Networking with the Right People at the Right Time

Posted on September 8, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,554 words
8 minutes read time

In my last blog post, I talked about the writing community and meeting and networking with the right, or wrong, people. I see this on Threads, even today, though not at the scope it was on Twitter say, eight years ago. Back then, there were, like I said, themed days to post your work, like #1linewed #2bittues and #fridaykiss (that has since been moved to Instagram). The #writingcommunity was a melting pot of genres and publishing levels. It was easy to get swept away by how “professional” everyone seemed with their websites and debut books. Talk was cheap and sounding like you knew what you were doing had more weight than actually knowing what you were doing. I’m not sure how many books I bought that had fabulous covers that just sounded blah inside. And of course, the number of followers topped everything, and someone with 30k followers interacting with you or retweeting a tweet was like Christmas morning.

It was easy to lose sight of the real reason (if you knew the reason at all) you should have been networking, and a realization like that takes years to come, if it ever does.

If I were to do it over again, I’d stay off Twitter and focus on Facebook groups. I was there, too, in groups like Bryan Cohen, Mark Dawson, and 20booksto50k. But those groups were like being on Twitter–a mishmash of genres. I’d definitely focus more on romance groups and getting to know those authors. Once I started publishing, I did do that a bit, and joined the Romance Writers of America, but I didn’t get involved to nearly the extent I should have. That brings me to where I am today. Not having very many romance author friends and not having the energy (or time) to fix it.

I sound like I’m all gloom and doom, regretting and maybe resenting the path I didn’t realize I was taking, but that’s not entirely true. There’s a lot of good that came out of it, but it doesn’t benefit me in the way I’d like it to now.

When I dove into the Do-It-Yourself part of indie publishing, I didn’t hold back because I love the entire process. The formatting, even back before Vellum existed and we were formatting our CreateSpace manuscripts in Word, and book cover design, also in Word before Canva was around. I bought a book on how to use WordPress and set up my own website. Then tools like Vellum and Canva did come into existence, and with the encouragement of my friend Aila, I started using Canva and learned how to make graphics and later, book covers with it. I remember I wanted to do my book cover for Wherever He Goes in Canva, but I wasn’t sure if it was possible. Up until then, I was doing them in Word with instructions that I found online somewhere, but I thought, A PDF is a PDF, so why not try? So, I did the same thing I was doing in Word but in Canva, and I actually made a very nice (for what I was capable of back then) cover. If you want a sample of what I was doing back in 2017, you can look here: https://vaniamargene.com/2017/03/14/your-books-back-cover/ (Also, yikes!)

I was very into the soup to nuts of indie-publishing like a lot of people were, and while I do think it set me back in some ways, there are some skills that I don’t regret nurturing like learning how to use WordPress so I can maintain my own blog, or learning how to use Vellum so can I re-edited and update back matter whenever I want. The Canva tutorial on how to make a full paperback cover wrap has helped thousands of people, and I never would have been able to write it if I hadn’t learned how to do it myself.

But leaning into nonfiction really wasn’t what I had in mind when I was first starting out. Actually, I’m not really sure what I was doing. I never really thought I’d be able to turn my books into a career, and didn’t know how to go about it anyway. It took many years to figure out that other authors weren’t readers, that your cover, title, and blurb are more important that you realize, and when you’re just starting out, your books aren’t going to be very good. Meaning, I really do think it takes a million words or more to find your voice and style and actually write books that sound good. I think the only way I could describe what I was doing is fucking around, but seriously. Seriously fucking around. While I had good ideas, (I still love the short story I wrote about a woman inheriting a huge mansion on the coast in Oregon and falling in love with its caretaker) we all know that good ideas do not build a readership.

Which is probably why I’m stalled now, because I’m still seriously fucking around. My books have gotten better since I first wrote to publish back in 2016 when I wrote On the Corner of 1700 Hamilton, but I’m still stuck in the same DIY pattern I was back then, doing my own covers, doing my own formatting, and doing my own editing. What was popular and “wow” worthy back then really isn’t so much now, but with the way things have shifted in the industry, it’s not so easy to fix.

That brings us back around to having not met and networked with the right people and forming those connections that I could have used to find trustworthy editors and cover designers that don’t cost a fortune and who won’t use AI. It’s not impossible to find those people now, but it is a lot harder. Editors who will charge you only to feed your book chapter by chapter into AI or ProWritingAid, or book cover designers who use AI and try to hide it. So, not only am I stuck in the DIY trenches, it would take a lot of work to climb out of it.

I mean, where I am isn’t bad. It’s not, especially when you see other authors who are doing the same thing, either out of trust issues or lacking the financial budget to hire out. If your book is mediocre and it’s floating in a sea of mediocre books, it’s not mediocre now, is it?

I think I lost the thread.

What I’m trying to say is, had I networked differently, I could have went down the professional path rather than the DIY path, and maybe I would be in a different place. I say maybe because I have improved a lot over the years, even just re-editing Rescue Me, Faking Forever, and A Heartache for Christmas has shown me that and improvement like that has to come from doing the work. But had I hired an editor and bought premade covers for my books instead of insisting on doing them myself, maybe I could have gotten here faster. I’m not sure.

I don’t know why I threw myself into the nonfiction side of indie-publishing (and giving advice when I had no right to be giving it). Maybe back then I thought blogging was a way to sell books, just like I thought networking with whoever would also sell books, but besides giving me joy because I’m helping people and giving me a way to voice my thoughts to someone who might get something out of them, it’s not doing anything for me professionally. I don’t plan on writing a nonfiction book–I thought about it for five minutes then realized it wasn’t for me–and I’ll never monetize this blog. I don’t have the heart for it and I’m not arrogant enough to think that my opinion and advice is worth a cup of coffee.

So, the way I see it is, I have two choices now that I know what I’m doing: I can go professional and network with romance authors, hire an editor instead of doing it myself, and buy covers that look better than what I’ve been making, or I can keep doing things on my own and hope that it’s good enough to eventually lift me to the next level. Networking alone won’t help so I have to decide what I want to do.

The decision is harder than it seems because the work I’ve been doing for myself has been fine compared to what’s out there. But “fine” rarely makes headlines, so if you’re in my situation where you’re doing what you can but still not where you want to be, be it networking or sales, you can choose a different path. It might be scary since the road you’re on is familiar and you already know all the twists and turns, but we all know finding success won’t be where you’re comfortable. That means networking with the right people and making your product shine, so when those opportunities do come, you’re ready to take them and make the most out of them.

Next week I’ll catch you up on what I’ve been doing and chat about some things that have been happening in the indie community.

Talk to you next week!

Friendships, Coworkers, and Cliques: Navigating the Author Communities

Posted on September 1, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,973 words
10 minutes read time

“In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends.”

– John Churton Collins

There has been a lot of talk about author cliques on Threads lately, and while I didn’t feel the need to contribute to those conversations, I do have a lot of thoughts about friendships that I’ve collected over the ten years I’ve been doing this. Not friendships. Thoughts. Though, I guess, maybe friendships too. Friendships are complicated, made even more so by expectations and reciprocation. Here’s a breakdown of what I think friendships, coworkers, and cliques are, and if you’ve been at this for a while, in the comments you can tell me if you agree or what you’d add to the conversation.

Indie Friends
When I first got into the writing community, I made lots of friends. That was back when I was writing my high fantasy series that will never see the light of day. Anyway, I thought, “I should join Twitter so once it’s ready, I’ll have readers.” It was a naïve way of thinking at best, but even back then I was aware that I would need some kind of marketing strategy once my books were released. I already had a Twitter account made from when I was in school for human resources and I changed the focus of my profile from HR connections to the writing community. There I made lots of friends, joined chats like #1linewed and #2bittues and even made my own chat called #smutchat. The tweets are still there if you search the hashtag. Anyway, so I got in with a group of people, some of whom I still talk to today, and life was good. We beta read for each other, retweeted each other’s tweets, and everyone supported my blog when I first started writing it.

Of course there were the usual troubles when it came to those friendships. Some of them became one-sided, some people dropped off because they stopped writing. (One of my friends even had to deactivate his Twitter account because a person he had grown close to started stalking him. Yikes!) Some people you just learn you don’t really mesh with and you stop talking to them or they stop talking to you. I definitely had my share of rocky relationships, some of which I’ve documented on this blog over the years, notably when you mix business with friendship: https://vaniamargene.com/2019/03/11/when-friends-turn-into-business-partners-sometimes-it-doesnt-work-out/

Some of the talk I’ve been seeing alluded to the idea that if you don’t have the “right” kinds of friends, they can’t/won’t help you propel your book business to the next level. I’ve reached out to a couple people here and there who I’ve met on Threads and they weren’t too interested even after posting they were looking for friends. It wasn’t until this morning in the shower that I realized it was because they probably took a look at my socials and sales and realized being friends with me wouldn’t get them anywhere. It was an “oh, shit” moment, but it didn’t hurt my feelings. If all they want to do is use me, I don’t need them as friends anyway.

When I was at my Twitter “peak,” I had a different kind of friendship experience. What I found out was that making friends on Twitter wasn’t the same as finding your readers, and some people I know still get caught in the trap of making author friends with the idea that those authors will buy their books. They confuse making friends and networking with marketing and that only ends in frustration.

The indie author friends I was making wrote all different kinds of genres, were happy to boost my work and support my blog and I reciprocated. Those times are gone and I haven’t replaced the real friends I lost. While I have made connections, I’ve come to realize those people are coworkers, and if you have a day job, you know, and hopefully not through trial and error, your coworkers aren’t your friends.

Coworkers
Coworkers are what people mean when they say you should be networking in your genre. Coworkers are going to be the connections that offer things like newsletter swaps, promo opportunities, anthology opportunities and more. They help you with ads, they might beta read for you or put you in touch with who they use. They help you find ARC readers and open the door to things like book conventions. They’re like Deb in they cubby next to you. She’s not your friend but she’s happy to tell you about what went on in the meeting you missed because you were sick.

What a lot of authors get confused is that these coworkers are not your friends. They don’t touch base on a daily basis. You don’t talk to them about your kids. They don’t text you privately or want to meet you in person if they happen to be in your area. We all know what friends are, and these people are not it. But, to have these kinds of coworkers, you also have to be pulling your own weight, meaning, your books are selling and you have your own opportunities and experiences to share. You do your share of the work in anthology compilations and book blasts, and you can do your share because you’ve put in the work to have a large newsletter, Facebook group, and reader base. You bring something to the table and you share the sides with the other authors who also have something to bring to the table.

When I see authors complain about not being invited into networking circles, I can take a look at what they’re doing and know right away why no one wants to work with them. They don’t have an author platform, they don’t have a newsletter. They don’t have a solid backlist that’s selling. They haven’t worked on an individual basis to get the results they need to get invited into the group. No one wants to do your work for you. I know that puts some authors in a quandary because they say they can’t get to that level without help, but you can make headway on your own with social media, ads, and publishing consistently and in one genre. Start smaller and network with authors who are at your level. Grow together and you’ll naturally expand your professional network.

On a smaller, more personal scale, maybe you know how to format and you format for others, either out of kindness or you charge a small fee that’s less than what a professional formatter would charge. Then you don’t hear from that person again until she needs another book formatted. I have quite a few acquaintances I’ve made because I offer help, they take it, and I don’t hear from them again until/unless they need something else. It was actually a surprise to realize they aren’t friends, they’re coworkers, but it’s helpful to know where the line is. Not everyone needs to be your friend. Maybe someday they’ll remember I helped them and pass along an opportunity, but I didn’t offer to help with the idea they would reciprocate. I wanted to help because editing, formatting, and designing covers keeps my skills sharp for when I need to work on my own books.

Unfortunately, I’m still living in a time when I was on Twitter and we all did happily for each other. I don’t think we can ever go back to the way things were and over the past couple of years I’ve been getting used to being an island. You can’t get jaded. If Deb brings peanut butter cookies to put in the breakroom and you have a peanut allergy, just remember your workplace isn’t where you should be making friends anyway.

Cliques
This brings us to cliques. I must not get out enough, because honestly, I haven’t had much exposure to cliques. What I have bumped into online is romance authors who have been writing and publishing for years, who are friends and have been for that same amount of time. They can appear as cliques because they have that history of friendship, but not only that, their careers grew successfully at the same time keeping them on the same playing field professionally. You can say that’s because they had each other’s help, but that’s not necessarily true. What you’re writing has to hit the market, your writing style has to resonate with readers. No number of friendships can help you do that.

When I think of cliques, I think of their members as unkind, and I haven’t met any romance authors that have been truly unkind to me. I used to listen to a romance marketing chat on Clubhouse (that they stopped because it was too much work to keep going) and the hosts were friends and seemed like they had been for years. All the speakers and anyone else who contributed were very nice and eager to share their knowledge and experiences. The same goes for the book blasts I’ve been a part of, and when I do those, I always make graphics to share on social media so others can use if they don’t have time to make their own and post the blast everywhere I can to pull my own weight.

Of course, I haven’t elevated myself to be coworkers or acquaintances of huge romance authors like LJ Shen or Melanie Harlow, but I haven’t wanted or needed to approach them, either. I’ve traded a comment here and there with authors like Lindsay Buroker, Zoe York, and Elana Johnson, and EL James actually responded to a comment I made on her post on Threads, and everyone is very nice. I don’t approach people wanting something because that’s never been who I am and I think the bigger the author is the stronger their BS radar is and they know if you’re just looking to use them.

So, I don’t think author cliques truly exist, not in the negative way some authors say they do because they’re resentful they can’t crack the code to be invited in.

And cracking the code to be invited in will only get harder as time goes on. I mean, let’s be honest here. No one wants to talk to you if you support the orange clown. No one will want to talk to you if you use AI to write or use AI for your covers. No one will want to talk to you if you don’t respect your peers and insist on leaving bad reviews for the books you’ve read. Authors are guarding their space more than ever before and because of that you’re in for a harder time proving yourself. That’s something I can totally understand. Our president is tearing this country apart and I don’t want to talk to anyone who supports him either.

The best thing you can do, in my opinion, is join Facebook groups in your genre and get to know people there. Making friends, good friends, will take time. Share resources, share experiences. Learn from the people you’re networking with and let those relationships grow. Oftentimes I’ve complained about feeling lonely, though that has gotten better as my health improved, and I know that I don’t do enough to expand my circle. I should be participating in romance groups, offering to do newsletter swaps with my small blog, beta read, and format if needed. But right now I’m juggling a few things and don’t have the energy for that. That is also something else you’ll have to take into consideration. How much time and energy do you have to nurture new relationships? Don’t take if you can’t give.

Next week I’ll talk about where I ended up when I started on that path of friending writers and authors who weren’t writing romance.

Hint: It’s not a bad place.

Talk to you next week!

When Dumbing Down Your Writing Isn’t Dumb

Posted on August 18, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,419 words
8 minutes read time

Pop Quiz!

When you stumble upon a word you don't know in a book, do you:

A) Look it up
B) Try to figure out what it means through the context of the sentence
C) Skim over it
D) Do not finish (DNF) the book because you think there will be more words you don't understand and no one has time for that

green background with grey letters

If you’ve kept up with what I’ve been doing lately, you’ll know that I’ve been re-editing some older work. I’ve said in the past you can’t go forward if you’re looking back, but sometimes the road to success isn’t a straight line and I’ve been happy with my decision to polish a couple of books that I published a few years ago.

What I’ve discovered is that I have/had a very pretentious way of writing, and when you’re writing commercial fiction, especially romance, that might not be a good thing. We’re told to write how we want to write, that readers will come back for our voice and style. But what if that style isn’t good? What if what sounds “natural” to you sounds like a dictionary and a thesaurus had a baby to your reader?

The average adult reading level in the United States is 7th to 8th grade according to The Literacy Project (https://www.sparxservices.org/blog/us-literacy-statistics-literacy-rate-average-reading-level), and that can impact how readers read your books. Readers don’t want to struggle to understand what your book is about, sift through complex words when something simpler would ~~suffice~~ do, or get bogged down in purple prose that doesn’t do anything to move the story forward.

That doesn’t mean every “big” word is bad, but it does mean that maybe using a “big” word when a simpler word would work just as well is the way to go. The problem is, making that conscious choice to swap out, say, adept for skilled seems like a cop out and maybe even ~~disingenuous~~ insincere if you have a big vocabulary and using those words is natural.

I certainly didn’t mean to bog down my books with words like “lambaste,” “derision,” and “ramifications” but those words were there in my head because, well, they just were. Unfortunately, too much of a good thing is bad, and thrown all together, A Heartache for Christmas sounds like I was trying too hard when really, I was writing what came instinctively.

But then we get into what would fit the character rather than what sounds easy. I write billionaire (for the most part) and that implies my MMCs are educated, sometimes disgustingly so (you don’t want to know how many degrees Rick Mercer has in Captivated by Her). They’re smart, they earned their money, and making them sound like a redneck who dropped out of school in sixth grade wouldn’t fit. So yeah, Sawyer might use words like “palpable” and “derision” but that’s part of who he is.

The trick is to make your characters sound like themselves while also staying true to your voice, but also keeping in mind that your reader just wants to have a good time reading your book.

Here are some of the sentences I found when I was re-editing A Heartache for Christmas and what I changed to make the sentences more relatable and easier to read.

Original: He was adept with the tow but he didn’t give off mechanic vibes.
Changed: He was skilled with the tow but he didn’t give off mechanic vibes.

Original: It goes against everything I am as a gentleman, as a decent person, to let McLeod berate Evie for attending the festival.
Changed: It goes against everything I am as a gentleman, as a decent person, to let McLeod chastise Evie for attending the festival.

Original: McLeod’s State Bank never would have worked with me on a payment arrangement.
Changed: McLeod’s State Bank never would have worked with me on a payment plan.

Original: Gray lambastes me for having the audacity to show my face at the festival, even when I try to defend myself.
Changed: Gray tears into me for coming to the festival, even when I try to defend myself.

Original: Alone in the quiet, the shakes set in, the ramifications of what Billy could have done to me if Sawyer hadn’t checked on me hitting me in the gut.
Changed: Alone in the quiet, the shakes set in, the reality of what Billy could have done to me if Sawyer hadn’t checked on me hitting me in the gut.

Original: I miss her and I should have invited her up to my room even if she would have declined.
Changed: I miss her and I should have invited her up to my room even if she would have said no.

I think you get the idea. Some aren’t so bad, like “arrangement” versus “plan” or “berates” versus “chastised.” You can say that maybe “chastised” is no better than “berates,” but when it comes to how familiar or common a word is or how conversational it sounds, choosing the one that sounds more relatable to readers will always be the best option. The thing is, the “best option” will vary by author to author and book to book.

So, I don’t think it’s necessarily dumbing own your prose or your language when you exchange one word or phrase for a simpler word or phrase. What you’re doing is:

Using clear, common words that almost everyone instantly understands.
Keeping emotional beats from getting buried in overly fancy phrasing.
Making the writing feel “invisible,” letting the story, not the language, have the attention.

I read this article by Shane Snow–I’ll link it at the bottom–and he says:

I did an informal poll of some friends while writing this post. Every one of them told me that they assumed that higher reading level meant better writing. We’re trained to think that in school. But data shows the opposite: lower reading level often correlates with commercial popularity and in many cases, how good we think a writer is.

He goes on to say,

We shouldn’t discount simple writing, but instead embrace it.

I think this is why we’re so hard on books that do well when we think they aren’t worthy. They’re written simply, letting story and emotions shine through, and as writers who are trying our best, we think that’s not good enough when to the average reader, it’s what they want and what makes a bestseller.

That’s not to say you can’t use “big” words, just use them sparingly because as with any spice in any dish, too much can ruin the flavor. I think that might be where I was at with the standalones I’ve been re-editing these past few weeks, especially Faking Forever. It’s nothing I thought to watch out for, and I did have a beta reader read A Heartache for Christmas and she didn’t say one thing about any words that sounded out of place.

As for what I’m going to do now, after discovering my ~~penchant for~~ love of words that fit but don’t fit, of course I’m going to be paranoid my other books sound like that. I spot-checked my proof of Loss and Damages and that came out fine as far as I could tell. Rescue Me is okay. Faking Forever and now A Heartache for Christmas will be okay. I’ll have to trust that my King’s Crossing serial sounds good because there’s nothing I want to do less than read those again. My rockstars are okay. I lightly re-edited them not long ago but I haven’t updated back matter or uploaded the new files in KDP. I’ll get around to that sometime. At this point, I’m going through what probably all authors go through, and that’s being obsessed with perfection. Well, maybe not that specifically, but I want my books to be the best they can be, and after the last few years of not feeling well and craft improvement just because I’ve been writing, I’m worried that they aren’t.

Like I said in my last blog post, I’m learning how to relax, but when it comes to “big” words, I’ll have to be conscious of using them because it’s just natural. I’m not bragging I have a big vocabulary, in fact, I’m probably pretty average compared to other writers when it comes to the words I know. Still, the words I use aren’t needed, at least, not as often I do. The trick will be to find a happy medium between my style and toning it down but still sounding like me.

Pop Quiz!

When you’re in the zone which word do you reach for?

Exacerbate
Aggravate
Worsen

That will be up to you, but I know which one I’ll use going forward . . . and it’s not the one I can’t spell.

Have a good week, everyone!

Shane Snow’s article: https://shanesnow.com/research/data-reveals-what-reading-level-you-should-write-at

Monday Musings: ARCs, Goodreads, and Writing While You’re Sick

Posted on August 11, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,906 words
10 minutes read time

I’ll tell you a little story. In our city, our Walmart is located in a poor neighborhood. I would imagine when they built it, they didn’t intend for that to happen, but as the city grew, it became a poor part of town. Since then, theft has increased. You can tell it’s increased because of the way they treat their customers. They have security walking around their store (I know who he is because I worked with him many many years ago when I was checker at K-Mart), they lock up everything that has value, from laundry detergent to pregnancy tests, and in the cosmetics department, you have to pay for anything you want before you leave. They don’t let you pay at the main checkout counters anymore.

They treat you like you’re going to rob the place the second you step foot in their store. And you know what? It sucks. It sucks being treated that way. I mean, I get it, they probably do lose thousands of dollars in product every year, and that will continue to happen as things get more expensive and companies don’t want to pay their employees.

The sad part is, I’ve seen authors treat their ARC readers this way. Changing one word in each copy to “catch” someone pirating, watermarking their copies, making them sign NDAs. Sometimes we forget that we need them–ARC readers don’t need us. Treating them like they’re guilty before they do anything is kind of, I don’t know. I left another Facebook group the other day because I got into a discussion with someone who was trying to prevent theft. At first she said her post was about ARC readers then she changed her story and said she was doing a giveaway on Instagram, mostly, I think, because I told her treating ARC readers like they’re guilty before they even do anything is nasty and unnecessary. No matter how you’re giving out copies of your book, treating readers like they’re going to steal from you will only make you look petty and mean. Your book will get pirated. The potential is there for it to get stolen, but the stories I hear of that happening? Other authors are doing the stealing, not plain old, every day readers who want to help you.

I’m glad I left that group, but I’m sure I’ll see it again. I don’t like being treated like I’m going to do something before I’ve done it. I don’t like being accused when I’m innocent. And neither does anyone else. If you feel that strongly about protecting your work, don’t give out ARCs. Don’t do giveaways and don’t publish because the second your book is on Amazon, it will get pirated.

And as Forrest Gump says, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

Once again I had to go through the wonderful process of contacting Goodreads to move Loss and Damages from my “fake” profile to my “official” one. I don’t understand how my “fake” profile isn’t allowed to exist, but it does, and every time I publish, I have to contact Goodreads and have them move my book. This time I contacted support rather than a Librarian and they actually took my “fake” profile down, so maybe the next time I publish a book it will move over correctly without me having to do anything. They were great about it and did it in a couple of hours. I should contact a Librarian and change some of my old covers too, but dealing with Goodreads is a necessary evil, and I try to do it as little as possible.

I’ve been re-editing some older titles, and I think I mentioned that in my last blog post. Since then I finished Faking Forever a couple days ago. Now I’m reading it over just because I made so many changes that I’m looking for mistakes in my edits.

I’m trying to think back to when I was writing that book, or Rescue Me for that matter. Most of my books I wrote between 2020 and 2024 were written while I wasn’t feeling well. I wasn’t myself, dealing with my lichen sclerosis when I didn’t know what it was, getting a hysterectomy that I’d find out later wouldn’t help and only cause me post-surgery issues, and breaking up with my fiancé who did nothing less than catfish me into thinking he was a decent human being. I look back at that time in my life, and I just wonder if those things didn’t effect how I wrote, because I have to say, Rescue Me didn’t sound too terrible, but Faking Forever sounded like shit. My word choices, my writing style, it all sucked, and I can really tell that I wasn’t in a good frame of mind. I just wasn’t.

When I was re-editing Faking Forever, I practically rewrote the whole thing. Not on a plot or character arc basis, but on a sentence and paragraph level. I took out over 1,000 words when I re-edited Rescue Me, and I took out almost the same in Faking Forever. It makes me sad because looking back, maybe I shouldn’t have been writing. Though, I don’t know what I would have done with myself if I hadn’t. Those four years I was undiagnosed, my doctors lying to me, prescribing treatments that wouldn’t help, I was in a really bad place mentally. I had anxiety. We were going through COVID and lockdown and I was trying to support my daughter who started tenth grade virtually.

I’m feeling better now. In 2024 I got a diagnosis. I stopped taking the medication that had side effects. I stop drinking the tap water that was making me nauseated and messing up my digestion. Most days now I don’t think about how I feel physically. I can push what’s left into a corner of my brain and ignore it. But in doing so, that leaves my mind open to a lot of other things, and I can see in my writing how stressed out I was.

This makes me feel horrible, because in 2020 I started my pen name in an effort to do everything “right.” I wanted to turn my books into a career, but I sabotaged myself and starting a pen name or trying to do any kind of “real” work not feeling well only backfired. I have a lot of books out. My Lost & Found Trilogy. My Cedar Hill Duet. Those are the first books I published. Since I published them, I’ve edited them, but I edited them when I still wasn’t feeling well, and well, unless I read them again, I have no idea how they would sound to me now.

I can safely say that my other books are okay. I just reread my rockstars and I like how they sound (except for a couple of typos here and there that are normal). I’m lucky I did the final sweeps of my King’s Crossing serial when I was feeling good. That would have been a monster of a project to re-edit and I’m confident I don’t have to do that. Rescue Me and Faking Forever are fixed, or close to it. I’ll edit A Heartache for Christmas after I upload new files to KDP for Faking Forever, just in time for the holiday push this year. Then, maybe I can feel in a good enough place to write new work. I felt good writing Wicked Games earlier this year. I edited Loss and Damages (coming out next month) when I was feeling good.

Where does this leave me? I’m cleaning up my house, literally and figuratively, but there’s a lot of time gone by. I don’t want to say wasted. I can’t. Writing was there for me when my world was pretty much falling part, for lack of a better way to describe it, but I don’t want to sound melodramatic either. I can write new books knowing I’m giving my best to the story and the characters and nothing is holding me back or distracting me.

A friend told me to give myself grace. That if my writing is better today it’s not only because I’m feeling better but because I’ve put a lot of words on the page. That might be true. I know I learned over the past year to spot some writing tics that I’ve been able to avoid in newer work. I’ve learned to relax, not only just to enjoy the writing, but my writing style and my voice. Who cares if I use “get” or “put” or “takes” or a little telling slips in there sometimes? My writing sounds stilted because I was trying to avoid garbage words, and honestly, with the books out there that are selling like ice cream cones in 90 degree weather, you’re better off just saying “fuck it” and write in a freer manner than trying to conform to rules that will only make you sound like cardboard.

But this also circles around to my not having an editor. I’ve broken probably one of the most important rules in publishing. Not even just indie, but publishing in general. There are a lot reasons why I haven’t. I mean, I used to, back when I first started, but my productivity was so much that I would never have been able to afford one for every single book anyway. And I’ve had this argument with myself and others before: an editor can’t teach you how to write. They can only make better what you’ve given them, and if you give them garbage, you only get better garbage when they’re done.

Likely, an editor wouldn’t have been able to do much with Faking Forever. It was my voice, my style as a whole, that had problems. Fox’s and Posey’s character arcs are solid. The plot is fine. It just read like crap and I’m not sure what an editor could have done. Marked every sentence and suggested I rewrite it? And even if that had happened, I’m not sure I could have. Not how I was feeling.

So, I guess the best thing I can do is move on. Write more, enjoy the process now that I can. Celebrate my improved health. Go back if I feel like it, and I probably will at some point. Re-edit my Lost & Found trilogy and my Cedar Hill duet. Those would be the last books I’d need and then I could say all my books are okay. But I don’t want to be re-editing forever either. I’d like to write something new, but I’m going with my instincts and right now after getting Faking Forever out of the way, giving A Heartache for Christmas one final read will make me feel better. I like Evie and Sawyer anyway, so going back won’t be a hardship. I’ve read bits and pieces since I published them and I already know that book doesn’t sound like Faking Forever did. Maybe I was in a particularly nasty frame of mind when I wrote Faking Forever, I don’t know. All I can do is take the good from that time in my life and leave the bad.

I’m still getting used to the restructuring my work did last week. Only time will tell if it will effect how often I can blog, but I love sharing bits of my life and news with you so I’ll do my best not to let it impact me too much.

Have a good week, everyone, and I’ll chat with you later for sure.

Monday Author Update

Posted on August 4, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

2,052 words
11 minutes read time

wooden background with pink flowers. text says, monday author update...also, hello august!

I don’t have a lot going on, though I’m keeping busy.

For the past two months I’ve been working on re-editing a couple of my older titles. Rescue Me was re-edited from cover to cover. I updated the copyright page, back matter, and About Me page. (It was nice to add Pim to our family!) Then I decided to do Faking Forever, and that book has been taking a bit of time. Like, I don’t know how I was writing, but man, maybe I had stick shoved up my ass. All I can say is, this editing pass will definitely make the book sound better. More relaxed, more conversational. It’s a good story. Too bad pretentious writing kept it from shining because it’s nothing I would have wanted to read.

Those two projects have taken me longer than I’d like, editing practically sentence by sentence, but that’s okay. I think I’m still fighting a little burnout from getting my King’s Crossing serial out there. That wrapped up five years’ worth of work, and I might still be coming down from the adrenaline high. But, putting out Loss and Damages was hectic in its own way, so working on a couple of books that just need some polish has been a nice break.

I uploaded Rescue Me‘s updated files to KDP without an issue and did the same on IngramSpark. IngramSpark took three days to send me a new cover template for the changes I had to make to the spine (they don’t have the 10-page grace that KDP has, so I had to tweak my cover to reflect the 1500 words I took out of the book), so if you need to update to IngramSpark, use the Lightning Source template generator instead. It’s the same template and they sent it to my email in a couple of seconds. I even went so far as to swap out the links in my Canva tutorial. I’m one of the most patient people I know, and even I wouldn’t wait three days for a template. I also scheduled Loss and Damages on Amazon. They put the ebook’s preorder up in just a couple of hours and they scheduled the paperback without asking for copyright proof. I’m always a little on edge dealing with them, but this was smooth, so I’m thanking whoever for that.

I ran a Facebook ad for my Loss and Damages ARCs, and among my newsletter, a boosted Instagram post, and the FB ad, I was able to giveaway 110 copies. I sent them out on good faith, not asking them to fill out a form or give me their email address, and I just hope that next month they show up and post their reviews. My Booksprout campaign did okay, and I gave away 20 out of 25 copies available. I’ve already gotten some good feedback, a kind soul posting on my author website in the comments of one of my blog posts. I was a little hesitant about this book, but I think I was just too close to it and I hope my lingering doubts are unfounded.

I changed the header on my FB reader group page and also my author website, but Facebook flagged my page for sexual content and I had to change the banner and delete it off my timeline. I think that fixed it, since it says there are no violations on my page now, but Facebook took away the privilege of being recommended, not that that matters too much. I only post anyway so my page doesn’t look empty when I run ads off it. But, it was a reminder that someone is always watching what you do so if you’re depending on something, it’s best to keep your nose clean or not get too attached. They’ve made a lot of changes anyway, letting their AI tools take over more and more of the targeting and someone in an ads group I’m in on Facebook theorizes that their ads will be all but useless coming as soon as next year. They want the click money, you want the click-through and the sales, and those aren’t always the same. I might write a different blog post on the subject, but I wouldn’t be surprised if authors stop using Facebook ads entirely if we lose our ability to choose our target audience.

In other news, I decided to change what I’m going to work on next. It’s not a secret that I’ve been struggling to reconcile how much better I’ve been feeling with where I am in my book business. I want to lighten up and find some balance while not feeling guilty and thinking everyone is going to forget about me, and I thought maybe going back to writing 3rd person when times were simpler and I was having more fun would be the answer. But whenever I started thinking about the book I have in mind, all the scenes were still in first person. I’m afraid after writing 15+ books in it, I won’t be able to shake it that easily, and well, all my third person books have been stagnating so there’s not a lot of sense adding to the backlist.

So, all that to say is, writing another standalone feels like a better fit than starting my hockey duet, and since I can’t get first person present dual POV out of my head, I’ll write it in that and put it under my initials instead of my full name. I haven’t figured out an occupation for him yet, but I guess it’s safe to assume that he’ll have money. He may not be billionaire status, but I’m not sure if it really matters at this point. It will be a small-town second chance, and I already have a tentative cover for it. The story is about a man who has to go back to his hometown because his grandma who raised him is dying. There he finds out the real reason his high school sweetheart broke up with him after high school graduation. Then I’ll have published (?) written three standalones in a row, so my hockey duet will mix it up. I’m trying not to think of timelines because I don’t want my books to be like that anymore. I understand that consistency is key to building a loyal audience and I have Wicked Games almost ready to go so that will give me extra time to write.

The problem is, I don’t want to publish as I write. I think it puts a lot of pressure on authors to write faster because it feels like people are waiting for the next book (whether that’s true or not). There’s a perceived expectation, and I don’t want to feel like that. I see others experience it, like they’re taking too long to write the next thing, and that’s a bad place for mental health. On the other hand, I really don’t want to feel like my books are just products I have to dress up and put on a shelf. I would like to find a happy medium between writing the next book but knowing I have my ducks in a row for the readers who are waiting for my next release. I think one of the best ways I can do that is put more time between releases. I’ll put out Loss and Damages in September, then maybe not even worry about publishing again until September of 2026. Being I already have Wicked Games almost done–it just needs a couple more editing sweeps, a blurb written, then formatting–that would give me plenty of time to write and not feel stressed out. I can take a page out of traditional publishing’s playbook and completely relax my publishing schedule.

How that would go over, I have no idea. And to who? Me? I’ll still be working on what I love, so maybe it won’t affect me that much, but I don’t have a real reader base to know if readers would get annoyed with me or not. As far as I know, and this is just an observation, not a pity grab, I don’t have a core set of fans. No one that interacts me with on a regular basis on my FB author page, maybe some people who open all my newsletters, but I haven’t gotten any new subscribers to my blog in a long time. So I have a feeling I’m the kind of author that readers just stumble upon from one of my Amazon ads or a Freebooksy promo spot, read the book they found, then move on. That’s not bad. It just doesn’t make for a strong, lucrative career. So would slowing down to a book a year slow my royalties and visibility as well? That might be something I won’t know until I do it.

Anyway, as much as I was excited to start my hockey duet, I think I’ll wait on that for a bit. If anything, it will give me more time to write them without feeling like I’m falling behind.

Otherwise things are going so-so. Our apartment complex was sold and now we have a new property management. Only time will tell if they’re okay to work with or worse than what we had before. I also found out the same day that our workforce at my day job was reduced which always gives me a wiggly feeling in my stomach because the next set of terminations could include me. Somehow I dodged this round, but I don’t think that will happen forever. Sometimes I feel like getting pushed out is what I need to find better life satisfaction all around, but then it would be nice if I was smart enough to leave on my own so I won’t have the panic that comes with being fired with no notice. So, I guess time will tell then too, but of course I couldn’t help but feel that it would have been nice if I could’ve turned my books into some kind of a career so I could quit if I wanted to or at least had a safety net. I’ll just have to keep buying lottery tickets. I probably have a better chance of winning than writing a bestseller.

So, you know, I still have stuff going on but I’m slowing down and doing things I neglected while I wasn’t feeling well. I’ve been cleaning out closets and going through clothes. Our front closet was a mess and I got rid of about ten pairs of shoes and five or six hoods that came off my kids’ winter coats when they were small. I had a million string bags from when I was running races, and donating some of that felt good. I still get an itchy feeling, like I’m not working fast enough, I’m not doing enough, but I know that’s just a phantom feeling of hustle culture and trying to make a mark in an industry that’s saturated. I’ll have to remind myself, often, that what I’m doing is enough and that it’s okay to pay attention to other areas of my life, even if that’s just resting after a long shift at my day job.

Besides that, everything is okay. I’m not online much because everyone is so nasty, from people making fun of Audra Winter and her 6k preorders for a book that needed editing to what the current administration is doing. Scrolling on Facebook is terrible, it’s just AI images and commentary written by ChatGPT. Nothing feels real anymore, and I don’t know if it’s me or what, but when I open up my FreeBooksy, BargainBooksy, Red Feather Romance, and Fussy Librarian promo newsletters, the covers have gotten terrible. It’s such a shame because they used to be decent places to find new readers but I really don’t want my book to be sandwiched between two covers that look like Photoshop vomit. I don’t agree with gatekeeping, but the quality of those newsletters aren’t what they used to be. I’d like to know what their open and click-through rates are.

I think that’s about all I have for today, but that’s enough. I’ll talk to you next week. Enjoy the last month of summer!

Three Things I’ve Stopped Doing (and Three Things I Always Will)

Posted on July 28, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

2,645 words
14 minutes read time

Things change in indie publishing. Some quickly, like Amazon guidelines, and some take years to shift, like marketing trends. I’ve been in this game for a bit now, longer than a lot of people I met when I first started out, but shorter than some of the tried and trues I knew who were doing this for years already when I first created my Twitter account.

I have found the longer you stay in the game, the more data you’re going to collect (if you’re smart and keep track). What works, what doesn’t. What did but doesn’t anymore. There are some basic things that will always have merit like publishing consistently, having a website, and, in most cases, not genre-hopping if you want to build an audience. But there are some things that just don’t work anymore, like just simply publishing and watching the royalties roll in as they did during the Kindle goldrush days.

So, I thought I’d share the three things I’ll always do and three things I stopped doing. As the years go by and I hang in there, this list might change, but these are the conclusions I’ve drawn so far since I published my first book in 2016.

Three things I’ll always do in my publishing business:

Finish a duet/trilogy/series before release. I’ve blogged about this a few times, as for most authors this is a Catch-22. Some readers now won’t read until a series is done and they can binge, but an author is reluctant to write more unless they see interest in the first book. What will always convince to me to finish is the fact that if your series is never done, it will never get the readers it could if it was finished. Books don’t expire. In the digital landscape they can sit on a virtual bookshelf for decades. Indies make money on older titles all the time, but you are ensuring that you won’t if you don’t finish. My reasons go beyond the money, even beyond author courtesy and reader habits. I finish out of a sense of integrity for myself and my work. I mean, I don’t publish as I go because I have anxiety over consistency issues that I couldn’t fix if my books were already out in the world. I’m not that good of a writer, so I need to be able to go back and double-check until I’m satisfied. But I also just couldn’t walk away from a world and characters I created. I loved them or wouldn’t have created them in the first place. I’ll always stay true to that creative spark and finish what I start.

Marketing in a way that’s sustainable to me without feeling guilty. That means letting go of the idea I need to be on social media. I don’t like thinking of a hook or a theme and making a graphic and posting. I don’t want to make videos for TikTok even if I have gotten better at it and it doesn’t take me that long. I still post every once in a while so if a reader stumbles upon my FB author page or my IG profile I look like I’m still alive, but otherwise, the constant advice that I need to be posting all the time I will happily ignore. The fact is, a lot of authors don’t have the money or don’t want to spend the money on marketing. I understand that, but paying for ads and for newsletters like Freebooksy and Fussy Librarian is my way of reaching readers without worrying about algorithms or coming up with content and the best way to present it. If I run an FB ad, that’s my limit, since you do need a hook and a graphic that will make people click.

I understand that in a perfect world, an author will use both paid and free tools to market effectively. But when mental health comes in, not to mention time and finances, each author has to make the best choices for them. Even if that’s not posting on socials, not paying for marketing tools, and only joining in a free, author-driven book blast once a year. You have to take a look at what results those methods are bringing in and if you’re okay with that. After a lot of soul-searching, I am okay with breaking even or losing money. I didn’t start publishing to become rich and famous, and that’s okay because I never will be. (I still play the PowerBall sometimes though.)

I will always buy my own ISBNs. This is kind of a cheat, because I already made this decision, and four years ago I bought a pack of 100–after I had already bought a pack of ten and went through them. It cost as much as my rent (at the time–my rent has gone up considerably since then) and I was sweating bullets, but I charged it and paid it off after a few months. I have been called privileged for being able to do that, and you might think I’m privileged to be able to afford ads and paid promos, too. I don’t feel privileged, living paycheck to paycheck, depending on the rent money my kids give me every month, and I still have to charge bigger purchases, like the new mattress I had to buy a few months ago for my back pain. I have a small budget for ads and don’t pay myself a wage out of my royalties. Every penny I make on book sales gets put back into my ~~business~~ hobby. I think that’s another reason authors are hesitant to pay for things like ISBNs and ads. They don’t always make their money back because they don’t write to market or their covers are bad, but I have never seen any industry besides indie publishing where people think they can start a business and not spend any money.

Not everyone will agree that buying ISBNs is a valid expense, and that’s okay. Amazon may not be around forever and neither may IngramSpark, though chances are good they’ll still be here in my lifetime at least. But, I wanted to protect my work under numbers that I paid for and now I’m the publisher on record for my titles. That means a lot to me. I protect both my ebooks and my paperbacks, even when the general consensus is you don’t need an ISBN for your ebooks. I still have quite a few numbers left, even using two a title, and well, I don’t think I’ll need to buy anymore. Obviously, buying ISBNs is a personal business decision but I have never regretted mine.

Bonus Entry:

I will always be a member of ALLi. This is something that I thought of last minute, but I’ll always be a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors. As someone running a business, I think it’s important to be part of an organization that will have your back. I mostly joined so I would have help if Amazon ever closed my account. There are a lot of other benefits too, like discount codes on formatting and publishing services, and I save a little every now and then if I have to update a file at IngramSpark. While it seems like a waste of money on the outside, paying for something that you don’t use (like an old gym membership that’s on autopay) it will be there whenever I need it and in these days of scammers and thieves, having some who’s in your corner is worth more than what they charge for a yearly membership.

Three things I have stopped doing since I started publishing:

Building and sending out a newsletter. Last year when MailerLite screwed me over when I was trying to make my newsletter compliant, I said “fuck it” and shut my newsletter down. I didn’t want to search for another newsletter aggregator and I exported my listed and imported it into my author website. I decide I would turn my newsletter into a public blog, and so far, things have been going okay.

There are a lot of disadvantages to this, to be sure. I can’t offer “bonus content” because what I post goes to everyone. Segregation of an email list isn’t possible on WordPress, nor is culling my subscribers. They have to opt out or my list is stuck with them. I can still force people to give me their emails if they want my reader magnet, but I would have to pay for that privilege on Bookfunnel and that’s not where I want to put my money right now.

So, as far as newsletters go, my blog is still sent out in email form but posted on my site and it will show up in the WordPress reader. People might think I’m crazy for giving away a book without strings, but what’s a book? I can always write another one. Kind of like when your hair stylist does a crappy job. Your hair will grow back. Eventually. Books are a dime a dozen and My Biggest Mistake has served me well. I’ve given away over a thousand copies, and because the back matter in all my books advertises this free book on my website, I’m afraid I’ve trapped myself into giving it away forever. My only ask is you subscribe to my blog, but that rarely happens. Still, I prefer the laid-back approach I’ve adopted since I’ve been working on not taking my books so seriously. I’ve given myself permission to relax, especially in the evenings after a full day. I’ve started watching Lucifer, because, you know. Tom Ellis.

This is one of those things that may change, but I’m not sure what would prompt me to move my list again. I like what I’m doing, and because I’m comfortable with WordPress, maintaining it isn’t a nightmare. In fact, I just refreshed the header, colors, and font on my author page. I hadn’t since I set it up and it looks nice. If you want to take a look around, you can find it here: vmrheault.com.

I’m getting rid of the hard back matter sell. A long time ago in a romance marketing room on Clubhouse, I heard the advice to do the “hard sell” right after the last paragraph of your book. There were all these little caveats, like you couldn’t even use a spacer or a hard enter because that would “force” the content on to the next “page” on an ereader. It was advised to put your call to action (CTA) practically right after the last period, and I did start doing that along with many many many authors. When I look back at my older books now, I hate it. I hate it, hate it, hate it, and I’ve been going through and getting rid of it. Why? Because after I have just read an amazing book, I want to sit with the happy ending, I want to sit with the characters who touched my heart. I don’t want to be yelled at to join a mailing list or to buy another book. So, while I was re-editing Rescue Me, I got rid the immediate CTA to go to my website. (I’ve always pointed people to my website and not a landing page, and that saved me a ton of headache when I stopped using MailerLite.) I didn’t get rid of it completely, but it’s on its own page now. Ebooks are flowable and don’t have pages, but I think a reader has to “flip” to see what else is in the back of the book after the content ends. I’m doing Faking Forever now, and along with updating my list of books, I’m also getting rid of the hard sell. I didn’t it do it on my new releases and that is a trend I’ll stick with. If readers loved your books they will find a way to stay in touch. Like moving my newsletter to my blog and cutting back on the number of books I’m publishing every year, I’m just going to ease up and stop trying so hard. Because you know what? It didn’t do that much anyway.

I’m not adding subtitles on my ebooks. That was another really popular thing to do, and I even wrote a blog post about it. I guess this goes along with the hard sell, and I’m not going to add subtitles to my ebooks anymore. I’m going to start letting my cover, title, and blurb speak for itself, and make sure my categories and keywords I choose when publishing do the heavy lifting. Adding a subtitle to your books was a very trendy thing to do to drive discoverability, and you may think that with market saturation that not doing it anymore might be going backward. But, Amazon doesn’t like it, either, and honestly, now I think shoving mini-tropes into a subtitle just looks desperate and ridiculous. So, as I update my books, along with taking out the hard CTA at the end, I’m going to be taking off the subtitles. It will make my buy-pages look cleaner. Am I telling you not to do it? No. Unless you really do want to be careful around Amazon, then maybe I would rethink that, but if you like to take chances and want to pack your subtitle full of mini-tropes, then you should still do what you want to do. This is the new and improved relaxed version, remember?

Bonus Entry:

I won’t ever use an illustrated cover. Obviously I was thinking about my hockey novels and the kind of covers I wanted to put on them. I don’t fault anyone for using an illustrated cover but I have just come to realize those are not for me. I understand the reasons why authors turn to them. There’s more of a selection when scrolling through vector art than there is real stock models and if you’re one to go with the trends, you don’t want to feel left out and think you could be leaving readers on the table. But at this point, illustrated covers would be at odds with the brand I’ve built for myself over the years, and if I can find what I need and there are still real people on the kinds of books I’m writing, then I don’t see any reason to change. I also have never, and probably will never, write a story light-hearted enough where an illustrated cover would fit, so instead of moaning about that, I’ll lean into my strengths and keep putting hot, sexy men on my covers.

When it comes to indie publishing, or just publishing in general, the ability to pivot and be flexible is probably one of the biggest assets you can have. Things change at a snail’s pace until all of a sudden everyone is talking about it and doing it a different way. What’s especially interesting is when things used to be the standard (like subtitles on ebooks) and that changes to something that no one does anymore.

I have extreme FOMO, I really do, but this year I have managed to brush a lot of that aside, for the most part because I think I know everything there is to know and there isn’t going to be a magic piece of advice that will push me to the next level. And that’s okay. Accepting that is actually freeing. I can do what I want, write what I want, and be happy with it. After the few years I’ve had, that is a really great place to be.

Next week I’ll give you a rundown on what I’ve been doing. July is almost gone, y’all. I hope you’re making the best of what’s left of summer.

See you next week!

The Evolution of the Romance Genre

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

1,663 words
9 minutes read time

beige background. a flower in its growing cycle dirt, sprout, stem, bloom. red flowers, green stem, white pot. text says, The Evolution of the Romance Genre

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a kid.

That’s probably not a surprise to anyone who is also a writer, and many of us can say we’ve been writing stories since we learned how to hold a crayon. When I was in high school, I devoured Harlequin Temptations and Desires, finding them at garage sales, the library, and shoplifting them from Pamida. I got caught and my dad made me talk to the manager about how stealing was bad, but I was a kid who loved to read and was a kleptomaniac at heart and well, it didn’t stop me. That’s neither here nor there, but one night, I remember holding a book and thinking, I want to be in charge of it all. The cover, the blurb. All of it. What I didn’t realize back then is I was describing what would eventually become indie publishing. So, yeah. I am in charge of all of it. Down to where the numbers appear on the page.

That was thirty-five years ago or so, and I didn’t understand tropes. I chose books based off the blurb, if I thought I would enjoy the story. In fact, I don’t think I really understood tropes at all until I was assigned the difficult task of marketing my own books. It was through listening to romance marketing talks, webinars, and podcasts where I learned tropes are what sell your books. That was also a difficult realization for me because, like most writers, I just wrote what I wanted to write. My first trilogy was written without tropes in mind–I just made up a group of friends who lived in a fake town, gave them some trouble, and forced them to fall in love while navigating those troubles.

I don’t remember the precise “Ah-ha” moment I had regarding tropes, but I must have had it at some point because my next three standalones were all trope-specific–enemies to lovers, age-gap, and close proximity. Then I veered off again with my Rocky Point series and just wrote whatever I wanted, and if a trope was baked in, like second chance, yay for me.

So you can imagine my confusion when, after seven years of publishing, I realized, yet again, romance was becoming even further divided than just tropes and that I would never be a successful indie author writing “contemporary romance” because romance didn’t work like that anymore.

Indies were changing the game.

There’s an interesting interview that Nora Roberts did not long ago with the Associated Press, and she was talking about her career in romance. She’s written over 250 books and has seen firsthand how the romance genre has evolved, going so far to even say, “My roots are in romance and I have a lot of respect. But I don’t write romance anymore. I do write relationships.”

AP: Speaking of the sex, that’s a good transition to romance as a genre. It has evolved a lot in the last couple of years. Where do you see yourself in the pantheon of that genre?

Roberts: I don’t at all. My roots are in romance and I have a lot of respect. But I don’t write romance anymore. I do write relationships.

I’ve been writing for a really long time now, and the romance genre evolves and it changes. And it did when I was working in it, and it just got to a point where I didn’t want to go where it was evolving. I wanted to go in a different direction. So my roots and foundation are there, and gratitude. But that’s not what I’m doing now.

That’s a great way to look at it . . . if you’re Nora Roberts and not a nameless, faceless author trying to find readers in market so saturated it’s tempting to close your laptop and never look back. She has her audience and has built it over years of publishing. So where does that leave the rest of us?

There are indie publishing “rules” and one of the biggest rules of them all is to never genre-hop. There’s some logic in that–it’s hard enough to market your books when you’re writing in just one genre, never mind trying to reach readers in two or three. But when you decide to write romance, that rule is split down even further. Choose a subgenre, and there are plenty:

screenshot of KDP's romance subcategories and subgenres

subcategories include historical romance, holidays, LGBTQ+, paranormal and romantic suspense

subgenres include:
Action & Adventure
Adaptations
Alpha Male
Amish
Billionaires & Millionaires
Black & African American
Clean & WholesomeLater in Life
Love Triangle
Mafia Romance
Medical
History
Multicultural and Interracial
New Adult and College Romance
Police
Polymory
Rockstar Romance
Romantasy
Romantic Comedy
Science Fiction
Small Town Romance
Sports
Time Trave
Western and Frontier
Workplace Romance
Collections & Anthologies
Contemporary Enemies to Lovers
Erotica
Firefighters
General
Gothic
Hispanic & Latino
Indigenous

This is the screenshot of romance subgenres you can choose when you publish on KDP. They have narrowed them down so much you can pick something like Love Triangle or Workplace Romance. Ten years ago we didn’t have those choices, and it makes me wonder if they’re helping or hurting.

How niching down into a subgenre can help:

You have a built-in audience. You know before you write you’re going to have readers who want to read your books.
You can build your brand easier. Instead of saying you’re a “multi-genre author” and trying to turn your brand into something for everyone (which never works well and is expensive to market, too) you can say “Mafia romance author” and those readers will know they can plow through your entire backlist and be happy.
It’s easier to market. Just being able to choose your subgenre category and using the appropriate keywords will help immensely when it comes to creating ads. You can also partner with other authors who write that subgenre and share audiences.
Better discoverability. It’s a lot easier for a reader to recommend a hot new Small Town romance series than a general romance.

Cons to only writing one thing:

You might get bored. So far, I haven’t felt too burnt out writing Billionaire Romance, but what saved me was playing with tropes and adding in a dash of Romantic Suspense. Still, there’s not a lot of wiggle room when you choose something like Motorcycle Club. There’s a solid set of exceptions you have to meet to keep readers of that subgenre happy and not a lot of leeway to mix things up.
Your loyal readers won’t follow you. I’m fully aware that readers who liked my Billionaire stuff might not have read my Rockstar trilogy, and the readers who stumbled upon my Rockstars may not have wanted to read anything else in my backlist.
Your chosen niche might get saturated. Hockey is hot right now, and those who got in on the ground floor might be annoyed that suddenly the market is flooded. A while back Reverse Harem, or Why Choose as we have to call it now, went through the same popularity contest. You may have to pivot when that happens, and it might be too much work to start over.
Branding fatigue. All my covers look the same, though I actually don’t mind because with my limited skill set when it comes to graphic design and software, it’s easy for me to meet genre expectations but still keep my books and series separate and distinguishable from one another. But, I’m also trapped now because I put single men on the covers of my books and after sixteen books, a couple all of a sudden would look very out of place. Also, unless you can afford to be flexible, eventually you might use up all the hot men that are available on a stock site like DepositPhotos, trapping you even more.

So, what does all this even mean? Subgenres aren’t going to go away, in fact, chances are good KDP will add even more as time goes on, but I know from just my limited experience that niching down does help whether we want to admit it or not. It helps marketing and branding, for sure, and in turn it doesn’t take so much work to find readers. Anyone who looks at my Amazon author page knows exactly what they’re going to get, even if I do happen to throw in a rockstar or hockey player.

That doesn’t mean I’m always going to want to write billionaires, if even, you know, I’ve downgraded my billionaire status to simply, “Men with money.”

And what does that mean for romance? Readers aren’t picking romances off the Pamida shelves and deciding on which ones to stuff into their purses. They search online marketplaces like Amazon and Kobo by the tropes or subgenres they like, hope the cover catches their eye, then skim the blurb, looking to see if the description lives up to the cover. Subgenres have changed the way readers find books and I don’t know what we can do to combat that.

Writing what you want when you want in a time where indies niche down and produce six books a year is a tough act to follow and not everyone wants to. Some are steadfast in the idea that they’ll do their own thing, and it’s an idea that I keep circling around now that I’ve tried the other way and failed. I mean, to be clear, pivoting and writing Billionaire romance did boost my visibility and sales. Yes, it really did, but it wasn’t a magic bullet to a large readership, either, and in my case, I’m exploring other options to keep my joy.

I don’t know what the answer is. Maybe there is no answer because there’s not really a question. I just find it interesting how indies have shaped romance, even to the point where Nora Roberts has said, “Good luck.”

I can tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to keep writing the books I want. I like writing “Men with money” or I wouldn’t keep doing it, but I can play with tropes and different subgenres like Romantic Suspense. I can explore themes of mental health, friendships, and found family. Because the market is going to keep evolving and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.

I’m going to write relationships, and if you want to grab one off a pirate site, go for it. But be careful. Pamida’s manager wasn’t very nice.

Splitting Your Author Life in Two: Readers vs. Writers

Posted on June 23, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

white background. black piece of torn paper. text says in black and white, splitting your author platform.

One of the biggest mistakes authors can make is trying to talk to everyone from the same place. Back when I first started publishing and writing my blog, I did this, and it actually took me years to figure out that not all readers are created equal. If you don’t know what I mean, let me explain.

It may not feel like it, but once you publish, your author life is suddenly split in two. You have your author pals who support you, maybe read your books (and that’s a big maybe), promote you on their socials that may or may not have readers in the audience, and after a while can even turn into accountability partners, alpha and beta readers, and friends. Then you have your readers, your actual readers who, if they are on social media at all, aren’t part of the #writingcommunity. They use socials for other things like connecting with family and reading articles about gardening, cooking, movies, and politics. Maybe they like their favorite authors’ Facebook author pages because that’s where they hear about new releases, giveaways, book boxes, and in-person events.

I came this realization a while back, and when I started my pen name, decided I needed to have a hub just for readers. To be honest, I didn’t want readers reading my nonfiction stuff anyway. I use this blog as a way to help others in their publishing journeys, let other indies know what worked for me in terms of marketing (promos and ads), and just talk about what crazy BS is going on in the publishing industry. That information isn’t for readers, and it shouldn’t be. They don’t need to know how many books I’ve sold, what Amazon pays in terms of KENP, or that I make my covers in Canva and format my own books.

But, I understand this decision isn’t for everyone. I pay for two websites, and some authors don’t even like paying for one. I enjoy blogging for other indies and connecting to the industry makes me feel “professional” so I eat the cost of the WordPress plan and domain name. But, if that’s not for you, don’t feel bad. Not every indie author wants to share their journey, stay up-to-date on what’s going on in the publishing world (both trad and indie) to have something of substance to write about, or pass on what they’ve learned because writing tutorials can take a lot of time. There are weeks when I’m at a loss as to what to say too, and I either just default to an author update or scroll Threads looking for ~~dirt~~ a topic. I feel fortunate when I can share a podcast I enjoyed and/or learned from or I’m able to find a subject like this one that might resonate with someone and help them move in a better direction. You don’t have to lock yourself into writing every week like I have, but if the views and visits are what get you out of bed, consistency will always make that happen faster. I owe a lot of my SEO to my tutorials, particularly my Canva post on how to make a paperback cover. I’ve tried to keep this blog relevant and helpful, but if you already have limited time to write, nurturing a blog that won’t sell books won’t sound appealing.

That said, if you really want to make a go of this publishing stuff, you should have an author website, a place to point readers in the backs of your books. This is where you’ll have your backlist of books and where readers can find them, a newsletter signup, your reader magnet, trigger warnings, direct sales, and any in-person events. If you check out other author websites, you’ll find that they don’t blog about process or complain about Amazon payouts or how they package author copies for shipping. Author websites cater to readers and what they want, not other authors who like to hear about behind the scenes news.

The problem with only writing to only readers is that if you don’t have a lot going on, there’s not a lot to say and that can make you feel disconnected. I write my newsletter on my author blog once a month, and I usually have something to share. A sale, a new release. Maybe highlighting an older book in my backlist that hasn’t gotten a lot of love. Creating content can be challenging if you’re a one-book-a-year author, and it might be tempting to write about what you’re working on, but unfortunately, readers don’t care until you can give them something to buy and read. When that happens, when you aren’t constantly updating, it may feel like people are forgetting about you, but you know, as I’ve said in the past, they will. You can be afraid of something that will happen, but there’s no point to that. There is so much content out there it’s inevitable, but it’s better to jog their memory after a few months of silence than waste their time blogging about something that doesn’t concern them.

If that describes you, if you feel like if you’re not reaching out then you’re invisible, then yeah, you might want to blog for indies who are interested in your process, would like to know how well your promos did, and/or how you make your covers. It gives you a reason to communicate and not feel so alone, and you’re writing to the people who actually care what you’re working on. Sales won’t come of it, which is why in the end I moved my books off this website and put them on my author website, but the more you segment your efforts, the more effective each one becomes and you won’t feel like you’re shouting at people who aren’t listening. Reaching out doesn’t even require a blog. You can create an indie Facebook group or Discord channel. A place where other writers and authors can get together but where you also know the score: your peers won’t buy your books. You can let go of that expectation and just be happy you’re in a group of people who are going through what you are and know how it feels to have zero sales on your dashboard.

So you might ask how is my author platform split in two?

Here’s what I do, and I made a graphic in Canva so you can save it or print it out if you want a quick reference.

There are a lot of places to hang out that I haven’t listed. I just can’t be everywhere and don’t want to be. Lemon8 is popular, so is Pinterest, and let’s not mention TikTok because I really don’t want to use my time making videos, but the fact is, if you’re a slow writer and you want to talk to only readers, you’re not going to have a lot to say. You can share book memes and pet photos, where you went to dinner on your anniversary, but you’re going to lose readers to other authors who publish faster. The industry in some ways is very slow, such as trends are very very slow to change, but when they do, it feels like it happened over night. Trad authors can seem like they get away with a book a year, but behind the scenes, they’re worried about getting a new book deal, if their publisher will pay for marketing, how their launch is going to go since they haven’t had a new book out in however long. Indies face the same trouble, trying to find traction while others are zooming ahead because they have more time/motivation/whatever than they do.

Figuring out where and what to post is a mental health issue, it really is. I’ve gone through my own struggles, beating myself up for not wanting to post on my Facebook author page, not making videos for TikTok when everyone says that’s where you belong if you’re an author. I boosted a post on my Instagram account and got a few new followers, but they aren’t going to do me any good if I don’t post. And you know, I’m pretty prolific, so it’s not that I don’t have content, it’s just that I don’t care. I let Amazon ads, promo newsletters like BargainBooksy, FreeBooksy, and Fussy Librarian, and author-driven book blasts like Zoe York’s ZoeBub pickup most of my sales weight, which I can do because my series and trilogies have solid read-through. Maybe I have to pay for it, but I’m reaching readers, not shouting at other authors then getting mad when my books aren’t selling.

Splitting up your author platform can take a lot of the stress off your shoulders. You know who you’re talking to and what they want to hear. Shouting to everyone will never work and you’ll only get frustrated. It’s difficult to break out of the #writingcommunity bubble, but the longer you do it the more natural it will feel and the feedback will become more positive because you’re staying in your chosen lane and once you draw the lines, you’ll actually have more time to write because that urgency to post and reach anyone you can will be gone.

Again, I know this advice isn’t for everyone, but if even reading this makes you step back and look at how you’re posting on social media, you may make some small changes that could turn into big results. Let me know what you think!

I better get off here and finish proofing my proof of Loss and Damages. I’m almost done then I can put the changes in and order another proof. I’m really excited to jump into more hockey research. I’ve put that aside to get Loss and Damages ready for ARCs next month, but I’m eager to start again. Take care everyone, and have a great week ahead!

Thursday Thoughts: What is your book’s value?

Posted on May 29, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

When we think about our books, we think about value. What is the value to our readers? We want to give them a good book at a competitive price. That’s pretty much a no-brainer when we publish. Readers want and need that value because if they feel like authors have wasted their time and/or money, they won’t be a repeat customer. And that’s how most authors make their money–readers reading their back list and anything new they publish.

But we also think about value for ourselves. We’re told not to give away our books or price them low because we’re cheating ourselves and not doing our books and all the work we put into them justice. We can argue about it all day long, the benefit of having a loss leader, using free books to find new-to-you readers. We give away ARCs hoping for reviews, we hope that an inexpensive book will fuel word-of-mouth. And what that conversation comes down to is, how much do you value your book, and what does value mean to you?

At some point in your career, you may find you value readers and feedback more than you value the royalties that come with sales. The market is so saturated that maybe being seen and being read will feel like a victory even if you’re not making money. I’m not really talking about exposure, though that could be part of it. We work for free, like doing a guest blog post or donating a novella to an anthology, hoping to get our name out there. Exposure can be valuable, if the right people read it, as they could offer you opportunities you wouldn’t have had otherwise. But if you’re donating to a publisher or company who can afford to pay you and simply doesn’t or doesn’t want to, maybe you feel like your contribution isn’t that valuable after all. After all, there’s hardly a scarcity of writers out there. We’re easily replaceable, and I’m not just talking about AI, either.

They say that people value things they pay for and that’s true, but they also avoid things if they have doubts what they’re buying is worth the money. (A good cover, blurb, and look inside is imperative.)

I was just thinking about this when I saw a post from an author who said someone told her to never put her books on sale, but she ignored that advice and has built a successful author business around a book she priced at .99. She found more value in putting her book on sale than she would have keeping her book at full price.

So when you think about your books and author business, think more of just how much work you put into your book. You might price high, but are you finding value if no one wants to pay it? Or do you think that one sale at 9.99 is better than 10 sales at .99? I know you’re not guaranteed to sell books at any price, but I think you do stand a better chance of selling books at a “reasonable” price, and that means whatever price you would be comfortable buying someone else’s book.

You might feel a sense of validation over that one sale, but how far will that carry you? How far will that carry your author business?

We say that success means different things to different people, and I think that’s true for value as well. A common cliché is you get what you pay for, and maybe that saying is what fuels authors to price high or never put their book on sale. Except, in these days of no gatekeepers, paying more doesn’t mean, as a customer, you’re going to get more.

Anyway, that was on my mind. I hope you all have a great day and weekend ahead!

Chat with you Monday!

Six Things I Learned after Starting My Pen Name

Posted on May 26, 2025 by Vania Margene Rheault

2,277 words
12 minutes read time

I thought starting my pen name (not really a pen, VM Rheault vs. Vania Rheault but for now, that’s what I’ll call it) would be the ticket to not fame or fortune, but I wanted to start my career on the right path after a couple of years of not doing things the proper way.

When I first started publishing, I did what a lot of indies did, and still do. I published what I wanted, didn’t really have a plan. I genre-hopped, looking for that genre I wanted to settle into long-term. No one told me I didn’t have to actually publish those experiments, but I wouldn’t have listened even if they had. Publishing without gatekeeping was a free-for-all, and it still is, indies publishing whatever they want without regard to a publishing schedule, marketing, or anything else that would start them on the right foot. Probably the only habit I had and still hold on to now, is writing all my books in a series first before publishing them. I started that when I wrote my Tower City Trilogy and I’ll never stop, even if that means I have a year or two between launches. But, let’s break it down. Here are the six things I learned when I started my pen name back in 2020, well, 2022 when I first published my Cedar Hill Duet and I tried to do things the “right” way.

You can’t click Publish and walk away.
If you don’t have a launch plan, this is what a lot of authors do. They don’t know how to launch and it can hurt you. When I published my Cedar Hill Duet, I didn’t put them on Booksprout for reviews. Before 2022, it was a free service, and I used it for my Rocky Point series under my full name. Then it went to paid, and I listened to the annoyed authors who said they were going to stop using that service. I should never have listened and put my own books up. Reviews matter. No one wants to think it, and I know correlation doesn’t equal causation, but Captivated by Her and Addicted to Her are my worst selling books and I attribute that to their low number of reviews. So, if you don’t have a plan or don’t want to have a plan, like cover/title/blurb reveal or newsletter, at the very least, try to get as many reviews as you can the week of your launch. They will affect how your book does from that day forward.

Nail your cover the first time.
When I decided to do my pen name, I really wanted to make sure I published correctly the first time. And by that, I mean I wanted to make sure my covers met genre and reader expectations. I’ve written a lot about how my cover for The Years Between Us screamed Women’s Fiction, and after I changed it to a couple, my sales went up. It was a beautiful cover but didn’t match the blurb or what the book was about.

I changed the cover to Wherever He Goes, too, and that helped. Unfortunately, I’ve had to change covers for some of my first person books even though I tried my best to avoid it. Your skills get better or better models come along, your taste changes, whatever, but no matter why you have to change your cover, if you change it to something better, just know that you’re blowing your launch period. I totally fucked up my launch for my Lost & Found trilogy because I didn’t wait to find better models. I published with what I had, and didn’t change the covers for a year or so after my launch. I gave them another edit, too, so I “re-launched” them, but man, you really waste Amazon’s bump if you screw up the first month of your release. Title, blurb, and your cover’s tone need to be spot on. Just because you like something or it looks professional doesn’t mean it’s a good fit. You have to do market research, and nobody wants to do that because it sounds like you’re selling out. You’re not. You’re helping the right readers find your book, and that’s all that should matter. I wrote more about choosing the appropriate cover, and you can read it here: https://vaniamargene.com/2024/04/08/my-marketing-secret-shh/

Don’t listen to everything you hear.
One of the riskiest things you can do online is listen to other people. I’m on Threads a lot (you know this) and the number of opinions out there, well . . . you know the saying: Opinions are like assholes . . . everyone has one and they all stink. There is no place this is more true than when you get a bunch of romance authors together, be it on Threads or in a Facebook group, and they’re telling you what they like and what they think should be the standard. No 3rd act breakups, no cliffhangers. Don’t use the word “folds” when you’re talking about p*ssy. Don’t make him an asshole, don’t write about rape. Don’t romanticize stalking. Don’t write in 3rd person. Don’t write your blurb in 1st person. Don’t do this, don’t do that, but what’s funny is that when you take a look at popular books, THEY ALL DO THAT! Yes, there is some advice out there that’s good, like don’t genre-hop if you hope to build an audience. I’m a firm believer in writing your blurb in the POV your book is written in. But at the end of the day, when it’s just you and your book, you need to write what you enjoy. Even if that’s a super dark romance that would get you locked up (and not in a good way). If you’re bombarded with opinions about how nasty the enemies-to-lovers trope is, and that’s what you’re working on, it can be discouraging. But honestly, you’re not writing for other authors anyway, and if an author tells you she hates cliffhangers and you love them, tell her to fuck off. There are readers for everything, and it’s okay if people self-select out of your books. You don’t want people who don’t like what you’re writing to read your stuff because all you’re doing is courting bad reviews. It can be difficult staying true to yourself, but you’ll be happier for it.

Just because you do everything right doesn’t mean you’ll find success.
This is probably the hardest lesson of all. You can spend a ton of money on editing, you can publish with the perfect cover and a ton of reviews, but in the end, that doesn’t mean you’re going to find success. And by success, I mean, readers, sales, royalties, whatever success means to you. I’ve said in the past that success to me would be making a part-time income with my books. Part-time for me would be about 15k a year. It would help me out tremendously, that little extra money, but this year I gave up that dream and realized that maybe what I’m writing just isn’t going to hit the market the right way, or my reluctance to be on TikTok will always hold me back. My books are too quiet, or I chose the wrong sub-genre when I rebranded myself. I don’t know, but the fact is, there are thousands of authors out there who publish regularly, publish good books regularly, and they get absolutely nowhere. They spend more than they make, they get burnt out, and/or they publish to no one over and over again. After you come to that realization, you’re hit with the trite sayings like “A quitter never wins and a winner never quits” or “Believe in yourself and you’re halfway there” and you just wanna cry (or puke). When 2025 rolled around, I decided to change how I looked at my writing. I can’t call it a business because I don’t have one. That implies money in and money out, and right now, I pay more than I earn. So, in that vein, I decided to stop doing what I think I should be doing and just do what I want. That means writing what I feel like writing without regard to a publishing schedule. I stopped all my ads. Don’t care about social media and post only when I have something to say. I stopped chasing the dream and I feel better. Writing is fun again and that has turned into my new definition of success. Here’s an interesting article by Jane Friedman about having what it takes to make it: https://careerauthors.com/do-you-have-what-it-takes-to-make-it-in-publishing/

Numbers don’t mean anything.
Social media sucks. It really does. I believe that you should have a hub where readers can find you if they want. (That should ultimately be your website, but I understand the value of a Facebook author page or an Instagram account.) Authors should have some kind of social media presence, if only to prove you’re a real person instead of a made up author some guy sitting in his mother’s basement created using AI. You can’t appear fake in this day and age when there are so many bots out there that can act and interact like a real person. As AI usage gets worse and worse, readers knowing you are real will be part of your marketing toolbox. But in the past seven or eight years I’ve been online, I’ve learned no matter how many followers you have, that doesn’t mean you’re going to sell books. They might like you because you have pets or because you live in the same state. They like how you do your hair or think you’re pretty, whatever it is, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be able to sell them your books [see Billie Eilish: https://medium.com/better-marketing/billie-eilishs-book-flopped-because-her-marketing-team-assumed-it-would-sell-itself-71c32dc19af3]. I just looked up someone who has over 5k followers on her Facebook author page, and she sells very few books every month–and she has a lot of books. So, if you don’t have many followers or you’re just on social media to kill time or to amuse yourself, don’t feel bad. Finding readers is hard work and it’s a long game. Besides, depending on how you run your social media, you could just have other authors following you, and when it comes down to it, that’s not helpful. I wrote about busting out of the #writingcommunity bubble, and you can read it here: https://vaniamargene.com/2021/12/06/how-to-break-out-of-the-writing-community-bubble-and-sell-books-to-readers/

Mix friendship with business at your own risk.
I help a lot of people do their covers, format, even just give them publishing advice through my experiences and what has worked for me. I’ve paid my friends to edit and beta read, I’ve done a lot of free work that I was pleased to do because you’ll learn fast that the #writingcommunity can be full of people only in it for themselves. I’ve also accepted some payment for the work I’ve done for others, but no matter if it was free or paid, in the past eight years I’ve been at this, nothing has pleased me more than helping someone publish their book. But not every relationship is infallible, and mixing business with pleasure isn’t always something that works out. I’ve lost friends because the business part of our relationship soured, and unfortunately, that’s a risk you take. Sometimes you can see that person for what they are and you realize that in time your friendship would have tanked anyway. But, it’s important to understand what you’re getting into, even simply saying you’ll format for someone or if you offer to whip up a quick cover. Writers and authors are some of the touchiest people on earth, and I’m included in that because I know I’ve gotten upset over things other people would have shrugged off. But when I help someone, I’m a professional at heart and always do my best to give them a product I would be proud of if it were for my own book and I don’t think I’m out of line to expect the same–especially when cash exchanges hands. I’d never beta read while watching TV or use photos on a cover that weren’t safe to use. Even though I have ethics and integrity, not everyone does, and I stopped talking to someone who admitted she was editing my book while she was at a hair salon, and I cut ties with someone who backed out of reading for me when she gave me her absolute promise she would finish. I know that sounds callous, but we had underlying issues and those instances just happened to be what did me in. So if you think you’d be heartbroken to lose that friendship, don’t let the line between personal and business smudge. It’s difficult to get past that.

I’m sure there are more things I’ve learned, but this blog post is long enough for now and I touched on the topics that I have found the most important in publishing and the most important to me when it comes to my experiences. It’s tough to cut out the noise, but like I said, at the end of the day, it’s only you, your book, and your readers and if you go to bed happy, that’s all that matters. People will come and go, opinions and advice change. Do your best with what you have, keep true friends close, and go outside and touch grass every once in a while.

That’s all I have for this week. Next week I’ll let you know about a shiny new thing I couldn’t step away from and what my publishing schedule will entail because of it.

Chat soon!

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	Vania Margene Rheaul… on Monday’s Author Update

Vania Margene Rheault

Independent Contemporary Romance Author & Blogger

Tag Archives: indie-publishing

Networking with the Right People at the Right Time

Friendships, Coworkers, and Cliques: Navigating the Author Communities

When Dumbing Down Your Writing Isn’t Dumb

Monday Musings: ARCs, Goodreads, and Writing While You’re Sick

Monday Author Update

Three Things I’ve Stopped Doing (and Three Things I Always Will)

The Evolution of the Romance Genre

Thursday Thoughts: What is your book’s value?

Six Things I Learned after Starting My Pen Name

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