All Good Things Must End

I'm winding down on my Mind's Eye series. I admit I'm dragging my feet. I've loved being in Levi Wolfe and Trudy Tucker's world. I have loved their romance and now their marriage. #5 in the series -- THROUGH HER TOUCH -- is (or will be in a few days) available on Amazon and I'm writing #6 now (THROUGH HER HEART). 

I thought I'd create a new series, but I'm not so sure now. Series take a lot of planning, thinking, character development, etc. The Mind's Eye is my first one and I originally plotted three books. But the main characters had so much to say and reveal, that I had to expand it to six books. This series had been buzzing in my head for a good ten years, so I had spun a long tale in all that time.

A new series? I have a couple of characters in mind, but I might just place them in a single title romantic suspense novel. I haven't decided. After this series is finished at the end of the year, I'll write a western historical romance. That will "cleanse my palate" for the next contemporary novel, whether it is a single title or the first book in a series.

Marketing a series is also a big task because it is never ending. I'm always trying to tempt readers to read the first one and, hopefully, get hooked and read all the others. It's strange to me how readers can rave about the first book and say they want to read the whole series, but then don't seem to follow through. Maybe there are too many books out there and attention spans are extremely short these days. I've given away at least a hundred copies of the first book in the series and I haven't received a hundred reviews, although most of those people promised to post one. Readers, for the most part, don't understand how important reviews are -- especially for "indie" writers. Even my best friends admit they don't leave reviews. Most of the time they lament that they don't know what to say. I tell them, "Write that you read the book, liked or loved the book, and want to read another book by the author." How hard is that, I ask you?

So, if you're reading this and feeling a pang of guilt. Good! Go write a dang review on Amazon. Not for an author who already has a few thousand of them, but for an author who has fewer than 100 of them! You will give that author a thrill and feel that you've earned a gold star as a reader.

Happy Reading, Everyone!