Picture: Some sort of Miner, taken at Uluru.
To open this show, I am still jet lagged, and I have had a week from absolute living hell. Look for sentences in bold text for important news. In good news, my test with the Royal States audiobooks has been going well. As a result, there are a bunch of audiobooks queued up for release on Audible.
Give it 1-3 months, because audible moves… much like turtle with one working leg. Sorry about that.
In bad news on the audiobook front, it is entirely possible that seven audiobooks will not be able to be released to audible due to technical difficulties. (My account at ACX is literally FUBAR, and while the ACX team has been trying to fix it, these seven titles may end up in limbo for a while. I’m doing my best to resolve it, but we’ll see. Right now, I am not confident of a resolution at this point in time.
The seven titles are all earlier books in the Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) series. All modern books will be queued into ACX at the same time it is queued into other vendors.
And no, I do not know when audiobooks will be releasing at this point in time. I have a massive list of audiobooks in queue for production, and they will release when they release.
Please be aware that while my books will be available on Audible (sans those seven possible outliers), it is much cheaper to buy them elsewhere. (And I’m paid more.) I’ve made them available on Audible for those who simply will not use other platforms.
No, I can’t make Audible go faster, sorry. They’re notorious about QA checks taking a very long time, and I have a lot of books in their queue. And any little mistake on my part resets the queue from the very beginning.
Assuming I receive my editorial file for Dead Weight from the editor today, Dead Weight should be releasing on time. I might not be sleeping any time between now and then, but I should at least have it releasing on time. Print and audiobook to come later.
This is where the pen name discussion comes into play.
Pen Names serve an important purpose. I’ve had a lot of questions about pen names lately, so I’m going to take a moment to answer some of them. I know there are those among you who are upset that I have not ‘made it easy’ by having everything under the same pen name.
That just won’t work. I would lose a lot of readers. And being honest, I probably would have retained more readership under the R.J. Blain name if I had kept type with type.
Let me demonstrate:
If you go through reviews of my series (particularly of lower starred reviews, but they are in higher starred reviews), you will find a sprinkling of commentary where “this isn’t like the Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) series” is the ‘star’ of the review. This illustrates the problem perfectly.
Readers like to type-cast authors.
To escape this, I have to create pen names.
Susan Copperfield is more about relationships and royalty and shenanigans than other series. The series is not really action-centric, and it’s not funny like others, although there is humor.
This world would not fit well under the R.J. Blain umbrella. But because it is more about the relationships, there are royalty, and the shenanigans are different… people hesitate to jump to trying Susan Copperfield.
They like R.J. Blain and they like what they like and why would they try this new thing? It isn’t the comfort read they are accustomed to.
I see this often within the R.J. Blain umbrella, too.
People don’t tend to jump worlds. Period. The core awesome badass fans who love everything do–and those people tend to go to Patreon so they don’t miss anything. (And I love you for this. You are your own demographic, and you live on Patreon, and you’re awesome.)
Side note: this is also why Patreon is treated separately from traditional retailer preorders. It is a different style of reader. These readers want to buy everything. The other readers are buying only what they want to read.
So, this lets me more accurately judge if a series is going to do okay and can be prioritized over others.
People often tell me “I haven’t tried this series because (reason here)” and at the end of the day, those reasons usually boil down to “It’s not what I’m used to or comfortable with and I don’t know if I can cope with something new.”
That’s okay. I get it. I do the same thing. I have a few authors I buy EVERYTHING they write, but I don’t read everything they write because I don’t know if I’ll be okay with something new.
I’m usually shooting myself in the foot, unless it is an RH series by an author who used to do MF. (I do not read RH, I don’t like it, I keep trying it, and I never like it. After fifty “I didn’t like this” reads from fifty different authors, I simply do not like RH, and I’m knocking it because I HAVE tried it. Like fifty times. And no, don’t recommend an RH book you think I will like. It is not to my taste. This does not mean it cannot be to your taste. I also dislike harem books. It is not to my taste. Yes, I have tried harem books.)
But, the easiest way to highlight why I pen name is simple.
I lot of you go “Ew, contemporary romance!” when discussing books.
Bernadette Franklin is what you would get if you took a Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count), plopped the characters into the ‘real’ world, and stripped out all of the magic.
The books were written to be contemporary romantic comedy romps, with a love of pets and shenanigans and deliberate shark jumping. It’s meant to leave readers mostly feeling good and happy about life when they’re done.
R.J. Blain fans hate Bernadette Franklin for the most part because of the knee-jerk “ew, contemporary romance!” thing.
It’s knocked before it’s tried because it is not what they are comfortable with. It lacks familiarity.
And thus the pen name.
R.J. Blain fans also dislike Susan Copperfield for the same reason, mostly… except it’s “ew, royalty” instead of “ew, contemporary romance.” Or that people have read the foreword and expect horrific child abuses throughout the book. (Spoiler alert: not the case.)
People create expectations for themselves and create “I’m not reading this” lists before giving things a try. It’s common, expected, and normal. And yes, I’m okay with this.
But that is why I pen name.
I’m not looking for people who go “Ew, royalty” or “ew, contemporary romance.” I’m looking for people for those pen names who want to read what I am writing.
If people who go “ew, contemporary romance” see a contemporary romance title under R.J. Blain… they will stop looking at R.J. Blain because expectations have been set.
So, let’s talk about the specifics of the active pen names. (Trillian Anderson was merged with R.J. Blain, and while the ‘writing as’ part is still intact, that’s only so those who know the name can find those specific books. She “doesn’t count” for the purposes of this exercise, because R.J. Blain is also on the cover.)
And no, I don’t like the look of “R.J. Blain writing as $Pen_Name” on the covers, which is why I will not be adopting this anywhere else. It also confuses the matter, and defeats the purpose of separation in the first place.
As I don’t want to be accused of trying to make money off this post, the only links I’m dropping are for the upcoming Lilith Daniels post. There is a menu at the top of the website that lists all my pen names and links to my stuff if you want to pursue any of the pen names.
The reality is… readers don’t like leaving their comfort zone, and more often than not, the first of my pen names they find is their comfort zone, and they are very hesitant to jump over to something new. This is fine.
Do you, boo. Do you.
The pen name doesn’t change the fact the books are written by the same person.
R.J. Blain
This pen name is a disaster, no lie. It’s an “Almost anything goes” clusterfuck of disorganization. I have numerous fan bases that go ew ew cooties, noooo at the various series within the pen name. Nothing goes as expected, and boy do people complain when I write something outside of the series they want.
For the most part, a lot of people Did Not Like Vigilante Magical Librarians. (We’ve been there, we’ve done that… yes, I know XD) The Witch & Wolf world stuff gets similar “eeewww” vibes, mostly from people who haven’t even tried the sample. (How dare me for writing something other than Mag Rom Coms.)
Which leads me to this… then we have the Mag Rom Com crowd who really wants everything else to be Mag Rom Coms. No, NONE of the other series are at all related to the Mag Rom Com series with the exception of the Dae Portals one, which is the birth series of the Royal States series AND the Mag Rom Com series. (It failed so hard at its initial release that I pillaged the elements for both of these series from that one. Then I decided to rework it a bit and try again.)
So, you will see similarities to that one and only that one.
Please stop asking me if the Vigilante Magical Librarians world is the same as the Mag Rom Com world, or if the Royal States world is the same as the Mag Rom Com world. NO. Unless you see the very specific cover branding and “something something COMEDY” (usually with a body count) on the cover, it is N-O-T related.
Stop trying to make it be related. It is NOT related.
The Otterly Magical series, the Client series, and the Mag Rom Com series are the ONLY related ones in this mess. (Otterly hasn’t been started yet because it’s designed to be a side story written AFTER the main series finishes, although the first book will start BEFORE the final book in the series. It’s complicated.)
As an aside… if everyone could quit leaving comments in reviews complaining that every other series is not “this is not a mag rom com, but…” I would be so hugely appreciative. Yes, they’re not mag rom coms. I’m not a one trick pony out to only write Mag Rom Coms. (Please, please, please let me enjoy writing other stuff. Complaining I didn’t write another Mag Rom Com (or your favorite series of the hour) is not going to get me to change my writing schedule.
I mean, nowadays, I don’t even read the reviews unless my PA shows me them, and she strips out any identifying information / only shows me the uplifting stuff.
Reviews really are for other readers, not for communicating with me. (But the happy notes of your appreciation often do get sent to me through my PA.)
The stuff you didn’t like? Well… you’ve told other readers and not me.
Because reviews aren’t for me, they’re for warning away other readers from the series or telling them why the series is worth giving a chance.
I use the collective ratings to determine how to prioritize series, if something won’t be expanded, etc. 4.2* and below is the death blow for a series. (See: Vigilante Magical Librarians.) While it has since been lifted up to 4.3*ish, it was at 4.2* long enough the damage was done and sales were tanked. I couldn’t get the investments back on advertising the series, and so the world dies at the conclusion of book 5. (Sorry, I will not be writing off a spin off series for a world / series that isn’t able to earn its keep. I will be writing the final three books at a probable loss.)
I understand a lot of you aren’t comfortable with leaving reviews, but if you want your “vote” counted, leave a rating at the various vendors. (I do check ALL the vendors for ratings when I’m determining if something is viable. Amazon just tends to have the highest number so has the most sway.)
Bernadette Franklin
Contemporary romantic comedy. Written for my fun and enjoyment. These don’t make me jack shit, because I rarely invest in advertising, I don’t write sex on the page, and my humor is twisted and doesn’t fall in line with what romantic comedy readers want.
It is what it is what it is, and that’s fine.
Susan Copperfield
Royal Paranormal Romance themed world series with two primary series threads: the royalty, and the RPS agents. The first of the Agents books is a Royal and an Agent, and that’s fine.
This does not fit the branding for R.J. Blain in the slightest, but it has my trademark voice.style… just not a similar presentation.
Audrey Greene
Fluffy Paranormal/Urban Fantasy/Science Fantasy. This is meant to, while having some challenging subject matter, be the equivalent of a book hug with a cuppa hot cocoa on a cold day near a fireplace.
Definitely not the same jam as R.J. Blain, and very few R.J. Blain hardliners are going to appreciate this.
There are a lot of shapeshifters, quirky characters, and so on, but the purpose of the books is to cultivate warm, fluffy feelings.
The science fiction on the R.J. Blain pen name is much more “R.J. Blain” style compared to Audrey Greene.
No, these worlds are NOT connected. Audrey Greene has space travel in the background, but the characters are typically planet bound, where in the R.J. Blain books, space travel is the norm and it’s more Space Opera than fluff.
G.P. Robbins
I really like paranormal cop and robbers types of stories (which is why you see so many cops in the Mag Rom Com world.) This pen name focuses that interest with a series dedicated to cops solving long-term and short term mysteries. The first book in the series sets up the long-term criminal arc and mystery. No, the mystery is not solved in the first book. It will be a minimum of five to six books for the first long-term arc to be finished.
As the critters are different, the style is different enough, and the series will hopefully be long enough to justify it, it got a new pen name. Could I have crammed it under the R.J. Blain umbrella? Eh, maybe.
But I didn’t want to. I want to be able to freely spin off new locations and cities and their cops if I want. So, if Precinct #153 doesn’t work out… there are other cities in this world that might.
But I love Cauldron City, and I hope it does well, because I have far more ideas than planned books in the series.
Some of you have noticed that the “vibe” of the covers is very similar to the Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) series. I wanted it that way. I want it to evoke “Hey, that’s somewhat recognizable…”
G.P. Robbins is gleefully me, and I WANT people who like the Magical Romantic Comedy series to check it out and see if they like it. Ideally, they do, because it means I can mix them in at a higher frequency and still feed the mouths who enjoy that type of book.
But yes, it IS really better off as a pen name. I can do more with it as a pen name–a lot more. Like spinoff series, side novels, etc.
I simply cannot cohesively do that as an R.J. Blain series.
R.J. Blain is the pen name where fledgling non-Mag Rom Com series go to die.
(And however much I wish that wasn’t the case… it really is.)
People are far more likely to try a new pen name than to go off from their chosen series within an author’s brand. I wish this were not so, but it REALLY is.
And no, I know some of you will buy anything I write. You are a beloved exception. (And exceptional!) But you are the exception rather than the rule.
Lilith Daniels
This is a passion project of mine. I have only two covers for this series, and at current preorder counts, I really can’t justify more than two. (Once again, Patreon users are accounted for when I plan / evaluate upcoming books.)
Something about the cover or description simply doesn’t appeal to people, and that’s fine. This is not a series I will be redoing on either, and it can ride off in the sunset before book one is even finished, and I will continue writing them strictly because I want to.
Why doesn’t this series fit with the R.J. Blain umbrella, where book series tend to die if it’s not the mag rom com world, you ask? Simple. I want the freedom to be able to do spinoffs, standalones, other series, etc… without bogging down an already bogged pen name. This pen name will succeed (or fail) as it does, and that’s that.
This is a fun and special place filled with dragons, necromancers, and other delightful things, with the shenanigans of the Mag Rom Com world but also with a darkness I don’t normally allow myself. Like my other books, Happily For Now and Happily Ever After reign supreme, but I am allowing myself to do those dark and necessary things in a guilt free fashion.
But, here’s a sample from chapter one in case you missed it the other times I’ve posted about this book. (This is unedited drivel. You have been warned. Please do not report any typos and foopahs; I am still drafting this book, and everything is subject to change.)
Grave Affairs: Chapter One
- Friday, April 17, 2167
- The Gray Ward
- Dragon Heights, Wyoming
It took a rain of lemurs to finally convince me that moving to Dragon Heights, Wyoming had been a mistake. Last week, it had been toads, some of which could inconvenience those who didn’t take them seriously. I hadn’t minded the toads.
A pair of gloves and a little care had bagged me ten dollars per dead head, fifteen dollars per living croaker, and twenty for the endangered ones, living or dead. The head honchos preferred them alive, but the dead ones would make themselves useful in a lab for study.
I’d gotten fifty for one of my toads, a rather nasty little shit determined to eat the world. At six inches long, it hadn’t accomplished all that much, but it had tried to take my hand off at the wrist.
It had taken a rather amused titanium dragon to pry the blighter off, and I’d been observed for two hours to make certain I wouldn’t fall over dead on them.
My gloves, which went up to my elbows, had saved the day.
Gloves wouldn’t save me from the wretchedly adorable lemurs. Without fail, they’d dig their tiny claws into my soul and refuse to let go. Their oversized, imploring eyes would do me in.
Endangered species, like the lemurs, all went to the dragons for care, enrollment into their various conservatories and menageries, or were released back into the wild, depending on their origin. With the ongoing weekly trials to unlock draconic powers in the petitioners, it could go any which way.
Some lemurs might be real, translocated as a result of the power surge associated with draconic petitioners working their rituals. Some of the lemurs would be conjured, with the majority of them dissolving away to ash, goo, or smoke. The final few would be true creations, a new species brought to life through the determination of a petitioner wishing to rise through the ranks of the dragon-kin.
When a dragon-kin came calling as a petitioner, the dragons took care. Sometimes, they bit off more than they could chew.
For a rain of lemurs to fall on the Gray Ward, the dragons had either forgotten to contain the dragon-kin’s power or they’d gotten an unpleasant surprise. Or both.
For the most part, the dragons did try to avoid the unwanted surprises.
It cost them a fortune in weekly bounties.
Resigned to paying the remainder of my rent through bounty collection, I rummaged through my backpack for the canvas bag I kept just in case opportunity knocked. At the size of a large garbage bag, I’d be able to bag a bunch of the obviously dead lemurs for a decent check. I’d have to handle one injured animal at a time, a task destined to take up the rest of the day.
As I liked getting paid, I always made certain to keep Fridays free.
Just in case.
I put on my gloves and went to work, wondering what other insanity the rulers of Dragon Heights would inflict upon us in their quest to wake more of their kind.
If you are not a patron / using patreon and you like this, you can preorder Grave Affairs at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or Amazon.
Grave Affairs has dragons and other magic types, but dragons are the primary shapeshifter species. As I don’t write a lot of dragons, that alone justified the pen name–my R.J. Blain readers are not “hard core we want dragons” users and they’re also NOT “hard core wooo necromancy” types of readers.
In short, I need to build a new audience for this. And no, there are no dragons on the cover for a reason. Her plot arc deals a lot with the issue of necromancy, and that’s the theme I’m pursuing for many reasons.
But thar be dragons here in plenty. And a feline companion.
If you are on Patreon… you are why this series exists. I polled you all with choices of covers, and you all voted on this one. So your vote has been heard, I promise. This is for mainstream purposes, which is much different from the Patreon audience. (You’re appreciated, and you’re counted.)
When I watch vendor performance, it’s how the rest of the world views a book. (And it’s okay that Grave Affairs isn’t gaining traction. It’s disappointing, but I’ll do at least two books. If it fails at that point, it fails. Failure happens in this business, and it’s okay for failure to happen.)
I’ll enjoy writing the books, and if it doesn’t pick up sufficient steam to keep on doing, I may write something every five or more years just for the joy of it.
That’s life. Don’t sweat over it. I’m not.
This is all so wild to me. Like i came across the Mag Rom coms, and then went after everything i could find by you – under all the pen names. I like them all. I can’t imagine bashing an author’s book because… it’s different from their other books? Absolutely incomprehensible to me.
It is soooo common, and yeah, it’s sad to me. Variety is the spice of life to me.
But that’s often not what readers want. They want “more of the same but just a little different.”
I love Lillith Daniels and Grave Affairs. I love all your pen name books. Do what you have to do I will continue to read them
I’m in the “Take my money, and send me something you wrote” category. It could be a book, a short story, or your grocery list, I don’t care I’ll pay and read it.
Same, you must be my long lost sibling!
Me, too. I have a pre-order in for everything that is in the pre-order stage. I own all your other published works. I like the way you write. I like the way you create worlds, plots, and characters. I review all your books on KOBO, and give you 5 stars each time. I would join Patreon, but can’t quite afford it right now. I will be joining in a couple of months, once I get a few bills paid off.
The Grave Affairs book is very intriguing for me, but I never do pre orders.
I have to prioritise how I spend my book money, so I’m not paying for something I can’t read within a week.
I do like everything that you write, and have no issues with one series being different from another.
With that in mind, it’s time I go buy myself the next book in the royal states series as a birthday gift.
Even though I first found you through the mag rom com. 😊
Do you. Ultimately, sales are what determine if a book / series lives or dies. Preorders are just an indication if the series/book will live or die. Right now, all signs point to Grave Affairs not succeeding. That’s life.
It’s like the people who complain about wanting to read a series but refuse to buy any of the books until the series is done. They cast their votes (and didn’t really want to read the series in the first place.)
Which is fine, it’s their (and your) money to spend as you wish. 🙂
To those who love the Mag Rom Com world but won’t try anything else – if you enjoy R.J.’s writing “voice”, you really need to try Susan and Bernie, at least. Same “voice” (humor, wit, snark, shenanigans) just in a different format/different world. Try it, you’ll (probably) like it! I’m one of those who has at least liked, usually loved, every book you’ve written. Well, maybe except Rift King as that’s really not my jam. Darker or lighter, more humorous or more serious, magic or no magic, it doesn’t matter. It’s your writing voice I love, no matter what world it’s building or which characters it’s creating.
I was really looking forward to “Grave Affairs” and many follow-ups. Pfui. Ah, well, I’ll have to console myself with everything else.
This is why I am delighted to be a Patreon follower member person for your books! Keep doing things the way you need to. I’ll buy and read.
I’m another reader who likes everyone you write, regardless of the pen name. So glad that there are more, I.e., Audrey Green, etc. I thought I had purchased/read everything you have written, but now I can read more.
I’ll have to raise my hand and admit, that I’d already found you before RJ Blain on Susan Copperfield because I read straight romance as well as anything I can get my hands on short of horror. I lean towards magical mischief and the discovery of the with a body count series made me so happy I tried to share it with my jap anime son. It didn’t work. No matter how many times I try, but *I* am happy happy with all you write, everwhere, any genre! Keep raining lemur’s on me. 🙂
I haven’t tried any patreon, but I have read everything I could find that you write, and enjoyed it all! I’m going to have to get on patreon now. I’ve also tried RH and harems and just don’t like it, maybe because I’m getting old, I don’t know.
I found the Mag Rom Com (middle of series) first,then went back and found all of them, then branched out to Witch and Wolf, and then discovered – pen names! So it’s been this crazy scavenger hunt thing, filling out my collection of my latest obsession before dipping my toes into yet another different series starter/pen name. And I have to say that putting a sample of a different series starter in the back of a book from has led to the biggest expansions of your different series that I would try (and usually love).
Thanks, for all your books and alternate personalities!
You are a wonderful writer! I’ve enjoyed everything you have written that I’ve tracked down. Your books are friends that cheer and comfort me when I’m feeling depressed. When I want stimulation and different viewpoints, you provide that too. (Magical Librarians I love you!)
I’m looking forward to Grave Affairs a lot. Dragons are interesting in general and I want to learn more about yours.
And I learned about Kobo plus from you, and read Bernadette Franklin. She’s now in my list of contemporary romance that I enjoy. (Not a terribily long list.)
May your fingers never stiffen and your ideas keep flowing. And may Amazon typo fiends sprain their fingers, become otherwise distracted, and have balky keyboards.
With great admiration for you and your writing discipline,
Rebecca
Because you explained why, I started to rate books on Amazon (ie stars) even if I dont leave a note with it. I also sent a nasty ie complaint email to Amazon about their stupid reader tool and got back the expected we don’t care blah blah blah email but at least it was sent. Anywho just wanted to say keep up the good work and even if I don’t read all your books I do appreciate the ones you do because I love your snarky sense of humor and appreciate the time and effort it takes to sit down and write it all out for me to enjoy and get a blessed vacation from my anxiety filled life. Keep up the good work and screw the rest of the silly nonsense as I’d rather spend a couple extra bucks on books I don’t read (like you) to keep you writing the ones I love and keep going back to re-read like the cherished favs they are! *hugs and wish you all the best!
I appreciate all your books and the subtleties and nuances of the different pen names and styles. It’s a wonderful buffet of fun I reread over and over and still chortle. I also appreciate your posts with all the pen names, so I can try to follow them various places. Lilith Daniels still isn’t followable on bookbub and amazon yet; I just tried. Thank you again for all the delights you create and share.
Yes, there are things I have to do behind the scenes to get these to work, and I’m exhausted. I’m putting that on the to-do list to do as soon as G.P. Robbins book is safely out the door.
I love ALL your beautiful creations by all your pen names which is why I’ve signed up to your wonderful Patreon. So happy to have a place where all your fantastic stories are available. Thank you again for all your brilliant work. Looking forward to your next release!
Grave Affairs sounds like it will be wonderful. I have to watch my money, so I don’t pre-order something I can’t read within a week or so. Please keep up the wonderful writing.
I am agog that so many people won’t branch to your other pen names. Yes I started with the Mag Rom Com series 2 months ago but have been steadily working my way through your other works. I love Susan Copperfield and Bernadette Franklin because of the way you write your characters and the humor in all of them. My issue is that I work full time and still need to get stuff done around the house! I’m steadily purchasing my way through your works (preferably on B&N since Amazon is giving you such grief) and will eventually get to all of them. I am sad that the Vigilante Librarians won’t be extended but glad that you will be writing the next book after Hypnos. You have to make a living just as I do. I will read anything you write. Thank you.
Heck, a hefty chunk of them won’t even try another series under the same pen name! LOL. It’s just par for the course in this business. <3
What should those of us that purchase your books through Smashwords due? Unfortunately, they don’t have a pre-order option and I’m a little leery of doing a pre-order through Amazon and then forgetting to cancel it right before it goes live.
There are not many people who are ordering through smashwords right now, especially compared to the general lack of interest in the series. (I DO account for that… and those who order on Smashwords aren’t ordering anything), so it’s only a slight discrepancy in the grand scheme of things. I do hope they bring back preordering on Smashwords, tho.
I love em all. Gotta catch em all. Can’t read just one.
I read your books and enjoy them all no matter what pen name or subject. They have so much humour in them and each has its own unique story. I’ve got my son hooked on the r j brain books and he loves them but your right that the regular romances won’t be his thing. Most of us are very open to all your book styles though and encourage you to continue to write. We need more humour in the world and you’ve made me laugh solo much. Keep up the good work. Also, your pictures that you post are very artistic.
One of those patreon “read everything you’ve written junkies” here. I guess I get more of the same by re-reading the books I have as I wait for new Blain and pen name releases.
Love the premise of Grave Affairs and what you’ve posted of chapter one. Hope it takes off as the tidbits you’ve posted so far have hooked me.
For those willing to try something that is not a mag rom com, I have received emails and multiple facebook ads that Pets in Space #8 featuring a story by RJ Blain will be out this October. I have already slapped my crumbled dollar bills onto the counter at kobo (or the electronic equivalent) and have added the release to my book calendar.
I’ll probably ask this in next month’s question post on patreon as well, since I’ll undoubtedly forget the answer. Does updating the book covers, as happened with Bernadette Franklin, help sales? FYI, love the new covers, they’re such a burst of happy bright colors just like the stories themselves.
Yes, if I’m updating a cover, it’s because the old cover was just doing THAT badly. The covers definitely improved sales a bit, but… I just haven’t had the umph to do the advertising for the books. Too many baskets, too many eggs… not a lot of money for people who write rom com without the smut to back it.
With all possible respect, I’d like to state that as a series where every woman ends up with the perfect guy, an awesome job, and a designer wardrobe, Bernadette Franklin’s books are just as magical as Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count).
I mean, they are definitely the definition of wish fulfillment / happily ever after “fantasy” as it gets!
There’s just no actual MAGIC. Just people who may as well be magical but aren’t!
I hope that you are able to count all of us Patreon folk that get the books as they are published! I’m one that devours everything you write, under every pen name! Some I like better than others, but I definitely have favorites in all of the series. I go back and comfort read my favorites in each of the series! Thanks for all that you write!!
I did find you first from the mag rom com books and then when I realized there were other pen names I went nuts finding more of your writing! So happy! I love the way your mind works and the various presents you give us! Who wants the same thing always? Your twists and turns and humor and world building keep me laughing and intrigued and looking forward to the next book. So you do what ever you need to, to enjoy your craft and make a living at it! And I’ll keep buying band posting five stars and the occasional review (I’m not very good at those!)
From the snippet posted, I’ll definitely give ‘Grave Affairs’ a try. I came across one of the Royal States novels when browsing new-to-me authors on a library website. I’ve since become one of your cross-genre fans. I get how it’s possible to prefer the world, characters and tone of one series over another by the same author. What I don’t understand is, if I like the way an author writes, why would I be unwilling to try a different series by that author? This is all leading up to my thanks for the diligence with which you produce well written stories and my appreciation for your creativity in exploring the many worlds you share through those stories.
Yay!! Im a big rj blain fan but I truly love cops and robbers and if it has snarky humor with it I’m alllllll in. Lol. Cant wait to try grave affairs, but again, i also don’t pre-order unless its a month from release, so I hate that it looks like a flop from pre-order book numbers. Please keep dropping snippets of your new books, it brightens up our day! Enjoy your weekend.
I’m looking forward to your new names and books. I have enjoyed many, many of your differing styles. Behind all of them is an author I like. You make them all interesting, no matter what topic.
I’ll read anything you write, under any name you please.
I found your R.J. Blaine books first and for a while didn’t realize you had so many pen names. Now that I’ve seen this list of your other pen names and books you’ve written I’ll be taking the time to sample your wares, so to speak. Thank you for taking time to talk to your readers. I look forward to reading your other works.