KC Crowne and the Case of the AI Prompt

Posted on January 20, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,796 words
10 minutes read time

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

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

Screenshot of Kindle Screen. Black background. White text. Yellow highlights. Text reads:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Screenshot of Facebook message

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time!

Author Websites: Do You Need One?

Posted on September 2, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time!

Monday Musings and Author Update

Posted on August 5, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

It feels like it took forever, but I finally finished proofing the paperback proofs of my series. I would have thought since I was feeling better that proofing would have gone faster, but I was distracted just as I would have been if I had still been feeling bad. I can’t blame my health… I’m happy to say that besides looking for snippets for social media (what little I post) I’ll never have to read these again and that probably had more to do with it than anything else. Though, I did get a little teary-eyed when I finished. This is a bittersweet goodbye, for sure.

Overall, I’m very happy with the changes I made–some of the paragraphs needed some plumping up, even after having gotten this far. You just see, and feel, things differently when you read your book as a book. There’s still plenty of work to do, starting with putting in the edits. That always takes me longer than it should because I check and double-check that I’m not editing in typos. I also tweaked the covers and I’ll be checking those changes when I order new proofs along with the formatting. Then, after everything looks good, I have to make ebook files out of the paperback PDFs. Putting changes into six books was enough–there was no way I was doing twelve–but I’ll do that when I’m ready to put the ARCs up. I’m going to make a separate page for this series on my website, including a list of FAQs about the ARCs, Bookfunnel links when they’re ready, and trigger warnings. I still have a lot to do, but I feel like the hardest part is behind me. I can put on some music, make a cup of coffee, and have fun with what I have left.

In other news that’s not boring, I saw on my podcast app that the Self Publishing Show, the podcast that was hosted by Mark Dawson and James Blatch, recorded their last episode. I was a little sad to hear that since they’ve been a staple in the indie publishing community for as long as I’ve been around (2016) and longer. It’s not really a surprise though, considering I listened to a podcast maybe a month ago, and I was confused as to why James hosted that episode alone. No one talks about Mark’s (alleged?) plagiarizing, forcing him to step back, and I guess he’s coping with the aftermath. I’m not a part of the 20booksto50k group on Facebook any longer, nor am I member of the Self Publishing Formula anymore so I don’t have the inside scoop, if they were even mumbling about it. In a different group that I can’t remember now, one person said James was retiring from the podcast because it was too much to handle alone.

Considering they record for YouTube, production of the podcast probably was a lot. It also makes me wonder if they could afford to keep it going, if they’re tightening their purse strings and decided paying their team to produce the podcast was just too much. I have no idea how many indies faded away from their group and stopped buying the ads course and their Self Publishing 101 course because they didn’t want to be associated with Mark anymore. In that vein, I’m sure they planned out guests months in advance, and maybe they just couldn’t find people willing to be part of their podcast anymore.

I don’t have much information on their conference they held in London in June, but it sounds like they still had a good turnout. I can’t find any mention about Mark and if he made an appearance or if James handled it alone. If he did, he may not want to do that anymore, either. The way Craig Martelle talked about organizing the 20booksto50k conference in Vegas every year, it’s a lot, and maybe James won’t want to do it without Mark. It’s impossible to say if their friendship took a hit. We may never know the behind-the-scenes details like that.

I liked Mark, what I knew of him through podcast interviews and how he and James would interact at the beginning of each podcast episode. I’m not spreading gossip or rumors with a malicious intent–I’m simply wondering what’s going on and mourning a podcast I listened to pretty frequently as many did. If you want to listen to the last episode with guests Joe Solari and KDP’s Darren Hardy, you can listen to it here.

Listening to Joe Solari talk about Author Nation coming up in November, it did make me realize that I won’t want to go to any future [20booksto50k] conferences. I missed out on the conferences when they were the way I wanted to participate, and my chance is gone now. Author Nation is too big, too bright, for me and my fledgling author career.

I don’t know if there are any self-publishing conferences out there anymore geared toward authors who haven’t “made it.” Bryan Cohen and Jim Kukral hosted one in Chicago before the pandemic and it was fantastic. I met authors who just published their first book to authors who were making a living wage. Their panels (for everyone, they weren’t breakout sessions) were informative and I was able to ask questions anonymously, which took away the stress. I met up with a friend from Twitter, and overall I had a good time. Maybe I’m not in the loop anymore (which wouldn’t be surprising) but I don’t see these types of conferences offered. The ones I see are huge, requiring authors to make a certain amount to be invited in, like NINC. I should probably connect to some romance writers associations. A lot of the chapters under the RWA went out independently and they do host conferences, even if they’re just virtual. I kind of lost that side of my writing while I wasn’t feeling well, focused more on writing and creating to try to forget about how I felt. I’m missing that, and in the coming months, now that my series is done, I should think about adding it back.

Especially since connecting with people is so hard. I post on Threads, and most of my posts don’t even get 30 views. How can authors connect with other authors that way? I know my opinions aren’t always popular (don’t care about things other people foam at the mouth over), and I don’t have a cat to take pictures of anymore. And on that note, I’m going to stop answering questions on Threads. I get nothing back for answering someone’s question. Yeah, I’m tired and bitter. I don’t need to spend five minutes typing out a response to get a heart reaction. If they can’t take five seconds to type a “thank you!” then I’m not going to bother. They can depend on others for the information they could look up online. I used to think Twitter was bad, but I’m gritting my teeth thinking Threads is actually worse. I’ve been used in the past. It’s not fun and rather not keep up with that tradition. In fact, it takes a toll on my mental heath, and you can read a post where I wrote about that particular subject here: https://chaoscoffeeandconfessions.blogspot.com/2024/07/garbage-doesnt-always-take-itself-out.html

I think that’s about all I have for today. I’ll be taking some time off from writing–not blogging, for this blog or my author blog–but I’m not going to work on another book for a bit. I’ve accomplished a lot since December of 2019, and saying goodbye to my King’s Crossing series at the same time as finally getting some answers for my health issues (though not the kind of outcome I was hoping for) is kind of a turning point. I’m finding some equilibrium with my health and where my publishing is going. I love writing and publishing, but honestly I thought pivoting to first person present and niching down to Billionaire would do more for me and while it has, I’m still not seeing the results I was hoping for. Nobody’s fault, but you know how it is. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I don’t want to stop, but I’ve been banging my head against a brick wall and I need to find a pillow instead so it doesn’t hurt so much.

Before I say, “Until next time!” you know I love sharing other authors’ journeys, and when I was talking to a friend yesterday morning and she mentioned all she learned posting to free sites like Wattpad, I asked her to write something about it for my blog. She said she already did for hers, so if you want to read about an author’s experience using free sites that led to her publishing through KDP, you can read it here. We all start somewhere, right? Even if it feels like years later we’re still in the same place. https://ananyascribblesaround.wordpress.com/2021/08/08/i-used-to-post-my-stories-online-for-free-and-i-dont-regret-it/

Thanks for your time, and I hope you have a great week!

Until next time!

Every Time Someone Reads Your Book….

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

….you might not actually get paid.

There seems to be an idea floating around the author community that you should get paid every time someone reads your book. This is especially true when we talk about pirating. The main concern is that we aren’t getting paid for those reads. I get it, especially since two years ago I pivoted to first person present and focused on billionaires in an attempt to find a readership that will read all the books I’ll ever write.

But when it comes to books, we’re always saying books are meant to be shared. These days, we mean more word of mouth so that other people will take those recommendations and buy their own copies. Sharing books, physical or passing around a Kindle, has turned into something of a no-no because as an author, we want our cut, no matter how small that ends up being.

Nothing a book loves more than to be collected.

Eloise Bridgerton, Bridgerton, Season 3

I don’t know if the idea of not sharing is more popular now because pirating is more prevalent, authors complaining that the second their books are available online they end up on a pirate site, or because we’re fighting against all the legitimately free books out there. A reader can sign up for newsletter promos like Freebooksy, Red Feather Romance (that does feature free books sometimes) Ereader News Today, Robin Reads, and other newsletter promos that promote free books. If a reader opened those newsletters every day and took advantage of all their offerings, there’s a good chance that person wouldn’t have to buy a book to read ever again. And then there are subscriptions to programs like Kindle Unlimited and Kobo Plus, where readers aren’t paid as much as a sale (at least, that’s the way it is if an author participates in Kindle Select), and yeah, authors love to put Amazon down for it. And we can’t forget the huge free book blasts that are becoming more and more popular. (You can read about some of them here: https://www.bookbub.com/blog/stuff-your-kindle-day.) I joined one last year and there were over two thousand free books available for download. If a reader downloaded every book, even if they are voracious readers, how long do you think it would take them to read every single one? A year? Longer? And those blasts can happen two or three times a year, depending on the genre you like to read.

Free books are out there. And yours, whether you like it or not, might be one of them.

I’ll be fifty years old this year, and I remember when there weren’t Kindles, there wasn’t KU. There wasn’t online reading at all. Okay, you got me. There wasn’t internet, haha. If you wanted a book you needed to go to the library, pick up a paperback at a K-Mart or PAMIDA, if you remember those from so long ago. This was back when bookstores actually carried books and not toys and games and music, and if you wanted to read a series, you were very lucky if you could find them all in one place. There were other ways to get books, other ways that didn’t always ensure an author would see their royalties–thrift stores selling secondhand books, rummage sales. I have totes and totes of Harlequin Desires and Temptations because there’s not a thrift store I can’t go into without loading up.

Is it fair to an author?

At some point, I think it’s better if you let go of the idea you’re going to get paid for every read. The way books were created and designed was to be shared, and it’s been that way with other printed media like newspapers and magazines for decades. Publications try to curtail this loss of income by using online paywalls for their digital editions, but more often than not, if you hit a paywall, you click out, or you use an internet extension to bypass it if you can. To some extent, we think information should be free, but just like an author wants to be paid for their work, so does a journalist or, in some cases, a blogger or newsletter creator. Indie authors who go the nonfiction way to help other authors find a balance between free and paid information. Dave Chesson gives indie authors tons of free resources, everything from QR code and barcode generators to free Amazon ads classes. But, he also charges for things like Publisher Rocket and his formatting software, Atticus. There are other indie authors who give out free marketing advice or answer questions by giving up time to be interviewed or joining in podcasts but offer things authors can buy (I’m thinking of Zoe York who is very free with information on her YouTube channel who has written nonfiction books about writing a series and fiction writer Alessandra Torre who hosts an authors’ convention called InkerCon and runs a Facebook group of the same name).

Some authors do give away books, a reader magnet like I do, or a free first in series if they’re not exclusive with Amazon. You’d have to ask them why they’re okay with giving away books. Some of them have a large readership and just consider these books a loss leader because they know the return on investment is worth it. Some are very guarded with their books and rarely give anything away for free, thinking they deserve every penny for every second spent writing. In my opinion, this kind of attitude comes off as miserly. There was even one person in Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing group on Facebook (that I am no longer a part of) who said he wouldn’t be offering a paperback version of his book because he didn’t want people to share it. With that kind of attitude, I wonder if he found any readers at all.

This isn’t a post about giving away books. I’ve written about that before (https://vaniamargene.com/2022/11/28/author-update-thoughts-on-getting-blocked-and-giveaways-are-they-worth-it/). It’s really a personal and business choice and discussion around it can get very heated at times. What I’m really getting at here is that after someone purchases your book, what happens to it afterward can be out of your hands. They can give it to a friend, put it in a LFL (little free library), put it in a donation box for charity. When my son put together my bookshelves, I went through all my books that aren’t in storage. I gave my local library three big boxes of books I knew deep in my heart I would never read or didn’t want to keep (and yes, some of them were indie). I didn’t feel like I was cheating the authors out of royalty money. Some of the books I did buy from places where the authors would get their cut like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, the grocery store, and Walmart. Some I didn’t, like secondhand bookstores and thrift shops. I’m getting older and have trouble reading smaller print, and while I still love to hold a book, I prefer to read on my Kindle, and between the Freebooksy newsletter I subscribe to and my Kindle Unlimited subscription, I have plenty to read for many, many months.

There will always be someone selling the books they’ve purchased–third party sellers on Amazon and people trying to get rid of their copies on eBay. Some of my books are on eBay going for a helluva a lot more than if they would just buy from Amazon, and maybe sometimes those sellers make money but probably most of the time they don’t.

When it comes right down to it, authors make very little off their books, and that could be why authors are so guarded. I particularly see this attitude from newer authors who only have one book available and who’ve found their book on the pirating sites. They realized that when you print a 500 page book and have to price it at 25 dollars readers are paying Amazon for paper and those authors are lucky to make fifty cents (that’s actually an exaggeration, and if you you want to play with a print calculator, you can find it here https://www.draft2digital.com/podcalc). They don’t want to give books away for free, don’t see a value in it because they do only have the one book. I see authors raising their prices to try to make any kind of money at all, and that’s a business decision. Personally, I’d rather keep my prices reasonable, even on the low side. I’d rather have two readers for the price of one, but not everyone thinks like that. I’d rather have a reader in KU than lose out on page reads because I hate Amazon and I’m wide. We all have to make the choices that are best for us, but while owning a business can be stressful, there are things you can choose not to stress over and one of those things are readers reading your books for free. It will happen.

I don’t mind if people share my reader magnet after downloading it from Bookfunnel. I don’t care if someone buys one of my paperbacks and ten people read it after her. I’ve read free books, and it would be hypocritical not to expect it to happen to me because I’ve done it all my life. The idea that people shouldn’t be able to read a book for free needs to die down. There will always be free books everywhere, and if you believe you should get paid for every page, I’m sorry to say that you may be in for a hard time business-wise. There is value in ARCs, reader magnets, and loss leaders. There might even be value to your books being read on pirate sites. Who knows where you’ll pick up a fan.

Laura Zats and Erik Hane, the hosts of Print Run, recorded an interested podcast about the topic of secondhand books, more specifically, the used bookstore Half Price Books in Apple Valley, Minnesota. They’re agents who live in the Twin Cities area, so they talk about the trad side of things, but their conversation was interesting nonetheless, and you can listen to it here: (https://soundcloud.com/printrunpodcast/episode-166)

That’s all I have for this week. I’ll have an author update for you soon, and hopefully that will have some good news. I also would like to talk more about ads and I’m still mulling over what I want to talk about based off a comment about AI and algorithms I saw on Threads not long ago.

I hope you’re having a great summer. It’s two-thirds gone, and if you wanted to get anything done before fall hits, you might want to get on that. Summer will be gone before you know it!

Take care and thanks for reading!

Author Update and Monday Musings

Posted on June 24, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

desk flat. pink flowers, blue candle. text says, author update and monday musings

I don’t have much to update you on this week. I’m slowly making my way through my King’s Crossing proofs and I’m in the middle of book two right now. I’m not finding much, a word that should have been deleted here, a word that should have been added there. Like many authors, some of what I mark I’ll decide to leave alone, and that’s usually the hint I need to realize that after proofing these, there isn’t going to be anything left to change or to make better. I recommend everyone reads their proofs because it’s amazing what you’ll find when your book is printed out, and actually, ordering a proof is a cheaper than printing it out at your local Office Max.

Anyway, so that’s all I have for my author update.

As far as my Monday Musings are concerned, I want to defend all my Canva book cover blog posts. There are opinions circulating on Threads that pretty much say it’s not safe to use a cover made in Canva because Amazon won’t accept them if they ask for proof of copyright. This isn’t correct and I do not want any baby authors to get scared or bummed out they can’t use Canva to create their covers. The truth is, KDP/Amazon doesn’t care how you made your cover. You can use Canva, BookBrush, Photoshop, Affinity Photo, InDesign, GIMP, or even Word. What they care about is where you got the stock photos that you used to create your cover. Canva Pro gives you access to hundreds of thousands of stock photos, and you can use them, for anything but book covers because if KDP asks you if you have the licensing rights to use the photos, they won’t accept Canva’s. That’s it. That’s all it is.

When you buy a stock photo, you’re not buying the copyright of that photo. you’re buying the licensing, or the permission, to use it. The photographer and the model, through a model release, say it’s okay for you to use the photo on your book, and that’s the documentation that KDP wants. Canva doesn’t give you the proper permission to use their stock photos, not in a way that Amazon wants, anyway. So, whenever I talk about Canva, I always say you should buy your photos from places like DepositPhotos, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, or 123rf. You can browse Canvas stock and find the source and purchase it directly. Sometimes the source is Getty, and we all know most of us can’t afford that. For that reason, I never practice book covers using their stock because I might fall in love with something I can’t use.

The same goes for places like Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay. Those places are fine if you’re using stock for blog posts and aesthetics, but for an actual cover where you’re going to be making money from your book, you should buy your stock photos.

The standard licensing is fine–the extended license of a photo is primarily if you’re going to use the photo on something you’re going to sell, like a coffee mug. The standard license is fine for a mug if you’re going to make one for a giveaway, or something else like bookmarks, but if you’re going to sell those coffee mugs and bookmarks at a book table at a convention, then you need the extended license, which is a lot more expensive. That’s why I don’t make swag. It’s expensive and I don’t have a readership that would pay. If you want to make bookmarks or business cards, or even post cards, the standard license is fine–knock yourself out. VistaPrint is a good option.

Another reason someone said it’s not safe to use Canva book covers is because someone could copy it and you can’t do anything about it because you can’t copyright what you make in Canva. The thing is, anyone can copy a book cover, and it doesn’t matter where you make your cover. The reason most authors don’t have their book covers copied, even if they’re gorgeous, is because you’re just asking for trouble if you do. There’s no faster way to get blackballed in the author/writer community than copying someone else’s work. Now, can the author you copied sue you for that? Sure. They might start off sending you a cease and desist email first, ask you to change your cover, counting on that to scare you enough, and if you’re baby author who got swept up in loving a cover, or you bought one from a designer and you didn’t know she “borrowed” the design, then a cease and desist letter would probably be enough. But the threat to sue, I don’t want to say is empty, but a lot of authors don’t have the money to take you to court. So, it doesn’t matter where your made your cover, anyone at any time can copy it.

When you’re a romance author, we do get into some shaky and shady territory. We use the same models, a lot, even the same backgrounds, a lot, and when that happens, sometimes vibes are the same. I think most of us authors understand that and we just shrug and say, “It happens.” I even blogged about it, and you can read it here: https://vaniamargene.com/2023/08/14/romance-covers-finding-the-right-stock-photo/

I’m not a copyright lawyer, and when I talk about stock photos and book covers, that’s all my knowledge pertains to. Canva is used by people who are not authors, and when someone uses their elements to make logos and social media graphics geared toward selling products, I have read those logos and social media graphics don’t belong to that company. Maybe that’s true. I have no idea. I don’t work for a company that asks me to make social media graphics, so I don’t have to know the legalities of it.

When I make a cover in Canva, sometimes I do use a Canva element, like a gradient or a glow star, but I use DepositPhotos for everything else. When Amazon asked me for licensing information for the 3rd book in my rockstar trilogy, I took screenshots of the download information of the background photo, the model’s photo, and my profile information. I had other things on my cover (a small piano vector indicating what instrument the guy in the third book played) but I didn’t give them that, or the font information. If you’re ever asked, give them as little information as possible because right off the bat you’re dealing with a bot that randomly picked you and you don’t want to muddy the water with information they don’t care about. Keep it polite, give them the stock photo information, and if you don’t have it, they’ll tell you to change your cover. If that’s something you have to do, be smarter and buy your licensing agreements the way you should (or never use that cover designer again). (Here’s a blog post I wrote about scammy cover designers–https://vaniamargene.com/2024/04/22/author-update-and-vetting-your-book-cover-designer/)

I hate when “important” information is passed around on a platform like Threads. There’s no way you can include all the information you need in a post so you don’t confuse people. And if you do see blanket statements like, “Don’t use Canva to make your book covers because it’s not safe,” I always suggest you look up who’s saying it. A lot of times it’s going to be someone who benefits from your fear, like, you guessed it, a book cover designer who is going to be out money because you’re making your own covers.

I saw that once last year. A book cover designer in a book cover Facebook group was trying to go after GetCovers because they were “copying” book covers. After a lot of back and forth and nasty comments, even between her and the GetCovers owner, or whoever he happened to be, what it boiled down to was she was a book cover designer who was angry they could charge so little and she felt it was eating at her potential client base. It’s the same for editors, too. Anyone who says you can’t publish without paying an expensive editor is probably an expensive editor who wants to guilt you into paying their prices.

I’ve turned so jaded lately I just always assume people are looking out for themselves first, most, and always, so always, before you get scared, do your research.

Thousands of authors use Canva to do their covers. Some use it properly, purchasing stock photos from reputable sources like DepositPhotos, some take chance and use Pixabay or Unsplash, thinking that their “free for commercial use” agreement is enough, some use Canva stock and hope for the best. If you’re going to use Canva because it’s easy and user-friendly, then you’re not doing anything others aren’t doing. I know that shouldn’t be much of a consolation, but you’re hardly breaking the law. Even if I make a cover for someone else and they’ve downloaded their photos, I download them too so I have the licensing agreement under my profile in my downloads. And what I would send KDP, or what I have sent, looks like this:

This is the purchase proof for the model who will be on the third book of my King’s Crossing series.

That way the author I’m helping can say I made their cover, and I can turn around and give her the screenshots she needs to prove I paid for the licensing agreement.

I have said in the past that your books are your business, and it really doesn’t feel true until KDP smacks you with a proof of licensing for a stock photo.

Anyway, that’s all I really wanted to say. Like almost everything, if you mess up, it’s the operator, not the machine.

Have a good week, everyone! I’m going back to proofing.

Mid-Year Check-In

Posted on June 10, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

flatlay desk--keyboard, cactus plant, and calendar showing June 2024. text reads mid-year check-in

I truly cannot believe we’re half way through 2024 already. Time flies, even if you’re not having fun. There has been so much that happened since January, but I think the second half the year will be even busier. Let’s catch up:

Health Update
So, I think you all know by now that I had a really crappy last four years. I had undiagnosed vulva lichen sclerosis, something that I got when I used a certain brand of dryer sheets. My skin must have had a reaction, and for four years, a hysterectomy, and twenty-two visits to the clinic, I lived with it. No one here knew what was wrong with me, and in February of this year, I finally went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. My nurse practitioner was a star, and she knew the second she looked at me and since then I’ve been on a treatment plan. I’m doing well in a lot of ways, but mentally, I’m still struggling. I don’t want to go into it anymore than that, but I do blog about it, and if you want to follow along there, you can look here: www.chaoscoffeeandconfessions.blogspot.com. Suffice to say, I’m on the mend, and after living so long with that condition, it’s a miracle I can say it at all.

King’s Crossing Series Update
Another topic that is all too familiar, so I won’t spend much time on it. I haven’t published since November, and I think my sales are taking a hit for it. The last two weeks of May were really hard, and the beginning of June isn’t shaping up to be that much better. Amazon has forgotten I exist, but it’s a tough market out there, so I’m not surprised. To catch their attention again, the only thing I can do is publish, and I’m happy to say I’m nearer to that goal. I ordered my series proofs yesterday, and I’ll read through them looking for any typos I missed and formatting errors I have to fix, and that will be that. Reading six books will take me a couple of weeks, but proofreading will be faster than editing and I should be able to put up my ARC copies at the beginning of July. I’ll have to give ARC readers time to read and review, so my first book, fingers crossed, will go live at the end of July or the beginning of August. It sounds easy, but there’s a lot of work that will be involved with that. I’m going to create a separate page on my author website especially for those ARCs, and I’m going to need to list the release dates and the dates the ARC links will come down as they can’t be up when my books drop into KU. There is only one entry point, book one, and not everyone is going to want to sink their teeth into a series like this, especially if they’ve never heard of me before. Also, four of the six books end on cliffhangers, and that will need to be posted front and center because I know some readers won’t read if there are cliffhangers. The short amount of time between releases should help–cliffhangers are the worst if you have to wait months or even years for a resolution. That won’t be a problem here, and listing the release dates and having them all up on preorder so readers know they’re coming should help. I’ll need to make graphics and pull quotes, but once all that’s done and things are posted, I should be able to sit back and let the wheels turn on their own. I’m not going to do ARC forms (you can read my thoughts on them here: https://vaniamargene.com/2023/11/06/arc-forms-creating-a-review-team/) and readers can review in their own time and where they want. I’ll put them up on Booksprout, too, so I guess I’m thinking I’ll give away about 150 copies of each (100 on my website and 50 through Booksprout). That’s 900 copies, but if they can get this series running, it will be worth it. I feel like I just haven’t handled my releases very well and I’d like to do what I can push this series. That will take up my summer and they’ll release six weeks apart through February. After those are done, I’ll have another standalone ready to go, and I’ll release that, maybe in June. I can’t say what will happen after that because what will be published toward the end of 2025 into 2026 hasn’t been written yet. That’s enough for that series, and if you want more in-depth musings, you can look here: https://vaniamargene.com/2024/04/29/author-update-kings-crossing-series/

Ad Spend vs. Royalties Update
It’s probably a good idea I do this because I’m terrible at keeping track of my ad spend. That I have a little to play with and that my royalties leave me in the ~~barely~~ black aren’t excuses. Not keeping track isn’t the best way to level up, so I’ll go through what I’ve made and what I’ve spent so far.

As far as royalties go, I’ve made $3,1839.91 this year. That’s $1400.00 shy of what I made the entire year last year, so unless something serious happens to me, I can safely assume I’ll surpass that. Having so many releases this year will help a lot, I think, if I can give this series some traction and it sells. $2,500.00 of that is from KU reads, $643.00 was from Kindle sales, and there was a handful of dollars from print sales. My top sellers were my rockstars, but that’s not a surprise because that’s where I shove my ad money.

So, speaking of ad money, let me pull up what I’ve spent–more on Amazon ads than I wanted, at $711.83 so far. I think I’ll turn them off and not spend anymore on them this year. I have FOMO, and I give in to running Amazon ads even though I haven’t seen ROI using them in a long time. I panic whenever my sales dip, but sales naturally ebb and I shouldn’t be scared of it. FB ads, at least I can say my $2140.97 brought in what I spent and I still have two that are running with no end date because I get likes on shares on them on a daily basis. Social proof is what keeps them going and at .12 and .8 cents a click, they’re cheaper than Amazon ads will ever be. I have to remember that the next time I want to start my Amazon ads up again. They are too costly to keep going. With all the other extras I pay for, like Bookfunnel and Booksprout, my Canva account that renewed, etc, I’m just breaking even.

If I don’t run Amazon ads for the rest of the year and only leave the two FB ads going, I’m curious what the rest of 2024 will look like for me. It will be a skewed experiment at best because I won’t always have a series to rapid release, but I won’t be throwing money out the window. I’m proud of the books I’ve sold so far this year, but eventually it would be nice not to have to pay for every sale. I may have to start investing more time in social media than ads. You pay in money or time, but I haven’t given much time since I haven’t been feeling well, and while I’m not feeling 100% and never will be, I might have to dust off my social media accounts whether I want to or not. The big players are on socials and that could be a turning point for me–if I can stick with it long enough to see some movement.

Bits and Pieces Update
As for anything else, I’ve been keeping an eye on my Amazon followers for my pen name and I’m up to 266. At least people are reading and liking my books enough to follow me. I’ve said in the past I’ve given away more of my reader magnet since switching my newsletter to a blog format than when I was sending out a real newsletter through MailerLite. I’ve given away 35 in the last 30 days, so I’m glad to know people are still clicking and downloading. Turning to blogging isn’t ideal, but that whole debacle was so heartbreaking and I’m happy it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. At least I had the smarts to back up my mailing list and import them into my WordPress website. I see some authors who don’t back up their lists and something happens and they lose all their subscribers.

There are a few other odds and ends, like my blog posts. The updated blog post I did for my Canva tutorial (Updated! Creating a full wrap paperback book cover using Canva (plus more screenshots!)) is finally surpassing the original (Doing a Full Paperback Wrap in Canva for KDP Print (plus screen grabs)). The updated blog post has been read 2,214 times this year and the original 928. I’m glad those posts are helping people.

I haven’t been on TikTok since December and I haven’t posted on Instagram since March. I was cross posting, so more than likely I haven’t posted anything on my FB author page in about as long. I’ll need to see what I can do about that–especially since things are slowing down with my series now and pretty soon they’ll be done.

That’s about it for my mid-year recap. My health and my series have taken so much of my time that I’m not sure what I’ll do next. I’m working on a standalone I wrote in 2021 to get ready to publish, but there’s no rush to get that done, for obvious reasons. I’d like to read and clean out my TBR list on my Kindle, but I’ll have to charge it. I’ve lost a lot of joy in the past four years, feeling how I am and dealing with some other things, like breaking up with my fiancé, and I know “finding myself” however cliché that may be will take time. It would be nice if I could slow down and just enjoy the summer, but I always say I’m going to take a break and never do. As much as I’m burnt out, writing and publishing has been my safe haven the past few years, and not having to hide will be a change. Not wanting to hide will be a change. I know what my health issues are now, and that’s a big deal, so I’ll take it one day at a time and see where I land at the end of the year.

One thing I know for sure–no more Amazon ads.

Have a good week!

Monday Musings: writing the next book (the state of the industry)

Posted on May 27, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

I don’t listen to many podcasts anymore–I’m hoping that will change after I get more answers at my appointment on Tuesday… and after I get this blasted series done. I have four chapters left, but I know in one of the chapters there’s a scene I want to add to, just to circle back to something a character mentioned in book four that would wrap up this couple’s HEA all the better. I don’t want to rush the rewrite and I conceded a long time ago these would be done when they get done. I’ve been working more seriously on the covers, but damned if I can do better than what I have. I’ve looked at cover after cover, from dark billionaire romances to romantic suspense and the problem I keep running into is that the vibes don’t match. I don’t mean my brand, but the vibes of the stories. While these characters are a little younger than I’m used to, that’s the only difference between this series and what my backlist offers. I can’t go too dark and even if there is a lot of suspense, nothing in the romantic suspense genre grabbed me. I’m stuck with the models–one guy in a suit because he’s the billionaire, one guy (who has been used everywhere FML but I like how he’s dressed) because he’s a PI and wears a suit all of one time in the stories. You wanna see them? Here they are:

The guy on the left is Zane Maddox, billionaire. The guy on the right (who might be familiar as I played with him when I was doing my Christmas novel cover) is Gage Davenport, the PI who falls in love with Zane’s sister. They go well together and match the background I chose for them. Deviating from what I made for covers months ago feels wrong, but I’ve tried because I think the covers are on the plain side. I mean, they’re a good plain and they’ll fit in with the books in my backlist, but I really wanted these to be special, and I feel like I’m letting this series down somehow. Maybe I’m blowing my covers out of proportion. They don’t look any different than the books I’ve published before, but my sales aren’t great and it takes me a lot of telling myself it’s not because of my covers. Because in all honesty, my covers don’t look any worse than anything else that’s out there, and I still like people on my covers, no matter what the trend happens to be right now. I need elegant, not edgy, and even if they are subdued, I think ultimately they’re what I’m going for.

Anyway, so I bring this up because I listened to Craig Martelle’s State of the Industry talk in his Successful Indie Author Facebook group. I like listening to what he has to say. He’s practical and down-to-earth. Maybe in a way that only already successful authors can be because he’s making money and even “slow” periods don’t affect him that much, but he doesn’t freak out about stuff, and I can appreciate that. If you want to listen to what he has to say, he posted it on YouTube here:

I listened to it because I always like hearing speculation and trends, where people think indie publishing is going. Personally, I feel like small-time authors like me are stagnating. Nothing can help us get ahead. Right now FB ads are the only way I’m selling books, and even yesterday I had to go in and pause two of my ads. I spent 140 dollars between two ads for the first book in my duet. The clicks were only costing me .14 USD which is way cheaper than any of my Amazon ads I’ve run, but I wasn’t seeing the sales. I don’t get many sales of Captivated (I think it’s a number of reviews issue), and I would have known if those clicks were turning into buys. In fact, you can go to your Author Central page and look at the sales ranks for your books. My ad spend was going up as my book rank plummeted. That’s not a great match. I have two going for the first in my rockstar trilogy and they have ton of likes and shares. They don’t have an end date and I’ll likely never turn them off. Those two are the only things driving my sales right now. My Freeobooksy for Rescue Me did better in terms of KU reads than I thought, but I haven’t made my fee back yet. (I’ll get into numbers when I do my half-year check in.)

So if you’re a small-time author, or a baby author, you’re going to think the state of the industry is pretty crappy, and you probably aren’t liking the advice everyone throws at you: write the next book. I get the next book is important, but I can understand the conundrum. If no one is around to read it, why write it? It’s very very easy to be defeated, especially since it seems like there aren’t many people around to cheer you on. Everyone is busy with their own struggles and there just aren’t that many people who have time to hold your hand or pat you on the back. I don’t want this post to go all “woes me–” I’d like to keep it practical at least. What can a baby author do to get ahead? What can any author do to move the needle. I understand where people are going when they say write the next book. I’ve said it too. But now many will be enough? There are some authors who have written 100+ and that must feel very intimidating to a debut author whose book sinks a week after launch. The state of the industry is confusing–there has never been a better time to be writer in terms of ease and resources, but I also feel like COVID upped our competition and that competition never really went away. Al (I asked ChatGPT) said 60,000 books are published every month. I used to think that was more, but I haven’t watched a K-lytics report in a long time to know. But even 60,000 books a month is a lot. Other authors aren’t our competition, but when you start throwing numbers around, it sure feels like they are.

Craig also said a few other things, like the election not doing us any favors, and I can believe that. Trump winning wore us down, Biden winning after lifted us up. Whether Biden can win again remains to be seen, but either way, this fall tension will be high. It always is. The holidays don’t do anyone any favors unless you have a Christmas novel to put out, so you could start writing one now and hopefully have it ready to go by November. I’ll push A Heartache for Christmas because last year between November first and December 31st, I sold 31 books and had the equivalent of 96 books read in KU. I also ran ads to it, so I could have technically broke even, but these days, that feels like the best you can do.

I don’t know if Craig said much else. I don’t think he spoke with an outline in mind and he went off on some tangents every once in a while, but I still enjoyed listening to his talk. I guess you take away some negative bits from it (as it seems I have) but the real takeaway I should have gleaned from his talk is that you can’t sell a book that hasn’t been written. That’s true for any author, no matter how many books they have in their backlist, and no one knows that more than an author who has readers wanting their next book.

It’s finding those readers without growing broke or sacrificing your mental or physical health along the way.

That’s the real state of the industry.

Author Update and Amazon’s New Stat

Posted on May 20, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I can’t believe how fast May is going by, and it doesn’t bode well for all the things I want to get done before the end of the month. We’ve had some nice weather in the past few days, and on a walk I took a couple pictures of some berry trees.

I’m trying to get out a little more to boost my spirits. Since I’ve been feeling slightly better, I’m not as comfortable sitting in my bedroom alone hiding from the world. The sun perks me up, as does taking walks to the river and back (that’s a short 1.5 mile stroll) and I’m trying to do better as it helps with editing too. It’s easier when your mind isn’t fuzzy from staring at a screen for ten hours non-stop.

Having said that, haha, I’m still editing book six. Every once in a while I’ll have a touch of anxiety, and I lose time (even a couple hours a day at this point is a big loss). If I didn’t have to sit through those attacks I’d be able to edit a lot faster. I try to edit anyway, but I shouldn’t do that because all that does is make me have to go back when I’m feeling better and make sure I didn’t edit mistakes into my manuscript and check to see that the changes I made sound good. Anyway, suffice to say, I’ve been feeling better, but that part of feeling better has uncovered things that I wasn’t feeling before. I have another appointment at the end of the month and all I can hope for is more good news–or at least an explanation. I knew that getting over this would take time and be more of a journey than destination, and all I can do is try my best. But I will try to have this book edited by then because I’d really like to be able to order new proofs next month. (If you want to read more about my physical and mental health, I stared a new blog, and you can read it here: chaoscoffeeandconfessions.blogspot.com)

I ran a free promo on Rescue Me last weekend and while I didn’t do that to earn any royalties, since it’s a standalone and there’s no read-through to other books, there might be some who borrow in KU rather than buy for free and I always appreciate that. I made approximately $45 during the free days and almost $50 for the month. I didn’t expect it but maybe I’ll earn my fee back after all. I only really did it to get my name out there since I’m not doing anything but running Facebook ads right now. I could run an ad to my sister website to get a little more traffic there since I’ll be blogging there regularly instead of sending out a newsletter. Those ads would be in lieu of the ads I was running to my reader magnet when I had Mailerlite and Bookfunnel hooked up together. Upgrading to the new MailerLite screwed up my integration, and then trying to comply with the DMARC stuff ruined my entire account. Authenticating my account possibly wasn’t the cause of my issues, it could have been a technical issue on MailerLite’s end, but I wasn’t going to put up with it–not when the error made my website look like it was trying to steal my readers’ personal information. Ironically, since I moved my newsletter to my blog, I’ve given away a lot more copies of My Biggest Mistake and I’m not sure why. I looked at my stats and I’m getting about same number of opens, but the link possibly is more accessible? I’m not sure. But I’ve given away 39 copies in the last 30 days and I wasn’t getting downloads like that unless I was running an FB ad to my Bookfunnel link. I don’t get anything for giving my book away–I haven’t gotten many visitors who are subscribing, but I’m getting extra views through my blog popping up on the WordPress reader, and those new readers could be who are downloading my reader magnet. Not that it matters at all, it’s just another way for people to find me, sample my writing, and possibly go on to buy other books. I’m just relieved that moving my newsletter to a blog wasn’t a total fail.

In other news, during a busy day at work I opened up the last standalone I have on my computer that I wrote during the pandemic. I created the file on May 15th, 2021, and it’s so funny that I opened the file again almost three years to the day I started writing it.

general properties information.
Microsoft Word Document
411,770 bytes (414 KB on disk)
iCloud drive
Created May 15h, 2012 at 12:28pm
Modified May 10h, 2024 at 5:54pm

I’m surprised to say it sounds good, and I’m going to read and edit it, package it and get it ready for publication after my series is up. It will be something easy and less stressful to work on while I enjoy the summer, umm, fall months (I have no illusions that this series will take me the rest of the summer to publish). I’ll release it like, oh I don’t know, fall of next year? I decided to shorten the time between my series from 8 weeks to 6, and in doing so, I’ll lose three months of time. So I’ll publish that to make it up, and then I’ll have a nine months or so to write what I’m going to publish next. My brain kind of shuts down thinking about that because then we’re talking about 2026 and I just can’t think that far ahead when, since I haven’t felt good, just getting through a day was a struggle. I made a cover for another standalone that’s partially plotted, and maybe working on those two projects will be the break I need while I get my life back on track. Like I said, something else popped up, and I’ll probably find what it is at my appointment at the end of the month. I don’t think it’s serious as I’m not in pain, but it was just a bump in the road to my recovery I didn’t expect.

So, everyone was talking about the new stat on the product pages of some books on Amazon–the number of sales a book had in the previous month. I haven’t been able to find a stat like that on any books I’ve looked at, and like with a lot of things Amazon does, it might have just been a flash in the pan test and it went away just as quickly as it came.

A lot of authors didn’t like it–some saying it was a breach of privacy, though technically it’s not–you can find out how much a book is making just by looking at its rank, and here is a calculator if you’re curious to try: https://kindlepreneur.com/amazon-kdp-sales-rank-calculator/ Some authors said it was discouraging and another stat a baby author had to fight against.

I don’t think a stat like that is very important, at least, not compared to something else like reviews. Some authors wave off reviews, and while I don’t think Amazon pushes your book once you receive over fifty, social proof is important, and maybe that’s why Amazon tried this new stat. Since it seemed to have disappeared, maybe they realized the number of reviews a product had was enough.

The new stat didn’t bother me because information like that is already out there, and I’m kind of surprised no one brought up Goodreads. Goodreads shows you stats similar to that on every book.

Screenshot of my book's page on Goodreads. Faking forever. 3.74 stars.

blurb excerpt and book cover

The screenshot may be too small to see, but this is the information under my book Faking Forever. It says 45 people are currently reading and 152 people want to read. Goodreads is public, so you can see stats like that on whatever book you want. My numbers aren’t high by any means and I doubt they’re a threat to a baby author, but because a reader has to actively go into their account and add your book to their shelves, I would consider stats like this even more meaningful than something Amazon throws up just to see what kind of reaction it will get.

When it comes right down to it, the real issue is we’re all fighting for exposure and discoverability. We’re trying to get our names out there in however way we can. Sales numbers, review numbers, and want-to-read shelves can be disheartening, but you can either get discouraged or let it motivate you. You also have to ask yourself what you’re doing to get your name out there. Do you have a newsletter, run ads, buy a promo every now and then? Do you post on social media? That can be a time suck if you don’t have the favor of the algorithms looking down on you, but it’s social proof in its own way you’re alive and writing. Do you publish regularly? All of that can only go so far if you’re not consistently publishing. I haven’t published a book in seven months and that seems like a really really long time for me. It may be another three before I can this series up and going, but I didn’t realize how much work these books needed and I have to go so painstakingly slow to check consistency. The time will be worth it, but who knows if readers see I haven’t published since November (when I released A Heartache for Christmas) and think I’m not writing anymore. I try to keep my blog/subscribers updated but that’s not the same as being able to offer them a new book. I’m not sure what else I can be doing either–I’m running the maximum number of Facebook ads I can afford and spent money on that Freebooksy promo for Rescue Me. I feel like I’m doing all I can while I struggle with feeling better and working my day job and being some kind of absentee mother to my kids (don’t worry–they’re old enough they don’t need me, but I’m still not around much).

If you’re doing the best you can, that’s all you can do, so if you’re also battling writer’s block or imposter syndrome, or you’re downtrodden because it feels like everyone else is doing more than you, you just have to shake it off. And if you’ve read this blog in the past, you know I don’t say that lightly because I have been shaking off a lot, and it’s hard. It’s hard to keep going when you don’t know if it’s worth it and it’s hard to keep going when you’re exhausted. It’s really a cliché, but go back to why you start writing in the first place and try to find joy in the writing and creating. All the other stuff is just extra.

Next Monday is Memorial Day, and I’ll be leaving out of town to go to a Tuesday appointment. Unless I can think of something to say, I may just take that day off and then come back with any updated information I have to share. (When I say that, hopefully I mean good news at my appointment and that I’m done editing these books!)

Thank you so much for reading….we’re halfway through year, and I hope things are going well for you. Take care of yourself–physically and mentally. Unplug, go outside, read something that doesn’t have your name on it.

Until next time!

Author Update and Writing What You Love

Posted on April 1, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

wooden background colorful cut out bunnies hanging from a ribbon by clothespins

text says. author update and writing what you love

If you celebrated Easter, I hope you had a lovely holiday. We’re celebrating today, in fact, because I work on Sundays and there’s no reason to use PTO to take the day off. We’ll dye eggs and I’ll cook a chicken casserole. A coworker gave me the recipe she found on TikTok. It sounded yummy and easy and I’m all about easy. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I finished editing the last book of my series. I had to revise parts of the last two chapters and I wrote a 1900 word Epilogue that I think ends things beautifully, if I do say so for myself. Of course, I couldn’t just let that be it, and I went back to the beginning and I’m rereading the first book. I think it was around book 4 where I noticed I had a “with” problem, and that’s why I went back. I won’t need to read the series in it’s entirety again (I’ll save that for the paperback proofs and look for typos only), but I think I’ll do the first three, since book one is proving that to be a sound choice. It’s not taking as long as when I started them before, and that’s good. I’m very aware that I could be over-editing them as well, so I’m taking it easy and only editing out blatant over-use I didn’t catch the first time. I know these won’t be perfect and I’m keeping in mind books that have echoing and proofing errors sell like crazy all the time, so I can be gentle with myself and give myself grace. After all, I don’t want to work on these forever. I’m excited to start my standalone, though between setting these up on preorder and putting all the ARCs on Bookfunnel, it will be a while before I can open a new Word document.

When I was finished editing them, I decided against fancy formatting, but then I stumbled upon a vector of a city skyline that worked perfectly.

The photo was already faded at the bottom, but I brought it up a little more in GIMP so the chapter and number would stand out more. What I liked best was that even though it’s in black and white, I feel it meshed with the new background I chose for the covers.

I’m still playing with the models, but I have them chosen. They both come in lots of poses, so I’m in the process of finalizing them and don’t want to show you what I have just yet. Cover reveals don’t do much and I’ve never been interested, but I’d like to at least post them on my author website first. I’ll probably blog here about how I changed my mind because I have proofs that have a different background and models.

Because ebooks don’t have “pages” a set chapter photo like this isn’t possible, though something smaller under the chapter number is. I don’t know if I’m going to look through stock photos to find something. I’ll sell a lot more ebooks so it would be nice to offer those readers a little something. I have time to look but I don’t know for what yet. Usually when I find something that’s just right, it’s by accident, so I’ll just keep scrolling and see what pops up.

These feel like they’ll never be done, but then, I finished the initial edits before the deadline I gave myself, so if I can keep going, I’d love to be able to order a new set of proofs by the middle of April. Unfortunately, these things always take longer than expected, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the first one isn’t published until July. Way longer than I’d hoped, especially since I published A Heartache for Christmas in November, and that’s a lot more time between releases than I’d like. But this project is huge, any author would agree, and it’s better to take my time instead of rush and have regrets later. I may surprise myself, because I’m not starting from scratch, at least. All the blurbs have been written (and I’ve read them all and still like them, so that’s a relief), all the ISBNs have been assigned. All the keywords and categories have been selected on KDP, it’s just a matter of uploading new files, both interior and covers, and reading through new proofs. That might not take as long as I anticipate, but who knows what could happen.

I still haven’t posted a blog on my author site explaining what happened to my newsletter or given my readers an update there. I’ve been kind of waiting for things to cool down, and there isn’t any news that’s different from the last newsletter I sent out. Since I canceled my MailerLite account, I don’t even know what my open rate was for that last newsletter, though for once I hope it was close to nothing. I’m still humiliated a glitch like that would make me look so sketchy, and I’m bitter MailerLite handled it so terribly. I was upgraded for about five minutes before I deactivated my account, and unlike so many author services who will prorate your fees, MailerLite didn’t refund me one penny. An expensive lesson, indeed.

I heard something interesting the other day–I finally watched one of the free webinars I like to sign up for, and the first thing he said was, “If you write the book you love, don’t be surprised if readers don’t like it. You wrote the book you love, not a book others will love.” I’m paraphrasing, but I usually agree with advice like that. That kind of thinking is called writing to market, meeting genre expectations, meeting reader expectations. Writing first and then trying to market later is always a bad idea, but authors don’t understand that what you choose to write, what genre, what POV, if it will be part of a series, and if it is how far apart your books will be, the cover, the title, the series title, all that is part of the marketing process before you even write one word.

When I started my pen name, I was going to do everything right. I chose my subgenre, chose the POV (dual first person present), decided what kind of covers I was going to create to build my brand, all of it. I wrote most of my books around tropes, like a baby-for-the-billionaire, one-night-stand-with-my-boss, a fake fiancé, and a second chance. Some books I didn’t have any trope in mind, like the second book of my Lost & Found Trilogy or A Heartache for Christmas. Even my Cedar Hill Duet wasn’t written around tropes, but I’ve come to realize that if I’m writing a book that has romantic suspense themes, I’m meshing two subgenres, and I let the mystery part of the book fill in for the missing trope.

So this is the part where I admit that while I think I’m writing to market, I’m not actively writing to market, only hoping for the best. I’ve never sat down and started a book I wasn’t going to enjoy writing all for the sake of marketability or sellability. But, I am doing better than I have in the past, before I decided to at least stick to billionaires and package my books in a way that finally builds a brand.

I’ve also realized I don’t read enough to even know what’s selling–and that could be a big mistake on my part. You can’t fulfill reader expectations if you’re not reading to see what kinds of books readers are enjoying. Is it enough to say, “Well, I’m writing billionaire romance, I chose this trope, and I’ll give them a happily ever after?” I mean, writing a romance isn’t complicated (and romance authors will probably hate me for saying it). There are few rules to break, and I would like to think that my readers are getting well-rounded characters and in-depth backstories–that my books aren’t 90k words full of fluff. But, you need to read to compare, and I have plenty of books on my Kindle at the moment so when I do take a bit of time to fill my creative well once my series is up and there’s nothing I have to do for them anymore, I’ll do my own study and see if what I’ve been writing measures up.

So the TL;DR gist of it is, I used to think I was writing what readers love to read, but what I’m really doing is still writing what I want first and then hoping for the best. Which is what we’re all doing. I’m a little amused by this, since I’m such a write to market devotee, but I just have to admit that niching down, changing my POV, and packaging my books properly did more to bring readers in, and then what I’m writing will hopefully keep them coming back.

Speaking of tropes, since I had a little extra money after doing my income taxes, I bought a couple of books that I’ve had my eye on. I like to buy my nonfiction in paperback, even though they’re getting harder to read every day. But, I bought Jennifer Hilt’s Romance Trope Thesaurus. I haven’t had time to page through it yet, but I think it’s a great for market research or for brainstorming your next book. She has a generic Trope Thesaurus too, and one for horror. Give them a look on her author page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jennifer-Hilt/author/B01GETN4LM

Trope Thesaurus book cover. red and white text. author name Jennifer Hilt — photo taken from Amazon

In case you missed it, my blog was mentioned in the Feedspot 100 Best Contemporary Book Blogs and Websites. This is a great list of blogs and I’m honored to have been chosen. If you’d like to take a look at the list and find other blogs to subscribe to, look here: https://books.feedspot.com/contemporary_book_blogs/?feedid=5675940

I was going to write more, but I’m already at 1700 words and so I might as well call it. I have other things to do today, and I would imagine, so do you.

Have a great week ahead!

Monday Author Update (The Grownup Version)

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Vania Margene Rheault

I’m not sure what got into me last Thursday, well, I do, but I think I need to start finding other ways to, ah, voice my displeasure and unhappiness. I’m not all gloom and doom–if I didn’t like being an author and publishing books, I wouldn’t do it. Anyway, read on if you want a more sophisticated update on what I’ve been doing lately.

I’m almost done editing my series. After a heart to heart talk with myself, I admitted I need to rewrite most of the ending. It’s not as heart-wrenching as I want it to be… what I have now isn’t worthy of half a million words. It probably won’t take too long. I’m just not happy with the last scene where they get together for good, although I thought it would be a good idea to end the whole thing with an epilogue so I’ve been writing that in my head for the past few nights while I’ve been trying to sleep. It’s not so I can add more words or tie up a very tiny loose end that I left open in book 2, but rather, I like when a book’s ending circles around to the beginning. I started the series with one couple and ended it with another couple, but I want to bring the first couple back and let them wrap it up. It will add a few days of writing and editing, but that’s okay. These books will be perfect the first time out, and I can’t say that about very many (none) of the books I’ve published.

As far as series go, I’ve talked before about having two books done of a different six book series, but I’ve been dragging my feet because writing four more books feels really daunting and I don’t want to do it. So, I thought rewriting parts of book one to eliminate the need for two of the books would be a lot easier than forcing myself to write all four. I don’t want the two I have to go to waste–they’re good stories. After I decided the amount of rewriting would be worth it, I was relieved and instead of working on my mafia books, I’m going to write a quick romantic suspense standalone and then work on those for a 2025/26 release. I want to write a standalone for something easy after all the work I’ll have put into this series. I’m burnt out, but I don’t want to not write, and since I have something partially plotted out, I thought I might as well. And also since I have a love/hate relationship scrolling through stock photos, I think I might already have a cover which will elevate some stress while I’m writing it. Things could change, but I like what I have. It was actually a little difficult to figure out a romantic suspense cover that didn’t have a couple on it (the same issue I had when I was working on A Heartache for Christmas‘s cover), but I didn’t want to deviate from the brand I have going. My covers all have a single man on them, most in suits, the only one who isn’t is Sawyer, but that’s a small-town romantic suspense as well, and sometimes my guys aren’t dressed in suits all the time.

So, I’m happy with what I’ve got scheduled for books in the coming 24 months or so, and the cover I created for the standalone is icing on the cake.

I don’t have much else going on. I mentioned my health in Thursday’s post so I won’t bother going over that again. Threads has been the filler I needed to let go of Twitter, and I haven’t been tempted to log in just to see what’s going on and I don’t miss having it on my phone. I have come to realize though, after engaging with some authors there and just generally scrolling, I’m in the minority concerning what authors believe in about 99.9% of the time. It’s not that I don’t care about my books, it’s that I don’t take my books as seriously as everyone else takes theirs.

What I don’t mind but seems like everyone else does:

I’ll give ARCs to whoever and don’t check up on them after the ARCs have been sent out. ARCs and forms confused me way before I joined Threads and I even wrote a blog post about it back in November. Authors on Threads take ARCs very seriously and I’m still kind of appallingly fascinated at some of the forms authors ask potential reviewers to fill out. I guess I’ll never be an ARC reader because I’ll never fill out a form for the privilege. I feel readers are doing me the favor, not the other way around, and I would never subject a reader to that. Ever. If you’re interested in that blog post, you can read it here: https://vaniamargene.com/2023/11/06/arc-forms-creating-a-review-team/

I don’t mind giving books away. I get a sense of loathing when we talk about giving books away, though I haven’t come across a thread that expressly addressed that subject (besides the hoops authors make their ARC reviewers go through). But the tone on Threads overall seems to suggest that authors want to be paid for each and every copy and they don’t understand or don’t want to understand the value of giving away free books. I put Faking Forever into a giant promo last December and gave away over 9,000 copies. Since the date I gave it way, that book has made $206.00 mostly in KU reads. Though that may be small potatoes, I haven’t done any other promo on it, so if someone asks me If I want 200 dollars, I say yes. Plus, I’m finding readers. Not the 9,000 people who downloaded my book because I know, just like I have started collecting free books, that a reader actually reading it is slim, but readers saw it, and I have 206 pieces of proof that they did.

Not to mention, I have a free book hanging out on my sister site, and overall, My Biggest Mistake has been downloaded over 1,000 times. I think that number may rise as a lot of my subscribers didn’t even bother to open their welcome email after they subscribed to my newsletter. Now it’s more easily accessible, so I’m thinking I’ll be giving away even more copies in the future.

I don’t care about pirates pirating my book. It’s going to happen whether you like it or not. The only crappy thing is Amazon shoots first and asks questions later, so I’m fully prepared for them to shut down my account at some point because my books are elsewhere, though not with my consent. It’s why I pay for an Alliance of Independent Authors membership. I won’t panic, I’ll just reach out to them and ask them to help me get my account back. I won’t even bother trying to take on Amazon alone. It will be futile and I’ve had enough mental health crises over my book business to last me for the rest of my life. Blasé? Maybe. But I tend not to worry about stuff I can’t control. Authors will watermark ARCs, change one word in their books to try to pinpoint where the pirated copies are coming from, blame being in KU. The fact is, your book can get pirated anywhere at anytime and pointing fingers and throwing out accusations is not the best way to handle this. You could inadvertently offend someone and honestly, it’s not worth playing Nancy Drew. It’s going to happen, so there’s point in being bitter.

I doubt I’ll ever put a PR box together. Ordering author copies, ordering bling, packaging it all up (gotta have a pretty box too) and putting it in the mail to a bookstragrammer who may or may not do anything with it sounds like something I don’t want to do even if I could afford it. I didn’t even know this was a thing–well, I knew it was a thing, but the number of bookstagrammers on Threads and that I have access to them surprised me. Like, if I asked if anyone wanted a billionaire book box there might be some that would actually say yes. You would have to enjoy that kind of thing to bother to do it because with the number of complaints on Threads, the ROI doesn’t seem to be there. Like a book that doesn’t sell but you’re proud of it anyway, you would definitely have to enjoy the process. It did make me think that now that I have more of a brand established I could order some business cards or bookmarks. Stickers, though, I’m not fan and have never put a sticker on my Mac or my Kindle cover–not even the cute Vellum flower I picked up at my last writer’s conference. Now that I have a real bookshelf, I ordered a few author copies of my books to have on hand, so business cards at least would make some sense. I’ll think on it and get back to you. Do you have business cards?

I don’t care about paper. Signings and having your books in bookstores is a big deal to a lot of authors, and I just couldn’t care less. One author was pushing her hardcover, and it was 35 dollars. I have to work two hours to afford a book like that. Readers who can afford to buy paper are not my target audience and I only offer paper as an alternative to a Kindle because some people can afford to buy paperbacks, but that is a very very small percentage of my readers. (I sold 64 paperbacks in 2023.) I think authors who push paperbacks don’t really understand that it’s a whole different audience of readers who have access to expendable cash. The economy is such that people are being priced out of their rentals, no one can afford to buy a house, and grocery prices have not dropped, even though COVID is “over.” You’ll have to decide if the glamour of having your book on a bookshelf is worth the hassle, because for me it is definitely not.

I try not to engage with posts I don’t agree with like the person who’s worried she’s losing readers because there’s 18 months between book two and three of her trilogy. Of course she’s going to lose readers. People don’t wait around that long. There’s a lot of content out there and there’s no reason for a reader to wait for you. If you push book three and let people know it’s finally published, you may be able to corral some of those readers back into the trilogy because they’ll want to see how it ends. But that takes money and a lot of social media posting, and it could have been avoided if she’d just saved up her books. I get people are impatient and no one wants to do that, so you take the pros and cons of whatever choice you make.

I don’t know if I can think of other things off the top of my head, but it’s safe to assume that I’m a square peg of an author trying to fit into a round hole of the writing community. Still, there’s a professionalism over there that I like that Twitter lacked and if you haven’t joined Threads, it’s not a bad place to scroll for book news.

I received an email the other day and the subject line was Vania Margene Rheault featured in Feedspot Top 100 Contemporary Book Blogs. I get stuff like this sometimes, especially to my other gmail accounts I don’t check very often and I usually discount it as spam. I opened it, and it was a legitimate email! It read:

Hi there,

My name is Anuj Agarwal, I’m the Founder of Feedspot.

I would like to personally congratulate you as your blog Vania Margene Rheault has been selected by our panelist as one of the Top 100 Contemporary Book Blogs on the web.

I personally give you a high-five and want to thank you for your contribution to this world. This is the most comprehensive list of Top 100 Contemporary Book Blogs on the internet and I’m honored to have you as part of this!

We’d be grateful if you can help us spread the word by briefly mentioning about the Top 100 Contemporary Book Blogs list in any of your upcoming post.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions.

Best,
Anuj

I’m flattered as this is the first recognition of my blog. If you go onto the site, https://blog.feedspot.com/contemporary_book_blogs/ you can scroll through the rest of them. I did and found some great blogs to follow… I’m in good company! So, thank you, Anuj, for the honor.

I guess that’s all I have for this week. I hope next week I can give you better progress report on my series. Things keep popping up during my days off that cut into my editing time, but I’m going to put my head down and plow through the rest of the month.

Until next time!

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Vania Margene Rheault

Independent Contemporary Romance Author & Blogger

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