M.R. Leenysman's Blog, page 8
June 13, 2021
Unwrapping Their Package Deal – Book Focus in Newsletter #28
Newsletter #28 is a Book Focus on my new release, Package Deal, about a man who enters into a relationship with both daughter and mother, who want to roleplay being HIS daughter and mother, before revelations about the past shift everything around.
June 7, 2021
Package Deal — Incest Novella
A new incest novella, at last!
I’ll admit, this one has been a thorn in my side for a long, long while. I struggled repeatedly trying to get its tone and plot right, but I finally got it worked out and finished!! If you’ve been waiting for a new book from me and thought it would never arrive, it’s here at last. Hopefully, my next project flows faster. Certainly faster than 8 damned months!!
But, this one’s got nearly everything, packed into a novella length. Daddy-daughter roleplay is just the beginning, when Kelsey makes it clear to Todd that her mom Willow wants in on the fun, too.
Only to have even more family secrets explode once Todd and Kelsey get together.
$1.99 at:
Smashwords
Streetlib (coming)
April 23, 2021
Thoughts on Amazon’s Vella serials
I’ve seen a number of authors mentioning the new Amazon Vella feature for releasing serialized writings, so I took a look and have a few take-aways that I think people should be aware of before deciding to enroll. Those are:
Exclusivity: Any work you put on Vella can only be on Vella. No excerpts elsewhere, no ebook version anywhere, not even on Amazon itself. This is likely a permanent decision, as you would have to unpublish from Vella in order to republish as an ebook, running the risk that you might catch some readers in the middle of the serialized form, who would be (rightfully) upset at having to buy the full book in order to finish.First three episodes are free. Meaning no royalty is paid for them. Accordingly, I would recommend you have a minimum of ten episodes. Anything shorter than that and you would be better off publishing as $0.99 shorts.Tokens. After those three free episodes, Vella users will use tokens to unlock episodes based on a rate of one token for every 100 words of the episode. Pricing for those tokens starts at $2 for 200 tokens and drops to $15 for 1700.You have no control over pricing. Through the token price, Amazon has set a baseline per-word rate of $1 for every 10000 words (for the episodes the reader actually pays for). We’ll have to see whether that becomes a pricing ebooks have to compete against. A standard of 10000 words for a $0.99 short? 30000 words to price at $2.99 to get the 70% royalty rate? Certainly, if you write a 60000 word novel that you were going to publish at $5.99, you’re equal to that word rate. But, the difference is if you divide that novel into 12 episodes in Vella of 5000 words each, you would get paid $2.25 in royalty. When your royalty as an ebook would be $4.20. While Amazon’s profit would be $2.25 in Vella versus $1.80 in ebook form. Why would we want to give Amazon more profit while we get less? It would be one thing if Vella proves popular enough if your book winds up with more total readers in the serialized form, to offset the lower royalty. But to wind up with the same number of readers and make less money?This is just comparing Vella to other Amazon options. If you also look at Smashwords, its royalties are not reduced based on price. They’re calculated as 85% of the net sale, after deducting the credit card processing fee. So, it’s entirely possible to get 80+% royalty, even on $0.99 shorts, if enough books are bought in one order to spread that credit card fee out. But, even bought solo, you’d likely still get more than Vella’s 50%. And you can even make the first three parts of a series free, if you really want to mimic Vella. Or just the first one. Your call.
Here’s Vella’s pricing/royalty Info.
March 13, 2021
Newsletter #27 — My Fifth Anniversary Commemoration!!
This newsletter is about my fifth anniversary as an erotica author, measured from the publication of my first short story, “A Dream For Papa” (in this collection).
Newsletter: https://conta.cc/3cukBI3
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March 11, 2021
#MyReads: The Shepherd of Ashburn Court — Ben Shepherd Series, Book 1
Book 1 of one of the best series I’ve ever read on Literotica is now available on Amazon! Even though I’ve read it, I’m happy to shell out $3 to support this author, known as Burnt Redstone on Lit, but going by just B. Redstone on Amazon. I’m glad to be able to add his book to my #MyReads page.
Ben Shepherd’s life was finally going to plan with a lucrative career, a comfortable nest egg, a family home, and a loving wife.
Then her betrayal ripped that life away.
His heart shattered, Ben’s life fell into limbo until tragedy strikes his neighborhood and he’s forced to step up to support those left behind.
Ben finds purpose and learns to love again.
From that beginning premise, Ben finds himself supporting, saving and falling in love with multiple women in his neighborhood at once, despite his own resistance and belief that he’s not deserving of their love, admiration and particularly their belief that he’s a hero.
The blurb doesn’t touch on it, but there are recurring elements of PTSD and BDSM in the story as well as some violence, which might justify trigger warnings for those elements. Ben is a survivor of repeated traumas. Multiple times in the story, flashbacks lead to him acting (heroically, usually) on autopilot, after which he can’t remember his recent actions. This becomes an escalating problem for him in the story as his repressed memories resurface. There is also a repeated pattern of the women around Ben ignoring his boundaries and even his consent, in initiating sexual contact with him. While lots of apologies (and a good bit of hot angry sex) usually follow, it could be a bit much for some.
Even with that, the characters are all well drawn, with their own motivations for pursuing Ben. Ben himself is pretty easy to like, although you do begin to worry about his mental health and whether he might wind up hurting someone he cares for, instead of saving them.
I’ll promise you this, though: Once you meet Ben Shepherd, you’re not going to forget him.
March 8, 2021
Sale Time Again!
It’s time for Smashwords’ “Read an Ebook Week” sale, once again.
March 7-13, all of my books which are normally priced over $0.99 are on sale 25% off.
Check ’em out!
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/leenysman?ref=leenysman
January 1, 2021
Blog Status: 2020 Year in Review
The big event of the year — for the blog, of course — was switching to BlueHost back in April and then updating all of my social media posts and back-matter in my books to point to the URLs featuring the new domain.
Traffic-wise, August was the best month since the switch, then declined the next two months, rebounded slightly in November, then slipped back a little in December, ending down about 35% from that peak.
As I noted back in September, deciding to stop posting my promos on Sharesome only accounted for part of that decline, but was still a big decision I had to make in response to their censorship.
At the same time, I haven’t completed a new book since republishing “Into Another World,” so that’s also a factor. “Package Deal” is still my work-in-progress, I’ve just been stuck on writing a couple major scenes for it, including the ending, trying to get the tone right.
My creativity was another victim of 2020 stress, in the end.
Here’s to 2021 being better, for all of us!!
December 18, 2020
Ho! Ho! Ho! It’s time for Smashwords End of Year Sale!!
A special newsletter issue announcing the Smashwords End of Year Sale, running December 18-January 1.
December 14, 2020
December 5, 2020
Visit the Girls Next Door in Newsletter #25!
Book Focus in this week’s newsletter is on the novelette Girls Next Door.
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