Ten days of giveaways and traveling down publishing memory lane and … new book news! Scroll to the bottom for the schedule.
2013 was the year I became a full-time author!
But not because I could afford it ?
I got married at the end of 2012, moved to a new city, tried to find a teaching job … and couldn’t. So I took that as a sign to give my self-publishing career a real go! This was the year I would complete the Creepy Hollow series (which, at that point, I had told my readers would be a trilogy).
Blog tours were still a thing, and the photo above shows a few of the completely AMAZING bloggers who helped me launch The Faerie Prince into the world in May 2013.
Then something weird happened in June of that year that I still can’t explain. Overnight, on Amazon, The Faerie Guardian and The Faerie Prince sold way more copies than they’d been selling previously. Was it perhaps the algorithm showing my books to exactly the right audience? I don’t know. But I did not complain! In June 2013 I sold about 10x the number of books I’d sold in previous months.
(And paid advertising was still nowhere near being on my radar. ?)
Things slowly declined over the following months, but that didn’t matter too much because, by the time I launched The Faerie War in October 2013, I had a genuine, decent-sized following of fans who were all super excited to read what happened next.
AND I was now earning enough that I could continue to be a full-time author!
Up until this point, I had never done a real-world, in-person book launch. All of my book release celebrations had taken place online. But with the release of The Faerie War and the completion of my very first trilogy, I decided I wanted to do a “launch” in person.
We used the hall at the school my mom was working at and sent invitations out to all the schools where I knew I had readers and fans (i.e. all the schools that stocked my books in their libraries). My family and friends helped me set everything up, and a whole load of my past students from the school I had previously taught at came along! So special!
Towards the end of the year, I decided to give the ebook versions new covers. I still loved the original ones, but I had noticed that books with faces on the covers tended to capture attention more easily and sell better.
It’s safe to say that 2013 ended on a high. ?
10TH ANNIVERSARY MERCHANDISE
Reminder: I’ve created a special 10th anniversary design for the merchandise in my Society6 store. If you zoom in on the design, you’ll see that all the main characters (main character + love interest) from all the books I’ve written over the past ten years are featured in tiny text inside the 1 and 0!
i.e. Vi, Ryn, Calla, Chase, Em, Dash, Ridley, Archer, Elle, Dex, Sarah, Aiden, Livi, Adam, Andi, Noah, Sophie and Caleb.
There are some other secondary characters I really wanted to include, but once I started adding them … the list began to grow too long. ?
**SIGNED PRINT GIVEAWAY**
Another reminder: I’m giving away 20 signed, personalized prints with the 10th anniversary design (see the picture below) to 20 random people who leave a comment on this blog over the next ten days. All you have to do to enter is comment on this blog post or one of the others between now and March 10th. ?
SCHEDULE: 10 Days Celebrating 10 Years of Publishing
DAY 1 (2012): It Began with Two Words | Giveaway: Creepy Hollow paperback trilogies
DAY 2 (2013): Full-Time Author!
DAY 3 (2014): Stepping into my Contemporary Romance Shoes | Giveaway: Trouble series paperbacks
DAY 4 (2015): A Return to Creepy Hollow
DAY 5 (2016): Exploring Side Characters’ Stories
DAY 6 (2017): Three Books in One Year: The Completion of Creepy Hollow!
DAY 7 (2018): Creating a New Fantasy World | Giveaway: Ridley Kayne Chronicles
DAY 8 (2019): Fairytale Fun | Giveaway: City of Wishes paperback/hardback
DAY 9 (2020): The Year That Shall Not Be Named!
DAY 10 (2021): BOOK NEWS! Introducing World Of …
I’m enjoying reading these so much! So proud of you!
Thank you so much, Mimi! I’m glad you’re enjoying the trip down memory lane 🙂 I had fun going through alllll the pictures on my Facebook page to remind me of everything that’s happened!
I am enjoying reading about how you started out. Thank you
Congrats on 10 years! I love your books and am now introducing them to my daughter.
I’m really enjoying learning how you got started, especially because Creepy Hollow is my favorite series.
I love the keychains!
I remember the original covers!! Gosh, time has flown by so much. I remember begging my parents to buy me the paperback versions of Ryn & Vi’s stories! ?
Congratulations! ? This is wonderful! I’m so happy your dreams came true! You are a wonderful author. I love your books ??
I’m loving seeing how some of my favourite books came about. Love the creepy hollow series. 10 years is a massive achievement!! ❤️?
This makes me so happy for you!!! The whole Creepy Hollow series got me through one of the hardest times of my life (the passing of my mama). This is seriously one of my top three favorite series of all times. Rachel, you make people experience and FEEL what the characters are going through. You are an AMAZING author!!!! Thank you for your gift of story telling! I love this trip down memory lane!!
Jen, I can’t explain the honor it is to know that my words helped you in some small way through what must have been an incredibly difficult time for you. ❤️ Thank you for your kind words, and thank you for still being here, following my stories, after all these years!
Rachel. I have enjoyed your Creepy Hollow Series that I have read them all in less than a year. You are a great author and I am so glad I discovered you. I can’t wait to hear about your new series.
I absolutely loved the creepy hollows series I started it when I was in high school and it has become my favourite of all time ya fantasy book series. My favourite book was a faeries secret, that twist omg I did not see coming. Thank you for writing wonderful badass characters that will live on in my mind forever
Hi Rachel! I love your series and have read Creepy Hollow very quickly. I enjoy hearing your story since I am new. Can’t wait for your new book!!!
Congrats on 10 years! I love your books and am now introducing them to my daughter.
Congratulations on 10 years of publishing! I have read and throughly enjoyed every book you have written and am so excited for future books and ideas. Thank you for sharing your amazing writing!