Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 41
March 25, 2018
Make Believe Bride is Now Available!
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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:
If anyone has any questions about this series or any of the Regency characters, feel free to ask. 
March 18, 2018
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.
March 12, 2018
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.
March 4, 2018
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.
February 28, 2018
Updates on What I’m Doing
It’s been a very busy, but productive, February. Since I have a lot going on, I’ll get into it.
February 17, 2018
The Rejected Groom is Now Available!
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This is Book 2 in the Misled Mail Order Brides. (Book 1 is The Price Price, featuring Sep from Shotgun Groom. Book 3 will be The Perfect Wife, featuring Mark Larson. I’d like to do a Book 4 for Annabelle Larson. The title of that is to be determined.)
Here’s the Description:
Anthony (Tony) Larson and his twin brother, Mark, have been asked to marry one of the two unfortunate women who are in need of a husband. One woman is Velma Murdoch and the other is Natalie Harper.
Tony falls in love with Velma as soon as he meets her, and he’s excited when Mark tells him she’s chosen him to marry. What he doesn’t realize until he marries Velma is that she thought she was marrying Mark. But Mark tricked both of them into marrying each other so he could be with Natalie. While he’s upset with Mark for deceiving him, he’s even more upset to find out Velma had wanted to marry Mark instead of him.
Velma is just as upset with Mark as Tony is. A marriage to Tony isn’t going to work out well at all. He’s a farmer who lives in a sod house, and she doesn’t know the first thing about housework or cooking. She was much more suited for Mark who owned a business. Just how are two people who are a bad match going to find common ground? She can’t cook anything right, she’s scared of bugs and snakes, and there’s no way she can make clothes. She was brought up to help her future husband entertain guests at dinner parties, not help out on a farm.
Can a man who feels rejected and a woman who doesn’t feel competent on a farm find something as wonderful as love?
Here’s where you can find it:
February 12, 2018
Updates on What I’m Doing
It’s been crazy busy around here, but I’ve been putting my nose to the grindstone on getting some books done. So it’s a good reason to be busy.
February 8, 2018
Sale at Kobo
I know some of you have Kobo devices, so I wanted to pass on a special Valentine Sale that Kobo is having.
It’s taking place from now until February 14. You can save up to 90% on participating romance ebooks. There are a lot of popular romance authors being covered in it, so I thought I’d pass it along.
I believe the sale is only going on in the Kobo Canada store and the Kobo US store. Since I’m in the US, I’m passing on the link to the US store. When I tried to go to the Canada store, I ended up in the US one, so if you’re in Canada just go directly to Kobo. There is a banner with the words “Find love at first sight” on it. If you click that banner, it’ll take you to the sale.
Like I said, there are a lot of familiar romance authors there, and I know some of you who read my books enjoy some of those authors participating in the sale.
January 18, 2018
Updates On What I’m Doing
At long last, I have returned to writing romances. I needed the break in order to get my creative edge back, and working in other genres helps me do that. My first love is, and always will be, romance, but from time to time, I need to write something else. It’s why even within romance, I divide up my focus on Regencies and historical westerns. Once in a blue moon, I do a contemporary.
This is the point where I unintentionally went off on a tangent:
My mind can’t just single out one specific type of romance. I need a variety. It probably also explains the varying degrees of heat levels in my works, though I have learned to have at least one love scene in my romances so I don’t confuse anyone who only wants clean reads. I made that mistake early on, and two authors of clean reads wanted to cross promote with me, and I had to let them know the majority of my books aren’t a good fit for their audience. The last thing I want to do is lead someone to believe my book is something it’s not. I mean, I learned most of you guys will read a book with or without love scenes, but these authors who were approaching me strictly wanted clean reads. (And I know “clean” is subjective. I don’t consider my books “dirty”. I try to show the beauty of sex within a marital relationship. But everyone’s definition of “clean” varies. So I use “clean” to mean no sex.)
Seriously, I didn’t plan to add all of that when I started this post.
Back to the actual post:
My pen’s name stuff is off to the edits
This is why I can now focus on romance. Like I said, I was going through old stories I had done back in 2004-2006. I had published these with vanity presses, and a couple years ago, I finally got those old books taken off of sale. So I can finally revamp these stories and self-publish them.
My pen name will YA books. I’m going to do some fantasy and some thrillers. That’s why I’m separating it out from the name I do romances on. The audience is a separate audience. This is not going to be a name I do a lot under. My focus is still going to be on romance.
Anyway, I am going to take the short story I wrote in the Ink Slingers’ Anthology called . The story I wrote is called “Body Swap”, and since it is a YA thriller, I’m going to put it under the pen name, Barbara Joan Russell. I’ll keep the name the same. I figured I should mention that just in case someone stumbles upon it under the pen name. This way, you’re aware of what’s happening. The story will stay as is under my Ruth name in the anthology. I hope that avoids any confusion in the future. Self-Publishing is great for flexibility, but I can how it can be complicated when authors start to do stuff like this. My goal is to branch off so I’m not writing thrillers and fantasies, or even YA stuff, to romance readers.
I am keeping the Enchanted Galaxy Series, Return of the Aliens, and Late One Night under “Ruth” because those are not YA books.
Now that I cleared that, off to the more interesting stuff I’m doing….
I’m adding an Epilogue to The Rejected Groom
This is Book 2 in the Misled Mail Order Bride Series. (Book 1 is The Bride Price.)
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Click here to pre-order!
Based off some feedback I got from two beta readers who said the book needed something “more”, I am going back and putting in an epilogue. I love this particular couple, esp. the hero (Tony Larson). I love heroes who work with their hands. For some reason, I find that quality very sexy in a man. So I don’t mind adding an epilogue to help draw out the story a little more. Plus, it gives me a little more time to spend with the couple.
I don’t have a release date set yet. I want to wait until everything is ready before I announce it.
I’m about halfway into Make Believe Bride
This is Book 3 in the Marriage by Fate Series. (Book 1: The Reclusive Earl. Book 2: Married In Haste.)
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Click here to pre-order!
For a while, I thought I was going to finish The Marriage Contract first, but this one picked up steam over the past month, and I’m now further ahead in this one.
I’m currently taking the hero and heroine (Lord Whitney and Lady Stacey) to one of Lord Edon’s dinner parties. Ethan, aka Lord Edon, was the hero in A Most Unsuitable Earl (way back in the Marriage by Scandal Series), and Mr. Christopher Robinson (hero in His Reluctant Lady, also a part of the Marriage by Scandal Series) will be at this dinner party. I love Ethan and Christopher. That’s why they keep popping up in the Regencies. In this story, I get to give an update on their children and continue in their happily ever after. So I’m enjoying that.
Soon, I hope to give an update on how things are progressing for Lady Eloise and Mr. Stephen Bachman. I already decided to kill Lady Eloise off before The Marriage Contract takes place, which is five years after the events in Make Believe Bride.
I was counting up the Regencies I’ve done so far and as surprised to find out I already published 18 of them. Since all of them take place in the same world, I feel the kind of connection with these characters that I do with the Larson family. When I write in their worlds, I feel like I’m with friends. So it’s always fun to bring in old characters and mention updates on others when I can.
I’m probably 1/3 of the way into this one
This is Book 1 in the Marriage by Fairytale Series.
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And it’s Stephen’s book. Lady Eloise will be dead by now. Sorry, guys, but there’s no redeeming Lady Eloise. She is just too awful. For those of you who read my Native American Romance Series: remember Ernest from Brave Beginnings? He was probably the darkest character I’ve ever done. Lady Eloise is THAT bad. I’m not going into detail on how bad she is because some things are “too dark” to put in a romance, but trust me, she is bad. She can’t be a heroine. There’s just no way it’s ever going to happen.
Stephen, however, is redeemable. He reminds me of Neil Craftsman from His Redeeming Bride (in my historical western Nebraska Series).
I know some of you haven’t read my historical westerns, but for those who have, you’ll get the references. Suffice it to say while Stephen has some good in him that can be drawn out after a period of suffering, Lady Eloise has no good in her at all. I know some of you were hoping to see Lady Eloise evolve into a character we can like, but it’s not possible.
Instead, I’m going to introduce a brand new lady to this series.
I’m in Chapter 2 of The Perfect Wife
This is Book 3 in the Misled Mail Order Brides Series. (Book 1 is The Bride Price. Book 2 is The Rejected Groom.)
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I don’t know if there will be a Book 4 or not. It all depends on the events that transpire in this book. I do plan to get to Annabelle’s romance, but I don’t know if it’s going to be a part of this book or will require a separate one. I’ll let the characters tell me what to do.
*****
Since I went on for a ridiculously long time (again), I’ll end this here. I hope everyone is enjoying a good book!
January 14, 2018
Things Don’t Always Go According to Plan
Well, I was a few days into my new plan to edit the story as I go along when I realized it wasn’t going to work. Sometimes I don’t get back to a story until two or more days later, and when I do that, I forget things that happened in another chapter. For example, today while I was writing Make Believe Bride, I went back to Chapter 1 and saw a huge inconsistency issue. I changed it, but who knows how many of the details I’d miss if I relied on reading the previous day’s writing for my initial edits?
I can’t sit down and read an entire book in one sitting to make sure things line up before I write for the day. I’ll never get a story done doing that. I don’t want to skim, either, because skimming still means I’d miss something. For example, someone could be sitting in one part of the scene and standing later on. These things happen during the first draft, and when I go through, I usually catch all of them. Yes, my editing team helps me pick up the things I missed, but I don’t want the list of inconsistencies they catch to be longer than what they already find. I’ll end up rewriting segments of the book, and that could lead to more errors. So I’m going to just do the first draft and work through the entire story when I’m done.
Moral of the Story
If you don’t try something, you won’t know if it’ll work or not. One of the benefits of self-publishing is that authors can change the course if it isn’t working. A lot of what I do is trial and error. Failure is another way of saying, “Try something else.” In this case, it was, “Go back to the way you were doing it before.” And that’s fine. Last year, I tried plotting, and I realized it was not for me. I never would have known that for certain if I hadn’t done it.
Now, someone might ask, “Why don’t you try KU and see if it works?” The answer to that is that I’ve decided not to give Amazon exclusive control over one of my books. I have a book in the Amazon Australia store that has been removed from sale. I don’t know why. Amazon doesn’t always explain the why of what they do. As other authors are quick to point out, “It’s their sandbox, so it’s their rules.” To which I say, “Fair enough, and since I don’t like the rules, I’m not going to play.” If I can’t control what they do in one of their storefronts with a book that is wide, that’s bad enough.
At least I know that book is for sale on other platforms. I had a reader ask me about that book in the Australia store, and I couldn’t explain why the book wasn’t there because I don’t know why Amazon removed it from sale. It’s hard to answer someone a question when you don’t have an answer. Self-publishing offers a lot more control than going with a publisher does, but it doesn’t offer control over what a retailer does. By the way, I have lost a couple of books at Kobo, too. This isn’t just an Amazon issue. With Kobo, I was able to go to my Smashwords dashboard, take it off Kobo, and then send it back to Kobo. Doing this worked every time I had to do it, which up to now has been about three times.
At the end of the day, the author needs to do what works best for him/her.
Self-publishing does put an author in a vulnerable position. We have to be our own advocate. There is no publisher who is there to be a mediator for us. However, a publisher can only do so much as well. There is no perfect system. Each author has to pick the pros and cons to each decision and go with the one that works before for them.
But please understand, there is no easy button. Things don’t always go the way an author hopes they will. All authors can really do is write the book to the best of their abilities and get it into the world. Sure, they can promote the book, but the effort of their promotion are highly reliant on who sees the book, who reads it, and who tells others about it. That stuff is outside of the authors’ control. That is why the writing business is not easy. It requires a lot of hard work, and often, the fruit from their labor won’t come in right away. It takes time to build a solid foundation.
I do agree with people who say the gold rush of self-publishing is over. That’s not coming back. But it doesn’t mean authors can’t still build a longterm career with their books. I do think it’s going to take getting more books out there to make that happen. Except in a few cases, most authors need a heavy backlist to gain momentum. One caution I would offer is that even though you might have more books out, it doesn’t mean you’ll make more and more money. I know it’s popular to hear that authors can secure a lot of money in a short amount of time or that money keeps going up all the time because you added more books to the backlist.
Books rise up in sales, and then they go down. Nothing stays on the top charts forever. Check any bestselling book. It might be there for some time, but it will not be in that top spot FOREVER. At some point, what goes up, must come down. And just because people loved that one book, it doesn’t mean they will love all of authors’ books. You might have one book that sells very well and have the next one flop. All you can do is hope the next one does better. Being in this business is a rollercoaster ride. Writing more books does help to keep things more stable, but it’s not a guarantee.
As for what to do for promotion, that has to be up to each author. How much can you afford to spend? What stuff is within your comfort zone? I’m fine with expanding the comfort zone, but you can’t do it to the point where it’s “too” uncomfortable. How much time can you promote while working on the next book? While you are trying to reach new readers, you also need to remember and care about your current fanbase.
It’s all a balancing act, which is why the answer to these questions depend on each individual author. See what I mean about this being hard? There are no easy answers. That’s why I go back to the beginning of this post. Things don’t always go according to plan. Try different things, see what works and what doesn’t, and adjust future endeavors to fit what you learned.
