Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog

I hesitated to write this post because I’m not sure how it’ll be received. I suppose I could do a video to go along with it so you can hear the tone of my voice and see the expression on my face, but that would take additional time out of my day, and I am hoping to get some writing in. I mean this to be given in a pleasant tone with a smile on my face. You will probably detect some frustration since there is frustration underlying all of this. The bottom line is that I wish I could do more but can’t. Specifically, I wish I could write more books like I used to, but I’m quickly learning I can’t.

Each week is different. Some are easier than others, but something will pop up at some point that will require my attention. For example. Here is my week so far:

I spent Monday with my son at the doctor’s and then helped him fill out paperwork to see if he qualifies for medical assistance since he is now an adult (and therefore no longer on my husband’s health insurance). I spent Tuesday with another son running all over the place to figure out where to get foreign currency converted to US dollars. This is my deaf son who can’t drive. So he couldn’t take himself to these places, which is why I took him. They used to do this at the airport but not anymore. That person referred me to a bank downtown that required an account to do it there. It turned out my bank was able to do it, but by the time I figured that out, we had been out for three hours. He also wants me to help him find a job. Since he can’t hear, he needs help with the interview process because just about every employer refuses to do a text interview or set up an ASL interpreter to interview on FaceTime, or a similar program. He did have a job, but long story short, he blew it. I would be tougher on him except this is the one who has something mentally going on that I am unable to get help for until he lets me get him in for counseling. (Since he’s an adult, I can’t force this unless he is a harm to himself or others.). I believe if we could pinpoint what is happening mentally, then we would could access services to help him. But since he has this idea that a mental issue means he is stupid, he will not work with me on this. We really should not shame people who have mental problems. Anyway, yesterday came, and I spent that with another son taking the 5-mile walk to work off my stress. (That worked. I felt a lot better after that walk.) However, after I came home to sit to write, I got so sick to my stomach that I had to spend an hour in bed. By then, I was too wiped out to write, so I spent time with the TV. Today is Thursday. I might actually get something written today. But first, I thought I’d write this post because I have a lot going on inside my head that needs to be dumped out before I can make it to the creative side of my brain.

So anyway, that has been my week so far. And every day I was supposed to write but didn’t, there’s this voice in the back of my mind saying, “You have failed, Ruth. At one time, you wrote books, and you actually made this a thriving business where you could support your family. Now you would probably be better off taking an outside job.” And maybe I would. I am currently bouncing the idea of doing temporary jobs. Maybe something for the Christmas season. Then I think, “If I do that, who will manage the house? Who will run the errands when they pop up? When will I have time to walk? Will I still have time to cook the meals that will improve my health?” Look, I know people say, “Let the house go dirty. Let the chores go undone.” That will only stress me out more. Maybe you aren’t bothered by dirt and laundry/dishes/trash that gets piled up, but I am. I can’t focus until my home is in order. My mom would be happy since growing up, I was a pretty messy kid.

I think this is why some authors are going to using AI to write books. I think it’s the pressure. Pressure comes in several forms.

Pressure to make money is one of them. The money thing is tangible. It’s something you can actually measure. When you need to pay bills, you need money to do that. I am very fortunate in that my husband works and the kids who are able to are helping, but even then, I sometimes need to dig into my writing income to make up for something that pops up, like a car repair. I’m now 50. My husband is now 52. We are just now realizing that we need to do some investments so we have something for retirement. I try not to get depressed when I think of the time we lost in not doing this sooner. Doing that won’t change anything. But this is the time to get our act together, and I do try to scrape whatever I can from my writing money to put into a retirement account. When people write to me about how they’re on a limited income, I want to say, “You and me both.” I don’t have this waterfall of money coming in. I used to. I won’t lie. It was great. But that all came down to luck and timing. I happened to start publishing books when the Kindle was brand new and it was easy to get noticed. Back then, it was easier to send someone a free book if they wanted it. (And a lot of people want free books.) The thing is, I could use the money from my books. I don’t mean to come off as a snark as I write this, but I have invested time, money, and energy into these books. I did work to make them. I am not using AI in any step of this process. It’s all me. I don’t think it’s selfish of me to ask to be paid for the work I did. I mean, if I were to work at a mall helping Santa, people would understand that I deserve a paycheck. But a lot of writers are asked to give out their work for free as if what they did isn’t deserving of money.

Another pressure authors face is frequency of releases. I know that people mean it as a compliment when they ask, “When is your next book coming out?” I understand that this comes from a place of love. But this still hurts. It takes time to think of the story idea, to write it down, and then to edit it so it’s ready for the world. That process used to take me 4-5 months. Now, with all the stuff I have happening in my personal life, it takes almost a year. Granted, I work on about 3 books at a time, so I think that comes out to 2 books a year. Three is too ambitious at this point. So I go through all of that work on a single book. I publish it, and the next day, there’s the “When is the next book coming out?” question. I can’t speak for other authors, but this stresses me out. I know that stress is my doing. I have tried to place that in the “don’t worry about it” category, but that question continues to linger in the back of my mind once a person asks it. So, like it or not, the question is there. The expectation of me being able to produce the book FAST is there. I have no idea how to deal with it, except to stop writing series. That’s a killer right there since some people won’t read Book 1 until the entire series is done, and at that point, we’re looking at four or five years, given my current pacing.

That leads to two other pressures in the author world.

The more time that goes between one book and another in a series, the lower potential that series has of making good money. That’s a form a pressure in itself. People may forget about the series. People may lose interest in the series. It’s not intentional. It just happens. Then if they get an email from me about a release, they won’t remember my name (or maybe, they have lost interest), and they unsubscribe from my newsletter. I don’t take these things personally. Tastes change. I’m fine with that.

Some people don’t read standalones. Standalones are harder to sell than series. That’s why so many authors do series. It’s a marketing tool. If people get invested in Book 1, chances are good that they’ll go on to Book 2, etc. With a standalone, the book is done, and people figure that’s it. Even if the standalones take place in the same world with the same characters popping up here and there, there is something about the cohesion of the “series” that is more of a pull to some readers. My guess is that the readers who prefer series are fast readers. They probably go through a series in a couple of days. So for them, it’s quick and easy. They don’t realize that writing the book took a lot of time. I was watching a TV series the other day to wind down so I could “de-stress”, and I thought, “I watched four episodes in two hours. I wonder how long each episode actually took to make?” I mean, on my end, it was easy. I only had to sit back and consume the content. But I know it wasn’t quick for the people creating the episodes. I don’t know everything that goes on with creating a TV series, but certainly you have your writers, you have the voice actors, and you have the people who need to do the animation. (The animation is probably done on a computer these days, but I’m sure they have to work with some software to make the cartoon happen). I’m sure there’s also some research and editing that goes on as well. There are a lot of moving parts to create something, no matter what it is.

So why do I say AI will be attractive to some authors?

AI is going to take a lot of the pressure out of creating a book. If you can jot down a story idea–maybe get an outline going–and feed that into an AI program, it can produce something quickly. Then all you have to do is read through the story and edit it. Clean it up. I bet that saves months off the work. Then you can confidently produce stuff fast for readers. People debate whether or not you can tell if something is written by AI. If you are familiar with a certain writer’s style, then yes, I’m sure you can tell if that specific author used AI. But let’s say this is a new author to you. How would you know? Writers have many different styles in their storytelling. There have been a few books that I checked out in the KU library that made me think, “Either this is a brand new writer, a writer whose second language is English, or this was written by AI.” My hunch is that I probably did read an AI book somewhere along the way, but the style could very well be from a brand new author (because writing is typically chunky at that stage), and if someone is writing a book in English without English being their first language, I can see them wording things differently than a native English writer would, too. But there is definitely something “different” about some of the books I’ve come across.

So I get why an author would use AI. AI takes shortcuts. It enables readers to get books faster. It has the potential to earn money since books are getting out there faster. I don’t think most readers care if the book was written by AI as long as they enjoy the story. I realize there will always be some readers who will raise hell over this issue, but I think as a majority, readers don’t care.

If you have an author who you like AND you want that author (not some AI program) to keep writing their books, support them. Buy their books. Don’t ask for free ones. If they have ones that are free, then, by all means, take them. But don’t send them an email about how you love their work but can’t afford books. If you truly value the author, you will buy their books. If you can’t afford to buy books, go to a library or use a subscription service like KU, Kobo Plus, or Everand. There are legitimate ways you can get books without buying them. Review their books. It doesn’t have to be a long review. You can just leave a sentence saying that you enjoyed it. Tell others about their books. If you come across someone who would like the kind of books the author writes, let them know about it. In my experience, readers trust other readers more than they trust authors to tell them about a good book. Writers are biased. Readers are not. If you contact the author, just tell them you enjoyed the book. Do not follow up with a, “When is the next one going to be out?” or “When will you write this particular book?” I can already tell you the answer to these questions. The next book will be out when the writer’s life is settled enough where they can get it done. Also, not all story ideas are ready to write at the moment they are conceived. Some books take time to think through before we can even start writing them. You can’t rush the process (unless you want AI to do it). And the purpose of this segment is to help authors avoid using AI. Get to know them. I don’t know where your author hangs out, but it never hurts to engage with them on some level. You don’t have to discuss their books with them. You can simply get to know them as a person. Start off casual and go from there. It doesn’t have to be deep to establish a connection. We don’t just publish for money. We publish to share our stories with others. Knowing that others are enjoying the books–and knowing WHO these people are–gives us a reason to keep publishing. If we didn’t want this connection, we would just write stories and keep them in a folder. Most of the time, we have no idea where to find you. It’s easier for you to find us.

I don’t know if this post is going to end up being a rant because I am frustrated. I’m trying to keep a cool head, though.

In movies and even in books, authors are often portrayed as living off of their writing income in a big house (often in a remote area) where they have all this time to relax while working on their next very popular and high selling book. So I don’t blame people when they think that someone like me is living this way. A lot of people probably think I start the day with a cup of coffee, sit on the dock overlooking the lake (or perhaps sitting on my patio while looking at the mountains), and then spending a few hours on my computer (in my “writer’s office”) effortlessly typing away as I work on my books. Everything in my house is quiet. While I have my husband and children still at home, they are all either at work or leaving me in peace to do my work. Then when I’m done, I will have a full course meal that was quick to make, eat with my family at the large dining room table, and perhaps I’ll end the evening with a stroll along my huge acreage or maybe wind down with a glass of wine while watching a movie with my husband.

That, everyone, is a fantasy.

Here’s the truth…

I rent a duplex smack-dab in the middle of a city just south of Omaha. We often hear the ambulance from the nearby hospital, and there are cars with loud music often passing by. Yes, my four children (ages 19-22) still live with me. Two are going to college–one to become an auto mechanic and the other to be a High School or College Math Teacher. The other does have a full-time job, but it’s not enough for him to live on his own due to the cost of everything having skyrocketed over the past few years. The other one lost his job (but it was his fault, so I can’t blame the employer). I’m quickly coming to realize that there is something mentally going on with him, but I don’t know what. He’s 20. That makes him an adult. I can’t force him to get tested or to see a counselor. I’ve looked into it, but unless he poses a threat to others or himself, I can’t make him do anything. And he refuses because society has done a good job of making people believe if there is something mentally wrong with you, then you are stupid. And he doesn’t want to be stupid. He is also deaf, which creates further problems in trying to explain things to him. There is a language barrier that occurs between the hearing and deaf world. As much as you try to teach the English language or as much as you learn to sign, speaking people naturally understand subtle things that the deaf world doesn’t. This ends up creating friction. I’m not saying this is for all deaf people, but it’s been true for my son. (For example, at the clinic earlier this year, the ASL interpreter asked the standard question the doctor wanted to know, which was, “Do you ever get depressed or feel like committing suicide?” My son didn’t thought she signed, “You should kill yourself because you’re sad.” It took a couple of days for me to explain what she meant. Stuff like this happens quite a bit for him. That is what I mean by the language barrier. I’m sure it doesn’t help that he already has a tendency to be paranoid about things. He is now scared to go back to the doctor. Until I can get him to a counselor and then for some testing, I won’t know what is really going on. The teachers all thought he had autism. We have tested him a couple of times for that, and he always came out negative for autism. So what now? All I can do is wait. But in the meantime, I can’t treat him like I do the other kids. He needs more of my time and care. He can be independent to some extent, but until he gets professional help, I don’t think he should live on his own. Now, my other kids? Yes, at some point, they will be on their own, and they will be fine.

Anyway, with that as a background, here is my typical day.

I wake up, and the first thing I do is take care of my eyes with a warm compress because of my dry eye condition. Then I get dressed, gather the laundry, and head on downstairs. I start a load of laundry immediately. I do laundry for everyone in this house. (I know some of you won’t like hearing that, but the clothes have to be put into the washer a certain way, or it will get unbalanced and cause extra time and frustration to balance, and balancing wet clothes or blankets is a huge pain.) Usually, I do 3-4 loads a day. I fold and put everything away as soon as the clothes are done because if I don’t, chances are good that I’ll have to wash them again without people wearing them first. Also, long story short, we have all agreed that towels need to be washed after one use because yeast can linger on these things. (We learned this the hard way.) Towels take up a lot of room.

Anyway, after starting the first load of laundry for the day, I’ll clean up the kitchen. This doesn’t take long, but it does involve me putting away dishes and putting dirty ones in the dishwasher. I usually have a full load to start if I cook something for breakfast. (Now, my kids do make their own food, but they are not into making anything from scratch. I do that for my meals, but usually, only my husband will eat what I make. Sometimes I make breakfast, but most of the time, I’ll wait until lunch time to eat because I’m not hungry yet.) I clear off the counters and clean them.

This is where things start to get iffy on whether or not I can write. Sometimes I go for a walk because it’s the only time when my second son (the future teacher) has time to go downtown with me, and I like having someone to talk to while I walk. He likes to do the full 5 mile trek. We park in Council Bluffs, Iowa at the Bob Kerry Bridge. Then we cross the Missouri River, and that takes us into downtown Omaha, Nebraska. From there, we go around the Old Market where, if it’s hot, I’ll get a tea to help cool down. I can sweat when it’s 60 degrees out, everyone. I don’t start off sweating. I might be a little cool, but within a half hour, I’m fine. And then an hour later, I’m hot. If it’s 60, I can go without the tea, but if it’s close to 70, I need something cold to help bring down my internal thermometer or I become a puddle of sweat. Meanwhile, other people are wearing jackets and coats. My son is even wears a flannel shirt over his t-shirt.

Anyway, he insists on the long walk, and that takes a total of three hours when you count getting there, walking, and coming home. By then, I have to make lunch. I cut up vegetables to cook with the meat. From start to finish, this takes a good two hours, but I’m also doing some laundry between all of this, too. I don’t like to write when I eat because I’ll forget to eat, and my food will go cold, and I can’t rush eating at the TV either because now if I eat too fast, the food won’t go down the right way. That is not fun for me or anyone who happens to be in the room. This is the day when I only eat one meal, so I usually have two salads (with different types of veggies), a bowl of fruit, my main veggie and meat dish, and dark chocolate. On average, I will spend 2-3 hours a day in the kitchen cooking. I used to eat out, but that got expensive. Now, I go to Trader Joe’s, and I cook everything from scratch. I have even created some new recipes. I have found cutting vegetables actually relaxes me, so I enjoy it. I end up taking about an hour to eat. I know, it’s insane. I used to eat fast when I was younger. But then, I have to do another load of dishes because the stuff I used to cook the meal is quite a bit, and the pan is a good size. I save some for my husband so he has something when he comes home from dinner. Then I finish with laundry, take out trash, take a shower, and do my wind down routine (and yes, taking care of my eyes is a part of this). Then I listen to a book while I drift off to sleep. My husband typically comes home after I’m in bed. I wake up around 4am. I get to bed around 5-6pm. He gets off work at 5pm, but it takes him time to get home. So that’s it. My non-writing day. I do the walk to stay in good physical health. I typically walk about 3 times a week. Sometimes I’ll go for 4 if I go on a weekend with my husband and son.

Now, on the non-walking days, I might get in some writing. I might get in some writing if someone doesn’t need to talk to me. About 50% of the time, I’ll get a phone call, a text, or someone will come into my room. Usually, it’s one of the kids or my husband. But sometimes it has to do with “other”, and I hate “other”. For example, today I had to deal with the bank. At other times, I end up having to leave the house to run an errand. I have sometimes used a day to do my grocery shopping because when my husband doesn’t come along, I can save at least $50. He likes to buy the cookies, cakes, and ice cream. I don’t buy these things, and he doesn’t like that because then he’s stuck with only healthy food. This man is so good at spotting a sweet treat that he will actually find something tucked away toward the very back of the fridge (behind even the salads I’ve prepared) to get to it. Meanwhile, the salads go untouched. If it turns out, my husband or kids want to talk, I do stop writing to talk to them. They don’t bug me about stupid stuff. These are things that are really troubling them, so I feel it’s only fair to give them my undivided attention. I will say that they have learned that writing is a job for me.

I take weekends off since that’s when most people are off work so I can spend time with them.

That typically leaves me with 2-3 days when I actually do write. I love to write, but there are aspects of it that are stressful. I won’t go into all of that here since the post got long. Let’s just say that stress does make it difficult to be creative, and when an author isn’t creative, it’s like pulling teeth to write the book. I used to be able to write a lot faster. Back then, I ate out a lot (so I didn’t spend so much time in the kitchen) and had kids in school while my husband worked (so that was uninterrupted time). I also didn’t do much exercise. Things have shifted, and I have found that I’m busier than ever. I also want to do romance horror under a pen name. I have pretty much given up on marketing. I did not start making money because I was good at marketing. I happened to come into this at the gold rush days of self-publishing. That was luck and timing. Nothing else. There was no secret to how I managed to make a living at this, and quite frankly, I’m more surprised than anyone else that this ever happened to me. Fast food workers make more than I do at this point, and I have over 100 books out. Yes, that does create some stress because I’m told that if I was doing the right things, I’d be making more money, and I’m not. I have tried some things to market, but they all failed, and quite frankly, that only stressed me out even more. Honestly, I don’t want to market. It is sucking all the fun out of this for me.

Okay, so the last thing I have to say is that please understand that I can’t write books as fast as I used to. Life just doesn’t permit it for me, and it stresses me out when someone asks me when I’ll have another book out. I don’t know. I’m doing good if I can write 2,000 words a week right now. And I really need this pen name because I need something fresh to work on. I have done 100 romances, and it’s hard for me to keep up that kind of momentum on one single genre. I need to do some horror for a change to help equal things out. So my new estimate is that I might be able to get 2 books out next year. I need to stop doing series. Too many people refuse to read a series until it’s done. I know I already started the Marriage by Chemical Series, so I’ll keep that, but this Marriage by Holiday Series has to go. Masquerade Bride is now going to be a standalone. I can’t keep up the kind of pacing to make a quick enough turnaround work for series books anymore.

Things have been very slow around here on the writing front, and now I’m dealing with a head cold. I had to take a step back from the pace I was going at earlier this summer. Some authors have no trouble sticking to one genre. Some readers like to only read one genre. I’m not built that way as a reader or a writer. I like a variety of genres. I find the variety keeps me engaged. If I stick to just one thing, I get bored. I hate to say it, but after I read enough books in a certain genre, they all start to read the same. The same is true for writing. If I don’t have enough variety to work with, I will feel like I’m writing a story like one I’ve already done. If I allow myself to break off to write in other genres, then I come back feeling like my Regencies and Historical Western Romances are fresh and new.

But I still love romance. Whatever I write, I want there to be a love story with a happy ending. That’s why I have to explore different genres within the romance world. I am going to dive into horror romance. I did some reading for dark romance, which is the closest category I could find in my “horror romance” search. While a few of those books were definitely a fun trip to take, I have noticed that most of them are not for me. So I’ll probably be aiming my stuff more for gothic romance. However, these are going to be contemporary. I need a break from the historical setting. I want to work with modern day technology. I’m putting horror romance under a pen name. It’s much too different from what I do over here. The reason I mention all of this is that my writing time will be divided between the books I over here and the books I’ll be doing elsewhere. I plan to still be active with my writing. I just won’t be able to get as many books out under “Ruth Ann Nordin”, and that’s okay. If I don’t branch off to do this other thing, I’ll end up getting bored with the Regencies and Historical Westerns altogether.

So let’s look at what I currently have up on my To Do list.

I am almost at 40,000 words in Masquerade Bride.

This one has been a lot of fun. It has the fantasy element to it, but it’s not a fantasy romance. The fantasy aspect is too small to fit that category. I probably have about 20,000 more words left to go. The heroine has found out who her ideal love match is. She now has to go about securing him. But after that, I have a couple of things I’ll need to tie up. This wasn’t just a story about her discovering her love match. It turned into a book where she learns something about herself as well. That second part was unexpected, but it makes the story that much more interesting, in my opinion. It’s fun when characters grow in some way through the course of the book.

My hope is that this will be out early 2026.

These are the other two books I have in the works.

The Science of Love (Marriage by Chemistry: Book 2) is a Regency with the angle of using a love potion to secure a love match. I expect this to be fun, though probably not a comedy. I am already four chapters into this, and things are smoothly rolling along. In this case, it’s the heroine who is going to try the love potion on the hero. The hero, by the way, is the one who is trying to make the love potion work. But he won’t know she’s using it on him. So yeah, fun stuff. All I can say is that I hope no one expects me to explain anything to do with chemistry in this book. I have a limited working knowledge of the subject. I’ve always been intrigued with the idea of a love potion and what people would do to test it out. That’s the main thing I’m looking at this series.

The Preacher’s Wife (Wyoming Series: Book 2) has been significantly slow in progress. I am finally at 35,000 words. It’s not a matter of not knowing what to do next. It’s HOW to do it that’s been holding me up. It’s important that the plot is executed just right. I don’t want things to feel rushed or that it’s too slow. I also don’t want to force anything into the story that shouldn’t be there. The whole book needs to flow smoothly all the way through in order to be “right”. That’s been the hold up on this one. It’s the execution of the plot that’s been troubling me. I think in August I got about 1,000 words written in it. This month, it’s been about 2,000. All of it has been like pulling teeth. Masquerade Bride and The Science of Love aren’t giving me this particular problem, which is why I’ve made better progress on them. I’m tempted to put this on hold, but we’ll see what happens in October.

It took me an extra day to get this on Google Play in audio form, so I am announcing this today. I will be working on getting this on Apple in audio form and getting it made into a paperback within the next few weeks. Below are the links where you can find it:Amazon (as an ebook)Amazon (digitally narrated)Audible (digitally narrated)Barnes & NobleKobo (included in Plus)AppleGoogle Play (as an ebook)Google Play (digitally narrated)SmashwordsEverand

Today, I’m posting a graphic I made up to give you a taste of what character updates we’ll be seeing.

For reference on where these characters were in other books I’ve written, here they are:

Lord Toplyn (Logan) was featured in Ruined by the Earl (Marriage by Deceit Series: Book 3). We’ll get to see his wife, Melissa, in The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride, too.

Grant and Carol were featured in The Earl’s Jilted Bride (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 3).

Reuben was originally introduced in If It Takes a Scandal (Marriage by Bargain Series: Book 4), but he was a child at the time. He was the hero in Worth the Risk (Marriage by Obligation: Book 4).

Oscar and Felix were both introduced in Midnight Wedding (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 2). I have not written Oscar’s story yet. Felix was featured in Anyone But the Marquess (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 5).

Malcolm was introduced in Ruined by the Earl, and he was featured in His Wicked Lady (Marriage by Arrangement Series: Book 1). I did continue the rivalry between Malcolm and Logan in His Wicked Lady if you want to read the drama. (This book should be free.)

This post is specifically geared to other writers since the topic is about storytelling. Earlier this year, I came across a YouTube video where the person mentioned how she realized she had a lot of books on her device that she never read. Instead of buying any more books, she decided she would start reading each book on it, and as soon as it bored her, she would remove the book then move on to the next one. She was surprised by how many books she lost interest in within the first couple of chapters. Her point in mentioning this was to tell other writers that it’s crucial to pay attention to how you setup your story. You don’t want to lose your reader early on by writing stuff that takes the story off the rails.

About two months ago, I decided I would do something similar, but my goal would be to read a book until I lost interest. Not only would I stop reading, but I would take note of where I lost interest and why. On the flip side, I also started noting what books hooked me in right away and kept me going through to the final page. More importantly, I ask myself “why”.

As you can expect, this started getting expensive since I wasn’t even getting past the first few chapters on most of the books I picked up, so I decided to become a Kindle Unlimited reader. I will pick up free books if I find them, so that is how I have discovered wide authors.

So if I find a wide author who is offering a book for free, I am inclined to get the book. I did break this rule and purchased a $0.99 book only because the vibe to it was something that I really like. (I would not have purchased this book at the $4.99 regular price because this is an author I’ve never heard of before. But the sale, along with the book description and genre piqued my interest. In short, I was a huge Goosebumps fan back in high school and even in college, and this book delivered on the same premise. Anyway, I enjoyed this book so much I subscribed to the newsletter and pre-ordered the next book in the series. So if anyone wonders if running a promotion works even at $0.99, the answer is yes. You also don’t have to be in Kindle Unlimited to attract a readership if you are able to find your niche. I will add that this book is not a big seller. In fact, it’ll be hard to find in a search. That is why the ad paid off. I found this book on BookDoggy promotion list. They email promotions once a day. I look through these every day and have found most of my reads this way. I like BookDoggy because it gives me a range of genres. As I mentioned in another post, I’m exhausted from reading romance, probably because I have read so many in the past and write this genre. I have picked up a couple of romances, though, because they do sound interesting enough to try. I’ve enjoyed a couple of them, too. And I do ask myself, “Why?”

The why is the key to everything when you are a storyteller. The goal of writing a book is not to appeal to everyone. That is impossible. You can, however, find your audience. The way to find that audience is to make the book something they want to read to the end of the book. If you can tap into why you lose interest in a book, then you can write to avoid those pitfalls in your own story. Likewise, if you can tap into why you kept reading, you can use those elements in your own story to make the story more engaging for your specific audience. Please note: I am not talking about stealing another author’s work. I am talking about the elements in storytelling that can apply to any story.

Let’s say, for example, your mind starts to wander when Chapter 1 in the book goes into a heavy backstory about the character’s life. Now you know not to do this in your own story. Perhaps you find your mind wandering if the characters in a scene are doing a lot of talking with very little action or internal thoughts. Now you know that you should be sure to balance action and internal thoughts in with the dialogue. Or maybe the story was going along really well, and all of the sudden, you are thrown into a chapter that makes no sense at all to the stuff that came up before it. You know that you don’t want to do that in your story, too. There are many reasons why we could lose interest in a book. Those reasons can help you fine-tune your own storytelling.

And discovering what it was about the books you did like can be just as helpful. If you love a lot of description and the slow build, then this strategy will serve you as the writer. If you would rather start with some action to get things rolling, then this will be a better way for you to go. Maybe you realize you don’t like a certain character type. Like I was trying to read some romances with the super hunky, rich, and powerful hero who pretty much tells the heroine what to do. I should know that would never appeal to me because I wouldn’t tolerate that kind of thing from my husband. I am just as capable of doing things as he is, and I want him to realize it. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh. I am not trying to be harsh in stating it that way. I almost deleted it. But then I realized that kind of statement illustrates the “why” in the kind of hero I should be writing. So let me flip this around to smooth things over a bit because I really don’t mean to step on anyone’s toes. Some people have found the beta hero (which is my preferred hero) to be a spineless simp who lets everyone walk all over him. I don’t see the beta hero that way, but I can see how some do. If you see the beta this way, this is your “why” on why you should write the alpha hero. You might see the alpha hero as a strongly attractive man who isn’t afraid to rise to the challenge.

Anyway, you can use other tropes to figure out what you like or don’t like. Do you enjoy an enemies-to-lovers setup? Do you gravitate toward a serial killer horror novel? Do you enjoy reading books where you explore new planets? What is it about all of these core elements in the stories you read that keeps you going? Is it the building of suspense? If the answer was given too quickly, why do you think that? If the answer was given at the perfect moment, why is that? Do you enjoy thinking on new ideas, like how would a political or religious system work on an alien planet? Did the author present something you found plausible? Why or why not?

There are many ways to dissect elements within the story and think on how the author did, or did not, pull it off. It all boils down to “why” something works or doesn’t work for us. In the end, you should be writing for people like you. I like to think that we are our first primary reader. If the book can engage us from start to finish, then we have successfully written a compelling story for the specific audience we wish to reach.

I can’t speak for all writers, but I’m at the point where I don’t want to read the kind of books I writing. I know that sounds terrible. Early on (from about 1996-2007), I actually wrote thrillers, science fiction, and fantasy. This was before 2009 when I discovered the ease of self-publishing. This is why you don’t see a lot of thrillers, science fiction, and fantasy under my name. While I was writing that genre, I was reading a lot of romance, specifically historical western romances. It was my favorite genre to read. I just hadn’t written one yet. I did go with a couple of vanity presses to publish those books, but that got pretty expensive, so I would only put out about one book a year.

In 2008, I discovered that I could publish paperbacks on CreateSpace (this is no longer around, but it was under Amazon). I still remember the writer forum where I learned about CreateSpace. One author told me that all I had to do was pay for the proof copy of the book. There was no other cost involved. That was a lot more affordable than spending $500-$1000 per book. This was at the time when I started writing romance. Since I could afford the $20 (proof copy plus shipping), my enthusiasm for writing went way up. Once ebooks became doable, that excitement shot up even more. I basically wrote whenever I had free time. (Back then, my four kids were 4, 5, 6, and 7. Yep, they were “stair-step” kids. I had to write in 10-15 minute sprints because I was constantly interrupted. This probably explains why I’ll stop writing around the 20-minute mark to get up and do a chore around the house these days. I have trouble sitting for longer than that to just write. Considering how often I hear about authors needing to get up and do something because it’s hard on the body to sit all the time, I’m glad that I learned to write under these circumstances.

Anyway, had the self-publishing boom exploded anywhere from 2000 to 2007, you would see a lot more thrillers, science fiction, and fantasy under my name. I had plenty of ideas for those books. I just didn’t have the motive to go crazy into writing it. So you can thank the timing of the emergence of the Kindle and Smashwords for all of the romance books I’ve done.

That all said, I always loved reading romance. I’ve been reading romance from YA to adult since I was in the sixth grade. I’ve read the range from “clean & wholesome” to “erotic”. I ended up landing in the middle of the spectrum as a writer. I do think there’s a benefit to reading a wide spectrum of whatever genre that interests you. That way, you know the different levels. After some experimentation, you’ll settle on the level that best fits you. Even if you vary that level from time to time, you’ll end up gravitating to a certain “range”. It’s a process to figure out your sweet spot.

I was a heavy romance reader until about 2012. At that point, I was starting to get bored of them. I wasn’t bored with writing them. I did have a conversation with another author recently, and we both agreed that we are now bored reading the genres we write in. We would rather read something else. That struck me as curious. You’d think if you love writing something, you’d want to keep reading it, right? But that hasn’t been the case for me. I find myself wanting to read other genres. I think it helps to keep the creativity humming if I’m not expanding my horizons with different things.

I want to support self-published authors (especially those not in the top charts). I don’t read any authors you’ll find in a brick and mortar bookstore. I prefer someone who needs a readership. I want my money going to them. So if there’s an author who is all over the place, I choose not to read their books. They already have readers. They don’t need me. I want to be where I’m needed. To find new authors, I do some searches, but I mostly rely on promotions in BookDoggy to find them. The search engines keep bringing up the same authors, and that doesn’t help me find new ones. With BookDoggy, I have no idea what author or even what genre will come in each day, and that has done wonders to finding new authors. So if an author is reading this and wondering if running a promotion is worth it, this is a strong case for it. I have not joined BookFunnel as a reader to see their promotions, but my guess is that it might be a good idea to do so at some point because you can tell BookFunnel to alert you to promos in a specific genre.

Currently, I am enjoying horror. I did read a science fiction short story the other day about the government using AI to wipe out memories and alter history to fit the government’s agenda. That was an intriguing idea, and I did enjoy the premise. I’ve read a couple of thrillers, and while they’re okay, they don’t offer enough “creep” factor for me. I don’t want to have to keep the lights on when I sleep, but I do like thinking, “Ooh, that would be creepy.” So I am leaning toward horror. Horror is pretty much thriller to the Nth degree. I am quickly learning the best way to creep someone out is to take something surprisingly normal but twist it a bit. For example, I just finished a story where a mom took over her teenage son’s game because the people in the game were coming into real life to follow him around. This is a super simple premise, but there was one moment where the son comes across this nun who is just staring at him in the middle of a store (and no one else sees her) that actually gave me the “that is really creepy” factor. There was no blood. There was no “jump scare”. All the nun did was try to bump into him (as if he were in the game). I mean, there was a backstory to all of this, but that backstory set the foundation for the “creep” factor in this scene, and the authors did it very well. This kind of horror is intriguing to me. That is what real horror is. And yet, people will say horror is “trash”. Horror, when done right, is far from “trash”. I’m learning that what horror really does is take an aspect of the human condition and delves into the dark side of it.

I guess I’m reading these other genres because, on a subconscious level, I know I have something to learn from them. I’ve been reading and writing romance for so long, I pretty much already get it. Sure, there are still things to pick up in romance, but I’ve been studying it enough. I need to explore other things.

The subject of death is morbid, but it’s something that needs to be dealt with. At the moment, I am fine. I’m in good health, and I have full control of my mental faculties. After hearing stories about authors dying and what a hard time people have of managing things afterwards, I feel it prudent to make a plan for my eventual demise.

As a self-published author, I am also the publisher. No one has the rights to handle my books but me. I love having full control over my books. If I had the option, I’d self-publish all over again. Even so, I’m aware that there’s a lot of things that goes into this business. It can be daunting for people who have never published a book before. I wasn’t surprised that most of my family didn’t want to do deal with this. Fortunately, my son Eric said he’ll take over for me when I die.

Right now, I am working on a packet giving him detailed instructions on what I do when my time comes. I expect this packet will take a few months to complete, and I’m sure there will be things I’ll need to update as time goes on. These things include (but are not limited to) a full list of my books, the retailers I publish them on (and how to change prices, covers, etc in case he needs to do any of those things), what I collect for the accountant at tax time (and how I do it), what to do in a case of copyright infringement (that will take the longest to explain), what I do to market my books (including this blog), my bank information, and where to find all of my accounts associated with my books and the passwords that go with them. I’m also going to create a letter to grant him full rights to my books.

I’ve been doing this stuff since 2009, and I have gotten so used to it that I no longer think of all the details anymore. I do remember that it took me a good couple of years to figure out. So I know there is a learning curve involved. The good news is that once I teach Eric what to do, it should be pretty smooth sailing for him. Since I’m doing this while I’m alive, he’ll have a foundation to bounce off when it comes time for him to take over the business. I am glad he accepted this role. If he hasn’t, I would have had to write out a letter telling my family how to contact the retailers so that all of my books would be unpublished. I don’t remember for sure, but I think Amazon has a policy where it will unpublish books automatically when they know an author dies. It makes sense. If there’s no one living to contact to manage the books, what retailer would want to keep the books up for sale?

I am going to create a post that I’ll put in draft on this blog. When I die, I will have Eric publish it. That way, you’ll know when the time has come.

For now, just know that I feel very blessed that God has allowed me two dreams I had when I was only 12. One was to be a wife and mother. The second was to be a bestselling author. I realize I’m not a bestselling author anymore, but back in 2011 and 2012, I was, and I’ll always be grateful for that. In the meantime, I get to continue writing books I enjoy and be a part of a family I love. It’s been a wonderful life. I have no regrets.

This post is inspired by a YouTube video I listened to the other day. In this video, an editor was listing out the worst ways an author can end their books. I agreed with a lot of her advice. The one part I didn’t agree with was her advice on the “over the top happy ending”. This is the ending where you tie up all loose ends, put a nice bow on everything, and everyone rides off happy into the sunset. You know, a fairy tale. Her advice was NOT to do this. Her advice was to leave something out there that could possibly go wrong so that the character has more growth and development for the future. You know, wrap up the end so that it mirrors real life. In real life, nothing is ever 100% perfect.

In her defense, she does not edit romance books. After reading through some comments where people either argued in favor of her advice or against it, I came to the conclusion that some things should be decided by the readers. This is one of them. Over the years, a few readers have told me that they like having fairytale endings where everything is perfect. They want “over the top”. I have had no reader tell me they wish for more realism in the ending.

This brings me to the topic of today’s post.

ID 176713395 © Flydragonfly | Dreamstime.com

The best place to go to for advice when you have a question about the story you’re writing is your reader base. You are not writing for the editor. You aren’t writing for other authors. You are writing for the people who read your books. These are people who already love what you’re writing. They have invested in your work already. They know what you enjoy writing. They have already connected with you.

This doesn’t just apply to endings. It can be with any aspect of your book that you are having a hard time making a decision about. For example, maybe you are torn between the age of a character. Years ago, I wasn’t sure if I could get away with pairing up a certain hero with a heroine because of the age gap. So I sought out the advice of a reader I knew and trusted. Another time, I wasn’t sure if I should end the book with a particular angle. So I went to a reader I trusted and asked them what they liked the most. These are small aspects of the story that don’t change the plot or character development, but they still leave you wondering if one will be more appealing to your reader base than the other. If you get conflicting opinions, go with your gut. If your gut isn’t telling you anything, flip a coin. (If you don’t like the results of the coin flip, your gut is telling you to pick the other side.)

Keep in mind that no book will ever be perfect. No matter what you do, there will always be something in your book that you could have done better. Nothing kills your ability to publish books like the quest to write “the perfect book”. The best you can do is good enough. Your readers will enjoy your work, and that is what counts. It doesn’t matter what the critics think. They are not the ones buying your books. If your reader base is happy, you’ve done a good job.

For new writers who haven’t found their reader base yet, I would recommend the coin flip option when making a decision. If there are more than two options, jot them all down on a piece of paper, and pull one from a hat. I mentioned this above, but I really have found this method to be a good way of figuring out what my gut is telling me. If you are happy with the coin flip/piece of paper you picked, then you know you are on the right track. If you are disappointed with the coin flip/piece of paper you picked, then you know you really want to do the other thing.

Getting readers to reach out to you so you can connect with them will take time. This is where having an online presence is necessary, unless you do all of your promotion in person. You should at least have a website with a contact form. If you don’t want a contact form, that’s fine if you are on a social media platform like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, SubStack, and whatever else is out there these days. (I can’t keep up with them all.) Some authors like to pose a question on their page and let readers answer them there. (Be sure that the people answering the question are actual readers of your books, not other authors chiming in for what they would do in your shoes.) Have a way for people to reach out to you. Another option is to have an email list. Put links at the back of your books to let people know where they can find you. Over time, you’ll start meeting your readers, and when you give that connection enough time, you’ll be comfortable enough to seek advice when you come across something in your work you’re not sure about.