Look what I have. 🙂
Usually when you hit a bestseller list, publisher sends you flowers. Instead the flowers came from my husband.
Flowers make everything better.
Gordon note: These pretty flowers can be purchased and next day delivered from Olive & Cocoa.
We have some questions to answer today, so let me get to it.
Where is the best place to buy your books that gets you the best returns for revenue/publicity? I’ve been buying my books through Amazon, but if there’s a better place to buy them from that’s better for you would you post them please?
This has cropped up repeatedly, so let me reiterate that we are grateful for every sale. If you buy it in ebook, if you buy it in print, or if you borrow it from the library, if you find it for a penny in a used bookstore, buy it, someone else did. We want you to enjoy our work in the way most convenient to you. The most important thing is that purchasing our books is easy and guilt-free.
We ask only that you don’t pirate. Pirating ebooks is stealing; it’s not a victimless crime. It costs us sales, but it also shortchanges other readers, because when the book is pirated in large enough numbers, the writer won’t continue the series. What’s the point of working on something for months and months if someone is just going to steal it? For example, right now we are reevaluating our Netgalley policy, because someone was given an ARC of BLOOD HEIR in epub format and uploaded it to a pirate site. So if you like a particular book, please buy it or legally borrow it.
But I digress. Back to the earnings. In terms of money earned per copy, ebooks are probably best. It doesn’t really matter in what format. Most ebook retailers pay us 70% of the cover price from each purchase. This doesn’t mean that you should feel guilty purchasing in print. We make money there too. 😀
So I’m guessing no big 5 {or 4, 3 however many there are now} contracts for a while?
Probably not. As we touched on during Zoom Afterparty, once we finish RUBY FEVER, we would like to take a year off to situate ourselves and deliver new installments in some of our self-published series. The only thing we would be willing to shop right now to New York is a possible Arabella series, which wouldn’t exactly fit into Avon’s lineup.
Romance is a great genre, but it comes with certain tropes, just like any other genre. One of the tropes is having the hero and heroine identified early on. People like to know who to root for. Arabella’s books would feature several possible love interests and we are not sure who she is going to end up with. We could do a series through one of Avon’s sister imprints, but right now we are not ready to discuss it. We need to get some things off our desk, like the second Iron Covenant book.
Ideally, we would like to remain hybrid, but and this is a big but (big butt, hehe,) we’ve just seen a self-published title explode onto the lists with a minimum of publicity. We do run a business, so let’s talk some numbers.
Disclaimer: we are authors with an established audience. If you are just starting out, not a lot of this will apply to you. Please don’t consider this a business advice.
A traditional publisher gives us 25% of the ebook receipts, that is, they give us 25% of their profits.
A quick breakdown before all expenses and agent’s cut of 15%:
Cover price: $4.99
Traditional royalty : $0.87
Self-Published: $3.49
You see, the publisher takes whatever we earn and keeps 3/4 of it. In perpetuity.
Now, the publisher takes on risks when they choose to publish us. They give a big chunk of money upfront, they provide editorial expertise, they shoulder production costs such as cover, design, formatting, and printing, and they provide us with a distribution network for print and publicity and marketing.
I should pause here and specify that publicity and marketing are two different things. People often confuse the two, so let’s define them.
Publicity team handles what’s called “earned” promotion. They send the book out for reviews, and they arrange interviews, appearances, conventions, and so on. They also do a lot of things that the author typically doesn’t see, like follow up with bookstores, make sure they’re advertising the appearance, enticing the bloggers to feature the book, and generally thinking out of the box on how to promote the book. They think in terms of individuals. What will appeal to this particular blogger? What will work for the audience of this TV show? Money doesn’t exchange hands.
The marketing team handles “paid” promotion. They work on paid advertisements, retailer placement (big banners you see on retailer sites, for example, or special displays in stores,) they handle the metadata, they make swag, and they are in charge of the giveaways. They are people who think in statistical generalities. What keywords will help the book reach a particular demographic? Money exchanges hands.
So if you are a self-published author, and you are hiring someone to promote the books, you may want to clarify who you are hiring. Is it a publicist or a marketing specialist?
In the past, going with the publisher made sense, because there was really no printing and distribution model available to a self-published author. You couldn’t get your books into Wal-Mart or your local grocery store. You couldn’t get them into independent bookstores. You were stuck. Similarly, you couldn’t really do your own marketing. You could hire a publicist, but you would have to look and long and hard to find someone with the right contacts in the industry. But the marketing specialists were out of our reach.
2020 has shown us that already low print sales have cratered. Now we have Ingram Spark, which allows us to print and provide printed copies to the independent stores. I am not broke up about our absence in the big box stores. Print now accounts for a very small percentage of total copies sold, and everyone likes to support small bookstores.
Similarly, our agency does a fantastic job at marketing our self-published releases. They did negotiate some nice placement for us with Apple Books. They are always looking at new avenues to distribute our work. We have some interesting things coming up, which I can’t talk about yet. We seem to be doing okay with our own publicity, although I will mention that Pam Jaffee, the former publicist at Avon, was worth her weight in gold. Still, we were able to coordinate signed copies with bookstores, we had ARCs available, and we successfully hosted our own Zoom webinars.
Which brings us to the huge burning question: what will the publisher do for us that will be worth giving up 3/4 of our money forever? A publisher would have to make a very compelling argument and that argument can’t be just “We will give you a big advance.” Here is why the advance argument falls flat on its face.
Let’s say we get an advance of $100,000 for a book price $4.99. The book sells 30,000 units in one year.
Traditional model: the publisher earns $3.49 off each copy, and then pays us 25% or 87 cents. Self-published model: we get $3.49.
Traditional : 30,000 units will bring in $26,100 for us. A little over 1/4 of our advance.
Self-published: 30,000 units will bring in $104,700. We have made as much as the advance given to us by the publisher without strings attached.
Math is our friend. 🙂
If we are negotiating another contract, I want to know what we will be getting. What is it they are contributing that’s worth giving up that much income?
For this and other reasons, we are going to take the year off from traditional publishing. This will also mean changes to the Release Schedule page of the website. There will be no release dates for upcoming projects until these projects are complete and ready to the first editorial pass.
Just as a question to toss out there for whenever is convenient for you to answer: Assuming you end up in a good headspace for working on the Iron Covenant series, would Iron Covenant titles come between entries in Blood Heir, is it being abandoned, or is it postponed indefinitely?
We are not ready to discuss it at this time. We need to get RUBY FEVER finished. 🙂 We are not dropping Iron Covenant, but how exactly our schedule will pan out remains to be seen. It depends on RF new publishing date, etc.
Phew! I have knocked it out. I am going to go try to figure out what to unfreeze for dinner and then go write. Happy Friday!
Love the flowers and the details on publishing! Thank you!!!
I end up buying print and ebook copies of a lot of your books because I love having instant access when not at home, but I LOVE having a hard copy of a book to hold in my grubby little hands. 🙂
Thank you for that explanation. Now I’m worried about traditional publishers. But it occurs to me they made their bed. And if they want to survive, they need to reinvent themselves. I wish them luck.
Also thanks for a rough update on what to expect from house Andrews in the next year or so. You keep writing and publishing, I will keep reading and buying.
Beautiful flowers, purple is my favorite color!!!! Congrats on the release!!! You guys deserve all the props!!! Thanks for the q&a too… have a great weekend!
After reading the post – My first thought was, “for 3/4 of the money the publisher better send flowers!”
But heck, numbers don’t lie and with the extra profit you can buy your own darn flowers!
Your book on the NYT best seller list just goes to show that exceptional authors can self-publish and match the publishing houses at their own game. It just seems that commercial publishing are going to have to re-think and change some of their business practices to remain as relevant in the changing world.
One difference I have noticed between Blood Heir and your previous books is in library purchasing. The library I use, Chicago Public Library, seems to have all of your previous books, in paper and frequently in eBook and purchased them promptly when they came out. However, it does not have Blood Heir. I did put in a request before the book came out but it still has not been purchased. I don’t know whether that is because their budget is very tight now or if they are slow to purchase self-published books. I just went ahead and bought the eBook myself. Usually I wait until after I read the library book and then buy if I want the eBook available for re-reads. I bought the whole Innkeeper series because I re-read them a lot.
Hi Phyllis, I suggest you call or email your library and ask to be placed on the holds list and when they think it will be ordered.
It could be several things, but most likely they can’t order until this year’s budget is passed, and they didn’t pre-order it before the budget year ended.
Or Amazon is experiencing fulfillment issues. My library has a Prime membership and we ordered Blood Heir in mid-November. It came January 11 (a day before release) and was printed the week before. I don’t have Prime and ordered my personal copy December 2; it came yesterday, printed on the 18th January. I think the BDH crashed the print-on-demand system! ????
I’ve been indulging in a relisten to the Hidden Legacy saga. Looking forward to the next book. I also have a great curiosity about the nature of the Keeper’s magic which sounds very sinister. And Leonora’s magic.
But anything you write will be great. Innkeeper is next on the roster for relisten. I really want more of Maud and Arland.
Fabulous and well deserved flowers. And what does your spouse person get?
Happy Friday. Congratulations on the book release and sales. I loved every minute of reading it, can’t wait to catch everything I missed once I do the first reread!
Can you self publish an Arabella storyline or is anything Hidden Legacy related tied up with Avon? Just curious. Very excited for your self publishing success and the freedom this will give you to pursue the stories we, oops I meant you ????, want.
I had the same question!
Reread the post. It answers your question.
It’s really simple, if you write it, we will read it no matter whom the publishers are. Beautiful flowers but doggies always steal the picture.
Beautiful flowers. You guys have so much love in your family. My husband doesn’t buy flowers, he thinks they are a grand marketing scheme… I buy for myself from time to time!
I think each of the Baylor sisters is more interesting than the previous! I mean, I love them all but Arabella has so much capacity for humor and more…
I loved Blood Heir. It’s interesting to visit all these different worlds! In the moment I love whichever one I’m reading or rereading!
Happy writing and continued success.
Arabella can wait, I want more stories with Catalina and Alesandro. A couple of novelas while Arabella grows up and matures a little more. 🙂
Wow tank you for these comprehensive posts
I’d be perfectly happy to have Arabella on her own, without the romance part.
Thanks for the explanation! I’m not a writer myself, but I was wondering about the differences between self-publishing and going with a publisher.
The flowers are lovely!
Re: Arabella’s carousel of potential love interests complicating the horizon for her possible book(s), but also a general question perhaps… Have you ever considered a non-straight hero/heroine as the central relationship in the novel/series? Arabella came to mind for me because she feels ultra modern and very “anything goes,” so to speak. I’m not sure if y’all have ever addressed this before.
Sexual orientation is not a choice. You can’t just take a character who has been established as firmly heterosexual over the course of 6 books and suddenly decide that she is bi now because “anything goes.” People struggle with their sexuality. It’s a very serious issue for a lot of them, and we are not going to be flippant about it.
While we always include people of different sexual orientation in our work, we do not plan to write a non-hetero protagonist at this time. Some people would view it as an intrusion of a hetero person into a traditionally LGBTQ spaces, and we respect their point of view.
Well, there could always be a Barabas and Christopher short story, right?
Meybe about them adopting Sophia *wink*wink*
????
Ah, I never meant to suggest a flippant switch of sexual identity, sorry if that came off as cavalier. I haven’t done a full re-read in a long while and Arabella’s strong previously expressed interests must have faded from my mind when I was devouring the current main character’s plight.
I totally respect your decision to stick to what you’ve been expertly doing and write straight couples and include other pairings as secondary characters to flesh out your world and make it reflect the real world around you.
For my part, as a gay woman and a writer, I don’t think that I agree with people who feel LGBTQ people are the only people who should write fiction with an LGBTQ main character/characters if that fiction is well written. I understand how some people may feel that differently. (Especially in romance, which I sometimes forget the Hidden Legacy books are… oops?)
But for me, I wish that we didn’t need to have “LGBTQ” books and “straight” books. We should just have books. The orientation of the author(s) shouldn’t factor into it. I would like to just pick up an urban fantasy novel and whoever the hero or heroine flirts with, same gender, different gender, people accept it and the book doesn’t get put into a different category.
I recognize that there’s good and bad reasons that it doesn’t work that way, though. I’m just frustrated by the bad ones.
I’ll hop off the soap box and say thank you so very much for always bringing quality content and engaging, lifelike characters and realtionships. (That’s the main reason I’d love to see an LGBTQ main ‘ship in a novel from you, because I have no doubt you’d craft an epic and hilarious one that would stand toe to toe with your best. :))
Congratulations again for all the much earned and very deserved success with Blood Heir, it was 100% worth the wait!
Big butt! Arabella!
Also, I’m glad you’re in a position to have different distribution avenues. It’s great that self-publishing Blood Heir was received with much success and that it could mean more to come 🙂
Have a wonderful weekend!
So glad that Blood Heir has been such a blessing and so popular!
Yay ,that means more…more …more!
????
You know you could get us to send you about 2000 of those floral arrangements right? Just say the word… But what a darling thing for Gordon to do!
I really truly love posts like this. I love knowing the numbers and the strategies. I’m just a nerd for it.
FWIW I almost exclusively buy ebook/audiobook. Unless it’s a favorite author AND it’s a hardcover.
So I hope you continue to do special editions with SubPress and the like. And I’d love to see any of your work interpreted by Graphic Audio.
As someone in the video game industry who once received income from royalties I appreciate your answer to the question. Thank you for the in depth analysis. Bern would be proud.
Way to go Gordon! ????
I learn so much from your blog posts. The publishing world is so interesting, probably more for those of us who don’t have to deal with it, so thanks for sharing!
“This has cropped up repeatedly, so let me reiterate that we are grateful for every sale. If you buy it in ebook, if you buy it in print, or if you borrow it from the library, if you find it for a penny in a used bookstore, buy it, someone else did. We want you to enjoy our work in the way most convenient to you. The most important thing is that purchasing our books is easy and guilt-free.”
Every time you post this, I cry. My book budget has never been large, and the pandemic has severely affected my income. It is so nice that you let us know we shouldn’t feel guilty if we can’t always buy the books we love. I used a gift card to finish my Innkeeper collection, which I believe is the finest thing you have ever written. Thank you so much.
I too am missing Dina and her magical mind bending bed and breakfast.
I slurped up Blood Heir like a fly to the frog. And now Jeremiah wants more.
Before: Joy to the World
https://youtu.be/Dp7KfG9AjaY
Jeremiah is now a crazy frog.
After: Crazy frog
https://youtu.be/k85mRPqvMbE
Thank you for sharing this and thank you for your amazing writing. ???? Realistically, just tell us when and what to buy. The only way I know a book is being released is through this blog or your Facebook page. Very rarely have I seen other forms of publicity or marketing… Mind you I already love you guys and will purchase anything from you, so I’m not really the target audience. Anyways, you do you, math never lies, you killed it with this self-published release!!!! Just tell me when and where and take my money.
Thank you again for all the joy! When I saw the stats you published I thought, well dang no publisher to buy you flowers, and then Gordon to the rescue!
Rest is important. I hope you both can kick back and have some fun.
As always If you write it I will buy it. Thank you again!
Ilona this may be weird as anything but i listened to the zoom party and you have a nice voice. It has a lilt or something. Anyways, creepy statements aside but i have a question for you, do you miss living in russia? Or is that too personal?
Congratulations!!!!
Long May You Reign!!
I love the idea that Arabella’s story would have multiple suitors! It’s not that I’m big on love triangles, but some uncertainty and feeling out of possible partners sounds interesting.
Looking forward to everything you both have planned.
Thanks for all the explanations 🙂 it’s great to hear what you are planning in future. That said, I will happily buy any book you choose to write at whatever point you publish it. I have a special wish list on Amazon called “not yet published” where all my favourite authors go and your books naturally get added to that. I look at it every so often, and scroll up and down it wistfully. I think the important thing is for you to feel enthusiastic about whichever particular series you are currently writing. I know writing can be hard work, but overall I hope you enjoy creating your stories as much as we do reading them.
You definitely have an established audience! I’m buying both online and actual book in hand versions of all your books. I will continue to do so as long as you put them out there. Ive been an avid reader since I was around 15. I don’t plan to stop.
I really appreciate your willingness to talk business, strategy, and money so openly. Between all the myths and misconceptions out there, and the way the industry has been in flux for the past couple of decades, having people with current, relevant, hard-won experience breaking it down like this is invaluable. Thank you!
(Plus, it’s fascinating!)
I kind of love knowing that Arabella wouldn’t fit into the traditional Avon model. Avon as an imprint has some gems in their lineup and I will give a book a second look if I see their logo on the cover. But Arabella absolutely marches to the beat of her own spangled badass drum line, and I would be thrilled to read her story exactly as you intended.
I kinda feel guilty about purchasing ebooks from Amazon because of their rep, but it is convenient for me in terms of delivery, it solves my storage problem and back lit text RULZ! Y’all use Amazon and you make bank there, and while that might not be a glowing seal of approval, I’m gonna consider it a win-win.
Please keep writing. Blood Heir began as serial snippets when we were all reeling from the pandemic and it turned into an amazing book and now a series. I hope it helped y’all as much as it helped us get thru this. The ‘Rona isn’t done with us yet, but I feel we are at least on the downslope.
A year off, huh? Well, I’ll just have to wait during that period, because House Andrews certainly deserves a break.
Hi Kamchak,
“A year off from traditional publishing”, meaning House Andrews will self-publish, not take a break from giving us books at all.
I hope this helps ????
MOAR BOOKS!
WOO HOO!
Thanks for this ‘behind the scenes’ glimpse! What I love is that I know people who won’t touch e-books (for a variety of reasons) but I bet they would if they knew they were benefiting the author…
Thank you for giving us fun stuff to read, no matter which series it is. At this point, I would buy any book you wrote, even if it was something totally new. Your wok is definitely entertaining.
Thanks for this post, it really has everything:
Beautiful flowers
Interesting publishing info I wouldn’thave known about
A villain- really hope this netgalley leak gets fixed, since it’s a real shame!
And lots of good news, since no matter what you decide to self publish (Julie, Iron Covenant 2, unknown project, Innkeeper, Arabella, Roman and whatever else has been floating around in the comments) it sure is amazing. Just announce the preorder link whenever you are ready and until then I am glad to wait and see which world and and which person(s) calls to you and gets their story told next.
Thanks for sharing the business aspect of publishing. How do audio versions fit into the self publishing versus traditional publisher? Also, will you consider including identifying the English narrators of each book on your site?
Thanks for update. Selfpub makes total sense.:)
My son is a songwriter/producer, and he has the same concerns as far as contract/advance versus self promoting. A little different as he only has to sell a song or produced product once, but I recognized the similarities. Whichever way you decide to go, the BDH is always ready to support and promote. We love your books too much.
Oh, man. Arabella having several possible love interests sounds both fun and terrifying. A ship war within the BDH would be a sight to behold.
I kind of assumed she’d end up with the water mage dude but since that’s not a sure thing I am curious if we’ve met all or even any of the potential love interests.
I’m sure I’ll like whatever you guys decided to write. I’ve yet to read anything from you guys that I dislike. Y’all are awesome like that.
Hi Moderator R,
Wasn’t sure where to ask this question, but has the FB fan site been closed? It’s now showing up as private for me. Previously I used to go to the page and read the funny commentary and questions without having to make an account – is there any way to still do that?
Thanks!
Hello Neeta,
You will have to apply for membership in order to view content. This has been a decision taken with Ilona’s explicit approval, in order to protect content shared specifically just for the group (by both authors and fans).
*waves the Innkeeper flag*
Hi. Luv your books, obviously. Hate ebooks. Grew up holding paper books, plus well just don’t like reading on an electronic device. I luv my books on a bookshelf, i luv the comfort of seeing my books, and being embraced by my favorites.
The difficult part for choosing a self published book in any form from an unheard of author is sometimes its trash, filled with typos, and no editing. So im stuck buying books from proven authors such as yourselves. Also I have observed self published authors compare themselves to awesome authors, put up what have to be fake reviews, and good artwork. And they are a joke.
So for me to choose an unknown self published work is a tough sell, and a huge gamble.
Im glad you are going to receive all your profits. All your books are going to be on my bookshelf, pending getting a new (another) bookcase for my overflowing books.
And if any paper book lover can recommend the best electronic reader (should it come that????), please inform me!
At this point i have only a phone. No computer, etc…
I have the Kindle Water Fi – waterproofed and I love it. Not a tablet. Has paper white screen. Easiest on the eyes. They are not available at the moment but Amazon has their own waterproof version now
It is a good size, comfortable in the hands for a long time and if you drop it in the bath or pool no problem.
https://www.amazon.com/All-new-Kindle-Paperwhite-Waterproof-Storage/dp/B07CXG6C9W
I like my iPad mini. Unlike the paper white kindle, it’s difficult to read in sunlight, but it has the added advantage of being able to add apps to do many things. I read on the kindle app for amazons mobi files, the nook app for the ePub files. There are others that can do the same and apparently transform mobi to ePub. I listen to audiobooks on several different apps as well, depending on where I bought the book. Amazons Audible app works only with their proprietary file format, just as an FYI.
Any tablet of your choice will do the same. Make sure it has WiFi (should be standard) and Bluetooth (not always standard).
I was against e-books for a long time, but the Kindle Paperwhite changed my mind. It reads like a paper page, not like a screen. The only concern is water, but you have that with a book too. I’d definitely spring for a waterproof version, if it’s in your budget. If it’s not, you can get an older Paperwhite pretty reasonable.
I like the Paperwhite because it’s back-lit, which makes reading in the dark possible (I started while breastfeeding my son at night to help me stay awake ????), but it also works well in bright sunlight too (unlike a phone or tablet screen). Plus, I can bring hundreds (maybe thousands?) of books with me wherever I go, so I’m not limited to just 1 or 2, in case I go through them or change my mind about what I want to read. ????
Also, my 89 year old grandma really likes her Kindle because we can make the text as big as she needs (her eyesight is failing). She is not a tech or a gadget person. She doesn’t even have a cell phone. So, if text size is an issue for you, there’s a plus to consider. Full disclose, I put all the books on it for her, but it’s not hard to do. Also, you most likely can borrow e-books from your library with it (ours is tiny and they still do it). ????
The Kindle Paperwhite is excellent. I used that for quite awhile and bought them for family members because I liked it so well, The price is very reasonable and it does go on sale periodically. I then switched to the older Kindle Oasis which I love. I switched to it is because it was smaller and lighter. The old version is smaller than the newer versions. The Oasis is pricy though.
Thank you so much for writing all these lovely books that help me escape from reality when life gets too much! ❤
And Arabella series where there are more than 1 possible love interest sounds amazing and so like her character as the youngest sister!
Even if it may not be a paranormal romance centric series we know you deliver amazing urban fantasy adventures. Just like how you did with Julie’s book in how you stayed true to how you envisioned the characters progressing, in the end we were all delightfully surprised at how she turned out. Others may have doubts but I trust your writing vision. It was what sucked me into your books.
Whichever way you guys end of publishing it, please know I’m willing to wait for an Arabella trilogy (or longer if you have more story to tell ????). She deserves to have her story told like her sister.
It makes it balanced, since there’s Nevada books, 1 transition novella, 3 Catalina books; to complete it with 1 transition novella and 3 Arabella books.
I believe I’m not the only one who thinks like this.
Also, congratulations! ????????
I love any of your books in any format I can get them! And yay(!) that you are now able to keep the lion share of the profits.
Beautiful flowers!
I hate being “that person” but will we ever know where Dina’s parents are? And see the reunion with Klaus? I’m okay with the answer being “Nope” cause I’ll just make up fun and impractical scenarios in my head. 🙂
Right now, I have three authors that I would deeply miss if the future held no more books from them – Nora Roberts, Martha Wells (because Murderbot!), and you. Thank you for all you do and are.
Really interesting. I’m sure I’m not the only person who is shocked at how little an author receives from each book. And, not to be a weird, geeky fan… I really hope you both know and really understand how much pleasure and enjoyment and relief from an everyday boring life your books and stories bring to many of your readers. When things get tough, please know there are many of us wishing you the very best and truly appreciate what you put into your work. So, enjoy your year off…I’m sure you need it, but you will be sorely missed
Hello Karen,
“A year off from traditional publishing”- Ilona means that they will focus on the self published series, not that they will not put out any books for a year.
I hope this helps ☺️
Beautiful flowers ????
So if a writer gets an advance and the book does not sell well do they have to repay part of the advance? Or does it affect future contracts – no contract / no advance etc.? Or it varies per the contract in place?
Happy Friday ????
You guys are so awesome. Do whatever you need to do and we will forever buy every single thing you print! Thanks for the update and please have a great weekend!
Whatever you decide, we’re good with it. And this sounds like an experiment worth trying. You can always do some of the traditional route too – later (but only if they make it worth your while).
P.S. Love the flowers! Beautiful.
Ooft. There’s clearly more to ‘being a writer’ than just writing!
The flowers are beautiful! And thank you also for the information. Simply put I intend to buy whatever you publish, whenever you publish it, and however you publish it. I have my favorites of your works but all of what you have written has been very good. As a reader it’s a sense of relaxing into a comfortable nook when I read one of your books. So thank you both very much for that!
If anyone was uncertain about it (doubtful), Gordon is a keeper!
Fabulous flowers (and no iffy lily types to bother the cats and dogs)!
My only worry about your “year-off from traditional publishing” is that you will work too hard. Please remember to schedule some time off in there somewhere.
Thank you for all the wonderful stories you have let us in on already. Write what you want and never worry if it will sell. You two don’t write bad books. You *really* would not bother to publish one.
I will always buy your books as long as you write them. I hope to be waiting impatiently for your next release when I leave this world for the next one. (Luckily, I am much older than you are, so there’s no pressure there.)