Big Changes for 2020

A few days ago, I had an amazing coaching session with author Jami Albright. She’s a best-selling Kindle romance author who writes a book a year. Today’s popular indie wisdom proclaims, “Write a book a month, or at least every three months to keep the Amazon algorithm primed.” But what about those of us who can’t write a book a month? Where does that leave us?

I stumbled upon a YouTube video in my indie author’s Facebook group of Jami speaking at the 20 Books to 50k conference. Jami’s talk was so inspiring that I decided to try a coaching session with her. It was amazing! She gave me a TON of personal feedback in our one-hour call. She also told me I needed to make a few changes—some of them big. One that hurts, too.

Right out of the gate Jami asked, “Why aren’t you marketing your books as Academy books?” Sure, my Nexis Angel series takes place at Montrose Academy. Apparently, that’s a whole genre now! Funny story—I’m currently reading several academy books on Kindle Unlimited to educate myself on my competitors, ahem comparable authors. ;) I just hadn’t put two-and-two together that my books were actually “Academy Books.” Three cheers for an outsider’s fresh perspective!

More good news, my brand new covers and my professionally edited books are both up to snuff. But there are some tweaks I need to make to my blurbs, my categories, and my keywords, which she personally helped me upgrade. There are several other minor updates I’ll need to make behind the scenes (I won’t bore you with the details). However, there are two major changes I’ve been advised to make—one good and one bittersweet.

Good news first. How would you feel if I added a Facebook Readers group? It would be exclusively for Nexis Angel series readers and fans to discuss the books. I’d be there to add insight, give extra feedback, and maybe even a sneak peak at some deleted scenes and such. I hope to make that available ASAP. If you’re interested, check my FB author page for all the latest.

Now we come to the bittersweet change I alluded to earlier. I’ve been advised to take my prequel off of Amazon. That means The Nexis Awakening will no longer be available for sale or on Kindle Unlimited. Instead, it will be an exclusive freebie to readers who join my email newsletter list. Jami and I discussed how I might write another free reader magnet to entice readers to join my mailing list, but in the end it’s just easier to use a novella I’ve already written. Especially one that contains spoilers for Book 1 in the series, The Nexis Secret.

So, it is with a heavy heart that I will be removing The Nexis Awakening from Amazon on December 8, 2019. If you haven’t read it yet, you still have time to download a copy here.

To be honest, I love the new cover of The Nexis Awakening so much that I want to write more about Lucy’s brother, James. When I first saw the cover model I said, “Oh, there he is. Nice to meet you, James.” My cover designer found the PERFECT face for James. Now I’m imagining what he’s been up to in Europe since his disappearance. Wouldn’t that make a good story? Needless to say, a version of James and his story may reappear in the near future. So don’t despair too much. ;)

I’m hoping that these changes will help my books reach more readers—and help me serve my current readers better. If you’re reading this, that means YOU. I want to interact with you more. I want to know what you think. Maybe I’ll even let your feedback shape the course of the next two books in the series! Mostly, I just want to know what you like and what you don’t like.

I’m not like some authors who just write for themselves or for the love of writing. I write for the people like you who read my books. Not because you have to, but because you want to.

I want to know why you read—and why you read my books. Are you like me as a teen, looking to escape a troubling home life? Or just escape in general? Or are you the kind of reader who wants to learn something new when you read? Maybe it’s a combination of the two, or another option I hadn’t thought of. Either way, I want to know!

So tell me, why do you love to read? What are your favorite kinds of books?