Did you know that I have three books launching tomorrow? It’s true.
After nearly nine months, the rebranded Rune Witch novels are finally coming to market.
Here’s what’s different:
Here’s why I’m rebranding this series:
Because Bryan Cohen told me to.
That’s only partly tongue-in-cheek. When I traveled to Chicago last August to spend two days working one-on-one with Bryan to help revamp and supercharge my indie author career, I think the very first idea he floated to me was rebranding the Valhalla urban fantasy series.
Frankly, I was floored. It hadn’t occurred to me to touch my already published books; I had two more volumes in the series to produce, and then I would move on to the next series. Yes, I was disappointed that these books—which are fun and take readers on a new magickal adventure with each installment—hadn’t seemed to find their core audience. The readers who had found the series tended to love the books, and I even got hounded (in a friendly way) at a con by a reader who was anxious for the next one to be released. But the books weren’t selling well overall. I figured it was simply the nature of the industry that these books hadn’t hit, and I hadn’t understood that there was something I could do about that.
Oh, how naive I was.
Some quick research proved that there is, in fact, a market for these specific books—and that my titles and covers simply weren’t communicating to readers what they would find inside. So I conducted a poll to help choose the new series name and book titles. I worked with my brilliant cover artist to redesign the book covers. I did a lot more reading and learning about marketing and engagement. You know, basically all of the things I should have done the first time around, but didn’t. While I’d been busy writing, other indies had been digging into and pushing the market, and it was time for me to learn from them.
And so here we are. The first three books in the rebranded series release tomorrow, and all three—Moon Dog Magic, Elements of Magic, and Black Pool Magic—will be on-sale for 99-cents for a limited time. Toward the end of the month, Raven Magic (Rune Witch 4) will launch, followed by a brand new book in the series, Chaos Magic (Rune Witch 5), which is planned for a June release. The sixth and last book in the Rune Witch series, Twilight Magic is currently slated for a July or August release.
And then I’ll turn my attentions to a follow-on series, so fear not! The magickal mayhem (and some of the characters) of the Rune Witch books aren’t actually going away. There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes right now to bring magick and mystery to a new corner of Oregon.
(The series is currently exclusive to Amazon/Kindle, and these books are available through Kindle Unlimited for those readers subscribing to that service. Note that these books are DRM-free, so you can convert them to the file format of your choosing, though the books must be purchased from Amazon. I may take the series wide—into other markets like B&N, Kobo, and Apple—at a later date.)
On a personal (and semi-professional) note, I’ll mention that of course I’m feeling some anxiety about this rebrand. It would unnatural if I weren’t. I’ve put years of my life into these books, over and above the rebrand efforts of these last months. It’s been a significant investment of time, energy, and money, and as in most of life there is no guarantee of success. I think it’s important for indie authors to acknowledge the hard work and the risk that are involved; there is nothing remotely “get rich quick” about any of this.
But with readers in mind, I have made what I hope are the best choices, and now it’s time for me to send these stories out into the world (again). These stories are meant to entertain you, to help you delve more safely into darkness, to perhaps distract you from some of the madness and disappointment of the “real world,” and to enrich at least a slice of your life with possibility, connection, and humor. Only you will know if I’ve succeeded in bringing some enchantment to your experience, and I hope you won’t be shy about sharing that with me.
Cheers. And happy reading!