Happy Monday, Aledan Merfolk! The year is almost over and I, for one, am happy to help usher it out the door. We lost several family members this year, including our old man, Boudin, and it was a challenging year on the whole.
But the year wasn’t all bad. This is the year that I officially became a self-published author! And you know what? For as much as I never wanted to self-publish, I’ve found it very rewarding. It’s been a lot of work (and money), but it’s also been so satisfying to know that I did all that work and got my book into people’s hands, and overall they’re enjoying it. I’m sitting at 4.6 stars on Amazon, with 137 reviews! I had about 50 reviews and 4.7 stars from the original publication, so getting that many reviews and still keeping the high rating is pretty damn good.
Overall this year, I’ve sold over 500 books, which I’m pretty proud of! I sold 617 copies of the original version of StO between 2019-2022, so nearing that in less than a year on my own makes me so excited! You can find copies all over Whidbey Island (the Book Rack is my home store and carries it for a dollar less than anywhere else), in Anacortes and Bellingham, and even in Key West! And with book two coming out in April, and book three in the works now, I’m excited about the rest of this series 🙂
If you haven’t heard about the rest of the series yet, I announced See The Depths in October (you can preorder the ebook direct from me right now, or wait for a signed paperback in April). Publication date is April 4th, and I’ll be at the International Mermaid Museum for their annual Mermaid Festival that weekend to sign books! The festival is so much fun, and I hope you can join us to officially launch See The Depths that weekend!
I’m also drafting Book Three in the series right now, and I think you’re going to really like it. I can’t tell you much, because I don’t want to spoil the ending of Book Two, but I can tell you that things get very dangerous for the Seadom. I plan to have that drafted by the time Book Two comes out, and then I’m heading back to Fie Eoin!! Karigan has been screaming at me to finally write her story, and I can’t wait! If you’ve been around since back in the FE days, you are going to LOVE Kari. Take Kindra, give her a big helping of self-confidence, some really, REALLY cool twin-bond powers, and a snarky mouth, and you have Karigan. She’s my favorite character to write!
If you want to read StO2 and StO3 before they’re published, I post a chapter every week on my Ream subscription. And if you’re looking for a cheap ebook of StO, it’s currently 50% off at Smashwords through January 1st!
I hope you had a great holiday season, Aledan Merfolk! I’m excited for what the next year will bring, book-wise 🙂
Very proud of the talented and creative person you are, Becka❣️