New Release: Bhyr (Alien Warrior)




bhyr ebook cover
We are the destroyers of worlds. The scourge of the weak and the masters of creation. We are as one fist, one blade, one almighty force. We are horde. 
~Unknown, Ranked Warrior of the Azteka Horde

Bhyr, leader of the Azteka Horde, is committed to saving his species from extinction. Taking the human female as a breeder is his divine right. He will breed her, anoint his spawn, and then rid himself of the complications that come with a mate. But when the time comes, will he be able to strike down the one he loves most?

Indira is abducted from Earth and leashed to an alien barbarian. He wants one thing of her: an heir. Vowing to escape his clutches, Indira begins a revolt that causes ripples throughout the galaxy. But as she strives to thwart the most feared being in the universe, she must question how the warrior she defied became the darkest desire of her heart.

Warning: violence, profanity, psychological trauma, forced seduction and sexual content.

Book three in this series. Yaaas! *hands in the air* This is the shortest one, coming in with a word count of 137k. I was ruthless with cutting this time around. This story was much, much longer, but in the end, I thought it read better shorter.


Confession time. I don't love Indira (heroine). We wouldn't be besties. I like her, but she's too hardcore for me. I respect/fear women like her. I so wanted to portray her strong personality and mixed cultural heritage to the best of my ability, without her coming across as cold or bitchy. Bhyr (hero) was difficult. He's a bad man. But no individual is all one characteristic, and somebody's villain is another's hero. He's complicated and misunderstood. He needs forgiveness in a Big Way, and that is a huge theme in this book. Forgiveness. Not much of that around nowadays, and it fascinates me how much we all want it, but refuse/are unable to give it. There is a darker, more sinister tone to this book than the previous two because of the subject matter. I didn't go mad on the storyline, either. I pretty much coloured within the lines, but I pushed several scenes to the extreme... so... you were warned.


For the cover, I didn't follow the background colour scheme of my previous two books in the series. The yellow/orange just looked better against his blue skin and popped more in thumbnail size.

Funnily enough, two of the things I mentioned (moaned) about last time I wrote a blog post have changed for the better. Adobe Photoshop has changed–again– but is a tad more user friendly. At first, I wasn't thrilled, but after re-doing the Bhyr cover, I'm used to it now.


The KDP reporting for books enrolled in Kindle Unlimited has also improved. Massively. However, I chose to upload my book everywhere (iBooks, Kobo, Nook, Googleplay, etc). In the last four years, I first uploaded on Kindle exclusively for three months in their Unlimited programme. What I've seen is a huge drop off in purchases on any site but Amazon. This could be a matter of readers simply switching over to Kindle or losing interest in my books on those platforms. Who knows. I'm going to go back to publishing across all platforms first, and then cycling books into the Unlimited programme.


As usual, I'll be sending out my newsletter once I'm happy the book has uploaded and I've looked at them and checked nothing has gone wonky.


Peace and love. Pxx

New Release: ThunderClaw (Alien Warrior)





A King, his commander, an Earthling and her kin.
Trekking through outer space to distant galaxies.
Feasts, a storm, annihilation and rebirth.
This tale is about the bonds between family and friends. A saga of the love between a woman and two aliens.

Warning: violence, profanity and sexual situations.

Well now, the second book in the Alien Warrior saga has finally been released. So sorry for the delay (I explained what happened a little here)! My husband dropped to his knees in thanks when I told him. I've been fretting over it for two years now. It's 6.99 USD before tax on Amazon Kindle.

This was my first time using the PreOrder function (something I was always skeptical about using as ebooks are unlimited and usually PreOrders are to ensure you get something of limited stock, Amazon have a robust recommendations system meaning you are notified in a number of ways when an author has a new book out, and lastly, PreOrders are counted towards your sales rank as normal sales, meaning there is no ranking boost on the day of release). Overall, it went better than I expected. I gave myself a target of 100 in two weeks (I really didn't think anybody would bother to PreOrder, and my report says 1227. So I was wrong. *hangs head in shame*

ThunderClaw is again a plus length novel considering its genre, but I loved the characters, and I had a whole new world to build up as it's a different species of alien. You'll be happy to know I corrected the formatting issues Venomous had in this book by using a cool publishing tool called Vellum. It vanquished the eye-bleeding days of pain I used to experience when formatting.

This is the first time I've written about bisexual main characters. I had significant leeway in how my characters expressed their sexuality as I wrote of an alien culture. There were no conventions on behaviour, nor worries over accurately conveying prejudices in society keeping me from creating the polyamorous relationship I did.

Venomous' central theme was liberation from slavery. ThunderClaw focuses more on emotional freedom and allowing yourself to heal after a traumatic breakup.

The working cover was also edited to make it look more like the alien in the story, which was fun, though having to get used to Adobe Photoshop since they change the user interface every five seconds is not fun.

The main hero of the third book was introduced as well. The third book will be called Hel Bhyr.

Now, as I enrolled the book in Kindle Unlimited, I spent the last few days trying to wrap my head around the increased level of uncertainty that comes with using the scheme. It worked well last time, so, naturally I thought to try it again, but I am quite anxious over the whole pages read thing. The book is 974 KENPC (166k word count, 595 print pages), which is Kindle's normalised page count. So, I sort of am guessing that every 1000 pages or so someone has a read the whole book? It's strange as I can no longer say with certainty how many people have borrowed it as opposed to buying it. I guess I can divide the final numbers, but that is just me assuming everyone read to the end of the book or the same amount of pages. It does in theory seem more fair for longer works, but I do wish there was a higher level of reporting that told you at the end of the month the unique readers who borrowed.

I've updated my website, something cleaner and less maintenance intensive. My new release newsletter will be going out on Friday early evening.

Fletcher. Out.

New Release: U.M.O (Unidentified Male Organism)

Releasing a book is always cathartic. :) I haven't done a novella since Lunar Light and I enjoyed flexing those muscles. Writing a good shorter novel is as difficult as writing a 600 page bruiser. I adore Science Fiction Romance (have been working on the Alien Warrior series almost exclusively for the last 18 months) and this story came to me sometime in early August. I did try to set it aside, as I'm working feverishly on ThunderClaw and Ash, but the main character kept seeping into the characters of those stories, and that wouldn't do.

Most Sci Fi Romance I've read (concerning aliens) feature human women who fall for male aliens. My Alien Warrior series follows this, and it's fun, but it can be predictable. For U.M.O, I flipped this trend on its head focusing on a peaceful society lead by a female alien who claims a human male. I ditched a lot of the erotic elements to spotlight the dynamics between two alphas, and made it more smexy (smart+sexy) rather than slexy (slutty+sexy). I added robots, too, which was fun. I've only touched on A.I in Chaos Theory before this.

I wanted the cover art to look much different for the novel, but I don't have the bandwidth to delve into an artwork project of that depth, especially not for a small book that won't bring in as much revenue as my other work. This cover only took a week or so for me mock up, and it represents the story elements well enough.

Available worldwide on Amazon Kindle, GooglePlay, Smashwords, B&N Nook, Apple iBooks and Kobo for 1.99 GBP/2.99 USD/ 3.99 CAD/4.13 AUD.


Science Fiction Romance

Refugee humans flee a scourge that has overtaken their home world. They land on an Earth-like planet only to find they are not alone. Their hosts are anything but merely alien....

Lord Two watches a spaceship land on the haven of Kyzor Lune. She fears for the future of her people. Her creators were without conscience, forcing her kind to flee genocide. Hailing from a planet far beyond the stars called Earth, the U.M.Os pose a deadly threat. The aliens say they need a home, but will they accept the differences of Lord Two's people, or grow to fear them as their creators did?

When the human Lord grows to love discovers her secret, will he give her his heart, or seek to destroy her like those before him? And if love prevails, will darker forces allow peace between what was and what will be?


*Whoop Whoop* Kindle Unlimited All Star




So Venomous is still performing wonderfully. The reviews (for the most part) are amazing, and I got a Kindle Unlimited Badge for being one of the most read authors in the program for January!

I got a $500 (about £320) bonus for this, which is nice.

My Author Rank looks pretty at the moment too. It's something I haven't paid attention to as "Rank Mania" is easy to get sucked into when it comes to Kindle. A small indulgence ever so often doesn't hurt though ;)

Humungous thank you to everyone who has bought and read the book!


Interview with Nicole MacDonald

I'm over at indie author Nicole MacDonald's blog today talking about book one of my new Alien Warrior series Venomous.

New Release: Venomous (Alien Warrior)




Abducted from Earth and transported to a slave planet in an unknown galaxy, Lumen finds herself, shackled, naked and put on display before an alien horde. Told the males will battle for the right to slake their lusts with her body, she would become the slave of slaves.

Venomous One, a proud warrior enslaved, has given up hope of returning to his home world and finding a life mate. When a female is tossed into the arena his soul demands he claim her. Winning his mate by Right of Might, he vows to protect Lumen and be a good provider, no matter how ugly her human appearance.

Rescued by Venomous’ people, the couple face space pirates, the condemnation of an alien government, galactic war, and a deadlier threat from within the warrior’s own kindred.

Warning: violence, profanity and sexual situations with multiple partners.


*whoop whoop* New release just before the new year. I am super busy working on new stuff, learning more about my craft, living life, etc. My writing schedule is pretty much full until the end of 2015 (upcoming books include Flux Equinox (Cosmic Lovely 2), Ash (Dragon Souls 3) and Bone & Stone). Anyway....

Venomous is narrated in first and third person. First person from the heroine's point of view, and third person from the hero's. I think it works, bringing an authenticity to how Venomous thinks (his alien consciousness) and the more casual way a young woman might perceive the world.

It's currently priced at £3.29/$5.14. This title is currently only available on Kindle. Word count is just over 183k, my longest novel to date, well over two long books in one!

Alien abduction romance often tickles my fancy. I've wanted to write one myself for ages, but never seemed to have the time. Venomous isn't one of those aliens that is mostly human looking except a few menial differences. He's a proper E.T with serious cultural and biological differences that were wonderful to weave into a plausible(ish) storyline.

Enjoy.

New Release: Bedevil

Okay. It's difficult to explain where this book came from as it wasn't on my writing schedule. It lurked in the back of my mind and wouldn't go away. Other writers know how distracting that can be. So I wrote it. Ta Da! It turned out much longer than expected (two normal sized books in one).

There is quite bit of humour, lots of quintessential Britishness and a sprinkling of paranormal (cause I looove supernatural stuff).



£2.49/$3.99
available on kindle, nook, kobo, smashwords, my website, google play
After a car accident strips Ebenezer Royale the use of his lower limbs his high flying lifestyle comes to a crashing halt. When Boudicca Cane wanders into the wrong place at the right time, they strike up an odd friendship that blossoms into love. Their relationship isn’t conventional, bloody bonkers at times, but it works. When they pause their sexy time to come up for air, they discover the Cane and Royale families are struggling to adjust. Boudicca’s adoptive father doesn’t like change, Ebenezer’s brothers either lust after or despise her and his parents suspect her of being a gold digger. 

As life takes a turn for the better, odd, inexplicable things happen, all leading back to the woman of Ebenezer’s dreams. Black animals circle the house, a mysterious stranger stalks her reflection in the mirror, and apples float by an unseen force. Eben and Bo believe getting their families to rub along is the only thing standing in the way of everlasting happiness. But a powerful force has turned its evil eye on the mismatched couple. Between food fights, curses, and Shakespearian verses, will Boudicca and Ebenezer get their crazy ever after? Contemporary romance with a hint of magic. Contains profanity and sexual situations! Standalone. Plus length novel (144,000 words/aprox 735 pages).

New Release: Burn (Dragon Souls #2)

*collapses to floor* Burn listings will be appearing on iBooks, Nook, etc within the next few days. It has already popped up on Kobo and Kindle. The ebook is also available direct from my website in ePub format. My next newsletter will contain as many links as I can find.

Just in case you are new to the Dragon Souls series this is book two. Smolder is book one. The paperback edition will be available within the fortnight.

$3.99/£2.49 ~ 117,000 words/401 pages

fantasy romance sale & giveaway

I am happy to announce Burn will be released at the end of December. I can't give a specific date as it takes a few days for the listing to appear once published (amazing considering it used to take weeks when I first started in 2010).

Smolder (Dragon Souls)

In celebration of this, I’ve joined up with other fantasy romance authors and put Smolder in a holiday sale. It and the books in the widget below are £0.77/$0.99 until the 14th of December.  Now is a great time to grab the book and the other titles as there is a great mix of epic, urban, and light fantasy.





There is a giveaway attached to the sale running from today until the 14th. Please note the giveaway is only available to residents of the USA aged 18 and over.


breakout books: apple ibookstore

UPDATE 10.12.2013: I changed distributers. Glamour ratings have reset.


I have not blogged in forever because, gosh, how other writers find the time when your busy with life, writing, learning more about your craft and publishing I'll never know.

The focus of this post was exciting enough to break through my self driven exile.

Apple iBookstore (US) has launched a promotion called Breakout Books. What makes this feature special is its prominent location in the books section on iTunes. If you're here with me in the UK or elsewhere and curious you can take a peek by changing the round flag located at the bottom right hand corner of your iTunes window.

Glamour is featured in the Sci Fi Fantasy section. *Hoo!* It has over 1100 ratings in the US and averaged at four stars.



If you're reading this you've probably already read my book, but I urge you to grab another from the collection that takes your fancy. Highlighted are some of the best self published authors worldwide. If nothing grabs you today keep checking. It has been mentioned the titles will be refreshed.

From a personal perspective this will keep me smiling for days. The Rae Wilder series as a whole has done well on iTunes, and I'm thrilled to be included in this innovative endeavor. From a professional standpoint it's encouraging to see another shift in a positive direction for a publishing option that's fast losing a reputation for being an easy, get-rich-quick scheme.

Each book featured represents a labour of love from an author. I congratulate and thank them all.

Mark Coker from Smashwords blogged about this; http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/02/smashwords-authors-gain-seat-at.html

Here's a quick link to the section http://iTunes.com/BreakoutBooks

New Release: Bite, My Love

From £2.50/$3.99

The Vampire dumped on Pack land is a handsome devil. Bringing him home to meet my Alpha is risky, but something tells me I'm going to need him around. Lycanthropes and Vampires don't mix. So why do I insist on keeping him close to me? Why do I dream about him biting me?

Bite, My Love is the sequel to Die, My Love. As most of my books are it's a full length novel, paranormal romance, and written in first person present tense. The second installment in the Dark Creature series is vastly different from the first. This time we're seeing the world from the perspective of Harmony (a Lycan) rather than Lee, two very different women.

It's available on Amazon, Smashwords and direct from my website. Coming to other eRetailers soon.

New Release: Chaos Theory

(UK £2.52 and US £$4.10)

Kali doesn't know what to make of Blue. His scientific knowledge surpasses genius, and his understanding of the universe is effortless. His mind intrigues her, and his body attracts her in the worst way. Fascinated, Kali accepts when he asks her on a date ... then is abducted by aliens.

Kali escapes captivity to discover earth under attack, and the only thing standing between life and death is Blue, a boy alien to her in every way conceivable.



New release, yay! I haven't blogged in forever, but I've been busy typing. I have a number of books to get out this year, and those babies won't write themselves.

Chaos Theory is a Sci Fi Romance. It follows the story of our main character Blue, and a number of other characters during an alien invasion. 

You can buy it on Kindle now, and it will be available within the month on iBooks and Nook.

Rae Wilder Revisions

My Rae Wilder series is undergoing a makeover. Inside (re-edited and a few minor story adjustments), and outside (new covers and titles).

For revision I'm working with Kim over at Another View Editing who is frustratingly good at pointing out my mistakes :)

The digital art was done by Renu Sharma who was a joy to work with. It was the first time I had comissioned art work, and I was pleased by how smooth and painless the process was from start to finish

The first Rae Wilder cover seemed to strike a cord and held me in good stead. I'm fond of it, but it's always good to keep things fresh.

I've had grumbles about the change of covers (some quite poetic and fervent). A title change is a substantial risk to take since a significant body of people have already bought the books, but that is the beauty of eBooks. iBooks, Nook and Kindle readers (if the right settings are switched on) will update automatically. I don't really have to worry about people double buying, because it's not possible on those platforms (unless you delete the title).

The branding is stronger on this second set. The changes were not done on a whim, as I explain later on in this post.

Demon Girl is now Glamour. Demon Day is now Compel. Demon Dark is now Enchant. Demon boy will now be called Summon. You can read the blurb for book four (I am aiming for a late summer 2012 release) HERE.


Bye 2011 *waves* Hello 2012!

2011 Snapshot
2011 was a good year for me financially and emotionally. What more can a girl ask for?

1) 12 months to sell over over 46,000 eBooks across all distribution channels (48,000 if you include my pen name)
2) I wrote and published five books (and three short stories under pen name Hanna Lui)
3) I gave up my day job in September to become a full time writer
4) I've had one Kindle UK Top 100 book, one Nook Top 100 book, and nine iBook category #1's across three different territories (CA, AU & UK) as well as my books bouncing up and down a number of competitive Kindle genre bestseller lists all year
5) I managed to blog at least once every single month
6) I re-designed my website (and I am finally happy with it)

Dragon Souls Release *roar*


I've released the first book of my Dragon Souls series. It was touch and go, I tell you. The flu got me a few weeks ago, so I'm over two weeks behind on life in general, but I was determined to see this released in December. It's going through distribution and approval processes, but will start popping up in all the usual places (Kindle, Smashwords, iBooks, Nook) over the next month.

Q&A

What is the narrative voice, genre and word count?
It's written in third person omniscient (alternating points of view). This is probably the most "commercial" writing I've done. It's straight fantasy romance (not YA), and comes in at a goodly 83,000 words.

Rae Wilder Fan Art!

I love it when readers commit and go the extra mile to show how much they've connected with a character. I got this through a few minutes ago, an interpretation of Rae from Demon Day.


This is clearly after Rae meets the shifters and is given new clothes from Alec ... after she gets her circlet. How ca-uooo-te!! The detail on the wings is fabulous, and Rae's Deer In The Headlights look has been captured brilliantly. Rae is even tugging on her hair and biting her lip! Click to enlarge the picture and you can see her fangs.

This was drawn by the talented Michelle Hewitt, and you can find out more about her and her work at Littlelovesartist.com

If anybody does do fan art or fan fiction on any of my stuff don't hide it away. I'd love to see it, there is no greater compliment ;)

Sales Analysis ... What Can It Teach Me To Help Sell eBooks?

Today, I am going to give an example of what I do to keep track of how well I am doing, and what I should be doing. There is a lot of high level advice for Indies to set "realistic sales goals" to keep them on the straight and narrow. So when the next I Just Sold 1Million eBooks In 10 Days With My Arms Tied Behind My Back story breaks those with 100 sales or less feel less like giving up.

I agree with this. I also believe keeping a close eye on how you set those realistic goals is key to success.

Click to Enlarge
"I am going to sell 100 eBooks," is not a realistic goal. How are you going to sell those ebooks? To whom? Where?

"I am going to sell 100 units of Demon Day on Kindle in March by promotion on Goodreads groups and three different established book blogs," is a realistic goal.

I do not stalk my rankings (except when something exceptional is happening like breaking the Top 100 somewhere or grabbing a number 1 spot) but I do keep a hawk eye on how I am doing comparatively across eStores and where I should be focusing my attention.

Volume means jack-sh*t if you cannot sustain it. Someone who sells a few thousand one month with one title can drop off the lists within a week and never be able to climb back if they don't have a strong backlist to support them between frontlist releases.

What does the above data (in the pie chart) teach me?
A few things actually. Possibly;

Demon Dark Nook Top 100!

Super quick post, Demon Dark made it onto the Nook Top 100! Not expecting to stay there for very long, but there you go. Progress.

18.11.11

Demon Dark Hits #1 iBooks UK, CA & AU!

I think sufficient time has passed, and I doubt things are going to get any better for my US ranking, but such good news!

Demon Dark found its way into the Apple iBookstore, and from the 14th to the 16th (today) reached the top spots in its genre (Sci-fi & Fantasy) across three different territories. It peaked at #9 in the US.

eBook VAT & What This Means for Selling Direct (Brace Yourself)

Following on from my earlier post, I posted a question on Kindleboards about direct selling and the question of tax came up. That small question prompts a big answer. This is tax we're talking about. It's a tricky subject and I was steering clear of posting anything about it, however, I am willing to outline my own circumstances to add clarity for purposes of selling direct and my experiences with it.

I am a British citizen registered with HMRevenue as self employed (sole proprietor). I am not VAT registered. I am in no rush to register as my turnover selling direct is nowhere near the £73,000 plus threshold for the reporting year.

As I provide goods that are "taxable supplies" I would have to register for VAT if either; my turnover for the previous 12 months goes over the VAT threshold (currently £73,000) or if I thought my turnover would soon go over this limit (within 30 days). I can opt to register for VAT even though I am below the VAT threshold. There are benefits to this. It is best to keep an eye on the VAT threshold as it may change and any change will be announced in The Budget.