Not So Hardcore Anymore

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male-presenting shirtless weightlifter holding dumbbell. kneeling with one knee on a weight bench. text reads: not so hardcore anymore.
This isn’t exactly what I meant, but he’s yummy to look at.

There are a lot of things that I just don’t care about anymore, and maybe with what I’ve seen and what I’ve been through, how I’ve been treated and where I am now compared to where I wish I was, that you would consider that statement as apathy. But I don’t think I’ve fallen that far. It’s more like, I’ve lost the will to put out all the dumpster fires I see every day and would rather just step back and roast marshmallows with the flames.

As we get older, it’s common that what used to be important no longer is, and I can tell every day when I see fights online that I’ve softened. There are a lot of indies out there who speak with their whole chest about things that matter to them, and their version of facts can either be right or wrong or somewhere in between.

I’ve written this blog for ten years now, and when I dare scroll backward that far, I can feel the heat on my face from my own flames. I was very “This is how you do it if you want to do it correctly” and I didn’t leave a lot of grey area. It was my way or the highway, and man, I don’t even have a highway anymore. I have a path, through the woods, that goes to a lake, where I sit and watch the ducks.

Going back and reading my older blog posts is almost cringe in a way. That you had conviction is supposed to make you proud, that you had the nerve to stand up for yourself, or in my case, the industry/readers, but usually all I sounded like was a pompous idiot who hadn’t been in the trenches long enough to realize that I’m not going to be right all the time. Not even some of the time. I only thought that I was.

Here are some of the things I’ve stopped fighting about.

Craft is a personal choice: I’m not going to argue with you (anymore).
Probably one of the biggest things I don’t care about anymore is how people write. Especially romance. In 2019, I was pretty against writing romance in first person. Not because I didn’t like reading it–I enjoyed Hunger Games and Twilight like everybody else–but from a craft point of view, I didn’t like the dual first person idea of a romance. The “I” belonged to one person, not two. Which, fine. I can see where I was coming from, but then what the fuck was I thinking when I started Zane and Stella and what would become my King’s Crossing serial in December of that year? I couldn’t have been that appalled by it.

Now days, I don’t care who writes what. Write a chapter in first, then the next in third, then the next in first if you want. Some authors actually do that. I don’t care anymore when the idea before would have made me throw up in my mouth a little. The thing is, I don’t have to pay for it. I don’t have to read it, and I don’t have to write like that. So live and let live. If you want read that stunning piece of craft critique, you can do so here: https://vaniamargene.com/2019/07/22/changing-your-point-of-view-how-you-write-and-thoughts-on-1st-3rd-past-and-present-tense/

Trigger Warnings: To add them or not to add them.
Another thing I don’t care about anymore is trigger warnings. You may be surprised to know that I was against them, or at least, I wasn’t for them, and I’m not sure when I changed my mind. This year? Last? I used to say stupid shit like, “Life is triggering.” I was callous and agreed with people who said to “Just get over it.” I didn’t consider them spoilers–I have never thought spoilers ruined books–only that books about life can be hard. But that’s the whole point. Life is hard, and if a warning can help a reader avoid more hard, why not add it?

The only thing with adding triggers anywhere to your book now is that Amazon takes that to mean it’s full of naughty, filthy things, and they’ll bury it. Or so some authors say. Publishing a book on KDP is like playing Russian roulette, so I never wanted to take my chances adding something to the blurb or author’s note in the front matter that could get my book locked in the dungeon or taken down completely. I should make up a list and put it on my website, but the only list I have there so far is for my King’s Crossing serial because yeah, those books are full of some shit.

Do I think you should add trigger warnings to your books? I think they should be somewhere accessible for your reader to find so people can choose if they want to read your books or not. It’s okay for people to self-select out. It’s the best way to keep readers happy and avoid bad reviews.

When should you redo a book? Whenever you want.
Back when I first started writing, I would get frustrated when I saw authors redoing their books after they were already published. I had this kind of purity rule that I followed and believed that once you published a book you shouldn’t go back and re-edit it or change the cover because people had already spent money on that edition. It was kind of a strange stance, especially since I’ve re-edited and re-covered many books since I’ve been publishing. In fact, re-editing and updating the cover and blurb is encouraged these days to give older titles a little breath of fresh air. It’s smart marketing when you have time to circle back to older work. I’m re-editing my Cedar Hill duet now, and I have new covers made that look fabulous. And of course I’m going to do the whole cover reveals and ads and treat them like new releases because these are good stories and mediocre covers and so-so writing was holding them back.

My blog post, When Should You Redo a Book, https://vaniamargene.com/2017/08/08/when-should-you-redo-a-book/, goes a little deeper and discusses old books completely redone with new titles, covers, and ISBN numbers. I’ve known indie authors who have done this too, trying to give their debuts a better second chance. I always figured that was too much work–to pull a book, waste an ISBN, get a new cover and title. I figure, let that one go and just write a better book next time. The blog I linked to was written back in 2017, a year after I jumped into the indie trenches with both feet. I should probably just unpublish it because I talk about trad authors like Robyn Carr, and when their backlist gets revamped and re-released, they probably don’t even get a say, or if they do, they agree because who wouldn’t want to breathe new life into a thirty-year-old book? New cover and title could mean thousands of new readers who weren’t familiar with that particular story.

So, yeah. My viewpoint has definitely changed. Do I think you should go back and redo a book from top to bottom? You do you, boo, because one day ten years from now, I might wanna do it too.

Should you write a series? If you can handle the commitment.
Because I started publishing back in 2016, I repeated, and believed, a lot of the advice that was thrown around back then. There was no reason not to when you could listen to any six-figure author tell you how they built a readership and made all their moola. But, as Exposé sings, seasons change, and 2026 isn’t the same as it was back in 2016. When I wrote this blog post– https://vaniamargene.com/2019/09/02/why-i-wrote-a-series-and-why-you-should-write-one-too/— back in 2019, I was very much in favor of writing a series, and a lot of what I believed is still somewhat true. Read-through is good, if you can get it. More ways to market–free/discounted first in series, boxed sets.

But since then, I’ve changed my mind (you can read why here: https://vaniamargene.com/2025/09/22/is-writing-a-long-series-worth-it/). I put a lot of time into my King’s Crossing serial. Five years, to be exact, and while I love love love Zane and Stella and Gage and Zarah, it’s really nothing I want to do again. Even if there is nothing to support my theory that short attention spans and second-screen syndrome are keeping readers from wanting to read a long series, with the way my life is now, that level of commitment doesn’t even seem possible.

Do I think you should write a long series? It depends. Do you want instant gratification? If you do, a series is not the way to go. It takes time to complete a series, and with the number of complaints I see online about readers waiting until a whole series is available to start (which is completely understandable, in my opinion), if you don’t want to write the entire thing first, definitely adjust your expectations. You might find it’s not worth it. You have to go into writing a series for yourself–because you love the world and love the characters. If you think you’re not going to have the motivation to finish, don’t start. A six book series could be six standalones, two trilogies, three duets, or a four-book series plus two standalones, etc. Easier to chew through, yeah? As for me, it will be a long time, if ever, before I decide to do another long series. I still have two out of six of an interconnect series that I wrote during COVIID on my computer, so, we’ll see. I’m not dead yet.

You can be consistently inconsistent, and it’s perfectly fine.
I still think if you want to get anywhere, content is king and consistency is queen. Showing people you’re in the game to stay is pretty important with so much content out there now. Lots of authors are flash-in-the pan. Their debut sinks, they lose heart and disappear. I talk a lot about where I am in this industry and how sometimes it feels like it’s not far enough, but I wouldn’t have all that I do if I hadn’t built it on ten years of consistent work–this blog and my books. But. But, you can be consistent in lots of different ways. Consistency isn’t the same for everyone, nor should it be. Maybe in this blog post I wrote back in 2021 I was just a little too hardcore about making sure readers know what to expect from you (https://vaniamargene.com/2021/12/20/buzzword-consistency/), especially since I’ve stopped being that consistent too. I’ve done billionaire for a bit, but I’ve been kind of moving into romantic suspense and small town. I’m going to write hockey next. The important thing is you don’t lose your joy. Stay happy. That’s the only consistency that matters.

I’m not really sure what other hills I was ready to die on nine, ten years ago. There are some things I still believe, maybe not super hardcore like I used to, but there are still things that make sense to me, like not cross-posting the same content everywhere. Twitter isn’t Threads, Threads isn’t Facebook, Facebook isn’t Instagram, Instagram isn’t Lemon8, and Lemon8 isn’t Pinterest. There are different ways those audiences consume content and certain content does better than others. Don’t give the algorithms even more reason to ignore you. Besides, if you have the same people following you everywhere, give them something different to look at.

I still think books should be formatted properly, but with tools like Vellum and Atticus and free software on sites like Reedsy and Draft2Digital, that’s not so much of an issue anymore. I just bypassed one book the other day because he put spaces between every paragraph. That’s okay for nonfiction, but his book was a thriller. I wanted to buy it to support him, but I wasn’t going to read it formatted like that, so there was no point in spending the money. I would have said something, but he didn’t ask and I’m not that person anymore who gives out unsolicited advice. Maybe someone else will tell him. Otherwise, he’s probably going to miss more sales than just mine.

I suppose the only other thing is that I still believe in buying stock photos. There are a lot of authors putting free stock on their books, from sites like Unsplash or Pexels, or using stock from Canva if the have Pro, but I just would never chance it. I use Canva Pro photos on here sometimes, for the graphics, but I’m not trying to sell anything using them. Book covers are different, and it’s part of the “do things professionally and cover your butt” philosophy I’ve always had. Selling books is a business, and Amazon gets a bad rap for trying to cover their own butts and regulating the authors who publish there. Honestly, I can’t even imagine what a headache it would be, policing hundreds of thousands of authors. So yeah, I still think it’s better to buy your stock from a reputable source. It never hurts because you never know when KDP will ask for copyright proof.

As time goes on, I’m sure more of my beliefs will change. Sometimes there’s a better, or best way, to do things, and sometimes . . . there just isn’t. Or if there is, that “best way” varies from person to person. I think in the end, we all want the same thing: happy readers. It’s the way we get there that can be different, and I’m happy minding my own business and doing things the way I want them done.

Do you have any hardcore beliefs? Let me know!

I’ll see you next week!

A Culture of Distraction

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a woman washing dishes while watching something on a tablet text says a culture of distraction on green box

I used to watch Sullivan’s Crossing. I say “used to” because I kind of bailed on the show like I do most shows I watch. I get bored or I’d rather work on my books. I might go back to Sullivan’s Crossing at some point, if there’s nothing else to watch, but I mostly stopped because I hated the way Maggie and Sydney treated the men who liked them, or, in romance-novel speak, their love interests. I know the show writers just wanted to devise drama for the plot, but even knowing that didn’t stop me curling my lip whenever one of their scenes came on.

I went into that because everything in the universe is connected, and I started getting emails from Reddit about people talking about that show. I engaged a little bit, enough to know that I’m not alone in my dislike and my reasons why. But there was also one exchange that I’d like to show you here:

r/SullivansCrossing icon Go to SullivansCrossing r/SullivansCrossing • 11d ago Squishy1011 Does anyone else wonder why they are still watching and press next episode anyway? This show has some of the laziest writing, ever! One of my pet peeves is how often the characters say ‘besides’ - no one actually says it in real life. It’s like neighbours reproduced by an amdram group! All of the actors are beautiful but the make up is all the wrong shade for all of them! Then I find myself singing ‘time and time and time again!’ As the next episode blares out. I am also acutely aware I’ll be so sad when it’s finished. I’ve never had such conflicting feelings for a show before! ndftba It's really comfy to watch, like you don't have to focus so much, or make up theories. It's just relaxed drama. pearly1979 i like shows sometimes that are mind of mindless. The scenery is gorgeous and there is serious eye candy as well. I do a lot of crafting and knitting hats, so its a show i can watch while doing that and not be bummed if I miss something lol.

My mind went in a couple of different ways when I read that. The first was, why are you watching something you really don’t want to watch, and second, as a romance author, I felt bad for Robyn Carr (who wrote the books Sullivan’s Crossing is based on) and the producers of this show. No one wants to be told that their content is “kind of mindless” or is made up of lazy writing.

We’re living in an age where our attention is constantly split between two or even more things. TV shows turn into background noise while we do chores or cook, we scroll on our phones when we shouldn’t like at a movie theater and behind the wheel, or we have a conversation with someone on speakerphone or FaceTime while we shop. It’s almost like if you do one thing at a time you’re failing at life.

I think what bothers me the most when it comes to talking about distraction and split attention is the lack of respect that goes along with it. What do I mean by that? I’ll tell you a little story.

Two years ago I hired my last beta reader. I didn’t pay her very much, but I was supposed to be helping her set up a beta reading service, so it was a win-win situation for both of us. I paid her and emailed her my manuscripts. She was an avid reader and I had known her for a long time, so while I felt a bit apprehensive because we’d had some conflicts in the past, I pushed them aside. She did read, but occasionally I’d get messages like, “At the auto shop waiting with my husband and reading your book,” or “On a road trip with the family, reading your book,” and I started to wonder just how much attention was she giving my story. It turns out she missed an important callback that resulted in some skewed feedback. Meaning, she forgot what a character said, or possibly missed it completely, which made what another character said later in the book not make sense to her. I didn’t need a math degree to put two and two together. She was reading while she was distracted.

Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed. Since then I haven’t bothered to find other beta readers or give my manuscripts to anyone else. I realized that no feedback is better than bad feedback and we can’t always guarantee that our money is going to pay for quality.

When you’re a new writer, accurate feedback is really important. You’re still learning and leveling up your craft depends on useful, thoughtful, and relevant critique. What is a new writer going to do if they can’t find someone who’s willing to actually sit down in a quiet space and give their words the attention they deserve? And why offer to beta read or help someone if you’re not going to do the work that’s required and expected? I’ve seen other beta readers say they’re settling down to beta read a client’s work and that they’re reading with the TV on for background noise. I can understand if that’s part your process, but not everything needs to put online. If you’re charging the going rate to beta read or edit for someone, it might be better to keep that kind of detail to yourself.

When people don’t pay attention while reading they can come back with questions, accusations, or even complaints, and an author can lose confidence that their writing is good and that plots and character arcs make sense. Books require a person to be present while they consume those words or the meaning, nuance, and themes can get missed entirely. Is that going to be the author’s fault? Was the plot too complicated? Were the characters too complex? Was the prose too purple? How is an author going to know? Maybe the real reason that reader couldn’t follow what was going on was because she was playing Bingo with her grandma at the VFW. I mean, things happen.

Distraction is also bad news on the author side. I used to be able to listen to music while I wrote, but I can’t do that anymore. I start listening to the song instead of writing, and now when I have a writing or editing session, I do it in silence. Sometimes I’ll pick up my phone and scroll, and I’ll ask myself if I’m going to write/edit or scroll because I can’t do both. That’s enough to get me to put my phone in another room and focus on the task at hand. Editing while distracted is just an invitation to edit more typos into your manuscript rather than fix what’s already there. Readers deserve respect because they invest in an author’s work twofold: they pay to read and give hours of their time as well. The last thing an author needs is a reader saying, “What was that?” at the end of their book because a main character had five careers, her hair changed colors six times, and there’s a plot hole big enough for the Grand Canyon to fall through. The setting of Sullivan’s Crossing is beautiful, but it’s not that important.

That’s not to say that a comfort watch is invalid. In these times finding comfort and a little peace where you can is more important than ever. Being able to sit and watch something relaxing is critical to mental health. Our brains aren’t meant to work twenty-four hours a day, seven days week, and authors and writers are often encouraged to take a break and fill their creative wells. Maybe that means doomscrolling while sitting through bland dialogue and watching a shirtless and sweaty Chad Michael Murray chop wood. But that doesn’t mean every show on TV needs to be that way and dumbing down scripts and books isn’t the answer to a culture that’s becoming used to doing two or three things at once.

What is the answer then? I’m not sure. I’m at a place in my career where going without feedback isn’t ideal, but having beta readers who will read with only one eye on the paper isn’t any better. We can’t police how people live, and putting a clause in a contract asking people to please don’t beta read or edit while watching TV or playing Bingo probably won’t work. People will do what they’re gonna do. But I don’t think it’s wrong to expect the service providers you pay to give you quality. Important callbacks, breadcrumbs, twisty plots, and complicated character arcs demand attention, not someone singing the theme song to Sullivan’s Crossing under their breath while they read.

What made me think of this topic was the Substack article I read a couple of weeks ago, https://thecreativegood.substack.com/p/what-is-second-screening-and-why, about screenwriters at a certain streaming service being asked to dumb down their writing. People scroll on their phones while they watch TV causing them to miss important details during a show. This article reinforced what has already been circling in my brain for a while now, especially when it comes to long serials and series where it’s imperative that readers pay attention from the very first page so the very last page makes sense.

In the article Jamie Feldman argues that dumbing down isn’t the answer, and of course it’s not. We can’t dumb down everything to appeal to the people who can’t put down their phones because that means people who do want to invest time and attention in a murder investigation or kidnapping case will get left behind. There will always be people who want to turn their phones off and get lost in a world to forget their own for a little bit, and those are the people who we should create for. If that’s who you want to create for. Maybe Robyn Carr doesn’t care the show based on her books is considered “mindless comfort.” She’s getting paid either way regardless.

I’ll keep writing my twisty books and it will be a reader’s loss if they’re distracted and can’t connect the dots. I’m not going to take responsibility for someone’s lack of focus and I won’t take feedback personally. Maybe one of the most important rules in writing craft is to trust your reader, and I will. I will trust them to remember what a character said on page 100 so the callback on page 300 makes sense. And if a reader decides my books are too complicated, they can self-select out and find lighter fare. That’s completely reasonable and won’t hurt my feelings at all. There are an unlimited number of readers out there and an author for everyone to enjoy.

There’s a time and a place for split attention, and only you can decide when and where that is. I’ll keep my attention on things that matter: my books and projects and the books and projects I help other people with. No matter how tempting Sullivan’s Crossing‘s eye candy is.

If you read Jamie’s Substack article, tell me what you think of it. The idea of dumbing down content to appeal to distracted consumers is interesting and I’d love to start a conversation in the comments.

Have a great week, everyone. See you next Monday!

Ten Years in the Industry. Reflections and Lessons

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pink bokeh background. cupcake with yellow frosting. candles that have one and zero . the text says in script: ten years in the indie publishing industry

This year, 2026, marks the tenth anniversary of the first book I ever published. The Corner of 1700 Hamilton is a speculative contemporary romance told from his and hers POVs–the first novella in his, the second novella in hers. I wrote it specifically to publish, and beyond that, I’m not quite sure what I was thinking. Well, I know what I wasn’t thinking. Genre, building an audience. What my brand was going to be moving forward. I had discovered indie publishing where everything is made up and the points don’t matter. (H/t to Whose Line is it Anyway where their slogan fits what indie publishing used to be pretty accurately.) I made the cover myself in Word and formatted the manuscript using a KDP Word template to get the margins, gutters, and page numbers right. Since then I’ve edited it a couple of times and redid the cover probably about five times now. I always cringe when I see someone reading it and I should probably just take it down since it’s not worth selling–it still has some telling and a strange plot–but I guess it’s not hurting anything. A reader will know real quick if they want to keep going after the first paragraph.

Anyway, I don’t need therapy to figure out why I wrote it or why I keep it up for sale. I wrote it to feel part of the writing community and I keep it on Amazon for nostalgia.

You’d think after ten years I’d have something meaningful to say about it all. Some deep philosophy about writing and passion and how much it means to me that my books carried me through some of the toughest times of my life, namely, a divorce, a health issue that fucked me up for a good five years, and breaking up with a man who said he loved me and wanted to marry me but then treated me like garbage. Writing was the one thing that was with me through all of it, and honestly, I’m a little surprised that I don’t have any triggering feelings toward my pen name. I started publishing under my initials in 2021, a year after I started having health problems, and those problems pressed down on me while I wrote and published every single one of my first person books. Luckily, that isn’t the case, and I can reread my backlist without feeling anxious, only regret that my health issues took away from the experience of writing them.

I’ve seen a lot in the past decade, but no, I don’t have anything deep or profound to say. I’ve made plenty of mistakes, and of course, anyone who does make mistakes wonders what their career trajectory could have been like if those mistakes hadn’t been made. Doing my own covers, not working with an editor when an honest one was a lot easier to find. I’m sure publishing subpar books hurt me in ways that can’t be measured. Even now, though I’ve gotten better at doing covers and self-editing, taking every step of the publishing process upon myself is probably slowing me down. Changing how I do things would take a lot more money and a lot more work now than say, six years ago. COVID changed the publishing landscape in many ways and with AI, finding an honest editor who won’t just run your manuscript through ChatGPT or ProWritingAid is its own nightmare. Then after you find one, or hope that you have, you need the money to pay, and with no money coming in, it’s harder to find the money to go out.

I thought I’d write about all the things I’ve learned in my ten years of publishing, but I’ve written about that in some way, shape, or form, for years and I don’t know if it’s worth repeating those lessons. Mainly, because, well, writing a good book doesn’t ensure success. Writing an amazing book, putting a fabulous cover on it, and writing the most enticing blurb is only the first entry on a very long list to find readers. Luck plays such a huge part in an author’s success, and for a long time I pushed back against that, saying stupid stuff like, “The harder you work, the luckier you are,” and “Be prepared to take advantage of opportunities that may come your way.” Those two things are true, up to a point, but they don’t take into account pure luck, like an influencer getting a hold of your book or word of mouth by the millions. Luck like that happens, we see proof of it every once in a while, but no matter if the stars align or what your horoscope says, you can never predict or manufacture it for yourself.

So, what have I learned during my ten years writing and publishing? I’d say….

Trends last longer than we think. (If you wanna chase vampires or write something like Heated Rivalry to get in on the action, go for it!)
One of the most common pieces of advice I hear for authors just starting out is not to chase trends. Write the book of your heart then figure out the rest later. The problem is, writing a trendy book could be the book of your heart. Every book I decide to write is the book of my heart or I wouldn’t write it. If you want to write something that’s trending right at this very moment, do it! Trends take years and years and years to fade, if they do. E. L. James put billionaires on the map and that was fifteen years ago. Take a look at any top 100 romance list and you’ll see that billionaires still sell. Hockey isn’t going anywhere. It’s not merely sports romance anymore, it’s its own romance subgenre. Write what you want because the more people who pile on a trend, the longer it will stay. Just make sure you include what readers are reading the trend for. Keep up with reader expectations but add your own twist to stand out.

Why I started thinking about marketing before writing.
This one might get some flack too, but it’s true. After you write your book, It’s too late to try to figure out tropes, categories, genre, and who your readers are. You’re not going to rewrite it if you realize mashing four genres together wasn’t a good idea or you have no idea what your tropes are. Or if you think your audience is older but your characters are barely out of their teens. Deciding genre, what tropes you’re going to include, what the ages of your characters are and who they’ll appeal to before you write will help you position marketing efforts once your book is done. Knowing your genre and category will also help you create your cover so it fits in with other books. I understand why this gets pushback–thinking of your book as a product instead of art first puts a bad taste in people’s mouths–but I’d rather think of reader expectations than be disappointed after I publish because no one wants to read it.

What ads taught me.
It takes a lot of honesty and market knowledge to admit when a book isn’t working. The cover’s off, the title’s weird, and the blurb is bland because you were too afraid of revealing spoilers when you wrote it. You don’t have enough social proof–reviews, a series not finished–to make your book look desirable, and you lose money on clicks or even worse, you don’t get any clicks at all, just a low number of impressions that make it look like the ad platform was trying to show your book to someone.

Probably the biggest complaint I have ever seen in my ten years in the industry is people saying, “Ads don’t work for me.” They don’t for a reason but it’s not for reasons anyone wants to hear. I’ve lost money on ads, and I don’t blame it on anyone but myself. The blurb could have been better or the cover wasn’t right. Over the past ten years, I’ve learned that my covers didn’t always hit the genre mark and blurbs need a hook, motivation, stakes, and consequences. Your keywords need to be on target as well as your categories so the ad platform knows who to show your ads to. If your ads don’t work, it’s fixable. You just have to be honest with yourself about what needs fixing and do the work to make the changes.

What people really want when they complain.
If you know me, you know I’m a fixer. I’ll happily redo your cover if my skills allow or help you brainstorm a new blurb or look at your product page and tell you what’s keeping readers from clicking that buy button. Unfortunately, it took a lot of people telling me to mind my own business to realize that when they complain about sales they don’t want a solution, they want validation that their choices are solid so they can blame something else. I see it a lot on social media– “Why aren’t my books selling?” “Why aren’t I being invited into author book promos on Bookfunnel?” “I made this cover, tell me what you think!”–and I have learned to scroll by. I only hurt myself when I try to give an honest opinion to someone who doesn’t want it. I’ve learned to mute perpetual complainers and to keep scrolling past people wondering why their $8.99 ebook isn’t moving. I’m not going to lie to someone to make them feel better. They don’t want to hear the truth so I’ve stopped trying to say it.

You never get time back.
Probably the saddest lesson I’ve learned is that you don’t get time back. You don’t get a book launch back. You don’t get the time back you used helping someone who didn’t appreciate it. Making mistakes is how you learn and the lessons you learn making those mistakes need to compensate for the time you lost. Anyone who hears that I’ve been writing and publishing for ten years and not making a living wage would have a right to be confused and baffled. That’s why there are days I take my success, or what there is of it, so hard. I’ve been consistently writing books and publishing them for ten years. But they weren’t always written to market, they weren’t always well-written or well edited, and they didn’t always have good covers on them.

During the past ten years I’ve moved forward in other ways. I know how to make a nice cover-to-market in Canva now (depending on the genre and what I can find for stock photos). I know how to format with Vellum. I know how to edit–just ask the last couple of people I’ve edited for. I know what goes into a nice-looking graphic. The knowledge I’ve picked up since I started self-publishing is priceless, and the number of people I’ve been able to help writing this blog for the past ten years means a lot in a different kind of way. There are many authors who don’t touch the nonfiction side of indie publishing. They don’t blog about the process, they don’t speak at indie cons like NINC and Author Nation. It wasn’t a path I consciously chose for myself either, but I wouldn’t do it over. If I felt like that I would take my blog down and stop giving my time to it. What I can do is measure my time and use it differently. Use what I’ve learned to put out books that don’t need work after they’ve been published. Choose more carefully who I help. Guard my time and don’t waste it doing things I don’t want to do like post on social media. Don’t watch that webinar if I don’t think I’ll get something out of it.

I like to look ahead and plan, but ten years is a bit out of my depth. I’d like to say in five years I wrote my breakout book that turned things around. Maybe I will. If I do, I’ll have long, nicely edited backlist holding me up.

I’ve had a lot of fun these past ten years and my writing saw me through a lot of turmoil and trauma. Now I’m easing back into a life that’s not so bumpy and I’ll keep writing.

If you just found me, hi, and welcome. Let’s keep learning together. And if you’ve stuck with me, thank you. Let’s hold each other up for the next ten years.

I’d like to thank a lot of people who have helped me in some way, especially at the very beginning. They aren’t all around anymore, some taking their books down and pursuing other things. I’ve lost track of quite a few people who wrote under a pen name then faded away. You can’t keep tabs on someone who never quite existed. But here they are in no particular order and their Amazon links if they’re books still available:

Joshua Edward Smith: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Joshua-Edward-Smith/author/B0144PO138
Jewel E. Leonard: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jewel-E.-Leonard/author/B01APTIMY6
Alia Stephens: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Aila-Stephens/author/B0775W5X84
Gareth S. Young https://www.amazon.com/stores/Gareth-S.-Young/author/B005L7YH2E
Mollie Wallace (unpublished)
S. Hunter Nesbit (delisted)
Thomas Jast (delisted)
R R Willica (published under a pen name she kept private but is now delisted)
D. D. Syrdal https://www.amazon.com/stores/D.-D.-Syrdal/author/B00VTVDKNS
Lexi Miles https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0196OSLBU
Brickley Jules https://www.amazon.com/stores/Brickley-Jules/author/B01M1Y9DIB

Then the few that wrote or had social media under pen names I can’t remember or who have disappeared: Al, Holly, Tori, and Mr. Blackthorne whose naughty writing prompt actually inspired what turned into A Heartache for Christmas. SMH.

Thanks for playing!

My 2025 Year in Review

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evergreen tree branches with a couple of christmas ornaments like bulbs, stars, and snowflakes. navy background. gold text reads 2025 year in review

I first started this blog talking about all the hideous things that are happening in the world, but no one wants to read that. We’re all hoping that 2026 will be better. Despite who’s in charge, my year was okay. I’ve been reading some of my old blog posts, like my 2024 year in review, my Word of 2025, and my 2025 Mid-Year Recap to compare how things have been. Last year I sounded kind of sad, and I was. I was letting go of a dream to turn my writing into a career. It’s really hard when the question is, “Other people have done it, why can’t I?” and the answer is, “There’s no reason, it just wasn’t meant to be.” That’s fine. I believe in Karma and Fate and all that good stuff, so this year I made an active effort to let a few things go, not work so hard, and stop spending so much money. Let’s see how things turned out:

Books/Novels/WIPs

Number of Books Written: 2
I wrote Wicked Games at the beginning of the year, and I finished Bitter Love on December 18th. In my other blog posts, I had planned to go in a number of different directions. I still want to finish the series I started a couple years ago. I have two books out of a planned six done, but in the end I was too burnt out to take on a huge series like that. I was also planning to write a hockey duet, and that too, just seemed to be too much. I will still write them, since both books are mainly plotted out, but this year I stuck with standalones, and I’m happy to say that I reached my amended goal of two.

Number of Books Edited and/or Re-edited: 4 + 1
From January 1st to the end of August, I edited Loss and Damages for a September release and re-edited Faking Forever, Rescue Me, and A Heartache for Christmas. They all needed it, since my writing style has changed. I’m learning how to relax and write in a more conversational tone, and I am so happy that I took the time to do it. They sound so much better. Then in September, before I really dove into Bitter Love, I edited a book for a friend. Because of the changes at my work and how long the book was, I needed all of September to get that done. Even though the words aren’t mine, I’ll count it. Time and effort is time and effort.

Number of Books Published: 4
The second half of my King’s Crossing serial released–Shattered Fate, Shattered Hearts, and Shattered Dreams–and in September I released my standalone, Loss and Damages. Going forward, I’ll never have that many in one year again. Even though they were all saved up, I’m just not working that fast anymore.

Royalties for the Year:
I didn’t say how much I made last year, and I’m on the fence with whether or not I should say this year. It’s kind of tacky, but, in the name of transparency, what the hell. There are still two days left before this blog posts, but I normally write ahead and schedule my posts and the unaccounted days won’t amount to much.

Assuming a decrease in the Kindle Select payout, among that, Kindle sales and paperbacks, I made $1,677.89. I continued to run Amazon ads, but even though I kept track of them better this year, I still spent a whopping $713.50. I said somewhere that I wasn’t going to run any Facebook ads this year, and I didn’t. I boosted some Instagram posts which cost $211.22, and that was a lot easier on my nerves. Together, I spent $924.72, but I also spent money to run my business such renewing my WordPress websites, my Microsoft 365, Booksprout (that I have since canceled), and Canva. I also paid for two Goodreads giveaways, one for Cruel Fate and one for Loss and Damages ($198 together), and two Written Word Media features ($225 together) for Cruel Fate and A Heartache for Christmas. I haven’t totaled up the exact numbers–I only do that for my accountant–but it’s fair to say that after all that, I’m in the hole.

I keep saying it’s fine, and it is–or it must be because I keep doing it. I sold 184 books, gave away 4,419 (though that number will rise because I’m in the middle of a Stuff Your Kindle Day), and had 304,169 pages read in Kindle Unlimited. I’ll keep doing what I do because I love seeing people read my books. Last year I gave you a list of my books in order of how well they sold. I’m really grateful that my King’s Crossing serial is at the top of the list this year. I put so much time and effort into those books, it’s really nice to see that people are reading from beginning to end. This is a screenshot from Book Report which is a Chrome extension:

1 Cruel Fate 2 Cruel Hearts 3 Cruel Dreams 4 Shattered Fate 5 Shattered Dreams 6 Shattered Hearts 7 A Heartache for Christmas 8 Rescue Me: A Steamy, One Night Stand Billionaire Standalone Romance 9 Twisted Alibis 10 Twisted Lies 11 Twisted Lullabies 12 Captivated by Her: A Steamy Billionaire Romantic Suspense Novel 13 Faking Forever : A Steamy Fake Fiancé Billionaire Standalone Romance 14 Give & Take: A Steamy Baby for the Billionaire Contemporary Romance 15 Addicted to Her: A Steamy Billionaire Romantic Suspense Novel 16 Safe & Sound: A Steamy Second Chance Billionaire Romance 17 Loss and Damages 18 Lost & Found: A Steamy Friends to Lovers Billionaire Romance

Website/Blog Stats

My Canva tutorial on how to make a full paperback book cover is still the most popular blog post on my website by far. Earlier this year I updated it to reflect Canva’s glow-up and I chose a different book because I didn’t end up using the cover I demonstrated with.

all-time stats: Updated! creating a full wrap paperback book published june 13 2022 views: 14.1k 8 likes, 27 comments

I posted 57 times for a total of 94.7k words.

screenshot of wordpress stats: 2025 year in review 57posts, 94.7k words, 272 likes 102 comments

It’s crazy to think that I blogged enough to fill a whole book. I really don’t have much to say about my blog accept that I still enjoy doing it and it’s easier now that I’m feeling better. For a while I was treating my blog as more of a diary, but after I finally figured out everything that was wrong and made changes. I started writing more about what was going on in the indie community rather than how my mental health was making me feel about writing. I’m back on track and saving personal updates for maybe once a month or so and focusing on indie news and scandals and my thoughts about all of it instead.

I gained 27 subscribers this year, which I’m thankful for. I still get anywhere from 50-100 visits/views a day, mostly on my Canva tutorial, but my IngramSpark tutorial is a close second and also people still like to read about my thoughts on K. C. Crowne. From what I can gather from my stats. indies are searching for instructions on how to do things and also for information that’s based on fact. I see so much misinformation online, and I’m happy to share my experiences and what worked for me.

I paid my renewal fees up until 2027 for both sites so I don’t plan on going anywhere. I like writing about the industry and where I think publishing is going. Sharing keeps me in the loop and it’s always good business to know what’s going on even if you don’t think it concerns you.

I’ll try to find more authors to give interviews and write guest posts in 2026 since people seem to enjoy them. A. K. Ritchie was a particular favorite, and I’m glad I reached out to her when I saw her response to a particular post on Threads. I’m excited to keep blogging, so if you haven’t subscribed, you should. I blog every Monday and some Thursdays if I have extra thoughts to share. I am a writer, after all.

Health Update

I’m okay, better than I have been since all that dryer sheet nonsense started five years ago. This year I stopped drinking our tap water, and that made a big difference. I used to be able to drink it without a problem but I guess my body started being sensitive to the chemicals in it. I’m not on any medication now except the skin cream for the lichen sclerosis that I’ll have for the rest of my life and my vitamins and magnesium. I have nerve damage and scar tissue from my hysterectomy, but on good days I barely feel it. I would still like to lose a bit of weight, but with my job the way it is, I have to be really choosy with what I do with my free time and that will probably always be writing or napping because every once in a while I need to catch up on my sleep. This will probably be my last health update. Nothing health-wise is impacting my writing anymore. Now that my physical stuff is under control, my anxiety has gone away. I can think about my book business with a clear mind and accept that a lot of my success, or lack of, isn’t in my control. So, while I’m not perfect, I’m better than I was at this time last year, and every day is a step toward feeling even better.

What’s next for 2026?

What’s next for next year? More of the same, only with a more relaxed attitude. I’m going to have fun and dedicate all of 2026 to my hockey duet. They might take a little while to get done since they’re going to be long and emotionally heavy. Not to mention all the world-building I’ll have to do from scratch such as player and team names and cities. I’ll publish Wicked Games in May and Bitter Love sometime after that but I don’t know when. Either at the end of 2026 or just wait until the beginning of 2027. I need to pace myself so there aren’t gaps between books. Even if that means I publish just one book a year I’d rather do that and be consistent than publish right when a book is finished and then not know when I’ll publish next. I also want to re-edit my Cedar Hill duet, so I’ll be doing that as soon as Wicked Games is ready to go. I already made them new covers, and they look amazing! I’m really excited to blow the dust off them.

As far as my personal life, things are good. With my kids’ help I have money for bills, and my sister, daughter, and I are planning a vacation to Florida sometime in the summer. I haven’t been there for many, many years and we’d like to visit our mother’s grave. I miss the ocean, too. I’m grateful I’m feeling good enough to want to go and my daughter is looking forward to it since she’s only flown twice and the first time she was too young to remember.

We can always want more, and I did, for a long time. More sales, better health. I’m finding that sweet spot where I don’t need more anymore. After the five years I’ve had health-wise I’m so grateful and thankful for where I am now, and it’s the same with my sales. I’m so grateful for everyone who reads my books, and even if that’s only one person a day, that’s one person who saw my cover, read my blurb, and gave my book a chance. That’s all any author can really hope for, and I hope my damaged heroes and courageous heroines keep them coming back.

I don’t have a word for next year nor am I going to share any motivational quotes. Do what you can to be happy. Keep a flicker of hope alive. Don’t let things that are out of your control get you down. Keep the people close who want to be there and walk away from those who don’t. They aren’t worth your time. People will come and people will go, but always remember your worth. It’s always going to be more than you think it is.

Happy 2026, everyone, and good luck!

Last Author Update of 2025

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desk flatlay. black pen. cream book that says last author update of 2025 coffee with cream and plant that looks like baby's breath

I can’t believe the year is almost over. This year has been terrible in a lot of ways (we all know what I’m talking about) but for me personally, this year has been full of small wins that added up to big things. I won’t get into all of that now–I’ll do a proper author recap of 2025 next week–but I did want to talk about what I’ve been doing the past little while and offer my opinions on a couple things that KDP has been rolling out.

First, I finished Bitter Love. At 86,448 words, it’s a little longer than I thought it would be, but I took my time writing the ending, giving Jesse the last chapter/epilogue and then a side character her own epilogue. This is the first book I’ve written where a child has been a prominent secondary character, and though I haven’t had a seven year old for a while now (my youngest is twenty), I hope I was able to portray her accurately. She has the “official” epilogue that’s set ten years later, as I wanted readers to see her family through her eyes and tell everyone how happy she is in her own words. I’m not sure what readers will make of it, since I think doing that kind of thing is getting more into Women’s Fiction/Family Drama territory, but it felt right to write it even if it might not fit the romance genre as a whole. Because I don’t have a proper newsletter, I can’t offer it as bonus material. I mean, I could add a Bookfunnel link to the back of the book, but since I don’t collect email addresses, I think it’s just smarter to add it to the book itself and if readers want to read it they can, and if they aren’t interested, they already have Jordan and Jesse’s story in its entirety.

I think it’s fun to play with epilogues like that, and I did it with my rockstars. The books were about Sheppard, Eddie, and Brock, but the epilogue at the end of the last book was told in Dalton’s, the band’s manager, point of view. I haven’t gotten much feedback so I have no idea if readers enjoyed it, but I think it adds a little extra and helps wrap up the story in a way readers might not expect.

I was going to re-edit my Cedar Hill duet, but since I’ve announced to my small newsletter (who’s left, anyway) and on other social media, that Wicked Games will be out in May, I suppose I better get Seth and Avery ready first. Time can go by so quickly and editing can take a couple months at least–editing the Word document, listening to the manuscript, and then proofing the proof–so I think I should start on that to give myself extra time for ARCs if needed.

As I said in a previous blog post, I’m not using Booksprout anymore. I’m not even sure what I’m going to do for reviews. Putting the Bookfunnel link in a Facebook ad was a total failure. I mean, not in terms of people being interested and downloading the book (I gave all my available copies away), but in terms of getting reviews as a result. I think it’s necessary to publish with a few reviews at least, but I have to admit, not using Booksprout anymore makes me a little scared of the number of reviews I’ll have during launch month. Still, there’s no point in paying for something that’s not delivering, but it’s too bad that punishing the many also punishes the few who did enjoy my books and left honest, legitimate, reviews. I can only hope that my true fans on that platform are following me other places so they know where to get future ARCs if they want them.

So that’s my plan for the next little while–get Wicked Games‘s cover finalized and blurb written so I can do the “reveal stuff” while I’m editing, get it formatted and make ARCs available, and then after the ARC period closes, put it up on preorder. I hope that doesn’t take me until April, but who knows. With the changes at my job, everything I do takes me twice as long, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it does.

I’m going to start 2026 with a clean slate, and I decided to redo the logo for my Coffee & Kisses Press imprint. I’ve been publishing under that imprint for ten years, and when I first created it when I bought my first batch of ISBN numbers, my son and then-fiancé made it for me. Back then we were told to draw our own so it’s “ours.” I understand that a graphic made in Canva doesn’t belong to me, but I bought the stock images from DepositPhoto and the font is a free-for-commercial-use font. I changed the colors and added an element that I also purchased from DepositPhoto. I bought the standard license for each photo because I don’t plan on selling merchandise with that logo on it. I think that will be good enough, though my son would probably draw me something else if I asked.

Mostly, I just wanted to get my ex-fiancé’s name off the copyright pages of my books. We haven’t been together for a long time now and it’s funny and a little aggravating that I’m still scrubbing him out of my life. At least I can get his grubby paws off my books and Wicked Games will be the first book to use my new logo. I like what I came up with and I’m glad I decided to do it.

white coffee cup on black background. heart made out of the steam. coffee & kisses press written on saucer

Now that I got my updates out of the way, I wanted to talk about two of the things that KDP has rolled out recently. One is allowing readers to download ePubs and PDFs of our book after they purchase a copy. This requires DRM (digital rights management) to be turned off and you have to go into your bookshelf, click “edit book content” of each ebook, and select the box that tells them you understand that you’re allowing readers to do that.

I saw a lot of opinions about it online, everything from authors being happy their readers can keep copies of their books to authors automatically assuming that readers are going to pirate their books or give their books away. In my ten years of publishing, I have never enabled DRM on my books. I’ve always known that DRM won’t stop my book from being pirated and it’s just an inconvenience to readers who want to read across their devices, say from the Kindle app on their phone to their Kindle, to their iPad that has the app on it. DRM traps them to one device, and maybe there really is only a handful of readers who read across multiple devices, but I didn’t want to inconvenience them. What bothers me about the whole thing is how little I see authors trust readers. There’s a hostile suspicion that I can’t understand, and maybe I never will. Because when it comes right down to it, how terrible is it really, if someone loves your book and innocently emails their friend a copy? It’s not any different than passing around a paperback. So, I don’t know. The second I read that email from KDP, I went into my bookshelf and checked the boxes to all of my first-person books and made them available to download.

The only thing that gave me pause was wondering if they were going to do a full review of each book since they’re making you resubmit to publish. I know that some of my older books have keywords they don’t allow now, like KU and Kindle Unlimited, and I didn’t want an unpleasant surprise of having a book stalled because of that. But each book only took about forty-five minutes to be approved, so I can only assume they acknowledged I checked the box and moved on. There are going to be a lot of authors either enabling DRM for the first time or checking the box, so hopefully they did what they could to streamline the process.

If you have naughty keywords, I wouldn’t worry about it, but I also wouldn’t change anything else while you’re in your book’s contents. Simply check the box and publish again. Save changes like a blurb refresh for another time. I hate messing with my books after they’ve been published. KDP is so finicky you never know what could cause them to flag your book. I mess with them as little as possible.

Going forward I’ll always check the box and let my readers download and keep what they paid for. Trying to restrict reader movement is fruitless and in the end, I believe you’ll come across looking stingy and hostile. Especially when you blast your choice all over social media pointing fingers at innocent readers. In these days of AI, appearing sincere, friendly, and trustworthy will go a long way in earning reader trust.

The other thing Amazon did was add an “Ask About this Book” feature to Kindle ebooks. If you’re not familiar with it, you can read about it here: https://writerbeware.blog/2025/12/12/kindles-new-gen-ai-powered-ask-this-book-feature-raises-rights-concerns/

I don’t have a lot of opinions about it other than no matter how you feel about AI, it’s here to stay. While I have been straddling the fence on this blog, neither fully condemning it nor fully embracing it, I do have personal moral and ethical lines I won’t cross. I don’t use it to write. I don’t use it to generate pictures. I see the usefulness in using it to write ad copy and hooks. I see the usefulness in it for organizing thoughts and creating checklists. No matter how you use it or don’t use it, the best thing you can do for yourself and your book business is to not make any sudden decisions because you’re angry. I see a lot of authors jerking their books off Amazon because they don’t want AI anywhere near them and they might regret that later.

The thing is, AI is everywhere and even if a book platform isn’t using AI now, they will eventually. Kobo put out a disclaimer in May saying that they will never use an author’s books to train AI, but even they say they use AI to “identify and quarantine books containing hate speech, child sexual abuse, or other harmful content that violates our guidelines.” So AI, even of their own creation, is processing books put on their platform. When every distribution platform uses it, authors will have nowhere to go and they’ll be right back to their biggest earner anyway.

Amazon is all about customer satisfaction, and they must have some information that put “Ask About This Book” into motion. We’ll never know what that information is, but Amazon never does anything without a reason. I don’t fully trust them, but we’ll see what happens. I’m not going to pull my books down. I don’t have the mental energy go to wide again and I don’t see the point when other platforms are going to be doing the same if they aren’t already.

This will be my last “Favorite Things” segment since my 2025 recap is usually pretty long and I don’t need to make it any longer. There are so many tools and services in the indie space and I’ve tried to highlight a few of the books and things I like best. So, for this last one, even though you probably know about him already, I’m going to mention Dave Chesson’s Kindlepreneur. He has three FREE services I’d like to share and they are not affiliate links:

QR code maker. I’ve used this before, and I love it. I think it’s especially cute you can add a logo or picture in the middle of the code. https://kindlepreneur.com/qr-code-generator-for-authors/

Barcode creator. There’s not a day that goes by when I’m not seeing someone asking about barcodes to go with their ISBNs. There’s no need to buy them from Bowker. They don’t have anything that Dave’s barcode creator won’t do. https://kindlepreneur.com/isbn-bar-code-generator/

Amazon Ads Class. If you need a free class that will teach you the basics, then this is for you. Not all people use ads the same way, and through trial and error you’ll find a combination of bid, daily budget, category or auto ads that will work for you. https://kindlepreneur.com/courses/free-amazon-ads-course/

That’s all I have for this week! Make sure you check back next Monday when I go over my 2025 recap. Thanks for reading this far. Have a great Monday!

Putting a Price on Writing and Publishing a Book

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person wearing sneakers standing next to stack of books (only feet and books are visible). text on cream square overlay says putting a price on writing and publishing a book

This is an age-old question: How much does it cost an author to write and publish a book? This comes up a lot because after the book is finished, edited, formatted, the cover made and blurb written, paying for book set up on a distribution site then paying them for said distribution, authors would like their money back.

But, unfortunately, that isn’t so simple.

Before I started writing, I used to run. I’m not sure how I even started, but it got to the point where I was running six or so miles a day, five or six days a week. Running, though while considered free (much like writing), is anything but. I developed tendonitis in my left ankle, and this required buying new shoes every three to four months. I had to buy Brooks Adrenaline, and they were at least $120.00 a pair at the local running store–I shopped a local, small business store. Then all the running clothes, Garmin watches, race fees, gym membership fees to run in the winter if the temperatures and snow were bad, and protein bars, shakes, and other health food, I was spending just as much or even more to run as I do right now running my book business (pun not intended).

Then we have to factor in time. At my peak, I could run six miles in an hour. I never really got better than that, and that was fine. Having a new personal record (PR) was fun, but nothing I worked toward. After that hour or so of running, I had to cool down, stretch, then shower. And sometimes I would go longer than six miles, especially in the last year or two when I trained for a half-marathon. When you’re not very fast, running ten or eleven miles takes a long time. While my kids were in school and I did the longer runs on my days off, running could easily eat up most of my morning.

I mentioned all that because I wanted to give you a real life example of why I understand, and not only understand, but I’m okay with, spending money on my book business. I spend a lot that could be considered a “waste.” Two websites, paying for things like a Red Feather promotion on a standalone book (no read-through, you see), paying the Goodreads fee for their giveaways, a business email even though I don’t run a newsletter anymore, author copies and postage for reviewers who prefer paper, Bookfunnel for distribution of my reader magnet and ARCs. When I started writing instead of running, all my running money kind of shifted into this new hobby, and I didn’t think much of it at all. It was just something I had to do. New shoes to stay healthy, check. Websites to look legit, check.

But, writing costs more than just what it does to your wallet, and that’s mostly what I wanted to talk about. There’s an old adage that says, “If you don’t spend money, you’ll spend time,” and that’s especially true in indie publishing. On top of everything I listed above, indies pay for a lot of things, and if they don’t pay, they have to learn how to do those things themselves. There are free tools to format your book, like Reedsy and Draft to Digital, but there’s a learning curve to get familiar with even the simplest software. Then you have to learn a different kind of software like Canva or Bookbrush to make graphics for marketing.

Posting those graphics isn’t easy, either. Learning the algorithms of a platform takes a lot of trial and error. Not all social media platforms are the same, and their audiences respond to different content. Some authors cross-post which can work, but not often. I’ve never been a big fan of cross-posting, mostly for that reason. So we have to learn all the quirks of each platform so our posts are seen by at least some people. Then we have to learn ad platforms and those are changing all the time. Just when you think you have things figured out, they change the way you have to put an ad together and it can eat up hours of your time relearning where everything is.

When we spend time writing, learning craft, being a good literary citizen by helping others, reading in your genre, and marketing, we are not doing other things like spending time with family and friends, chores, errands, taking the dog for a walk or playing with your cat. There’s an emotional trade-off happening, and it can make you feel guilty when you want to work on your book but you’re pulled in the opposite direction. Lately I’ve been a victim of this. Our cat Pim, who has been with us since June, knows I’m a sucker. When I’m trying to write, she’ll come into the bedroom, sit near the bed, and stare at me. She’ll stare at me until I get up, go in the living room, and play with her. Her favorite thing is chasing after a crumpled up piece of notebook paper. Sometimes she’ll bring it back in a cute little game of fetch. Her previous owner didn’t tell us she liked to play this game–he might not even have known–I figured it out because I took the time to get to know her. So, she definitely knows that if she stares long enough, she’ll get me off my butt. But, that’s a half an hour or forty-five minutes I could have been writing.

Here she is for the cat tax:

black and white tuxedo cat lying on the floor staring into the camera. amber eyes, brown carpet

This past year I’ve been trying to let go of the urgency I feel when I’ve spent too much time away from writing, and it’s been happening more and with changes at my work. My writing time has been cut in half, but my personal obligations have stayed the same and so there’s a push/pull that happens when I want to write but want to do other things too, like play with Pim, go to a movie, or go for lunch with my daughter. Over time this can create an emotional toll that we don’t even realize is there.

So, when we talk about how much it costs to write and publish a book, there are hidden expenses we pay that can’t always be calculated.

But the same holds true for “getting our money back.”

At the beginning of 2025, I made peace with the idea that my books would never turn into a full-time income. But when your sales dashboard is all zeroes, it’s good to remind yourself that positive return on investment (ROI) can be just as hidden as the emotional costs of writing and publishing.

Here are some of the things I’ve gained since I started writing ten years ago:

The skills you learn along the way
There’s no denying that even with my BA in English, my writing and editing skills have significantly improved. I’ve read quite a few self-editing books since I started my indie journey, edited for friends, and of course, written millions of words. There’s no way I could have gotten ROI like that without actually doing the work. I’ve developed an eye and can make passable, if not decent, book covers. I’m getting better at writing ad copy (thanks for nothing, TikTok!). All those things add up to valuable ROI, and I know this because without my time in the indie trenches, my resume would look pretty bleak.

Being part of a community
I know I’ve bemoaned the state of the indie community–it seems like deteriorated along with Twitter after Musk bought it. But I know that my opinion is valued because I get thousands of hits on my blog every year. I’ve made friends and connections these past ten years, even if more people have fallen out of my orbit than have come into it. Runners, as well, have a strong community, and when I was still running but had started writing, I was in both and that was the best feeling in the world. In fact, I thanked both communities in my acknowledgments in the last book of my running trilogy, Running Scared. In that book, my MMC isn’t part of the running community but he falls in love with a hardcore runner who is hired to be the city’s university running coach.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A special thank you to Mark and Sue Knudson, who direct the real Fargo, North Dakota marathon. Through my years of running in Fargo, ND, Hearned a lot about the running community, race routes, and the expos. Every year, the Knutsons, and all the kind volunteers, put a lot of work into the marathon, and without their example, 1 would never have been able to write this trilogy. Thank you. Only the running community could rival the writing community in support, acceptance, and loyalty. It's an honor to belong to both.

I miss being a part of the running community, but being an indie is very rewarding too.

Emotional Satisfaction
In running circles there’s a saying, “You only regret the runs you didn’t take.” I don’t think that can be so easily applied to writing, but I know that if I have time to write and don’t, it’s the same guilt factor. There’s an emotional satisfaction to lacing up, just like there is when you sit down, stay off socials, and use an hour to put 1,000 words down. I know for me and most other authors there’s nothing better than opening up that envelope and holding a proof of your book baby in your hands. You worked hard in more ways than one to get to that point in time, and you should always be proud of yourself.

Long-term Impact
Two years ago, the director of the Fargo, ND marathon, Mark Knudson, whom I mentioned in my acknowledgements above, died when he lost control of his bicycle and was hit by a truck. The running community was devastated. He had put so much time into getting the Fargo Marathon off the ground, and for his life and contribution to be so suddenly ended was traumatic for everyone who knew him.

The longer you’re in the writing community, the more impactful that time is, even if it doesn’t feel like it. The time you spend blogging, helping other indies, and of course, the books you write, all contribute to a lasting legacy.

Writing and publishing a book has concrete, evident costs, money and time, and also hidden ones like hits to your mental health, lost time with family and friends, and choosing to write rather than do something else you also enjoy like watching TV. But there are more rewards than just sales and KU page reads.

So, when we’re asked, “What’s the cost of writing a book?” The cost is higher than most of us imagine, but the rewards, like skills, connections, creative satisfaction, and legacy, are far richer than anything you could ever report to your accountant.

I only have a couple weeks of my “Favorite Things” segment left, and this week I’m highlighting a new self-editing book by Angela James. I love a good editing book, and I cannot wait to dig in. This is her bio on her website:

Helping fiction authors build strong stories—and stronger careers

Hi, I’m Angela James. I’m a #1 New York Times bestselling indie editor and author career coach with over two decades in publishing. I help authors write better books and build sustainable, satisfying careers—on their own terms. Whether you’re indie, trad, or hybrid, I meet you where you are and help you get where you want to go, using clear editorial feedback, coaching, and frameworks that support both your storytelling and your career growth.

Together, we create stories that connect with readers, and an author business that works for you.

Edit Your Way: (Plot Twist: Forget the Writing “Rules”) is available from your favorite retailers (AKA, wide). Here’s the Amazon link and book cover: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G63FR1Q8 (This is not an affiliate link.)

book cover. text says. edit your way plot twist; forget the writing "rules" angela james new york times best selling editor

That’s all I have for this week. Next week I’ll do an author update and the week after that, my year-end recap. It’s hard to believe this year is almost over, but the timing for the other two blog posts works out perfectly.

I hope the holiday season (and all the cold temperatures!) haven’t been too hard on you. Have a good week and I will see you next Monday!

Under Fire: Talking about Hot Takes

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2,077 words
11 minutes read time

bonfire in the dark on some rocks. mountain silhouettes in background

I’ve seen a lot of hot takes online recently and I thought maybe it would be fun to talk about some of them. I know most hot takes are just engagement or rage bait (like arguing that a romance doesn’t need a happily ever after–if you don’t want to write a happily ever after ending, your novel is a love story–see the movie that is actually called Love Story with Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal where she freaking dies at the end) but there are are some hot takes that are worth discussing. When we talk about writing, publishing, and marketing, there is no one way to do things, and we can get caught up in the drama of opinions equalling fact or causation equalling correlation which usually is never true because there’s always going to be an exception that proves the rule.

Let’s go over some of the ones I’ve seen recently, and I’ll give you my opinion.

Releasing quickly doesn’t always mean writing fast or using AI
I’m kind of surprised more people don’t realize this–that an author can write a book or five, get them all prepped, and not do anything with them until they want to publish them. I think a lot of this stems from the idea that authors don’t sit on books, only because their own impatience dictates that they publish the second their book is ready.

If you’re a slow writer and have been working on a book for the past three years or whatever, I can understand the excitement of releasing the second your book is put together (edited, formatted, and cover done and blurb written), but for some people, waiting until they have a launch strategy is normal. Also, some authors like to rapid release books in a series to drive read-through. And while we, okay, I mean I, think it’s a pipe dream, there are authors out there who do this for a living and have the time to write for eight hours a day. They aren’t scrolling Threads or Twitter–they’re getting their books written because their paychecks depend on it. If you’re going to accuse someone of using AI because they released six books this year, take a step back, check your jealousy, and admit there are plausible reasons for how that’s possible.

Prologues and epilogues are fine . . . if done correctly
Talking about prologues and epilogues is always going to irritate some people because it’s not only a matter of preference, it’s a matter of craft.

Of course there are going to be prologues written by new authors who think they need to use one to “set up” the story rather than sprinkle in the details readers need to know throughout. They haven’t written enough to understand how to do it, so they info dump all the “important” parts first thinking a reader needs to know all that before they start reading the “real” story.

I’ve only written two prologues in my life, and that was in books one and five of my fantasy series I’ll never publish. Did it work? I’d like to think so. The series is about a women who gets pulled back in time because she’s a Healer and a sorceress needed her power. Then I added another prologue to the end of the last book where her ex-boyfriend also gets pulled back, and then later finds her living it up engaged to a prince. I thought it was quite clever, actually (don’t tell me it’s not), but then I switched to contemporary romance where prologues aren’t used as much.

Romance authors like to use epilogues, and there those make sense. Readers love a glimpse at the happy couple years later, and a lot of romance authors write more than one epilogue and use them as bonus material for newsletter signups. Sometimes I label my epilogues epilogues and sometimes I just label them the last chapter and put “three years later” or whatever at the top. I don’t think it really matters. With the way my “newsletter” is a blog on my author website now, it doesn’t make too much sense to write bonus material unless I wanted to pay for email collection on Bookfunnel. I don’t care about it that much and by the time I get done writing a book, I’m really not in the mood to write ten different endings. It’s one of my greatest faults as a writer is to say “See ya!” practically before I type the last period.

Whether you love or hate prologues and epilogues, either writing them or reading them, that’s personal taste. If you write a prologue make sure it serves purpose beyond an info dump, like letting us into the head of a murderer in a thriller, or letting your reader take a peek into the foundation of a world like GRRM’s prologue in Game of Thrones when the book opens beyond the Wall and the men of the Night’s Watch encounter the White Walkers.

When it comes to prologues and epilogues, it’s essential to know where your story starts and where you want it to end. Make each word count.

Tropes don’t take the place of stakes
A while back there was a lot of heated discussion about those book graphics that have the cover of the book on it then the squiggly arrows that point out the micro-tropes. Like this:

black background. cover of Twisted Alibis by VM Rheault. man looking down, stage in background. arrow graphics pointing to hot, wounded rockstar, slow burn, betrayal and murder, rating (four stars) reconnecting with family and friends, depression rep
made with a template in Canva

People were saying that they love them because they give you a quick glance into what the book is about, others said they hated them because it’s just a long list of spoilers. I’ve been of the mind that spoilers don’t spoil a book. After all, a happily ever after in a romance is the biggest spoiler of all–it’s the couple’s journey to get to that point that matters. And that’s where stakes come in. There’s no hook, there’s no exciting plot, without stakes, motivation, and consequences. What will the couple lose choosing love? What will they gain? What will they lose if they go their separate ways? Is what they will gain be enough to make up for that loss?

It wasn’t that long ago that I read a romance blurb that was packed full of mini-tropes. Small town, second chance, fake dating. You name it, and it was in there. But what the blurb lacked was stakes. What did they lose if the fake dating scheme didn’t work out? What did that couple stand to lose if the MMC didn’t stay in the little town he left so long ago? What would she lose if he leaves? Her heart? The blurb sounded exciting until you dug just a little deeper and realized that blurb could have been the blurb of any small-town, second chance book out there. Nothing made it that author’s. Nothing in that blurb screamed, “I’m different! Read me!”

I think arrow graphics can definitely be used as a quick “at a glance” vibe for your book, especially if you add something that is unique to your characters. And I wouldn’t worry about spoilers. If a little spoiler can ruin your entire book, you better rethink that plot.

Not everything is Amazon’s fault
I’ve defended Amazon quite a few times in the past on this blog. I know they have their flaws, just like any other employer or company that you do business with, but a lot of what I see isn’t just Amazon, it’s authors refusing to take responsibility for their actions, like missing a preorder date and having their privileges taken away or not ordering stock in time and blaming Amazon for not getting their books to them during the busy holiday season. I actually saw someone on Threads complaining that it will take six weeks for their books to come, and that it happened to them last year. Like, if you know this is going to happen but don’t take the steps to avoid it, then all you’re doing is blaming someone else for your own mistake.

I know that Amazon isn’t perfect. They’ve shipped my books with a body lotion order and that could have had a poor outcome. I have also seen pictures of books coming damaged because they weren’t packed correctly. I’m not saying they’re entirely blameless, but instead of making Amazon the eternal bad guy, it would be nice to see some people just taking ownership of their actions like the adults they are.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
Indie authors have a lot of freedom, and that can be great. We can re-edit a book and upload new files or change our covers whenever we want. We can run ads or not, use social media to promote our books or not. We can take five years to put out a book or we can publish twelve novellas in a year. We have 100% say in how we run our businesses.

But we should use that freedom wisely because I see a lot of hot-take behavior from indie authors that makes me squirm. I see authors canceling preorders, airing their dirty laundry on social media, making fun of readers for their reviews, making fun of other authors for what they like to write. The list is endless.

We are in an era where nothing online seems real. There is so much AI and so many scammers out there that it’s difficult to parse through for real and true information. I read a Substack article by Claire Taylor and she was saying that one of the most important things readers will be looking for going forward is trustworthiness and integrity from the authors they choose to read. I think this is a valid point and really important. Do what you tell your readers you are going to do. Have follow-through. And be kind while you’re doing it.

Your peers and coworkers need to know they can trust you too. Don’t say you’ll send out author copies for an event if you don’t think you can. Don’t sign up for book conventions and then back out. Don’t say you’ll help a fellow indie and then change your mind. I know life happens, and so does everyone else, but at some point you have to look at yourself and ask if you’re dependable. If not, you need to figure out why and what’s going on in your life that you need to change.

I think Claire is on the right track when she says that trustworthiness, integrity, and dependability is going to be your number one marketing strategy next year. How are you going to show up to your readers? As 2025 draws to a close, it might be a great time to think about that.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. And what kind of person will you look like if you do?

Hot takes are hot for a reason: they spark debate and can hurt feelings. They can ruffle feathers, not only for their basis of truth (or not), but because they force us to question ourselves and our beliefs. And what do we think of the people who have a different opinion than we do? I like listening to hot takes. Some of them are valid, some are pure BS, and some challenge what I think.

In the end we all make our own choices–write a prologue or not, save up your books before publishing or not, follow through with that promise or not–but remember, hot takes were made to get attention, so keep your cool . . . at least where people can see.

As part of my “favorite things” segment I’ve been including until Christmas, I want to highlight the Authors Guild YouTube channel. They have great content like where to find your readers, querying tips, and how AI is changing the publishing industry. You don’t have to be a member of the Authors Guild to watch these videos.

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to learn about the publishing industry, this is a great channel to subscribe to. There are some videos geared more toward traditional publishing, but as an indie, I think it’s important to keep up to date on what’s happening in publishing as a whole.

Look here for a list of their videos and you can subscribe to their channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AuthorsGuild

screenshot of the Authors Guild youtube channel header. AG in green circle Authors Guild @AuthorsGuild • 2.77K subscribers • 199 videos More about this channel ...more Subscribed The oldest and largest community of writers resouces guidance support


That’s all I have for this week! Thanks for checking in and I’ll see you next Monday!

Dealing with Digital Anger: When AI Gets it Wrong

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1,873 words
10 minutes read time

Last week I had a shock when I went on Facebook. I had a notification that said they removed a photo due to explicit content regarding a minor. The picture was from eleven years ago, and knowing that, I can guess what it was: a picture of my daughter on our bed snuggling one of our cats. Harmless. I would never put anything online that had the potential to hurt either of my kids, and the accusation, from nothing more than a Facebook bot, upset me a great deal. I felt dirty and gross, and honestly, confused because that picture had been up for eleven years.

It didn’t help that this came after TikTok decided a couple of my carousels were made with AI, and in a fit of anger, I deleted both of my profiles. It wasn’t the accusation, not really, but those two carousels performed worse than most of my others and I assumed that was the reason. I wasn’t going to put time into making content for a platform that was going to accuse me of doing something I wasn’t doing and then punish me for it by shadow-banning my carousels and videos and suppressing my account. Especially since whenever I scrolled I saw lots of AI content with a ton of likes–so you know those videos and carousels were being shown. Maybe I was too sensitive and had a knee-jerk reaction, but I had also gone a few rounds with them before with a different account. I had my videos and slides taken down for going against community guidelines when I would post steamy scenes, but then I’d see other authors post much steamier than what I was and not only get away with it, their posts were pushed to the “for you” page.

Then, if that wasn’t enough, I was scrolling Instagram, and my boosted post showed up, but the description wasn’t what I had written to go along with the graphic. I had forgotten to turn off the AI option to rewrite my description, and while that version wasn’t too messed up, it didn’t sound like me. Going forward I’ll turn it off, but it was an irritating lesson all the same.

I wasn’t able to let go of Facebook flagging my photo for a long time, and writing this post after the fact is probably a good indicator I still haven’t. I’m more upset about the loss of my TikTok account since for once I was having a bit of fun creating content, and I was getting likes and saves of my carousels. It’s disappointing not to be able to use a platform a lot of authors are using to push their books, and the hypocrisy behind why I can’t or why I won’t will rub me raw for a long time. I could have appealed–not doing so probably just seemed like an admission of guilt–but I also know from experience that once TikTok starts eyeing your account, it’s almost impossible to get them to leave you alone. So, for my mental health, I gave up.

Incidents like this aren’t going to go away. In fact, as AI usage ramps up, things like this will continue to be a common occurrence. Fighting it seems like a wasted effort, like bailing out a sinking boat with a spoon, so what can we do to at least not hang on to things that are beyond our control?

Get out if/when you can, and if not, be prepared to fight
There are certain things that get shut down that you may not want to live without, like your Facebook Author Page that you run ads off of, or your Amazon KDP account, if we’re being drastic but still realistic. Accounts like that are shut down simply because bots make a mistake and when it comes to Meta and Amazon, talking to a human to get things resolved is almost impossible. Some never win against Facebook and some only win against Amazon if they have an advocate like a representative from the Alliance of Independent Authors reaching out on their behalf. Sometimes it’s not easy to walk away, but it’s better for your mental health, like me deleting my TikTok accounts. I didn’t want to. I really didn’t because I was in the mindset to try to use that as a real way to reach readers, but I wasn’t going to put up with a platform that undermined all my work, especially when what they were accusing me of wasn’t true.

If you decide to fight, having a plan will help. Figure out who you can reach out to, be it someone at Alli or an IP lawyer. If you decide to walk, make peace with it the best you can. TikTok’s hypocrisy will rub me the wrong way for a long time. I just need to get into the groove of posting somewhere else, like IG, which doesn’t seem like it has such arbitrary guidelines to follow.

Remember that it isn’t your fault
This is a big one with me and that Facebook accusation. I would never post anything that would hurt my kids and knowing they took down a photo because of something like that will make me feel icky for a very long time. I know that there’s no way possible for a human to look at the amount of content that gets posted every day, not to mention all the content that has accumulated over the years, but that doesn’t make it better. And the hypocrisy here too, makes it sting because we all know Zuckerberg was at Trump’s inauguration, and Trump has a questionable reputation at best.

No matter what platform is giving you a hard time, there’s a 99.9% chance that what happened isn’t the result of what you did. (There are always going to be people trying to game the system, and unfortunately, when things like this happen to people who haven’t done anything wrong, they’re collateral damage.)

Don’t let AI hurt your feelings or make you feel bad. There are plenty of real people who will do that for you.

Find alternatives
Fortunately, there are a lot of places to hang out online. I don’t need Facebook. In fact, after that happened, I was tempted to take the app off my phone. I rarely post on my personal page and only post on my FB author page a couple times a week, if that. The only thing I would lose not posting there anymore would be the ability to run ads, but I could still do that if I didn’t scrap my account altogether. Instagram is a good alternative to TikTok and there are other places that I could post to that I never have before like Pinterest. I’ve heard Lemon8 is popular but they’re owned by the same people who own TikTok so I’d probably end up with the same problems. Best not to repeat any of that. But finding one platform that you like that you can commit to will take some of the sting away of having to avoid others.

Or figure out what you can live without…it might surprise you
Once I got over the anger of having my carousels tagged as AI, getting rid of TikTok didn’t seem so bad. Even though I was getting good at it, making carousels took time. Not only did I have to make the graphics in Canva, but I also had to pull the snippets. Not having to do that anymore was actually a blessing in disguise and took off a lot of pressure I didn’t know was there. I was trying to build an account from scratch and every post save and like encouraged me, but in both good and bad ways. You start to build momentum and don’t want that to stop. I was able to blame TikTok for stepping away instead of myself, but whether it’s a valid excuse or not, it was a relief. I know I said above it felt like a loss when I deleted it, but I can always turn my carousels into Reels. I just haven’t taken the time to do that yet.

You may decide not to post on social media at all, and that’s fine too. Finding different ways to get your book seen, like running ads and buying promos, can fill in some of that gap, but AI is everywhere and it may take some testing to see if you’re jumping from the pan into the fire. I haven’t run FB ads for a while, but I hear turning off the AI components is getting harder and harder to do. Instagram is still easy when you boost a post. Find the toggle on the right and turn it off.

Screenshot of Instagram boosted ad page. Enhanced ad toggle is on the right (pink arrow).

Whatever you do, take care of yourself
When it comes right down to your choices, you have to do what’s best for you. When the universe closes a door it opens a window, or something like that, and maybe something that feels like the end of the world actually opens you up to other possibilities. I used to really miss Twitter, but I don’t anymore. There are a lot of nice people on Threads, and getting away from the toxic environment was good for my mental health in the long run.

Will Facebook ever take down another photo? Maybe. I have a lot of pictures of my daughter when she was small cuddling on our cats. How Facebook decides what’s explicit, I have no idea, but it could happen again. I’ve had my FB account for seventeen years and I might just take ten minutes every day and start deleting albums from around that time. No one is going to go back and look at those pictures anyway, so there wouldn’t be a big loss in getting rid of them. They give you an option to download before you delete, so that’s always something you can do too, if you think you need to purge some old content there. It sucks you have to do it at all, but since I’ve become an author I’ve started to very carefully weigh what I put online anyway.

You can’t control the bots, the mistakes, or the algorithms. But you can control where you go next. AI is here to stay, so take precautions, take care of yourself, and if you let him push you around, let him push you somewhere better.

As part of my “favorite things” segment, I’m highlighting romance author Jennifer Probst’s nonfiction books and her Substack. I love the down-to-earth way she thinks about writing and publishing. I have to admit, I’m a bit behind and I only read the first one, but the other two are on my list, and I read her Substack whenever she publishes a new one. You can find the links below (they are not affiliate links.)

graphic of Jennifer's book covers. l-r: write naked, write true, write free. background is a peach color

Write Naked: A Bestseller’s Secrets to Writing Romance & Navigating the Path to Success
https://www.amazon.com/Write-Naked-Bestsellers-Secrets-Navigating-ebook/dp/B01N16FESI

Write True: A Bestseller’s Guide to Writing Craft and Achieving Success in the Romance Industry 
https://www.amazon.com/Write-True-Bestsellers-Achieving-Industry-ebook/dp/B08FLGFLL5

Write Free: Personal Essays on Craft, Career, and the Writing Life
https://www.amazon.com/Write-Free-Personal-Essays-Writing-ebook/dp/B0G1D358TW

If you want to subscribe to her Substack, you can do it here: https://substack.com/@jenniferprobst

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

Monday’s Author Update

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1,284 words
7 minutes read time

thanksgiving flatlay. pumpkin green gourd gold ribbon silver and gold silverware. text says. monday's author udpate

Hello, hello! We are nearing the end of November, and US Thanksgiving is this week! I have everything I need except potatoes, and I’ll grab them during my usual grocery run on Wednesday. When my schedule at work changed, I had no idea how much I depended on my routine and I probably will always have to grapple with when I can get stuff done while still trying to write as much as I can. Anyway, some weeks are better than others, but that’s life in general, and despite those changes, things are okay.

WIP Update
Even though my writing time being severely cut, I’m still making great progress on Bitter Love. I’m 59,000 words into it and I am so happy with the progress I’ve made this month. I joined ProWritingAid’s Novel November, but I haven’t been keeping track of how many words I’ve written so far. My only goal was to get this book done by the end of the year, and I think I can do that. I have the last third of the book plotted out, which is the hard part, in my opinion, so writing the rest should be easy enough. I was going to jump into my hockey duet, but I’m going to put that on the back burner again, and in January re-edit and re-cover my Cedar Hill duet. That will take me a month or so, and then when I’m done with that, I’ll get Wicked Games ready to go for a May release. (I already announced it so I don’t want to lie to the few people who were listening.) I’m struggling with whether or not to do ARCs considering that my attempts in the past have had lackluster results. People take but don’t review, so there’s really no point in handing them out. I canceled my BookSprout subscription because the quality just wasn’t there for the price I was paying. I listed some other alternatives in a previous blog post, so I might try something new, if just as an experiment so I can blog about it later.

Then once Wicked Games is off my plate, I have a cute story idea about a woman who inherits a bakery she doesn’t want and a billionaire who wants to buy it. She can’t sell because of some stipulations in her grandma’s will, and he can’t work around them because of his own obligations. With some of the dialogue that’s already going through my head, it might be more romcom, if I can find my funny bone, and the characters already have names which means I will definitely be writing them in 2026.

So my plan is:
*Finish Bitter Love
*Revamp my Cedar Hill duet
*Get Wicked Games ready to release in May 2026
*Write One Tough Cookie
*Jump back to Bitter Love to get that ready for release maybe at the beginning of 2027 or the end of 2026, whichever works out

It’s nice to have so many plans and an idea of what I’ll be doing for the next little while, but it also makes me kind of sad too. I’m not doing this for anyone but me, which, I know, that should be the only reason a writer does anything–for themselves first–but it can be disheartening after a while and it doesn’t seem like there’s much I can do to fix it.

Deleting TikTok
I mentioned in a previous blog post that I was having fun with a reader account on TikTok, and I was even getting a few views above the 200 view dungeon a lot of people seem to get stuck in. Then they started suppressing my carousels and labeling them as AI. This ticked me off for two reasons: one, they weren’t AI. I used stock photos from DepositPhotos (that were not AI) and two, there actually is a lot of AI on TikTok they aren’t flagging and the hypocrisy drives me insane. So, I deleted my accounts. Both my reader one and my personal one I started a long time ago.

The hit to my mental health was just too much and I don’t have the bandwidth to put up with it. It’s too bad because I was getting into a groove posting, and doing slides is a great way to learn how to pull hooks out of your books and write ad copy. But maybe I’ll just try to post more on Instagram. I barely post there and even though Facebook keeps telling me that my author page is getting views, I haven’t posted there in three weeks. I saved all my carousels in my Canva account, and turning them into Reels would be easy enough, but I’m not sure if I really care that much to do the work. Posting on social media is something I struggle with anyway, though I do like talking about my books to the handful of people who see my posts.

Black Friday Promo
I wasn’t sure if I was going to buy a promo for any of my books this holiday season, but I went ahead and bought a promo in the Red Feather Romance Books newsletter and set my Christmas novel to free for three days around Black Friday. I’m not sure what else I’m going to do, if anything, because while I think giving away books can be beneficial if you have a plan, I have no plan, and don’t really care either way about giving books away. Mostly, all I think it does is create high hopes that it will finally do something and then it never happens. Chances are 100% I won’t make back the $135.00 I spent on their fee, but I’m really proud of the changes I made to the book when I re-edited it a couple months ago, so I wanted to give it another push. But A Heartache for Christmas is getting old, so maybe one day I’ll write another Christmas novel, if I can think of a plot.

The Future of this Blog (It’s good!)
I had to renew my plan for this website, and they gave me a discount if I paid for two years instead of one, so I’m locked into this website and blog until the end of 2027. I suppose that was kind of optimistic, though I have no plans to go anywhere. I enjoy blogging very much, and having all my things in one place has been nice. I get why people write on Substack, but having a WordPress plan isn’t very expensive and having a main hub where readers can find you is less confusing for everyone. Granted, blogging on my author site isn’t the same as having a true newsletter, and even though I regret not having one, I still don’t think I’ll ever try that again. My author website is also locked in until March of 2026 and that auto renews every two years as well. I pay $156.00 for those two years and I think that is a decent price for a site that only has about 100 visitors a month.

That’s about all I have for this week. As part of my “Favorite Things” section of my blog I have going until Christmas, I want to tell you about this free crossword puzzle maker that I used to make a romance crossword for my Facebook author page. You make up the questions and answers, and the website spits out the puzzle. It’s fun, and you can find it here: https://crosswordlabs.com/

Here’s the one I made with the answers. You can steal it if you want. I don’t mind.

crossword puzzle overlayed on faint pink hearts. text says. contemporary romance fun
Crossword clues Across 5. The one person meant to be with you 7. Symbol of love 9. Emotional tension that keeps readers hooked 11. The obstacle or competing love interest 12. Romance shorthand for a happy ending 13. A big question that changes everything 14. A charming or quirky first encounter 16. Intense romantic or physical attraction 18. The magic connection between two lovers 19. When estranged lovers find their way back Down 1. A romance that takes its time building 2. Playful back-and-forth dialogue between lovers 3. The central female character in a romance 4. What every romance promises in the end 6. A break of trust between lovers 8. A spark that often changes everything in romance novels 10. A dominant hero archetype 12. The leading man of a romance 15. A recurring theme in romance stories 17. Hidden truth that complicates love
crossword key KISS A spark that often changes everything in romance novels HEA Romance shorthand for a happy ending CHEMISTRY The magic connection between two lovers TROPE A recurring theme in romance stories HERO The leading man of a romance HEROINE The central female character in a romance ANGST Emotional tension that keeps readers hooked SLOWBURN A romance that takes its time building ALPHA A dominant hero archetype MEETCUTE A charming or quirky first encounter BANTER Playful back-and-forth dialogue between lovers RIVAL The obstacle or competing love interest SOULMATE The one person meant to be with you HEART Symbol of love PASSION Intense romantic or physical attraction PROPOSAL A big question that changes everything SECRET Hidden truth that complicates love BETRAYAL A break of trust between lovers REUNION When estranged lovers find their way back FOREVER What every romance promises in the end

Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate!

I’ll talk you you next week!

Who is gatekeeping success in the publishing industry?

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picture of a lock holding a chain together. the text says, who is gatekeeping success in the publishing industry?

I saw a post on Threads a few days ago accusing authors of gatekeeping information, namely how to sell books, and lots of them. Needless to say, she got reprimanded in the comments because most authors are nothing but transparent when it comes to what worked and didn’t work for them.

I’m not sure what they were looking for, most of that information is common knowledge. Write a good book and publish it with a good cover, title, and blurb that meet genre and reader expectations, and do that over and over again, forever. I think the problem comes from authors who have done that and haven’t gotten anywhere. They think there’s special information out there and successful authors are keeping it to themselves. I understand the frustration, being in the predicament situation I’m in, but the longer you’re in this business, the more you realize that there is no magic bullet that will ensure your success.

That got me thinking about the “real” gatekeepers out there, and I mean in indie publishing, not so much traditional because we all know those are agents and editors who acquire the books. We like to think there are no gatekeepers in indie publishing, but, unfortunately, there are. You can tell me if you agree with me or not.

What kind of gatekeeping am I talking about? Let’s explore.

Money–the obvious but unspoken gatekeeper
We don’t think much about the money part of indie publishing because in all actuality, you can publish without it. Edit yourself or trade if you can find someone willing, do your own cover in Canva, format using a free tool like Draft2Digital’s software, take the free ISBN from Amazon, and you’re all set. It sounds easy, and plenty of authors publish this way. But the hard reality is, a lot of people aren’t willing to trade services anymore, preferring to get paid for giving their time, and a lot of authors can’t edit on their own or have the skills to create a good cover. You can format yourself, but you can say goodbye to fancy chapter headers and forced edges.

Money also enables you to buy ads and promos, what you need to start a newsletter and have an author website, and other resources like nonfiction resource books and classes.

There are a lot of free things out there, but free will only get you so far until eventually you’ll run into a dead end. After a while your books and author platform won’t be able to compete with authors who can invest in their business.

Time–money’s invisible twin
Anyone who says we all have the same twenty-four hours in a day can fuck right off. If you have a full-time job, take care of littles, have a spouse, run errands, do chores, wrangle a pet, and try to write on top of it, you know how difficult it is to get the words down and the books published. I’ve said on this blog many times that if you can’t pay with money, you’ll pay with time, and that’s something you can’t get around.

If you can’t pay for an editor, you have to teach yourself. If you can’t buy a premade book cover or hire a designer, you have to teach yourself how to make one–at least enough to get a handle on the basics (a good font and stock photo can go a long way). If you can’t hire a formatter, you have to learn how to do it yourself, and Draft2Digital’s free software is the easiest I’ve found to use.

Then there’s the marketing: constantly creating graphics and writing ad copy to go with them, networking, engaging with readers. Writing newsletters or blog posts. Writing a reader magnet and bonus material. A lot of that will fall to the wayside if your time is limited because it’s more important to get that book written. Lucky are the few who have the time to write and market while doing the thousand other things that make up a life.

Time is a powerful gatekeeper, and to the people who write during naptimes and after your kids have gone to bed, I see you.

Access–who you know and where you exist online
Networking used to mean meeting connections in your MFA program. Now it means joining Facebook groups where authors in your genre hang out, joining author chats and Discord groups. It means knowing authors who write in your genre not only to be invited into promotional opportunities like newsletters swaps and anthologies, but because authors really are willing to share what works for them, and you never know if just one tiny tweak to an ad or a change to your back matter will be what lifts your business to the next level.

It’s not about trying to bust your way into established cliques–it’s about having access to information that could boost you up. Here’s a funny story, or actually, not so funny (it’s rather pathetic, if you want to be honest). I’m a romance author and have been publishing romance for around ten years. When I first started out, I networked with indie authors, not necessarily romance indie authors, and I missed out on some big connections. I kind of knew who Zoe York was, but didn’t really get to know her or other romance authors of her caliber until I joined a romance marketing chat on Clubhouse, that, incidentally, I only learned about by being in the connected Facebook group. Zoe runs a huge book blast promo group, and I didn’t know about it for eight years. I’ve tried to make myself feel better by telling myself I just wasn’t ready to know, and maybe that’s true, but it’s a sad testament that I wasn’t networking and meeting the right people. Even if I wasn’t ready to participate, I should have at least known about it.

Not everyone has time to hang out in Facebook groups or participate in chats, and some people don’t feel comfortable joining groups or talking to people they don’t know. I used to be a lot more involved, but I don’t have the time anymore to answer questions or give feedback. It’s tough, and like any other professional industry, a lot of success can boil down to who you know and the opportunities they bring with them.

Overall, authors with the right connections learn faster what’s working, which platforms are paying off, and how to pivot. Without those connections, you’ll always feel behind, and chances are, you probably will be.

Luck and Timing–the chaos gatekeepers
Unfortunately, luck and timing are two things that you can try your best to control, but you never will. You can go crazy with it, trying to go viral on TikTok or publishing your book on a certain day of the week. Bad timing can pop up when you least expect it, like inadvertently releasing the same day as a bigger author in your genre, or as a lot of authors who released in 2020 found out, during the start of a world-wide pandemic. Or, as I found when I launched one of my books in my King’s Crossing series, on the inauguration day of a president nobody wanted.

It’s uncomfortable to admit, but luck and timing can have just as much weight as skill, strategy, networking, or money. They aren’t predictable. They aren’t earned, which is why so many authors get bitter when someone they don’t consider “worthy” gets all the attention. And, unfortunately, someone else’s luck or good timing can’t be replicated, not even by the person experiencing it.

You can position yourself to take advantage of luck if it eventually comes your way, but you can’t force it to show up. This is one of the hardest parts of the industry because it means success isn’t guaranteed to those who work harder than others. Hard work raises the odds of success, but it doesn’t promise a payoff. As far as timing goes, sometimes you completely miss your window (like when a reporter for the New York Times wanted to talk to me about one of my blog posts and she emailed an email address I don’t check but stupidly had in my contact information). Sometimes you never get a window that opens–it’s always glued shut. And sometimes the window flings open wide when you least expect it and you happily jump through, much to the envy of those around you.

Emotional endurance–the gatekeeper everyone talks about but there are only so many spoons to go around
The ability to keep going after you’ve done everything right and have still fallen short of your expectations might be the biggest gatekeeper of all. I’ve been around for ten years, which can seem like a long time to those who are just publishing their first novel, yet, I know people who have been around for double that time. They were around when the Kindle Goldrush was a thing, and are still writing and publishing books. But I would guess for every one person who was around then and are still going strong, a hundred authors have quit and disappeared.

I used to be a hardcore cheerleader of Team Endurance, spouting nonsense like “A quitter never wins and a winner never quits” and “The harder I work, the luckier I am.” Actually, I think Christian Grey said that one first, but you know what I mean. These days I’m still in the game, and not just dipping my toes in indie waters. I constantly dive in, writing books, keeping up a publishing schedule, and trying to remain at least somewhat visible online. I’m proud of that, though sometimes it does wear me out. Not because of the work itself, but because it produces so few results. “Write what you love and you’ll find readers who love it too” isn’t true. “Write for yourself” is the only saying that I can fully get behind these days because with the industry how it is, you might be the only one reading it.

“Publishing is a marathon not a sprint” is another pithy saying, but I stopped running for the same reasons I’m facing this wall in indie publishing. I ran a half marathon in 2015. It’s one of my biggest achievements. But no one was there to congratulate me at the finish line. I drove home, took a shower, and went to work.

And I never raced again.

I still write, and with all the plots in my head and characters banging around begging me to let them out, I have no plans to stop. But I no longer “Live to write,” another line I used to say that makes my stomach churn now. Maybe one day I won’t have any more stories to share, but unless that happens I’ll keep going. Not because of endurance, but for the simple fact writing is a part of me and has been all my life. At this point, it would be harder to let it go than to keep going, and maybe that’s true for you too.

Privilege–the gatekeeper no one wants to admit is there
The publishing industry is a white man’s world, and it would be remiss of me if I didn’t include privilege in this list of hidden gatekeepers, though if you’re a marginalized author, this particular gatekeeper isn’t so hidden. It’s something you have to fight against every day. Marginalized authors aren’t the only ones who deal with the lack of privilege in the industry. Disability, economic background, sexuality, geography, language, and education all play a role in how accessible publishing is. And not just indie publishing, but the entire writing and publishing industry.

A white, cis-het author like me doesn’t have to worry about certain biases, like how my name and author photo will be judged, whether my characters will be considered “marketable” or not, if a cover featuring people who look like me will get beaten down by social media (algorithms, bots, and keyboard warriors alike), or whether agents/editors/ARC reviewers will dismiss my work before they even read the first page. Authors who belong to marginalized groups face barriers I can’t even imagine, and pretending that everyone is on the same playing field only encourages the problem.

Privilege shows up in smaller ways that, as a white author, you might not have thought about:
* Who feels welcome in author groups
* Who gets boosted by influencers without asking
* Who agents assume is “commercial”
* Who feels safe being visible online

What can you do to fight against this? Read widely, boost up your fellow authors any way you can, be friendly and welcoming to everyone you meet, online and at author events, and acknowledge that some authors have more stacked against them than you realize.

Authors aren’t gatekeeping other authors. It’s just a sad fact that no two authors are alike and we’re all trying to do the best we can with what we have. If there is ever anything I can help you with, be it resources, a question about publishing or marketing, or if you have an issue and you can’t find a clear solution, email me. I’ll always do what I can. There’s enough holding us back.

I’m sorry this post is so long! My biggest thank yous to those who made it to the end! Or maybe by now you’re used to me being long-winded, haha.

My last little bit is my “Favorite Things” section that I’m adding to the end of every blog post until Christmas, and this week’s favorite thing is Master Lists for Writers, Gold Edition, by Bryn Donovan. This book of lists is amazing and covers everything from facial expressions to settings. I have the first edition she published back in 2015, and I was so excited when I saw on Instagram she wrote an updated version. (Kind of validates that social media can sell books….noooooo! LOL)

Master Lists for Writers, Gold Edition, is definitely one of my favorite things this year, and you can check it out here (this is not an affiliate link): https://www.amazon.com/MASTER-LISTS-WRITERS-Bryn-Donovan-ebook/dp/B0FXDQ79G2

master list for writers book cover. gold with brown lettering. title is master list for writers the expanded volume of the popular writing reference book bryn donovan

Thanks for hanging in there with me this week! Have a great day!