R.J. Blain's Blog, page 24

Authors Direct is being discontinued.

Bah, bah, bah. The title says it all. The company that ran authors direct has been purchased by spotify, and as of April 14 or so, the authors direct app and store and everything will be defunk.

If you have switched to authors direct, you will be emailed links to claim your title on spotify, where the books will live in the future.

My internet connection is actually down, but I’m going to be (temporarily) taking down all of the audiobook links on the website while I get everything set up w...

The Vampire of Montana’s New Release Date is April 28, 2023.

Hip-hip-hooray!

Doggone Mess worked out to be just shy of 146,000 words before editorial. To give you an idea, the original version was closer to 35,000 words.

It is entirely up to readers if they choose to only read the Dirty Deeds 1 edition of the book, but let’s just say a lot can–and does–happen in the additional 111,000 words of story. I’m really pleased with the book. As a reminder, Doggone Mess will be increasing in price to $7.99 early in its release week, so if you’re on a budget,...

Leashed I Could Do and Serial Killer Princess 2…

These two stories will be in one of the two planned anthologies for the Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) series. Why are they not being placed in the main series?

All the stories in the main series have something to do with the end game for the series. These two stories are fun continuations, but the plot important series stuff is concluded for these characters.

As such, they will be in extra material collections, AKA anthologies.

I do not know when the anthologies will be do...

Let’s Play a Game!!

Rules: Anything you suggest in the comments may become cannon fodder for a novel project. (Granted, the allowable entries are so vague that you may or may not be able to identify if I selected your comment to become cannon fodder.)

By commenting, you agree that I may use some, none, or all of your comment’s content as cannon fodder for a novel project. Credits will not be issued, because I’m way too lazy to keep track of who contributed what one or two word phrase.

Here’s how the game goes...

Warning: Doggone Mess will be increasing to $7.99 during release week.

I bothered checking my word count today. It’s 106,000 words.

There is zero probability of me keeping it below 120,000 words by the time it is finished.

I will keep the price at $6.99 until a few days after release just because. (I thought about changing the price to $7.99 as soon as it was finalized, but I decided against it.)

So, if you want it at $6.99, and you’re buying through traditional vendors, make sure you set a calendar reminder for its release day to get it early. I’ll probably s...

Pen Name List with Series/World breakdown

R.J. Blain

This is a page in the menu. I am still trying to figure out if I’ve missed something. This excludes some of the stuff I have covers for.

Please refer to this post for the current preorders.

* indicates the series is yet to be written.

^ indicates the series is completed or is a completed standalone with no expectation of a continuation with those characters.

Any series without a symbol has at least one book written with more on the way or at least one title is availabl...

A Year of Books: 2023’s Official Release Schedule with preorder links! (Bonus: one 2024 book.)

Greetings!

Welcome to my list of all books coming out in 2023! (With one exception, that I cannot tell you about yet. But as soon as it’s no longer a SEKRIT, I’ll let you know, and there shall be rejoicing!)

Buckle in, everybody. This is going to be a ride. Please note that some of them are priced a little low… I’m not sure what the final word count would be, and I would rather up the price closer to release than feel I overcharged. As I go by word count to determine price, this can be an ...

Please do not panic: site updates coming soon.

I will be giving the website a face lift in the near future, so please do not panic! I need to add pages that better go into reading order, pen name details, etc, etc, etc.

As such, things are going to start being moving around.

P.S.: If you find new things online, please be courteous and wait for me to be ready to announce them. Pat yourself on the back if you find them, but please contain yourself for approximately forty-eight hours. I really want to gush and you take the wind of my poor...

A look at the Behind the Scenes numbers (Sell-through of series, identifying healthy series, etc.)

Rather than try to answer every question on if a series is healthy, I’m just going to flat-out tell you. It’s just easier that way!

For most readers, this might be boring, so I’m sorry about that. But if you’re interested in knowing why I’m writing things in the order I am, here goes!

In order of… whatever order I happen to pick because whatever. (I’m not feeling well today and this is a task my sick brain can doooo.)

For the sake of simplicity, this is only on Amazon. (Booked’s initial...

More about the Vigilante Magical Librarians Series…

A reader left a comment, quite puzzled about my stance re: star ratings. As such, I’m going to expand on the whole issue of why the series is dead in the water.

Ratings is only the beginning of the shit show for this series.

At 4.2*, Booked for Murder is literally my worst-rated book. At 2k reviews, it’s significantly, well, bad. It’s not a loved series. Yes, 57% of people rated it 5*. That’s great!

…57% of people did not buy book two.

So, here’s the complete decision making process ...