Hey I wrote a book (Blackwood is available for preorder!)

[moonvoice]

About Blackwood:

In a world that is still getting used to shifters, where everyone thinks omegas are second class citizens, nature photographer and omega Braden Payne lets everyone think he’s a beta. That way no one gives him a hard time and he doesn’t have to live a repeat of his failed relationship. But when his car breaks down in the remote Blackwood forest in Western Australia, without the medication that lets him hide who he is, he’s faced with what he fears most: an unmated alpha.

Government forest guardian and alpha Coll MacDubhar is tired of illegal loggers, foolish tourists and people who underestimate the wilds of Western Australia. He discovers Braden lost and in need of medical assistance in the forest he protects and knows something’s not right.

But there’s hidden depths to Braden that capture his interest, and no decent alpha would walk away when Braden’s unwelcome past comes to visit.





BUY NOW AT AMAZON // KOBO // NOOK // APPLE

Release: November 23rd (Wolfenoot!)

Deets:

Blackwood by Pia Foxhall (Perth Shifters #1)
- Can be read as standalone! -
Each book in the series focuses on different characters
Queer (gay/bisexual character) m/m romance
93,000 words // 267 pages (Kindle)
Cover by TiferetDesign
Subscribe to the Foxhall Newsletter!

Curious about the world?

Introduction to Braden Payne and Coll MacDubhar (with excerpt)

Introduction to some of the unique aspects of alpha/beta/omega worldbuilding in the Perth Shifters world

Comments

[elinox]

Congrats!

What platform did you use to publish it?

[moonvoice]

Thank you!

And I'm not sure what you mean. If you mean where people can buy it, that's listed above, which makes me think you meant something different?

[elinox]

Sorry, I mean how did you publish it? Did you go through an agent/publishing house? Did you self-publish? And if so, where did you self-publish it? (Amazon, Book Baby, etc.)

[moonvoice]

Oh right, it's self-published. And the link above says the places where it's published (Amazon, Kobo, Nook, iBooks/Apple, and a few others). I used a combination of Amazon and Draft2Digital to go broad. Publishing houses are often unstable in m/m, and self-pub is holding its own (scooped 50% of the romance awards at the last big romance gathering, which was y'know, worrisome for the publishers). It's more common for shifter romances too, since they're a niche genre even within m/m. :)

[elinox]

Cool.

I self-published my first novel too and used Amazon. I found the process with them pretty easy and straightforward. How did you find the process?

[moonvoice]

BELATED CONGRATS! :D :D :D Do you have a link?

Actually not so simple because it's designed for US people, and not for people outside of the USA, so there were some issues with learning that Amazon straight up refuses to pay out to Paypal, but also refused to specifically pay out to my (and most) Australian banks, without me being hit with a $45 charge *per 100 dollars.* There's also the issue with figuring out foreign tax, because until you've done a bunch of paperwork, the US will withhold an additional 35% of all of your profits by default.

So it was a forced sign up to Payoneer (Amazon's Paypal) and a few other things (tax things) that took about two weeks to sort out. It's not a super user friendly to get started via Amazon if you're not a USian basically. But a lot of non-US authors know that, and there's some good GLBTQ self-publishing resources on Facebook that I used for help.

Draft2Digital, was super easy though. But they don't offer a preorder system like Amazon does directly, otherwise I would've used D2D for everything, I think. Their habit of allowing free conversion to .epub / .mobi at any point in the process was also super helpful to me re: learning to format. :D

I'm staying out of Kindle Unlimited because systems like that aren't actually super friendly to some overseas users, and a huge chunk of my readerbase is not in the US, or can't buy from Amazon at all and need to use Kobo or iBooks (I've noticed via preorders that even though Amazon is still dominant, there's been a lot of traffic to Kobo and iBooks, and readers in Singapore can't access Amazon ebooks *at all* (without VPN) so are limited to Kobo etc.) But since my main writing income is still from Patreon, I'm also not really fussed re: how this book does. Like I'd like it to do *well* of course, but it's a test run. I said to Glen 'I'd be happy if I moved 50 units' but I've moved 100 in preorder so far, so I'm already happy. I just hope release day goes smoothly enough, and will keep an eye on the metrics. I'd need to sell about 200 units to come close to making what I make on Patreon per month, every month. And I'm just not going to move that many units per month, so Patreon is still where it's at for me as a writer.

But I've wanted to try a hybrid path for like 4 years so here I am, finally on it. :D

[elinox]

I know Amazon has a UK version, do they have an AU version too?

It sounds like a struggle, sorry it was annoying. I ran into a little trouble, but that was with formatting and so it was my fault. It took me about a week to go from "publishing" it to actually seeing it for sale on Amazon. It was, all things considered, pretty easy.

I think my problem was simply marketing though. I did make some sales, although it was mostly to family and friends. But reaching a wider audience is something I have no idea about. I announced it everywhere (FB, Twitter, etc.) but I'm not well-known so I don't really know how to reach people to get them to read things I write, heh.

Here's the link to my 'House of Red': https://www.amazon.com/House-Red-Sickler/dp/1521226059/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542291679&sr=1-1&keywords=house+of+red

[moonvoice]

Amazon has at least 15 other versions (Mexico / Italy / India / Germany / UK / Australia, and so on and so forth).

It took me about a week to go from "publishing" it to actually seeing it for sale on Amazon.

Yeah they can be fickle with this - 24 hours to a week. Sometimes it's best to just aim for early, because a few days before release day isn't so bad, but a few days after release day is obviously less fun for everyone.

I think my problem was simply marketing though.

You may already have all the answers and stuff for this already, so I apologise in advance, but it may be worth looking into places that can offer things like release blitzes, blog tours, or ARC services, since that's where word of mouth can happen. It's often a small fee to do this (around $30-40 to say, get promotion on about 30-40 genre specific blogs that attract readers for your specific area), and ARCs (through places like NetGalley or similar) often lead to early reviews on places like Goodreads that can help drum up interest too.

BUT, all that being said, it's really hard with a first release. And there's no like, perfect path through it. The most important thing is that you got the first one out there, learned the process, and can go ahead armed with that knowledge into the future. I stalled out on publishing this manuscript for like three years, lol. <3

Thank you so much for the link!

[elinox]

I really have no idea on marketing, so your advice is helpful! (Even if I don't completely understand what you're talking about!) Hhmmm...NetGalley seems interesting, thanks!

An agent would likely be really useful here, but I tried that and had no luck.

Good luck with yours! :D

[silverjackal]

Congratulations! :D

[moonvoice]

Thank you! <3

[yourdeer]

I'm so excited to read this!! Congratulations :D

[bunny_m]

Huzzah!

[transcendancing]

EEEEE! This is so exciting!!

[8bitamanda]

Hey, Pia! I spent an afternoon earlier this week reading Blackwood for the first time, and I absolutely loved it! I adored the tender and supportive way Coll cares not just for Braden, but for his friends and anybody who happens to pass through the forest too. My favorite side characters were Dazza and Seamus, and I hope we'll hear more about them as the series progresses.