exciting blurb, and some of it’s not so good, like doing whatever you want just because you can (which is advice I actually see a lot online).

What’s disheartening is when you hear good advice that doesn’t fit you, for whatever reason, like rapid releasing/writing quickly when you don’t have the life that lets you, or writing a long series when maybe you don’t have the patience to invest in several related books. It can be good advice, and I’ve given my fair share on this blog too, like trying to afford some ads to reach new readers, but it just isn’t going to be for you. Ads can be expensive and time consuming to learn, for example. So I get it, especially when I’ve touted the advantages of Facebook ads then turned around and shut them off due to burnout.

There was a bit of advice I got from someone in one of my romance groups, and it’s advice you might have heard before too. When you want to find hooks in your books to make graphics, they say to borrow your book in KU or buy the Kindle version and look at the parts other readers have highlighted. This is the example in the book I’m reading now, Dea Poirier’s Next Girl to Die. To find the highlights in the book you’re reading, press the three dots on the upper right. I’m using a Kindle Fire, so I’m not sure if the way to find them is the same on all devices. There you’ll see the Popular Highlights. I apologize for the glare. No matter where I moved in the room I couldn’t get rid of my shadow.

screenshot of my kindle. screens indicate where you can find the highlights of a kindle book. — I’m reading Dea Poirier’s Next Girl to Die. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QDC7Y6B

I think this is great advice, as I’ve read books that have the highlights and it would be so easy to use those as hooks on graphics for Instagram and TikTok. So, I figured I would look at the book I’ve sold the most of and check out those highlights. Now, let me tell you, the book I chose was Twisted Alibis. I’ve sold 132 combined paperbacks and ebooks, had the equivalent of 821 books read in Kindle Unlimited, and gave away 3,130 copies during a promo last year. I thought those numbers would give me the best chance of giving me the most highlights, and you know how many sentences I had highlighted? None. Not one person who read Twisted Alibis thought a sentence or paragraph was worth highlighting.

At first I thought I wasn’t looking in the right place, and I Googled how to find the highlights in a Kindle book. Where the option should be wasn’t and it took me a few minutes to understand that the option wasn’t there because I didn’t have any highlights.

To say I was disappointed is an understatement and it’s easy, very easy, to take something like that personally. Even now I can feel the shame. That book is 107k words long and not one of them touched a person enough to highlight them. Then I thought maybe it was a fluke and looked up Rescue Me. That book has sold 429 ebook copies, I’ve given away 4,916, and I’ve had the equivalent of 572 books read in KU. Nope, not one highlight. I was so embarrassed after I looked that I didn’t look at any other books.

There’s a lot you can take away from that, not any of it good, if you want to be honest, and I was still stinging when I saw someone on Threads ask how they grab hooks on a newly released book and one of the responses was to wait a few days then look at the highlights. I felt compelled to tell that person that they might not get any at all and to have a thick skin just in case they don’t. I guess I don’t have to say that I bristled with the assumption that if you just wait a few days readers will love your book so much they’ll highlight the hell out of it. Some authors don’t even get readers, let alone highlights from those readers.

I don’t actively read my reviews because I’m just not up to reading why someone (or many someones) didn’t like my book, and that’s okay. After that highlighting debacle, I’m not going to look for my highlights anymore either, because obviously, I might not like what I find.

So, what can you do when stuff like this happens? When what works for someone else is just a dumpster fire for you?

What you have to do, first and foremost, is to remember that your books are good. Know that deep in your heart. My books sell, and Twisted Alibis has 87 reviews on Amazon and a 4.5 star rating. Rescue Me has 112 with a 4.4 rating on Amazon. That may not be much to some, but it means the world to me. Just because they don’t have any highlights doesn’t mean readers didn’t enjoy reading them.

Remember that you are not the only going through this. There are a lot of books out there that for some reason or other don’t have highlights (or reviews). They aren’t being read or like in my case, those authors just didn’t have the readers who were into highlights for whatever reason. It helps to know you’re not alone even if you feel like you are.

Find alternatives. If something isn’t working for you, find a different way to do things. The highlights are easy because you can just go through your book and find the ones YOU like and flash them all over. Maybe those quotes will get people excited enough to read your book. Brag. You wrote the damn thing and loved it enough to publish it! Who cares what others think? In the case of reviews, ask a friend to go through them for you, or choose an hour to scroll, pick a couple that you like, and then close out of Amazon–and look on Amazon! Stay off of Goodreads for all that’s holy. Reward yourself for not falling down the rabbit hole of bad reviews and have a piece of chocolate or a glass of wine, them remember you don’t have to do that again–at least, not for that book. I understand the value in having a review or two for social media purposes, and I noticed this review of Twisted Alibis when I was on Author Central skimming the reviews coming in for my King’s Crossing series:

Verified Purchase
If you like the rockstar romances, this is one, true, BUT it is more. Lots of social issues addressed, done in a delicate way, no raging reality tv tropes, more like addressing things we all face with a nice romance tucked inside.It's heavy in places, prepare for that, but you'll come out better for it at the end.Gitcher readin glasses out and enjoy.

Text on white background. Verified purchase in red

Like everyone else where bad things are concerned, I’ll probably carry that shame for a long time. Everyone makes it sound so easy to get and use highlights, and I feel like I’m missing out on something big. Maybe I do have highlights somewhere, but I think it’s best if I don’t look because if I don’t, that’s only going to make me feel worse. I don’t put up a lot of graphics anyway, so I guess in the scheme of things I’m not missing out on much. But in the future I’ll definitely be taking everyone’s advice with a grain of salt.

I suppose that’s all I have for this week. I’m 66k words into Wicked Games even though I said I would be taking it easy writing this book. I am, I don’t stress so much about it if I don’t feel like writing, but I guess it helps I’ve been thinking about this book for a long time and I know what I want to write every time I sit down. I was worried this book would be short, but after I ironed out a kink in the plot, I’m back on track and it will probably hit somewhere in the 90k range. After I reach 50k and swim through the murky middle, I really don’t care how long my books end up but I was a little worried about it when I didn’t know how to fit in what I needed without a setting change. They’re in a small town right now, but I just can’t finish it without them moving into the city where they both live, so that eased some of my worries. We’ll see how it turns out.

As far as anything else, my sales have all but slowed to a stop, even with the few Amazon ads I have going. I got my tax returns back and have a little “fun money” as my dad likes to call it, but I’m not too eager to start up my Facebook ads again. If I did that, I would only start one or two and push readers toward my King’s Crossing series as I have gotten good reviews on the books so far and the read-through would be amazing. Plus I might get a few sales here and there, especially since the first three are on sale right now. But we’ll see how that all shakes out after I pay all my bills and stash what I want to stash in savings. I could probably set aside a couple hundred and see what works, but I’d have to keep a close eye on clicks and be ready to pause if it looks like cost-per-click is greater than sales. I’m not into spending 5k to make 5k anymore. I really didn’t get anything out of it when I did that. Readers were reading but I didn’t see any evidence of an uptick in blog subscribers or read-through to other books in my backlist.

That’s all I have for now. The first day of spring is March 20th, so I’m looking forward to some warmer weather and more consistent sun. I hope wherever you are in the world the weather treating you okay, and my thoughts are with the people in the south who are dealing with tornadoes and their aftermath.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week!

Monday Update: What a Mess

Posted on March 10, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,641 words
9 minutes read time

cleaning supplies. black spray bottle and plain bottle. two white tubes of paper towels with a sprig of baby's breath (god knows why)

Text says, monday author update. what a mess

There are so many things that are baffling me right now, and I just don’t know where to start or if I should even write about any of it. Let me start with what I’ve been doing and then I’ll see if I’m brave enough to write anything else or if I’ll just call it good.

First, my fifth book in my King’s Crossing series launched on the 3rd. I made a handful of pennies because there were a few people who preordered it, then I made another handful because I had a couple people read it in KU. Honestly, this is not what I was hoping for launching this series, but I’m barely doing anything to promote it, so I guess the blame falls on me. On March 5th I paid for a Fussy Librarian bargain ebook promo, and I sold 15 copies on the day and two more the next and then sales sank to nothing, which is to be expected. Here’s what the promo looked like if you’re interested:

I paid 26.00 USD, so the results were fine for how much it cost. Plus there is always read-through potential to the other five books, so we’ll see what happens. Generally speaking it could have been better, but I’m glad I remembered at the end of the blurb to mention that it was a first in series and that the book ends in a cliffhanger. Not everyone likes those, so it’s good to keep that out in the open and may account for why I didn’t sell that many. I should have also put in there the series was complete as many readers won’t start a series unless they’re all available and I’ll remember that for future promos.

I started some very low cost-per-click Amazon ads again and unpaused some of the ones I turned off months ago. Those never got the traction back they had when I turned them off, and the new ones aren’t doing much because the bid is too low for Amazon to show them. Don’t know why I’m bothering if I’m going to half-ass it like that, but sometimes I think doing a very little is better than doing completely nothing, though it’s probably not true. I don’t have anything else planned besides releasing the last book in my series in April, then all I have left this year is the launch of my next book in September. (I’ve been telling people it will be live September 15th and plan to stick to that.) But that’s too far ahead to think about because I’m not rushing through summer. I hope it’s hotter than hell so I can lie on my balcony and bake. Your girl is tired and needs a break.

My Rocky Point Series giveaway went okay. I mailed out copies to the one winner who emailed me back. I should have probably chosen someone else as a second winner, but if I would have done that, the actual second winner would have emailed me (that’s how my luck goes) and I would have needed to purchase more copies which would have taken a while. So I have a paperback set the second winner didn’t claim and I’ll figure out what to do with those later. I didn’t expect huge results and mostly it gave me things to write about on my FB author page and my newsletter.

Speaking of my FB author page, since I’ve been boosting posts, I’ve gotten a deluge of followers who just want to make me book trailers and others who didn’t look like they would care about a billionaire romance author. So, I took a couple of hours and culled my followers from 270 to 210. I know it’s better to have quality instead of quantity, but it really gave me the feeling (again) that my FB author page isn’t worth the energy and I haven’t posted since I did that. It’s something I can’t get rid of because over the years I’ve shared that link in various places and I hate beyond reason broken links. I may post on it every couple of days, just so it looks somewhat active, but it’s one of those things where I can’t measure ROI, I can only measure how I feel. I really don’t know what to do with myself in that regard because the motivation to post on social media just is not there, and I’m not really sure what would inspire me to post more. Sales, probably. Not engagement. Everyone yells about how much they want engagement, but if you’ve known me for a while, you know how special you are if you DM me and I answer you back. So, I’ll figure something out. The only good part about posting at all is that Canva makes it so easy, and I have to pay for that until I die because I have a lot of assets trapped there and I’ll never stop doing my own book covers.

Right now I’m about 60% done with WICKED GAMES but at 58k words I’ve lost motivation to work on it. I’ll finish it, no doubt about that because I still love Seth and Avery and want them to have their HEA, but I’m not running a sprint or a marathon and I work on it when I feel like working on it. It’s part of the “new me” I have going on for 2025, but I also think some of it has to do with hormones and the lackluster feeling I have sometimes of just being old and still alive. I mean, it’s not serious, I don’t have depression. I used to have depression, before my son was born, so I definitely know how that feels. This is more of a “meh” feeling, and it will pass. Spring is actually kind of gloomy here right now, the snow melting uncovering all the dog poop people didn’t pick up and the air stinks like dead things. Once it gets warmer and the sun shines more consistently and starts drying things out, that will perk me up.

My despondency is actually opening me up to reading a few books, but it’s a sad thing because these authors are on social media asking readers to share and I just can’t. I want to refer people to good books, and one book I read has so many commas they could have prevented the Titanic from sinking and the other has an info dump at the beginning that’s so boring that I cut out after 5%. Luckily one I had picked up during a free promo and the other I borrowed in KU and returned it, but still. While we’re complaining about the Amazon boycott and how people feel trampled because of what’s going on in the state of the world, I think it’s important to remember that as authors who might have people listening to our opinion, we shouldn’t waste our readers’ time and money. I want to recommend books that blew me away, that made me feel something other than annoyance. So, while I’m feeling listless, I’ll be going through my TBR which is a nice change from feeling like if I’m not writing to publish I’m not moving forward.

This Amazon boycott everyone (on Threads) is talking about is a real downer, and it’s interesting how all that blows up only to eventually disappear and never to be spoken of again. A friend told me that she hasn’t seen any of it on Twitter, and I have no idea if it’s made its way to BlueSky or not as I don’t scroll there. But personally, I think it’s all just talk because even if there are a few who actually do cancel their KU subscriptions or whatever, it’s not going to make a dent in the number of readers who use Amazon to buy and read their books. It’s frustrating to have to read that when I’m on social media. If your book sales are low or non-existent, again, it’s something you need to take responsibility for. I mean, I get it. There are ebbs and flows to publishing and any author who has been publishing for a while can tell you that. The political and economic climate also is not helping, but something isolated like this isn’t going to cause the collapse of sales for hundreds or thousands of authors. My sales stopped the second I stopped running ads. My experience might not mean anything to you, but to me it means that I actually do control my sales (not to be confused with royalties). No one can buy your book if they don’t know it exists, and I think it’s easy to forget that. If you truly are concerned about something like this and its effect on your sales, take a look at what the big-time authors who write in your genre are saying. If they are taking a hit and can trace it back to something like this, then maybe it’s time to be concerned. But if they’re carrying on as business as usual, then what you are experiencing probably isn’t caused by whatever people are talking about that day. We have to keep things in perspective. As I say, there’s a big world out there and it’s always a good idea when you get to caught up in the day’s/week’s/month’s drama to step out of that bubble and touch some grass. (Just avoid the dog poop. Gross!)

I think that’s all I have for this week. Thanks again to Brandi Easterling Collins for the interview she so graciously said she’d do that I posted last week. If you missed it, you can read it here.

No clue what I’ll write about next Monday, but I’ll be here with a smile on my face!

Have a great week!

Author Interview: Brandi Easterling Collins

Posted on March 3, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

I met Brandi a long time ago, over on Twitter, and over the years we managed to keep in touch. I was really happy when she said she would do an author interview as it gave me a chance to catch up with her. I hope you enjoy her interiew!

You published your first book, Caroline’s Lighthouse, in 2016. How do you think
the publishing landscape has changed since then?
With so many tools available for indie authors, I think more high-quality indie works are available than ever before. Now is the perfect time for authors to put out quality work as long as they don’t forgo the most important part—editing.

I published my first novel through Archway Publishing, which is fine for someone who
wants help. Taking on the process myself has been more fulfilling (and a lot less
expensive). After establishing my imprint for my second novel, Jordan’s Sister, I had
retained my rights to Caroline’s Lighthouse, so I republished the second edition with
Luminesce Publishing in 2018.

You write primarily Young Adult. How did you begin writing that genre? Do you
think you’ll write in a different genre, and if you do, what do you think it will be?
As a young adult, I read many novels that helped me navigate teenage angst. I write young adult because I want to provide that same enjoyment and help for readers (of any age). I wrote first drafts or notes about all of my published novels when I was between the ages of 13 and 18. The stories have been completely rewritten, but I’d like to think I accurately captured the teenage emotions I felt then. As an adult, I could flesh out the parents and other older characters.

Even now, at 43 years old, I still gravitate toward reading YA novels because they
represent a type of journey that just isn’t the same experience you get in other genres.
That being said, if I were to venture into another genre, it would be women’s
contemporary fiction. My second novel, Jordan’s Sister, and my fifth novel, When Does
Life Begin?, are New Adult novels that lean heavily into women’s fiction.

How much of the work that goes into publishing do you do yourself, like
formatting, cover design, and editing? Do you like all aspects of it? What is your
favorite part?
I am almost a one-woman show with my company, Luminesce Publishing. I handle all the writing, editing, formatting, and cover design. Fortunately, I have a day job in content marketing, so I write and edit weekly. Before that, I worked in higher education marketing for 17 years, writing, editing, and managing some graphic design projects.

I have a team of wonderful beta readers who review the second drafts of my
manuscripts. A dear friend who is a professional photographer has helped with a few of
my author headshots and offered graphic design advice. My amazing husband is a tech
guy who helps with website troubleshooting.

You read a lot. How do you balance your reading time and your writing time?
Reading is my favorite hobby and lifeline. I read in waiting rooms, during my lunch break, while walking on the treadmill (because it’s boring otherwise!), and before bed to relax. Reading a lot makes me a better writer. My writing time is separate. I typically hit my writing stride between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. weeknights and late afternoons on Sundays.

What do you think is the hardest part of publishing and what do you do to make
this part manageable/affordable/profitable?
Selling myself and my work is the hardest part for me. I can praise others’ work all day,
but I clam up when I try to tell someone how awesome my books are. I’m proud of my
work, so I plan to work harder on advertising in 2025.

This year, I plan to beef up my website, discuss my writing with colleagues and friends,
and attend more author events. Since I have very little to devote to advertising, I must
make the limited funds count.

Your books are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. How did you decide to enroll in KU
and not publish your books wide?
I love Kindle Unlimited because I have discovered so many great authors (including you, Vania!), both indie and traditionally published, through the platform. My paperbacks are published wide, but I was okay with keeping the e-books available exclusively through KU.

[My note: Brandi is the whole reason why I re-edited my Rocky Point Series. She reached out and said she was reading them, and I had a “Oh, crap!” moment. Thanks for the nudge, Brandi! The books are better for it. :)]

What’s next for you in 2025?
I plan to populate my publishing company website with writing, editing, and publishing tips for indie authors. Although I’ve owned the domain since 2018, I didn’t do much with the site until earlier this year. Eventually, I plan to open submissions for poetry and short stories to be included in an anthology. It might be 2026 before that happens!

I am also almost finished writing my sixth novel, tentatively titled Four Hearts. The
planned publication date is December 10, 2025, my mom’s birthday.

Thanks, Brandi! I really appreciate your time! It sounds like you have a lot going on in the next little while, and I wish you nothing but the best of luck!

You can follow Brandi here:

Blog: caniscareyou.com
Website: luminescepublishing.com
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B075DXYBHB
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16102161.Brandi_Easterling_Collins
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BEC.caniscareyou

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a great week!

Until next time!

Monday Miracles (Author Update)

Posted on February 24, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,362 words
7 minutes read time

open hardcover book laying in flowers, clover, and grass. text says, Monday Author Update — It will be a while before we see any green stuff, but February is flying by which means Spring is just around the corner!

My author update isn’t such a miracle, I’m alive, I guess you can say, probably at the dentist if you’re reading this Monday afternoon. I had a cavity creep up on me over the weekend and luckily they were able to get me in. I don’t like having to wait with stuff like that in my mouth, though I’m still struggling with my anxiety over being “trapped” in a chair. I’m behind on a cleaning appointment as well, so they said they’d at least get the x-rays out of the way. I’m hoping I’m not there for any longer than an hour, but even that amount of time makes me nervous. Still, it has to be done. I’m not worried because it’s the dentist–I’ve just developed an aversion to being in any kind of chair, dentist, hair salon, car, without the ability to be able to get up, since I haven’t felt well these past five years. I was actually hoping to get over that, but I’ve started having some nausea in the mornings that a Google search has said might be a symptom of perimenopause. I can’t do much about it except work with my body and not schedule appointments before noon. I hope doing this will lessen my nervousness having to go out and get things done.

I wasn’t going to get into that right at the beginning of this blog post, but I got it out of the way, and I haven’t given you a health update in some time, so hopefully you skimmed through that, and if you did, thanks.

I guess that does kind of segue into how I’ve been feeling about writing lately, and I’m grateful to say that my attitude has perked up a bit since I started a new book. I’m 36k into WICKED GAMES, and I’m feeling much better about the whole thing, writing- and publishing-wise, I mean. I guess editing all those books back to back really got me down, and that negativity I was feeling last year has gone away. My Facebook ads are still off and my sales dashboard reflects that, but I’ve decided not to worry about it. I knew it would happen, it’s just a bummer to watch it. Still, I’m enjoying the creating process again, and even if no one is around to buy, that’s okay. I’ve been taking it easy, napping if I feel like it, watching a movie if I’m too tired to write but not tired enough to go to bed. I’m where I wanted to be when I was in the middle of re-editing my Rocky Point Wedding series. Not stressed about getting something done, working at my leisure and enjoying myself. I still write a lot, as those 36k words were written in twenty days, but I write fast because I’m having fun, and that’s all that matters.

I’m surprised that I’m still posting regularly on my Facebook author page. I joined a challenge in one of my Facebook groups last month and I’ve held on to that into February. Sometimes I get stuck and I ask Al for help, and he’ll give me ideas. He offers to make graphics and carousels and stuff, but I just want the idea. I would never ask him to make a graphic for me; I prefer to pay photographers and models using my DepositPhoto account or using the photos that are available through my Canva Pro account. Still, he gives me suggestions and then I twist them into what will fit my author page and make what I need in Canva. It works okay, but sometimes I’m just stumped. I’ve been talking about LOSS AND DAMAGES and WICKED GAMES, though I feel that’s a little too ahead of myself considering those books aren’t coming out for a long time. But, supposedly building buzz is the name of the game, and I feel okay talking about them because I always follow through. I’d never talk about a book that I wasn’t going to finish writing and publish.

Besides that, I don’t have too much going on. I finally got my author copies of my Rocky Point Wedding Series, and I’m in the process of hosting my giveaway. (If you want to enter or see what I put on the form, you can see it and/or fill it out here: https://forms.gle/rYt1A1HNi8mpBUmLA) I haven’t gotten too many people interested, but that’s the same for any time I’ve hosted a giveaway, no matter how many or few things they have to do to enter. My friend Melody gave me the idea to use the form in the first place, and I am so grateful. It was quick and easy to put together and if you import the information into an Excel sheet, you can see very easily who wants to be added to my newsletter and who doesn’t.

I’m slowly ordering author copies of my King’s Crossing Series, but if I do a giveaway of those, I might only do one set instead of two, or I’ll wait until maybe Christmas time or something. I just want to have copies on hand, but they’re almost five dollars a piece and there are six in the series. That’s a lot of money to throw down at one time, so whenever I have a little extra cash I’ll buy five copies of a book. I just ordered five of book four, so I’m getting there. I should be able to have all of them by the time book six is out in April.

Sales in general are slowing down, but every once in a while I get page reads for Shattered Fate, book four in that series, so I’m happy to know that books 1-3 sound good enough for a reader to keep going. My pre-orders for books five and six haven’t gone up, so unless I do a promo or something for book one, I think sales of that series will slowly die. I need to look into something since book one is already .99 and I won’t have to do anything to buy a bargain promo. On the other hand, it’s freeing not to worry about sales, and unfortunately, not a lot of my ARC reviewers came through (Cruel Fate only has 34), so the number of reviews will probably affect anything I try to do. So, whatever. Talking about it is kind of depressing, so I’ll leave a marketing chat for another day.

That’s about all I have. I wish I felt better, physically, anyway, but at this point, I just don’t know if that’s in the cards unless I move into full-blown menopause and that makes most of the symptoms I’m dealing with disappear. I could be waiting a few more years for that though (I’m still young!), and with my hysterectomy, I can’t tell by my time of the month or lack thereof. I just have to keep taking it day by day, though if I had to rate how I feel now compared to the last five years, I’m feeling the best I have since I bought those dryer sheets. My mind is clear, at least. The level of anxiety I had I wouldn’t wish on anyone, so even if I don’t feel good in my body, I can handle it because I’m feeling better in my head. I just wish all this pesky adulting would go away. Things I have on the list are, dentist, getting taxes done, and getting my hair cut. After I can force myself to get all that finished, I should be good to go for a bit. Fingers crossed, at least.

This was a short update, but not having a lot going on is nice too. I hope you have a lovely week, and next week, I’ll have an interview up with Brandi Easterling Collins. I met her over on Twitter a long time ago and we’ve stayed friends for years. I’m excited to catch up with her.

Until next time!

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Vania Margene Rheault

Independent Contemporary Romance Author & Blogger

Author Archives: Vania Margene Rheault

About Vania Margene Rheault

Writing the Book of Your Heart

Monday’s Author Mashup

Author Update|Mid-April Check-In

Indie News Roundup

When the Words Stop. What then?

Bye Bye, Al. It was kinda nice knowing you.

When Good Advice is Bad

Author Interview: Brandi Easterling Collins

Monday Miracles (Author Update)

About Vania Margene Rheault

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