R.J. Blain's Blog, page 66

Beneath a Blood Moon – Free March 24-25, 2016

Beneath a Blood Moon is free today and tomorrow (March 24-25, 2016) for those who haven’t had a chance to grab a copy of it yet.

Sara’s life turns upside down when someone leaves her a funerary urn, black roses, and death threats on her doorstep. Fearing her work as a stripper and showgirl has put her in the sights of a demented stalker, she turns to her best friend and fellow dancer for help.

Instead of a safe haven, all Sara finds is betrayal. Hunted by creatures she once believed were stories meant to frighten children, she is given a choice: become one of them, or die.

Forced to share her skin with a voracious carnivore and driven by instincts and desires too strong to resist, Sara must adapt to the changes in her life or be destroyed by them. Finding a mate is her wolf’s top priority.

If she doesn’t want to become another prostitute in a city full of them, Sara must learn to control the beast within. With a hungry wolf to feed and an empty bank account, selling herself to the highest bidder may be the only way she has to prevent becoming a monster driven to eat anything—or anyone—unfortunate enough to cross her path.

Beneath a Blood Moon is an urban fantasy thriller with a side dish of romance. (No explicit sex, but plenty of violence.)

Hint: One of my other books is free today, too!

Side Note: If you sign up for my news letter, you can find out when older titles will be available as a free download. I often will run a promotion when a new book is releasing, especially if it’s later in a series.

Subscribe to RJ’s mailing list



* indicates required
Email Address * 
First Name:  
Last Name: 
Email Format

html text

Changes to Mailing List / Newsletter

I don’t talk about things like my newsletter often. It’s a new project, and one I plan on using more in the upcoming months. (I know some of you are already on my newsletter, but I haven’t actually used it yet, I know! I’ve been a very bad girl.)

I typically use my blog as my primary platform. I’ll still be using my blog a lot, but my newsletter is where the real fun will be found.

In each newsletter, I will be doing a digest of my favorite blog posts, my new releases, and a short story or novella. The fiction will be exclusive to the newsletter for a while. It could be a couple of months, could be a year, could be forever. If I get a collection of newsletter fiction I really like, I’ll publish it as an anthology. Otherwise, it’ll remain only in newsletter format. I’m still hashing out how I want to handle delivering the short story/novella.

So, free fiction. If I’m sending you a newsletter, it’ll have a piece of my writing in it for you. Yeah, that’s my gimmick… and honestly, it’s the only thing I could think of to make me actually want to make a newsletter.

I hate marketing. Most of you probably know that. Marketing doesn’t let me do what I love doing most: write. So, when I was trying to figure out what I liked, it boiled down to my love of writing and reading.

My newsletter will reflect that. If the story is short enough for posting directly into the email, I will. Otherwise, it will be a password-protected blog post, with the address and password in the newsletter. I still have details to hash out, but that’s the gist of it.

I may also include dates for when I do free promotions of my novels to the newsletter, so there’s a chance to get free goodies, too.

So, if you want to follow what’s going on with me and get infrequent emails about new releases with a short story, sign up for my newsletter. :3

Subscribe to RJ’s Newsletter
* indicates required
Email Address *




First Name


Last Name


Email Format

html
text

The Illusion of Success

Success is a fluid, relative thing. Many Americans are taught that hard work pays off, but time and time again, people who work hard never get that elusive ‘American Dream’ sold to us as children. Some of us keep working hard, determined to beat the odds. Others give up, accepting their lot in life. A lot of us fall somewhere in between. I’m not saying that’s right, wrong, or a mix of the two. It is what it is. Take that as you will.

I’m a prolific writer. When I first started out, my ceiling was maybe 50,000 words a year. Maybe. If the stars aligned, life went perfect, and nothing ever went wrong. Once upon a time, writing was one of those things I did if everything was just right for writing. Yes, I was also one of those people who called myself a writer when I wasn’t writing all that much, too.

It took me more than a million words before I started getting decent at writing. Far more than a million words. It’s a shifting target, being ‘decent’ at anything. Where is the benchmark for being a decent, a good, or even a great writer?

There isn’t one, honestly. At least, I don’t believe there is. There are financially successful authors. There are authors with a rabid fanbase despite their work being less than… literary.

Some people hate these stories. Some people love these stories. There’s no such thing as the perfect author. I have a total love affair with an author who views spelling as optional. Their spelling… quirks… drive me absolutely apeshit batty, but I love their stories. (Yeah, this is a problem for me. A really big problem for me. Yet here I am, reading all of their stuffs because I love their stories.)

Writing and reading are relative.

I’ve talked about how I’ve worked at trying to make novel writing a successful career for myself. I’ve talked about my shelf of shame, projects I’ve never completed, and projects in the works. I’m going to talk about it again. I’m not feeling great today (cold, allergies, and some sort of blah) and going back over where I’ve been often helps remind me about where I want to go.

I prescribe to the work hard to get what you want thing. Success is a moving target. Am I one of those financially awesome authors who can afford to buy a new car every year? No. Will I ever be? Probably not. I don’t even make minimum wage yet. Yet, however, is the keyword.

Once upon a time, my goal for success was $500 a year. Then it became $1,000. Then it became $5,000. Now it’s $10,000. When I hit $10,000 earned in a year, it’ll become $15,000. From there, $20,000, $30,000, and so on.

Yeah, I’m one of those people.

For my first exhibit, I’d like to introduce you to the Shelf of Shame. These are projects I view as so absolutely terrible I won’t show them to anyone. I have gathered them from the graveyard of my writing folder, put them all together in a scrivener, and use them to remind myself how much better of an author I’ve become over the years.

There are one to seven different files under each character name, where I struggled to find a story for these characters, failed, got up, and tried again.

Some of these are original Witch & Wolf projects that were so bad I abandoned them altogether–conceptualized or written before Inquisitor. (Winter Wolf actually predated Inquisitor in horrible, horrible forms several years prior to me writing Inquisitor.)

This picture shows how many words I’ve committed to the graveyard that is my Shelf of Shame. This represents almost a decade of effort, quantified down to 526,555 words of failure.

Failure, like everything else, is often relative to the person failing. These are words I’ll never use, but they serve one very important purpose:

They taught me how to write. They are the evidence I struggled, I learned, and I wanted to write bad enough I kept trying.

That is a success in so many different ways. I’ve named the file my Shelf of Shame, but each one of these stories is a trophy, too. They’re the blood, sweat, and tears earned from making the effort to make myself a writer.

Yes, I’m aware of the camp that abides by the basics of a writer is a person who writes, no matter how infrequent the words. I don’t want to be that sort of writer.

I want to be a writer who has a viable career entertaining others and telling stories people love. I can’t do that if I’m not writing all the time. (Some will disagree on that, too. We can disagree. It’s not like my personal opinion on my own writing habits at all hurts or helps you.)

Enter when I decided I really, truly wanted to be an author. I made a new scrivener project for my RJ Blain books, and I’ve gathered all the drafts, all the effort that went into the books, and I put them all in one place.

Since The Eye of God, I have written 1,372,275 words of fiction. Some are discarded rough drafts/revision editions. Most are my actual books. This excludes the words written by hand, too. That probably adds an additional 400-500,000 words–probably more, actually.

I do a lot of my drafting straight to computer nowadays, although I use pen and paper for basic outlining. Part of me doesn’t like that change. I still handwrite certain projects for the love of handwriting, but most of my work is done on my laptop.

Blatant self-promotion time: You can check out my books by hopping over to amazon here. If you want to get your paws on my art or preorder copies of a bunch of unreleased titles, check out my indiegogo. (It ends April 1, 2016, and features coloring books, signed and unsigned print editions, and digital books of upcoming titles.)

If the campaign funds, I’m tossing in KARMA to anyone getting a digital perk, which is basically all perks. KARMA is the first book of a new W&W series. Yeah, that’s right. I’m working on a new W&W series. Two, actually. PACK JUSTICE got out of control and became a book one, too.

(Yes, Silver Bullet is coming, and yes, it is a part of the indiegogo.)

Since it’s been a while since I’ve showcased covers for upcoming titles, here’s a sneak peek of what’s in the works:

PACK JUSTICE will be the next release, with KARMA and SHADOWED FLAME on its heels shortly after. New Me is up to a lot of shenanigans, too. Yeah, that’s a link. Yeah, you can click it. New Me writes sci-fi / fantasy dystopian that’s, frankly, completely ridiculous and bizarre. She gets really fancy covers, too. Yeah, those covers below. I love writing these books because I get to escape from the real world for a while and enter one where I’m totally allowed to be batshit crazy.

I’m hoping to have The Chameleon and the Hound out in the next few months, but we’ll see.

The Dawn of Dae cover tends to get people riled up because it shares pose similarities to a Divergent’s movie poster. It cracks me up, because A: I don’t watch tv or movies, and I legally purchased the license for the art. (You can’t copyright a pose, for starters.) B: I needed a young female model with an older looking man overlooking a cityscape for the book.

You have no idea how hard it is to find a young woman with an older man in a city scape.

Anyway, That’s New Me, and she writes really crazy but fun shit.

New Me has a long way to go, but she’s worked up 194,385 words of fiction excluding the progress I’ve made on The Chameleon and the Hound.

So, how is my situation the illusion of success? In so many ways, I’ve far surpassed my hopes for my writing career. I’m a member of the SFWA. I’ve connected with some stellar fans. I get to write each and every day.

But, I’m not where I want to be yet. I want to be financially successful. I want to have a fanbase who loves my books so much they’re chomping at the bit to get more books. I want to be a better writer.

Since I’ve started writing, I have written 2,093,215 words of fiction, and I still feel like I’m at the very beginning of my adventure. I have published ten full-length novels. (One being a compilation of five volumes.

Speaking of which, SA Hunt did a cover for the Tales of the Winter Wolf books, and I really like it! He’s got a very different style compared to many other cover artists, and he was really easy to work with plus very affordable, so if you need an artist and you have budget constraints, send him a message. He might be able to help you out.

I like how this cover stands out compared to the new cover work I’m having done for the more traditional Witch & Wolf novels. It sets the scene for werewolf stories, has an interesting vibe, and is eye-catching. These covers are really new, so hopefully they’ll work well.

I like them, and at the end of the day, I’m happy with that.

Anyway, back to my original train of thought. With over 2 million words of fiction behind me, I want to say I’m chasing my personal dream as hard as I can. Am I successful?

Many people would say no. I don’t have financial stability. I don’t have a huge fanbase. I don’t have a lot of things, but I do have one thing that puts me far ahead of the game.

I’m happy with what I’m doing. It’s hard work, but I wouldn’t exchange it for guaranteed wealth, and that means a lot.

Here’s to the next 2 million words.

Book Review Rampage

I’ve done a lot of talking about the books I have written but very little about the books I’ve read lately. So, here’s a book review rampage. Each review will be my basic thoughts on the book, whether or not I liked it, and so on. This post covers a lot of books, so sit down, grab a drink, and come rampage with me as i talk books, books, books, and even more books.

If there was any doubt about the nature of this post…

Gloves are off, bitches! Let’s fucking talk about books.

Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews

4*. Really liked this one. It was a fucking hoot. It’s about an innkeeper, Dina, who runs a magical inn with a single guest. When all the shit happens at her front door, Dina must choose between an innkeepers neutrality or watching her neighbors get what-the-flying-fuck eaten by fucking alien monsters. This is a damned good romp of a science fiction and fantasy hybrid novel, and I had fun with it.

Only reason it didn’t get 5* was because it took me longer than I liked to really get behind Dina. Sean, the werewolf with a marking problem, was the character who kept me reading for the first while. Enjoyed the book a lot.

Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews

ELEVENTY BILLION STARS. I liked Clean Sweep, but Sweep in Peace was so much better. There was just nothing I disliked about this book. It was like this book was written with my interests and taste in mind. I just loved it. I unreasonably loved this book. It built on everything in Clean Sweep and made it so much better. Everything fit together so well for me in this book, and I couldn’t put it down, and I love when a book does that to me.

Yeah. I’m totally biased. So fucking what?

Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs

No one ever is surprised this is in the book review rampage, right? If you’re surprised, well… you shouldn’t be. This is definitely my favorite Mercy Thompson novel, and if there wasn’t another Mercy novel, I could probably live with this being the last one. Fooorrtttunnnaatteellllyyyyy, I really doubt this is the last fucking one. Hope not. There’s still loose ends, and I’d like them to be not loose ends any more!

If you like Mercy, just get this book already. That said, there were a few spots where I could tell the book had been rushed to get done on time, but I loved it despite its flaws!

Metric Fuckton of Shelly Laurenston Books

I’m not even sure how to begin reviewing all these books. I guess I’ll do it by series, mostly in order. This is going to take a while!

The Pride Series

The Mane Event actually includes two stories. The main shifters are lions in this one, and they’re fun. These are paranormal romances, and they definitely include content for fucking adults. Literally.

Hey, I have a diverse set of reading interests, okay? If you don’t like sex in your fucking books, don’t read these fucking books, there is a lot of fucking in them. Deal with it. The Mane Event was my second introduction to Shelly Laurenston, and I enjoyed it enough I’ve read the entire series.

Beast Behaving Badly and Bite Me are probably my two favorite books of the series, although The Mane Squeeze and Bear Meets Girl are close contenders. There are nine books in the Pride Series. Despite the name of the series, this series includes a wide variety of shifters from fucking honey badgers (Bite Me) to hybrids. The series includes a lot of hybrids. Werewolves are common fodder, although there are loads of cats and bears and other animals.

The Magnus Pack

If you’re looking for wolves, Magnus Pack has them–and tigers, too. The third book in the set, Here, Kitty, Kitty, was actually my first encounter with Shelly Laurenston, and I found the book both hilarious and sexy. Good combination.

Now, for my one major complaint with almost all of these books–kindle formatting was terrible. There were no breaks between scenes, which made reading a bit frustrating at times. That said, I still enjoyed these books a lot.

Let’s talk about some books I hate for a few minutes. I’ve ranted about these on New Me’s blog, but I thought you’d fucking appreciate my intense level of hatred for these bloody books. Refuse piles. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, and my opinion of these books is rather shitty.

A Billionaire Ex (Novel) (BBW Billionaire Romance) by Alexia Austen

This book was riddled with errors, and ultimately, I returned it for a refund. My goddamned fucking refund virginity was stolen by this fucking piece of shit novel. I hate that I returned a book for refund because it was just that fucking goddamned terrible. ARRRGGHHHHHH.

We hates it, precious.

Billionaire Romance: Swept Off Her Feet (Bad Boy Romance, Alpha Male Romance, Pregnancy Romance) by Kathleen Hope

The following message is why I stopped reading this book… before I even started reading it.

Before You Get Started Reading

>> CLICK HERE<<

I have a VERY important message that you MUST READ!

I promise you its not spam and I’m not trying to sell you anything!

>> CLICK HERE NOW<<

And yes, it included the grammar error in the notice.

From the ‘Piss Off Mother Fucker’ Department: I am a reader. I owe no author any fucking goddamned thing, thank you. I don’t have to read anything your write. I read because I want to, and the instant you dare fucking tell me I must read your fucking message, you have condemned yourself to a cesspool topped in rotten zombie bits.

Fuck you and fuck the horse you rode in on.

 

From the “I gave up on these books” department…

 

Here’s a selection of titles I just couldn’t get into. Either the writing was subpar, the characters didn’t work for well with me, or the books just sucked. Sometimes I just couldn’t get into them.

Zane by Liv Bennett
Pleasure by Lucia Jordan: I just didn’t like it all that much. Nothing necessarily wrong with it. Cliffhanger, and not even a good one.
Dazzled by Silver by Lacey Silks
That Night with my Boss by H & J.S. Cooper
Wall Street by Leia Castle: Cliffhanger prologue, incomplete story.
Bought and Paid for: The Billionaire’s Girlfriend by Lara Hunter: Just couldn’t get into this one.
My Billionaire Boss Made Me His Dog by Taylor James: This is the sort of book that gives contemporary romance and erotica a bad name.
Collide – The secret Life of Trystan Scott (#1) by H.M. Ward: This book bored the fucking hell out of me and now I’m surely going to heaven.
Searching for Moore by Julie Richman: I enjoy romances that fit certain themes, and the guy lead is scum. He has a wife and family, and he throws them away for a fling from high school over twenty years ago. I really dislike plot devices like this.

Expect more Book Review Rampages from me. With random cursing, because twatwaffling douchecanoes.

Amazon Only Looks Evil… Mostly.

Amazon has recently started making good on their threat to attempt to enforce their policies regarding purchased reviews. As with all things, there’s the good, the bad, and the ugly. This post is going to piss some people off. This post is going to please some people.

This post is my opinion,and if you don’t like my opinion, here’s a chance for you to get over it. I’m a writer, and part of my job is to present unpopular opinions.

Authors are finicky beasts. Some of us are egotistical. Some of us lack self-esteem. Many of us fluctuate between the extremes as a general rule. It wouldn’t surprise me if a study was done on the mental health of all writers and we learned writers have a special brand of psychosis. I mean, we make believe for a living.

This all combines to make us, as often as not, not really good business folks. It’s true. I don’t know about others, but I’d rather be writing. As often as possible, that’s exactly what I do. I rely on fans to buy my books when they come out so I can keep on writing. It’s tough–it’s scary, too.

Amazon has started targeting purchased reviews, cracking down on falsified reviews. This stings for those who participate in blog tours, since we never know if those tours will be hit with the review ban hammer.

Here is where my unpopular opinion kicks in: Good.

Let them.

I’ve participated in blog tours, and I won’t lie–totally helped launch my career. Exposure is important. But, here’s the deal: paid reviews kill good, deserving authors.

The reviews I want are from people who found my book and loved it–they loved it so much they wanted to share with others how much they loved the book. The reviews I want are from people who enjoyed my book despite its flaws.

I want honest reviews.

I have always tried to keep my book reviews to reputable blog tours. These are tours that do not offer any monetary incentive to their bloggers. These reviews are, for the most part, honest and give readers a good glimpse of what’s in the book.

Here’s the problem, though. Book reviewers are expected to play nice with the authors. Many book bloggers are honest–and brutally so, at times.

These bloggers, who rate books honestly, who don’t accept rewards for participating in a tour… aren’t being targeted as a general rule.

However, there’s a trend in book reviewing that is causing problems. They are book reviewers who are reviewing a title for a chance to win a prize. That’s directly against Amazon’s terms of service.

While we do not like it, there’s also a rule about friends and family not reviewing your title. That’s why some authors keep a distance–and wisely do not link their main amazon accounts with their facebook accounts.

I’ve lost a few reviews from friends, and while it’s disappointing–fine! Technically against the rules.

How reviewing is done is being changed on Amazon, and it’s being changed on Amazon for a good reason. There are a lot of bestselling books who have gotten that status because the system was gamed. How?

Sites, including fivrr, had reviewers who would skim the book–or just ask the author to provide a basic review–and they would post reviews at a bounty. In short, you’d pay a set fee per review, and the ‘reviewer’ would then log into multiple accounts on amazon and ‘review’ the book.

The surge in reviews would get the book noticed on Amazon, and then these books would be featured in mailers, have the algorithms work in their favor, etc, etc, etc.

Ah, fuck it, who am I kidding? Pissy authors everywhere are freaking out because Amazon is trying to put an end to reviews being gamed on their site. You know what? Get over it. There are a lot of top reviewers who post so many book reviews it is really difficult to believe these people have actually read the ten, twenty, or thirty books a day they’re reviewing.

Yeah, think about that for a second. Some of these prolific reviewers are so prolific it is pretty hard to believe they’re actually reading the books they’re reviewing.

Some people do read ten, twenty, or thirty books a day. And yes, they’re getting caught in the Amazon review ban shit storm. Some reviewers are long time book bloggers, but here’s the deal:

A lot of these reviewers are getting books from paid review tours. The coordinators are paid to hook readers and writers together for reviews. These tours often strongly recommend only favorable reviews are posted.

That means the reviews they post are no longer honest in the eyes of Amazon. By telling reviewers only to post positive reviews, the whole ‘this arc was provided for an honest review’ bit starts falling through. That disclaimer is no longer a waiver. That disclaimer is no longer what you need to do to get reviews from book bloggers to stay.

And that’s a very, very sad thing.

Almost all of my reviews that I’ve had removed have been from book bloggers–and I’ve tracked them back to book blog tours I paid a coordinator to organize for me for my sanity.

I’ve had probably ten reviewers lose reviews from my books. All but one or two have been from coordinated book tours. That speaks volumes.

Amazon wants reviewers reviewing.

Amazon doesn’t want reviewers who are reviewing positively to get free books.

This doesn’t make Amazon evil. It makes an already difficult job even more difficult, though. It’s hard getting reviews. it’s hard waiting and hoping fans like your books enough to leave a few sentences saying why they like a book–or why they don’t like a book. It’s hard hoping fans will be comfortable enough about the reviewing process to leave a review.

I probably only review 10-20% of the books I actually read. Some reviews I’ve neglected to do because I love the book so much each time I go to review it… I get distracted and I read the book again. Yeah, that’s a problem for me. Not going to lie.

I also tend to write commentary and snark as I review books–and if I don’t like a book, that commentary and snark can be a bit biting. I’m a reader as much as a writer, and I get really involved with a book. It isn’t about the author, but you damned well fucking better believe it’s about that book… and I get involved with what I read. A lot.

The following contains excessive profanity because I fucking feel like it:

Authors may not like what I have to say when I review their book, but think about it this way: You fucking got my fucking attention and you fucking made me feel things.

I only review books I have strong fucking feelings about. So the fuck what? I’m an emotional girl, and goddamnit, I read to feel things.

Maybe you don’t like what you fucking made me feel, but that’s not your problem. Seriously, it’s not. It’s mine. But opinions are like assholes, we all have one, and we have to deal with our own shit. Same applies if I fucking loved your book. If I fucking loved it, you better fucking believe I’ll probably be there buying more of your fucking books, so keep fucking writing them! Fuck, not hard.

This ties back to authors engaging with readers: Don’t fucking do it. My review really isn’t for you. I’ve only seen a very few couple of instances where I’ve actually discussed a review with an author, especially a very critical review. I am more likely to engage with an author if I really like their book or I’m close friends with them–or we’re writing buddies.

And even then, I will tell them when I don’t like something. Why? Because I tend to be a fucking blunt and honest person. I’d rather tell the truth than be one of those lying assholes who can’t be fucking trusted with anything, you know?

If I’m saying, “Eh. It was okay.” That’s exactly what I mean. I didn’t love it, didn’t hate it.

If I’m saying, “Not a fan.” That’s exactly what I mean. I didn’t like it. I’m not a fan.

You get the idea. When I’m on the fence, I go for half stars in my reviews. You can figure out if I score down or up from the half star which way I’m closer leaning.

I do review books for authors… if I feel they can handle honesty. I will review the book exactly as I like it.

Why yes, I have lost friends this way… why do you ask?

People are going to fucking bitch and moan about Amazon for one reason or another. It’s a business. No business is perfect. Amazon provides what readers want, however. Amazon versus the Big Publishers was a clusterfuck… and the Big Publishers got their way.

What happened?

I am down to buying one or two Big Publisher book releases every year now instead of buying upwards to a hundred titles a year. Indies and Self-Publishers are getting my money now. Why?

Because I was buying e-books because they were cheaper than the paperbacks I couldn’t afford. Now the e-books are more expensive than the paperbacks in some cases. I can’t afford that shit, and I want to keep reading books.

That is also exactly why I have marked down my books to $2.99 to $3.99 for new releases. I understand my wallet, and I understand that I can buy more books for cheaper, I can buy many books from one author… or just one.

I want my books to be accessible for people just like me.

Yet Amazon is evil.

No, Amazon wants money, and to earn money, they have to look at the big picture. I get that. Money’s evil, and Amazon has succeeded because it is frugal.

Before you start giving me shit about authors being a product, uh yes, we are. Get over it. Every publisher, every marketplace, every seller ever views us as a product. Because we are a product. Readers are using Amazon because it’s easy, because prices are affordable, and because it’s a known name.

Amazon fucks things up from time to time, but here’s the deal:

Amazon has allowed me to actually grow my career. The tools I need to make a successful campaign for my books are present. They have the readers, the buyers, the fans, the lovers of books–and they provide what I need to reach them.

Amazon isn’t evil because of what Amazon is. Amazon is evil because we want to be the pretty princess in the ivory tower of success… and we aren’t. And we expect Amazon to make us all a bestselling author.

Because we feel we are entitled to being that pretty princess in the ivory tower of success. We believe it should be ours just because we write.

No.I am okay with the review thing–because I want to write books that are so good people review them because they must. Because they have felt something so strong they have to tell someone about it.

I want my readers and fans to love my books so much they review because they want to not because I begged them to.

Review my books if you loved them like that. If you haven’t… do me one favor:

Find an author who makes you feel that way.

When you do, review for them, love them, and support them in the best way you can: by loving and keep their books.

You owe authors absolutely nothing. Don’t let us tell you otherwise, no matter how desperate we’re feeling because reviews do help us sell books.

Amazon isn’t evil. It’s a tool like any other, but it has one thing that scares the flying fuck out of authors: the power to make change in the publishing industry.

That’s what’s scary. Amazon has sway, Amazon has readers, and Amazon has already brought change to our comfortable little writing bubbles.

We can’t just go to a book blog touring group and expect magical reviews to rain from the sky. We’re no longer protected by “Received an ARC in exchange for an honest review” because Amazon wised up… too many of those reviews aren’t honest.

Too many of those reviews came from tour groups with strong recommendations for only positive reviews.

Too many of those reviews were actually purchased on sites like fivrr to be positive and help their authors sell books.

We don’t have to like the reasoning, but we do have to adapt to it.

For us authors?

That means we have to do better, and we have to fucking stand up and keep writing books–more books, better books, and books readers fall so deeply in love with they can’t help but leave a review because we wrote words that touched their heart or soul.

When you see a book and go, “Wow! That was so amazing, how can it not be a bestseller?” review the book. Tell your friends about it.

Bestsellers become bestsellers because people love the book and fight to make it shine. The author brought the book…

… but the readers made it a bestseller.

That’s what Amazon is trying to accomplish. They want the organic spread of books so loved they rise to the top. They don’t want gorilla marketing campaigns designed to force a book to the bestseller list.

They want to find the hidden gems that bring life to a reader’s eyes.

Amazon isn’t evil. It can’t be. It isn’t a person. It’s a business tool–and it’s a tool that’s trying to push authors into writing more and better books.

I’m fucking okay with that. Why?

Because I want to write good books. I want to write great books… and I want those books to find their way into the hands of readers who will love them.

Do reviews sell books? Yes.

But you know what actually sells books?

The book does. Everything about the book, from its cover to its description to its first pages.

Reviews just tip the scales.

You want to support authors?

Fucking read. That’s it. Read. You don’t owe us jack shit. While I’d love if you loved my books enough to leave a review, whether or not you review is entirely your choice.

If I didn’t grab your heart and squeeze it so much a review oozed out, that’s okay.

Just keep fucking reading.

Just keep fucking writing.

In the grand scheme… publishing as an industry is kinda evil. Blaming one entity does no one any good. At the very end of the day, books matter. It’s a big world. Find your way in it.

If you view Amazon as evil, go elsewhere. That’s your choice.

But Amazon’s policies aren’t the real act of evil here:

The fact we have a problem with people buying fame, buying reviews, and believing it’s okay to get positive reviews at any cost is the real act of evil here.

I don’t have a problem with people using book blog tours to connect with reviewers–if those groups don’t mandate positive-only reviews.

Problem is, the reviewers are under pressure to do just that.

And that is why reviews are being removed–not because they were found on tour groups, but because those groups do not actually exchange ARCs for honest reviews. They’re asked to review positively.

And that violates Amazon’s terms of condition.

Amazon is giving us exactly what we asked for. Think about that very carefully. Authors have been crying for years to get rid of the biased reviews.

And they have. They are… and now we’re starting to see just how far the dark arms of biased reviews stretch.

And it isn’t entirely Amazon’s fault. It’s ours, too.

Now that we’ve gotten what we’ve asked for… what are we going to do about it?

I don’t know what everyone else is going to do about it, but I’m going to write better fucking books. I want to write books that squeeze a reader’s heart until a review oozes out.

Adventures in Moving: Preparing for Battle

Sometime in the near future, my husband and I will be moving to California. He was hired by Apple, and we found out a couple of weeks ago that his visa application was approved. We have to go in for a visa interview, but I don’t foresee any problems with that.

I’m not going to lie. My husband and I are fucking messy. We both work from home, we both tend to get ultra focused on our work, and fucking frankly, we’re two of the laziest motherfuckers you’ve ever met when it comes to things like chores. We work hard and we play hard, and cleaning doesn’t fall into the equation like it should.

So, in order to move, we have to pretty much change all of our bad habits, take our damned pack rat tendencies, and alter our general lifestyle quite a bit.

Fuckityfuckfuckfuck.

Nope, I’m so not ready for this. If the lawyers are correct in their estimate, we have a maximum of three months before we’ll be in California. In that time, we have to do the following:

Clean the house
Restore the basement
Fix the faucets. All of them.
Replace the molding in the bathrooms.
Fix the banister.
Fix the upstairs electricity circuit.
Repair the pool. (a pipe burst at the end of the season.)
Sell the house.
Clean.
Clean.
Clean.

I fucking hate cleaning. I’d rather rip my toenails out. Sure, I get a thrill out of turning chaos to order, which makes cleaning a little bit rewarded, but…

Okay, not going to lie here. I have a serious pack rat problem. Actually, no. I’m a goddamned fucking dragon. I’m awesome, and my horde of treasures shall not be taken from me!

Reality: I, of my own free will, pruned my extensive beer glass collection down to five glasses I really liked. The entirety of my whiskey bottle collection is being thrown out. I am actually giving away limited numbers of my journals to a few friends who deserve/need them. LIMITED NUMBERS. I’m not crazy, okay? This dragon isn’t doing a whole lot of pruning of the journal collection. You can just suck it if you don’t like it.

My entire port collection (over 20-30 bottles, some of them rare) is being given away; the movers don’t like moving alcohol. This is actually pretty painful for me, because I’ve been collecting some of these bottles for years. I enjoy a glass of port every couple of weeks, and I like a variety.

I’ll begin my collection again in California. I will be drinking the ports I really like best, or the really expensive bottles, though. This dragon can’t have all the joy of life sucked away, okay?

The xbox and our game collection is also going; the xbox broke recently, and replacing it isn’t currently an option. We may keep the games in case the husband wants to get another xbox. Uncertain. We’ll see. It’s something we’ll discuss. We may keep the games because I’ve already packed them into a box.

My first task is to go through my kitchen. Unfortunately, thanks to my dragon-like tendencies to horde things and buy shiny objects, my kitchen is a disaster area of excess. The beer glasses are only one manifestation of this excess.

The less shit I own means the more books I can take, right?

My husband wanted me to get rid of my book collection. I told him over my dead body. We have compromised. By compromise, I actually I actually mean: there is no fucking way I’m getting rid of my fucking book collection.

He has learned some battles can’t be won, and that is one of them.

So, today, I battle my kitchen.

Tomorrow, I take over the world. Be ready.

2015 in Review: Finances, Taxes, and Money Matters

(c) qisur (Creative Commons – Flickr)

It’s tax season. Yesterday, I compared my earnings from 2014 and 2015 on a book-by-book level, discussing the changes in income and situation.

Today, I’m going to show 2015 on a more complete level, discussing monetary expenditures versus earnings.

Here is a top-level glance at my expenditures and earnings by month.

Month
Earnings
Spending


January
$455.09
$1,084.00


February
$190.58
 $0.00


March
$386.59
$45.00


April
$357.95
$84.00


May
$246.87
$0.00


June
$126.36
$100.00


July
$794.63
$44.99


August
$354.26
$0.00


September
$359.07
$500.18


October
$609.18
$1,375.86


November
$1,410.08
$585.00


December
$1,218.54
$638.00



$6,509.18
$4,457.03

 

There are a few things you have probably noticed about this chart. First, there are months I didn’t spend anything. Why? Editorial, Cover Art, and often Advertising are done in advance. Sometimes, I plan one to two months in advance. For some covert art, I plan a year in advance. So, that skews things. Here’s the deal: I pay for things as I have the money to pay for them–or I’m gambling and anticipating earnings. Take October for example.

In October, I spent a great deal of money on Cover Art. I also spent a great deal on advertising for November and December. Money spent in December was used for earnings in January 2016 and so on. So, this isn’t actually a good indication of how money flows. That said, I spent less in 2015 than I earned, and that is the foundation for a successful business. (Profit does matter.)

What this does show is that spending money on advertising makes a big difference. The months I had the extra money to spend on advertising, I made substantially more money in the following months. Not every promotion worked, and there were definitely promotions I lost money on, but… I gained more than I lost, which is my end-game goal as a general rule.

January, October, November, and December saw a lot of general investments in cover art and editorial, which skews the numbers. Nov-Jan of each year tends to have higher sales, so I try to invest in my writing when I expect money to come in to cover the bills.

Later in the 2015, editorial work wasn’t being compensated through monetary investments, which has really, really helped my bottom line. Yay for bartering and/or other methods of payment!

Here is the list of expenditures by type:

Advertising: $1,623.97
Convention: $175.00
Cover Art: $1,446.50
Editing: $505.00
Office Supplies: $706.56

2016 will see a large spike in cover art costs, very little in editorial costs, substantial amounts in advertising, and very little in office supplies. That said, this is a pretty good indication of how I spend my money. In 2016, I want to spend more on advertising if I can afford it to help boost my general visibility.

I also use a lot of free tools to help promote my books, which helps substantially.

Let’s Talk Advertising

Advertising is the primary driver of my sales. While I’d like to say I have a huge street team of first-day buyers, I don’t. I rely on using free promotions to gain exposure and reviews, which in turn help convince other readers to give my books a try.

I also use book blog tours to help gain a name and exposure. I have a preference for tours that review books as a part of the tour.

In 2016,one of my goals is to explore free options I can do for advertising in addition to the things I already do. No lies, advertising is tough as hell for me, but I keep stabbing at it in hopes of succeeding somewhere.

My main strategy is persistence. I figure if I don’t give up, something good will happen eventually… right?

About that Cover Art…

Cover Art is expensive, but worth it. My cover art costs have gone up substantially, but I’m coping with it. Because I buy things as I have the money to do so, I have a lot of cover art for unreleased titles. That means when the books are ready, I don’t have to worry if my royalties were high enough to handle the costs.

It doesn’t pay off in the short term, but it does pay off in the long term. Don’t spend money you don’t have is a pretty good rule for business… and unfortunately, when you’re an author, it often doesn’t work out that way until you have at least three to five books out… and even then, if you aren’t aggressive about your advertising, if you don’t hit in a semi-popular genre, you might not have the income.

Publishing is a pretty difficult career option. In some ways, I do not feel successful at all. Every time I look at my finances, I worry–and with good reason.

There are no guarantees. So, I try to stack the deck in my favor and hope it works out in the long term.

Talking Business: The Financials of Writing

(c) Jo Naylor (Creative Commons License – Flickr)

It’s tax season again, and authors around the world are whimpering and preparing to sell their souls to the IRS. I’m no different, except I have a piece of paper that I send the government showing I’m exempted from US taxes. (I still have to file, but I do not owe them anything.)

I’m not going to go into much detail on my expenses, but I will be talking about money flow. I will be comparing 2014 and 2015. In 2014, I was still doing a substantial amount of editorial work.

Before I dig into the nitty-gritty, I want to list the books I released by year.

2014 Releases

Inquisitor (Witch & Wolf #1, May 2014)
Winter Wolf (Witch & Wolf #2, Nov 2014)

2015 Releases

Storm Surge (Requiem #2, Apr 2015)
Blood Diamond (Witch & Wolf #3, Jun 2015)
Tales of the Winter Wolf (#1-5, Jul-Sept 2015)
Beneath a Blood Moon (Witch & Wolf Standalone, Nv 2015)
New Me’s Book (#1 of Series, Dec 2015)

The number of books released is a pretty good indication of how thin I was spreading myself on the editorial front; by quitting client edits, I was able to release three additional novels in 2015. This has made a huge difference on my finances overall.)

I made ~$100 less in 2015 than I did in 2014.

This is actually a pretty big deal, and in a fantastic way. In 2014, I won the Amazon lottery and got featured in a mailer, which resulted in a huge boost to earnings over a 2 month period of time.

In 2015, I had no such luck. Every penny I earned in 2015 was done through advertising and my books selling themselves.

Progress is being made, and it’s good progress. Of course, some of 2014’s earnings were from books written in 2013, and the same applies for 2015, too.

Breaking Down the Earnings by Year
2013 | $602.45

Storm Without End | $409.48
The Eye of God | $192.97

2014 | $6,660.90

Inquisitor | $4,905.83
Storm Without End | $389.49
The Eye of God | $194.99
Winter Wolf | $1,170.59

2015 | $6,509.18

Beneath a Blood Moon | $424.34
Blood Diamond | $1,068.51
Inquisitor | $1,568.75
Omnibus – Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol 1-5 | $148.31
Storm Surge | $419.67
Storm Without End | $240.48
Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol. 1 | $93.48
Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol. 2 | $65.18
Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol. 3 | $56.85
Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol. 4 | $60.70
Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol. 5 | $56.41
New Me’s Book | $542.13
The Eye of God | $54.91
Winter Wolf | $1,709.47

What do these numbers mean…?

That’s a very good question. In the grand scheme of things, the answer is ‘nothing.’ Luck plays as much a part in the publishing world as strategy. In 2014, I got lucky. In 2015, I played the numbers game.

In 2014, I had four titles to work with. In 2015, I had 14 titles to work with. There was no one golden race horse in 2015, while I had Inquisitor’s lucky Amazon mailer driving income and sales in 2014. These numbers suggest there is definitely something there to the belief of more books equals success, to a certain degree. (More good books would equal more success, too.)

Here’s the thing, though. Quality and genre matter. In 2015, The Eye of God made $54.91. This is by far my worst book, and it’s also a fringe book. (I still love this book, but let’s face it. It’s my debut title and it has lots of warts.) Length of the book plays a huge factor, too. The Tales of the Winter Wolf series comes in at approximately 30,000 words per volume. They’re priced cheaper as a result. Their earnings, as such, are lower. Beneath a Blood Moon is my longest title at approximately 180,000 words, but it’s a new release, thus hasn’t had any time to gain momentum. I also haven’t done any advertising or special promotions for it, either.

My main Witch & Wolf novels are still my money makers, which comes as no surprise to me.

So, take from this as you will. But, there’s definitely something to be said about the advice to keep writing and releasing new books. It’s hard, but it helps. It really does.

Sometimes you just need to step back and take a look at the big picture… and remember that your big picture might have some clouded panes of glass. For me, the Amazon mailer in 2014 is that clouded pane of glass, because I have judged my overall financial performance against a freak stroke of luck instead of looking through another section of glass, one that wasn’t quite so fogged up and distorted from a singular incident.

Something to think about.

(Shameless self-promotion: If you find blog posts like this useful, drop a handful of quarters in the donation bin by buying a book for yourself or a friend. Alternatively, you can drop a few quarters in the indiegogo donation bin.)

State of the Union: Works-in-Progress, Crowdfunding, and More!

I haven’t done a State of the Blain Union address in a while, so here I am, ready to dig into my crazy and insane life.

Let’s Get Personal…

My life has been a bit of a rollercoaster lately. The big thingie is the impending move to California, which I am so not ready for. House is a mess, I have no organization skills at current, house is a mess, I have repairs to do, house is a mess, the basement still isn’t finished and money doesn’t grow on trees to finish the repairs, house is a mess, and everything is crazy.

Did I mention the house is a mess?

Shitfuck.

In actuality, I’m actually doing pretty okay. There are some rough spots, most of them financial, but California will mean a lot for us; husband’s pay will go up dramatically, and while our living expenses will also go up, we’ll be fine. Probably debt free on top of fine, too, which is even better. Well, mostly debt free.

The sewage flood really did sink us. It sucks. But, we’ll get through it. All-in-all, it could have been a lot worse. And boy, do I ever mean a lot worse.

Let’s Talk Books…

Beneath a Blood Moon was my last RJ Blain release.

It’s basically about a young, smart woman who ran from her past and became a stripper in order to survive and get the education she wants (and needs) to truly move on in her life. When she comes down with a severe case of werewolf, her world is turned upside down…

This title is good for those who want an introduction to the Witch & Wolf world, as it follows the story of someone who went from being a Normal everyday girl to someone not quite so normal. It’s also one of my favorite books. I’m biased.

This is also my longest novel published to date, coming in at 180,000 words. It’s a bit of a monster. The cover artist is the delightful Holly Heisey, who does the vast majority of my cover art work nowadays.

New Books are Coming…

Before I dive in and talk about the new titles, I’m going to discuss the crowdfund I’m working on. It’s to help me get my novels back into print. The two new books I’m about to discuss are included in several perks. You can get them in the $17 “Coloring Book & New Books” perk, the $30 “Coloring Books & 7 ebooks” perk, the Original Coloring Page perk, the Pick Your Page perk, and you can get them in the unsigned and signed print books perks.

Anyway, onto the books.

Pack Justice is the story of a cheetah shaman, Sean, who serves as a prosecuting attorney. He has kept his supernatural nature secret from everyone, uncertain of what would happen if they found out he had a ghost cheetah for a campaign and limited shapeshifting abilities.

Sean has gotten everything he has dreamed of in his career, but something is missing: a wife who isn’t psychotic and out for his blood. Filing for divorce is his first step towards freedom, but he never anticipated the lengths his wife would go to keep him–or that he isn’t the only one with a secret.

A last ditch effort to save his marriage ends in ruins. In order to save Sean’s life, his cheetah risks his life and sacrifices his freedom to strike a bargain with a wolf. With a pair of spirit beasts lurking in his head, adapting to his new life won’t be easy.

If Sean wants to protect himself and his loved ones from his ex-wife, he’ll need to to the lines between justice, mercy, and vengeance. One wrong decision could cost him his life–and the lives of those who mean the most to him.

Pack Justice will be released sometime in 2016. There will be no preorders for this novel, so if you want to know when it’s out, please go to my amazon page and click the follow button!

Shadowed Flame is one of the hardest books I’ve ever worked on. When I write, the world is full of senses; sight, sound, taste, and touch. I love trying to bring a world to life using as many senses as I can.

Shadowed Flame tells the story of a young woman who was involved in a major car accident when she was an infant. Her mother was killed. Her father disappeared. In order to redeem himself, the drunk driver who had caused the accident adopts Matia and raises her as though she were his own.

The evidence of what her adoptive father did touches every part of her life, for Matia lives in a world without color. Her cursed eyes see more–and less–than they should, and she has dedicated her life to erasing the dark aura of guilt cloaking her father.

Matia’s life is forever changed when she’s caught in a bombing of a busy airport. With her health in tatters, she must come to terms with her mortality. Aware of the fact her next breath could be her last, she is determined to make the most of the time she has left.

If she wants to survive, she will have to fight fire with fire, and the truth behind her colorblind eyes could prove her salvation–or lead to her ruin.

And finally, I’m working on another Witch & Wolf standalone novel about a former government agent who discovers the art heist he had been hired to pull off is a cover for a far more dangerous mission, one that could cost him his freedom, his sanity, and possibly his life.

It doesn’t have a title yet, but it’s a seriously fun little romp, and I’m having a blast working on it. Unfortunately, as it contains all the spoilers!!! I can’t release this one until after Silver Bullet is released. Boo!

Oh, yes. Silver Bullet. That’s coming, too. Late 2016 or Early 2017, if things go to schedule. We’ll see.

Let’s Talk Crowdfunding…

I’ve talked about this before, so I’ll keep it brief. I love writing, I love my books, and I love entertaining people. Writing as a career choice is pretty difficult, although I’m doing the best I can. Print editions have been an expense I haven’t been willing to afford. It sucks.

However, I’ve started work with a super-awesome cover artist, Holly Heisey, who has been able to work with me and my budget to bring my novels back into print. Here’s a breakdown of my basic costs, which are being covered in the indiegogo campaign:

$550 for an omnibus edition of Books 1-3 (Inquisitor, Winter Wolf, and Blood Diamond in one book.)
$550 for book 4. (Silver Bullet.)
$150 for Beneath a Blood Moon (Standalone.)
$150 for Pack Justice (Standalone.)
$150 for Shadowed Flame (Standalone.)
$300 for Copyright fees
$50 Misc. Expenses

You’ll notice there are two drastically different price points here. The covers costing $150 I’ve already purchased the front cover layouts for and paid for; they are the digital ebook covers, which will be used to create the print edition versions. The covers costing $550 need full design work.

So, in order to gather funds, I’m putting a second passion of mine to good use: my art. I’ve always been good at sketching and line art; I can’t color or paint worth a shit, though. I also love coloring books, although I’m pretty much like Matia when it comes to them–absolutely colorblind. I don’t care, though. They’re fun.

So, I’m melding passions together by creating a fantasy-themed coloring book suitable for adults and kids. There will also be plant & animal coloring pages, too. These are digital pages, so you can print them out and color them as often as you like. The coloring book can be acquired in the basic $10 perk, and will include 50+ pages.

Here’s an example of some of the pages:

Here is a breakdown of the available perks:

$10: 50+ Coloring Pages
$17: Coloring Pages & the unreleased W&W ebooks (Shadowed Flame, Pack Justice, and SIlver Bullet.)
$20: Coloring Pages & released W&W ebooks (Inquisitor, Winter Wolf, Blood Diamond, Beneath a Blood Moon.)
$30: Coloring Pages & main W&W ebooks (Inquisitor, Winter Wolf, Blood Diamond, Beneath a Blood Moon, Shadowed Flame, Pack Justice, and Silver Bullet.)
$50: Original Coloring Page Art: You will receive the original line art for one of the coloring pages, plus all 7 W&W ebooks. (Shipping costs extra) (5 available.)
$60: Unsigned W&W novels: You will receive a copy of the W&W 3 book omnibus, Silver Bullet, Pack Justice, Shadowed Flame, and Beneath a Blood Moon. These will be shipped as the books are ready. (Shipping costs extra.) You will also receive ebook versions of the book. 20 available.
$75: Pick Your Page: You will pick a theme of a coloring page, and I will draw it for you. The page will be included in the coloring book, plus you will be mailed the original art. This perk also comes with all 7 W&W novels. (Shipping costs extra)
$150: Signed W&W Novels: You will receive the W&W print editions, signed (and possibly drawn in, because I tend to doodle with my signature…) and sent to you. These books ship when the entirety of them are available. You also receive ebook versions of the books. (10 available.)

So, if you’re interested, please drop over to the indiegogo! If you’re not in a financial position to contribute, there are lots of ways you can help. Share this campaign with your friends and family–lots of people love coloring books. I try to keep the art as kid friendly as possible, so families can enjoy coloring together. (That said, there are more complex pieces in the book, which are meant for adults to have fun with.)

Thanks so much. Back to work with me so I can get all of these unwritten books finished and released. Hope you all have a fantastic day.

Crowdfund for Print Books

I’m asked every week by a reader when my books will become available in print. I’ve been delaying for quite a while because I wanted to hire Holly Heisey, my current cover artist, to do the print cover layouts. While her prices are reasonable, I haven’t been in the financial position to make them happen.

I’ve finally gotten to the point the print editions are in the cards. Affording the cost of bringing all of my Witch & Wolf novels into print has been a challenge. At this point, it will happen. The question is when.

With your help, I can make it happen a lot sooner than otherwise. I’ve launched a crowdfunding campaign specifically to bring old & new Witch & Wolf novels into print. Before I talk about the book, I want to show you what the primary perk will be:

An adult coloring book. Actually, an all-ages coloring book. It will be a collection of line art images you can print and color. I’ve always enjoyed art, and line art is the one form of art I’m consistently good at. There will be a minimum of fifty pages in a rage of sizes, including a sheet of bookmarks you can take to a printer to have printed on card stock if that’s up your alley.

The above images are examples of what will be included in the coloring page gallery. The final pictures will be cleaned to black & white and scanned so they can be printed on 8×11 sheets of paper.

The originals are also available as a perk (assigned randomly to contributors.) There’s even a perk level where you can tell me what to draw.

I will be drawing dragons, unicorns, pegasus, other mythical beasts, flowers, and mundane animals as coloring book subjects. I will also be trying my hand at abstract and non-abstract patterns, although I have no idea how many (if any) will make it to the final edition of the coloring book.

Other perks include:

e-book copies of the Witch & Wolf Novels (4 Main Series novels, 3 standalones)
Unsigned copies of the books. (They’ll be substantially cheaper than the retail price.)
Signed copies of the book. (Currently limited to 5 sets. If there is enough demand for the set, I may increase this number. Signed copies will also include an exclusive bookmark for your coloring enjoyment.)

The 50 page set of coloring pages costs $10. I will be adding additional pages to the coloring set if the campaign funds.

I know there are some of you who have been waiting for print editions of these books for a long time. Should the campaign fund, I will be opening stretch goals to bring the rest of my books into print.

This campaign focuses on these titles:

Omnibus collection of Witch & Wolf Books 1-3 (Inquisitor, Winter Wolf, Blood Diamond.)
Silver Bullet (Late 2016 / Early 2017.)
Beneath a Blood Moon
Pack Justice
Shadowed Flame

Here is a sampling of the covers Holly has already done for me:

If the campaign funds and stretch goals are met, I will be releasing/adding the following titles to the campaign:

Tales of the Winter Wolf Volumes 1-5
Omnibus Collection of Requiem for the Rift King Books 1 & 2 (Storm Without End, Storm Surge.)
New Me’s Omnibus Collection of Books 1-3.
Work-in-Progress Novel Currently Untitled

Here’s a breakdown of the perks: (Prices exclude shipping)

$1: 5 coloring pages
$10: The entire coloring page collection
$30: All ebooks & the coloring page collection
$50: Original Art of a Coloring Page
$60: Unsigned copies of print books (20 available.)
$75: Pick a Page: You get to request a theme for your very own coloring page.
$150: Signed collection of the print books plus an exclusive piece of art. (A bookmark.)

I may be adding additional perks as the campaign continues, or raising the availability of some perks dependent on demand.

A note about the retail price of the books: Titles will range between $15-$25, as I will be enrolling them in Amazon’s extended distribution program. They’ll be cheaper from my createspace store, so details on that will be available as I get them.

Thank you so much for your support. Even if you can’t offer monetary help, please click on over and share this campaign with any of your friends or loved ones who enjoy art and fiction.