End-of-year news and new year news

It’s been a while since I last posted here! I have a loooot of news to catch up on, so brace for a long post. Some of this won’t be news depending on if you follow me on social media or subscribe to my newsletter, but I wanted to collect it all here anyway. 🙂

Fourth World is a Library Journal SELF-e Selection

The biggest news of the last month was learning that Fourth World was chosen by Library Journal as a SELF-e Selection. This was a huge honor and basically blew me out of the water, because I had no clue it was even being considered. I had submitted the book not long after publication to their regional library program, which was supposed to make the ebook available for free to libraries in my area (so Oregon, possibly Washington depending on whether they were going regionally or just by state), and that was it as far as I knew. But apparently Library Journal selects the best titles regionally and nationally to be included in their curated catalog, which is available to participating libraries across the United States and Canada. And Fourth World made the cut! My reaction, basically:

They also gave me a fancy seal to include on my cover. You may have noticed it on retailers already! It will be on the paperback at some point as well.

I’m super excited to see the series available to more and more readers through libraries. I’ve seen a big uptick in my sales of ebooks to Overdrive as well as print books to schools and libraries through my publisher’s print distributor, which is fantastic. Remember, if you’d like to see the Iamos Trilogy at your local library, just ask your librarian! It should be easily available for them to order.

New vendors for The Iamos Trilogy

Remember how I said after Pronoun closed that I hoped to get the series back on Google Play in the future? Well, it happened way faster than I expected. Google didn’t make a deal with Draft2Digital like I’d hoped, but they did open their doors to new publishers after being closed for several years, likely in response to the Pronoun news. So you can find Fourth World and Different Worlds on Google Play now, and the rest of the series will also be available there upon release.

Additionally, by popular request, I’ve made the books available on Gumroad! So, for those of you who like to buy your ebooks there, you can find my books here.

Cheerleaders From Planet X is available in Kindle Unlimited + $0.99 Sale Info

As I mentioned I was planning after the Pronoun debacle, I have enrolled Cheerleaders in Kindle Unlimited in order to try to resuscitate sales on Amazon after losing my original listing and also-boughts. That means for the time being, it is available only on Amazon. Depending on how things go, I will probably make it available widely again after a couple cycles (they lock you in for 90-day enrollment periods). That would likely be around May if I do decide to go that route.

In the meantime, my publisher for that book, The Kraken Collective, is planning a big, 20-book+ sale event to celebrate our one-year anniversary. There’s going to be a lot of fun involved there, from a bookish personality quiz to a multi-author blog hop. I’ll share more info about that as we get closer, but for now I’ll tell you that both Cheerleaders and Fourth World are going to be on sale for $0.99 from January 26-February 1, so mark your calendars!

Moving into 2018

Being the end of the year, I’ve done some reflecting and taken stock on the last five months since I had surgery. I posted about it more in-depth on Patreon, for those of you who are on there; the condensed version is that I’ve realized I’m in a place where I can make a full-time living with my writing, but it means I need to be writing full-time. My freelance businesses have been a good way to make extra cash in the short run, but they’ve been a detriment in the long run because they consume so much time that I should be using to write and getting my books to you faster. So, to that end…

Key of Heart Designs is closing

After I finish with my last scheduled client in January, I’m going to be closing my formatting/cover design business. This will free up my time to concentrate on writing full-time. You may still see a few new covers or interiors from me as I finish up work on ongoing series with current clients, but I won’t be accepting new clients for the foreseeable future.

My online store is closing

With the goal of continuing to simplify my life and allow more free time for writing without making me sick, I’ve decided to close the online store that’s integrated with my website. The majority of my books are available through Snowy Wings Publishing, which just opened an online store of their own, so if you’re looking for signed copies, be sure to check there. When New World releases, I’ll be sure to do a special preorder like I have for my other books, and it will be available on my publisher’s store.

The only book that won’t be there is Cheerleaders From Planet X, but I’m thinking about alternatives for that one—possibly Gumroad. I’ll keep you posted on whatever I decide. In the meantime, if you order the book through Amazon and want the swag that was available through my store, just send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope (or an international reply coupon if you’re not in the US) and I’ll send you a signed bookplate and the art postcard. You can send that to:

P.O. Box 1035
Turner, OR 97392
USA

I’m going to be using Patreon more

Since I’m closing Key of Heart Designs, I had to restructure my Patreon (one of the old reward tiers offered a discount on formatting and other design services). This led to me coming up with a new way to use Patreon that I’m really excited about: Indie Insider, a short monthly podcast all about the publishing industry, with a special focus on topics of interest to indie authors and publishers. I’m going to be recording the first episode shortly and I’m super excited to share it with patrons. If you’re interested, you can find my Patreon here!

I also have a number of Iamos-related short stories in the works over the coming months leading up to New World, and these will be shared exclusively to Patreon. These stories dive more deeply into the pasts of characters we’ve encountered in the first book and novella of the series, the way “The Choice” did for Eos and Marin. I have one story already published on Patreon about Tamara’s moms as teenagers; additionally, in January there will be a brand-new story about Nadin and Ceilos; and when New World releases, I have a Tamara and Henry story that I’ll post at the same time (can’t do it earlier, because, you know, spoilers 😉). All of these stories connect to New World in some way, so I’m hoping they’ll give you a better understanding of the world and the characters as well as tide you over until the book’s release.

That, by the way, is on schedule for a spring release! I hope to have a concrete date soon, and at that time, I’ll have another exciting announcement—I just so happen to have a gorgeous cover for the third book that needs sharing…

Anyway, that’s it for me! I’m looking forward to 2018 being a productive one with lots of writing and new books for you!

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