Celebrating The Wins & Facebook

Beloved Romance Readers,

I'm just back home from a month vacation in my land of birth, Barbados, and I'm feeling refreshed and grateful to be alive.

It's hard to get back into the grind of things after going to the beach almost every day, but at least I still have another month before school starts, so I have time to focus on business and writing.

As I work on Thugs N Roses books 2 and 3, I'm celebrating the wins that have come along thus far.

I first published on July 7th, with no fanfare, no following of readers, nothing but a TikTok account that I hadn't even converted into an author account yet. There was something about being at home that gave me the inspiration and courage to just press the button.

The books were there and waiting and I decided to just do it. To just reach for that star and block out the imposter syndrome and fear of criticism that tend to creep in sometimes.

Was it smart to jump in without a plan? Probably not at all. But I have no regrets on that front.

Now I've had some hiccups in the first month of publishing - namely the curse of mistakes and the backwards quotation marks that kept popping up at the end of dialogue. I've tried to capture and change as many as possible, and honestly cannot bear to read any of the three titles again or I might completely lose it! The versions that are on KU should be updated copies now if not very soon.

Besides those classic newbie mistakes, I'm proud that without the fanfare or ability to pay for professional help, that I was able to gain three 5 star ratings as my first form of reviews. Those three people liked my story enough to leave that rating and let everyone know their opinion. It's a good feeling.

Whatever little effort I've made towards promotion on Tik Tok and Facebook has also brought me close to six thousand page reads which is exciting and humbling at the same time. (And also truly scary lol.)

But I've done the thing I've wanted, finally. I pushed through the naysaying and marked off my one close-to-my-heart desire: that when I turned forty years old, that I'd be a published author.

I took the plunge, and three 5 star reviews and almost four weeks later, make the leap into the vast ocean of books that is Kindle Unlimited, worth it. Completely.

Elani Romance exists in whatever small form or inconspicuous fashion. I'm building and growing and I'm hoping to find my community of readers soon. Goal #2 activated!

Before I go, you can now find my Author Page on Facebook. It was a bit of a mess trying to set up a new Author Profile and so I'm operating as a Page for now. Click the picture below to like and follow!

Talk soon!

Elani