Author Newsletters

 

Is anyone else escaping into books this week? I’ve read some great reads recently—I share about them on Insta and Goodreads—and when I look back at the books, I realize most of them are because of follow book lovers. 

Which leads me to our topic of the week: share your newsletter info. 

And this is where I tell you: I don’t have a newsletter and I don’t foresee creating one. 

Why? Doesn’t every author how-to, agent, and likely publishers tell you to make one? 

Yes, yes they do. If you’re a writer you’ve undoubtedly see that advice splashed across the socials or heard it in any marketing panel you’ve attended. And yet, I resist. 

I’m a pretty voracious reader. I average between 80-100 books a year. If this boggles your mind: 

• I don’t game (I used to, but whoa addictive, so yeah) 
• I rarely watch shows (unless my husband finds something he thinks I’ll love and then we binge together—bonding time!)
• I attend my kid’s sporting events, but I always have a book or two in my purse for the waiting times 

And I never open any author newsletters.

So how do I find new books or know about new releases coming up? I believe I find them the same way most people add to their TBR piles: social media and word of mouth, Goodreads, and the library. The trick is knowing how to find my book’s audience where they hang out, and I don’t think newsletters are it. 

I could absolutely be wrong, but I’d be curious to find out how much cross-traffic an authors newsletter and social following has. Maybe there’s no way to really track that, but if you could know what percent of your newsletter follows you on Twitter or Instagram vs. people that do very little online I’d be very interested. 

Because for me it all boils down to mental bandwidth. Where am I going to put my time for the most benefit. If I’m putting energy into posting and sharing book content then I don’t have a lot left for crafting an interesting newsletter. 

Thoughts? Do you feel your newsletter benefits your author brand? Do you put more energy into promoting online? 

Grey Magic, Dark Wizard, and Storm Princesses - Oh My!

 

This week at the SFF Seven we're sharing newsletter info and promoting work. For those feeling hesitant to promote their books during this terrible time, I'll remind you - as I've been reminded - that art brings us joy and books open minds. When we're dealing with close-minded bigots, hatred, and war, we need stories more than ever. We provide the counterbalance. Please share about your books, because the world needs them.

So: Promo from me! Book Three in my Bonds of Magic series, GREY MAGIC, released on Monday!! 

      

This series is The Witcher meets The Selection. 

His Darkness, Her Brightness… Together They Defy the World

Lord Gabriel Phel at last holds his dream in his grasp—and faces losing everything. He’s finally won the love of his wife, familiar, and mother of his child, and she offers him a heartfelt commitment he can truly believe in. Together they’re building a true house, one with a growing family of friends and allies that can help them stand against their enemies. And he’s learning to master his magic, to use it as the powerful tool and weapon it should be. But old and new enemies array themselves to take it all away.

Lady Veronica, now fully of House Phel, is doing her best to embrace happiness. After all, she has her hands full managing her mercurial and powerful wizard as he navigates taking his place as the head of their house, and with learning her own extraordinary ability. But she fears whatever peace they win won’t last long. When their enemies inevitably strike—including, perhaps, her own father—they must be ready to defend all they hold precious. It doesn’t help that her idealistic husband insists on making foolishly noble decisions that put them at even greater risk, nor that she loves him all the more for it.

As Nic and Gabriel struggle to put their household in order, giving ill-advised safe harbor to Nic’s runaway sister and risking their lives to save Gabriel’s sister’s sanity, their enemies draw the noose tighter on their well laid plans. When the unthinkable occurs, it’s up to both of them to trust in the nascent, unknown magic they’ve woven together.

      

If you're into audiobooks, you can listen to the first in this series, DARK WIZARD. Books 2 & 3 will be out on audio soon! Comment on this post and I'll pick one person to receive a promo code (US only, not my fault) for a free copy of the DARK WIZARD audiobook!

       

Finally, if you follow me, you'll know that I canceled the preorder for THE STORM PRINCESS AND THE RAVEN KING, Book Four in the Heirs of Magic series. Several things came together to force me to cancel, alas. BUT, this neatly segues into our main topic, the newsletter! Subscribe to my newsletter for news on when this book will release. There are also regular yummy giveaways. 

NEW Fantasy Romance GREY MAGIC (Bond of Magic, Book 3) by Jeffe Kennedy

 Today, we're celebrating as Jeffe wraps up her scintillating and sizzling Bonds of Magic Fantasy Romance trilogy with this week's release of GREY MAGIC! 

GREY MAGIC
Bonds of Magic, Book 3

His Darkness, Her Brightness… Together They Defy the World

Lord Gabriel Phel at last holds his dream in his grasp—and faces losing everything. He’s finally won the love of his wife, familiar, and mother of his child, and she offers him a heartfelt commitment he can truly believe in. Together they’re building a true house, one with a growing family of friends and allies that can help them stand against their enemies. And he’s learning to master his magic, to use it as the powerful tool and weapon it should be. But old and new enemies array themselves to take it all away.

Lady Veronica, now fully of House Phel, is doing her best to embrace happiness. After all, she has her hands full managing her mercurial and powerful wizard as he navigates taking his place as the head of their house, and with learning her own extraordinary ability. But she fears whatever peace they win won’t last long. When their enemies inevitably strike—including, perhaps, her own father—they must be ready to defend all they hold precious. It doesn’t help that her idealistic husband insists on making foolishly noble decisions that put them at even greater risk, nor that she loves him all the more for it.

As Nic and Gabriel struggle to put their household in order, giving ill-advised safe harbor to Nic’s runaway sister and risking their lives to save Gabriel’s sister’s sanity, their enemies draw the noose tighter on their well laid plans. When the unthinkable occurs, it’s up to both of them to trust in the nascent, unknown magic they’ve woven together.

BUY IT NOW: Amazon

Buy Book 1: DARK WIZARD

Buy Book 2: BRIGHT FAMILIAR

BUY THE SERIES: Amazon

I'm Supposed to Talk About Newsletters...

Hey all. This week's topic focuses on chatting about our newsletters and promoting our work, but I'll be honest--I'm not much into promotion right now. It's been a tough week. Tough to remain creative when I'm so worried about the world. I have friends from Ukraine, and my book cover designers are based in Ukraine. The owner and her family, last I heard, are still there. It's been hard to watch the news but impossible to ignore it. 

All that said, instead of asking you to sign up for my newsletter or buy my book, I would like to encourage anyone who can to donate to Ukrainian efforts instead. If you can't afford to do that, maybe lift up a prayer to whatever god/gods you pray to. Innocent people are in harm's way and facing devastating loss, and they could use any support we can offer. Even seeing our posts online gives them hope and courage.

I'm linking here to a couple of posts that give options for places to donate:

Washington Post Listing

Time Magazine Article

Also know that my publisher, City Owl Press, will be making an announcement tomorrow (2/28) that they will donate all of the company's portion of royalties from any sales made on the City Owl Website in the month of March to Ukraine.

Remember to be careful where you donate funds, but the options listed above are safe.

Thank you,

Why This One

 To be honest, talking about works in progress feels small in light of Ukraine being attacked and invaded right after the 'governor' of Texas declared open season on trans kids, their parents, and any professional supporting them. It's hard to feel like anything I do matters at the moment. But. The hard fact is that I cannot do anything remotely useful about either situation except to say I'll fight for trans people the only way I know how: at the voting booth, by supporting organizations specifically helping trans youth, and by supporting the legal groups that will take apart Abbott's nonsense political posturing. To support Ukraine, I can donate to chef Jose Andres who is taking his mission to the region to feed those in need, whether it be refugees, other aid workers, or Ukrainian troops.

Then I recognize that I can write a story that might give someone else a few moments of escape and rest. We use the tools we have, right? So why this story? 

I'm working on book four of my space opera series. It's the next logical step in the story arc and there are a few issues that have to be worked out in this story before the final book in the series. I like the characters. I like the premise. I like where the book needs to go and where it needs to take the characters. But something hasn't been right about it for a long time. I think I've finally figured it out. I had the heroine's core goal at odds with her core wound. 

Psychology Tik Tok likes to make clear in three minute snippets that the wounds we internalized as children lead to our unhealthy coping mechanisms as adults. After spending some time feeling called out by a bunch of videos I thought I was scrolling for entertainment, it hit me that I'd gotten my heroine's issues wrong. I'd imagined she had a people pleasing problem. She doesn't. She has an abandonment issue. That changes everything. It changes her action. It changes her thinking. It changes her conflict with the hero. 

It changes the fact that up to this point, I haven't liked this story. Now, if we talk about why this WIP I can say, "Because finally I get to go have fun in this story."

Why this Sci-Fi Thriller WIP?

I’m channeling a sci-fi vibe today because our topic this week is: 

Why this WIP?

WIP is work in progress. Yep, you got it. the work in progress I’m talking about today is my next sci-fi thriller! 

Why this one and not one of my fantasy ones? How do you pick what to work on when you have multiple projects (and no contracted or set timeline for any of them)? Why do you have more than one novel in the works? 

Sci-fi thrillers are pretty much what the label entails: science and a lot of action that makes your heart pound and your palms sweat. With my medical background I can’t help but find that bleeding through, one of my MCs works as a biohacker.

Biohacker, according to healthline, describes it as do-it-yourself-biology. Basically anything people do to alter their health and wellbeing. But…sci-fi here, so my biohacker provides his clients with biologic altering drugs. And after years of altering themselves people are becoming more AI than human.

It’s a bit creepy and exciting with a nice dose of humor provided by the found family and friction, both good and bad, between the MCs. Basically, it’s hella fun to write.

There are days I’m tempted to crack open my recent fantasy WIP. I am a mood reader, after all, and I write with my moods as well so I like to keep at least three WIPs on my laptop. But writing sci-fi uses more of my left side brain and I can geek out and imagine what our future could look like. When I write fantasy it’s right brained all the way—the tear your heart out, leave you emotionally exhausted kind of writing. 

So yeah, I’ll stick to my sci-fi thriller for now. How about you? What’s got your passion going at the moment?

A Worthy WiP

 Why this Work In Progress (WiP)? What about it resonates with me?

Well, this WiP--with the working title of Worthy--is the first of a futuristic-fantasy trilogy that examines a world where humanity's avarice, cruelty, and selfishness are regulated and policed. Where there is a distinct line between upholding the laws of society and addressing the corruption of an individual's nature.

One thing this real-world pandemic of disease and disinformation has brought into sharp focus is that there are those among us who are willfully--even gleefully--horrible people. They roll out of bed with the intention of fucking over people for no better reason than to feel a frisson of power. I despise those folks so deeply that my coping mechanism is to spend time deep-diving into a society where that vicious desperation for control is mitigated, where there is a third party who sees through actions and soundbites into the composition of an individual's nature and simply eradicates the source. What sort of society is that? Is that a utopia or does it breed new problems? Is depravity hardcoded into human nature? Is everything that makes humans bad simply rooted in an unfulfilled basic need? (Shout out to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs!)

Oh yeah, for sure, never fear, there's plenty of magic and whodunnits and conspiracies and slow-burn romance and all that good stuff. Hell, it even has a plot and a few substories to boot. Shocking, I know. Writing it is as disturbing as it is cathartic...which, makes being an author totally worth it.

Why This WIP?

This week's post topic is Why this WIP? What about it resonates for you?

Well, my current WIP--City of Ruin--is my second romantic fantasy novel under contract with City Owl Press and releases later this year. So that's why this WIP ;) But also because I really love the story, and I've been able to employ certain storytelling elements (ones I can't mention!) that make my writer's heart happy.

City of Ruin is book two in The Witch Walker trilogy, a continuation of Raina Bloodgood and Alexus Thibault's story. Their passionate tale is just getting started in The Witch Collector, book one. There's so much more unveiling left to do and secrets to bring to light, and I'm having a blast placing the puzzle pieces for readers. It's this--the story weaving--that always gets me excited.

If The Witch Collector sounds like a book you might enjoy, and if you haven't given it a try, I'll drop the buy links here. You can also add it on Goodreads!