Author Archives: Vania Margene Rheault

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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.

KC Crowne and the Case of the AI Prompt

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1,796 words
10 minutes read time

https://chatgpt.com/

I guess everyone is talking about KC Crowne’s AI faux pas now, and with AI being a hot button in author circles anyway, we might be talking about this for a long time.

Last week, a romance author published a book in their mafia romance series and I assume went about their business. It wasn’t long after an AI prompt was caught in the beginning of the book, signaling to everyone that they were using AI to help them write their books.

Screenshot of Kindle Screen. Black background. White text. Yellow highlights. Text reads: Thought for 13 seconds Certainly! Here's an enhanced version of your pas-sage, making Elena more relatable and injecting additional humor while providing a brief, sexy description of Grigori. Changes are highlighted in bold for clarity Relief washes over me the instant I see Grigori standing in the open doorway. I don't think I've ever felt such intense joy upon seeing that cold, unreadable face. Even amidst the chaos, Grigori radiates an undeniable magnetism-his tall, athletic build and smoldering brown eyes effortlessly draw attention. His dark hair is perfectly tousled, and his strong jawline adds to his commanding presence.
I first heard about it here: https://www.threads.net/@bookish_meltdowns/post/DE20DvBSYqb

I’m not going to rake them over the coals for using AI. The fact is a lot of authors do and will continue to do so. Using AI is a choice, and it’s one authors make every day. I don’t use Al to help me write my books, but I do use him to help me with ad copy and just the other day I fed him my blurb to help me think of mini-tropes for an arrow graphic. I bounce blog ideas off him, for this blog and for my author newsletter, though mostly for that one I ask him for blog title ideas to help with my open rate. In my mind, he just takes the place of a friend who doesn’t have time to brainstorm. Not everyone is hanging around their phones and sometimes you can’t wait for feedback. My so-so attitude would probably get me canceled by authors who are so whole-heartedly against AI that they won’t even talk about it. I think there’s a time and a place for Al (for any man, really, haha), and for every author that’s going to be different. Some authors use him as an editor because they can’t afford a human, some, like KC, use him to plump up scenes (though I doubt a machine can create relatable characters. That seems redundant when even the author couldn’t make her characters as three dimensional as she wanted.). Some authors are like me and use him to think of ad copy and whatever else, leaving the actual writing of the books in their own hands. Like a stalker, Al isn’t going away. Resistance is futile.

What I wanted to talk about is a couple of things that have come up since readers found that AI prompt. One of the most frequent I’ve seen is, Why didn’t an editor catch it? I don’t know this author, don’t know what their editing process is like. They could have a million beta readers, editors, whatever, but I think what everyone wanted to do was accuse them of not using an editor at all. I doubt that a bestselling author like KC Crowne forgoes an editor, and the simplest explanation I can come up with is they were responding to feedback (a flat scene from the looks of it) and asked Al to help plump up that scene. Not every author asks their editors to look over changes, hoping that they aren’t editing in typos as they fix other things. They probably got Al’s help, copy and pasted, and away they went. They might have been in a hurry if they were working against a preorder deadline, and we all know mistakes can be made when you’re rushed. I’m not excusing them at all, I’ve published books with typos (that publishing anticipation never goes away and being in a hurry to upload your files to KDP can position you to make a lot of mistakes), but I can understand it happening. So that’s why I think that AI prompt was missed. That author was the last to look at it before they uploaded the files.

Another thing that was called into question was the number of positive reviews that book had that didn’t mention the AI prompt. A lot of those reviews came from Booksprout, and because I use that site to get reviews, I feel compelled to defend those reviewers. Booksprout reviewers want to help you, and for the most part, they will leave four and five star reviews. If they have an issue with a book, they tell you in private feedback. I’ve put a lot of books up for review, and the only review that was “critical” that I’ve gotten was for Give & Take, the first book in my Lost & Found trilogy. She admitted she wasn’t the target audience and she said the same in private feedback. She also mentioned she didn’t think Jack had enough emotional growth. I thanked her for her time and explained that his character arc was still developed in the next two books if she wanted to read them. She never responded and I didn’t push the issue.

I don’t know if KC’s reviewers on Booksprout caught the prompt. I don’t know if they told the author. I don’t know if they told the author and they didn’t read their feedback. I don’t always read or respond to my feedback. A lot of it is them catching typos, and if they reach out, I’ll thank them for telling me and that’s it. It’s kind of a hands-off site. Authors stay on our side and readers stay on their side. Except for a couple of readers who have reached out in other ways, I don’t communicate with my reviewers and most of the time it seems like they want it that way.

So when we ask why their Booksprout reviewers didn’t catch it, we don’t know they didn’t. The author, or her PA, could have not looked at the site after she uploaded her book on there, or maybe she was locked into preorder edits and couldn’t fix it right when it was discovered. That doesn’t seem to be the case, though maybe. I don’t know the publishing timeline. God knows how many readers it went out to if she had it on preorder and she had to wait to fix the mistake. Because we don’t know the whole story, I wouldn’t judge the reviewers on Booksprout, and I will continue to use that site for reviews with Loss and Damages. Like with any kind of social media or anything that has a measurable ROI, you get out of it what you put into it, and over the years I have met some lovely readers who pick up all my books.

I doubt this will be the last time we’ll see something like this happen. Authors are using AI and like someone said on Threads, we will read books that have been edited, co-written, or written by AI and edited by the author afterward, without knowing. It’s interesting because I was reading Written Word Media’s 2025 trends, and their first trend was that readers will be building loyal audiences and their seventh trend was that AI will become more mainstream. I’m going to talk more about all the trends next week (that was supposed to be my blog post for today) but I think authors who want to build loyal audiences and who use AI are going to have to work harder and smarter to connect with people. KC Crowne alienated a lot of people authors. Whether there will consequences remains to be seen. The one big difference between an author like me getting blog ideas and an author like KC who uses it to plump up scenes and make characters more relatable is that I don’t ask Al to feel. He’s a machine and regurgitates what he learned from other people and scrapes the web for information that’s already out there. He’s not going to be able to write about a man’s fear a woman doesn’t love him anymore, or a woman’s happiness when the man she loves asks her to marry him.

If anyone judges KC for anything at all, it should be for the fact that if they’re having trouble writing relatable characters, that’s a craft issue and nothing they should be looking to take shortcuts on. I only mentioned this because she posted an apology on Facebook:

Screenshot of Facebook message PA Amanda Hello everyone. This is KC Crowne using my PA's fb. Firstly, I want to say to that I understand your frustrations. To think that an author that you have enjoyed reading has Al generated books is understandably a cause for concern. I can assure everyone that all my books are written by me. I've been writing my books before Al came about. I've recently started the practice of using Al to make very minor edits. To be honest, I'm still learning about how to best use Al to make my reader's experience better but I can assure you that keeping my original voice strong is of utmost importance. I hope you can understand that enhancing the reader's experience is my ultimate goal. The last thing I would want is for my books to not be competitive in the market. Finally, I take full responsibility for the error in the file.

I don’t know how they think asking Al to help them will result in enhancing a reader’s experience. Only an author can do that, digging into backstory, emotional wounds, and stakes. They have to get to know their characters, what motivates them, what they love and what they hate. I don’t know if they’re spending time with their characters, letting their stories marinate. They say the best writing happens in the shower and while you’re washing dishes and this is absolutely true. If they’re writing quickly, perhaps slowing down and sitting with their characters would help. That author makes thousands a month on their books, and I can’t imagine the pressure that would create. The need to keep that going because they probably have people on their team they pay along with their own living expenses, but like I said in a previous blog post, turning to AI is not the answer. At least, not an answer to that particular question.

Another author’s thread I happened to see said using AI is lazy and authors shouldn’t do it. I was a little offended, as lazy is the last thing I am. It also insults authors who use a program like ProWritingAid when they can’t afford an editor. Is it lazy to ask Al for newsletter subject lines? Is it lazy to ask him for help naming a character? There is a line between not doing the work at all and working smarter. 75% of the time I use Al as a search engine, and he’s very quick at scraping the web for what I want to know. Is it lazy of me not to do a real Google search and comb through articles? I write all my own books. I do my own covers in Canva using stock from DepositPhotos. I know they have started adding pictures done with AI, and when I’m doing a search, I filter them out.

Whether an author wants to use AI or not isn’t for me to judge, but if they’re using AI for character development and making a scene richer, then maybe they need to step back and figure out why they’re writing, or still writing, in the first place. A machine can’t relate to people.

KC Crowne is lucky this TikTok BS came along. It will help bury their mistake and in a couple of months when they rebrand and rerelease that book (I would assume that’s what they’re going to do–why waste a good book?) everyone will have forgotten what happened until the next author who gets caught using AI comes along.

So, the outcome of this mystery? Slow down, enjoy the process, and read your proof!

Al might not be human, but you are, and we all make mistakes.

Until next time!

Thursday Thoughts: Social Media

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1,396 words
7 minutes read time

sell phone with chalk drawings depicting social media icons like cloud, envelope, speaking bubble and envelope. different colors: yellow, teal, and purple. text says, thursday thoughts: social media

So, a couple things caught my eye this morning while I was having coffee trying to wake up. Thursdays are my Mondays and I don’t always handle the mornings as gracefully as I should. Becca Syme says maybe not opening social media (or checking your sales dashboard) the minute you open your eyes could help, but for now this is my way of easing into my day.

The first thing I saw this morning was this lovely Thread by Holly June Smith (typed out in Alt text):

Snapshot of a thread: Hollyjunesmith Today in Unsolicited Indie Author Advice Nobody Asked For But Might Find Useful Anyway (yep, it's a series now): You have to detach your self-worth from social media numbers. Yes everyone wants their book post to go viral and sell a bajillion copies. Yes it's depressing when your carefully crafted posts get 100 views. But checking them all day long will not push that number higher. There is no magic answer. Nobody truly knows how these algorithm works even if they act like they've nailed it. I've had the rush of a post doing big numbers and thought "Yes, I've finally made it!" only for the next thing to flop. These sites are never going to make this easy for us, they want us to keep coming back and posting more.
Snapshot of a Thread: Hollyjunesmith You can look at what others are doing and try to emulate that yourself, but what works for some doesn't for others and you need to try things more than once to gain traction (then they'll probably change the algorithm anyway 🫠) Very few people see overnight success with social media the only thing I've ever seen actually work is to keep posting, and let the numbers be what they are. More often than not, consistency will be rewarded over creativity. Bit depressing, but that's the game. tl;dr Make regular content that doesn't use a lot of your time and energy, and keep going.

I really love this and what I needed to hear because underneath all the blog posts I write about doing better, complaining about low views when I do actually post, and just overall wondering if social media really moves the needle at all, is the fact I have a really difficult time posting. Even on my personal Facebook profile, I rarely post anything. I don’t care much about “checking in” when I go somewhere or telling people about my day. I don’t take pictures of my breakfast, and if I take a picture of a boozy drink like the one I ordered last night when I went out with my sister…

Southtown Pourhouse, Fargo, ND

…I usually forget to post it and delete it off my phone later. I learned years ago on Twitter that followers don’t add up to a whole lot.

Then right after I saw Holly June’s perfect thread I read someone’s bragging about her social media growth. It made me feel crappy for about two minutes because while she can brag about how quickly her account grew, I have a lot of things I’m proud of that (in my opinion) are more important than that.

If you ever feel down because your social media growth isn’t what you want it to be, remember what’s important. Here’s a list and you are welcome to print it out and tape it somewhere to remind yourself that there are more important things than follower count.

write your books make real connections be helpful build a community on your own property each with an envelop black filigree in corners of graphic

Write your books!
Remember why you got into this game to begin with. Everyone is talking about what will happen when TikTok gets banned, and when you have 40k followers and use that platform to sell books, yeah, it’s going to be a devastating development. I’m still pretty optimistic that TikTok won’t go away anytime soon (I’ll believe it when I see it), but social media platforms and the billionaires who own them are fickle beasts and one way to control that is to keep your eyes on your own paper and write your books. Your books will always be there no matter what kind of social media disappears and what takes its place. I’d rather say I wrote three books this year than say I gained 50 followers or whatever. Remember what’s important. Besides, even if you do have a ton of followers, they can’t buy what’s not there.

Make real connections.
Personally, the only reason I know of to have social media is to make personal, genuine connections. Obviously, 100% of my online friends I’ve met through social media. Though, some have reached out to me through this blog and we stay in touch through email or the messages part of a platform like Instagram. Network with others in your genre, build bridges with those you can help and who can help you. That’s what social media is really for. (I’ve said for years if you’re not connecting with other authors and using it to find out important book news, you’re using Facebook wrong.) I’ve been friends with a handful of people for several years that I met on Twitter and I wouldn’t have met them if I hadn’t be a part of that platform.

Be helpful.
It’s going to sound dumb, but helping my friends and other authors is probably the most important part of this whole thing. I learned how to do book covers, I have Vellum and learned how to use it. Now I help other authors who can’t afford to hire out those services. I edit for people when I can. I beta read. I like helping people and between that and writing my books, publishing them and hearing feedback from readers that they loved the story, those are the two most important reasons why I keep writing and publishing. It’s why I keep coming back to this blog every Monday. Just the other day I got a message on Instagram from someone who thanked me for writing the Canva tutorial on how to make a full paperback wrap. I’d rather have someone reach out and thank me for giving her the tools she needed to publish her book than a million followers.

Build a community on property you own.
I can’t stress this enough. Like the future of TikTok and what Musk did with Twitter, you never know the outcome of some of these platforms. Some seem to be around to stay, but for every platform that hangs on, there are more that don’t like MySpace and Google +. As an author, even if you don’t want to hear it, build your reading community on land you own and that way it doesn’t matter what social media does or doesn’t do. Create a website, blog on it if you want so you can build SEO. Start a newsletter. Collect those email addresses and back them up often so no matter what happens to your aggregator, your readers are yours to keep. Sometimes we put our energy into the wrong place. I’m not saying building a following anywhere, like TT or your Facebook author page, is a bad move, but also have a plan B, because just like we say about Bezos, they don’t care about you. The last thing Mark Zuckerberg cares about is your book business. You have to take it upon yourself to find a way to stay in touch with your readers that doesn’t depend on anyone else. If you have an FB page, frequently remind them to sign up for your blog or newsletter or as an alternative, tell them to follow your author page on Amazon. Amazon may not be around forever either, but if they don’t want to give you their email address, I think a follow over there is the next best thing. Now that Zuck owns Instagram, Threads, and Facebook, when their servers go down, ALL that goes down. Having a way to reach your readers that doesn’t depend on someone else is a must. It really is.

You can get down looking at other authors’ follower counts, but behind the scenes, those followers might not be doing anything for them anyway. I know my followers on Twitter didn’t, but I also made friends and that’s what really counts. Post if you want, find joy in sharing your work with others. I’m not saying having a social media account and trying to gain followers isn’t valid, it can be in this world of being online, but it’s definitely not the end all be all of your publishing journey. I have to remind myself of that when I see others’ social media accounts exploding and mine is a stagnant mess. But I’ve accomplished a lot in the past year. I’ve finished a 6-book series and started publishing those books. I’m editing a standalone that sounds so good, and the cover I’m tweaking is a perfect match. I’ve picked up a reading and formatting project I’m going to start working on soon.

I’m on social media. I like talking to other authors, talking shop, supporting them in bite-sized Threads pieces. I’m trying to like posting on my FB author page, even if my reach is bad and my engagement isn’t any better. But with anything, what you put into it is what you’ll get out of it, so I’ll keep posting my favorite lines out of my books, talking about my books, and my life as an author. If those posts find fans, they do, and if not, that’s okay. I’ll keep editing Loss and Damages, and it will be a solid addition to the backlist I’ve written over the years.

And unless I’m starving, my breakfast won’t have anything to do with it.

Come back on Monday. I’ll have my usual post and I’ll be talking about the 2025 Written Word Media publishing predictions. Have a good weekend!

Where are you going to put that link?

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Words: 2610
Time to read: 14 minutes

pink background illustrated picture of different generic platform profiles

I’ve been talking to my friend Melody a bit about marketing. I love talking marketing and publishing, can’t get enough talking shop even if I have been feeling down the past few weeks just because of how things are going and where things are headed. But unfortunately, being a writer is in my blood and it’s something I’m never going to be able to stop. Adjusting expectations, yeah, and maybe I’m too tired to manifest anything except my next snack as 2024 was a good but a tiring year, and well, stopping my ads brought on a new question.

If you need to promote something, where in the heck are you going to put it?

Many of you know I have a free novel on my website. Right now I don’t have email collection turned on in Bookfunnel, which means anyone can download it without giving me anything in return. You might think that’s silly and a waste of what a reader magnet is supposed to be for, and you’re probably right. In my defense, at the end of the book I ask them to sign up for my blog if they haven’t, and direct them to my Cedar Hill Duet if they liked My Biggest Mistake.

a screenshot of a kindle the text says:Thank you for signing up for my blog! (If you came to read this without signing up and would love to be on my email list, you can at vmrheault.com/subscribe.) Did you fall in love with Brady and Allegra? My Cedar Hill duet featuring Rick and Devyn and Beau and Talia is now available! If you love steamy billionaire romantic suspense, check it out now on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and paperback! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1PV65WD


So I’m not being completely obtuse. The thing is, where do you put that Bookfunnel link to lure in new readers and cajole them to give you their email address? Right now I remind people it’s there when I blog/send a newsletter on my author site, and so far that’s been okay because my posts show up on the WordPress reader (and I have them post to my FB author page and my LinkedIn account). Since I moved my blog over from MailerLite, and I don’t remember when I did that, maybe last summer, I get a few views there every time I blog. That’s the only place right now people see my reader magnet, unless they get to that part in the back matter of my books.

This isn’t just about reader magnet links, it’s about any link. An Amazon buy-link, a books2read link. A blog link, if you’re hoping to get more traffic. We say social media, and that’s a quick and easy answer, but also, it’s a stupid answer because not everyone is going to have a following for that to do any good.

Where are some alternate places to put your links? Here are some ideas.

Newsletter link

Author Bios on Social Media
*Goodreads
*Facebook Author Page
*Instagram
*BookBub
*Amazon Author Page
These are great places to add your newsletter link. I have my website link up in case I ever need to change my Bookfunnel landing page, then I’m not scrambling to change links everywhere. Amazon won’t let you put links in your bio anymore, but you can get around that by typing it out with spaces like vmrheault . com / subscribe. Skip the www or the http:// because their bots will flag that as unacceptable language. If a reader wants to sign up badly enough, they’ll type it in correctly into their browser.

Email Signature
I don’t have an email signature, mostly because I use my personal email for everything, and I don’t now how beneficial it is to have a business signature at the end of personal communication. Though, I’ve been publishing for eight years now, so anyone I happen to email wouldn’t be taken by surprise. What’s really cool is that Canva has a lot of email signature templates to choose from, if you’re not shy about adding your picture and all your info. Not sure if I want to go all out like that, especially since I never had a logo designed for my business, but something would be better than nothing, considering that a lot of time I don’t even add my name to the bottom of my emails. I’m not trying to be rude, it’s just more disinterest than anything. I’ve said what I need to say and I’m done. Here’s what I made in Canva. The only thing I don’t like is the links aren’t clickable, but this looks nice.

The back matter in all your books.
This is kind of a no-brainer, but it’s worth reminding people. It might be difficult (or impossible) to edit your back matter to include a newsletter link if you haven’t already. Not everyone has access to their files, and it’s why I say to learn to do things for yourself as much as possible. Back matter is a good way to get sign ups, those readers who loved your book so much they want to hear more. Even if you don’t have an incentive like a reader magnet, a bonus epilogue, or whatever the case may be, it won’t take up that much space so you might as well add it. I would direct people to your website though, rather than putting up a landing page address. If you ever have to change your landing page, that’s a lot of work, whereas your website will always be there.

Print Materials
I don’t mess with paper often, the most effort I make these days is creating pretty chapter headers for paperback books I don’t sell. The last batch of business cards I made are old, had old information on them, and I threw them out. But, that’s not to say that print material is a waste of time or money. You can make bookmarks or postcards using VistaPrint and leave them at places like your library (or put them into your books if you leave them in Little Free Libraries), at coffee shops, the coffee kiosk while you’re waiting to get your oil changed, or anywhere you happen to be that might have interested readers. Is it spammy to leave your crap lovely marketing material around like that? I don’t know. Some places, like coffee shops, grocery stores, or the library, have a community bulletin board and it might make you feel better to pin up a postcard or three instead of leaving them around like cigarette butts. At any rate, you can create a QR code (Dave Chesson has a free generator and it looks like VistaPrint might have a built-in one as well) that will direct readers to your website where you can invite them to sign up for your newsletter. I think in this instance, having something free to give away would definitely help.

Newsletter promotion services (if you have a reader magnet to give away)
I don’t know how effective they are, and by that, I mean, I don’t know how eager readers are to give you their email address and download a book from Bookfunnel, but you can use some book promotion sites like Fussy Librarian and BookDoggy. You just pay for a free book promo like you normally would but instead of giving them an Amazon link use your Bookfunnel link. This is only effective if you turn on your email collection, of course, unless you really are giving away a book with no strings, but considering I complain talk about ROI all the time, giving away a book without asking for something in return seems counterproductive to building your reader audience.

Other options that require a reader magnet.
Not everyone has a reader magnet, which is why this is last, but if you don’t have something, I would advise it and possibly make writing one a goal for this year. Very few people will give you their email address for nothing. If you do have a reader magnet, or a cookie, as Tammi Lebrecque calls it, there are other places to put your link but they take a little hustle or some cash. You can join Bookfunnel and pay for the option to put your reader magnet in group promos, the same with StoryOrigin. You can also make friends with authors in your genre and do newsletter swaps. A lot of times newsletters swaps mean swapping free books and putting them in each other’s newsletters, but if you’re just starting out and have a delicious cookie, other authors may let you put your link in their newsletters. Everyone is looking for content so don’t be afraid to offer yours.

Those are a few good places to put your newsletter link, at least, that don’t require a lot of networking and/or money. Let’s talk about other links, like that all important buy-link. I’m going to assume that you’re doing a free sale because we might as well just face the fact that readers are looking for free books and it’s a lot harder to find places to post a link to a full-price or even .99 cent book. I mean, we can talk about this another day, but I don’t think it’s crazy to say that readers who buy full-priced books are already familiar with you and what you write and know they’re going to like what they pay for.

Amazon Buy-Links/Books2Read, etc.

Your Website/Newsletter/Blog
This probably doesn’t need to be said, but make sure you tell your already existing readers about a sale or new release, even if you only have five people on your list. Sometimes we get so caught up in finding new readers that we forget to give love to the readers we already have. My list is small and my open rater is smaller, but I still get interaction when I announce something like ARCs, a new release, or a sale.

Facebook Promo/Reader Groups
Admittedly, posting to these kinds of groups is like tossing a piece of carrot into a stew full of potatoes and hoping someone who likes carrots will find it. They aren’t the best way to find readers, especially if they aren’t broken up into genres. If you can do a search and find promo groups in your genre, that’s better than posting to a site that will take any kind of book, like this one https://www.facebook.com/groups/221523797876806, still, if you just like posting your link to wherever, it never hurts to try. There are some groups that will let you self-rec but it’s hard to find them because moderators have to work hard at keeping the groups from becoming too spammy. So make sure you know the rules and guidelines of any group or your post will be removed or not even approved and you could be removed from the group, too.

Reddit
I didn’t know this was a thing, but I asked Al for advice on where to post my free book link, and he said Reddit (r/FreeEBOOKS). I had never heard of it before, but then, I’m not on Reddit all that much to begin with. I thought, what the hell, and gave it a try and posted the Bookfunnel link to my reader magnet. I gave away 36 copies in a week and had over 7k views of my post.

post insights. 7.1k total views 73% upvote rate 0 comments 1 total share

This subreddit (is that what it’s called?) is pretty active and my book didn’t stay on top very long. I would guess you’d need to repost it every once in a while to continually get new eyes on your book. I didn’t list this idea up top with the newsletter stuff because I posted my Bookfunnel link without the email collection turned on. I don’t know how well a true reader magnet would do on there, more than likely it would make people angry because a book link asking for an email isn’t truly free. So, if you’re okay turning it off or have a true free book to give away–I saw some Amazon links and books2read links–I would consider using this subreddit. I had never posted there before and I don’t know if my results are considered good, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Author-Driven Promos
I guess we’re kind of talking about free places, though promos sites like Fussy Librarian and BookDoggy cost a little less than some. But, if you’re looking for a free promo that has the same outcome as a Freebooksy, then look to author-driven promos. These can be hard to find since a lot of times they’re mentioned in Facebook groups of your genre and if you’re not a member, you can miss out. If you ever say FB isn’t good for anything, networking in these groups is definitely beneficial. Zoe York has been doing her SYKD for years, and I only found out about it in 2022 because I was networking with other indie authors and not necessarily romance indie authors. I’m trying to do better, because now that I’m not running ads, connecting with these kinds of resources will be one of few ways to get my name out there. This is a list of the author-driven promos I have so far. They take a lot of work to put together, so authors may be not be clamoring to do their own, but I’m always keeping my ear to the ground to add more to the list.

Fantasy: https://stuffwithfantasy.com/authorhelp

Romance all genres: https://www.romancebooklovers.com/authors

Romance all genres: https://www.romancebookworms.com/for-authors

Witchy books: https://www.facebook.com/groups/witchybookwormsauthors

Alpha Cinnamon Roll Book Boyfriends: https://alphacinnamonroll.com/for-authors/

Dark Fantasy, Romance, Horror: https://www.darkmodesyk.com/sign-ups

Closed Door Non-Explicit Romance:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/cleanromancecollab/

Paid Free Promos
If you do have some money to toss around, you can always buy a promo to feature your free book. I can probably afford to do this more often if I’m not going to run ads, but I might just depend on author-driven promos and social media for now, if I even feel like giving away a book, which, in a different blog post, said I might not do this year. I’m tired of throwing away spending money and need to stop boosting my posts. Boosting every single post on FB or IG will cost just as much as keeping my ads running and it’s a habit I better break now. There are a lot of promo sites, too many to list here, so I’ll give you the link to David Gaughran’s list instead. https://davidgaughran.com/best-promo-sites-books/

Hopefully, I gave you few ideas. Some I tried like posting my book on Reddit. I need to start looking outside the box because for a long time I just said, “Run some ads” but that’s not working for me anymore, if it ever was, and even if my experience was beneficial to the readers of this blog, so will trying new ways of doing things. Besides Reddit, I might make some new business cards. Postcards are larger and sound fun, especially since I don’t focus on paper and market to KU readers so making bookmarks wouldn’t make much sense to my brand. I’ve been flirting with the idea of putting together book boxes when all my King’s Crossing books are out but I just ordered two sets of my Rocky Point Series to hold a giveaway for my newsletter subscribers. That might not go anywhere and I’ll have to get rid of them in a different way, but I might be tapped on on author copies for a bit (even at wholesale they’re expensive and you have to pay for shipping). I haven’t been able to schedule the last two books anyway, since KDP only lets you schedule out so far, but I doubt I’ll be coming into any money anytime soon, so waiting won’t do me much good. Right now I’m just settling into my ads being off, not working so hard on my standalone, and enjoying having free time. I’ll get more into that next week, or maybe after since the 2025 trends are coming out and like I suspected, nothing much is going to change.

Thanks for reading this far and have a great week!

black and white picture of woman sitting in front of wildflowers Vania (VM) Rheault is a contemporary romance author who has written over twenty titles. When she’s not writing, you can find her working her day job, sleeping, or enjoying Minnesota’s four seasons with a cup of coffee in hand.

My First Author Update of 2025

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Time to read: 8 minutes

Last year went out with a bang, and this year has come in with a whimper. I mean, the whimper isn’t because I’m in pain, it’s just how I’m going to live my year. I finished reading a book I started last fall, right before I decided to edit my Rocky Point Wedding Series, and started another, reading for pleasure. This weekend I’ll begin edits on Loss and Damages, but I took New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day “off” and did some housekeeping instead.

KDP approved my new files for the ebooks and paperbacks of my series without giving me any hassle about keywords or licensing rights (or something else I wasn’t prepared to tackle). I was pleasantly surprised and relieved. Not so pleasantly surprised and relieved when I did the same for IngramSpark and ended up paying $200. Fifty dollars a book ($25 dollars per file) wasn’t something I could afford, but the changes were too drastic not to do it. It was something I had taken upon myself and paid the price. The books are better for it, and I’ll find the invoice somewhere and give it to my accountant, uh, next year as I did that on the first of January. This year’s taxes (2025) will look a lot different as I doubt there will be many royalties to declare and a lot less ad spend to claim.

I turned off all my ads after earning $1.76 in royalties on Saturday. I had two Facebook ads that had two dollars a day ad spend, and some Amazon ads that were going at .50/click. I can’t keep my ads on if my royalties aren’t at least breaking even, so I just put up my white flag completely and shut them all down, even my rockstars on Facebook I said I would never stop. I suspect it won’t take long for my books to sink, but like I keep saying, that’s okay. I used to think that breaking even was okay, or even a good thing, but all that takes energy and I don’t want to have to think about click spend or conversion anymore. I might still boost a post now and then. Facebook ad gurus say not to do that, but with the way the algorithms are, boosting a post once in a while is practically the only way to get views. Since I have my ad information all set up in Facebook anyway, boosting a post won’t be difficult. I am trying to get more followers on my author page, though I’m not sure to what end. It’s a nice thought that followers turn into readers who will buy, but I lost that dream when I was on Twitter and my 14k followers did nothing for me. But, like I told a friend in an email, without ads running, I need to do something or no one will know I’m still breathing.

Last year my books were in two promos in December. I paid for a Fussy Librarian and gave away 3,491 copies of A Heartache for Christmas, and in a Stuff Your Ereader promo, I gave away 3,130 copies of Twisted Alibis. I was disappointed because in previous SYKD events I’ve given away a lot more than that, and Twisted Alibis and my Ghost Town Trilogy as whole have done well. Not sure if my hook wasn’t hooky enough or what, but I don’t know if I’m going to participate next year. I was surprised my Fussy Librarian did so well (Al says they have 352,127 free promo contemporary romance subscribers which was more than I thought) but I gave away a Christmas novel in December, so that was probably just timing. I said in a previous blog post that I was going to do four of those kinds of promos this year, but I don’t know. I’m tired of pushing my books, tired of hoping for a result that probably isn’t going to happen. Giving away books has an ROI that can’t truly be measured, and I think I’ve given away enough books for the foreseeable future. I did an author unwrapped on Threads and looked up the free books I gave away last year. I gave away almost 15,000 books in 2024. I don’t mind giving away books, I really, really don’t, but at some point you have to decide how beneficial it is and I’m going to wait and see what kind of page reads and read-through those promos will produce, if any, in the next few months.

I did some website cleanup and moved my books off this website to my author site. I don’t blog to sell books anyway, and all my 3rd person stuff is old and not worth mentioning. I updated some bits and pieces on my author website and I’ll be fine leaving the sites separated. Blogging over there is going okay–I got a couple more downloads of My Biggest Mistake when I sent out a Happy New Year post. Checked my subscriber stats and I’m still losing people, but that’s okay. I don’t know how to cull my list on WordPress so them opting out is the only way to get people who don’t want to be there off my list.

I’m going into this year gentler, trying not to care as much, enjoying the writing and books in general. Tired of trying to make money and there are a lot of posts on Facebook and Threads right now from authors who have been at this for just as long or longer than I have making pennies a day. I’m not alone but knowing that doesn’t make me feel better. I’ve just come to terms with it, and honestly, it’s fine. I’ll accept the yearly loss on my subscriptions like Canva, Office 365, and WordPress because at this point not paying for that stuff is stepping away farther than I want to and I wouldn’t be able to help the authors I’m currently helping. My Alliance of Independent Authors membership is a must because you never know when I’ll need their support if Amazon does something to my account. Once all the books in my King’s Crossing series are done releasing, I can downgrade my Booksprout plan to only one book a campaign instead of unlimited, and I’m only paying $20 a year to Bookfunnel so they can distribute my reader magnet and my Addicted to Her easter egg. The money I have in my savings account needs to stay there, and I don’t have the energy to make sure my royalties are matching my ad spend, so it’s best just to turn them off and let my sales do what they will. The $200 I paid to IngramSpark hit me hard and will be my last big spend. I shot my shot and missed. Now I don’t have any money to play with. I knew it was going to happen, and I’m prepared. It is what it is and all that.

I’m still going to write and publish, like I said, so this blog will always be here. Besides, for some reason, I have 400 downloads in my DepositPhotos account I thought I needed, and I still have about 70 ISBN numbers to use out of that pack of 100 I bought a few years ago. I’ve learned to bootstrap book production–editing, covers, formatting–so maybe I’ll learn to bootstrap some marketing, though the only bootstrapping I know of is social media, and I’ve never been great at that. I did ask Al for some social media prompts geared specifically toward billionaire romance indie authors, and he did a good job. He gave me 31 prompts for the month of January that could actually work without much tweaking. Though, he’s not too helpful when it comes to videos (I’d never ask him to make them for me), if that’s what’s really moving the needle. At this point, my social media accounts are the only place I can talk about my books now, besides my newsletter, and I should talk about them somewhere. Especially since I still have three more books of my King’s Crossing series yet to release. Still working on keeping my books in my mind even after they’ve been published.

That’s about all I have this week. Thanks to my friend Melody for giving me a heads up about the Bookfunnel YouTube channel/podcast. Lately, while I’m cooking dinner, I’ve been listening to their episode on having a publishing plan. Because, you know, what else am I going to listen to when I’ve been saying for the past few weeks I’m going to go easy on my writing and publishing? [Insert rolling eyes here.] Whatever. It’s a great talk, and maybe it will fire you up for the next 51 weeks. If you want to listen to it, or check out their channel, look here:

That’s about all I got. I hope the new year treats you well!

Until next time!

Vania (VM) Rheault is a contemporary romance author who has written over twenty titles. When she’s not writing, you can find her working her day job, sleeping, or enjoying Minnesota’s four seasons with a cup of coffee in hand.

Happy New Year! (Making every minute count)

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Words: 1835
Time to read: 10 minutes

I could have saved this for Monday, but I figured the thoughts running through my mind while I made pancakes for the kids this morning were an apt New Year topic.

You know lately I’ve been going through some old 3rd person books. I revamped a four-book series and it took me four months. Two rounds of editing, waiting for proofs, and redoing their covers. The proofs will come today and the last step is just pushing Publish on Amazon and swapping out files on IngramSpark. Then I can put that series away, and maybe even start promoting them a little bit because I won’t be wincing, wondering what people are reading.

Yesterday, I looked for the Vellum files of my erotica novellas and couldn’t find them. I remembered that they were lost in a Mac update and if I wanted to have them, I’d have to open the PDF in Word, re-import that .docx file into Vellum and reformat them. It’s not so bad, I grouped them into threes and so that’s what I did. I started that process, anyway. Got the front and back matter fixed again, though all that could be updated, and edited the first novella which is 25,000 words. I finished last night and moved on to the next, but then I got to thinking, “Why am I doing this?” I had a legitimate reason for doing my Rocky Point series. People were finding them without me promoting them, and since I hadn’t looked at them in four years (Amazon says publication dates were in January of 2020) I knew they could use a polish.

The only trouble with this way of thinking is, all my old books could use a polish. Scratch that. Every singe book I have ever published could use a polish, because that’s the way an author’s life works. We grow, we change, maybe our styles mature, and I doubt there’s one author out there who could go back to a book they’ve previously published and not find one thing they would want change.

So, this really just begs the question, How should we spend our time? Do I need be using my time going back to books so old that of course there’s going to be tons wrong with them, despite the fact these were edited by someone other than me, and I can tell they were. I haven’t found any typos so far except a sentence didn’t have a period and at one point a character had a tank top on and it changed to a t-shirt. What would I gain re-editing six erotica novellas? What would I gain re-editing the first trilogy I ever wrote and published. Would it help me get ahead? And should I always think about getting ahead?

A new year always calls for dissecting how you’re going to spend the next twelve months. They feel shiny and new, the world is your oyster, and everyone wants to start off with a bang. Hit the ground running. I’ve never treated a new year as anything special because I had goals and a plan and didn’t need the extra oomph a new year provides. January first is the same as July first and October first. I always had the drive to get things done, no matter what was going on in my life at the time.

So I stopped editing the second novella in my erotica series and closed out the Vellum file. The files that are published are okay, and I don’t know if Amazon has hidden them in their erotica dungeon or not. I don’t even know if I labeled them erotica when I published them, and since then, even if I had, Amazon didn’t get weird about explicit material until recently and they could still show up if someone looked. Not that anyone is going to. The couples on the covers are in bed, and Amazon won’t let me run ads to them. I could on Facebook, but the only way I would do that is if I re-edited them, and so we’re running around in circles, but after everything I just typed, I think we can discern it’s not worth it.

Books are going to have typos, even heavily edited books have typos and inconsistency issues because humans human, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I guess when I start thinking of my imperfect backlist, that’s when imposter syndrome takes over, but when that happens, I know I haven’t been reading enough. I’ve read many imperfect books since I started my indie career, books that have sold thousands of copies (you can tell just by the number of reviews they have), and I’ve said readers just don’t care as long as you give them a good story. I truly believe this, I just have to start applying that to my own books.

What does this mean for 2025? I need to stop going back. Editing my Rocky Point series was fun and I liked revisiting those characters . . . but I lost four months. In those four months I could have finished editing Loss and Damages, the next book I’m going to publish in September, and either made a good start writing my next standalone (I might have even finished. I can write 80k words in three months), or began editing the first two books I have written in the next series I want to publish. Only I can answer if those four months were worth it, but since I’ve seen the end result and I’m proud of what that series is, I guess it’s safe to say it was. But going back any further won’t do me much good, and if I ever do finish reformatting and re-editing those erotica books, and even my Tower City Trilogy, that kind of thing will have to be a side project because this is the honest to goodness truth: it won’t matter to my career hobby if I do those things or not. It would be for my own personal satisfaction only. Those books were published to the best of my ability at the time, just like Captivated by Her and Addicted to Her, the first books I published when I switched to first person present. Getting better is indicative of growth, and we all do that. Or should, anyway. Your first book should sound different than your tenth. We all grow and change, we work with different editors who use different skills and give us different perspectives, we work with different betas who give us different opinions. We read different books and learn different techniques. We listen to craft podcasts and marketing podcasts and learn to keep plot points opened-ended until the last book to promote read-through and learn to write bonus content that only newsletter subscribers have access to. There are lots we do to level up our craft, and that will show in every new book we write. Going back will always be futile because older books will always be lacking. It’s just the way it is.

But, you know, I’ve struggled to find purpose in this writing and publishing endeavor, struggled to find a reason to keep going. I spent more on ads in 2024 than I have, ever, and knowing that has kind of left me feeling deflated. I love finding new readers, and I know you have to spend money to make money, but it’s draining to run ads, spending a dollar only to make a dollar. Creating them, keeping an eye on them, watching them appear to spend more money than they earn–I say appear because most times they don’t (if they are wasting money you have to look at what you’re doing and the product you’re trying to sell, but that’s a lesson for another day). Facebook and Amazon bill you at different times than your royalties are paid out, so you have to be patient when comparing ad spend vs. royalties earned. The marketing part is a letdown, but I need it or my sales dashboard would be empty which I know would hurt me more than breaking even. I’m treading water, but like I said in my 2024 recap, I’m not unhappy. I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

Recently I looked at my follower count for my pen name (VM Rheault) and I was surprised to find I have 325 followers. That’s 325 reasons to keep going. I have 734 newsletter subscribers and have a 34% open rate most days I send one out. That’s 250 reasons to keep going. I have readers who care, and I value every one.

Today I’m setting aside my third person stuff and opening my Loss and Damages file. I love these characters, love the cover I already made. I’ll be happy to get this book on preorder. What I’ll do after that, I’m not sure. After so much editing, I’m a little intimidated to open a new Word file and start a book from nothing. I’ll need to sit with those characters a bit, work out the plot and get comfortable with who they are and what they’re going to go through. I’ve been thinking about them a lot in the past few months and scary or not, I’ll be happy (and relieved) to write their story. I already have the cover for that book done as well, so maybe working on something completely new is what I need perk myself up after a year of editing. But, unlike the title of this blog post, I don’t think every second needs to be accounted for. You don’t have to spend every single second trying to get ahead. That’s only a recipe for burnout and takes the joy away from whatever activity you’re doing. In my last post, I said my publishing is more of a hobby than career, and at this point, it is. I only make what I put into it, and it’s dejecting to think if I didn’t spend any money, I would make the same amount . . . zero. But, it’s freeing too, and I have tweaked my ads already in preparation for the coming year, but I’ll explain more about that in my post on Monday.

Tiffany Yates Martin came out with a new book not long ago called The Intuitive Author: How to Grow & Sustain a Happier Writing Career, and I plan to pick it up as a New Year’s gift to myself. I think it might help me gain perspective when it comes to how long I’ve been doing this and how to work through my accomplishments or lack thereof thus far. I love her other book on editing, so I know I’ll like this book too. If you want to check it out, look here: https://www.amazon.com/Intuitive-Author-Sustain-Happier-Writing/dp/1950830098

Thats all I have today. May the New Year bring you productivity and prosperity in whatever way that means to you. Subscribe to the blog if you haven’t already, and let’s trudge through 2025 together.

Until next time!

My 2024 Year-End Recap

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Words: 1894
Time to read: 10 minutes

gold and silver ornaments on black background text says 2024 year in review

Everyone is saying that 2024 was a hard year, but looking back, I honestly got a lot of stuff done. It didn’t feel like it because all I did was edit, but those edits were on a series that is my best work. I’ve said I may never match that quality of writing (plotting, I mean) again, and I don’t know if I want to try. Four years of blood, sweat, and tears went into over half a million words and they may always be my biggest, most impressive accomplishment. Then I had a couple other wins, like going to the Mayo Clinic and seeing a doctor who actually knew what was wrong with me. Between a diagnoses I never thought I’d get and finishing my King’s Crossing Series, 2024 was actually a pretty stellar year. Not that editing all those words over and over again and going through treatment and knowing I’ll always have maintenance until I die was smooth sailing, but compared to the previous years, things were pretty okay. I have my 2023 year end blog post up, so let’s compare.

Books/Novels/WIPs

Number of books written: 0
This is the first year in many, many years I didn’t write a book. I’m not sad about it because I got so much other stuff done, and I know for sure I’ll write one next year, if not three if things work out how I want them to.

Number of books edited: 10
Obviously, this is where I spent all my time. Right after I published A Heartache for Christmas in November 2023, I jumped into editing my King’s Crossing Series. I think I did three editing sweeps before I thought they were ready and the first one, Cruel Fate, was published in October of this year. The others were either published or I put them on preorder and they’ll release up through April of 2025. Once those were up and I could work on something else, I decided to re-edit my Rocky Point Wedding series and I finished the last book of four over the weekend. I edited those in Vellum, ordered the proofs, then edited the proofs to look for typos. All that takes such a long time, and after ten books, my brain is sufficiently fried.

Number of books published: 3
I published three of the six in my King’s Crossing series. In 2025 I’ll have four, just because the rest of the series will release and I already have a standalone almost ready to go that will release on September 15th, 2025. (Don’t ask me how many books I’ll have ready to publish in 2026. I’m not quite that far ahead, but it would be really nice if I had another series done.)

Royalties for the year: Ugh.
I’m actually kind of over shouting out how much I made because I always break even or I’m in the hole, so it really doesn’t matter how much I end up with at the end of the year. It wasn’t that much more than last year if you want to take a look. I would imagine my spend is the same too. I spent $776.43 on Amazon ads this year, something I again intended not to do, but my FOMO gets so out of control. I make ads then just cannot force myself to turn them off. I spent less than I did last year, by about 100 dollars, so that’s something, I guess. But I’m afraid that if I shut them off, and/or keep them off, I won’t sell any books at all. The struggle I constantly contend with is this: I spend XXX.XX money on ads and if I only make enough to cover the cost, is it worth it? It is in the long run because even if I’m breaking completely even or bleeding some red, I’m finding readers when, if I didn’t spend a dime, no one would find me. I just wish I could find that magical way of leveling up. I know you have to spend money to make money, but there has to be a way to get ahead. I spent $3,842.58 on Facebook ads, which means after all my subscription costs, I’m in the hole about $500 dollars. I say every year I’m going to have to do better keeping an eye on my ads, and even if it means my sales go down to zero, I may have to suck it up and turn them off or drop my spend down to a dollar or two a day which is pretty much the same thing.

Fun fact. This is the list of my books in order of popularity. These are my first person books–my third person titles are at the end of the list and not worth mentioning. It’s not a surprise my rockstars are at the top. They’ve sold well since I published them last year. What I really like to see is that my Lost and Found Trilogy and my Cedar Hill Duet have read through. It would be a shame if a Book One was on the list but then the other books were at the bottom or fell off completely. That means your first book isn’t good, and there’s no point in writing a long series if readers won’t go on to read the other books.

Twisted Alibis Twisted Lies Twisted Lullabies Give & Take: A Steamy Baby for the Billionaire Contemporary Romance Faking Forever : A Steamy Fake Fiancé Billionaire Standalone Romance Rescue Me: A Steamy, One Night Stand Billionaire Standalone Romance Lost & Found: A Steamy Friends to Lovers Billionaire Romance A Heartache for Christmas Safe & Sound: A Steamy Second Chance Billionaire Romance Captivated by Her: A Steamy Billionaire Romantic Suspense Novel Cruel Fate Cruel Hearts Addicted to Her: A Steamy Billionaire Romantic Suspense Novel Cruel Dreams

Website/Blog Stats

My Canva tutorial is still my most popular blog post. It was viewed 5,399 times this year, and overall 8,100 times. I’m super glad I’m helping people.

screenshot of all time stats text says updated! creating a full wrap paperback book.... views 8.1k likes 7 comments 25

I posted 55 times in a total of 94.4k words.

text says: 2024 year in review Posts 55 words 94.4k likes 246 comments 99

In my last year-end update I said I had turned this blog into more of a personal journal, and it felt like that this year, too. I’m hoping next year I can change that a bit, as I’d like to start walking and listening to more podcasts. I used to listen to podcasts all the time and I guess with feeling bad, I just didn’t want to deal with it. I’m going to try to open myself up more, and maybe that can reflect in the things I write about. Especially since I’ve said I’m going to take it easy in 2025 and not treat writing and publishing as this desperate thing I have to do no matter what.

I only gained 22 subscribers this year, but that’s okay. I get around 50 hits a day on various blog topics, mostly my Canva tutorial, though I didn’t start this blog to gain followers. I really just wanted to blog about writing and publishing and I was happy if I could help someone along the way. I’ll always blog, seems I always have something to say, so we’ll see what 2025 brings.

I almost forgot to mention that I made a list this year, and it was the first time I’d ever done that. I had a spike in traffic for a bit and that was fun, but it died, more than likely because there is so much content out there about indie publishing, writing, and books in general. You can find the list here, and I would bookmark it too-there’s a lot of informative blogs you might enjoy reading: https://books.feedspot.com/contemporary_book_blogs/. Thanks to Anuj Agarwal for choosing mine.

Health Update

I think we all know what I’ve been up to with that, and there’s no need to regurgitate all the details here. My last resort doctor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, knew what was wrong with me, and now I’m dealing with my lichen sclerosis, endometriosis, and side effects of the hysterectomy I had in 2022. That’s about as far as I want to go into it, and I recently updated my mental health blog if you want to read it:
chaoscoffeeandconfessions.blogspot.com

What’s next for 2025?

What’s next for next year? Lots of things but this year I’m not taking things so seriously. I’m going to edit the next book I’m going to publish, write another standalone, and then when those two things are done, look over the last two remaining books I wrote during my COVID frenzy and finish that series. Those are my immediate plans. I have a loose publishing plan I’m going to try to stick to, but I want to read more books, listen to podcasts to try to stay up to date on the publishing industry, and when the colder part of winter is over, I’m going to spend more time outside. I’m not going to spend every waking second I’m not working writing, and I’m going to cut down on my ad spend. Not really because I want to, but my finances will need tightening up due to a few things going on that I can’t do anything about.

I think the biggest change is realizing that I’m chasing after a brass ring I’ll never capture. Many many many romance authors make a living wage, but I have finally realized I’m not going to be one of them. This isn’t a defeatist attitude, more realistic on my part. I’ll never write a book that will blow #Booktok away or enthrall an influencer so much they spill it all over the internet. My books are quiet, my heroes are kind, and I really think to make an impression on readers right now, the darker (violent) the better. That’s not me. I’ll keep writing the books I love, and if I find a few readers who love them too, that will be my success story. You can’t be in it for money and I never have been, but we can’t fool ourselves, either. When you publish a book where readers have to pay to read you, royalties are indicative of sales and no royalties means no one is reading. It can be disheartening to the point of just giving up. I’m not giving up, but I do know when to quit hoping for something I’m never going to have.

I used to share this quote by Arnold Schwarzenegger: I will always stay hungry, never satisfied with current accomplishments.

text on brown background says: i will always stay hungry never satisfied with current accomplishments
https://quotefancy.com/quote/1405103/Arnold-Schwarzenegger-I-will-always-stay-hungry-never-satisfied-with-current

I guess in my own way I am sharing it just by posting it, but I don’t agree with it anymore, and it’s not how I’m going to live in 2025. It’s like being at a buffet but it doesn’t have your favorite food, so you make do with second best. You’re not content, but you’re not unhappy, and that’s how I feel. I’m not content, but I’m not unhappy. The only thing that could make me content is actually making some money off all my hard work so that maybe my finances wouldn’t be so stressful. I’ve said before that even just an extra 10k a year (that I didn’t have to pay for with ads) would go a long way. I’m never going to have that, so instead of living on hope like I have in the past, I’ll set it aside. It’s better, honestly, for my mental health anyway. Who wants to type their fingers bloody for nothing? I never did, don’t get me wrong. I wrote for a myriad of reasons, joy being a big part of it yes, but I had a lot of hope when I started my pen name. I had a lot of hope I could turn my writing into a business. Now it will just remain a hobby and I’ll do other things when I’m not working my day job. I’ll still be around helping other authors format and do covers when they can’t afford to hire out, and I’ll still blog, and write and publish, but my mindset has softened and I’m going to have a “What will be will be” attitude going into the new year.

I’ll still write and publish. Like I said, I’m not unhappy. I just wish things would have turned out differently.

Good luck to you in the new year!

Monday Author Update

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holiday flat. holly berries, evergreen branches and a red present on black background. text says. Monday author update

I haven’t done one of these for a while, but there’s nothing to update you on, either. I finished book three of my Rocky Point series, and since I dated the most recent edits, I was dismayed to find that it will have taken me four months (or more as I’m not done with book four yet) to get through these. Not that I should be bothered, these books are a strong series and a solid part of my 3rd person backlist, but I had planned to use this time to get ahead. It doesn’t matter. The longer I’m writing and publishing, the less I think there are repercussions to having long wait times between books. You’ll need to push your back list and communicate with your readers through your newsletter and/or social media, but we think too much about readers forgetting about us, and that’s really not the case.

We can burn ourselves out thinking about FOMO and drive ourselves mad thinking that readers will move on to other favorite authors. It’s true, some readers may be one and done, but any author has to face that possibility, not just slow writers. There are millions of readers out there and when you do get around to releasing that next book, you’ll find new readers and the readers who have enjoyed your books before will come back.

I’m not even looking at a long gap between releases, I don’t think, despite the four months I used to polish my old series. I have no idea how long it will take me to get Loss and Damages edited and packaged (I have the cover done, so we’re just talking writing the blurb and shoving my Word document through Vellum), but if I can do that by the end of March for a September release, I’m not going to need something new until January of 2026 . . . if I keep Amazon’s cliffs in mind, and at this point, I don’t know if I care. It seems silly to freak out over something that really doesn’t warrant it, but man, it’s difficult to let go of the RIGHT NOW mentality so many authors face every day.

Anyway, so how do I plan to to keep my readers interested in me and my books while they have to wait? What can you do if you have long gaps between releases? Here are a few things I plan to do next year.

Keep going with my newsletter. I’m a proud cheerleader of newsletters, but if I have to push myself to write them at times. I almost didn’t even send one out when my third book in my King’s Crossing series released, but people wanted to know as I had the highest open rate since I started my newsletter back in, I have no idea now, 2022 maybe. I was shocked and really pleased, so you might think no one wants to hear from you but just the fact they signed up says they do.

Do better with social media. I know (I use the word loosely because we don’t talk anymore) someone who would constantly take down her social media profiles. She’d have them up for a bit, post, gain a following, then take them down. I still check in with what she does (stalking sounds so nasty, doesn’t it? LOL) only because she does social media so well. She’s got almost as many followers on her new FB page as I do after having my author page up for six years. It’s not that I don’t have things to talk about. I have plenty of books and stuff going on in my life that having a blank author page really isn’t necessary and makes me look lazy and like I don’t care. I care, but I have a terrible time showing it.

Put my book(s) on sale. This is something else that I have a problem with. I don’t remember to use my free days very often, and I can’t remember the last time I even tried to do a Kindle Countdown Deal. Sales are also a good way to keep in touch with your readers so you have something to tell them, and obviously, sales are a great way to find new readers. A while back I heard Zoe York say you should plan a promo every quarter, so four times year. I’d like to do that, especially since I have more than enough product to rotate and there are newsletter promo sites like E-Reader News Today and Robin Reads that I haven’t tried yet.

Keep doing ARCs. There’s been some talk on Threads about authors not doing ARCs anymore, due to lots of reasons like piracy and reviewers not pulling through. If just for the sake of something to talk about, I will keep doing ARCs of my books, and you can probably look forward to ARCs of Loss and Damages sometime in June or July. I’d like to have all my ARC links taken down by the time I put my book on preorder, even if it is just a short one. Admittedly, this option is only good if you write ahead. Some people put their ARCs up just weeks after the book is complete, but Loss and Damages will be finished months before I need reviews. I even hope that by the time I put ARCs up, I’ll have the next standalone I want to write done and edited and almost ready to go.

The main thing is to communicate with your readers, and I’m terrible at it. I love talking writing and publishing with other authors, but I need to get used to talking about my books in a different way. I have dreams of being an obscure bestseller, but that’s an oxymoron at best. Even if I have never heard of a romance author who is making a living wage, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a huge fanbase she talks to on a regular basis. I need to start putting myself out there, and that’s really difficult for me. Not like, personally. I can talk about my health issues all day long (and have) or marketing or publishing, but talking about my books, hyping them up, is odd somehow. I’m proud of my books and I think I’m a good writer, even if I have to go back occasionally and do the extra editing sweep from time to time. I don’t know. Being proud of myself and my accomplishments is just different, but in 2025 I’m going to try to be better.

I’m not going to stress about my publishing schedule next year. I need to control my FOMO and just write and publish at my own pace and not think I’m going to fade off into the void if I don’t have books ready all the way until 2027. It’s ridiculous the pressure we put on ourselves, and no one is keeping score except us.

Write for the love of it, and publish because you want to share your stories. I’m excited for the books I’m going to be editing and writing next year. I want to change my perspective and talk about my books in a way that readers will want to read them.

Next week is my usual year-end summary, and after that we’ll see what the new year brings. I’m sure there will be the usual publishing predictions and I haven’t weighed in on them for a while. Mostly because it seems all the predictions are the same year after year (publishing moves slowly after all), but I haven’t really paid attention either, because of how I’ve felt, so this will just be another change in a long line of things.

I hope you have a happy week if you celebrate!

Until next time!

My 2025 Word of the Year

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Time to read: 5 minutes

Pantone, a company that “provides a universal language of color for many industries” announced it’s color for 2025 . . . Mocha Mousse. Apparently, it’s the first time in 25 years that they chose a shade of brown.

taken from https://news.artnet.com/art-world/pantone-2025-color-of-the-year-mocha-mousse-2582184

It’s a thing, I suppose, to choose a theme, a color, a resolution, (I almost typed revolution, and maybe with the current political environment in the States, it’s that, too) to express what we plan to do, to describe the vibe we want to put forth into the coming year.

For years I never bothered because I knew every year was going to be the same as before. It’s really depressing and soul-sucking to have a health issue that doesn’t seem treatable, much less curable, and I treated each year as the same. This post isn’t about what I’ve suffered with (I’ve made you suffer with me on this blog, and I know we are both tired of that) but I can’t deny that now that I know what’s wrong and that there aren’t more serious matters to contend with (no colon or ovarian cancer, yay!) I can’t help but think of the next year in a different light.

A romance author I know went though breast cancer treatment this year, and she said she wouldn’t be able to approach writing her books in the same way. That made a lot of sense because when you go through trauma like that and can come out the other side, maybe not whole, but in pieces that can be glued together, you can’t help but be a different person.

You all know I’ve been at this for a long time, (no, this isn’t a woe-as-me post . . . I’ve had almost a million page reads in KU this year alone, so I definitely know that I’m luckier than a lot of authors) and if you do something long enough, maybe you don’t lose your joy, but you know. It stops being exciting, it stops being . . . I don’t want to say fun because I still do, have fun writing, that is. But no matter how much you enjoy something, if you feel you have to do it, it becomes monotonous, even if only slightly.

So my word of 2025 isn’t a word, but a phrase. “Be still and know.”

What’s funny is my sister, daughter, and I were shopping downtown Fargo, ND, and there are all these trendy little shops. We went into one and this saying was on journals and mugs and pens and paperweights. I liked it, the peace of it, and I asked my sister where it came from. She looked it up on her phone, and it’s actually a Bible verse: “Be still, and know that I am God” Psalm 46 verse 10.

I’m not religious. My parents sent me to a private Baptist school from Kindergarten through fourth grade, then they sent me to public school in fifth on, though I did attend Sunday church services until I moved to go to college. That kind of ruined organized religion for me because even though I was young, I saw how hypocritical people were. There may be exceptions, but I grew up learning religious people aren’t nice. And I do see that, as an adult, people using their religion to feel better than other people, or as an excuse to do nasty things that Jesus definitely wouldn’t have done while He was here.

For a while, that tainted the saying for me, but like any religious person, I can twist it to what I want it to mean for myself. Just kidding, kind of. I still like the peace of it, the quietness of the meaning.

The last few years I’ve done nothing but move forward, and I have accomplished a lot in that time. I still would like to do a few things in 2025, and I let you know what those were in a previous blog post. But I’m going to look at things differently, slow down, enjoy the silence, and work on my books in a way that I want and find that joy again.

I want to finally stand still and appreciate how far I’ve come and all that I’ve accomplished. I want to rest and breathe and do other things that aren’t book-related. Moving forward is great when you have goals and plans and somewhere to go, but maybe I’m done moving forward. Maybe I’ve reached my destination, and you know, that wouldn’t be a bad thing. I actually rather like the thought of it. We liken being authors and publishing to running marathons but even runners finish their races, and if they truly can’t, they get picked up wherever they happen to be on the course. I don’t need a ride, but maybe I finished, and now I can eat my banana and power bar, drink my bottle of water, take a hot shower, and do something else. A runner never stops running (okay, I did but I still go for walks), and I won’t stop writing, but maybe I don’t need to train to run any more races. Writing can go back to being fun, and now that I’m feeling better, I’m interested to see how that incorporates into the next projects I’m going to work on.

I suggest if you want to move forward, have goals to work toward. Know what your finish line is. After all, what is the saying? A goal without a plan is only a wish.

But wishes are nice too. Especially if they come in the form of chocolate cake that has mocha mousse frosting on top.

Your Best Marketing Strategy–TL;DR (Write more books!)

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TEAL GREEN BACKGROUND STACK OF OLD BOOKS. TEXT SAYS. TL;DR: WRITE MORE BOOKS

We talk about marketing a lot, such as buying promos, setting up a newsletter, networking with authors in your genre to do newsletter swaps, learning an ad platform. Depending on the status of your mental health and how thin your wallet is, you should probably be doing all those things. As Meta buys everything and then enforces guidelines, (no more steamy snippets on Instagram, y’all) it’s getting more and more difficult to use free resources.

Social media could be useful, or has been, but as these company shy away from content they consider porn, or pörn, you run the risk of getting your account suspended, shadow-banned, or simply the algorithms just won’t show your stuff to anyone. TikTok is the worst in its guidelines they arbitrarily enforce, and I can’t remember the last time I even bothered to post a video. With the announcement of the new Instagram guidelines pertaining to sexual content, lots of romance authors are scrambling. Social media isn’t dependable, and hopping from platform to platform won’t do anything, and here’s why. Author problems are not reader problems. Instagram’s policies really don’t affect readers. We get caught up in the author world and forget that readers aren’t always where we are. Yeah, you might be posting hoping to catch the eye of a bookstagrammer, and if that’s part of your marketing strategy, then you’ll be dealing with the change, but for the most part, you can find readers other places.

The one best marketing thing you can do though–we hear it a lot and also ignore it–is to write the next book. There are caveats to that, and I think that’s why it gets pushed aside. If no one is reading what you’ve got, then why keep going, right? I agree to a point, and that’s when you have to make a decision. Learn how to market in other ways or accept that no one is going to read you. BUT, here’s the thing we don’t talk about. If a reader finds you an likes you, having a backlist is the best way to keep them with you.

Here are the reasons why I think it’s always important to be working on your next book despite what’s happening on social media… and your sales dashboard.

Publishing regularly keeps you relevant. There’s not a lot we can agree on when it comes to Amazon besides how frustrating it is to work with them, and this: Amazon gives you a 30-, 60-, and 90-day new release cliff. This is where they push your book, giving you a little bump that you’re supposed to run with. Once the first 90 days pass, you’re on your own, and authors frequently find out that being on your own is not a good thing. Ask any author who is pleasantly surprised by their positive ranking only to watch their rank sink. It’s why indies try to publish four times a year–they don’t want to fall off the cliff. You may not be able to publish four times a year, not unless you save up and slowly release, but the more you publish the more relevant you are to Amazon and to readers who will know you’re in it for the long haul.

You get better with every book. Writers need to write to get better. Each new book gives you the opportunity to try new things and level up your craft. Like I mentioned before in previous blogs, I plotted out A Heartache for Christmas years ago, but I couldn’t write it because I wasn’t good enough to execute the plot twist. After I wrote ten other books, I tackled the plot and the mystery with ease. Maybe the mystery isn’t a shocker, but it was more than what I was able to do when I was plotting the book in the first place.

Another great reason along these lines is you get faster with every book. All these social media posts that say books that are written in two months (or whatever) are trash are written by people who are jealous an author doesn’t need long to write something good. The more you write the faster you get and the less you need to spend on editing. You can’t get good at anything unless you practice.

More promotional opportunities. Events like Stuff Your Ereader Day and newsletter swaps are becoming more prevalent as social media becomes more unstable and more undependable. It really helps when you have more product to be able to rotate in these promos. Even when I buy a Freebooksy, I don’t always promote the same book, and you can find different readers by advertising different books because they’ll be written around different tropes/plots/characters. On the same token, you’ll have more books to put on sale. Even if you’re in KU, being able to put your books on sale is a great way to find new readers. Right now I have three of my King’s Crossing series on sale: Book one is .99, the second is 1.99, and the third is 2.99 to encourage readers to buy and try. I’ve sold 24 of book one since its release, and I don’t think I would have sold them unless they were on sale. Book one could potentially lead a reader to buy the other five, so never discount the power of putting a book on sale. Elana Johnson is a master of putting her books on sale. She talks about rapid releasing and book prices in her talk at the 20booksto50k conference a couple years ago. It can be intimidating to listen to her, but she’s motivating too. You can listen to her here:

You’ll have more to offer your readers. Readers want more from you, and while that can be scary, it can be motivating, too. You’ll have more to talk about in your newsletter (and on social media) more excerpts to share, more covers to reveal. If readers know you’re going to stick around, it makes it more likely they’ll stick around to see what you’ll be up to next.

You may motivate someone else. I’ve heard from a few people they have admired how many books I’ve been able to write in such a short amount of time. I was writing to hide how I felt, sure, but I also could have used my health as an excuse to wallow (no judgment to those who have health issues and can’t write as much as they’d like. I was fortunate. I was able to write, so I did). The fact is, I enjoy writing and it’s never a hardship to give up a few hours every day to get some words in. I hope that as a whole, my career has motivated a few people. I’ve gotten compliments on this blog, too, how I manage to stay consistent and try to help people with the topics I write about. I’ve said I really only can do that by being active in the writing community, trying new things (like my Goodreads giveaway), and be willing to spend a little money (like on ads) so I can write about my experiences. Writing and publishing your own books is difficult, and to keep doing it year after year is admirable. Willing to write about your failures is also admirable and can be a learning experience so others don’t have to go through it.

Keep a book on reserve. One thing you could do with an “extra” book is keep one on your computer and publish it at a time when things are rough and you can’t get the words down. Most authors I know wouldn’t do this because they write slowly and every book they finish they want to publish and put out into the world. But I do know one or two people who hang on to books for this very reason. They don’t know if they’re going to get sick, they don’t know if having a baby will slow them down. Life is full of uncertainties, and if you’re making any kind of money you can’t lose, having a book on reserve could be the difference between keeping your royalties up, or losing what momentum you’ve managed to create for yourself.

Use a book as a reader magnet. I’ve given away My Biggest Mistake over a thousand times since I put it up for free as a newsletter freebie in January of 2022. The downloads have slowed down a bit because I used to run an ad to my Bookfunnel link, but I don’t do that anymore. It got to be too expensive, and now I just give it away for free, casual like, and hope people will sign up for my blog instead. MailerLite did me dirty, and that’s okay. I like blogging and I’m still reaching readers, and I don’t mind giving away a taste of what readers will get if they buy one of my books.

If you’re going to be in this for a while, there’s no downside to writing the next book. It’s kind of like that running saying that I used to hear all the time back when I was running: You regret 100% of the runs you never take. Maybe it would help if you had a plan for the book before you start or while you’re writing it. Like, this will be my reader magnet, because I want to spend the second half the new year nurturing my list, or, this will be on standby because last year I was sick a lot and having something already written would easy some of the pressure. (Kinda like making saving your sick time for when you really are sick.) Maybe just working toward finishing a series is enough motivation to keep you going. At any rate, marketing can be time-consuming, creating graphics and looking for snippets, but none of that really means anything at the end of the day. A healthy backlist will look more impressive, and the more product you have the more product you can sell.

What are you goals for 2025? How many books do you want to write? How many do you know your capable of doing? I wish you the best of luck when writing!

Author Goals 2025

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Everyone is doing these and I thought I might as well. You can either look eagerly into the future or think it’s just going to be another year of writing to no one. I don’t really think that, I do have readers, but I know there are more than a few who do think it because marketing is hard and it’s harder still when you don’t have any money to buy ads or promos.

My goals for 2025 are pretty simple. I don’t have any. Of course, I have a list of things I want to get done, but when I think about goals and what I’ve seen from other authors, they aren’t the same. I don’t have a goal to make 10k with my writing or get an orange tag. I don’t have a goal to sell 100 copies of a book or even 50 copies and I’ll you why. Because I don’t have a plan to achieve those goals, and I don’t have a plan because if I knew what would work I’d be doing it. Goals are only as good as the motions you can put into place to achieve them, which is why the only things on my goals list are what I can control.

So, let’s begin:

Finish proofing the proofs of my Rocky Point series, upload, and publish new files to KDP and IngramSpark. I’m not going to get done this year. I wanted to, so I could start 2025 with a clean slate, but I won’t. Book one is a word salad of filler words and echoing that for some reason I didn’t fix the first time around (paper always reads different so it could just be I’m seeing them for the first time) and it’s going to take me probably until the end of the year just to finish book one. Even if I could finish book one before then, I have three more to go. I committed to editing these, so I’m going to finish it out to the best of my ability.

Finish editing Loss and Damages, a first person present Billionaire standalone that I started back in May of 2021. It’s finished and has already had one read-through and I added quite a few notes of what I need to fix. I want to finish those edits and get the preorder up, I don’t know when. I have no deadline, just do it as soon as possible after my Rocky Point series is squared away. My last book in my King’s Crossing series releases in the middle of April, and to give myself time to write, I decided on a September 15th, 2025 release date for Loss and Damages. Then, if I keep with the four-five month time between, I’ll have plenty of time to write more books, with an estimated release day sometime in January of 2026.

When Loss and Damages is completed and scheduled, the next book I want to write and edit will be completely from scratch and is a standalone Billionaire romantic suspense. I have it mostly plotted out in my mind (and to no one’s surprise, the cover is already done), and I’d like to write it before I forget what it’s about. Also, if I can make good use of my time and schedule it for the January 2026 release date, that will give me extra time to work on what I want to write next.

I doubt I’ll be able to get this done in 2025, but I want to finish a series I started back in 2021. I have two books written of a six books series, but after working on King’s Crossing (a six-book serial) and my Rocky Point series (four books that are connected but can be read as standalones), I don’t want to dive into another huge project. So what I need to do is rewrite parts of book one and cut out two of the characters or make it clear somehow they would be not be getting their own stories, so I only have two books to edit and two books to write. The combined writing, editing, and packaging of four books will take me a very long time, and I really don’t think I can edit a book, write a book, plus complete that series all in one year. I’ll need to figure out how much time I want to have between my January 2026 release and the series. I could maybe do six months and aim to have the series completed in enough time to put them on preorder in July of 2026, but I’m not going to think that far ahead.

I’m feeling better physically and in turn, mentally, so I’ve said I’m going to approach 2025 a little differently. I am, already veering away from series for a minute and I’m going to concentrate on editing Loss and Damages and writing Wicked Games. I need the break working on standalones will give me, and even though I could give myself a deadline, I actually haven’t sat down and written a book since August 2023 when I wrote A Heartbreak for Christmas and packaged that for its November release. All this time I’ve been editing, so it might be a bit intimidating to open a new Word document and try to pull words out of my head. Editing is a different beast, after all, and I’d like to have fun rather than just think of Wicked Games as another book I need to write and sell.

I’ve really grown as an author editing so many words this year, and the mistakes and filler words and general clutter I was using that I didn’t see are pretty blatant to me now. Loss and Damages and Wicked Games are probably going to sound better than any of the books I’ve written so far. Well, besides my King’s Crossing stuff because I went over those with a fine-tooth comb, and if some filler words managed to squeak by me, then they have earned the right to stay.

As far as other goals, my King’s Crossing series is done. The third book will release on December 9th, the fourth in January, the fifth in March, and the sixth in April. They are all loaded up and on preorder. No files need to be changed out, the covers are locked in. That series is gone in my mind, which is probably why I have such a hard time marketing. Once a book is up, it’s out, and I’m moving on to other things. I don’t have goals for sales or page reads, in fact, my expectations are quite low and will be until the last book is released. As a serial, a reader won’t know the whole story until the last book is released and since I have that information written in the blurb, readers might not even want to start the series until they are all available. I’ve kept my expectations realistic, running ads to create buzz and awareness (and bleeding into the red with clicks), and just focusing on editing my series to maybe boost my 3rd person backlist. I’ll be releasing four books in 2025, and anyone would be proud of that, other goals be damned.

I probably should try to think of some kind of plan to push book one out more, beyond the author driven promos and promos you can buy like Freebooksy, but that would require hustling and networking, and since I haven’t felt well, that just sounds exhausting. I have a rockstar promo opportunity someone sent me months ago and I just haven’t felt like reaching out to follow up, but if I want to spread the word I’m going to have to start doing the work and that can probably be one of my goals for next year. I need a mindset change because not feeling well has been a valid excuse not to do a lot of things, but I need to start being present in the present and not hiding, writing a book because my doctor didn’t know what was wrong with me. That’s all in the past, so 2025 will have to be different in that regard.

I don’t have a lot of goals and I really don’t want to make any beyond what I’ve touched on here. I’m not struggling as much as I have been, a clearer (and sober) mind has helped me come to terms with knowing that a lot of what I’m doing will (still) be on my own, ie, forgoing a beta readers/editors/proofers and cover designers. I have a few friends I touch base with, and I’m grateful to them because they keep me sane and remind me I’m not totally alone. Writing has always been something you need to do by yourself (have you ever tried to write while someone was talking to you?) so that part is understandable and something I have enjoyed even while I wasn’t feeling well. I’m just still adjusting to the loss of my fiancé who loved to talk publishing and a friend here and there who would like to brainstorm. Now that I’m doing better, I can focus more on replacing those relationships and reaching out to the romance community, which I should be doing anyway.

I’ll be approaching 2025 a little differently, trying to find the fun I lost in the writing, and trying to find the fun I lost in my life overall. It was a real miracle my doctor at Mayo knew what was wrong with me and could actually fix it (to the best of her ability) and while I’m adjusting to how things are in my writing and the writing community, I’ll be adjusting to my new way of feeling. I’ll never be “normal,” but I’m better than what I was and I’m grateful for that.

I suppose that’s all I have for this week. Four more weeks of 2024. Make them count, and maybe, maybe 2025 will actually be different for many of us!

Until next time!