I knew I missed a blog or two, turns out it’s been 4. Sorry, it’s been a wild ride on my side of the keyboard.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned in the past, I stopped working to be a caregiver to my husband. We live on the West Coast, 5600km away from my mother, who still lives in the house where I was raised. The house that Dad built.
Lately, her little health issues have become more frequent which makes me want to move home. Even without Covid, we’re isolated. My family is all back East and my husband’s kin are scattered across the country.
Quite frankly, for my own mental health, I need help. Sadly, while my book boyfriends are fantastic, they are really just sexy words on a favourite reading device. No help at all in the real world.
Cue the drama, because nothing with me seems to go easy.
I bought my dream house, 6km from my mother’s home. Then the current owner died and for a while, the grieving widow wanted to pull out of the sale.
I started doing renovations on the house we’re living in, to finish the ground level before putting it on the market. Most importantly, this would enable us to move our main living area downstairs, to keep my husband from stumbling and falling on the stairs. Thanks to Covid and backorders, this simple 3-week project is about to enter its third calendar month.
To complete this whine-fest, I flew too close to the sun with Amazon and they suspended my account for nearly a month. Apparently, they changed something, which caused several dozen authors to have their accounts wiped out without warning. Most folks, have been reinstated but when you are trying to build a stable source of income through writing, it’s terrifying to know your fate is tied to the whim of a bot.
Lesson learned. Don’t be exclusive to the world’s biggest bookstore.
Sadly, this means my books will stop being available through Kindle Unlimited as their contracts expire.
Good news is, once my exclusivity obligation to Amazon is done, they will become available at Barnes and Noble, Rakuten Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play and if you’re in Canada, Belgium or the Netherlands, you can get them on Kobo Plus (Kobo’s reading subscription service similar to Kindle Unlimited.) They will also become available on the Library procurement system which means you can request them at your local library (all in e-books and some in paperback formats.)
As mentioned it’s been a wild ride as I figure out my way around obstacles.
April 15th will be my miracle day. Hopefully, my renovations and subsequent move back East will be complete and I will have launched all books by Susan Lyn at the above retailers.
My Dax and Amelia, Alien Adventures erotic space opera, will also launch at the above retailers on that day. They are already removed from Amazon’s platform as I think these are the stories that possibly got me into trouble. No one knows for sure.
Hiding In Plain Sight, by my alter ego, Sue Nelson Buckley, is already available on all formats except for Kobo. Hopefully, their publishing process will complete in the next 48 hours.
I am so looking forward to sitting on my new deck with a glass of red, smelling the salty air and watching the tide go in and out. Maybe then I can catch my breath and start writing again. (don’t despair, during this downtime, I’m putting the finishing touches on my new series – DNA Relations. If nothing else goes sideways, they could be up for sale soon at all retailers.)