R.J. Blain's Blog, page 12

Booked for Kidnapping is on sale for $0.99!

If you haven’t had a chance to continue the adventures of Janette and friends, the time is now! Booked for Kidnapping is available for $0.99 at Amazon, Apple, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble for a limited time only.

Yes, this is my one last ditch effort to revive the series and make it productive / dig it out of the dark depths of being my worst performer.

To help Janette and friends, Pixie+ readers on my Patreon will be reading along with Booked for Murder. (Hoofin’ It just finished last week, a...

The Many Deaths of Mr. Magoo: a Magic Moguls Novel!

What is this? A new project? Yes!

Starting on Monday, Cindercorns and Spicy Ponies with Bite (Patreon) will be embarking on a new adventure with me.

We’re going to go through the entire creation process of a pilot novel. I have flagged the story as “A Magic Moguls Novel” in case the pilot does well. If not, the book is a standalone, and there’s no harm no foul. (I will not be presenting the story as a series for book one. Unless the novel hits certain sales targets, it will stay a standalo...

Please Chime in Re: Mass Market Print Size

However much it pains me to ask this question, the reality is, print prices have gotten beyond ridiculous.

$33 for a chonky mass market is insanity. You know that, I know that. Currently, I’m doing it because a: libraries b: accessibility (mostly via libraries.) I will continue to do mass markets, but the reality is… I can’t charge less than what I am and earning a respectable amount per book.

(I deserve to be paid for my work, as does everyone else in the book printing chain.)

Amazon, ...

Why are print editions so slow and so expensive?

Pictures speak louder than words.

This is for Dead Weight’s print edition. Please note that my earnings are less than what I make on ebook copies of the same title.

If you don’t do the retailer’s preferred 55%… the books are generally not listed and not available. The lowest I can go is 40%.

So, when you wonder why print editions are so expensive and I don’t prioritize them, this is why.

Experimental Voyage now available for Preorder!

One of my previous Pets in Space contributions, Experimental Voyage, is now available for preorder at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Apple Books! This will be one of two Christmas releases. (Murder Floof, Bernadette Franklin will be the second. It’s just not quite ready to be put up for preorder; I haven’t figured out how much the book will need to cost yet.)

About the Book:

When a spaceship accident costs Camellia her chance to explore the universe as a botanist, she jumps at the c...

The Process of Plotting a Mid-Series Book.

There are many different ways to write a book. As I’ve been working on the Vigilante Magical Librarians series, I thought I’d take the time to talk about how I’m breathing life into the midway book of the series. Booked for Theft will release in March of 2025, and you can preorder it now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo Books. Apple Books will be coming soon.

When I start a series like Vigilante Magical Librarians, it goes one of two ways: I know where the series conclusion is at… or I...

Janette and Friends return on March 18, 2025!

What was that? Janette and the Vigilante Magical Librarians are back? As a matter of fact… yes, they are!

A year after the assassination of Senator Maybelle, President Castillo makes a declaration that shakes the United States of America to its core: the presidential election is to be postponed for a period of three years to investigate the deaths of prominent senators and representatives across the nation.

In the wake of the speech, Janette is invited to meet with Senator Thaddens regardi...

Cindercorns and Spicy Ponies with Bite getting a new read along!

Rider of the Sun Horse takes place in the Requiem for the Rift King world, and it’s going to be my starting point for completely revamping everything to do with Requiem for the Rift King. Cindercorns and Spicy Ponies will be getting the unedited scenes followed with the edited scenes for this one while I work on replotting everything for Storm Without End.

Why not Otter+? Frankly, I’m doing the work on this over the weekend, and it’s not part of my “normal” work hours… I may do Storm Without ...

RJ’s 2024 Reading Challenge!

Yes, I am two months late starting my reading challenge for this year, but there’s a good reason for that.

Until now, I didn’t really want to do one.

But, this week, I cleared off my GoodReads account, and I began loading in the books I want to read this year. So far, I’m up to twenty.

Please feel free to follow me on goodreads if you want to follow along. I will be moving things to my read shelves as I finish (or choose to DNF), but unless a book is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE, I will not be ...

Closing down Ream and Some Other Updates…

Greetings, folks!

First, I have shut down my ream stories account today. There are a myriad of reasons I made this decision, but my inability to be twenty bazillion places at once is one of them. Right now, the site has issues… its discoverability leaves a lot to be discovered, there was not much interest in readers for such a model, and it can’t (and won’t) compete with my Patreon.

I’d hoped to turn it into a web-based reading catalogue for those who wanted access to older books on the ch...