New book - and a new direction?

So, remember that secret project I said I was working on?

I don’t get many complaints. Honestly, when I first started out as an erotic writer, I expected some trolls and some nasty comments. But after doing this for the better part of a decade, I can confidently say that my readers are some of the nicest people in the world. I don’t get a lot of criticism. I do get the odd bad review on Amazon, but that’s just part of being a writer. What I do isn’t for everyone. I get that, and I accept it.

But of the criticism I do get, one of the most common themes is not the books themselves, but the way I release them. My stories are short, because that’s what Amazon likes. And if you want to stay at the top of the search algorithm, you need to put new books out as often as possible.

That’s why I sell short stories for $2.99 each. And I know that makes some people mad. I know that, when it comes to some of my longest series, there can be 20 or 30 individual stories, making it ridiculously expensive to read the whole thing.

That’s why I release bundles of my stories, to try and keep things affordable. I need to make a living, but I don’t want to rip anyone off. So if people are willing to wait, they can usually get a good deal on a story once it’s been out a few months.

But the cost of living just keeps going up for everyone. So for the last few weeks, I’ve been trying something new. I have such a huge back catalog now that I figured I could take a little time off and write a longer story, so that’s what I’ve done:

The truth is, I like writing like this.

Writing a longer story like this lets me get more invested in a narrative arc and less focused on trying to hit specific story beats within a very strict word count. I’d like to do more of this.

But I need to make a living too, and it’s no easier than it’s ever been. Long term, I’d like to switch to putting out longer books less often to save you guys money. But I also need to stay on top of the Amazon algorithm so that my stories get found.

Maybe this will be the start of a new direction for me. Maybe it will be another failed experiment. Either way, I hope you enjoy the story, and if you do, remember that a good review on Amazon goes a really long way!