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.

Amazon Ads: A Case Study

Posted on October 21, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

logo taken from https://advertising.amazon.com/

I stumbled upon something interesting on Threads the other day. Someone was asking for tips and tricks on how to make Amazon ads work for her. Of course, I looked at the book she was trying to sell, noted a few things, and told her what I thought. That never works well in the land of the public, and there were a couple of people who commented on my comment. It’s interesting to me how people can tell you their opinions without looking at what you’re trying to sell or just spew stuff based on their own poor experiences. I’m not going to call this author out, but you can apply what I’m going to say to almost any debut author.

One of the things you should do when wanting to run ads is look at your product. We think we’re pretty wonderful we’ve managed to write a book and publish it, but that doesn’t mean everyone is going to want to read it. In fact, there are so many books out there it’s actually a miracle if you can find anyone who wants to pay for what you’ve written. Thinking that you’re going to set the world on fire will only set you up for disappointment. You have to be realistic when it comes to your book and by that I mean you have to look at your book and your author career as a whole.

What did I see when I saw her book?

It was only the first in a duology and the second book wasn’t on preorder. This is a Catch-22, and we know it is. People won’t buy the first book in a series without the others available because they don’t want to wait or won’t take a chance the author will finish. Authors who don’t sell enough of their first book think there’s no interest, lose motivation, and may not want to finish. I get it, but we also need to look at it from a reader’s point of view. Not being able to start and finish a series on their timetable is unsatisfying. Bingeing is a way of life now and when we are kept from it, we hear about it. No one wants to wait for the next season of Bridgerton or The House of the Dragon. No one knows where they’re going to be in 2026. This author doesn’t have the second book even on preorder, so God only knows when it will be out. She may not have even started writing it yet. It’s a sad fact that if she’s selling a duology, the first would sell better if readers had access to the second, even if only in preorder form.

She’s wide.
Amazon ads can be used if you’re wide, but to me, it makes more sense to use Facebook ads so that you can capture readers on all devices (by targeting them in your audience list). I told her that, and someone said she uses Amazon ads to great effect even though she’s wide. I just scoffed. Okay, Karen. The person who said that has been publishing for years, has over 30 books in her backlist, and, I would imagine, a very large newsletter list. She started way back in the Kindle gold rush where it was possible to make a lot of money simply publishing books and buying ads to fuel the flames. Publishing isn’t like that today, and only running ads won’t get you very far, especially as a debut author. I wasn’t impressed with her answer since it was clear she didn’t look at this author’s book or lack of backlist to provide any real, personalized direction. There’s no reason why you can’t run Amazon ads if you’re wide, but Amazon ads are known to be spendy, can’t get any traction for less than 30 cents a click, and you’re only reaching one audience. Facebook ads can reach more than only Kindle readers, can be cheaper (there are ads where I’ve gotten my clicks down to 9 cents a piece), and just seems all around a better investment. For her.

She’s not in KU, and her book is priced at $5.99.
This goes along with the “wide” part of the case study. I’m not saying Amazon readers are cheap, I’m sure there are people on Amazon who buy books at full price. But, we’re also talking about a debut author who has one book and the other book doesn’t look to be forthcoming. I’m not sure how many readers will really take a chance on a book that’s $5.99. I’m not arguing for or against being in Kindle Unlimited, that’s a business choice and being wide can be beneficial, but you are choosing your audience and that audience has disposable cash to buy entertainment. I don’t think it’s easier or harder to reach those people, you just have to know how. She may have her book in the Kobo Plus program (Kobo’s KU) but running Amazon ads won’t help her find those readers. So, she’s using Amazon ads to find readers who are willing to pay $5.99 for a debut author who is more than likely still writing the next book. If she’s getting a lot of clicks and no sales, her price could be part of the reason.

She has few reviews.
We like to think that reviews don’t matter, but they do. My duet won’t move no matter what I do and I attribute that to not putting them on Booksprout for reviews. The first book is only at twelve, and the second book is only at ten. I didn’t look to see if those are text reviews or only star ratings, but it doesn’t really matter. I don’t know the statistics on the number of readers who read reviews or just glance at the stars, but it does stand to reason the more star ratings you have, the better your book looks. Even if you have a good cover and solid blurb, a reader could nope right out of there if you don’t have enough social proof.

The book is old.
She published a while back, about eight months ago, well past the ninety-day grace period Amazon gives you. Running ads to a book that is old and already not selling well is like pushing a boulder up a mountain. Amazon is all about relevancy, and if your book isn’t relevant, meaning, people aren’t buying it, Amazon doesn’t care about it. They may still show your ad, and you get evidence of that when you see your impressions, but who knows if Amazon is pushing down your ad when it could be doing better. She’d do better to put her second book on preorder and then create an ad that targets both of them. That may be her plan once her book is closer to completion, I don’t know, but trying to drum up buzz for an old book takes a lot of time and money. Being that I have no idea how many ads or what kind she’s running, it’s hard to say if creating more and different kinds of ads (category vs. auto placement vs. keywords for example) with a higher budget would work.

So that’s what I saw when I looked at her Amazon page. Marketing is more than just figuring out an ad platform or posting social media graphics. It’s the genre you’re writing in, what your publishing schedule is like, if you offer a newsletter. She’s just getting started, so it’s no surprise her marketing tactics will be slow to take off.

I mentioned a little bit about the ad platforms, but let’s just take a shallow dive into them (I don’t have the expertise to go deep). Amazon’s ad platform isn’t complicated, though you do have to invest in clicks if you want any traction. I can’t get anywhere if I’m not bidding 40 cents or more, and that’s for contemporary romance/billionaires/rockstars. The ad itself only consists of your book cover, a tagline if you live in a country where that’s offered, and the number of reviews your book has. You need a strong cover, and if you get clicks, your cover is doing its job. It’s after you get the click and it doesn’t convert into a sale that you need to look at your product page. If your price doesn’t attract readers or if they’re looking for KU books and your book is wide, or your blurb is confusing, or they decide you don’t have enough reviews. Those can affect other ad platforms too, but if we’re just talking clicks, having your book in solid categories so they show up in the right spots on Amazon and having a fabulous cover will go a long way.

There’s a lot that goes into Facebook ads, and the potential to get one part wrong is huge. It’s probably the reason why the guy who said my Facebook ads recommendation was garbage. He had a bad experience, didn’t know how to put the ad together and maybe lost some money, but not everyone is going to have that experience. You need a good description, a good hook (headline), a good stock photo (creative) that will draw readers in enough to click. They can take a lot of trial and error and it can be costly, but I know it can be worth it once you figure out the secret sauce. Again, though, clicks can be a waste of money if readers don’t like what they see after they click on your ad. Facebook ads allow you to target more than just one kind of reader (versus Amazon ads whose readers only read on Kindles). You can target Google Play readers, Apple readers, Nook readers, Kobo, hoping to draw in those Kobo Plus subscription holders. Facebook will spend your money faster than Amazon does, but I found overall the clicks can be cheaper which allows for a little wiggle room. The dashboard is hella complicated, and I hate clicking around in it, but like any platform, once you get used it it, it’s not so bad. She could start small and boost a post off her author page and see how it goes. She would still need to create an audience, but you’d want to do that anyway. Every author needs comps.

I saw someone who was having bad luck with BookBub ads (not the featured deal you have to approved for) saying she was getting impressions but no clicks. It’s really important to understand what kind of platform you’re using. Amazon ads can cater to regular-priced books as does Facebook, but BookBub’s audience are freebie seekers and if she was trying to sell a book at full price, she wasn’t going to get any clicks. I asked her if she was trying to sell a full-priced book and if she had the price on her creative like they encourage you to do, but she didn’t answer me. Whether she didn’t see my response or she resented me telling her a full-priced book wouldn’t sell there, I have no idea, but I’ve heard of other authors trying to sell full-priced books on BookBub and it just won’t work. They have built their entire readership on readers who want free and cheap books. Trying to go against years of that will be futile. You can use them if you put your book on sale, though I have noticed that not a lot of authors want to do that. The author who is trying to sell the first in a duology might do that when her second book comes out, but without knowing her, I would guess the chances are slim.

When you decide to run ads, you have to take a look at your product and your company, which is you. Backlist, number of reviews, how long you’ve been publishing (there’s a reason why companies love to say they were established in XXXX–it creates trust in the person who’s looking at the advertisement), and how often you publish can all influence a reader’s potential to buy. Being a debut author isn’t a bad thing–we all have to start somewhere–but you have to keep your expectations in check. When she does release the second book in her duology, how long will it take her to write another book? Will she be marketing two books for the next two years? Will she release another first in series and expect readers to wait while she writes the next? Building a backlist can take years and she may not get ads to work for her for just as long.

There’s a reason why they say writing the next book is your best marketing tool. I understand the want to push your book out into the world, and I applaud her for trying, but she seemed to think the ads were what was going wrong, and well, I think in this case, it’s the operator and not the machine.

I’m certainly not an expert and I’ve killed ads that were costing me money, not making it. Like I said, I stopped trying to run ads to my duet, and now when I get someone reading them, I just figure they found out about them some other way. I’m running Amazon ads to my King’s Crossing series, and I had to kill a very productive ad. No one was preordering and the clicks were adding up. I may turn it back on once more books are available to purchase or read in KU. I knew from the start I would be paying for exposure, and I left three of the slower-moving ads on. I created two for my rockstars but they are very slow moving right now but maybe rockstars aren’t in and the books are a year old already (relevancy).

Once I write a blurb for the whole series I’ll set up a Facebook ad for it. I need a blurb that explains what the series is about, but I’ve been busy doing other things (which isn’t great since marketing this series should be on the top of my list) and well, I hate writing blurbs.

Anyway, ads are a great marketing too, just be sure you’re in a place in your career where you can benefit from them and always make more than you spend.

I found this in my email from James Blatch–Is your book advertising ready? Could be a fun webinar to listen in on. It’s free, and you can click here to sign up:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RqcLtAxuSd-ioWbFGZiIKQ?inf_contact_key=d2952934bcb214bf7377961b3d3304084dfbc39d7283b2cb89d5189540b69330#/registration

Quick Links:

Bryan Cohen’s free five day Amazon Ads course: https://www.bestpageforward.net/getting-ready-for-the-5-day-amazon-ad-challenge/
The link at the bottom directs you to his Facebook page. Join his group to stay up to date on all the webinars he offers. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2230194167089012

Dave Chesson’s Free Amazon Ad course: https://kindlepreneur.com/free-amazon-ads-course/

Matthew J. Holmes offers a newsletter and classes on Amazon and Facebook ads: https://www.matthewjholmes.com/

David Gaughran has free tools on his YouTube channel that includes using Canva to make Facebook ads graphics: https://www.youtube.com/@DavidGaughran

There are a lot more resources out there when it comes to learning ads. Robert Ryan’s books are great, and if you want to learn BookBub ads, David Gaughran has one that will read outdated because the platform has surely changed, but the tactics described to find your audience are probably still on target. Ricardo Fayet of Reedsy also wrote one that is really informative.

Author Update and Mixed Bag

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

tea, candle, cotton branch laying on comforter

text reads author update and mixed bag

I didn’t make any progress on my small town series last week, at least, not on my days off. I was silly and reread a standalone I published a few years ago because someone bought it and I was like, “Wait! What is she reading? What did she pay for?” And I really have to stop doing that every time someone reads something in my backlist (the reason, you’ll recall, I’m editing my small-town series in the first place), especially my 3rd person stuff, because there will always be mistakes to fix. I think that’s just the law of being an indie author. But it was worth it in other ways, as I thanked people in my Acknowledgements who no longer deserve it, and it was a relief to just delete the page entirely. One wrote under a pen name that doesn’t even exist anymore (so I doubt she’d want anyone to look her up anyway) and the other was my ex-fiancé who doesn’t need to be attached to anything I’ve done or do. I don’t need to keep reminders of people who have hurt me, even if back then they were important to me. A long time ago I wrote a blog post about this, and I think my opinions have changed. Then I advocated to leave the pages, since those people were a meaningful part of your life in some way, but now I say, change it if you want. Do whatever you need to do to protect your mental health and move on. You can read it here: https://vaniamargene.com/2018/05/31/acknowledgements-and-dedications/

I was also able to update my Also By page in the back and add all my first person stuff. I’m the same person so I thought, why not. The long list looks nice, anyway, haha. I didn’t do anything else with my back matter, though I could have put in a call to action (CTA) because it didn’t have one. I should have, but I was in a hurry, that side project not intentional, and I was mad at myself for wasting time. Oh well, it doesn’t matter since on the way home from dropping my daughter off at work the other morning I decided to stop with the hard sell.

A few years ago, during COVID, I guess, I listened to an author marketing podcast and one of the pieces of advice was to give them the CTA the second the book was done. I followed that advice and the back matter for Faking Forever‘s ePub looks like this:

The end of the story bleeds right into the call to action, and I don’t like it (anymore). I want a reader to be able to sit back and savor the ending of the story, not have my newsletter subscribe link shoved down their throats. It probably still is good advice, to hit them when they’re feeling good about your story, feeling good about you as an author because you delivered on your promise and didn’t waste their time and money. But I don’t think it hurts to give them room to breathe, either. If they liked your book that much, they’ll find a way to follow you, even if that means simply “flipping” the page to see what’s in your back matter.

Anyway, so editing All of Nothing was a side project I hadn’t counted on, but I’ll try to keep my eyes on my series now and get that done as soon as possible. I have a potential beta reading and formatting project I might be helping with that I really want to do, so that’s an incentive to stay on track.

Sometimes I think when I get sidetracked it has to do with how I’m feeling. I was a little lost last week. Just normal social media experiences that can rub you the wrong way or leave you feeling out of sorts. My friends and I talk about this a little, about the need to find connection, but when you’re online trying to reach out, you get your hand bitten off or snubbed. It’s common, and my experiences weren’t great. So, of course, when you get to feeling down like that, it’s easy to start wondering why you work so hard on your books for no reason, blah, blah, cue the violins, right? My mental health has gotten a lot better since my diagnosis, but there are a few things that can still bring me down. I’m not perfect, but things out of my control shouldn’t have that kind of effect on me and it’s something I’m working on. I can log out of Threads or even Facebook, and my books will always be there. Except Canva. I can never log out of Canva, haha.

Otherwise I don’t have much else. I posted on social media today, for the first time in a while. I think I need to keep this tab open, because the graphics BookBub highlights in their blog post can be a good source of inspiration. I was reading this today: https://insights.bookbub.com/bookstagrams-ebooks/. If you need a free place to make a book mock up, even if you just want your book’s cover on a Kindle, you can look here: https://diybookcovers.com/3Dmockups/#

I posted this pic on Instagram. It’s pretty simple, but I forget it doens’t take long to make something like this and who knows who could see it.

flat lay of wood wht autumn leaves and a blue scarf. cup of cappuccino that has a foam heart
also Cruel Fate's book cover on a kindle device

I was sent a scam email today that said I need to appeal a Facebook ad because I broke copyright. Anything like that makes you want to take action right away, but there are a lot of scammers on Facebook; I get messages on my Facebook author page and my reader page all the time. Here’s what the email looked like:

It wasn’t sent to my Spam Folder, it went to my Inbox, which gave me pause. But I didn’t click on the link, thank goodness. I checked all my ads first because I know enough if Facebook thinks you’re violating copyright, they’ll take your ads down and maybe even suspend your ad account. I checked my ads, and they were all running fine, so I reported the ad as phishing and sent it to Spam. The things you have to be aware of as an indie is getting out of control, but I was proud of myself that I didn’t overreact and click the link, which gives them access to your ads dashboard (and my ads dashboard is connected to a bank account I assigned for my marketing budget. Needless to say, that’s money I don’t want to lose). So if anything seems suspicious or fraudulent, take a deep breath before freaking out and check things out first.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it in a while, but if you’re looking for a good book marketing resource, Nicholas Erik has a wonderful book on it. I bought his second edition and was sad when he unpublished it because I recommended it to everyone. But, he revised it and released the new version. I bought it on his website but it’s also available on Amazon. This isn’t an affiliate link, I just like to recommend his book because it really helped me see book marketing clearly. If you’re interested, look here: https://nicholaserik.com/books/marketing/ Also sign up for his newsletter. He gives a lot of good advice in there, too.

photo of book cover. the title is the ultimate guide to book marketing by nicholas erik — Image borrowed from his website.

I had to pause a couple of my Amazon ads because even though I knew I was paying for exposure, it was getting to be too much. I’d already spent $29.00 by the 13th of this month, and my sales and preorders definitely weren’t reflecting that. I knew the clicks would start adding up, but I didn’t pause all of them because I know exposure is only the first step in selling books. I boosted a post on Instagram that I made about my Goodreads giveaway, and that was a little over 1200 entries the last time I checked. It will be interesting to see if anyone who wins the first one will buy/borrow the others, but like any promo, it could be months or even years until I find out, if I ever do.

That’s about all I have this week. I won’t be getting distracted by anymore side projects, though I have plenty of books I could read through on a whim. I need to get this series done because I have plans for it around the holiday season.

If there’s one thing I can say about the last four years or so, it’s that I’m glad life didn’t get me down to the point I stopped writing. When I bought those dryer sheets and my life turned upside down, I could have easily given up. I’ve accomplished a lot in the four years I’ve been writing (launched a whole new pen name and will have seventeen titles released by the time all the books in my King’s Crossing series launch), and if you’ve written despite the odds and against life’s challenges, I’m proud of you. I can look back on a long list of books, whether they need a bit of a polish or not, and be proud of myself.

Take care this week. I’m taking Friday off and we’re going to the state park to look at the leaves, then we’re trying a new bar and grill that opened in the town next door. It will be a fun day, and hopefully I’ll be celebrating being that much closer to done on my series.

Until next time!

Another (Manic) Monday

Posted on October 7, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

It seems odd that Mondays come around so fast. My weekends are Monday through Wednesday, then boom, I’m working the rest of the week wondering why I only got through half a chapter. Last week was different as my daughter started her first job and we were getting used to her schedule. Because I wasn’t feeling well for the past four years, she’s eighteen and doesn’t have her driver’s license yet. I take responsibility for that, never feeling good enough to drive with her, and I had to give her rides. So, being in the car on the days I have off will take some time away–I just need to use the time I do have better.

On Wednesday, I went to Best Buy and bought a new Mac. My T was driving me insane and I wanted to replace my computer before it gave out completely. Now that I don’t have to push on the keys so hard to type, I’m hoping some of my carpal tunnel pain will go away, too. My arms would ache after a long typing session, so replacing my old laptop (it was seven years old!) was a must. It’s a little smaller than the one I had before, so I regret getting another MacBook Air and not the Pro, but the images are sharper so maybe that will make up for it. I saved the receipt they emailed me under my 2024 Book Spend as I fully intend to give it to my tax guy as a writing expense.

That leaves me with only one more thing to do when it comes to adulting, and that’s to make an appointment for new glasses. I’ve been putting it off because I’m so sick of doctors, but like finally spending the money on a new computer, I think I’ll like having new glasses since they’re two years old and more scratched up than my furniture (I used to have three cats). I think once I get that taken care of I won’t have to adult for the rest of the year. I’m still trying to find some normalcy when it comes to how I feel. I rarely drink anymore, and that’s helped a lot. I still get nauseated sometimes and overall just feel “off” but that’s probably due to hormones more than anything else, and I’m already on birth control to keep my ovaries steady. Since there’s not much more I can do about that, I have to take each day as it comes and if I’m feeling good, enjoy, and if I’m feeling not so good, stay home and rest. At almost fifty, I could be worse off, so I’m trying to be grateful for what I have.

As far as writing is concerned, I’m trying to get through edits of my old third person series. I’m in the middle of book three (of four), and while I can honestly say I’m enjoying the stories, either my writing style has changed or I just got that much better, but it seems almost every sentence needs some kind of tweaking. I’m taking out a lot that slows down the pace, on a paragraph/sentence level, and then adding more words to plump up scenes here and there and finish conversations where the characters just seem to sputter out. I mean, when someone says, “Have a nice day,” someone else doesn’t just get up and walk away without saying anything back or at least acknowledging it in some way. It was a weird thing I held on to all the way until last year. But while I can say I’m enjoying the stories because I haven’t read them in so long, it’s a freaking pain in the butt and a project I honestly didn’t think would need so much time and work. So, I’m dragging my feet, but knowing it has to be done, and the only thing keeping me going is the fact that these books are going to sound SO GOOD when I’m finished. Could be for nothing–does anyone read third person anymore? I have no idea, but it will be interesting to see what they do with new covers and a little ad money thrown at them. That may be my experiment for 2025.

Book two of my King’s Crossing series will be out this month, on the 28th, I think, and I’m getting some good feedback on Booksprout already. I have a couple preorders for it, literally, two the last time I looked, but I didn’t put them up for preorders for people to actually do it, anyway, so that’s fine. Just passing along the information that my preorders are there, Amazon hasn’t messed with them (yet), and they look good on my Amazon author page.

What am I going to do for the rest of the year? Well, get my old series done ASAP. I’d like to promote it in December if at all possible, and then I’m going dive into a standalone that I wrote a couple years ago. I read through it once since I wrote it and made some notes on what needs to be fixed. Add more chemistry between the characters, fix a few inconsistencies, that kind of thing. I have him wearing jeans when he would never wear jeans–he’s just not the type. Now that I know most (hopefully all) of my writing ticks, like overusing words like “with” and “where” “for” and “from” and dialogue fading off into the sunset, I’ll be able to whip that book into shape pretty easily (as easily as 109k words can get whipped into shape). Don’t know if I’ll find a beta reader for it or not. I love my coworker and value her time but in the end she doesn’t give me the real feedback I need to make the story better. After working with someone who backed out of reading my trilogy last year (when I had given her so much of my time, too), I kind of soured on working with anyone, as detrimental to my career as that may be. I don’t think too many people really admit that they write, package, and publish their books all their own because being a one-stop-shop has a bad reputation, and rightly so. It takes a village to raise a child, and it also takes a village to publish a book. Too bad sometimes my village resembles more of a ghost town these days. Not a whole lot you can do about it either, especially since paying for services doesn’t mean you’re going to get what you pay for, or anything at all.

I sound like I’m whining, but I think it’s a reality for a lot of authors now. We can try to make connections and friends, but the sad truth is, people are too busy. Too busy with life, too busy working on their own stuff, too busy with the friends they already have. I should probably be grateful I can do so much on my own because I know there are authors who can’t and I feel sorry for anyone who has to wade through the scammers and the people who aren’t qualified to offer the services they offer to find real help. Anyway, so that’s what I’ll be doing for the last three months of the year, besides living it up on my birthday on Thanksgiving Day. My ex-husband said he’d come over and cook dinner so I wouldn’t have to, so I may just end up sitting around drinking Prosecco and eating chips and dip. I’ll definitely have stuff to celebrate, like my King’s Crossing series finally out into the world, my old series hopefully done by then, saying goodbye to all my undiagnosed health issues. 2024 was rollercoaster and I threw up a few times, but maybe I can get off this crazy ride in 2025. I would welcome solid ground under my feet.

My Goodreads giveaway is losing steam, but as the days go on and more giveaways are added to the list, that’s to be expected. An author is supposed to do their own promotion after all, but I already tapped out my FB author page, my Instagram, and my newsletter. All I can do now is boost a post here and there, so I might do that before the giveaway ends on the 25th.

I think my newsletter signups are getting sick of me as I lost ten in the past week, and I only had a 29% open rate for my most recent newsletter. That’s not great, but since I’m treating it more like a blog than a newsletter and posting more for the public consumption of it, I guess I’ll have to expect people who signed up to react to the shift in vibe and opt out. That’s fine, maybe a little counterproductive since I want people to sign up rather than unsubscribe, but my sales have also dropped which means fewer people signing up from my books’ back matter. I’m not sure what to do about it at this point because it sounds like a lot of us are struggling. The best thing for me at the moment is just to keep my eyes on the end of the year. I would be really disappointed in myself if I didn’t finish editing my series. I was the one who started it in the first place and doing the relaunch over the holidays would be perfect.

That’s about all I have for this week, but I’ll leave you with a warning. You know I keep my opinions on AI to myself. I’m careful how I use it and use it very little. I like to brainstorm with Al about blog subject lines or hooky tag lines for ads because I’m bad at that, but I’ve never used it to generate photos or write for me. I’ve never written a blog post with it, never used it to edit my books. Mostly because I’m not interested–the things Al does I can do myself, and an AI photo generator doesn’t offer anything you can’t find on DepositPhotos. But if you do use it to generate pictures for a blog post, aesthetics, ads, social media graphics, or for your book covers, or if you use ChatGPT to edit for you or write portions of your books, you need to be careful because not everyone is going to be so blasé about it. There are witch hunts online, a lot of it on Threads, some in FB groups, and there’s a list going around of authors who use it. I don’t condone this list (like my lovely governor says, Mind Your Own Damn Business) and don’t know any of the authors on it, so far, but all it takes is one person to add your name and that will never go away. (Screenshots are forever, my friend.) That’s not the kind of word of mouth you want.

I know the writing community is small, I know that in comparison the reading community is a thousand times larger and maybe you don’t care what other authors think of you so long as readers like your books. That’s okay. I don’t bow down to the author community, but I have been ganged up on on Twitter, and it’s brutal on your mental health. There’s also a list of authors going around who are against AI, but I didn’t put my name on it. I started adding a disclaimer to the copyright pages of my books saying I don’t use AI for my book creation, and I’ll continue to add that, but I do it for myself and my readers. I’ve never done something just because someone else has told me to, and I don’t expect you to stay away from AI if you like using it just because I said so. But if you keep your ear to the ground, you’ll know this subject is hot and it would be bad to land on the wrong side.

I use this blog to pass around information I hear and hopefully help you make informed choices about your own book business. I’ve been on social media for a long time and this AI hate is on a level I’ve never seen before. It’s best to stay away from it or don’t announce it if you’re using it (though that can be for naught as people are pretty good at spotting it). I personally don’t care either way, this blog is a safe place for everyone, but I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention it because like I said, this is a level of hate I’ve never seen before and the mob mentality oftentimes leaves me speechless.

I hope you have a good week, and I’ll see what kind of progress I can make on my series. Hoping to get book three done would be asking way too much, but if I could get close, I would be very happy.

Until next time!

Author Update and SMH

Posted on September 30, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

So, there have been a couple things going on that just make me shake my head because I have too much going on to care, and while I do take interest in most things, if my energy allows it, I’ll be patient and see what happens.

I guess there’s been some issues with the founder of WordPress and WP Engine who uses the… I want to call it software, but I guess it’s technology? I’m not really sure, but I did a little snooping and my website isn’t run by WP Engine, it’s through WordPress directly. I don’t know how any of that is going to affect anyone’s websites now, and it seems a lot of people are panicking and pulling their websites that use WordPress technology down and going with something else. From what I understand, a lot of websites are built using WordPress, but are hosted by someone else like GoDaddy. I never went with a different host, even knowing I wouldn’t have all the flexibility, but I never minded. My website and blog does what I want it to do. Not to mention, I’m not very tech savvy, and fighting to create a website didn’t interest me. (Not back then. I was too busy trying to figure out how to format my freaking books!) Anyway, since the issue is really with the founder of WordPress and the people who run WP Engine, I think I’m safe. Listening to my gut has paid off before, so I’ll wait it out and see what happens. Moving my websites somewhere else, or breaking off from WordPress hosting and going with a different host sounds like a headache and nothing I want to tackle. I did export my blog posts from January of 2018 (the first two years I blogged are a disaster and that information is probably useless anyway) up until now. That would be a lot of words to suddenly lose, and maybe it’s a good idea to do that once in a while anyway. TechCrunch summarized what’s been going on and you can read it here: https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/27/wordpress-vs-wp-engine-drama-explained/

In other news, my Goodreads giveaway is doing fine, and just under a week I already have over 900 entries. If you want to enter, click here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/enter_kindle_giveaway/397874-cruel-fate

I’m not actually sure what I expected, but I’m grateful there seems to be interest.

screenshot of goodreads 877 people want to read

I knew this giveaway would plump up my “want to read” numbers, and that’s cool, too. I don’t do much with Goodreads, haven’t even bothered to change the old covers on some of my books. I don’t know really, if Goodreads is safe for an author who reads, and at this point, with all my health issues and other things going on, I don’t think I want to add another platform anyway. Alessandra Torre is a huge Goodreads cheerleader, and you can read (and watch) how she uses it here: https://www.alessandratorreink.com/home/2017/5/12/grpromo

She has quite a bit of information out there on how to use Goodreads, just search “Alessandra Torre how to use Goodreads,” and a lot of information comes up. I don’t read as much as I should, so maybe Goodreads isn’t that great of a place to hang out if you don’t, but I don’t think once a reader becomes an author that it’s an author’s place to review another author’s work. I see authors all the time who defend their right to say what they want, but then when they get an “honest” review of their work, they can’t handle it. Don’t be in the kitchen if you can’t stand the heat is all I have to say to that. You all know my stance. Stay out of reader spaces (even if you are one!). Leave people alone. Go write your next book. There are actually some things you don’t have to tell anyone about. Imagine.

Now that I got my sarcasm out of the way for today, no, I don’t think I plan to be on Goodreads all that much, even during/after my giveaway. This was mostly an experiment in paying for exposure, and I have no idea really if it’s even worth it. I have Amazon ads going to my series, and I’m getting quite a few clicks and lots of impressions, but all my books will be released into KU and that’s what my readers will wait for. I’m not running ads hoping for preorders, even though I dropped the preorder price on books two and three. Book one is still .99 and probably will be until the last book comes out in April. I’m trying to be pragmatic about this release, realistic, and even though they call it “rapid release” I know I won’t see any real movement until they’re all out.

I have a lot of thoughts on paying for exposure, and maybe I’ll do a blog post about it sometime. For now, let’s move on.

Actually, there’s not a lot to move on to. I’m still editing my series, and I did get done with book two on Friday after our trip to the zoo and the junk market and started book three while I was at work on Saturday. Book two needed some work, some plumping up, and I know why. That was the first book I wrote and I remember thinking it was too “quiet” to carry a series and I decided to make book two book one. Now that I’m reading them with fresh eyes, I think book two would have been an okay book one, but I hadn’t gotten into the flow of the characters and I added 1500 words to book two. That took a little time, and I added a lot to the ending because it didn’t quite make sense. I think I learned a lot writing my King’s Crossing series, handling all that plot and all those details. I have a better memory than I did when I wrote my Rocky Point series, or maybe I was just in a rush to publish and didn’t work on them as hard as I should/could have. Hard to say since I published them in 2018, and that feels like a lifetime ago now. Still, never too late to fix a mistake, and these will sound good when I’m done. I’d like to celebrate their rerelease since some authors do that, maybe do a couple of lives if I can get up the courage and I’ll order some author copies to give away. I know I need to start being more active online, engage with people more. I’m not sure why I have problems with it. Hiding behind a screen is the easiest way to communicate with people.

That’s really all I have left. My ex-husband has a key to my apartment (it was ours before we divorced and he kept his in case of an emergency) and he does weird things like come over while I’m working and drops off bags of garden veg he gets from somewhere. He did that a couple weeks ago and I put the squash on my balcony, jokingly referring to it as my fall aesthetic because I’m terrible at decorating. So, you all know I feed the squirrels and one of them decided to turn my fall aesthetic into a snack. She completely ripped the guts out of one and scattered them all over the balcony. But, she’s enjoying it, and I’ll let her have at it until there’s nothing left.

Squirrel eating squash — I took the picture through my screen so I wouldn’t disturb her.

That’s all I have for this week. I’m praying for everyone who was affected by Hurricane Helene. I’ve seen some pictures and read on Threads what’s been going on and I feel for everyone who has suffered. My thoughts are with you.

Until next time.

Housekeeping Update and Verifying Your Email Address on Goodreads

Posted on September 23, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

pumpkins, sliced blood oranges, and stick of cinnamon on flat wood. text says Housekeeping Update and Verifying Your Email Address on Goodreads

I thought I would switch it up a little because all I did last week was housekeeping. I put the rest of my King’s Crossing books on preorder. I have the paperbacks to books two and three scheduled, but Amazon doesn’t let you schedule out that far in advance, so I’ll have to go back at the end of December and schedule the other three paperbacks. It’s fine, I was just hoping to get it all done at once. But, they’re all up on preorder besides book one that’s live, and they’re pretty to look at. I still have to write a series blurb. It’s on my to-do list, but I’m slowly checking things off so I should be able to get to it soon. You can see them here. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CX7SFGB5

Something else annoying is I had to contact Goodreads, again, and ask that all my books be moved over to my “real” profile as opposed to my fake one. My fake one doesn’t have dots between my initials like my pen name, but my “real” profile does, as that’s some kind of Goodreads requirement. I have to contact a librarian to have my books moved over every time I publish, and it’s mildly annoying. They’re pretty good about getting to it in a decent amount of time, though, and they were moved over the day I posted in the Librarians Group. It’s not really a big deal besides the fact I have to do it at all. This time I had an extra run around and had to verify my email address before they would let me post. That took me a few extra minutes because I didn’t know how to do that. If you’re ever asked to verify your email, this is what you do:

Click on your profile picture in the upper right.

Go to Account Settings at the bottom of the menu.

Then click on Edit Profile.

Once you’re there, click on Settings.

After Settings you’ll see where your email is. If it’s not verified, click the link and it will send a verification email to your email address.

Mine is already verified, so it doesn’t show it anymore, but if yours isn’t you might wanna go ahead and do it while you’re thinking of it. It might save you some issues in the long run, or trying to find this post for the instructions later.

How to do it was buried, as you can see, and Googling the instructions wasn’t that helpful, but it did at least send me in the right direction.

Anyway, so I verified my email and posted in the Librarians Group to move my books over, which they did.

Because of a crappy post on saw on Threads, calling Amazon criminal for charging for Goodreads giveaways, I set one up, almost out of spite. I’ve seen some really asinine things over there lately, and I realized it’s because a lot of those authors are new and don’t remember how things used to be (if you’re new as well and want to read some of the scammy things authors used to do, read here: https://vaniamargene.com/2020/05/04/scammers-gonna-scam/), don’t know how things should be done, or think they should be getting something for nothing. The Goodreads argument is valid, I can admit, considering they used to be free, but newsletter promo sites like Written Word Media, E-reader News Today, Fussy Librarian, et. al. have always charged, so when Amazon said Goodreads would start charging, it wasn’t that much of a surprise. I’ve heard conflicting stories of how effective they are, but at $119 USD, it wasn’t that costly of an experiment and I didn’t have to use any of my free days. So, I’m giving away 100 ebook copies of Cruel Fate, hoping to build some buzz for the series.

I didn’t realize you had to choose between ebooks and paperbacks, and I mistakenly ordered five author copies of Cruel Fate thinking I would need them for a mixed giveaway. So, now I have five paperback books coming, but maybe I’ll just run a giveaway on my Facebook author page in conjunction with the Goodreads giveaway and see what happens. I could have canceled the order, but I didn’t see the harm in having some on hand. The giveaway goes from September 25th to October 25th, which is good timing since the second book releases October 28th.

I’m still editing my A Rocky Point Wedding series, getting close to being done with book two. I took a couple days and read book four for pleasure (Autumn and Cole are my favorite characters in the series), noting some of the changes that would need to be made, mostly tightening up prose. I have three and a half chapters left of book two, but it’s a lot considering each chapter has about 7,000 words in it. I don’t know what I was thinking, chopping it up that way, but I do remember back when I wrote in 3rd person I didn’t break up my books until the editing phase. If I ever write 3rd person again, I’ll write the chapters in as I go. Switching to dual 1st person didn’t leave me a choice, so maybe writing in chapters would be more natural for me. I don’t mind working and reading in 3rd after so many years writing in first, and once I’m doing editing these, I’ll continue on with my “break” and read a few more books I’ve been putting off. Because once I go back to writing 1st person, I’ll stay in that lane for a while.

As far as personal things go, I’m taking Friday off work and going to large zoo 45 minutes from here with my sister and my daughter, and after that the fairgrounds in Fargo, ND is hosting a junk market. I love poking through antiques and stuff. There’s a fee to get in, unfortunately, so we’ll be paying to browse, but it will be nice to spend the day outside in cooler temperatures. It will be a long day for me as I’m still not used to doing so much all at once, but hopefully I feel okay and I’m very much hoping book two will be done by then so I can start on book three on Saturday.

So, things are moving along. I also started some Amazon ads on my series hoping to get some exposure. That’s all it is right now since preorders are usually a waste for me. Readers just wait until they’re available in KU, and I know that, and that’s fine. I very much know that every click on those ads is for exposure (I’ve only had one person read Cruel Fate in KU since release so far), but sometimes there’s no other way. Once I get a series blurb down I’ll create a FB ad for it too. Those clicks are usually cheaper anyway, but I need a good series blurb and tagline or the ads won’t do anything. I learned with my FB ads for my rockstars that you need a hooky hooky hook or no one will care. But that tracks–it takes a lot to care about anything these days. (Is it still COVID languishing or election fatigue?)

I think that is all for now. In the coming months, since there are weeks I struggle to find anything to write about, I may feature an old blog post that has done well, and muse about if I still agree with what I wrote or if my opinions have changed. I don’t mind admitting if I’ve changed my mind since we all grow and learn. It would be an interesting series, anyway, so we’ll see. Threads throws up different ideas here and there, but a lot of it right now is just Amazon hate, ISBN confusion because people need free ways to publish and ISBNs are expensive in the US, and people wondering why their books won’t sell when they have bad covers. It’s pretty par for the course, really, but nothing I can blog about.

Enjoy your week, and next Monday I’ll let you know if I find anything at the junk market!

Until next time!

Monday’s Author Update

Posted on September 16, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

I’ve actually had other things to write about lately, which is a surprise as well as a gift, so this week I can catch you up on what I’ve been doing without feeling bad.

Putting up my King’s Crossing series is slow. I’ve done two so far, hopefully three by the time you read this. I’ve been spacing them out because I didn’t know if putting all six up for preorder would anger some Amazon god. They already asked me for proof of licensing for the stock photos I used for book two. They accepted the DepositPhoto screenshots of my account and the licensing agreements and approved my book on the same day, but I decided to wait a couple days between that approval and book three. That happened on Wednesday, so I put up the third book on Saturday. At this rate it will take me a whole week to get everything up on preorder, which is silly since the first book is scheduled to go live on Monday, uh, today. I can’t even do anything until they’re all available in some way, can’t run ads and I haven’t really posted anywhere the first book is close to being released.

With a series, it’s a double-edged sword. You want people to know your books are coming out, or have been released, but few readers will dive into the first book before they know a series is complete and well, I don’t want them to because I know read through is where the royalties and happy readers are. In fact, someone on Booksprout thanked me for putting all of them up to read. I told her, of course, I don’t know how a reader would read them any other way. I’ve talked a lot about series before, so I’ll leave it there, but for me I can’t do anything until I have all the links. Until they’re all showing up on my Amazon author page. Then, and only then, will I start paying for traffic.

I did a crazy thing, too, and started re-editing my A Rocky Point Wedding series, a 3rd person series I released back in 2018. I had a friend say she read them, then someone else was reading them in KU not long ago, and I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I knew they needed work–I’ve learned a lot and have gotten better at self-editing in the six years since I’ve published them–so just to keep myself from going insane, I decided now would be a good time. I have the time while my King’s Crossing series is releasing and if I can get them done by December, I can push them hard because they take place around Christmas. I’ve already finished book one, and I estimate each book is going to take about two, maybe three, weeks. One week, possibly a week and a half, to do the initial edit, then another week to read it again to make sure what I fixed makes sense. These books are shorter, about 75k words on average, and that helps too, since most of my first person books hit 100k. I really like this series and I’m having fun.

I’ll take the opportunity to freshen up the insides, formatting-wise, and I can update my author bio and my ALSO BY list. I figured it can’t hurt to put my pen name books in the backs and I’ll direct people to my VM Rheault website just for kicks since I didn’t have a call to action (CTA) in the back matter anyway.

All in all, it shouldn’t take too long, maybe be done by the middle of November, then I can hype them up a little bit longer and take the rest of the month off, and December too, for a break and not think about book things during the holidays.

When the first of the New Year hits, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I have a standalone that needs editing, so I can put that up after my King’s Crossing series has been released. Do you want to see the cover? I have a concept done already. Wait. What? Am I redoing the covers for my Rocky Point series? I’m glad you asked, because, yes, I am! I mean, yes I did. I am very sorry to say, as much as I loved, absolutely adored, looking for couples to help my friend Melody with her covers, I just couldn’t do it anymore, and breaking with the brand I was building under my Vania Rheault name, decided to go with single characters. Which actually turned out because of what the titles are. You’ll see for yourself.

Unless Amazon thinks Autumn is showing too much cleavage, I’ll finally be able to run ads to these. My ads were always blocked before because the characters were showing too much skin in bed.

Quite a change, but I think they look sleeker, simpler, and more angsty than the original covers. I may explore different fonts since I know the title isn’t legible at thumbnail size, but honestly, with the product page blaring the title and the blurb, I’m not sure how much difference that makes.

Hopefully the new covers and edit will draw readers in. Surprisingly, I don’t think read-through is too bad, though in book one I did catch quite a few typos and an inconsistency that I couldn’t believe I let slip by me. Editing book two will keep me on my toes because it follows the same timeline as book one. I remember when I was writing them that I needed more time, in the stories, I mean. There are four books that take place over two weeks, and the only way I could find the time for all four was to write book one and two during the same timeframe. Then three picks up the timeline and book four finishes out the two weeks. But I’ll have to double check all the characters and what they’re doing in book two line up with book one.

So, that’s what I’ll be doing in the next couple of months. While I’m working on these, I’ll try to remember to give my King’s Crossing books some love because I get way too focused on the current project at hand. I’ve always been this way, never stopping to enjoy the work I put into a book, but for some reason, I’m going to be absurdly proud of my A Rocky Point Wedding series when they’re all fixed up, and I may order some authors copies to give away at Christmas.

That’s about all I have going on here. It might sound like a lot, but I’m still taking the time to relax a bit and I’m watching A Discovery of Witches on Netflix. I already watched it once, but I liked it enough to watch it again. As far as health stuff, I wrote one last blog post on my mental health blog. Since I stopped drinking in June, I haven’t had nearly the anxiety and it’s difficult to write about anxiety if you’re not experiencing it. I still get nervous sometimes, that this is how I’ll feel for the rest of my life, but when the best of the best says, “It is what it is,” there’s not a lot that can be done. I won’t get into it anymore here. If you’re interested in that update, you can look here: https://chaoscoffeeandconfessions.blogspot.com/2024/09/nothing-good-in-good-situation.html

I might still write on it from time to time, to explore how I feel and what I’m doing. I’m trying to move forward the best I can, working on my books, trying to remember that it’s okay to take a break. I don’t think I’m going to be as hardcore in 2025 as I used to be. Things have changed, and I’m tired. I have my books figured out until August, and I need to find the fun in writing again. I have an idea for another standalone, about a woman who’s sister was involved in a kidnapping gone wrong, and my main character happens to fall in love with the boy’s father. I even have the cover for that one almost done, and I know I want it to be dark. Like depression, death, heartbreakingly dark. It might just be the thing to keep my spirits up because, like a lot of people these days, life has been kind of dragging me down.

Anyway, enough of that. There’s no point in wallowing. Life is good.

Have a good week, everyone!

How to turn your book’s cover full wrap PDF into an ebook cover

Posted on September 9, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

I’ve gotten a few questions about this, and I guess maybe I was remiss in not typing out the instructions before now.

In all honesty, I’ve been doing it the hard way, importing the PDF into GIMP, cropping out the back cover and spine, adjusting the DPI and size, then downloading the JPG file. When someone asked me in the comments of my updated full wrap post for instructions, I didn’t want to direct them to a software they might not have. My full wraps are made in Canva, so should the ebook covers.

So, I messed around a bit, figured it out, and to my surprise, found it was easier than using GIMP anyway.

For the screenshots, I used Melody Loomis’s cover for her book, Thrill of the Chase. I designed the cover, so I already had access to the PDF and she gave me her permission to use it.

Here you go:

Click on Create a Design.
KDP’s guidelines for an ebook cover are 1600 x 2560 pixels. Click on Create a Design and click on Custom Size. Enter in the pixels, like this.

Click Create New Design.

Next, you can either upload your book’s PDF or check your Projects folder. It will already be there unless you’re doing an ebook cover for someone else. The first time I uploaded a PDF I was really confused and kept thinking I was doing something wrong. So either way, your Projects folder is where you’ll find the PDF. I’m using Melody’s Draft2Digital cover, and it’s at the top because I uploaded it for this post.

Click on it so it’s laying on your empty canvas.

Click the cover to select it, if it isn’t already, and crop off the back cover and the spine.

Now grab a corner and enlarge it. At this point, just play with it until it fits the canvas how you want it. It won’t fit 100% and you’ll lose just a tiny bit on the sides, but it’s so little you won’t notice.

Click Share and Download.

Choose JPG because KDP won’t accept a PNG. If you have Pro, scoot the quality up 100.

Save it in a place and under name you’ll remember.

It will save in the correct size and DPI and you won’t have to do anything else to it.

That’s it. I should have written this out a long time ago, but I never thought to. Anyway, it’s simple enough to do and I should have been doing it this way from the beginning. After that reader posted his or her question, it did get me to thinking about it, and now I’ll never use GIMP to make ebook covers again.

If you have any questions, drop them in the comments below, and I’ll answer them to the best of my ability.

Thank you to Melody Loomis who let me use her cover, and if you’re interested in her Storm Series, you can follow her author page and check out her books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Melody-Loomis/author/B093KGD3ZC

Until next time!

Author Websites: Do You Need One?

Posted on September 2, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

Today’s topic on websites is thanks to Melody Loomis, and you can check out her website here: https://www.melodyloomis.com/

I’ve been a writer in some way, shape, or form, all my life, like most writers are, but when I found writing after a failed attempt at going into Human Resources as a career, I didn’t think to create a website. In fact, the idea of it sounded foreign, confusing, and costly. I dusted off my Twitter account–I had made one while I was in school to connect with HR people–and joined the writing community instead (thinking I’d make the connections I would eventually need to sell my books. Ha!). One of the first things they said was to start a website, so, despite my inhibitions, like everything else I’ve done in publishing, in December of 2015, according to my WordPress site, I jumped right in.

I didn’t create my website to tell people about my books though. I started an indie blog, the one you’re reading right now. Almost nine years later, I have never taken my website down or skipped a week publishing, for that matter. I was pretty hardcore back then, writing six times a month about stuff I knew nothing about. Arrogant, I suppose, like a lot of newbie authors are. I don’t recommend having a website where you blog for indie authors and try to sell your books to readers at the same time. Mixing the writing community and the reading community can leave a bad taste in someone’s mouth, be it the writing community who doesn’t like the kinds of books you’re writing or the reading community who doesn’t like what you have to say on your blog that’s intended for other writers and authors. In fact, after typing that sentence, I’m tempted to take my Books page down. I don’t promote them anyway, and really, they don’t belong on a website that I use to write about my publishing experiences. I could always add them to my true author website (vmrheault.com), nesting a page under that Books page and making it clear they’re written under another name, but that’s a thought for another day.

The title of this blogpost is “Author Websites: Do you need one?” and the answer to that question is yes. Yes, you do, and along with the reasons why, I’ll explain how I use my websites and how they differ from each other.

Don’t build your house on other people’s land.
This is really important and I can’t stress this enough. Just a couple of days ago, someone on Threads was saying how her Facebook Author page got taken down and she lost over four thousand followers. Imagine if she had created a newsletter/blog instead. I know this post is about websites, but websites and newsletters/blogs are almost one and the same. A website is yours, and so is your newsletter. Social media platforms come and go (not because they fall apart like Google + but because you’re at the mercy of a bot who decides if you’re breaking their guidelines), but your website and a newsletter will always be around (unless, for some reason, you take them down).

It’s where you should send newsletter subscribers.
It’s a very bad idea to use your newsletter aggregator’s landing page link to send readers to sign up for your newsletter. If you change your landing page or you have an issue with your newsletter, that link might not always work. When you put that link around online and for some reason it gets broken, readers will think you don’t have a newsletter anymore and you could lose a fan. Also, broken links just look plain unprofessional. If you send subscribers to your website instead, you can make changes to your newsletter sign-up link as needed. No one learned this lesson better or faster than I did when my MailerLite newsletter went up in a puff of smoke. I had an invitation to sign up to my newsletter in the back matter of over ten books. That’s a lot of links to change when you think of ebooks, paperbacks on KDP, and paperbacks on IngramSpark. Luckily, I was sending them to my website, and now instead of a landing page link, I edited what the page says and it invites them to subscribe to my blog. My reader magnet is on that page now, instead of in my welcome email, but it is what it is. I’ll never try another newsletter aggregator. I like being in control of my website and blog. The longer I’m in this industry, the more I learn it’s difficult to trust anyone with any part of your business. If you want to see what that page looks like, you can look here: https://vmrheault.com/subscribe/

It doesn’t cost that much.
I can only speak for WordPress. I use WordPress and let them host. I bought my domain name and the email I needed, vania@vaniamargene.com, when I set up my newsletter, through WordPress too. I’ve shared that email enough that I probably won’t get rid of it even if I don’t need it for MailerLite anymore. Way back people said you shouldn’t do that because you can’t enjoy plugins and other things on a WordPress-hosted site. I didn’t care about having popups or selling books on my site, and still really don’t. Selling my books here sounds like a big time-suck and I already have enough of those. So, I went with a Premium plan for both and pay $96.00 dollars a year, each, $19.00 for my domain names, each, and my G Suite email for $72.00. You don’t need all that. Personal plans are $4.00 a month or $48 a year plus the domain for $19. You can have a professional WordPress website for $67.00 a year. Some website providers are even free, and there’s no reason you can’t go that way, but you’ll still end up paying for a domain name. One of the things authors forget is that when you get your taxes done, you can write off your expenses. I keep track of all my yearly spend and give that and my yearly royalties to my accountant. With how much I spend in ads, I break even or I’m in the red, but I can still get some money back for all the money I put into my business. No matter which way you go, free or paid, or if you find a site that’s in between, set something up.

Your website will turn into your hub.
Your website will be around for years and years and years and as you publish books, you’ll add those to build a nice backlist. You don’t need to worry about SEO or how people will find you. You can add your website link to the backs of your books and on all your social media profiles. People who are searching for you or your books already know your name and what to Google. The only time you need to worry about building SEO is if you’re blogging on a topic and you want to be found when someone searches for information about that topic. That really doesn’t apply to authors, unless you write nonfiction, and then you’re probably blogging about your subject.

This website gets anywhere from 30-100 hits a day. Mostly because people are looking for instructions on how to make a paperback cover in Canva. The updated instructions have gotten over 6,000 views since I published it in June of 2022. I get my regular readers who will read every Monday, and they count too, but if you search for “making paperback covers in Canva” my blog post is on the first page of results. That doesn’t matter much since it doesn’t sell books, I’m just happy I can help people publish. I don’t sell books off this website, so that would be another reason to take my Books page down. If you’re worried about SEO for your website, the only thing you can do is blog consistently on it. Being that a normal newsletter is only sent out once a month, if you blog that infrequently, you’ll never get the SEO you want. Building SEO takes hard work and consistency. Anyone who blogs whenever they feel like it and hops around from topic to topic can tell you how difficult it is to grow your following. Still, if you choose a WordPress-hosted site, you can be part of the WordPress Reader. When I moved my newsletter to my blog, not only did my number of opens stay around the same, but my posts were seen in the WordPress Reader, a perk I hadn’t considered but appreciate now. If you truly want your website to come up if someone searches your genre, sell a lot of books. That’s all you can do.

People say they don’t want a website because they don’t have anything to put on it. To me, that sounds like a good reason to have one. There’s no maintenance. I guess then you can argue you’re paying for nothing, but you’re paying for an internet presence you own and you have no idea how helpful it is to have one until you don’t and you need it. I loving having both my websites, and I have to admit, I love blogging on both too. I never understood people who say they don’t have anything to write, and oh, my God, do I hear it a lot. You’re a writer. How hard is it to come up with 500-1000 words once a month? Talk about yourself. Talk about your books. People can’t get to know you or think they’ll try out your books if you don’t put yourself out there. Though, that’s neither here nor there since we’re just talking about websites and not blogging, but if you’re worried your website will become stale, at least copy over your newsletter content to a blog once or twice a month, and maybe you’ll get some new readers who haven’t subscribed to your newsletter.

Content is the name of the game, and you’d need something to post if you make up a Facebook Author Page. You definitely need to create content on FB if you want people to see it, otherwise the algorithms will sink your page faster than Amazon will sink your book. If you write lengthy posts on Facebook, repurpose those posts on your website.

When I started posting about my books on my author site, I really enjoyed myself, and I was surprised at the number of views and visitors I was getting. I put my ARC links up and though they haven’t gone as fast as I would have liked, more signed up than if I wouldn’t have made them available on my website at all.

Your website will be what you make it. It will reflect who you are as author and the kinds of books you write. We’re all grappling for discoverability, for our books to be seen. A website is a good way to do that.

Now, I need to set up a blog for my author site. I’m blogging more over there to create buzz for my series, and it’s working well. In the past week I’ve had 145 views and 95 visitors, plus the opens I get from the list I exported from MailerLite when I deactivated my account. I couldn’t be happier.

I hope you had a good weekend and that you’re enjoying the Labor Day holiday. Check www.vmrheault.com if you want to see what I’m writing to my readers.

Until next time!

The Weird In-Between: Thursday Thoughts

Posted on August 29, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

I think you all know I’m on a break. A “break.” I’ve said before after each release that I’m going to take a break. Refill my creative well like everyone likes to say. Rest. Recuperate. Reflect. I say it, and it lasts maybe a day before I’m back writing or editing another book.

Not this time. I’m holding true and actually…. reading. Watching a show on Netflix.

It’s weird. Quiet. Not all together pleasant.

The shadows of the urgency are still there. On Tuesday night I had my ex-husband and my sister over for dinner. Knee-jerk reaction to be annoyed my evening was gone, but then I had to remind myself that I’m not writing. Not editing. Not plotting. My sister stayed and we played Life with my daughter on her Switch. We played two games and my sister asked if we were going to play another. It was about 8:00pm. Everyone is used to me ending an evening before it practically starts and they fully expected me to say “No, I’m done.” I surprised everyone by saying, “Yeah, one more game.” Because…. I’m not writing. Not anxiously waiting to get back behind my keyboard to write another 1,000 words before bed.

Next week we’re going to a town forty-five minutes away to poke around and that night my sister and I are going to see Deadpool. A whole day, gone. Again, a knee-jerk reaction to be annoyed but I didn’t even have to remind myself I’m not writing to shake it off. Because, as surprising as it may be to you and to me, I want to do those things.

So I’m in this odd between space where I’m still blogging, still scrolling Threads for book news, still making graphics in Canva for what little marketing I do, but not writing or editing. Give & Take is scheduled to be a in a promotion soon, so this weekend I have to make graphics and write up a draft for my newsletter/blog. I did the cover for the next book I’m going to work on. It’s not set in stone–my covers go through a lot of changes before I hit upon the one I like best–but I like looking at it.

I don’t think it’s all because I’m feeling better or that I’m in the stages of acceptance that this is how I’m going to feel and there’s nothing more that can be done. It’s a big part of it, for sure, because I’ve said many times that I used writing and publishing to hide from how I felt. Not drinking much anymore helps, limiting myself to only two or three drinks a month. I broke that cycle and I’m feeling calmer and more serene than I have in a long time. Perhaps it’s a stepping back and wondering what I want from writing, because at this point I’m not sure what it’s given me or if I want to keep it.

I mean, I’m grateful it was there to hide behind. I don’t think anyone would resent a safety net. Writing, publishing, and the writing community gave me a place to go when the people in my life were tired of putting up with how I felt and how it affected me. (And I’m not stupid or naïve–I know I annoyed a lot of people not feeling well for so long.) I made a lot of friends, lost a lot of friends, too. I love helping people do their covers and edit and format for authors who are in a pinch. But I turned writing and publishing into kind of a conveyor belt of content, and only because I wasn’t feeling well enough to enjoy the product I was creating. I wrote fabulous stories, and I’m proud of all of them, but I didn’t savor them like I could have. And in saying that, I wonder how much better they could have been if I had. I don’t think I’m the only one who sometimes feels this way about their books. Indie publishing has turned into a rat race of content, not just for me. Like a shark that will drown if it can’t keep moving, indie publishing feels the same. If you can’t keep producing, you’ll sink, and that kind of thought, that kind of knowledge, that kind of fact, can wear you down fast.

I edited my King’s Crossing series while I was getting treatment, so I’m not sure how much better they are, or if the quality didn’t change. I won’t know if I don’t go back and reread some of the things I’ve written before, but I’m not too eager to do that. I recently re-edited my reader magnet and besides some typos and a small timeline inconsistency I doubt anyone noticed, I thought it sounded good. One of my best pieces, if I’m honest, because I shoved a lot of my misery into those characters. Maybe all my books are like that. That instead of my pain preventing me from creating amazing stories, it did the opposite and helped me create characters just as wounded as I was. If that’s the case though, I wonder how writing will be going forward. I mean, I’m not cured. I have the potential to feel worse as time goes on because endometriosis grows and maybe one day I’ll need another surgery to remove it, but for now, I’m feeling better, physically and mentally, than I have in years.

I suppose in the next few months I’ll be feeling my way around. I don’t want to be obsessed about writing anymore, but it does feel strange to have free time. I know finding a balance in all things will be easier said than done, but I fully plan to enjoy the next few months. Fall has always been my favorite time of the year and this year I’ll actually be able to appreciate the cooler temperatures and the leaves turning.

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you. I’m no longer struggling, not feeling like I’m drowning at least, more like treading water and realizing that I can stay afloat. I haven’t been able to enjoy anything for so long, and the simple fact that I can now leaves me reeling at times.

I hope you too, are able to find some enjoyment in your writing and publishing. I know I’m not the only one dealing with issues, mental or physical, but finding joy, no matter how small an amount, is imperative if you want to keep going and not burn out.

September will soon be upon us, and we’ll have only four months left of the year. Appreciate that time because it will move swiftly. Fall is in the air, a hint of woodsmoke and rain. Sip and savor. That will be my motto for the coming months. Wine, life, writing. I hope you can, too.

Until next time!

Monday’s Author Update (Mind, Body, and Soul)

Posted on August 26, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

I have a couple of things to talk about today, but surprisingly, my life has calmed down by a lot. My ARCs have been up since last Tuesday. I was able to upload them into Bookfunnel for my author website and upload all of them on Booksprout too. My reviewers there haven’t forgotten about me, and 41 out of 50 copies were taken for the first book. The numbers dwindle as the books go, but that’s to be expected–that’s how it is on the sales floor, too. Readers will be able to snag the books for a couple more weeks, but I have the first one set to release on the 16th of September. I haven’t put the preorder links up yet, so they aren’t on Amazon right now. I’m going to wait until I delete my links off my author website and the campaigns close on Booksprout. Since my books are dropping into KU after their preorders end, I’m just being careful. This was a big project for me, and I don’t want to screw it up. Here’s my publishing schedule if Amazon doesn’t give me a hard time:

Cruel Fate, Book One, September 16th, 2024
Cruel Hearts, Book Two, October 28th, 2024
Cruel Dreams, Book Three, December 9th, 2024
Shattered Fate, Book Four, January 20th, 2025
Shattered Hearts, Book Five, March 3rd, 2025
Shattered Dreams, Book Six, April 14th, 2025

I’m a little disappointed more haven’t dowloaded off my website. Books 2-6 have about 9 a piece, and book one has 12. That’s not terrible….if everyone leaves a review when the books release, between what I’m giving away and my Booksprout copies, I could potentially have 50 reviews a book. But, I know since these are spaced out, the potential people will forget is high. Booksprout will send reminder emails, and I’ll write blog post reminders, but there’s only so much you can do. If you want to see what I did with my ARCs and the series page I created on my website, you can look here: https://vmrheault.com/kings-crossing-series/

I’m holding true to my resolution to take a break while my ARCs are up, and I’ve been reading my favorite Nora Roberts book, The Villa. I love the story so much and it was a good choice to dip my toes back into reading. After that I want to read Sadie Kincaid’s Mafia series. I got hooked on those snippets when I was on TikTok trying it out for myself, and I have all of them borrowed in KU. You can find them here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSQZPJ6H

Going forward, I’m going to try to find more of a balance between reading and writing. Since I saved up my books and the next standalone I’m going to release is in its editing stages, I feel like I have some wiggle room to actually read, go for walks, and spend more time with my kids while I’m getting this next book ready for publication.

I had another Mayo Clinic appointment on the 23rd, and my MRI showed signs of hysterectomy scarring and the presence of endometriosis. She didn’t recommend exploratory surgery to find out how much (which is the only way to know for sure), and I didn’t want it anyway. So my discomfort comes from nerve damage/scarring/endometriosis. There’s nothing more that can be done unless I want to try an anti-inflammatory diet–that I may look into–and I don’t have another appointment scheduled. I’m welcome to message her anytime, and I will have to next year when my lichen sclerosis cream runs out and I’ll need a refill on my ovary pills sometime next year as well. Whether she’ll want to talk to me during a virtual appointment, I’m not sure as she didn’t mention that, or she could just put the refills through my pharmacies if I’m not feeling any worse than I am now. I mean, I’m not feeling bad, but I’m not feeling good, and it’s disheartening to know that I’ll never feel “normal” again, even though I expected that kind of news before my appointment.

I’m still not drinking, limiting my alcohol intake to two, maybe three, drinks a month. Because of this, my anxiety is still under control, though I do get nervous from time to time. I get a little nauseous sometimes, but that could be from my ovary pills or from the endometriosis, since both cause that. My doctor hugged me when I left and said she was proud of the work I put in to feel better. I’m proud of myself, too, because I lived through some pretty bleak days, but she said she was especially proud I had the self-awareness to know drinking was causing me harm and knew enough to stop. She said some people get into a cycle where they don’t feel good so they drink, and then they feel worse because they’re drinking, and then they drink more because they don’t feel good. I never considered drinking could have such detrimental effects on your mind and body, but I can tell the difference. Now if I have something to drink I sip and savor. Life has changed since my first appointment in February, I’ll tell you that.

So, what’s next for me? I’m going to try to find balance in all ways. My body needs to adjust. I’m still not feeling well from the MRI I had on Friday (ironically, some kind of shot to slow my insides down gave me diarrhea), and I didn’t take the next day off to rest after my appoinments and traveling home so I worked all weekend. I’m going to try to walk more, especially now that the weather will be cooling down here shortly. My stamina is crap and I’ve gained a lot of weight since 2020. My series is done besides putting the books up on Amazon, so that’s a relief, and I’m going to try to find the joy I lost. Writing and publishing was more of a job I hated than something I started because I loved it, but that’s only because I used it to hide from how I was feeling. There’s no reason to do that anymore. I’ll never feel normal again, but I know the reasons why and that’s huge when it comes to my mental health. It’s scary when you’re sick and no one can tell you why, and they don’t want to find out for you, either.

It’s still in the back of my mind to write up my experiences and publish them in hopes of helping other women like me. One website said that women who have vulva lichen sclerosis live with it for 5-15 years before being diagnosed. I had it for four and felt like I was going out of my mind. I had other issues, like my ovaries out of whack because of my hysterectomy, but even so, women’s medical care leaves a lot to be desired, and if telling my story could help someone, then I think I should do it. I’d like to do it soon while all the details are fresh in my mind, but regurgitating all that could be triggering too. I’ll never forget the callous way my doctors treated me. Even lying to me in some cases, and being treated like that is just as difficult as living with whatever is hurting you. What’s sad is that I know people have been treated far worse than I have, and though I’ll never feel normal again, people live with worse pain, conditions, and symptoms than what I have. I have a lot to be grateful for after all is said and done and in the coming months and years I’ll be looking for peace to come to terms with what I’ve gone through.

I’m not sure how this will affect my writing, if it will. I don’t feel like writing and publishing is as important as they once were. I was using it as a shield to hide from how I was feeling, and I don’t need to do that anymore. I can write because I want to. I can publish because I’m proud of the story and want people to read it, not because I need the distraction and something to do to forget how crappy I feel. It will be interesting to see if I can find that joy again, the joy I had for writing and publishing prior to 2020, or if I’m so different now after those negative experiences that I’ll never feel the same way. I did the cover for the standalone I’m releasing next year, and it makes me excited for the book. I know I need the break though, a real break, so I’m not going to jump into editing it. Finding balance will be harder than it sounds, but I have to remind myself that it’s okay to slow down and rest. With as abysmal as my sales are, there’s no reason to rush anyway. No one’s buying and it could be a combination of things, but the bottom line is the books and readers will always be there so there’s no harm in taking some time for myself.

Anyway, that’s all I have for today. At some point I’m going to write the instructions on how to create an ebook cover out of the PDF full cover book wrap. A couple people have read my blog post on how to make a full wrap in Canva and they asked for directions on how to turn that PDF into an ebook cover. It’s quite simple, really, but it will be good to have those instructions out there, I think.

Have a good Monday, everyone! Take care of yourselves, and take a break! You’ll be thankful you did.

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Vania Margene Rheault

Independent Contemporary Romance Author & Blogger

Author Archives: Vania Margene Rheault

About Vania Margene Rheault

Amazon Ads: A Case Study

Author Update and Mixed Bag

Another (Manic) Monday

Author Update and SMH

Housekeeping Update and Verifying Your Email Address on Goodreads

Monday’s Author Update

How to turn your book’s cover full wrap PDF into an ebook cover

Author Websites: Do You Need One?

The Weird In-Between: Thursday Thoughts

Monday’s Author Update (Mind, Body, and Soul)

About Vania Margene Rheault

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