Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 41

The Marriage Contract is Now Available

A note to those of you on my email list:

I sent out the email yesterday announcing this book is out, but I’m not sure everyone on my list got it because there have been some changes in the EU. These changes have trickled to MailChimp. MailChimp is what I use to send out the email when I have a new release. If you are in the EU and you didn’t get my email, please let me know by filling this out below*. I will unsubscribe you from the list, and then I’ll give you a link so you can sign back up:

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*Please Note: you don’t have to fill our your name or leave a comment. You do need to give me the email you use for my email list so that I can delete it. 

Now for The Marriage Contract…

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A little background on this book:

This book was actually a passion project. I wrote this because it was burning inside of me to write since 2012. I just hadn’t had the right characters to line up with the plot, so I had to set the idea aside for years. I have a lot of ideas that need waiting for before they’re ready to write. This happens to be one of them. It is loosely based off of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. I also wanted to try my hand at gothic romance. I wanted to try some new things that I hadn’t done before. I even put in a sword fight and a horse chase into this story, something that’s new for me.

Just so everyone knows, it does still fall under the Regency series I’ve been working on. I decided to mix some other elements into it. And I’m going to be adding my own spin to the rest of the books in this particular series, and that spin will have gothic elements. It’s fun taking traditional fairy tales and making my own spin on them. Of course, these will all have happy endings. I love happy endings. I also love romance, and you can’t have a romance without a happy ending.

About this book: 

This is Book 1 in the Marriage by Fairytale Series. After Mr. Stephen Bachman was forced to marry Lady Eloise (which happened in Married In Haste, which was in the Marriage by Fate Series), he got disfigured and had to move outside of London. Eloise died about a year before The Marriage Contract starts, and Stephen is a different person by this time. He’s a hero in need of a second chance. So for those of you who like heroes that were once bad who turn their life around for the better, you’ll like Stephen’s role in this book.

The heroine is brand new. She’s been living under the shadow of a gypsy’s curse since she was a child. No matter how long or how far she runs, the gypsy ends up finding her and destroying everyone she comes close to. No one else believes her, including the friend who brings her to marry Stephen. It’s only because she is pregnant and wants her child to be safe that she agrees to the marriage, and she has to agree to it under his terms: hence the contract she signs promising to never look at Stephen’s face, never to ask him about his past, and never to remove the covers that hide the mirrors.

Where you can find this book:

I have this available on these retailers. If I didn’t get your country added in here for the Amazon store, let me know. So far, I’ve only had a request for the UK store. Barnes & Noble is only in the US. I think Kobo and iBooks links take everyone directly to the country they’re in. The Smashwords link is good for all countries.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

iBooks 

Smashwords

 

What is Romance?

I recently received a link to this You Tube video by Overly Sarcastic Productions that I enjoyed watching.

Thanks to Rami Ungar for sending this my way!

This video was hilarious. The person who made this has a great sense of humor. What made me laugh most of the way through the video is how many writers of movies and TV shows seem to think all you need is for the characters to give each other “the look” to know they’re in love, and as soon as they kiss/have sex, they are automatically set for life. That’s it. The end. Happily ever after.

Now, as most of you know, my books often feature couples who get married before they fall in love. I love the marriage of convenience, arranged marriage, and mail order bride plots. I’ve done other plots, of course, but I most enjoy watching a couple fall in love after they marry. So for me, the first kiss/having sex situation is often the beginning of the romance journey.

I’m sure there are a variety of ways to explore romance, but today, I’m going to talk about the way I approach romance. Each writer is different, so my approach isn’t for everyone. And I’m not sure if this post can even be considered a primer on writing romance. If it helps, great. If not, that’s fine. Just take what you can use and toss the rest out.

Romance ultimately boils down to service.

I know that sounds weird. But stay with me on this. Often in my culture (I live in the United States), the emphasis is on, “What can someone do for me?” The culture is pretty much a self-absorbed thing in which people want what they want as soon as they want it. Having to wait for anything often frustrates people, and I believe this is largely based on how fast technology has allowed us to get things. We have gotten spoiled. And yes, I have, too. I have been just as impatient as anyone else. So I’m not pointing any fingers here. If anything, I’m a good example of this.

But this has crossed over into how we look at romance. It’s affected how we look at marriage. I think the tendency is to ask ourselves, “What can this person do for me?” Why do we fall in love with someone? Is it to get something from them? Even if we aren’t thinking of being selfish, I think there’s a trap to end up that way. For example, “Why doesn’t my husband pick up his socks off the floor? Why doesn’t he treat me out to a nice, relaxing dinner?” Likewise, the husband might think, “Why doesn’t my wife make anything but sloppy joe sandwiches? Why doesn’t she wear a dress once in a while instead of those frumpy sweat pants?”

Of course, this isn’t limited to marriages. I just happened to give those examples because I’ve been married for almost 18 years now, and these are the kinds of things that have popped up during the course of my marriage. These are little, insignificant things. They’re not deal breakers. (A deal breaker is something like abuse and infidelity.) I’m not talking about a deal breaker. I’m talking about the tendency of people to get wrapped up in themselves to the point where they stop serving the significant other in their lives.

Romance, at its core, is doing what is best for the other person. (Yes, this can extend to friendships, too, but for this post, we’re looking specifically at romance.) Sometimes when you do what is best for the other person, you have to sacrifice something. For example, a wife might have to sacrifice watching TV to make her husband’s favorite dinner. Maybe the husband sacrifices watching TV so he can do a load of laundry. These are acts of service. These are little things, but they can add up to bigger things in the long run. Real life is not like a movie. We don’t have this great big climatic scene where it’s a life or death situation where the hero gives up everything to save the heroine. Most of the time, it’ll never come to that. But these little things are romantic.

Granted, if you’re writing a book, you want to do more than show the characters doing things for each other around the house. You want to think more like the movies where there are high stakes involved. So put the hero in a situation where he has to give up something important to him for the sake of the heroine. Or, have the heroine give up something important for the sake of the hero.

I’m reminded of a story my mom told me about love. It went something like this: There was a couple who was poor, but they wanted to give each other something for Christmas. The woman had long hair that was gorgeous. She decided to get it cut off and sold it to someone who wanted to make a wig. With that money, she bought her husband an easel and paints since he loved to paint. The man, meanwhile, sold his paint brush so he could buy his wife a comb because he knew she loved her hair. That is what real romance, the sacrificial kind, is all about.

Romance is also about friendship.

If you can’t be friends with the person you’re with, then why are you with them? Romance can’t survive alone on physical attraction. There has to be a heart connection, too. There has to be that emotional component. And at this core is friendship. You should enjoy being with the person. My husband is the funniest guy I know. When we were dating, I loved his sense of humor. To this day, he can still make me laugh. He likes the fact that I have a level head and can keep things organized around the house.

Friends balance each other out. I think people are often attracted to each other based on strengths and weaknesses. And I don’t mean this for only romantic relationships. I mean this for all relationship types. We naturally attract certain people. I think it has to do with our personalities. A good friend is one who knows all of your strengths and weaknesses and accepts you just the way you are. They don’t demand you go around changing something about yourself. They’re always there when you need someone to talk to.

Sometimes they’ll tell you the truth when it hurts, but when they do that, they do it in a kind way. You can tell they’re not trying to hurt you, but they want to protect you from something harmful you might be doing without realizing it. For example, there was a time when I was getting arrogant, and a good friend pointed out that I was letting pride get in my way. You see, that is a good friend. She helped me see what I was doing, and because of her, I changed my course. (That wasn’t easy for me to admit in a blog post, but I can’t think of a better example of when it is hard to tell a friend the truth. Just make sure you do it in a nice way.) Likewise, in romance, there should be honesty between the couple. The honesty is not to be used to criticize or put the other person down. It should be to help and encourage. It should have the end goal of lifting the other person up. It’s all in the motivation. A person can tell if you’re telling them something to be mean or if you’re trying to help.

Romance is also about gratitude. 

I think there’s a tendency to take the other person for granted. This is especially true in marriage.  It’s easy to look at what someone is NOT doing instead of what they ARE doing. When we look at what is not going right, we miss the things that are going right. When we focus on the negative, we end up complaining. When we complain, we aren’t able to experience gratitude. Gratitude is looking at the wonderful traits of the other person, looking at the sacrifices that person made for us, and looking at the ways that person is making our life better. Focusing on gratitude makes you love the person even more. It advances the romance.

Of course, in romance books, there has to be conflict. When I do conflict, I often do it from outside the relationship. But if there is conflict in the relationship, I try to keep in mind that it’s something that can be resolved pretty quickly and easily because in real life, people should be able to sit down and have a conversation that takes care of the issue they’re facing. If a hero is looking at the heroine and thinking of everything that’s wrong with her (or vice versa), that’s not romance.  Sure, people argue. But they shouldn’t be cutting each other down and calling each other names when they’re doing it. You can argue in a way that doesn’t attack the other person. And gratitude is where this comes in. When you are grateful for this other person, you’re more likely to focus on the actual issue.

Conclusion

In my opinion, romance books are best when three things are at work. And ultimately, it all comes down to putting the needs of the other person before yourself. It is treating the other person the way you’d want to be treated. If that is done, how can the couple not help but fall in love?

 

Scaling Back on Some Things

The process of dropping out of the rat race has turned out to involve much more than simply picking projects I’m most interested in. Originally, I thought that was all I had to do. But once I did that, then another thing popped up and then another. So I’m now having to sort through a lot of things I’ve been doing. I need to figure out what I’ll keep doing and what I’ll drop. If I’m going to truly embrace this notion of writing for passion, that changes the entire landscape for me as an author.

All I can say is that I never imagined 2018 would be the year I’d go back to square one and re-evalute everything I’m doing and why.

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My first priority is to write what I’m passionate about.

I had to sit down and ask myself a hard question. The question was, “How do I want to spend my time?”

The answer, though relatively simple, turned out to be, “I want to spend my time writing books I’m passionate about.” That’s it. That’s all I wanted when I got started in this writing thing. I didn’t think about marketing. I didn’t think about writing stories others wanted to read (aka “writing to market”). I didn’t think about trying to please people who weren’t happy with my books. I hadn’t given thoughts to book reviews. All I did was write the story that was burning within me to get down on paper.

So that is where I need to start. And that has ended up with a surprising domino effect.

My second priority is to put aside any story ideas that I’m not most passionate about writing.

Time is a limited resource. As much as I’d like to be able to do more, I really can’t. I have to eat, sleep, spend time with family and friends, etc. I can’t be at the computer 24/7. I need to let my mind have breaks. I need days off. If I don’t do these things, I will seriously burnout, and if that happens, I’ll probably be unable to write for a very long time. I don’t want that to happen.

I know people have been after me to write Hugh and Vivian’s story and also Shane’s Deal, but those stories are not what I’m passionate about. At least not at this time. I wish I had never even mentioned them. Since my publisher has Patty’s Gamble, I can’t go back and take out that thing about Shane’s Gamble. It’s stuck there. So is every other project I talked about at one point or another in a blog post or in a Facebook/Twitter post somewhere.

At any one time, a lot of ideas are swimming in my head. But, due to time, I can’t pick them all. I have to choose. In this case, I have to ask myself, “If I were to die next year, what books would I want to get into the world?” And that is the basis of how I make the decision on what I’m most passionate about.

People have said there’s something missing in my stories that used to be there. Well, I suspect that’s the passion for the story. I’ve been writing to market. I haven’t been taking risks or going against the tide. I haven’t been delving into the deeper parts of the human experience like I used to. I’ve been staying on this safe little road that was well-lit. I could see where I was going. While that offered safety, it was slowly draining my creativity. It was robbing me of the risk. There’s a certain thrill in driving (aka writing) into the dark where you can’t see where you’re going. I used to do that all the time. So I’ve just taken all of my stories off the lit part of the road. Now I’m in uncharted territory again. And writing over the past week has been more fun than I’ve had in a while.

Will people like this change? I have no idea. But if I keep going down the safe road, my stories will end up sounding the same, and I really don’t want that. I want to write better than I did before. I want to go down roads I haven’t been down yet. And the only way I’ll do that is if I pick stories based on how passionate I am about writing them.

My third priority was to cut out things that hinder my writing time.

Since I am putting time in for better eating, more exercise, more time with family and friends, and days off, I need to be smarter about how I spend my time. Part of this is removing things that cause me unnecessary stress.

Wattpad was the thing I decided to let go (at least as a writer).  I might stick around to read the stuff my authors friends have over there. I do want to support them, and to do that, I need time to read their stuff.  Wattpad is high stress for me. I’m an introvert. I need lots of quiet time. In order to be successful on Wattpad, you need to engage with other Wattpad users. I mean, seriously engage with them. You have to leave comments on their comments, read their works, comment on their works, mention you have a book up, and on and on it goes. I couldn’t keep it all straight. And that drains me of my energy. I think other introverts get what I’m saying, but extroverts probably think I’m nuts. But for my sanity, I had to let it go even though I met some great people over there. That was a sad thing for me to do, but I know it had to be done.

I won’t be doing anything else on You Tube, at least for the time being. Not that I was uploading more videos on You Tube anyway, but I actually had made a list of future videos to make. I had even gotten some videos in and was planning to upload them. But after all this, I better not. I need to scale back and find my focus again. Maybe someday I might actually have the time and inclination to dive back in? But for now, it’s going to stay as static as it’s been for over a year.

I’m not reviewing any more books. Believe it or not, reviewing books stresses me out. I know, I know. It’s silly. It’s just a review. But I have a terrible time knowing what to say in reviews. It’s even worse than writing my own book descriptions. I can’t just say, “I like the book.” I have to say “why”.  And that takes me, on average, two to three days to figure out. Then I wonder if the review sounded stilted because when I write it, I feel like it is.

I’m sure there will be other decisions that will pop up, but so far, these are the main three things I’ve decided to cut from my life in an attempt to clear time out to do my best work.

End Note

If anyone thinks this is easy to do, it’s not. It’s easier to sound brave than it is to feel it. I worry that this is going to be the end of my writing career. I’m pretty much throwing away the advice of authors and marketers who make more in 2-3 months than I do in a year. There is a lot of apprehension in veering off into a different direction. But I’m reminded of a saying that was on the wall of my Psychology teacher’s classroom in high school that still inspires me to this day. “Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.” (This quote was by Eddie Rickenbacker.)

I’m just going to move on ahead and focus on my writing. I know if I do that, the fears I have will grow smaller because my joy for my work will get bigger.

 

Things I Notice That I’m Reverting Back To As I Focus on Writing for Passion

For the past couple of days, I’ve been retraining my mind to think the way I used to before I started writing to market. I made some surprising discoveries that I didn’t even realize about myself as a writer.

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Stressing word usage hinders my voice

For one, I like to start sentences with “And” and “But” a lot. This annoys some people, but I notice it’s something that helps me get into the story faster, and it helps my voice flow along easier. If I don’t have to stop and think about the way I’m wording sentences, I feel freer to concentrate on the actual story. I’m actually more relaxed when I’m writing. I didn’t realize that worrying over word usage during my writing made me feel so tense. I’m also allowing a little bit of “modern” language come back into the story. That’s been one of the biggest complaints I’ve gotten in my work. “Sounds too modern.” So I had started paying attention to that kind of word usage, too, and this also made it difficult for me to relax.

Now, I can hear someone say, “You write historicals, Ruth. Since you do that, you have to be mindful of your language usage.” Yes, that would be true if I was writing to market. But now I’m not doing that anymore, which means I can write the story however I want. I don’t have to write with the critique group in the background yelling at me to change the way I just worded a sentence. Does this mean, I’m going to intentionally put something in like, “This dress is off the hook!” No. Of course not. Most people would probably think someone just took the dress down from a literal hook instead of taking the sentence to mean, “This dress is gorgeous!” I’m just going to say, “This dress is gorgeous!”

However, if there’s a gray zone that something falls into where “maybe it is, maybe it isn’t”, I’m going to put it in and continue on my merry way because I’ve found that stopping and rewording things has been hurting the flow of my writing, and this might be way some of my work “seems” different. So I’m warning everyone ahead of time that if the way I wrote back in 2009-2013 with books like Eye of the Beholder, A Bride for Tom, or The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife bother you, you probably don’t want to read my future books.

For me, simple is better

I have read historically authentic romances from Regencies to historical westerns, and some of them have taken more work than it was worth to figure out what the heck the author was saying. I get that a lot of readers love that kind of thing, but I don’t. When I read something, I want it stated in simple English so I know exactly what is going on, when, where, and how. I don’t want to pull out a dictionary or pause every other paragraph to follow what the characters are thinking or doing. Maybe that makes me unsophisticated, but I’m not trying to impress people with my knowledge of the time period or with sophisticated words. I just want to tell a story that delves into the beauty that exists within marriage. That’s all.

When I read a book, I don’t mind simple language and few historical details as long as I get a story that keeps me turning the page to find out what happens next. So basically, I’m going to write my books for people like me. And yes, I realize this is not everyone’s cup of tea. But hey, there are more books out there than there will ever be time to read, and a lot of them already have the authenticity in them that will make readers who prefer those things happy.

I need to let heroines be who they really are in order to have fresh stories

Also, I’m not going to worry about whether something a character does or doesn’t do will make someone happy. In the past, I used to give free my characters complete control, and while they still make the big decisions (like on how the plot unfolds), I have toned down their reaction to things if I thought it might upset someone reading it. This is especially true for the heroines. When they started to get a little to “strong”, I would stop and find a way for them to tone it down so they didn’t come off as too “you know what”.

The reason I did think is because it’s one of the things I got the most complaints about (besides my word usage). For example, Harriett Larson didn’t fall right into Stan Craftsman’s lap right away when he started being sweet to her in His Convenient Wife. Some people thought she was being unusually mean by not letting him into her heart sooner. But seriously, it was too soon for her to trust him, which is why I wrote that book the way I did. But since I’d gotten complaints about it, I started toning my heroines down so that they pretty much “fell in love” with the hero as soon as he was sweet to her.  Most of the time, I avoided any plots where the heroine would fight the hero at all.

Also, if a heroine wants to pursue a hero, I’ll let her. I also get complaints about Rose Larson because she wouldn’t leave Kent Ashton alone. Catching Kent is one of my most unpopular books. But given Kent’s background, he wasn’t going to make it easy on any woman to get through to him. Only a heroine who was strong and determined was going to break through his wall. Now, I thought the book was funny, but a lot of people found it irritating.

I’m not toning my heroines down anymore. In fact, Annabelle Larson (Richard and Amanda’s daughter) is going to be very strong, and she’s going to give the hero a rough time time because he’s going to force her to marry him, which won’t make her happy. And just because he’s a sweet guy, it doesn’t mean he’s going to get an automatic pass on robbing her of her decision on who to marry. She’s going to make him earn the happy ending. Looking back, I think part of what boxed me in was limiting plots like this and heroines like this. Restricting what a character can’t or can’t do makes it extremely hard to come up with something fresh and exciting. I realize it’s not fresh and exciting to some people, but it is to me, which is how I’m going to be able to avoid writing carbon copy romances.

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Conclusion

I know the changes I’m making aren’t going to please everyone, but I felt it was important to warned you about what’s coming so that you don’t pick up one of my upcoming books and get disappointed. I realize some writers think that everyone on the planet will enjoy their work, but I know that’s not true. Certain people like to read certain things. I just want you to know what I’m going to do so that you can make an informed decision.

If you’re on my email list and wish to get off of it, the next time it comes into your inbox, scroll to the bottom and “unsubscribe”. After that, MailChimp should make sure you don’t get another email from me. If you are currently following this blog and don’t want to anymore, there’s an option on the top right side of this blog that says, “You are following this blog”. Click on the “manage” link, and you can unfollow it that way. If you want to de-freind me on Twitter or Facebook, that’s fine.

The bottom line is that I’d rather have you spend your time and money on books that you really want to read. Life is too short to read books that aren’t interesting to you. I have a husband and four boys (and those boys are now getting into their teens). So I understand that life is busy, and people need to be selective when choosing what books to read. I really do hope you find the books that are the perfect fit for what you’re looking for.

I Think I Have a Game Plan

Over the past few days, I’ve been thinking over my current works in progress and where I want to take them. I’m not thinking in terms of what will appeal to the most people. I’m going to back to what I used to think, “What kind of book do I want to read in the future?” Because that’s what I used to do. I used to get frustrated going to the library and bookstore but being unable to find a specific plot and time period that I was looking for. So I was asking myself, “Why kind of books am I in the mood to read?”

And this is what I came up with…

The Outlaw’s Bride (Wyoming Series: Book 1)
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There will be no pre-order for this one because it’ll be free when it comes out.

I picked this one back up. This is the rewrite of the book Stephannie Beman (aka Anne Johanson) and I did together. Stephannie decided not to go with a pen name after all, so the cover will be modified later to reflect that. I bought the rights to take this book and the future books I plan to write for this series last year. I’ll address this in the author’s note when I publish it. Stephannie did create the hero’s family, so she deserves credit for some of the content in the book. I’ll have her read over it before I publish it. Since she did have a hand in creating most of the characters, she has a right to look this over.

I read back over the 17,000 words I did in the rewrite of this story, and I really like the direction I was going. So I’m going to keep on the track I was originally planning on. This book will yield no money because it will be free. The reason it’ll be free is because it’s a rewrite, and Stephannie and I decided it’s not fair to ask people to pay twice for a book that has the same plot. The overall plot will stay the same. The characters have been modified to fit the new version. I’m deleting some scenes, adding others, and rewriting the rest to fit my style.

The plan is to work on this about 250 words every writing day. (I still like word counts because I enjoy tracking my progress in my planner.) Anyway, according to my calculations, I should have this ready for December.

The Perfect Wife (Misled Mail Order Brides: Book 3)
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Click here to pre-order

This one actually will stay as I had planned because I love the “fish out of water” plot. The heroine has grown up on a farm, and now she’s married to a rich man who needs to impress his clients’ wives. In The Rejected Groom, Velma had pointed out Natalie wasn’t fit for this kind of life, and she’s right. But since this is a romance and I like happy endings, it’ll all work out in the end.

Now, the big source of change will take place in the next book in the Misled Mail Order Brides Series.

I don’t have a title or cover for it yet because the plot just came to me two days ago. This is going to be Annabelle’s romance. Remember how she felt about the preacher (Ben) in The Rejected Groom? She thinks he’s boring and annoying. So that’s who I want to pair her up with. I’ve never done a man disguised as a woman story, and I know of very little romances that have this theme. But it’s one I’m going to do for this one. I’m hoping to make it a comedy because there’s plenty of room for humor. My humor is often one of the things most readers don’t like. I haven’t done much humor in a long time, but since I’m writing books that aren’t geared to the market, I’m want to put humor back into some of my books.

Anyway, Ben is going to find a way to marry Annabelle so she doesn’t end up with the wrong man, and since Annabelle can’t stand him, he’ll disguise himself as a woman and (with Natalie’s help) will join the lady’s group in an attempt of figuring out what Annabelle wants so he could go about wooing her.

By the way, the resistant heroine is another one of those unpopular things I’ve noticed over the years. From the feedback I’ve gotten, it seems like most romance readers do not like heroines who make things hard on the hero. The hero can make things hard on the heroine, and for some reason, that is okay. But my most popular heroines are those like Mary Larson, who are very soft. Heroines like Sue Lewis, who gave Jake a hard time in the beginning, however are not. I’ve gotten my fair share of complaints about the scene where she throws the new clothes he gave her down the stairs because they were too feminine. Sue was definitely a strong and independent woman. Those tend not to go over very well.

Anyway, Annabelle is going to be one of those strong and independent heroines (probably because her mother, Amanda Larson, felt helpless when she was raped and only Richard believed her). Amanda’s not about to have her daughter unable to stand up for herself, and I’m sure Annabelle will be able to defend herself in any situation. That opens up a wide world of possibilities, and Annabelle might have to end up saving Ben at some point.

So anyway, mix in humor with a very strong and independent heroine, and it’s pretty much not what the market wants. But I’m exited about it.

One Enchanted Evening (Marriage by Fairytale: Book 2)
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Click here to pre-order

I was originally going to make the heroine super sweet without any blemishes (because those heroines are usually favored), but I decided the heroine is going to have an unpleasant past–a past where she actually was the villain. This one is loosely based off of Cinderella, and in this story, the heroine was the evil step-daughter. She did something horrible, ran off, and has been hiding out.

Don’t worry. By the time we get to this story, she’s a different person and is trying to atone for her sins. She’s basically the Neil Craftsman of the Regency world. I never really showed the transition Neil went through from Eye of the Beholder to His Redeeming Bride. I’ve alluded to it, but I never showed the process he went through. I’m going to show the process of redemption in this heroine. (Side note: she didn’t have the same sins as Neil. Her sins are different. I won’t say more than that because I don’t want to spoil the book.)

But suffice it to say, this is going to dive into some dark issues (and light ones to counteract the darkness), but the heroine is by no means perfect. She seems like she’ll be when you meet her in The Marriage Contract (which is book 1), but as they say, “A smile can often mask pain.”

The Perfect Duke (Marriage by Fate: Book 4)
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Click here to pre-order!

This one, like The Bride Price, will stay as originally planned. Actually, I don’t have a lot prepared for this anyway, except that the heroine’s brother is a jerk. But for the most part, this one is wide open to how I navigate within the story, so I’m going to just let it takes me where it wants to go.

I have decided to try something different with Book 5 in this series. I don’t have a cover or a title for it yet, but this will be Miss Duff’s story, and she’s going to get her man (so to speak). With this book, I’ll be doing something else that isn’t made for the market. The heroine is going to take matters into her own hands and make the hero marry her. This happened in Patty’s Gamble, and some people didn’t like Patty because of it. Miss Duff’s motives will be good, but I’m sure the fact that she is more alpha than the hero will turn some people off. But in this case, I might give her the mother-in-law from you-know-where. I have a gut feeling the hero’s mother is controlling and manipulative. I could be wrong. I’ll see as I write the book.

I am going to continue on with the Larson family when I finish up with the Misled Mail Order Brides Series.

My next plan is to get into Tom and Jessica Larson’s four daughters. I love the Larsons. I’ve been putting their stuff aside in favor of other plots that better fit a different cast of characters, but I want to get back to the Larsons, and I want to see how Tom’s four daughters plan a way for each of them to get a husband. I think it will be a lot of fun and cute. And with Tom for a father, it’ll be fun to see how things play out.

Dropping Out of the Rat Race

Today I made the decision that I’m not longer going to run in the rat race that has become a part of the indie world of publishing.

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Over the past year, I’ve been pushing myself hard to get books out, and I’ve only taken on projects that I believed would have the best time of selling (except for Taming The Viscountess which is one of my favorites AND The Bride Price and The Rejected Groom which features my favorite family, the Larsons). I know my books aren’t for everyone. I tried to make a couple of them for a wider audience, and those books did sell better.

There is something to be said for writing to market. Writing to market isn’t a dirty term. All it means is that the writer focuses on what readers when when they write books. It’s all about tailoring things specifically to the reader. When writers do this, it doesn’t mean the book is going to suck or that the writer is selling out. It means the writer is being business savvy in an ever-increasingly competitive market. So I’m not criticizing any writer who writes to market. It is a good business move that often comes with rewards.

But lately, it’s occured to me that I’m a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. Who I am as a writer doesn’t fit the “write to market” paradigm. The books I’m most interested in writing aren’t ones that most readers want. So I had to decide: do I keep trying to write to market, or should I write what I most want?

The other day, I actually thought, “I want to give up writing. It’s not fun anymore.” And that scared me. And it’s why I’m going to have to stop writing to market.

Running in the rat race for the past two years has gotten me to the point where I’m exhausted. And quite frankly, I’m done with it.

I’m done worrying about writing at a breakneck speed just so I can get a new book out sooner, too. That’s another part of the rat race. I know some authors can get a book out every week, but I’m not one of them. If I started doing that, my books would start to come out as rushed, forced, and just like others I’ve already done. I know this because I started doing this last summer when I was pushing myself to do 5000 words a day every single day. I had to stop and finish up the books when the kids returned to school. And at that time, I had to slow it back down to 3000 words five days a week, which I have learned is my best pace.

So today, I asked myself, “Why did I get into writing in the first place?”

I got into writing because I couldn’t find the kind of romances that I wanted to read. I couldn’t find a single author (besides Carolyn Davidson) who wrote the three things I most wanted in a romance novel: sex inside of marriage, the value of family, and an appreciation for the Christian faith. Carolyn Davidson nailed all of those, but she was only one author. And I wanted to read more books. So I ended up writing them.

I’m writing what pubishers weren’t putting out because publishers already knew there wasn’t a big enough market for it. I write a niche type of romance. I need to go back to appreciating that. (For those who think I can do clean romances, I tried that, and I didn’t like the books until I put sex into them. It always seemed like something was missing if the sex wasn’t included.)

I guess in the end, I decided that I need to be true to myself, and doing that ultimately means I’m not going to please most people.

So anyway, I’m settling in for the reality that I’m on a limited time where I can afford to keep writing and publishing books. Eventually, I’ll probably get a job outside the home because running a business is very expensive, and when income drops, you have to scale things back. Well, there’s a point where everything bottoms out. I don’t consider myself a pessimist, but I do think of myself as a realist. I lost half my income since the beginning of the year. I don’t know why, but it’s just the way it is. And I have to adjust to that reality.

And who knows? Maybe God is telling me, it’s time to start thinking of doing other things in the future. Maybe there’s something else he has coming down the road for me to do. Maybe this writing thing is here for a season, and while it’s been a great season, maybe there’s something even better out there waiting for me.

I’m hoping I can pull through until my kids are all out of school. Then I can be free to work whatever hours my employer wants me to work. Right now, I’m tied to the school schedule. When the kids have dental or doctor appointments, it’s during school hours. When they’re sick, someone needs to watch them during the day. I’ve been fortunate to have been a stay-at-home mom since they were born. I wouldn’t trade that time for anything, and I’d like to be a stay-at-home mom until the youngest is out of the house.

So what does this mean for the immediate future?

I’m going to write the stuff I really want to get done. Time is short, and I don’t have the luxury of waiting for the right time to come along to get to a story I’m passionate about. I might be able to keep writing. I might not. I don’t know. But I’m committed to doing whatever God has planned for me. And since I still have the luxury of writing, I’m going to go through my writing list over the next few weeks to decide what books I most want to write. Then I’m going to focus on those.

Make Believe Bride is Now Available!

Book 3 in the Marriage by Fate Series is now out!

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The books in this series are as follows:

The Reclusive Earl (Book 1)
Married In Haste (Book 2)
Make Believe Bride (Book 3)
The Perfect Duke (Book 4) – the process of writing
I’m considering writing Book 5

I brought back some past characters in Make Believe Bride:

Remember Lord Edon and Lady Catherine (hero and heroine in A Most Unsuitable Earl) and Mr. Christopher Robinson and Agatha (hero and heroine in His Reluctant Lady) from the Marriage by Scandal Series? So for those of you who’ve read those books, I think you’ll enjoy seeing how they are doing in their happily ever afters (including updates on their children).

That’s what’s nice about keeping all of the Regency books in the same world. I get to bring back past characters and give updates on how they’re doing. I also bring in Lord Erandon (from Taming The Viscountess) and Lady Steinbeck (from The Earl’s Wallflower Bride) to a lesser extent in this book. But Christopher and Lord Edon (aka Ethan) have the largest secondary roles.

Make Believe Bride moves forward with the secondary story I started with the destruction of Lady Eloise, which I started in Married In Haste. 

As far as I’m concerned the destruction of Lady Eloise happened in Married In Haste (Book 2 in this series) when the way Lady Eloise tried to ruin Ava (aka Lady Youngtown). Lady Cadwalader’s hated Lady Eloise for a long time, and she’s been looking for an incident she could use to bring Lady Eloise down.

I never came out and stated this (at least not yet), but I was never in Lady Cadwalader’s point of view and I never did have a friend or family member of Lady Cadwalader in my books. But I thought you guys might like to know that Lady Cadwalader was the one who pinned Lady Eloise with abhorrent behavior that day at Hyde Park. I’m hoping to get into it in The Perfect Duke (Book 4 in this series which I’m currently writing).

And now for Make Believe Bride….

That aside, this story features Lord Whitney (a new character) and Lady Stacey (who’s been a quiet character in the Ladies of Grace social group). I knew ahead of time that I wanted to write about Lady Stacey. It was just a matter of waiting for the right time to do her story, and her story picks up right where Married In Haste left off. The book opens with Lord Whitney trying to impress some gentlemen at White’s by claiming he’s betrothed and then it goes to Lady Stacey who, along with other members of Ladies of Grace, are comforting Lady Eloise because of Lady Eloise’s impending married to Mr. Stephen Bachman.

This book focuses on Lord Whitney who arranges a fake betrothal with Lady Stacey. Make Believe Bride has a sort of nerdy hero who isn’t afraid to take a stand when necessary. Originally, I thought he was going to have a timid side to him, but it turned out that he didn’t. His strength is quiet. It needed to be because Lady Stacey was under the thumb of a very controlling and self-righteous father. Lady Stacey does gather courage over the course of the book, and she was able to get the courage because Lord Whitney came into her life. Lord Whitney also needs to grow, but his growth is more in the area of feeling valued from who he is, rather than what he has. I like it when both characters grow because of the love they develop for each other.

This book contains some tear-jerker moments. (I won’t lie. It’s not all roses.) But it also has some comedic moments to help lighten the mood. And it definitely has a happily ever after ending.

Anyway, here’s the description of the book:

Lord Whitney is intelligent, rich, and good looking. But he’s also boring. Despite his notable attributes, he has nothing worthwhile to contribute to the gentlemen he would love to establish friendships with.  One thing he’s noticed is that all the gentlemen around him are getting married.  So in order to have something in common with them, he does something he never thought he’d do: he lies about being betrothed.

His ploy works.  For the first time in his life, gentlemen are finally paying attention to him.  Soon, however, they start asking him questions about the wonderful lady he’s going to marry.  It comes to a point where he can no longer keep up the lie.  He has to find a lady to present to them.

As fate would have it, Lady Stacey happens to be in the right place at the right time, and he manages to convince her to play along with his scheme.  In return for playing the part of his betrothed, he will secure safe passage for her and her mother out of London. But as time passes on, he begins to wonder if there’s more to their ruse than meets the eye.  Will their deception bloom into a love that is real, or will it be as make believe as it was when they met?

If interested, you can get your copy here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

iBooks

Smashwords

If anyone has any questions about this series or any of the Regency characters, feel free to ask.

South Dakota Series Gets a Facelift

First of all, the stories themselves stayed the same. I didn’t change anything in the stories.

Okay, that aside, here’s what I did do…

I’ve been meaning to go back and give the South Dakota Series a facelift for a couple of years now, and I finally decided this was going to be the year I was going to do it. I gave it new covers, new formatting, updated backlist of other books at the end, and two books got new descriptions. I made these changes on Smashwords and Amazon. Amazon will probably take effect first. Smashwords will send out the changes to Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, and its other channels.

I also just went through CreateSpace and updated the covers for the paperback editions. But this will probably take the longest to get through because I need to order the proof copies and then approve them.

Just so you know what series I’m talking about…

Here are the old covers:

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Here are the new ones:

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So if you see the new covers and think, “Did I read those stories?” The answer is, “Yes, you probably did.” That’s why I showed the original covers. I remember covers more than I do titles when I look at other authors’ books. There’s something about the visual that’s easier to remember.

Anyway, the changes will take some time to trickle through. I just uploaded everything to Smashwords, Amazon, and CreateSpace. Smashwords will distribute to Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, and other smaller retail channels. So give this stuff time to work its way through the system.

Also, while I was at it, I decided to make my first boxed set. I asked a question on Facebook about boxed sets, and a lot of people were in favor of them. I’m sure those of you reading this already have the books, so there’s no reason to get this boxed set, but since I do have the boxed set made, I figured I’d show the cover.

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I decided on pricing it at $4.99, and I put it on pre-order for March 31. The reason I’m doing a pre-order on it is to give myself some breathing room because I have to get ready for Make Believe Bride’s release on March 24. I have some things I need to get ready for that day. The pre-order on the boxed set will give me time to round up links to post them across my blog and website. Pre-orders are great for getting things ready ahead of time, which is why I do them all the time.

Anyway, I tried to make a boxed set with the Native American Romance Series last year, but it fell through because I couldn’t get everyone in my team to work together. So this time, I decided to take on the project myself. So, while this facelift of the South Dakota Series isn’t perfect, at least it’s done.

I plan to go back and give facelifts to old books, but that will take me a while because doing this series took me a full three days, which was longer than I expected. I need to focus on writing books. I’ll get to the facelifts as time permits. Writing the next book will be the priority.

Books I’d Like To Write

This blog post is really a “thinking out loud” type of post. The best way for me to figure things out when I’m sorting through ideas is to discuss it in a blog. Being a writer, I think it’s easiest for me to wade through things when I write them down. I’ve found talking about it helps somewhat, but writing it is much more effective.

Over the years, I’ve gotten questions about whether or not I ever plan to write certain books. Maybe it’s because we’re heading into a new year, but that topic has been on my mind lately. Unfortunately, time is a limited resource. At the rate I write, I average 9 books a year. That might sound like a lot. The truth is, however, it’s not. I currently have about 20 books on my To Write List, and I’m only able to work on 3 of those right now. I think 3 is my limit. I’ve tried to do 4 at a time, and it’s not feasible. Maybe once all of my kids are out of the house, I can do 4, but as long as they’re living at home, 3 is it.

Here is my list at the moment:

What is already finished…

1. Make Believe Bride (Marriage by Fate: Book 3) is already uploaded and on pre-order for March 24.

2. The Marriage Contract (Marriage by Fairytale: Book 1) is with my editing team. This is estimated for an April release.

What I’m currently working on…

1. The Perfect Wife (Misled Mail Order Brides Series: Book 3) has just begun. I’m currently on Chapter 4. Natalie hasn’t found out Mark had lied to Tony and Velma yet, but she’s going to soon. I know she’s not going to be happy with him, but honestly, I don’t know HOW mad she’s going to be. That’s up to the character. (I gave up long ago trying to tell my characters what to do or how to feel.) The publishing month is either June or July. I’m hoping for June.

2. I just started the first scene in The Perfect Duke (Marriage by Fate: Book 4). I can’t say much without spoiling Make Believe Bride (Book 3), so I’ll keep it there for now. The publishing month is probably going to be July or August. I’m hoping for July.

3. One Enchanted Evening (Marriage by Fairytale: Book 2) will be started later this week. Again, I can’t say anything without spoiling stuff from Book 1 in this series. I expect this one to be out either late August or September.

So that leads me with what books I’m looking to write for the rest of this year…

Obviously, the first order of business will be finishing up the series I’ve already started.

1. I’m hoping to write Annabelle Larson’s romance in Book 4 of the Misled Mail Order Brides Series, even though she’s not going to be a mail order bride). Originally, I was planning on a trilogy, which is why I had three women come into Omaha to be mail-order bride. Annabelle is Tony and Mark’s younger sister, and since she fits into this series starting with Book 2 (The Rejected Groom), this series would be a good place to put her story. So this would put me in the September – October range for publishing.

2. I don’t know if I’ll be doing a Book 5 for the Marriage by Fate Series, but if I do, I’d like to make this Miss Duff’s book. Who is Miss Duff? Remember in Married In Haste when Lady Eloise convinced a new member of Ladies of Grace to ditch the gentleman she wanted because he didn’t have a prestigious enough title for her? Well, she did ditch him. And now she wants him back. However, I don’t know if it would work well for this series, or if I should bump her to a new one. This would probably be in the October – November range. If I learned nothing else from last year, it’s that publishing anything in December is like watching a boat sink as soon as it sets sail. It’s always best to wait until January. I think people are just too busy in December, so it makes for a bad month to release a book (at least for indie authors.)

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So I guess for this year, I’ll probably publish 8 books instead of 9. That’s not bad considering they’re all going to be full-length novels.

When I started this blog post, I thought I was going to be able to start a new series at some point this year, but I don’t know if that will be the case unless Miss Duff starts a new one, but if she did, I don’t know if I’d write it right away. I have a feeling she will be in Book 5, but I don’t want to say for 100% until I know for sure.

I’d like to get another book out under my pen name. I don’t know if that’s possible or not. We’ll see.

I will attempt one novella this year…

I know a couple of you want another Dave and Mary Larson story, but I’ve also gotten feedback from people saying, “No, not another book featuring them.” So that’s why this one keeps getting pushed aside. If I can make this between 20-30K words, I’d probably do it. So I’m working on some ideas. I know going in that this is going to be one of those niche books, but I do like the idea of writing it because I love Dave and Mary and because I personally know the people who want to read another story. So I’m going to try it. No promises though. If I notice it’s getting too involved, I’ll cut it.

A look further than this year…

Now we’re looking into my 5 Year Plan

1. Someone asked if I’m going to write more Larson books, and the answer is yes. After I finish with Richard and Amanda Larson’s children, I want to write about Tom and Jessica Larson’s four girls. Remember that story I started called Mail Order Husband that I had planned to make the start of the Fort Benton Series? Well, I decided I’m going to slip this book into the Larson family instead. So this will start a series featuring Tom and Jessica’s daughters.

At the moment, I don’t have ideas for the other Larson kids, so that’s why I’m going to Tom and Jessica. Something tells me Tom is going to make a fun father-in-law for four very lucky heroes.

2. I want to go back in time in the Regency Collection back to the very first series I wrote, which is Marriage by Scandal. Anyone remember Lord Roderick, Lord Edon, Mr. Christopher Robinson, and Lord Clement? Yeah, I’m going that far back.

Over the years, I’ve gotten requests to write Lilly’s story. Lilly was Lady Roderick’s sister. (Lady Roderick is Claire.) Lilly almost married Lord Hedwrett, but Claire and Christopher managed to convince her not to do it. So Lilly didn’t, and I’ve been thinking it would be nice to finally write her story. Her story would start a new series.

Some have also asked for Lord Pennella’s story. I don’t know if I can. I don’t know if he’s redeemable or not.

3. I’d like to finish the Montana Collection. Shane’s book is due out at some point, and unfortunately, I have so many other projects, it keeps getting pushed back. But this is in my plan.

4. I do plan to do the rewrite of the series Stephannie Beman and I started with The Stagecoach Bride. I got almost 20,000 words into the rewrite of that book (The Outlaw’s Bride). Then I stopped because I realized I couldn’t do 4 books at a time without driving myself crazy. Since this book is going to be free, I need to be on better financial footing before I can finish it. So it’s on hold. Afterwards, I will write the other books in this series.

5. I also plan to rewrite His Brother’s Wife that Stephannie and I had started (but never published). We got about halfway into it when we couldn’t figure out where to go next, so we had put it on hold. Since Stephannie decided she didn’t want to write romances anymore, I bought the rights to that book (and The Stagecoach Bride and the series) from her so that I could continue them.

6. Hugh and Vivian (from Her Heart’s Desire, which is Sally Larson’s book) will get a story at some point. I’m waiting for the right time and the right plot.

7. I’ve gotten questions about writing Billy’s story. Billy made his appearance in An Unlikely Place For Love. I rarely ever hear anything about that book, but when I do, it’s usually followed with a “Will you do a story on Billy?” I’m currently listening through my books on my Kindle a little each night when I go to bed. I’m doing this to refresh my memory on characters, what’s happened, etc. When I get to An Unlikely Place For Love, I will try to mark the timeline of when this book takes place and where it might link to other books I’ve done. I’d like to pair him up with someone in the Larson family. I think one of those characters would be a good match. My mind needs to incubate on this one.

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There are other story ideas and characters who will pop up as I continue writing. I used to think that I’d run out of ideas, but it seems the more I write, the more ideas I get. So there will be more added to this list as time goes on. I’ve rambled on long enough.

Hard Decisions

I hesitated to write this blog post, but I remember back when I published Return of the Aliens, and I had said I planned to make the serial episodes of that book free. Except when I realized that in doing so, I would probably get a lot of emails asking me to write more sci-fi Christian thrillers. Whenever I give out a book for free, I end up with people asking for more books in that series/genre. And I didn’t want to keep writing more sci-fi Christian thrillers. I wanted to stick with romance because romance is what I love most. The problem was that a couple of people were upset with me since I never came out and said I had changed my mind. (Since then, I have run promos on Smashwords where I offered the book for free during one of their sales week. I’m running one right now for Read an Ebook Week. Here’s the link. The sale ends on March 10.) Just please don’t ask me to write any more of these types of books because I don’t have any desire to write another sci-fi Christian thriller…at least not at this time.  I apologize for not addressing the issue sooner. Looking back, I realized I should have addressed it on this blog at the time I published it.

Which is why I’m going to be upfront about doing a price change to some of my books.

I’m going to have to raise the price of new releases. 

This will start with The Perfect Duke and One Enchanted Evening. The new price will be $3.99. (The Perfect Wife, Make Believe Bride, and The Marriage Contract will still be $2.99.) So this is something I’m slowly phasing in.

This was a very difficult decision to make. It’s not one I wanted to do, but I have to pay the bills and provide for my family (I have four kids) while also paying my quarterly tax voucher payments. My business is set up in such a way that I didn’t get a corporate tax break. About 43% of my income goes to taxes when you factor in Federal and State, and I’m paying based what I made the previous year. (I was hoping for that tax break so I could keep on pricing new releases at $2.99.) I don’t think any author really discusses this stuff. If they do, I’ve never seen this addressed in a post. Usually, I read about lousy royalty rates from traditionally published authors or how much money some self-published authors are making. No one seems to dive into the realities of this business. (If someone has, I’ve missed it.)

Anyway, since I have been losing money for the past couple of years, I’ve been trying to figure out ways to boost the income back up without upping the price of my books. Unfortunately, none of these worked. (Yes, I have run some ads, but I can’t afford a lot of them. I have to be careful with what I buy. For example, an editor will always come before an ad.)

First, I made an attempt to write shorter books so that I could get more books published. My thinking was that if I could get novellas (25,000-30,000 word books), I could make up for losing income. Publishing more books would mean more money, and more money means I could keep pricing my books at $2.99.

This, unfortunately, did not work because every single story I wrote wanted to be in the 50,000-70,000 word range. That seems to be my natural writing point. I even tried plotting to keep the story as simple as possible with The Bride Price, but the characters changed the last half of the book on me. I had to toss the plot out and go the way the story was leading. Since then, my word counts have been over 50,000. Married In haste was at 65,000 in first draft. Editing brought it to 63,000. The Rejected Groom finished at 58,000 but was edited down to 55,000. Make Believe Bride was 68,000 when I finished the first draft. Editing brought it down to about 65,000. The Marriage Contract finished at 71,000, but editing brought it down to 68,000.

So this is the problem I’m facing. It’s very hard for me to write a novella. I have done it a couple of times, but most books end up being novels. In order to tell a complete story, I’m the kind of writer who needs higher word counts.

Second, I considered putting new releases in KU.  KU (Kindle Unlimited) at Amazon pays for pages read while boosting rankings (thereby offering better visibility to everyone browsing for books). If an author isn’t in KU, they tend to get pushed back, and it’s harder to be found. This does hurt sales. Since 2011 when Kindle Select came on the scene, I’ve been getting pushed back so it’s been harder for new people to find me. Now, I will say it seemed to level out, but when KU came on the scene, it was another hit to my discoverability. I’m not complaining. I’m just explaining that KU has definite appeal to authors, especially romance authors since romance it popular over there.  I certainly understand why authors are in it. I also understand why readers pay into the KU subscription service. It is a really good deal for readers.  But the problem is that being in KU means I would only be able to put that book on Amazon.  I would end up excluding readers who buy from other retailers.

I know there’s the “You could just put it in KU for the first three months and then distribute everywhere afterwards” argument, but I’d feel like I was betraying my readers who buy my books on those other retailers if I do this. There are people who’ve been with me for years who don’t buy my books on Amazon. And both Amazon and readers from the retailers have offered me support and encouragement when I really needed it in the past. I know some of them by name and engage with them in emails and on Facebook. Even if the conversations don’t take place often, these people mean a lot to me, and I want to make my books available to them on the day they’re released.

Another thing that’s important to me is that I keep creating quality books. I know authors who can write faster than me, and they do a fantastic job. It is possible to write a book that is 50,000-70,000 words in a week or two and have it be a great book, especially if the author knows where they’re going when they sit down to write the story. For me, it takes longer. I can’t write a book faster than I already do without sacrificing the quality of it. My average is 1-1.5 months to finish a first draft. Granted, I usually write 3 books at a time, but when you factor in time to edit, format, and upload, I seem to average 2.5 – 3 months to get a new book ready from start to finish. In the end, I usually publish 8-9 novels a year. I want every book I write to be as good as, if not better, than the last one. I want to give people a story worth investing their time and money into.

I’ve rambled on and on, and it’s because I don’t want people to be upset when they see a price increase. I want everyone to be prepared for it. I know some of you are on tight budgets. I don’t know if this means you’ll have to stop buying my books, but if you can’t buy them anymore, I understand. There are no hard feelings on my end. Fortunately, there are a lot of books lower than $3.99 out there to choose from. I think one of the strengths of the market is that there are a wide variety of authors and price points to choose from.

Originally, I was thinking of doing $2.99 for the pre-order and then bumping it up to $3.99 on release day, but I distribute through Smashwords to Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Apple. Apple is great about changing things right away. Barnes & Noble and Kobo, on the other hand, can take weeks. Amazon is as quick as Apple, but Amazon requires price matching, so I can’t do anything on Amazon until the change takes effect on the other retailers. The pre-order special price idea I had just isn’t going to work.

Like I said above, The Perfect Wife, Make Believe Bride, and The Marriage Contract are at $2.99, and they will stay that way. I’m not changing those prices. The books I am just starting to write (The Perfect Duke and One Enchanted Evening) will be $3.99.  I haven’t decided if a new release starting a brand new series will be at $2.99 or $3.99. I do think having a lower price for the first book is a good idea. But we’ll have to see where the future leads.