I’m nearing the end of the draft on this book. I’ve still got a little more to write, but I estimate that I’ll finish the last chapter by mid-November based on where I’m at now. While I’ve gone back and revised some chapters multiple times already, this will begin the point where it’s entirely down to working on revisions as I work out the kinks before the manuscript goes to beta readers.
This novel has been so much fun to write. There was one scene involving a chicken that had me laughing so hard while writing it that I could barely see my laptop screen to get the words down. I wish I could share a snippet of it, but the amount of redacting I’d have to do to avoid spoilers would ruin it. In another scene, I actually cried while writing it, and the crazy part is…no one died. It wasn’t even sad, just a touching scene. This novel has had me feeling all the emotions. For those who are wondering, there is plenty of banter, along with more serious and heartfelt moments. Sometimes, both in the same scene.
At the end of this post, I am including the two snippets I shared on social media, so those who don’t follow me on IG or Facebook can see them. Also, they’re for anyone who does follow me but missed them.
Next up, what is the title for this novel? It’s killed me to sit on this one, especially since the cover has been done for over two months. I’m going to go ahead and share the title now because I’m tired of publicly calling it book two…
It’s overdue for me to post an update on where I’m at with writing, publishing, and life. The last couple of months have been busy after the Oaths & Vengeance release. I’m happy to see many people have enjoyed it, and the novel has received some wonderful reviews. Sales and page reads are still not where I’d hoped, but they have been steady. New readers are giving it a try, and I’m still getting occasional late ARC reviews. Better late than never, though!
Someone sent me a screenshot of an email from Amazon this past weekend showing they received a recommendation for Oaths & Vengeance, so I appreciated seeing that. I have noticed a ranking improvement in the last couple of days with more page reads and sales. That might be contributing to it, along with a couple of small ads I’m currently running. If you get an email from them for Oaths & Vengeance, you’re welcome to let me know if you’re inclined. It helps me gauge the visibility of the book.
Below, I’ve included some updates on my life behind the scenes that you can read if you want, or you can skip that to only read the writing updates down the page if that’s what you’re mainly here to see.
This post is going to cover a lot of data (but with a lot of pictures!). You’ll find out how many people requested an eARC of Oaths & Vengeance, how many were approved across various outlets, and how many actually reviewed the novel as of the day of this post. I will also provide other statistics like review rating averages and the primary locations where they were posted. At the end, I’ll give sales numbers for the various formats and retailers, along with Kindle Unlimited results so far (it was wide for the first few days before I made the ebook exclusive to Amazon).
When I decided to do an ARC campaign for the first book (Oaths & Vengeance) in my new romantasy series, I searched everywhere for details about which service sites to use and how to find readers directly myself. I was shifting from urban fantasy to romantasy, which meant many of my long-time fans might not make that jump with me (spoiler- a small number did, but most didn’t).
Much of the data I found on other author’s ARC campaigns was limited, a different genre, or posted years ago, so might not have been accurate to today’s market. I decided to do a large push through multiple avenues to see how it would go for me with the intention of sharing the results to help others and let readers have an inside look into how these campaigns go. Here are the primary outlets I used-
Netgalley
Booksirens
Booksprout
Hidden Gems
Bookfunnel
I should add that I had a signup list through my Mailchimp account, and I marketed the Oaths & Vengeance ARC with a trope banner on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads (the focus was primarily through Instagram). Those who signed up had the option to receive their ecopy through Netgalley, Booksirens, Booksprout, or Bookfunnel. Hidden Gems does things differently and sends out emails to their subscribers a week or so before the book release asking for reviewers, so you can’t send anyone to them.
If a subscriber didn’t check any option, or checked multiple, I usually sent them a certified email with a download link through Bookfunnel. Probably about 2/3rds of the ARCs I sent out/approved came from my list signup, with the rest being reader requests directly through the other sites. I ran this campaign for about six weeks until just before the book released. Some people like to build a signup list ahead of time, but you run the risk of fewer people bothering to download and read it if too much time passes, and they’ve forgotten about the book. I wanted my signups getting it quickly, so they were still in the mood and motivated to read my novel. Also, I hired Hawthorn & Aster to promote it for me for a week in late July, which helped get me more ARC readers as well.
Below, you’ll see the main ad I used for Instagram and Facebook while campaigning for ARC readers, spending about $6 a day for most of that period. It was the primary factor in driving my Mailchimp signups aside from the one week blast campaign Hawthorne and Aster ran, which also helped, though it’s impossible to separate the numbers since my ads continued during that time. I took the screenshot about six days after my ad began running in July:
OVERALL RESULTS
Total requests- 622
Total approved and sent- 564*
Readers who received and downloaded eARC- 520**
Readers who reviewed- 263***
UPDATE- As of Feb 25th, 2025, I have a total of 311 ARC reviews combined across various sites with more still coming six months later, mainly from Netgalley.
*I approved most applicants and wasn’t picky about their social media following or whether or not they would post to Amazon. The only readers I denied were those who lacked any recent review history, failed to provide valid links so I could see their review history, and one person who only posted negative reviews but had never (across hundreds of reviews) posted a single positive one in their account history. Otherwise, I even approved people who had low star rating averages in the 2s and 3s because I wanted a wide spectrum of feedback for my prospective audience when deciding to read my novel. It was always a nice surprise when some of them loved my novel, and less hurtful to me if they didn’t since they tend to be very picky about books.
**I can’t speculate for sure why some people request an ARC and then never download it after they’re approved. For those with Bookfunnel, both the service site and I sent reminders to download, which helped for some people but not others. I believe the other ARC sites also sent reminders, yet still, not everyone ever loaded the ebook before it was too late.
***This number is accurate as of the morning on September 3rd, 2025. That is approximately twelve days after the book release.
Now for a bit more of a detailed breakdown between the different ARC websites:
For a breakdown of these results, I’m going to rely on the readers who downloaded their copies for the stats, rather than the total approved and sent.
NETGALLEY (onsite request)- 41% reviewed
NETGALLEY (invited from signup)- 41.6% reviewed
BOOKSIRENS (onsite request)- 72% reviewed*
BOOKSIRENS (Invited from signup)- 93% reviewed
BOOKSPROUT (Onsite request)- 38.4% reviewed
BOOKSPROUT (invited from signup)- 50% reviewed
BOOKFUNNEL (all invited from signup)- 49% reviewed
HIDDEN GEMS (request only)- 60% reviewed*
*For BookSirens, several more were listed as DNF with two saying they had life issues and couldn’t get to the book in time, and one saying they didn’t like it and couldn’t finish it.
*For Hidden Gems, I have no data on who signed up for an ARC or actually downloaded it. They handle all of that. I emailed them about the reviews this week because I only saw one that specifically said it was from Hidden Gems, but I have eighteen reviews I can’t trace where the reviewer came from because their handle name is different than any on the signups or ARC sites. As a result, I moved eight of the mystery reviews to the Hidden Gems column based on their response saying they had recorded 9 reviews as of yesterday morning (September 2nd).
NOTE- I spent considerable hours making sure not to double count people since I tracked reviews across nearly a dozen locations (chart below). It is painstaking when you are doing this for a new audience where you know nothing about them. Only a few of the ARCs I sent came from my existing readers. Some people use a different name for each website, and/or sometimes only initials, so I had to crosscheck the reviews that matched even if the name didn’t to give them credit for each post (some review in six different places). That was super fun and tedious. It’s why I’m only now getting this post done when I’d hoped to have it out much sooner is I wanted to be as accurate as possible about how many people truly reviewed Oaths & Vengeance for the campaign.
Now, for the spread on where those 263 reviews went as of the morning of September 3rd, 2025. Please note that ratings without reviews were not included in these numbers or Amazon verified purchases. Also, I continue to get new reviews on a daily basis since many haven’t finished the book, and some people were kind enough to message me and let me know they’re running late but still plan to get to Oaths & Vengeance. These numbers are likely to continue rising in the coming weeks. This is just as snapshot for how they look approximately twelve days after the book release.
*Goodreads currently lists 228 reviews, but two of those are long-time readers who didn’t receive an ARC and have Amazon verified purchase reviews. I chose not to include them in the count for obvious reasons.
I’d hoped for more Amazon reviews, but I didn’t push it too hard and accepted a lot of readers whether they post there or not. Also, some have struggled to get their reviews approved and visible. The turnout on Goodreads was great and I was especially surprised at the number of people who posted about Oaths & Vengeance on Instagram. They put their reviews up with amazing graphics and some with music. I loved seeing them all. I didn’t advertise or target the BookTok accounts because I’m still very new to that site and have no idea how to go about it, so the ones that did show up were usually individuals from NetGalley or people who cross post from Instagram.
For Netgalley, one area that I really appreciated was finding out what grabbed a reader’s attention and made them want to request an ARC of Oaths & Vengeance. This is the graph they provided based on questions they asked.
For the total number with access, that was the amount I approved through direct request (but included those who didn’t download), and the people I invited and did download the ARC. I was happy with a 4.3 star average since there are a lot of tough reviewers on Netgalley, so I felt that was rather decent. It was good to know my book summary grabbed readers the most, so it must have been catchy enough, but also the cover drew them into checking it out.
Below, you’ll find the Goodreads average for reviews as of today, which I think is good for a first book in a new series. The vast majority of reviewers truly enjoyed it.
For Amazon US, Oaths & Vengeance is currently averaging 4.6 stars with 86 ratings and reviews. For Amazon UK, the novel is currently averaging 4.5 stars with 25 ratings and reviews.
Overall, I believe the campaign was a success in reaching a wide number of readers to review the novel who were in my target audience. I also tried reaching out to a few of the popular book influencers with massive followings (who read romantasy), but most didn’t respond to me. Only one did, but she said she already had too much on her TBR, and she couldn’t take on my novel at this time. She did say if I mailed her a paperback copy she would do an unboxing video to show it off, but with no guarantee she’d ever read it.
The lack of responses was discouraging, but I appreciated that at least one person offered to do something. I can only imagine the amount of requests they get daily, so an author new to this genre is probably not going to be at the top of their priority list. I felt like I had to try, or else I would have wondered if I’d done everything possible to market my book on my small budget.
SALES RESULTS (as of September 3rd, 2025)
PRE-ORDERS
Amazon (all countries)- 72
iTunes- 1
Google Play- 1
Kobo- 1
TOTAL SALES (including pre-order)
Amazon US (ebook)- 107
Amazon UK (ebook)- 26
Amazon AU (ebook)- 5
Amazon CA (ebook)- 3
Amazon Germany (ebook)- 2
Amazon France (ebook)- 1
iTunes (ebook)- 6
Google Play (ebook)- 1
Barnes & Noble (ebook)- 1
Kobo (ebook)- 2
**********
Paperback edition (US)- 5
Hardcover edition (US)- 6
Hardcover edition (UK)- 3
*Note that the hardcover is published through IngramSpark, and the only figures I have at the moment don’t include which retailer handled the sales. I only know which country.
KINDLE UNLIMITED PAGE READS
Amazon US- 17,474
Amazon UK- 10,108
Amazon AU- 5,061
Amazon CA- 1633
Amazon FR- 695
ESTIMATED EARNINGS (so far)
Amazon (all countries, ebook and paperback)- $628.73
Ingram Spark- $29.49
Apple- $17.68
B&N- $2.97
Kobo- $6.99
Google Play- $3
GRAND TOTAL- $688.67
Normally, I make more than this in the first month of a book release. This is definitely the lowest earnings I’ve seen on one of my novels since I began publishing (except my very first novel when I had no fan base). Even the novellas and short stories I released in the past did much better than this. Of course, I’d hoped for a lot better results after spending most of my waking hours in recent months preparing for this release. It will take months to earn back what I spent in editing, cover design, map design, other marketing materials and services, plus the hundreds of dollars I’ve spent on ads.
All the amazing reviews had given me hope that this book would do well, and that I’d written a story people wanted. Have I cried about these results? Yes. I stayed up many times until 2-3am working while my children were asleep to get some quiet writing hours. I also worked while they were running loose and driving me crazy because I was driven to get this story out with it so clear in my head that it wouldn’t shut up.
I absolutely don’t regret writing it even if this is all I ever earn. For me, I love the journey Aella and Darrow are on and will continue to go through. Also, I have gained some amazing new readers through the ARC campaign that are just as enthusiastic about this series. Most of my paperback and hardback sales are from them. Without me asking, so many have gone out of their way to push Oaths & Vengeance to their followers, which was so incredible and touching to me. I didn’t do street teams because I simply didn’t have the time or knowledge to coordinate that, but still, they picked up the slack. Thank you so much to any of you who are reading this and actually made it this far down the post!
The only other thing I did was send out the release announcement to my email list, which at that time had 1348 subscribers. Almost half opened it, sixteen unsubscribed as no longer interested, and most didn’t click on anything. They signed up for my urban fantasy, not romantasy, so I knew that was a risk.
Where else did I go wrong? I honestly don’t know, other than I don’t have the budget to market at the levels many of the successful authors do. I used every dollar I could spare to do as much as I did. With how many people requested the ARC, I have to think it’s a marketable book with demand.
On the other hand, a lot of authors have said their sales have fallen this year and many are struggling. It could be a matter of bad timing, and there are a lot of books already in the romantasy genre. People’s TBR lists are very long, with the competition being steep. I have to hope that with time and word spreading the book will find more of its audience.
My first urban fantasy book, Darkness Haunts, started off very slow with less than a hundred sales its first month, but it eventually went on to sell over 223,000 ebook copies since it released in 2013 (not including paperback, audio, KU page reads, and the French translation). I am telling myself to be patient and hope for the best because I’ve written books that could sell well in the past, so I know I’m capable of it.
Anyway, I hope this post helps authors make decisions about their own ARC campaigns and what to expect from the variety of ways they can be distributed. I said I was going to be brutally honest, and I tried to be, though I hesitated to release my sales figures. Still, I want to be realistic about how it is in the marketplace if you try to enter this genre right now.
I will, of course, continue working on the next book in the series (the cover is already designed, so I’m committed, lol). Those who reviewed Oaths & Vengeance and showed interest in the next book will get an ARC for it as well. I’m certainly not giving up, only realizing this is definitely going to be a long game. Thanks to everyone who made it this far down my ridiculously long post! Feel free to ask questions or express your own thoughts in the comments.
If you enjoy enemies-to-lovers romantasy and want to meet a female character who cultivates a wickedly dangerous garden, then this book is for you. Aella isn’t a young, inexperienced girl just discovering her powers. She’s in her thirties with life experience, has a strong handle on her magic, and strains against a system that keeps fae women under men’s control.
Her careful obedience is about to be shattered when she has to ally with a rival lord’s powerful son in secret. If her guardian uncle finds out, he’ll execute her for treason. She’s going to be walking a careful line to survive what lies ahead, but she’s out of options. As for Darrow, he may hate Aella at first, but he’ll soon discover she isn’t at all what he expected. She’ll challenge and taunt him at every turn. Too bad he’s cursed not to love because he may have met his match.
Oaths & Vengeance is available in ebook, hardcover (availability varies by retailer), and paperback (Amazon only). For the ebook, it will only be on the other retailers until August 25th, when I’ll pull it from them to put it into Kindle Unlimited. Be sure to grab your copy before then if you shop elsewhere. The rest of the details are below.
SUMMARY
Darrow has so many secrets that even those closest to him don’t know them all, but she’s about to become his favorite. He is powerful, ruthless, and her sworn enemy. The wickedly good-looking elf is also cursed never to love.
Aella should stay far away from him, especially considering he could kill her from a distance with little effort. Except that someone close to her is dying, and he is the only person in the realm with the means to help. She has strong powers of her own to offer in exchange, but to her dismay, Darrow wants a secret marriage as part of the bargain. Fae marriages are forever, so she’d always be his.
With other factors pushing her toward it, she agrees to a private wedding that the king himself officiates while hiding the ceremony from her disapproving family. Aella suspects there is far more to Darrow’s motives if Zadrya’s monarch is involved. It isn’t long before she discovers that dark forces are circling, and it’s her rare magic they want to use or eradicate by any means necessary. Her new husband has drawn her into a dangerous conflict started centuries ago that could either end in the salvation or destruction of their world. If she wants to survive, she’ll need to trust Darrow with her body, but never her heart.
Note- This novel is an enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn romantasy. It contains adult content, including violence, foul language, rough spicy scenes, torture, and a sentient murder garden that you’ll either adore or have nightmares about for years to come. Read Oaths & Vengeance at your own discretion.
Don’t forget to add Oaths & Vengeance to your Goodreads TBR list HERE!
If you’d like to read the first two chapters of the novel, click HERE! Otherwise, I hope you give this new series a chance. It may include many familiar tropes to romantasy, but the world-building is unique and vibrant, so you’ll feel like you’ve truly stepped into a new place you’ve never been before.
This is a busy release week for me, and I’m switching gears today to the Dragon’s Breath Series with the audio finally available. As some of you know, this is the single spin-off featuring Galadon and Rayna as the main characters. It’s their turn to get a happy ending. While it will give closure to the series, I did write it with enough recapping of the pertinent details from previous books that readers could jump straight into this one if they wished. It is the only novel in the Dragon’s Breath world with a lot of spice. There are also easter eggs in here for the Realm of Zadrya series, with the main characters from that one making a brief appearance.
The rest of the details are below!
SUMMARY
The attraction between them is undeniable. They are also born enemies.
One time, in the midst of a war for their very survival against a greater foe, Galadon and Rayna gave in to their lust. It was explosive and breathtaking. Afterward, he told her it could never happen again. Galadon is one of the most powerful dragon shifters in the history of his kind and has a tragic past that began with his mother abandoning him at eight years old in a land far from home. Most other dragons fear and revile him, so he trusts no one.
Rayna is a slayer, bred to kill his kind with ruthless efficiency. When she sees Galadon, though, she doesn’t care about his other side. She sees a man who completes her soul and could end the loneliness she’s endured after years of roaming and hunting his kind. The hard part is proving he can trust her.
He is determined to resist the pull between them, but when she becomes endangered by their mutual enemy, he has to ask himself if he’s willing to lose the only woman who truly sees to the heart of him…forever.
Note- This novel contains spicy elements, violence, torture, and foul language.
