Category Archives: book marketing

Author Update: Where are all the May Flowers? 🌸

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Decorative blog header featuring pale blue baby’s breath flowers along the left side against a white background, with blue script text reading: “Author Update: Where are all the May flowers?”

Don’t get me wrong. The title of this post is a little deceiving. There are some flowers here and there and the grass of our apartment complex is dotted with yellow dandelions that look cheerful. But, sparing you the Minnesota weather forecast, it’s still cold outside, and well, after dealing with the doom and gloom, it would just be nice to be able to go outside without a coat on.

Wicked Games will be out this Friday, May 15th, and I’m not really doing anything extra for it. The book has just kind of slipped out of my brain, and it will be a struggle to shove it back in, so maybe I won’t. I’m not running ads and I feel like I’ve exhausted how much people on social media care (even if the truth is no one has seen the posts in order to get tired of them). It used to be that releasing a book was a big deal, and it still is, in some ways. I’ve gotten good feedback about it, some nice reviewers posting on Instagram, but going through the publishing motions isn’t as exciting as it used to be. I don’t want to be a killjoy, and I’ve been trying very hard not to be on this blog because you don’t come here to listen to me whine.

But I think it’s safe to say that I don’t have the time, energy, or money to do what it takes to move books, and I’m not alone. I’m willing to do a lot of things, or, I was. Like sending out a newsletter, a real one, not just on my author blog, consistently releasing three to four books a year, and posting on socials. It used to be fun, and that’s the crux of it. The hustle isn’t fun anymore, and at fifty-one, I’m understanding what my limits are and don’t want to waste energy on things that consistently produce very little in return.

What still is fun? The writing, of course. I’d walk away completely if that stopped being fun. Cover design. Scrolling through stock photos is tedious and getting up there with being not fun, but for now, putting together a cover I can be proud of that accurately depicts the story is fun. Formatting, to some extent, is fun. I like deciding how pretty I want to get with the insides, but a lot of the time I think simple is best and at the last minute throw out any plans to get fancy/complicated and just do a clean formatting job instead.

Uploading files and entering metadata is not fun, and having to do it over and over again on different platforms is really not fun. Bookfunnel, Booksprout, Amazon, IngramSpark when the timing is right. It’s tedious, really, especially when you pair that with the stress of hoping that what you’re doing will help just a little bit and you might actually sell a few copies during your launch.

So, I think any sane person would say, just do the fun stuff then, and forget the rest. And honestly, I’m really close to doing that. I’ve been thinking about what I want publishing to be going forward, and with my personality in general, having fun means trying new things. That means doing something I haven’t done before, like only making my book available on my site for a while, or going wide with it instead (I know those are completely opposite ideas LOL). But publishing the way I always have is getting stale, and I’m hoping for different results doing the same thing every time. Because when I look at what I’ve done over the past couple of years, doing promos, book blasts, and running ads, I don’t get different results, and I don’t get different feelings either. So, I’m not thinking about things the way I used to. We’ll see. The easiest thing I can think of would be to do something like, put Bitter Love on Bookfunnel and give it away as a freebie for a couple of months. No thinking about sales, no hoping for reviews, just giving it away and seeing what happens. I wouldn’t even bother to collect email addresses because I would have to change my Bookfunnel plan and I don’t want to do that. It’s interesting to think about. I’m not selling much now, so giving away a book wouldn’t cannibalize any sales, and I doubt that will change within the next year or so because I’m not convinced the publishing landscape will get easier anytime soon.

In other news, I got a preorder reminder today, and it’s interesting that KDP is now locking your book down five days before your publishing date, not 72 hours. So, with that change I would suggest that you have your final files uploaded and ready for your preorder/scheduled date at least a week in advance. The warning doesn’t bother me at all because I never put my book on preorder until my book is 100% ready to go, but I know a lot of authors edit right up until the last minute, so I would keep this in mind if you like to live dangerously. I have both the print and the ebook scheduled, so this could only apply to the paperback, but it never hurts to be safe and just have both of them ready at the same time.

Screenshot of a Kindle Direct Publishing email reminding the author that Wicked Games, scheduled for release on May 15, 2026, will be locked for updates beginning May 10.

As of this writing, I’m 12,000 words into Frozen Assets, and I’m really liking my progress so far. Of course, you know I get the “This book is going to be so short!” fear while I’m writing, but then I look over my outline and think there is no way this book will be under 80k words. All the research I’m doing seems to be paying off, and my characters can talk about hockey naturally without sounding like I’m injecting facts just for the sake of sounding like a sports romance. I’ll still have to research as I go along because when we get to team dynamics, player positions, and contracts, I don’t know much about those things and I want to sound realistic and believable. Just in case a hardcore hockey fan happens to read my books. There are things you can fudge in the name of artistic freedom, but I want the important aspects correct at least.

Alex Newton of K-Lytics just came out with his annual sports report, and in the email, he says:

Romance > Sports is currently the #2 highest-ranking bestseller list out of 69 main Romance sub-categories on Kindle.

Even more striking: 11 out of the Top 100 highest-selling Kindle books of 2026 thus far are sports or hockey romance titles. Eleven!

Google search interest in sports romance and hockey romance surged to an all-time high at the end of 2025, just as the TV adaptation of Rachel Reid’s hockey romance Heated Rivalry became the biggest original series debut on record for Canada’s streaming platform Crave.

And the next publicity boost is already around the corner: Elle Kennedy’s Off Campus will premiere on Prime Video next week, on May 13.

if Alex’s numbers are anything to go by, hockey romance is an extremely popular subgenre right now and if you were thinking of sliding onto the ice, there’s probably never been a better time. If you want to purchase the report (that also covers football and other sports), I’ll give you the link (not an affiliate link). I used to buy them every once in a while, but I can’t afford to now. I’m sad, too, because his reports are very informative and I miss his data (and sense of humor). There’s a little more information about his seminar, and you can buy it here: https://k-lytics.com/sports-romance

That’s all I have for you this week. Next week I have an editor Q & A from the lovely Megan Harris, and after that, I’m going to talk about discoverability if you hate social media and ads don’t work.

Have a good week, everyone, and take time to smell the flowers! 🌺

Author Update: Spring Reset

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Pink flat-lay graphic with a clock, notebook, glasses, pens, and desk accessories surrounding white text that reads: “Author Update: Spring Reset.”

Hello, hello, from the frozen north where it actually got to 85F the other day and it made us all think that summer might once again be possible!

I have been very busy for the past few days, and I got a lot done. I finally finished edits for my Cedar Hill Duet, and got all the files uploaded to KDP and IngramSpark with their new covers. This will be the last time I edit them or redo their covers. What will be with them will be, but I was very excited to get that off my plate once and for all. If you want to see how the covers have changed since I published them four years ago, I dredged them up on Canva:

Graphic comparing cover evolution for the Cedar Hill duet. Top row shows three versions of Captivated by Her from 2022 release cover, 2023 redesign, and 2026 final cover featuring a lighthouse background. Bottom row shows three versions of Addicted to Her from 2022 release cover, 2023 redesign, and 2026 final cover featuring a city skyline background.

I don’t think my skill necessarily changed that much, but my taste did. The covers I just changed them to are more indicative of what’s inside, Rick with his lighthouse and Beau with the city behind him, rather than the generic background that a lot of billionaire novels have even today. I did end up changing the model for Addicted to Her, just because the guy didn’t match the vibe I had in mind for the character. I had to find a different pose for the other model because his arms were cropped and I needed all of him so I could show more of the city buildings. I really like how they turned out, and since I edited these within an inch of their lives, there’s no reason to revisit them ever again. It’s a good feeling. After KDP approved the paperbacks, I started some low cost-per-click Amazon ads and I’ll be thinking about what I can do for the “relaunch party” I want to have. I’d like to use my free days and run a Facebook ad to them or something because I think with the new covers they’ll sell better. Anyway, I’ll let you know what I decide and what the outcome is. If anything, it’s more content for social media because I always have trouble coming up with things to post.

While I was messing around in IngramSpark, I updated all of my prices (something they told us to do months ago), and I upped all my paperbacks to $16.99 which just seems so high considering I had some of my older books priced at $9.99. I don’t sell many paperback off there anyway–I only have my books listed in case a miracle happens and suddenly bookstores need access. So I adjusted my prices, made sure the discount was the same across the board, and turned off returns on the books that still had that on. Getting that pricing maintenance out of the way was a nice thing to check off my list, as was catching up and publishing my King’s Crossing serial, A Heartache for Christmas, and Loss and Damages. I was behind because I don’t like having to tweak the covers, but it will be a while before I have to do any more. I won’t be able to publish Wicked Games there until that title and ISBN “settle” on Amazon so I’ll get around to it this summer. It’s just a lot of busy work what with the covers and filling out all the meta data and uploading files.

I was going to wait to put Wicked Games on preorder since I had been messing around so much with my KDP account, but I ended up submitting the ebook for preorder anyway, and that went through just fine. I’m not sure what I was expecting, them to flag my account for unusual activity, I guess, but they didn’t bother me. I had an ARC reader message me on IG and told me about a typo that I fixed, but it will be there in all the ARC copies that were claimed and in the nine author copies that I have. It’s fine. I had typed “here” instead of “her” but honestly, if that’s all she caught because that’s all there is, I’m pretty happy. And I got this review on BookSprout and it makes me happy that this book has the potential to be a good read. That sounds doomsday, but you really don’t know how a book is going to hit until people start reading it.

A great suspense story that includes finding love at a difficult time and all that it involves.
What a lovely personality Avery has. Considering the pain she has gone through she is very generous to Seth when he is so cruel with his words to her. I know Seth has his demons too but I felt that didn’t give him the right to be so vicious early on in the story.
He redeems himself though and Avery gives him a second chance. What comes across is two people who have both suffered immense losses and whilst grieving are trying to find a way to live their lives.
There’s lots of intrigue and suspense throughout the whole story. I felt it was well written and it was intriguing with so many avenues to go down. Seth’s long standing friendship with his business partner Violet was an added dimension that Avery quickly understood.
Definitely worth reading, even if I did end up with a tear in my eye.

–BookSprout Reviewer

Eighteen out of twenty-five copies went on that site, and most of them were familiar usernames, meaning, they’ve stuck with me for several books. I was going to mention in the “Note to Readers” section that this would the last book, but I didn’t. I won’t be publishing anything else for a while, so I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. I suppose it will depend on what kind of reviews I get this time. Not good or bad, I mean, quality. For Loss and Damages, I got one that was written with AI, and a lot of plot summaries. So, even though I don’t pay much, those aren’t the kind of reviews I want attached to my books anyway. If the reviews are better this time, I’ll reevaluate next year.

I gave away 35 out of the 50 I made available on Bookfunnel, I think mostly through Instagram since I boosted a post over there for a week. Here are my open stats for my “newsletter”–the subscribers I have from when I was building a list on MailerLite.

Screenshot titled “Email opens” showing campaign metrics: 594 total emails sent, 180 unique opens, 275 total opens, and a 30% open rate.
Latest emails Opens Clicks Wicked Games ARCs are now available! 30.3% 1.85%

Out of a decent open percentage, only 1.85% clicked, which ends up being about 11 people. Of those, all of them could have downloaded, I’m not sure, but between BookSprout and my Bookfunnel link, I’m hoping Wicked Games can go live with around 50 reviews. Not because I think it’s a magical or number or anything, I just think the more reviews your book has, the better it looks and the better it will sell.

I said I was going to try a site called PenPinery for book reviews, and I’m glad I only paid ten dollars because that bombed. I don’t know if it’s still too new and they don’t have readers, or if I did something wrong. According to the site, I had one person apply, but I never got an email and when I tried to click on the notification to approve them, it didn’t do anything. That was after the campaign closed, because again, I didn’t get an email to know anyone applied, so I’m not sure if that had anything to do with it. Because it could have been an operator error and not the machine, I’m not going to ask for a refund, but it will be the only time I try them. Because if was my fault, then it shouldn’t be that hard to list a book, as I’m a fairly educated and intelligent person. Either way, my experience is what you come here for so I would find a better, perhaps a more straightforward, way to get reviews, and where maybe ten dollars will get you something more than confusion and disappointment.

I don’t have much more to do on my list, which I am really grateful for. I was getting really burnt out and I needed the break. Not that doing ten hours of admin is a break, but uploading files while listening to music and drinking lime Perrier is a lot different than editing two books that are five years old. If I wanted to, I could upload all my books into Draft2Digital and put them into libraries, but it would take a lot of work and I’m not sure if it’s worth it. Like every other place that has books, libraries are saturated. People finding any of my books and borrowing one are slim so I’m not sure if it’s worth the time. I’m not concerned about the fees they implemented. Twelve dollars a year for distribution services and account maintenance sounds pretty fair to me, and I’m not going to say much beyond that because anything that could be said already has been . . . last week. I will leave this hypothesis here that someone left in a comment on James Blatch’s Substack article about the subject. You can read what he has to say here: https://jamesrblatch.substack.com/p/the-reaction-to-the-draft2digital

screenshot of comment. text reads: John Irby 10:23 AM If D2D is able to successfully pull off charging authors up-front, expect KDP to do likewise in the near future. The days of Big Tech handing out freebies is over. I'm a musician and Apple recently switched my digital audio workstation software, Logic Pro, to be part of a "creator's bundle" subscription costing $13 a month, even though I already paid them $200 for the basic software years ago. But I digress.

I think in the next few years, John is going to be right. Everything will be going to paid eventually, and what remains free will be so pared back it won’t be usable in any long-term way. So if you were one of the people who had a problem with how Draft2Digital decided to combat AI books and scammer accounts, I would ask that you look at your business and consider where you’re going to be in five years. You’ll always get back what you put into something, so it’s worth thinking about.

Now that I’m done with most of my admin list, I’ve been watching Faceoff: Inside the NHL on Prime and just mulling over plots and characters for my hockey duet. I think I’ll give myself another week of rest and then jump in at the beginning of next month. I haven’t decided what or when I’ll publish next, and it’s kind of freeing just to be writing to write. I finally got around to watching the new season of Bridgerton, and that was fine. I don’t think Benedict’s story is my favorite–that honor might always belong to Anthony unless Eloise’s story blows me away–but it was fine. I also watched Heated Rivalry to see what all the fuss was about–it was hockey so I considered it research–and that was okay. I didn’t freak out over it like most of Romancelandia, but I can at least say I watched it now so my FOMO can STFU, LOL.

Anyway, I think that’s all I have for this week. I’m in a really good place mental health-wise with my writing. I’m excited to start writing my hockey books and just have fun with the world- and team-building. It will be a lot of work, but I’m looking forward to it. 🏒

Enjoy the last week of the month!

Monday Author Update (April Showers Edition)

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picture of mug of coffee and an open book next to a window that has rain on it

Last week was kind of a bummer. I was down, not really because of book sales, which have actually sprung up lately since it seems like Amazon has gotten their reporting back under control, but mostly the weather has been dragging me down. We got a lot of snow and it hasn’t warmed up enough to melt off completely yet. Along with all the brown grass and mud, it’s depressing to look at. I haven’t been hit by SAD in a long time, but I really hope that the sun starts coming out regularly and everything dries up. I think it will make me feel better.

I also had a painful carpal tunnel flare up that took me out for a couple of days. They happened to be my days off work which, fine, I didn’t feel terrible while I was working, but it did ruin my time off. That happens every couple of months where my elbows feel like they’re softballs on fire, and the pain goes up into my neck and back. Stretching helps a little, but mostly I just have to suffer until it goes away. I was taking a lot of Tylenol since it seems like with my health issues my body has a harder time tolerating ibuprofen. The Tylenol took the edge off, but really all I could do was wait it out. I feel okay now, besides a little puffiness in my hands that will never go away because I type forty hours a week for my job (I’m a relay operator for the deaf and hard of hearing which requires a lot of fast typing), and then on my days off and after my shifts I’m working on my books in some way.

If you’re reading this on the Monday it posted, I’m almost done going over my proof. I only have about the twenty-five percent left, thank goodness. I’m still fighting to make my prose and dialogue sound more conversational, and in this proof pass I’m still getting rid of a lot of words, though not so many that I should have to adjust my cover. It will be a heavy weight taken off my shoulders when this project is done. I promised myself I’d take a break, and I’m going to finish watching the second season of Faceoff: Inside the NHL on Prime as part of my research for when I start writing my hockey duet. I also saw the trailer for Finding Her Edge on Netflix, and between the hints of a love triangle I thought I saw and all the ice, I figured I could add this to my list of . . . research. If I’m going to take a break, I might as well make it worth my time, haha.

I don’t have much else going on at the moment. I’ve been scrolling Substack more and more and I came across this article by Zoe Lea about newsletters. You can read it here: https://substack.com/home/post/p-191487138

Like with a lot of things indies are “supposed” to do, I had a really difficult time deciding not to offer a “real” newsletter anymore and just blog on my author website. I know that blogging doesn’t offer the same benefits, like compelling readers to sign up with bonus content they can’t get anywhere else. If I write something, it will be for everyone. The free book on my website also doesn’t seem “special” when it’s available to anyone who happens to land on my subscribe page. I get all that. So reading Zoe’s Substack article about what she found out when she asked readers what they really wanted out of an author’s newsletter made me feel better about my choices.

We’re told to send out a newsletter once a month. To remind readers of who you are when you’re not releasing books. That’s hard to do when you’re a slow writer, maybe releasing a book a year, which is the rhythm I’m going to fall into now that my day job has changed things and I have less time to write. What do you write about when you’re not launching a book? More importantly, what do you write about that doesn’t waste a reader’s time and make them click the unsubscribe button, or worse yet, mark your newsletter as spam?

Zoe’s findings aren’t going to be representative of every reader out there, but when readers say they don’t want: cover reveals, slice of life posts, and newsletter swaps, I think we can listen and at least consider what those things are giving, or not giving, our readers. A cover reveal doesn’t do much without a CTA like a preorder link or a buy link. Slice of life posts don’t have much weight either. How many times can you say you like reading during a thunderstorm? But what surprised me was when they said they didn’t care when you featured a book by an author who writes in the same genre that you do. Newsletters swaps are one of the biggest marketing opportunities that indies have. You share your audience and I’ll share mine. So when readers say they don’t want book recommendations? That’s surprising and maybe a little unsettling.

I feel like I’ve reached a happy medium on my blog. I do the cover reveals and slice of life posts, but they don’t go out to my newsletter subscribers. They hang out on my website where they’re open to the public and will show up in the WordPress Reader. I also have those posts connected to my LinkedIn profile. I used to have it connected to my Facebook author page, but I stopped that since I usually do a condensed version of my blog post over there anyway. Then when I do have something huge to say, like a new release or a free book promo, I send that out to my newsletter subscribers as well as put it on my website. I haven’t gotten many new subscribers since moving my MailerLite newsletter to a blog, and I understood that going in. Why give me your email address for something you can read for free. Sometimes I’ll get a couple people sign up if I’m doing a huge push like a book launch and I’m boosting a lot of posts on Instagram. I think the only way I can “force” someone to sign up now is if I add email collection to my reader magnet, but Bookfunnel announced recently that they were upping their prices, so I doubt I’ll ever pay to do that again. That just starts a cycle of trying to build my newsletter list so I’m not wasting money, and I’ve been happier not getting caught up in that hustle. According to my Bookfunnel stats, I give away about fifteen copies of My Biggest Mistake every thirty days. That readers are coming to my site and downloading is enough for me.

Zoe’s article did offer a couple of things that readers did want, which is just as valuable, or even more so: bonus content related to a series they loved or behind the scenes research. While I was mulling this article over and trying to come up with what I could offer as bonus content, I realized that if I were to offer “extras” like a chapter written in the opposite POV from the one that’s in the book, I need to write that stuff while I’m drafting, or I don’t care about it. For example, in Wicked Games, the book opens with Seth’s POV. He drives into Lakehaven Falls and finds the house he rented for the summer. A fun bonus would be if I had written when Avery had also arrived in Lakehaven Falls and checked out the house she had rented. I can’t write that now because she has her HEA and I wouldn’t be able to get back into her head before she was fully formed in mine. I need to get all the extras that I want to offer written so when I move on, I don’t have to worry going back when I’m no longer interested. That does mean planning ahead and figuring out what I want to give my readers while I’m drafting or even plotting out the book so I know ahead of time what I want or need to write.

I think the information that readers shared with Zoe about their likes and dislikes is important–rarely do we get to hear what readers really want. But then my first question was, what do you write to your readers to keep them warm between releases? It’s something slow writers will always struggle with. You can’t send your readers eleven months’ worth of fluff, and bonus content will only go so far. And if they don’t want to hear about what you’ve been reading, the shows you’ve been watching, or what your cat is doing when she thinks you aren’t around, there’s very little else to say.

This will be something I’ll need to tackle after the release of Wicked Games in May because I’m not going to publish anything else until next year. I have Bitter Love written, but I’m sitting on it to have something to publish twelve months from now while I write my hockey duet and get them ready to go. That might not take me twelve months, but I can’t only talk about Bitter Love for six months or however long. I’ve been hyping up Wicked Games for the past two months and most days I feel like a broken record whenever I post to social media.

Anyway, I just found it interesting because what worked in the past might not be working now (for example, people’s tastes obviously changing and shorter attention spans) and it’s always better to be aware than be taken by surprise later.

That’s all I have for this week. Short and sweet, which normally I don’t do, haha, but the past few days have kicked my butt and I’m still trying to bounce back. I think I really will feel better after I get this duet re-published, and I’m looking forward to relaunching them with *cough* cover reveals and promos.

As a PS, I have seen some really terrible behavior online with authors sharing their chats with KDP support. Some authors have gotten downright nasty with those poor reps and then they think it’s cool to put the screenshot of the actual chat up in a public space. They get a lot of people agreeing with them or sympathizing with them, but all it does is make them look . . . You know, it’s kind of like how you don’t wanna date anyone who’s going to treat a server like garbage. I don’t wanna read a book written by anyone who’s going to treat KDP support staff like crap and be proud of themselves enough to splash it around. I’m sure I’m not the only reader who feels that way, nor do I want to work with anyone who would do that.

It makes me sad that people are doing this and I just hope the KDP support staff is treated well on the employer’s side of things and are compensated for dealing with . . . what they deal with. They’re just working a job that helps them take care of their families. I hope if you need ever need to contact KDP support you treat the reps with kindness. The Amazon’s issues are not their fault.

Special thanks to Zoe Lea for sharing what she learned in her reader groups and other places online. If you’re on Substack, give her a follow! Next week I’m going to post another lovely editor who is participating in my editing series. Lennon K. Riley was very nice and happily answered all of my questions. I’m looking forward to sharing them with you. Have a great week, and I hope the sun is shining where you are! ☀️

Monday Musings and the POV Debate. Again.

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flatlay of camera, cup of black coffee, pencils, pens and a mac laptop pink flowers. red lipstick. text says, monday musings and the POV debate. again

Hello, and happy Monday! It’s not that happy as I am working, but I am a relieved puddle in my chair because I finished proofing Wicked Games’ proof, got all the changes put into my Vellum file, and ordered a new proof. For some reason, reading this proof and putting the changes in kicked my ass. It was a constant tug-of-war between keeping my style and my characters’ voices, yet keeping my writing conversational enough that it’s easy to read. Making changes like: “A yes or a no will suffice” to “A yes or a no will work” made my head pound and I really truly hope that I found a happy medium between how I wanted to sound and how I wanted to sound after edits, if you know what I mean.

It was also tedious because I was double-checking everything my characters said against the timeline, and I tore my book apart again day by day just to be sure things matched up with a character disappearing. This was one of those books where a beta probably would have made me feel a little better about the whole thing but people are busy and unfortunately, you don’t always get what you pay for either. I hope between giving time between my editing passes and the kind of editing that I do, screen, audio, then proofing the proof, that I caught all there is to catch. But let me tell you, this is going to be the last twisty book I write for a while. I didn’t even mean for it to be as twisty as it turned out. There was just a lot going on in a very short amount–the entire book takes place over two weeks–and when chapters and chapters can cover just one day, there’s a lot to keep track of. It was easier to do it with the paperback so I could flip back and forth to double-check details, but it was all time-consuming anyway. After all that, I am very much looking forward to my gritty hockey duet, even with all the research I’m going to have to go back over to write them.

Anyway, I am happy to say that I got it done, and I made a few changes to the cover like swapping out the tagline on the front and repositioning the blurb on the back–it was too close to the edges and didn’t look good. I also tinkered with the formatting inside since there were a few things like an interview and a blog post that looked better set apart from the normal text. Hopefully everything looks good as I’ve had some interest in the ARCs already, and I’d like to offer a few paperbacks this time around. This one isn’t as slow and as heavy as Loss and Damages, so maybe it will do a little better, meaning, people will actually read their copies and review. You never know.

I got my taxes done last week and I was able to bring my credit card balance back to zero. But I didn’t have any kids to claim this year, so I may be debt-free, but I wasn’t able to put any money into my book spending account. I’ll have to be more careful with what I spend on promotions, so I’ll probably skip the Goodreads giveaway for Wicked Games. It’s too bad, but not much came out of me giving away Loss and Damages either, so likely it’s just my FOMO coming out. I can always do Freebooksy and BargainBooksy, and Fussy Librarian, but there are so many author-led promos out there right now that it seems a little silly to even pay for a blast like that. I’ll have to keep better track of who is hosting them and when they are so I can decide if I want to participate and which book to put in. There’s still a lot of debate when it comes to giving books away, how useful it is, but I figure it can’t be your only way to market. Book sales are like the middle of a wheel, and like spokes, there are many ways to market that can lead to those sales. Book blasts are only one way, but they’re free besides a little time you have to spend helping push the blast out. We’ll see what I end up doing as I really don’t have too much energy for things like that and marketing right now just feels like swimming upstream in a river I don’t want to be in anyway.

People on Threads were talking about POV again because of the article I Before She that appeared in Slate last week. The POV conversation comes around every few months, and every few months there’s just another layer to add to the debate. In this article, they were talking about how first person is easier to read and readers prefer it because it lets them self-insert. I understand that, but it makes third person writers feel defensive. From what I’ve seen, third person authors have been, maybe not defensive, but wondering, at least, if not changing to first person would keep them from finding readers since, I don’t know, 2019 or so. In these times of market-saturation, we want to do everything we can to find readers, right? All the while not selling our soul to the Devil.

It was in 2019 that I wrote a blog post saying that first person in romance didn’t make any sense, that the “I” naturally followed one person. Or should, anyway. But romance authors were writing in dual first person POV which took care of the “I” argument I was ready to die for. I do see some authors still struggling with that–questioning if readers would read a book with no male point of view, or wondering if readers would DNF if there was more female point of view than male. (I DNF those books because the male POV is my favorite part and you can tell that reading my books.) Those conversations never came up when most adult fiction was written in third person because we assumed there was more than one character’s POV, or it didn’t matter depending on the genre, like Women’s Fiction. But now we get authors who market their books as “dual third person POV” which doesn’t sound quite right. I grew up reading third person past, and romance authors like Nora Roberts, Robyn Carr, Brenda Novak, and Susan Mallery never had to make declarations like that. It was just understood. I don’t think current third person writers need to do it either, simply put a couple on the cover and give the male POV space in the blurb.

I guess writers are always going to chase readers and hope what they’re writing is good enough. When I switched to first person present, it wasn’t to chase readers, per se, but the number one rule to writing to market is to fit in. When 75% of the top 100 in your genre is written a certain way, you want to be a part of that 75%, not behind in the 25%. I don’t think if I wouldn’t have come to enjoy writing in first person present I would have forced myself to keep writing it. Luckily, I never minded first person to begin with, reading books like The Hunger Games and Twilight without an issue.

So where does this leave writers and authors now? Is first person easier to read? Not necessarily. I’ve read boring third person and I’ve read boring first person. You can have crappy craft in either POV, and if you’re not leveling up, you’ll lose readers. That’s just a given and why I can’t compare my third person sales to my first person sales. My third person books weren’t great–I was still learning and finding my voice. Then my first person books weren’t written that great just because my prose wasn’t conversational enough to “disappear” and give the reader a good experience. It’s only been in the past two years that I’ve been going back through my backlist and re-editing those books with the knowledge I’ve gained over the years. I have re-edited some 3rd person, doing my Rocky Point series and The Years Between Us last year. I would like to do Wherever He Goes at some point, just because I took a look at the Look Inside not long ago and the beginning sounds awful. And you all know I’ve been slowly going through my first person books as well. So, I can’t say one way or the other which readers prefer, and honestly, I really think if the writing is good, readers don’t care.

One thing that did bother me about that Slate article, though, is the assumption that all third person has a “narrator” or is written in omniscient voice, and that’s not true (and that’s called “close” or “deep” 3rd person POV, if you didn’t know). Not all third person books have head-hopping in them, either. So if you’re going to write about POV and craft, then at least understand the fundamentals. If you want a couple of examples of third person omniscient, pick up any Stephen King book. If he’s not your jam, Nora Roberts, in some of her books, has gone from head-hopping to full omniscient voice, and you can try her Chronicles of The One trilogy for that.

There isn’t a war between third person and first person. There are readers for both. Maybe first person readers skew a little younger, and readers my age who grew up reading third person still prefer it. I’m not in any reader groups to know that for sure. But if it’s true, it does leave my books in a weird in-between. I write older characters and a lot of romantic suspense, and I have wondered more than once if I would have been better off staying in third person. It’s really difficult to know, but I think I made a mistake when I switched to first person. I should have written younger characters and chased those younger readers. Now my books are in first person and I have older characters–thirty-five and up. I can’t do much about it now. I enjoy writing in first person and don’t plan to stop. Or, you know, I could be over-thinking it, since Fifty Shades of Grey was read by all age groups, and maybe that was enough to convert older readers into reading first person. It would be an interesting study, but the only information I have about that pertaining to my books are the age groups that click on my Facebook ads, and interestingly enough, the top age groups that clicked on my last one were the 35-65+ age ranges. This is from the ad I ran last summer when I was giving away ARCs of Loss and Damages. The link went to my Bookfunnel download page:

screenshot of meta ad for loss and damages ARC giveaway. it's a bar graph of ages of people who clicked on my ad. the highest is the 65+ age range

Anyway, I’m kind of a writing craft nerd, and I like talking about writing and what’s selling. Especially these days when it seems like for every reader there are ten authors who have enormous backlists. It’s fun to speculate, but what it all boils down to is writing what you enjoy. If that’s third person, great, if not, write first until your little heart’s content. But always always keep learning. That’s the difference between a debut and your tenth book. You want to get better as you go along, or you might get stuck in habits that are killing your read-through. Readers want to pay for a good book. That’s it. They have a lot to choose from, so do your best, keep learning, and oh, I was going to say never give up, but that’s old Vania-speak. Give up if you want. Or at the very least, take a break. Read some books.

Or watch a show. Right now I’m watching The Hunting Party on Netflix and it’s really good. No wonder I like writing twisty books. There’s just something delicious about a man in a suit who isn’t what he appears to be.

Thanks for reading! Oh, and no one has said they want Joe’s book. Come on, guys. I know giveaways aren’t super fun anymore, but you could pop over to my last post and comment. Reviews are good. Joe tells you how to get them. Free books are good. I have one for you.

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

Book Review: The Truth About Book Reviews by Joe Walters

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the truth about book reviews book cover on tablet. background is purple and gold. white letters. additional text on graphic says book review! plus giveaway.

When Joe Walters, editor-in-chief of Independent Book Review, told me he bumped into one of my blog posts scrolling the WordPress reader and asked if I would be willing to review his book, I said sure. Why not? If you know me, you probably know if you ask me to do something, I’ll do it. Whether that’s a flaw or an attribute, who knows, but I downloaded his book that was free when he contacted me, and during slow times at my work (not many which is why it took me so long–he emailed me back in September!) I read it. Even though it took me a while, I wanted to finish since I said I would, and besides, I wrote about reviews not long ago and thought maybe there would be some advice I could follow in my own book business.

Did Joe’s book deliver? Yes.

Is getting reviews a lot of work? Yes.

Did he offer to do that work for you? Unfortunately, that answer is no, though writing the book in the first place is a big help all on its own.

There are lots of different kinds of reviews, and I think the kind indies think about the most are from readers who put their reviews on platforms like Amazon and Goodreads. You can’t do much about those–all you can do is sell a lot of books and hope readers review when they’re done reading, or pay for a review service like Booksprout and hope the readers who pick up your book follow through. Joe focused a lot on editorial and trade and media reviews and gave you several examples of what to say when you reach out to them.

That was probably one of the best parts of the book. Unless you’re having Al write your requests for you–and I would advise against that being all the AI spam that authors have been getting lately–it’s difficult to figure out what to say that doesn’t sound smarmy, like you’re begging for a favor, or flat because you’re scared to reach out. He gives you plenty of examples of what to say, taking the guesswork out of it.

Not only does he tell you what to say, he tells you how to find people who review in the first place, which is a godsend if you have no idea where to start looking.

But, I’m not going to lie, and he doesn’t either. Finding people to read and review your book is a lot of work. You have to make a list of the reviewers who read your genre, write the email (follow their submission guidelines!), and wait. Do that over and over again, and be prepared to follow up if they don’t answer you. He even says in his book that the majority of his reviews come from the followup email, and that’s how it was with me too. I forgot I said I was going to read his book and he nudged me a couple months later. I emailed back and apologized, showed him a picture of his book on my Kindle Fire as proof of life and intention, and even left his email in my inbox to remind myself that I said I would review. (Even that has been a while, so he’ll probably be shocked I followed through.)

Another thing I liked about reading his book is that he speaks indie, and that helps a lot. He knows what Bookfunnel is, knows about sites like Booksprout, and understands Kindle Unlimited limitations if your book is enrolled. He has a sense of humor that keeps the material from becoming too dry, and I appreciated that very much. He also has a thing for ghosts, and though he says dead people can’t review your book, the next time you go to Barnes and Noble, grab a ouija board out of their games section. Every little bit helps!

One last thing that I really liked was not only does he tell you where and how to get reviews, he includes a short section on what to do with them once you have them. He explains how to access your book’s editorial reviews section on Author Central, how to use Canva to create A+ content for your book’s Amazon product page, and how to make graphics to feature reviews on social media and in your newsletter.

Overall, if you’re at a loss as to where to look for reviews and how to go about getting them, this book is very useful, but also keep in mind that there is a lot of content out there and chances are good you won’t be the only one asking. Tenacity and patience are key, like a lot of areas of indie publishing.

With my release of Wicked Games coming up soon, I’m going to try a different review service and also, I take back what I said about Booksprout. I wasn’t going to use them anymore, but I felt bad not giving the readers I have there a warning that I was leaving. I do have a few people who enjoy my books and leave real reviews, not just plot summaries or generic AI commentary, and I would hate to disappear without telling them how to find me in the future. So, in the “Notes to the Reader” section, I’m going to tell them this will be the last book I put up and if they want access to other ARCs, to follow my social media or blog. With Loss and Damages, I just got so disheartened, and it doesn’t seem like something I need to keep paying for.

Anyway, I’ll keep Joe’s book as reference if one day I decide I want to chase reviews written by other people than just readers, like Joe and his review team over at the Independent Book Review. If you want to read Joe’s book, The Truth About Book Reviews: An Insider’s Guide to Getting and Using Reviews to Grow Your Readership, you can find it on Amazon. It’s available on Kindle, in Kindle Unlimited, and Paperback. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F7C3WFM5

I also purchased a paperback copy as a giveaway to go along with this blog post–and in true Amazon fashion, it came a little banged up. I know giveaways aren’t popular anymore, but if you’re in the United States, comment below and I will draw a name next week.

picture of the truth about book reviews book lying on the amazon bubble mailer. black background.
I love my nonfiction resources in hardcopy.

If you want to follow Joe online, you can look for him his website here: https://independentbookreview.com/ and sign up for his newsletter here: https://subscribepage.io/45z9I4

I hope you all had a great weekend, and I will talk to you next week!

Thanks for reading and entering! 📚 🍀

How to make a quick and easy floral romance cover (with screenshots)

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**This is a short tutorial on how to make a simple floral cover, full paperback wrap in Canva.

I have Canva Pro and use elements from that plan. I’m not sure what’s available in the free plan, but I’m hoping you can find comparable elements so you can also make your own covers if you ever want or need to. I also source my stock photos from DepositPhotos. You can use photos from wherever you want, but because they’ll be going on a book cover, I wouldn’t use free stock photos from places like Unsplash or Pexels. If KDP happen to ask you for copyright proof, they do not accept Canva’s copyright agreement if you use their stock photos, so always be safe and buy the stock photos you’re going to use on your books. Elements are fine to use as long as you’re not attempting to use one element for the entire cover. Here’s Canva’s licensing agreement FAQs if you want to look them over: https://www.canva.com/licensing-explained/ There’s a lot of incorrect information out there. Don’t be afraid to use Canva. Just be smart when you do.

I’m a broke and impatient author. And when it comes to publishing, I know many authors are just as broke and impatient as I am. Meaning they can’t afford to hire out but don’t want to wait to publish while they save. Maybe they don’t even have money to save, if they live paycheck to paycheck like I do.

I’ve done my own covers, for good or for ill, for many, many years. Every year I get a little better, or maybe stock photo choices get better, or maybe I stumble upon a male model that hasn’t been used to death. I’m especially proud of the covers for Wicked Games and A Heartache for Christmas. Loss and Damages is fine too, but I didn’t need nearly the luck that helped me put Wicked Games and A Heartache for Christmas together.

But I know that not every romance author wants to use men on their covers. What’s popular will come and go, and if I do come across a male model on a published book these days, a lot of the time he’s AI generated. I don’t want to use AI to make my covers. I want to pay photographers and models. Maybe they’re living paycheck to paycheck too. Anyway, right now I see a lot of illustrated covers, but I don’t plan on using one for my books anytime soon. Florals or object covers seem pretty versatile, and not even just for dark romance. I think some authors still use them for discreet paperbacks while using a shirtless male model for the ebook, but I’m actually seeing less and less of that. I’m not sure if it’s cost or if it’s just a trend that’s fading, but I’m glad. I never liked it and never did it myself. (Be proud of your men! LOL)

If you don’t have a lot of skill, you have to keep two things in mind when doing your own covers: choosing the right stock photo and what font you use. Those two things will make or break your cover because you won’t be able to use the skill you don’t have to make the stock photo better than it is or twist it to suit your needs, and font is the finishing touch, like a pretty bow on a present. So it’s really important that you know what you want and that what you want matches your skill level or you’ll just end up frustrated. It’s not much different from crafting the perfect scene in your head and then sitting down to write and forgetting the alphabet.

The first thing I would do is clock your genre. What your genre is and what kinds of covers are selling right now. It doesn’t hurt to take a look at the top 100 on Amazon in your genre not only for inspiration but to remember their readers will be your readers and you want to blend in. Then look at the author. If it’s a big name author like Colleen Hoover, looking at her covers probably won’t do you too much good. She sells with her name, not her covers. Same with some of the bigger indies, or indies who have picked up book deals. They already have a fan base and can get thousands of pre-orders without even having a cover yet. The midlist author who’s making a good living but not well-known enough to have name recognition will be your best bet.

That said, let’s figure out what the book is about. Maybe an enemies to lovers. Something that would fit a simple floral cover. We aren’t going to get too crazy because the purpose of a “simple” cover is to a) still be good enough to keep because you’re stubborn like I am and want to do it yourself or b) stay as a placeholder until you can afford something better if that’s what you want. You may always do your own covers and swap this one out as your skills get better. So, maybe a romance that would fit a dark floral cover. A standalone, possibly, but if you’re writing a series, finding similar stock photos for other books wouldn’t be too hard. Once you get into the right search, you can find a lot of similar pictures on DepositPhotos.

Let’s start with a blank template. We’ll do the full wrap since it’s easier to design the whole thing at once. I’m using Canva Pro, but because you’ll be using stock from a site like DepositPhotos and a font from somewhere like Creative Fabrica or a free source like 1001 Fonts, you can probably do your cover just fine with the free plan. If you don’t know how to get here, I have the instructions in a different post.

canva screenshot of empty kdp template for 5.5x8.5 paperback book

Next, go through photos on your stock photo site. I buy packages from App Sumo for DepositPhotos so that’s where I’ll always source my stock photos. What you’re looking for is something that will give you room for a title, maybe a series logo if you want. Also your author name. If you take a look at other floral covers, you can pick them apart and see what they have that’s similar. Before spending the money or credits on the photos, you can download the sample or use a screenshot of the picture first to try it. Then if you know for sure that you’re going to use it, you can buy it.

canva screenshot with purple flower photo on top of kdp template

I chose some dark purple flowers. (I’ll link the photos below so you can find them easily if you want.) I like how they’re positioned. I don’t have to worry about making room in the middle for the title. They are a little dark though, so play with the brightness of your photos. You should bring out the color a little bit because when you print through KDP, their paperbacks are always darker than what you see on your screen.

canva screenshot of front cover with floral graphic on top of kdp template. the flowers are lighter compared to the previous photo

Okay, I brightened it up. You might not be able to tell I did much, but always do enough so you like it, and always order a proof. You’ll probably need to adjust the colors again once you see it in person.

If you wanted to add texture like broken glass to the middle now would be the time. I’m not quite sure if it really needs it, but let me play and see what I can come up with. I wouldn’t bother using more stock for this. Canva will have something that will work and using their elements on your book cover is okay. It will barely be detectable, but it’s the little things like that that separate something that looks DIY from something that borders on professional.

I was able to find some broken glass in Elements that fit nicely since they were already on a transparent background:

floral cover with shattered glass in elements with arrow that author chose to go on the cover

Position the glass where you want it. Remember you can play with photo by making it bigger or moving it around so you can put the glass shards where you want them to go.

canva screenshot of floral graphic on top of kdp template

Now that we have a “base,” if you wanted to add things that pertain to your book, you can discreetly put those in. Rings or strings of pearls. Ribbons. Whatever. I’ve seen a lot of covers with butterflies, though I have no idea what they represent. Innocence, maybe. I found one style I liked in Elements and messed with their color a bit to make them blend in.

canva screenshot of front cover on top of the kdp template with partial butterfly placement. also to the left is the element selection featuring the butterfly chosen for the cover.

I don’t want to add too much, so the glass and the butterflies will do for me. Part of learning how to design covers is experimenting, so just keep at it until you find what you like. When you don’t know what you’re doing or haven’t developed your eye yet, simpler is always best. It’s really easy to add too much then it looks like Canva threw up all over your cover.

canva screenshot of KDP template. only the front cover with the graphic plus butterflies and glass is shown

Now we can have fun with font. A bad font can ruin your cover. I’ve seen beautiful art, and a cover just isn’t the same if you can’t find something that will complement the illustration or stock photo and the book as a whole. I think for this one, rather than edgy, we’ll go with elegant. There aren’t any skulls or anything here, so let’s stick with something pretty. I get my fonts from a combination of places. Sometimes I use Canva’s, sometimes I buy from Creative Fabrica. Sometimes I use 1001 Fonts depending on if what I like is available for commercial use (sometimes they’re tagged as personal only). There are lots of places to get fonts. It doesn’t matter where you get them as long as they’re available for commercial use.

For this one, I went through a few before I found one I liked. It’s called Luxca Italica and it came with a bundle I downloaded from Creative Fabrica. The font for the tagline and Penny’s name is Cinzel. I think you can get that anywhere. I’ve read that you shouldn’t use more than three different fonts on your cover. I like to stick with two if at all possible. But I can understand if you need a clear font for the tagline, then your pretty font for the title, and then whatever you use your author name. I use the same font on all my books for brand awareness.

canva screenshot with front cover text for tagline, title, and author name back cover and spine show KDP template

What this means, though, is that since we’re doing simple, that if you found the fonts you like, then you’re done with the front cover. Now we can do the spine and the back.

The back cover graphic will mirror your front, but you probably don’t need to copy it exactly. Especially since you want people to be able to read the blurb you’re going to put back there. What I did was duplicate the flower picture but then cropped it and made it fit the rest of the template. That way there will be plenty of black space for the words.

canva screenshot of completed front cover but blank spine and back cover. only the floral graphic is shown

Lower the transparency so you can fit the title and author name on the spine. The orange lines are the bleed lines. Don’t get too close to those. I also chose a dove just as a filler in case you have an imprint logo that you use.

canva screenshot of full wrap with transparency lowered on spine and back cover

Keep the transparency low so you can center your blurb. You don’t have to put the white rectangle over the yellow one if you don’t want to. KDP and Ingram Spark will fill that space in with the barcode. If you’re using your Ingram cover for Draft2Digital, they don’t like the white rectangle and will kick your cover back to you anyway.

I never know what to put in the lower left, so most of the time now I just add my author website. It seems to work okay. For this one, I added a butterfly that matched the front cover.

canva screenshot of full wrap of forsaken vows but with back and spine transparency to show font placement

Now you can remove the transparency and look at the cover as whole.

canva screenshot of the full wrap for forsaken vows

If you’re not sure how it will look as an ebook cover or in promos, take a screenshot of the front cover and use a site like this one: https://diybookcovers.com/3Dmockups/#

“Dark romance book cover mockup for Forsaken Vows featuring deep purple florals, butterflies, and cracked glass over a black background.”

I think it looks really good, actually. Not bad for something I put together in a few minutes for not much money. The title font is clean and what we added to the flowers (glass and butterflies) doesn’t clutter.

Now that you have a template of sorts, you can make covers for a series if that’s what you’re planning. I write all my books in a series first and design their covers at the same time.

This could be a trilogy:

Mockup of The Broken Vows Trilogy by Penny Maxwell featuring Forsaken Vows, Fractured Vows, and Forbidden Vows displayed on tablets and paperback books.

And here they are up close if you want to study them:

Forsaken Vows (full wrap): Dark romance book cover mockup for Forsaken Vows featuring deep purple florals, butterflies, and cracked glass over a black background.
Fractured Vows (full wrap): Dark floral romance cover for Fractured Vows with red roses, fractured glass texture, and butterfly accents.
Forbidden Vows (full wrap): Moody black and teal romance cover for Forbidden Vows featuring white florals, butterflies, and a spiderweb motif.

Here is the TL;DR of the post:

1. Look for flower graphics that have an empty middle for extra elements and title. You can start here if you purchase on DepositPhotos: https://depositphotos.com/similar-images/794277310.html

And here are the links for the individual photos:
Purple: https://depositphotos.com/photo/luxurious-blooming-garden-flowers-black-background-beautiful-peonies-bouquet-plum-799937840.html
Orange and red: https://depositphotos.com/photo/vintage-floral-card-garden-flowers-peonies-roses-tulips-rhododendron-leaves-521122292.html
Navy blue and white: https://depositphotos.com/photo/navy-blue-white-peonies-assorted-flowers-full-bloom-floral-gothic-797688972.html

2. If you’re doing a series, plan your theme. The middle elements for these books are: broken glass, shattered ice, and spider web. Keep extra elements the same as well. I chose butterflies but picked colors that blended in with the flowers. If you want to go creepier, you can do moths, insects, or birds.

3. Don’t be afraid to experiment and adjust your stock photos. Move the flower pictures around to position them in the way you want. You can even crop and just add only sections of the pictures. With the black backgrounds, as long as you’re not cutting off flowers mid-petal, you won’t be able to tell. Also colors. I changed the colors of all three butterflies. To make the black spider web pop against the already black background, I inverted the colors (an option in the edit menu when the photo is selected) and turned the black web white. Voilà.

4. Take your time choosing the font. I went through about twenty fonts before I chose. Just click down your list to see which one looks best. If you don’t have very many, 1001 Fonts that I linked to above lets you try out your title before you download it. Colitez Serif looks like it would be a nice fit too, and it’s free for commercial use.

screenshot of 1001 fonts website. three different fonts in this view

5. Remember to look at what’s selling in your genre now. Covers with men on them are really easy to create too, easier than floral covers. So even though cover trends change, it helps to know what’s selling at the moment.

6. Test and get feedback. Adjust if you have to. Maybe the photo isn’t right. Maybe you need to pick a different element for the middle.

7. Keep it simple. One or two elements and three fonts maximum. If you haven’t developed your eye, it’s easy to bog down your cover.

I hope this blog post helped you a little, or at least inspires you to try your own floral covers.

Good luck!

Quick Links:

My Canva full paperback wrap tutorial: https://vaniamargene.com/2022/06/13/updated-creating-a-full-wrap-paperback-book-cover-using-canva-plus-more-screenshots/

How to make an ebook cover from your full paperback wrap: https://vaniamargene.com/2024/09/09/how-to-turn-your-books-cover-full-wrap-pdf-into-an-ebook-cover/

Creative Fabrica for fonts: https://www.creativefabrica.com/

1001 Fonts: https://www.1001fonts.com/free-for-commercial-use-fonts.html

The DIY book cover mock up generator by Derek Murphy: https://diybookcovers.com/3Dmockups/

How 2026 is Treating Me So Far

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not So Hardcore Anymore

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do you have any hardcore beliefs? Let me know!

I’ll see you next week!

Monday’s Author Update

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thanksgiving flatlay. pumpkin green gourd gold ribbon silver and gold silverware. text says. monday's author udpate

Hello, hello! We are nearing the end of November, and US Thanksgiving is this week! I have everything I need except potatoes, and I’ll grab them during my usual grocery run on Wednesday. When my schedule at work changed, I had no idea how much I depended on my routine and I probably will always have to grapple with when I can get stuff done while still trying to write as much as I can. Anyway, some weeks are better than others, but that’s life in general, and despite those changes, things are okay.

WIP Update
Even though my writing time being severely cut, I’m still making great progress on Bitter Love. I’m 59,000 words into it and I am so happy with the progress I’ve made this month. I joined ProWritingAid’s Novel November, but I haven’t been keeping track of how many words I’ve written so far. My only goal was to get this book done by the end of the year, and I think I can do that. I have the last third of the book plotted out, which is the hard part, in my opinion, so writing the rest should be easy enough. I was going to jump into my hockey duet, but I’m going to put that on the back burner again, and in January re-edit and re-cover my Cedar Hill duet. That will take me a month or so, and then when I’m done with that, I’ll get Wicked Games ready to go for a May release. (I already announced it so I don’t want to lie to the few people who were listening.) I’m struggling with whether or not to do ARCs considering that my attempts in the past have had lackluster results. People take but don’t review, so there’s really no point in handing them out. I canceled my BookSprout subscription because the quality just wasn’t there for the price I was paying. I listed some other alternatives in a previous blog post, so I might try something new, if just as an experiment so I can blog about it later.

Then once Wicked Games is off my plate, I have a cute story idea about a woman who inherits a bakery she doesn’t want and a billionaire who wants to buy it. She can’t sell because of some stipulations in her grandma’s will, and he can’t work around them because of his own obligations. With some of the dialogue that’s already going through my head, it might be more romcom, if I can find my funny bone, and the characters already have names which means I will definitely be writing them in 2026.

So my plan is:
*Finish Bitter Love
*Revamp my Cedar Hill duet
*Get Wicked Games ready to release in May 2026
*Write One Tough Cookie
*Jump back to Bitter Love to get that ready for release maybe at the beginning of 2027 or the end of 2026, whichever works out

It’s nice to have so many plans and an idea of what I’ll be doing for the next little while, but it also makes me kind of sad too. I’m not doing this for anyone but me, which, I know, that should be the only reason a writer does anything–for themselves first–but it can be disheartening after a while and it doesn’t seem like there’s much I can do to fix it.

Deleting TikTok
I mentioned in a previous blog post that I was having fun with a reader account on TikTok, and I was even getting a few views above the 200 view dungeon a lot of people seem to get stuck in. Then they started suppressing my carousels and labeling them as AI. This ticked me off for two reasons: one, they weren’t AI. I used stock photos from DepositPhotos (that were not AI) and two, there actually is a lot of AI on TikTok they aren’t flagging and the hypocrisy drives me insane. So, I deleted my accounts. Both my reader one and my personal one I started a long time ago.

The hit to my mental health was just too much and I don’t have the bandwidth to put up with it. It’s too bad because I was getting into a groove posting, and doing slides is a great way to learn how to pull hooks out of your books and write ad copy. But maybe I’ll just try to post more on Instagram. I barely post there and even though Facebook keeps telling me that my author page is getting views, I haven’t posted there in three weeks. I saved all my carousels in my Canva account, and turning them into Reels would be easy enough, but I’m not sure if I really care that much to do the work. Posting on social media is something I struggle with anyway, though I do like talking about my books to the handful of people who see my posts.

Black Friday Promo
I wasn’t sure if I was going to buy a promo for any of my books this holiday season, but I went ahead and bought a promo in the Red Feather Romance Books newsletter and set my Christmas novel to free for three days around Black Friday. I’m not sure what else I’m going to do, if anything, because while I think giving away books can be beneficial if you have a plan, I have no plan, and don’t really care either way about giving books away. Mostly, all I think it does is create high hopes that it will finally do something and then it never happens. Chances are 100% I won’t make back the $135.00 I spent on their fee, but I’m really proud of the changes I made to the book when I re-edited it a couple months ago, so I wanted to give it another push. But A Heartache for Christmas is getting old, so maybe one day I’ll write another Christmas novel, if I can think of a plot.

The Future of this Blog (It’s good!)
I had to renew my plan for this website, and they gave me a discount if I paid for two years instead of one, so I’m locked into this website and blog until the end of 2027. I suppose that was kind of optimistic, though I have no plans to go anywhere. I enjoy blogging very much, and having all my things in one place has been nice. I get why people write on Substack, but having a WordPress plan isn’t very expensive and having a main hub where readers can find you is less confusing for everyone. Granted, blogging on my author site isn’t the same as having a true newsletter, and even though I regret not having one, I still don’t think I’ll ever try that again. My author website is also locked in until March of 2026 and that auto renews every two years as well. I pay $156.00 for those two years and I think that is a decent price for a site that only has about 100 visitors a month.

That’s about all I have for this week. As part of my “Favorite Things” section of my blog I have going until Christmas, I want to tell you about this free crossword puzzle maker that I used to make a romance crossword for my Facebook author page. You make up the questions and answers, and the website spits out the puzzle. It’s fun, and you can find it here: https://crosswordlabs.com/

Here’s the one I made with the answers. You can steal it if you want. I don’t mind.

crossword puzzle overlayed on faint pink hearts. text says. contemporary romance fun
Crossword clues Across 5. The one person meant to be with you 7. Symbol of love 9. Emotional tension that keeps readers hooked 11. The obstacle or competing love interest 12. Romance shorthand for a happy ending 13. A big question that changes everything 14. A charming or quirky first encounter 16. Intense romantic or physical attraction 18. The magic connection between two lovers 19. When estranged lovers find their way back Down 1. A romance that takes its time building 2. Playful back-and-forth dialogue between lovers 3. The central female character in a romance 4. What every romance promises in the end 6. A break of trust between lovers 8. A spark that often changes everything in romance novels 10. A dominant hero archetype 12. The leading man of a romance 15. A recurring theme in romance stories 17. Hidden truth that complicates love
crossword key KISS A spark that often changes everything in romance novels HEA Romance shorthand for a happy ending CHEMISTRY The magic connection between two lovers TROPE A recurring theme in romance stories HERO The leading man of a romance HEROINE The central female character in a romance ANGST Emotional tension that keeps readers hooked SLOWBURN A romance that takes its time building ALPHA A dominant hero archetype MEETCUTE A charming or quirky first encounter BANTER Playful back-and-forth dialogue between lovers RIVAL The obstacle or competing love interest SOULMATE The one person meant to be with you HEART Symbol of love PASSION Intense romantic or physical attraction PROPOSAL A big question that changes everything SECRET Hidden truth that complicates love BETRAYAL A break of trust between lovers REUNION When estranged lovers find their way back FOREVER What every romance promises in the end

Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate!

I’ll talk you you next week!

Monday Author Update and a Quick Glimpse into 2026

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You all know i have a terrible fear of missing out, and it was triggered this week by the announcement that Flodesk, the newsletter aggregator, is going to stop their unlimited pricing structure at the end of the month and you need to lock in that plan before it goes away. This shouldn’t concern me because for one, I don’t have a newsletter anymore, I blog on my author site, and two, I probably will never have the number of signups that would require the need for an unlimited pricing plan.

screeshot of a flodesk ad. the text is black and says flodesk...now is the itme unlimited emails, unlimited subscribers, subscribe before november 28th sign up bar in purple
This ad popped up in my Instagram feed

But that didn’t stop the “what ifs” from running through my mind. What if I ever wanted to start up a newsletter again? What if I pushed my business to the next level and I needed that unlimited plan? WHAT IF I’M MISSING OUT ON THE BEST DEAL OF MY LIFE?

Cue the panic, right?

But this made me stop and think about where my business is and where it’s going. As of right now, I don’t have a book business. While I have money going out and money coming in, I have more money going out and I consider operating in the red more of a hobby than anything else. That reminded me I probably shouldn’t take on any more services that would dig my financial hole even deeper than it already is. Because if I paid for Flodesk, I would have to pay Bookfunnel for integration because I wouldn’t stop giving my reader magnet away. I already did that once with MailerLite, and while I did build up my newsletter to close to 1,000 subscribers back when I was trying, that is just more money than I want to spend for where I’m at and where I’m going.

So far, I’ve been able to eke time out in the week to keep this blog afloat, and surprisingly, it’s been easier than I thought. I do have a little free time on the days I work, but it’s not conducive to fiction writing, so I’ve been able to blog and make carousels for my secret TikTok account. That’s been a huge relief because when my work did all that changing up, I was really worried about having to cut back on this blog. I enjoy writing it and it gives me a place to put my thoughts about what’s going on in the industry and where I am in my indie life. So, unless work decides to mix things up again, or cut me loose all together, I think I can confidently say that I can keep writing my blog posts every Monday.

I have lost a lot of writing time though, and adding a “real” newsletter when my publishing schedule is taking a hit doesn’t make much sense–especially since I already pay for my WordPress website–so I might as well use it, even if it doesn’t have the same functionality as a newsletter aggregator. That doesn’t mean that from now until November 28th every time I see that ad I won’t think I’m making a huge mistake not signing up. That’s just the way I am. And I’m sure with Black Friday right around the corner there’s going to be more deals and steals I’ll have to say no to because I already have what I need to write and publish books. (I’m looking at you, AppSumo DepositPhoto sale when I already have 358 downloads available.)

I signed up for ProWritingAid’s Novel November, but I’m behind, or at least, I think I am. I’m not keeping track of the words I’ve written so far, but I’m 46k into Bitter Love, and if I can keep up the pace, I should be able to finish by the end of the year like I want. I’m at the point now where I go back and read from the beginning so I’ll be taking a couple days to do that, fix any plot points that got lost as the story developed and make sure the ending’s on track. I’ll have to add slow-burn to the list of tropes because this story needed so much setup, but a lot of secrets had to come out so hopefully even if the characters take their time hopping into bed it’s not boring or slow.

Besides that, I really don’t have much else. November is always kind of busy with my daughter’s birthday, Thanksgiving, and my birthday rounding out the month, but I’m not doing anything this year (I turned 50 on Thanksgiving Day last year and I think all that excitement will hold me over for a couple of years). I lucked out with my work schedule and I have Thanksgiving Day off, so that’s a nice break, and my daughter is still deciding where she wants to eat her birthday dinner.

Overall, things are okay, nothing bad happening, which I’m thankful for. Pim is doing great, but I’m trying to turn her into an internet star and that’s not working out. The last photo I posted of her on Threads only got 82 likes, but I’m probably lucky she got that since I think I post there maybe four times a month and the algorithms have no idea who I am.

tuxedo cat hiding under piece of brown perforated paper. face is visible along with her two front white paws.

But, I started a reader/book profile on TikTok, as opposed to my personal one and that seems to be doing better in terms of views. I didn’t tell anyone about it so I can’t “taint” the algorithms, but I didn’t use a VPN or anything. Just my personal iPhone using a gmail address I don’t use for much else. At least I broke out of the 200 views dungeon for a lot of my carousels, one getting over 3k views, but I haven’t gone viral . . . yet. I’m getting better finding hooks and writing ad copy, and I’m staying away from sex which always got me in trouble on my other profile. So far going for angsty instead of spicy has been serving me well, and now that I’ve slowed down with the writing, I’m making more time to post there. We’ll see how it goes.

I’m starting to think about promos for the holiday season, and I forgot that I have a nice four-book series set in the winter around Christmas I could promote if I wanted to. There’s a big author-driven book blast taking place next month but I don’t think I’ll officially put a book in it. It’s not that I don’t think free books are worth it, because I still think they can be if used strategically, but I’ve kind of given up hoping promos like will build into anything that lasts. So rather than take space from authors who are trying to use the blast to their advantage, I could just put a book or two free and piggy-back off the momentum of the day and see what that does. Or I could pay for something, but I doubt I would make my money back, so I would have go into it know that and being happy that people were just interested enough to download a copy. I’m not sure yet. Books are a dime a dozen, in every way that means, so what I do or don’t do won’t have any effect on me or my book business. It’s just something to do if I feel like it.

My Favorite Things
I’m going to end every Monday blog post from here until Christmas with something that I’m liking in the author space, be it a writing resource, tool, or service that I find especially helpful. Today’s feature is the Trope Thesaurus series by Jennifer Hilt. I have the romance trope book, and I have to admit, when I’m feeling down, I get out my copy and flip through it. There are so many tropes out there I haven’t tried and it gets me really excited for all the books I haven’t written yet. There’s one for horror and fantasy/sci-fi and it looks like just a general one as well. Check them out here (this isn’t an affiliate link): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFYR9L4Z

book covers on black background: the trope thesaurus (general) (all colors lettering) the trope thesaurus horror (orange lettering) the trope thesaurus romance (red lettering) the trop thesaurus fantasy and science fiction (yellow lettering)

That’s all I have for today. Thanks for reading, and I will see you next week!