I'm going to self publish!

My cover was revealed today for my new book, Rediscovered Love! It's my new avatar The feedback has been good which makes me happy!

It took a long time to finally get the cover right to portray what I wanted it to! I had my mind set on what I wanted and I was being stubborn even when it wasn't working out right. I'm so glad I gave in and listened to my cover artist who hasn't steered me wrong yet! I think he did a great job.

It just hit me today that I have to write three blurbs for my upcoming releases! I had forgetten about that. So I'll be in blurb hell for the next few days lol

Thanks for the compliments!

I think I am going to try the new preorder option. I mean, I can't see a reason not to try it, ya know? Think I'll do that tomorrow. I'll report back here about it.

But I must confess, I haven't really done much marketing for this book. Other than using social media, I've done no other promo. I usually do a blog tour, but didn't set one up this time. Also, I won't have a print edition of this book, so no Goodreads giveaway. It will be featured as a "group read" for a New Adult group on Goodreads that has a lot of followers, but that won't happen till Jan!

Thank you Jazen!

I put Rediscovered Love in KDP select, my first time doing this with one of my books. Even though the book comes out on Fri, I used their pre order function. It was simple to set up and went live in a few hours. Within about two hours after, I had 2 pre orders without me putting any sort of announcement anywhere.

On Goodreads, I used thier "creat an event" feature and created an event for the pre order and sent it to all my friends on there. (only 122 people) Then my friends who do my social media stuff put up the pre order link on my Facebook, Google, and Twitter pages. I see they put the cover reveal up on those sites too as well as on Tumblr & Instagram. I have to get the pre order up on my website.

I have to think about what other marketing I'll do for this one. Because it's a new genre for me I'm just not sure how to market it.

Athena Solomon said:

Thanks for the update, Celeste!
A pity about the lack of reviews, even though sales are well.
That's normal though, although I also think it might have to do with the genre;
it seems erotic romance doesn't get as many reviews as "normal" books would.
I think people might be embarrassed to let others know they love reading it...

Good luck with your fantasy YA, sounds like an exciting new adventure.

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You know, I never thought about that! It makes total sense that the genre I write would be harder to get reviews because of the content and people being embarrassed!

But, doesn't Amazon have a way of allowing the poster to put their review up anonymously?

Mclesh said:

Congrats on your upcoming release, Celeste! The cover looks great! Exciting about the group read, too!

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Thank you so much!!

But this group read is giving me a stomach ache even though it's a while from now lol
You see, when I'm writing something (and on a roll with it) I am obsessed and in love with it. But as soon as I put it out there for sale, I think, "It's crap, no one will like it, why did I bother" lmao

RevanWright said:

For data gathering purposes, I thought I'd let you know that the pre-order of your new book just went through. I got an email from Amazon at 11pm CST saying it had been delivered. I guess that means it goes live at midnight EST on release day.

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Thank you so much for the info!! That's really good to know and I love that it's being sent out at midnight EST.

On a side note, I'm nervous for my readers to read this book. It's completely opposite of what I usually write. I'm crossing my fingers that this will help me find new readers that feel my other work is too explicit. But I don't want my current readers to think this is going to be the new norm, cause it's not. We'll see how this goes...

Dropping in for an update...

My new release, Rediscovered Love is selling well in KDP select and I've had quite a few "purchases" through Kindle Unlimited.

No reviews yet, but it's still early. And, I have it set up for another group read on another Goodreads New Adult group. So 2 groups will review it and I really hope someone likes it lol

In an effort to find new readers, and help sales of my first book, Give Me Forever (book 1 in my Paranormal City series) I took it off all sales channels and enrolled it in KDP select. I've set up 2 free days for Sept. 19 & 20. Besides attracting new readers to this series, I'm hoping to get people hooked on it and excited for the release of book 5 by the end of this year. I'm also hoping it'll help boost sales of my stand alone books. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes.

I've also decided since Rediscovered Love is already in KDP Select, I would take advantage and do 2 free days on Sept 12 & 13. My reasoning for doing this is simply just to see what happens lol. I figured it can't hurt to give it a try.

I've been writing a lot and I'm really happy about that considering I've got a load of crap I'm dealing with in my personal life lol

My editor is finised with copy edits on the 3 stories I recently finished (2 shorts - one of them will be the start to a serial - and 1 novelette). I plan on focusing on the novelette for now and releasing that in Oct. The blurb is done & all that's left is formatting and a cover which I will work on this coming week. I'll probably put that up on all sales channels (ebook only) and offer it for .99.

I'm still working on Give Me Your Love (Paranormal City book 5) and it is finally coming along. I've been living in Boston for a few weeks and the change of scenery has helped spark my imagination!

I also wanted to add that I have had NO sales at all for months on Kobo, iBooks, and All Romance Ebooks. The majority of my sales are on Amazon. But, I still have sales on B&N of all of my titles.

Oh, and since it was released I've only sold 2 printed copies of Intimate Desires, ditto for Give Me Forever. And Intimate Desires has been my best seller and seems to be a hit going by the reviews it's gotten and the feedback I've gotten which makes me super happy!

I have my free promo for Rediscovered Love on Amazon today and tomorrow, let's see how this goes! So far 8 downloads lol

Just a small update.
102 downloads so far. I'm #30 on the free kindle new adult/college list. I guess this is good? lol I have no idea about stuff like this

RevanWright said:

That's awesome. Getting up that list will definitely help your visibility, and hopefully lead to more reviews. Congrats!

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Thanks! Funny you posted here cause I was about to go stalk your journel to see how your free promo went lol

(I'm still heading over there to look )

My promo ended yesterday with 152 downloads and Rediscovered Love at #26 on the kindle free reads top 100 list for new adult/college. Not too bad!!

This morning I'm at #29 on that list but have only had 3 downloads.

BUT!!! I already got 1 four star review on Goodreads for it! So that's great

Now I'm off to my local chapter of RWA meeting. It's my first time attending & I've been thinking of joining the RWA, so I'm so curious to see what it'll be like today! I'll report about it when I get back.

Slipped to #31 on that list and have only had 32 downloads so far today. I'm wondering if it's because of the weekend?

I just got back from my first RWA (Romance Writers of America) meeting and I have to say I had a great time! For awhile now I went back and forth with whether I should join or not. I thought because I was self published they wouldn't be too accepting of me. I was invited by my neighbor who is a member & aspiring author. I'm so glad I went. It was a mix of aspiring authors and published authors and even one other self publisher! They were all so welcoming. My favorite part was when at the end of the meeting some read parts of their WIP and everyone got to give critiques. They were all so helpful and insightful. It was also so interesting to hear about other sub genres in the romance genre that I never read before. I'm definitely going to join and get more involved. I just love being around other authors and writers in different stages at their career. The group was really uplifting and positive with each others work. It made me want to actually bring in some of my own pages of my WIP next time!

RevanWright said:

That sounds awesome. I need to get out and mix with other writers. Definitely planning on going to DFW Writer Con next year.

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I was always too shy to really get out there and network with other authors. Partly because of my genre. But it felt really good to be around them & I couldn't wait to come home and write! And I can't wait to go to the RWA conference next year, it's in my city!!

Ok, maybe I'm just too sleepy to use my brain properly, but what's DFW Writer Con?

HistorySleuth said:

Always good to network. And love the cover by the way!

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Yes it is! And thank you so much!

Here's the stats on my free promo for Rediscovered Love.

2 Free days, Fri. Sept. 12 & Sat. Sept. 13.

Day one: 152 downloads & the lowest number was #26 on the best seller free kindle new adult/college list.

Day two: 63 downloads & the lowest number on that list above was #29

I've gotten one review (4 stars) on Goodreads.

I haven't noticed a jump in sales for my other titles, but I didn't really expect to since Rediscovered Love is my only new adult romance that's also very PG compared to my other books.

I guess those numbers are ok.

Next week I'm trying another promo. I'm going to do 2 free days for book 1 in my paranormal romance series (Give Me Forever). I'm hoping this will help bring attention to the series and spike up sales for the other books available in the series. I'm doing a Thurs & Fri just to change it up a bit and see if the weekdays are any different than the weekend.


I just signed up for a creative writing class at a local college. Not sure if I've ever mentioned this before but, I never went to college and I've never taken any writing classes. I figure why not take a class, it can't hurt! It starts on the 22nd and I'm a little nervous about it. It's been 20 years since I've been in any kind of school setting lol