Rissa Renae

Author of Teen Paranormal Fiction

Author: Rissa Renae (Page 1 of 8)

Canadian author of Teen paranormal fiction and horror.

Writers: Don't Get Scammed!

Writers: Don’t Get Scammed!

August 20, 2024 /

We live in a world where scammers lurk around every digital corner. There are virus threat scams, banking scams, fake websites, and click-bait ads. Everything imaginable can be used by The Bad Guys to con you out of your money.

Including publishing your book.

If you take anything away from this article, let it be this: PUBLISHING, of any kind, IS FREE!

“But Rissa, what about cover art, and editing, and blah blah blah?”

ALSO FREE! For both traditional and self-published authors. The process is 100% free.

How Do You Find Free Publishing Resources?

The quick answer is: just Google what you need, plus the word “Free”. Chances are, if you need something, there’s a website that will help you do it for free.

Need a book cover, try Canva or Visme.

Need an editor, try Grammarly or Quillbot.

Need to convert your manuscript to an eBook? Try Calibre or Adobe (yes ‘that’ Adobe). Even KDP can now convert and code an eBook format for you from your manuscript.

100% free.

To self-publish, you only need …

  1. A cover image (KDP will tell you the dimensions and resolution to plop into whichever website you use)
  2. Your manuscript in either a word processor document (like from Google docs or Microsoft Word) or a PDF file.

Both KDP and IngramSpark will walk you through creating both the physical book (hardcover and trade paperback) and eBook for eReaders.

You can, of course, pay for these services, such as manuscript editing and cover art. But when it comes to handing the cover and interior over to be published, this process is absolutely free. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a scam.

Vanity Presses are infecting the publishing world like a virus. These services offer you the world–they will piece together the cover, the interior mater/manuscript, and publish your novel, all in a process they make out to be super-scary and oh-so-difficult.

It’s really not. And this is coming from the poor unfortunate girl who had to wade through the horrors of the CreateSpace hot mess to self-pub her first novel!

Be it ever so confusing, CreateSpace got me published. Photo: Rissa Renae

Whether you are self-publishing or traditionally publishing, the process is always free for the author. Publishers pay YOU. If you pay the publisher, even a penny, it’s a scam.

What is a Vanity Press?

Any publisher that asks the writer to pay upfront to publish is a Vanity Press. Why is this a scam? Because they’re asking you to pay the press to do something you can do for free. As mentioned above, everything from editing to publishing an ebook or physical book is free. There’s a price only if you choose to pay for it, and those items should never be more than editing or cover art.

In the end, you are paying thousands of dollars for the vanity of holding a physical copy of your book . . . which services such as KDP and IngramSpark can do for you for free.

Are Self-Publishing and Vanity Publishing the Same?

Yes, they are. So why pay for the opportunity? You, the author, bypass literary agents and publishing houses to take your book directly to market. These two publishing methods follow the same workflow, involve the same processes, and need the same tools to publish.

The difference in the two comes down to who controls the publishing process and who owns the rights to your book. Self-publishing, as the name implies, keeps full control of the literary rights and content with the author. With vanity presses, often the author is giving up the literary rights and a sum of money over to a 3rd party to, in essence, self-publish for the author. The ‘publisher’ then controls your book, not you. The ‘publisher’ then retains the rights to your book (depending on the contract). This is why it’s a scam. The vanity press takes your money, takes your rights, and takes control of the manuscript.

Think about a vanity press like this: It’s like paying someone to drive your car through a fast food drive-thru to order you a value meal. And they keep the car in the end.

Are There Trustworthy Vanity Presses?

Yes, there are! But these are not called vanity presses, they are considered hybrid publishers. Like self-publishing, the author is still bypassing literary agents and traditional publishing houses, but the author and the press now share any costs needed to publish the book–things like editing and cover art.

And why is hybrid not a scam but vanity is? Because a hybrid publisher has skin in the game. The hybrid publisher invests in your novel, in much the same way a traditional publisher would. The hybrid publisher and the author share a percentage of any costs agreed to, and also share a percentage of the sales/royalties. This can be advantageous if an author needs in-depth editing services for the manuscript, needs to pay a cover artist, or needs help with publishing.

A hybrid publisher can help share the costs an author chooses to undertake in the process of publishing a novel.

When Do I Know It’s a Scam?

As soon as you, as the author, are asked for money, it’s a scam.

If some someone contacts you unsolicited, it’s a scam.

Because no legit publisher will reach out over Instagram. Photo: Rissa Renae.

Now, keep in mind, if you have gone out of your way to research a hybrid publisher and sign up, you should make sure to acquaint yourself with the terms of your contract to see what the publisher pays for, what you pay for, and what you both pay for.

Is Indie Publishing like Hybrid Publishing?

Small traditional publishing houses are called indie publishers, or small-press publishers. These publishers tend to work with new authors, or indie authors, and authors who are making the leap from self-publishing to traditional publishing.

Indie publishers are traditional publishers, in that indie publishers will pay you for the rights to publish your novel. The difference between indie and hybrid is that the author doesn’t pay anything to the publisher. The indie press takes on all responsibility for publishing the novel.

Indie publishers tend to move faster than traditional publishers and have all the perks and opportunities, but sometimes with smaller advances (the payment the author gets when the publisher buys their manuscript). The great thing about indie publishers is that a good deal of them do not go through an agent to find manuscripts–the author pitches the story right to the press, and then the press decides if they want to work with the author or not.

My books! Novels #1-4 of The Rose Cross Academy, and my upcoming LitRPG, The Gamemasters. Photo: Rissa Renae.

Whichever publishing route you choose to take, just remember: the process is free unless you choose to pay for a piece of it. Yog’s Law states that money flows towards the writer, not away.

Any form of publishing can seem big and scary at first, but it really isn’t. There is a huge community of fellow writers out there willing to help out. If you need support, check out Facebook Groups and Reddit subs. Here are some great subs that can help out:

https://www.reddit.com/r/writing

https://www.reddit.com/r/authors

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish

And remember, writing is supposed to be fun! Enjoy the process, just make sure to watch out for yourself.

– Rissa

New Book release news

June 6, 2024 /

… or why a write-a-book-in-a-month challenge isn’t necessarily a good challenge.

Welp, it’s been a while, I know. I wish I could say I’ve been furiously writing, but alas, I have not. In all honesty, the pandemic threw a wrench into my writing. I’ve been trying to re-establish my writing habit, but it’s been hard.

A collection of rejected proofs on my shelf. Photo: Rissa Renae.

That being said, I am happy to report that I am close to publishing my 5th novel! If you’re waiting for the final book in The Rose Cross Academy series, well, sorry, you’ll have to wait a few months longer! My pandemic project, however, is in the final steps of self-publishing. After which I will be working to complete the final novel in the RCA series.

My newest novel, The Gamemasters, is a LitRPG / GameLit sci-fi novel. The high-level premise is gamers beta testing a cutting-edge virtual reality game become stuck in the game. As the game’s storyline kicks off, the game itself starts killing players. As players try to stay alive, they turn on each other. I see this as Lord of the Flies in a virtual reality setting.

The cover I have concocted is a paint-over of an AI-generated artwork. The cover depicts one of the dungeon bosses the players must defeat in the game. I mean, who doesn’t get the heebie-jeebies at seeing a two-story hairy spider?

A screengrab of my Photoshop doc, work in progress! Photo: Rissa Renae.

I started this novel for a certain month-long writing challenge in 2020 (I’m leaving it unnamed since there is some controversy surrounding the entity at the moment) during the pandemic. I managed to get through the month and came out with a 60,000K novel, but after the stress of writing thousands of words every night for a month, I needed a break. Even after the writing break, I found it hard to get back into writing. Just thinking about writing, and sometimes even opening a document sparked a wave of panic.

I had to take a long break. A really long break. What I think happened was that I turned writing—which until November 2020 was a fun escape—into a high-stress project that I had to do no matter what.

Literal Word vomit (from a font encoding error) on my Gamemasters file. Photo: Rissa Renae.

I started to hate writing. Near the end of November 2020, I was already dreading opening a document and writing again. This hobby was no longer fun. Now it was a chore, right up there with cleaning the bathroom. I wrote because I had to, not because I wanted to.

During my ‘break’, I shifted my focus away from writing. I got back into table-top card games. In the 90’s, I used to play Magic: The Gathering with my high school friends. That’s probably hinting at my age right there! I had found my old (and I do mean old) deck from the 90’s and decided to get back into collecting the cards. Now, 10,000+ cards later, I was finally able to open my works in progress and work on them without getting panic attacks.

A collection of my excess Magic: The Gathering cards. Photo: Rissa Renae.

For 2022 to now, I worked on both the final book in The Rose Cross Academy series, as well as polishing up The Gamemasters. At the beginning of June 2024, I had finished two rounds of self-editing of the manuscript, as well as an AI check of the document. I wavered a few times on whether to split this novel into two parts (it comes in at a juicy 158,000 words), but in the end, I thought “Ah, screw it! I’m self-publishing. This novel can be as long as I want it to be!”)

I did briefly think about submitting the novel to a few agents, but there are very few sci-fi agents accepting queries, and even fewer who will take a sci-fi that is not spaceships and alien planets.

Speaking of alien planets… The May 10, 2024 solar storm. Photo: Rissa Renae.

Today, I uploaded the cover and contents to KDP, and have requested a proof copy. Likely, I’ll get the proof within a few days. I was planning on taking the novel on vacation with me and doing an edit while on the plane, but we’ll see where the world takes me. I still have the copyright to finish before publishing, so I still have some busy work to do.

Oh! And I need to update the website. Geesh. I haven’t done that in ages. I hope I still remember my HTML!

As a side note, I have been dabbing in an epic fantasy, the title still unknown (although I have a couple of thoughts). I like the idea M. Night Shyamalan presented in The Village and I am trying to work in a twist like that into this novel, but also keep the setting high fantasy with mythical creatures and magic.

Now as the weather warms and the summer flowers come out I hope to get back into a habit of writing. It doesn’t have to be daily. I think that’s what got me into trouble in the first place. If I can do something creative every day, not just with writing, I think I can get myself back into a good groove.

Yellow roses resting on a fence. Photo: Rissa Renae.

Don’t forget to get outside and enjoy the world. And drink lots of water!

Until next time.

-Rissa

Meet Our Newest Family Members

March 21, 2024 /

Shortly before we moved house (and moved provinces), our dear Boo passed away. She was with us for ten years and warmed our house in Calgary, warmed our laps on those cold winter days, and warmed our hearts with her inability to properly meow.

Me & the Boo. (photo: Rissa Renae)

I think the loss of Boo affected Mochi the most. Although they weren’t the best of friends, Boo was a companion and kept Mochi company. Throw in a pandemic move to another province and nine months in a tiny apartment, Mochi needed a friend.

Be it ever so tiny, it was home for nine months. (photo: Rissa Renae)

Enter: the local SPCA and two adorable furballs. Ramen and Udon (as named by the foster mum, so the names just stuck) caught our eyes and captured our hearts. Not much is known about them other than that they’re part of a bigger litter.

Udon front & centre, with “big” brother Ramen in the background (photo: Rissa Renae)

Ramen is the bigger cat and has a white stripe down his nose. As cats go, he’s normal on the surface. However, he seems to either get lost often, or he can’t find his brother, and he’ll start howling. It’s awesome at 3AM, and by awesome I mean annoying af.

Ramen takes over Mochi’s bed. (photo: Rissa Renae)

Then there’s Udon. My suspicion is he was the last kitten born, and perhaps had a bit of a difficult birth. He’s small compared to his brother, and he’s . . . well . . . let’s just say he’s special.

He sleeps sitting up, he tries to fight his own reflection, patio doors are magical barriers that he constantly runs into, and bathroom rugs are the most amazing playtoys. Not to mention no toes are safe in his presence. Also awesome at 3AM.

Udon is . . . ‘special’. (photo: Rissa Renae)

Ramen cuddles, Udon doesn’t. Ramen hates kisses, Udon gives kitty kisses like they’re going out of style. Ramen doesn’t like Mochi, but Udon sees Mochi as his best friend. The two couldn’t be more different.

They may be weird but they sure are cute. (photo: Rissa Renae)

The house somehow feels complete now–three humans, three furbabies.

Here’s to the next ten years, and hopefully more, of a house full of hair, toys, and lots of love.

Mountain life agrees with me

August 8, 2022 /

In early June this year, we finally moved into our home. We’re situated near the base of one of the mountains here in the Lower Mainland with a nice view of the river valley and the occasional sighting of Mt. Baker in Washington State.

I didn’t realize how much my living arrangements impacted my mental health. Although I knew our small, city apartment that sat along a busy racetrack–I mean roadway–was temporary, the early morning engine revving and the constant parade of emergency vehicles with sirens blaring really got to me.

Despite the traffic cones, this stretch is used as a raceway by teenagers. (photo: Rissa Renae)

My writing suffered more than I cared to admit. Just opening a Word doc to spark some creative juices ended up sparking panic attacks instead. I joked at first thinking I was just having an adult temper tantrum. But as the months wore on and the word count kept dwindling, I got worried. Was I losing my creativity? Do I no longer enjoy writing? What’s going on?

I think Mochi also lost some of her mojo in the apartment (photo: Rissa Renae)

I developed problems with food. I developed problems with alcohol. The last straw came when I absolutely lost my sh*t over the shower drain not being clean. This was right around the time our developer told us our house would be delayed by about two months.

A Hobbit hole at Lafarge Lake, Coquitlam (photo: Rissa Renae)

Not to bore you with that. Really, the apartment wasn’t THAT bad. The location was close to amenities and great places to walk, but the constant noise and close quarters did me in.

My “home office” and writing space–aka the corner of the couch (photo: Rissa Renae)

Thankfully in June, our house was completed and we moved in. It took me 2-3 weeks to “calm down”. I also restarted my anxiety medication, so that helped as well. The ideas started coming back. The urge to write slowly bubbled to the surface. It was that one morning lying in bed, listening to the birds chirping instead of the teenagers and their screaming car engines that it all finally made sense. It was the location that was stealing my creativity, not some loss of a desire to write.

Somewhere up there I found my creativity. (photo: Rissa Renae)

The nature in this area of the city is amazing. I drag my poor dog out multiple times a day for hour-long walks along the many trails and foliage-covered sidewalks.

The views are amazing.

The Pitt River valley (photo: Rissa Renae)

Sure, we have almost daily bear sightings, and I’ve stumbled to within metres of a juvenile black bear foraging for berries. They’re not the vicious murder machines Hollywood makes them out to be, as long as you steer clear of the mama with her cubs.

Bear prints on the sidewalk. (photo: Rissa Renae)

But bears aside, mountain life agrees with me far more than city life did. I thought I’d miss my walks to the coffee shop, or the fact I could just walk to the grocery store to pick up milk on my lunch break. “Whatever am I going to do!” I thought to myself. “We’ll have to stock the fridge and freezer, I’ll have to make my own coffee, I can’t just walk to the mall during my lunch break.”

Downtown Coquitlam from Lafarge Lake (photo: Rissa Renae)

Psht! I don’t miss any of that!

Give me a gently babbling brook, or the scent of camomile on the wind any day over the so-called convenience of the city.

As I finish writing this post, it’s almost time for Walkie #2 for Mochi. There are days I literally have to drag her out of the house. She’s the only dog who doesn’t like walkies, it seems. No amount of squirrels to chase and deer to bark at will get her off the couch some days. But too bad! This girl needs to get outside and be one with nature!

A neighbouring mountain releasing steam on a cool day. (photo: Rissa Renae)

So, now it’s time to go breathe some fresh air and soak up that sun. For tonight, we write.

Later!

– Rissa

Getting back into the (writing) swing of things

July 11, 2022 /

June was stressful.

The end.

There’s only so much upheaval, change, and spur-of-the-moment this Gold, chaotic-good, INTJ-Architect can handle before she blows her top. And said top t’was blown.

It took me about two weeks to settle in mentally to the new house. It wasn’t the constant beep-beep-beep of construction vehicles, nor the endless boxes, or the equally endless bear sightings that did me in. Nope. It was the fact that I couldn’t (and still can’t) find my UV nail polish.

Well #$%^! How am I supposed to get home now? (photo: author)

I know, right? Even I think it sounds silly to blame my mental health on nail polish. But here we are.

A sample of my nail polish collection. (photo: author)

A long time ago, in a province far, far away, I discovered that the key to wicking away my anxiety was to focus on doing my nails.

Again, I know, right? Anxiety is weird that way.

Not being able to sit down and focus on the one thing I knew could keep my anxiety at bay made me even more anxious. I won’t bore you with the details, but as mentioned earlier, it took me almost two weeks to settle in once we moved summer of 2021.

Truer words have never been spoken. . . or written in chalk. (photo: author)

Once the ‘settle in’ took hold, the writing bug came back. You see, I typically thrive off my daydreaming and imagination to figure out plot points, character development, and world-building. However, mundane tasks such as cleaning or organizing produced nothing during those two weeks. Like, a literal black hole. Even at night when I’d try to dream, I’d be able to focus for a minute or two, then… nothing. It was so frustrating. I wanted to write but I couldn’t.

I knew what was getting in the way, so out of desperation, I went online and bought some nail polish. It took two days to arrive, but once I did, I sat down, did my thing, and came back with a fresh manicure. It mani-cured what blocked my writing.

You don’t actually want to see a picture of my nails, do you? (photo: author)

Here I sit, shaking my head. My mental health is all in my head, and I know what, but what’s even worse, is that my brain is more stubborn than I am. Who knew. Paint nails equals creative block lifted.

Camp NaNoWriMo is just around the corner, and what better way to firm up that writing need with a goal to meet. I tend to work best when there’s a goal to hit, rather than just sitting at my computer and pounding away at the keys like some deranged woodpecker until a story comes out. Although I don’t plan to work on a single novel, I do plan to crank out another 50,000 words to make up for writing almost nothing for June.

The urge to write is once again coming out of hiding. The ideas are flowing. Between the boxes and the mess, I’m carving out my writing time and creating a few new habits and routines. Being in my own place and having my own space definitely put a cramp in my writing style. I look forward to pounding away at the keyboard again!

Until next time,

  • Rissa

The Final House Move

June 27, 2022 /

This past weekend marked the last step in a long chain of events in our move from the province of Alberta to British Columbia. We finally moved into our house!

Our journey started in the summer of 2021 when we packed (and I mean literally packed) the SUV and drove up, over, and around the Rocky Mountains to get to the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.

The urban assault vehicle, packed to overflowing in Alberta. (photo: author)

We moved during COVID lockdowns . . .

Yup. (photo: author)

. . . and during the height of wildfire season . . .

Wildfire smoke turns the sun red in Kamloops, BC. (photo: author)

. . . and during a “heat dome” event . . .

(photo: Global News British Columbia)

Oh, and then there was the “atmospheric river” event that caused massive flooding.

Flooded beach along the river. (photo: author)

It seemed the universe was trying to keep us from our dream of living in the Lower Mainland. But we did it anyway.

For close to a year, we cuddled together in a tiny apartment in the suburbs. 900 square feet next to a busy road after living in an estate home on a nature reserve. It was tough, it was stressful, but it was a roof over our heads and a place to sleep. Between loud cars reenacting The Fast and the Furious franchise outside our window to the faulty fire alarm that went off multiple times a day when it was on the fritz, moving day couldn’t come soon enough.

Be it ever so humble . . . (photo: author)

When finally it came time to pack what we could and make a run for it, the days couldn’t go by fast enough. We counted the sleeps, we jammed the boxes, we hauled the goods. It took 2 days to move–once from our multiple storage lockers, then from the apartment to the house. After a gruelling 48-hour moving marathon, we spent our first night in our actual house in the mountains. Granted, it was a mattress on the floor amidst a sea of boxes, but we were finally home!

The kitchen is the heart of the home and ground zero for junk! (photo: author)

The dream of leaving prairie life, with its monstrous hail storms and tornadoes, to the calm serenity of mountain life came with some adjustments. For one, taking Mochi for a walk is now a hike since we live on a mountain. With that walk, we carry bells as almost once a day one of the members of our household spots a bear. From juveniles to the big mama, bears are more common than deer. Instead of looking both ways for cars, we look left, right, up, and down for bears.

A juvenile black bear wandering by my retaining wall. (photo: author)

According to Google, we’re about 50m (165 -ish feet) above sea level here. We look out over a river valley and the sloughs that feed into it. Mornings are filled with bird song, although punctuated by the occasional piece of machinery since the area is still under construction.

The view from our neighbourhood. That’s Mt. Baker in WA in the distance. (photo: author)

It’s been almost a year in the making, but I can finally call someplace “home”. Be it ever so humble (and cluttered with boxes), there’s no place like home.

Even Mochi thinks so.

Mochi’s first nap in the new house. (photo: author)

Now, somewhere in all these boxes are my writing journals. I guess it’s time to start unpacking!

Until next time

– Rissa

What to do if you lose your Amazon KDP access

April 22, 2022 /

Life gets in the way, at least, it did for me during the pandemic lockdowns. I suffered a roller coaster of anxiety and panic attacks at being stuck in my house (I’m an introvert and I couldn’t stand to be in my own house!). I also have the a-cursed “underlying medical conditions”, and I was certain COVID-19 would mean my demise should I catch it.

During those long days of ‘can’t stand my house but too afraid to go outside’, I also didn’t write.

We also chose to move house across the country.

We were crazy!

When the dust settled and I was back at the keyboard, I logged into my KDP account, all excited to publish the 4th Book in my Rose Cross Academy series. Upon clearing the dust off my KDP account, I came to a horrific discovery.

I couldn’t access my KDP account anymore.

After we moved, my phone number changed. Thanks to that villainous beast called Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), any attempts to log into my old KDP account required a verification code to be texted to my old number. A call to Support told me that after a year of no account activity, the Amazon side of my account had been terminated and could not be retrieved.

Keep in mind that there is zero public-facing information on how to contact KDP Support without logging into a KDP account (which I couldn’t do since KDP wanted to send an MFA code to my old phone). All links redirect to Amazon customer support. So I racked my brain at what to do about my lost books and KDP account.

Important Note: Online KDP Support will point you towards forms to fill out to prove your identity in order to change the phone number for MFA. Unfortunately, those forms require you to log into your KDP account that, in my case, wanted to send MFA to the old phone, thus providing no help to me. All civilian links for KDP Support redirect to Amazon Support, and Amazon Support is not equipped to deal with KDP issues. (It took me 5 different Amazon Support team members before I finally gave up).

Long-story-short, after trying many different things over the course of a month, I finally regained control of my previously published novels. Here’s how I did it.

Prerequisites:

  • An error-free formatted manuscript ready to be published to physical media (not an eBook), complete with cover matter. This is a must.
  • A separate email account other than the one used for the locked/lost KDP account. One can easily be obtained from Google.
  • An ISBN number of a published book in the old account.
  • Banking account info used in the old account.
  • Mailing address used in the old account.

Step 1: Create a new Amazon KPD account

It is true that Amazon will delete “duplicate” accounts. I’m not sure what kicks off that process on the Amazon side. What we’re going to do is create a new account, then have KDP Support merge the old account into this new account. I thought I heard a rumour there was a one-month grace period to do so, but don’t quote me on this!

Set up this new KDP account as if you were a new author just starting out, using a different email address than that used in the old account. Make sure to enter tax and banking info, and set up the account as directed.

Step 2: Publish a physical book

This is an essential step. KDP will only merge into an account with an active, published book. Yes, this can be an eBook, but the physical book is required in order to hook up the Amazon Marketplace portion of the KDP account. You can simply publish a rough draft manuscript formatted into a book template or old CreateSpace template, then bring that through to being ‘Live’ if a final draft is unavailable. The important point is to have a physical book live for the next step.

Step 3: Set up the Amazon account

Once the physical version of the book is ‘Live’, order an author copy. No worries, you don’t actually have to order the copy in the end. The point of this activity will be to get the Amazon Marketplace account set up and linked to the KDP account. I chose Amazon.com as the marketplace as the U.S. was my largest market even though I am a Canadian author.

Go through the motions of setting up the Amazon account, including adding a credit card and mailing address. Once set up, if you don’t want to purchase the author copy, simply remove the book from the cart.

Step 4: Request a call from KDP Support

Go back to the KDP Bookshelf, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, and click the “Contact Us” link.

Under “Account, taxes, and getting started”, choose “Close or merge accounts”.

Choose to be contacted by phone. Fill in the form as needed, then wait for the call back. I receive the return call in about 10 minutes.

Step 5: KDP Support will help you merge accounts

The KDP Support person will ask questions about books in the old account. They will ask for information that can personally identify the old account as yours. This verification process took about 5 minutes.

Once that has been completed, the Support person will email the address on file for the old account to seek permission to merge. At this point, the Support call will likely end. Login to the email account associated with the old KDP account. Once you receive that email from Support, simply reply to that email stating that you approve of the merge.

I waited until the next morning and found all my old books now popped up in my new account! I was so happy.

Step 6: Clean up

Whether there have been changes to the way the physical books and eBooks are linked, I wouldn’t know since I hadn’t logged into my account in about two years. I did have to re-link my eBooks to my paperbacks. This took about 24-hours to sort itself out as the eBooks stuck around individually even after I linked them.

As of writing this, all my books are back under my control, complete with all the ratings and reviews I had received. All my original short links still work as well.

What did I learn?

So the moral of this story, I guess, is to log into both the KDP and Amazon Marketplace accounts at least once a year. This is to approve or acknowledge any changes to the functionality of your books, or agree to changes in terms and conditions that may happen on either site.

When I was going through the motions of trying to reclaim my previous works, it helped that I had my copyright notice from the United States Copyright Office. I know registered copyrights are a polarizing topic to some indie authors, as your work is technically copyright as soon as you write it. My case may be different, but I was told I needed to seek permission from “the original publisher” (aka myself) in order to claim the novels in my own account. Having that physical copyright proof saved me the step of having to write and certify a publishing release statement from myself to myself, and got me immediate help with KPD during the process.

This piece of paper (redacted and cropped) saved my sanity. (photo: Author)

All in all, I’m glad to have my novels back in my control, and I’m more than happy that all the reviews and ratings came with them. I’m not as prolific at writing as I’d like to be, so I’ve set myself up a reminder to log into my accounts at least every six months to keep them active, and tend to any updates in terms of service that may be pending.

This year is going well for writing, and I’ve published 1 of 2 scheduled books already. I may not be as prolific as some of my favourite authors (Sanderson, I’m looking at you!), but I’m honing my craft to become more prolific than I have been.

Until next time, keep writing and keep dreaming!

– Rissa

Cherry Blossoms and NaNo Prep

March 28, 2022 /

April is Camp NaNoWriMo time.

Here in the Lower Mainland, it’s also cherry blossom time.

Sakura trees line a small park in Burnaby (Photo: Author)

If I were to tell you that self-publishing my 4th novel, Blood & Water, book #4 in my Rose Cross Academy series, was a slog, it would be an understatement. Although enormous self-publishing success stories can give us indie authors hope, the process is unnecessarily complicated, riddled with pitfalls, and stacked against us smaller indie authors.

Amazon and KDP. I’m looking at you.

But that’s for another post.

This post is all about prepping for Camp NaNoWriMo under the canopy of sakura that’s currently covering my new home-city.

If you’re unfamiliar with either NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) or Camp NaNo, think of it as an online community for indie writers and those looking to publish their first or next novel. NaNo offers a place to connect with fellow writers, discover local or online writing communities, and find the motivation you need to write and grow your novels and writing habits.

Fallen cherry blossoms on a brick sidewalk. (Photo: Author)

Camp NaNo is a less structured and more open version of NaNoWriMo. Think of Camp as a place for you to set your own goals and work towards them at your own pace without the stress of meeting a daily word count goal.

I use Camp NaNo as another tool in my motivational toolbox, aside from my Discord groups (which I discovered during NaNoWriMo 2021), and my Zoom group.

For April, I’m aiming to flesh out a gaslamp/low-steampunk fantasy I’m just calling “Four Crows” right now. For this story, I have a beginning, middle, and end figured out, but I haven’t decided if this will be a stand-alone or a series yet.

Morning raindrops clinging to blossoms. (Photo: Author)

Now, I’m a pantser, 100%. Sure, I can create a novel plan, but heck if I can stick with it. I’ve tried. Oh, I’ve tried to stick to an outline. The writing comes out forced, boring, and reads like I’m just going through the motions of moving characters through a story line. My pantsing brain knows that Character A needs to escape City A, hide in the forest, then travel to City B, but if I have to constrain myself to the how’s and why’s of that journey, my writing and my creativity suffers.

That being said, when I say I’m ‘prepping’ for Camp NaNo, what I mean is that I’m developing a writing strategy similar to that which I’d follow during November’s NaNoWriMo. I have a list of scenes I’d like to write in order to connect parts I’ve already written. I don’t always know how those scenes will go, but this is part of my creative process.

The tools I use may seem very rudimentary for prepping–my writing notebook and several coloured pens. I have notes on ideas, what scenes need to be written, bullet points of what I think should happen, and a list of transitions between scenes I need to figure out. During Camp NaNo, I’ll go through my notebook and check off items as they grab my interest.

A typical page in my novel notebook, blurred since all my projects are listed. (Photo: Author)

As for my other projects, I mentioned earlier I managed to self-publish my 4th novel, after much hair pulling and spew-age of expletives. That’s one book down of two I plan to publish this year! For the remainder of this year, I’m thinking three projects will be occupying my writing time.

Project #1 – This is the second book I’m planning to publish, and it is tickling the 200K word mark. Ouch. The complete manuscript is about 85% done, and I may end up splitting this book into Part 1 and Part 2, then publishing them with months of each other. I’m still going to count this as a single release since this is a single, yet massive, story. And as per my brain (since I can’t seem to write in stand-alone novel mode), I’ve already written a good amount of a sequel to this novel.

This will be in the LitRPG genre as it follows a group of people stranded inside a virtual reality RPG game after the virtual reality gear suffers a failure. Think of this as the world of online RPG’s meets Battle Royale or The Hunger Games.

Project #2 – I’ve briefly mentioned my gaslamp/low-steampunk fantasy. This is my focus for April and Camp NaNo. This story follows a young girl navigating an 1800’s-esque North America after a war over magic tore it apart. Magic has always been commonplace here. As the industrial revolution looms and people begin relying more on technology instead of magic, war breaks out. Technology and innovationare wiped out along with books and the world’s knowledge.

I’m planning some interesting villains for this novel/series–one which we’ll kinda be able to figure out early on. This antagonist will suffer a nearly fatal injury early on in the novel, but recover in time to start laying waste to the world. The other villain will be a “slow burn” villain, meaning they’ll start out as a protagonist, then as things happen to them throughout the story, will start turning evil. This character in particular has been fun to write!

The frog guardian of Cherry Blossom Garden, Burnaby. (Photo: Author)

Project #3 – Other than finishing my current YA series, The Rose Cross Academy, I’ve been shying away from YA as I haven’t been liking where the genre has been going in recent years. Many of the novel’s I’ve thumbed through rely on the same tired and unhealthy tropes, all the while still romanticizing toxic relationships, especially when it comes to female main characters. I’ve had an idea for a YA novel in the back of my mind, but have left it on the side due to the above reasons.

I am fascinated by the paranormal, so this will be another novel where ghosts and demons provide the underlying conflict. This will be an end-of-days type of novel leaning heavily on the ideas of the Biblical Apocalypse. Since I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s and gobbled up anything manga studio CLAMP put out, I’ve always had a Tokyo Babylon/X1999 tale rolling around in my head–two factions facing off over the fate of humanity: one that thinks humanity is too far gone and must be purged from the Earth, and one that thinks humanity may still have hope.

I plan to be busy this year, and I’ve already kept my fingers moving quite briskly. If Brandon Sanderson can produce four extra novels in a couple years while still cranking out best seller after best seller, I think I can at least make a sizeable dent in my “creative debt” of novel ideals.

We’ll see where the months take me!

Take care, everyone.

-Rissa

I wrote a chapter a week in Feb. Here’s what happened.

March 4, 2022 /

Well, if you’re thinking the TL;DR of this post is that writing a chapter a week all month produced four chapters, well, you’d be half-right.

One of my New Years Resolutions was to work every day, in some fashion, on one or more of my writing projects. That includes everything from pounding out 10,000 words a day, to simply opening a wiki file and reading through my notes. I find that if I do something as simple as read back what I wrote previously (something older than a week), that this triggers my creativity and I’m able to write more than I set out to.

Wild crocuses blooming by the tennis court

In February, I set aside an hour in the evening every day to do “something” writing related. While all through January, the “Do Something Everyday” exercise produced good results, I thought if I could up my game to at least a brand new chapter every week, I’d be able to start a healthier writing habit than just writing something random every day.

In my January experiment, I found that I COULD NOT…

  • Write to a To-Do list (e.g. Finish Chapter 7, Write Chapter 10), and
  • Keep to a schedule of social media posts (blog, Twitter, etc)

… but I found that I COULD

  • Keep a running list of scenes or transitions to write, and then pick-and-choose what I wanted to write,
  • Write nearly full chapters if I allowed myself to bullet-point slower points (scenes or transitions), and
  • Use my wiki to inspire scenes or transitions.
What blog post would be complete without my goodest girl, Mochi!

So for February, I threw out what didn’t work for me, and added one more goal:

Finish one chapter a week.

That chapter could be for any writing project (I currently have four on the go. I know, bad author!). The chapter did not have to be perfect. The prose did not have to be publish-worthy. As long as said chapter was all words and no bullet points, I would consider that chapter “finished” in terms of rough draft-land.

February came to an end, and I had finished the aforementioned 4 chapters. But something pretty cool also happened. On the side as I completed a chapter and still had the writing bug in me, I continued to write. I managed to final-draft one whole novel, final-draft Part 1 of a 2nd novel, I came up with an idea for a 3rd novel (maybe/maybe not it will be a series… cuz I love my series’), and put a good dent in my high fantasy series.

A walk along the seawall in Stanley Park, downtown Vancouver

As for word count, I didn’t really blow any of my old records out of the water. I’d say I was writing NaNoWriMo-level word counts every day.

Round about the time I was writing this post, one of my favourite authors, Brandon Sanderson, announced his next Kickstarter–because somehow he found time to write four “extra” novels (aside from the million-other novels he wrote)–and pretty much broke the internet when it comes to the self-publishing sphere. I think as authors, we all strive to be as prolific as authors such as Sanderson, Koontz, and King who can crank out multiple novels in a year. It’s impressive when one of these prolific authors pops up one day and goes “Hey guys, guess what I did?” Needless to say, several of us are very jealous.

I think that also lit a bit of a fire under my bum as well. I’ve mentioned before I was hoping to make a “big leap” from self-publishing one novel a year to a whole TWO NOVELS A YEAR, but now I’m wondering if I can step up a little more. (High fantasy series, I’m looking at you!)

A view off the edge of the world from Grouse Mountain, Vancouver

Now it’s March and I’m heading into the month with a new passion, a new determination, and a hotter flame under my bum. Formatting the eBook for my next release is slowly sucking the life out of me (seriously, who thought it would take this LONG!), and I’m acquiring ISBN numbers like Pokemon. The keyboard is calling me, and the muses are coming out of their winter hiding. This spring is looking promising.

I know some say it’s not necessarily a good thing to have multiple projects on the go, but my brain doesn’t think linearly, nor does it think in-universe. So, we’ll see what I can crank out for March. At least another 5 chapters. Hopefully all in the same novel.

Until next time!

– Rissa

A Semi-Rare Copy of The Hobbit

February 20, 2022 /

… or Adventures in Used Bookstores

Being an author, a love of old books comes with the territory. The yellowing pages, the artwork on the covers, the smell of old print. And there’s something odd about holding a thing in your hands that’s older than you are.

Spring is springing in the Lower Mainland. This is usually the time of year when I get the itch to not only rearrange, but to go expanding on my collections (aka time to buy books!).

Moss grows all year round here.

I’ve picked through the used bookstores in Calgary, so now it was time to begin the invasion of local used bookstores in our new hometown. Metro-Vancouver had a ton of them to choose from, and I had a long weekend calling my name.

Photo by Samer Kayali, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Used books are like a treasure hunt for me. I have my collections that I always strive to add to, although they’re all in storage at the moment. I have pictures on my phone to reference, that way I can still collect even if I don’t have shelves to fill (yet).

The first book I found was a missing volume in my Time Life Books: The Enchanted World collection. They’re not necessarily rare or old (late 1980’s), I just like them. I collect them because of the fairy tales and mythology theme of the series. Of the 21-book series, I have 18. And today I got to add a 19th book to that collection: Spells and Bindings.

Mochi is not too happy about being used as a book prop.

In addition to finding neat books, when in used bookstores I have a handful of authors I look for to see if I can add some old editions of their novels: Jordan, McCaffrey (specifically the Pern series), Williams, and Tolkien.

This time around, I found a paperback version of The Hobbit I didn’t have!

Here it is, in all it’s … glory?

The cover is–let’s be honest–hideous. But that’s kinda what I liked about it. Unique doesn’t always mean good, but I didn’t have this version, so I was willing to look past the my-five-year-old-drew-this cover. For $6, what did I have to lose?

Once we move (which is hopefully in 2 months), I’ll be able to unite this guy with the other old paperback Tolkien books I have from the 60’s and 70’s.

What is this, and why is it touching me?

I was a bit surprised to see this version was from the early 70’s, and the more research I did, the more I found this version is considered rare due to the *ahem* unique cover, which was drawn by Tolkien himself.

The 1974 version is the 3rd Edition (and last edition) of this cover art, which began printing in 1966. I’m somewhat surprised the cover design held on that long!

For now, these two treasures will be packed safely in an old delivery box for transportation to it’s new home. I’m counting the sleeps until we get to start packing for that move. Although moving is such a pain, I’m more excited to get into our forever home.

This view is why we moved here (downtown Vancouver from the Shipyards District)

Until we move, I’m going to spend my nights designing my bookshelves for the new house, and maybe I’ll acquire a few more books along the way.

Take care!

-Rissa

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