As part of my preparation for moving forward as a hybrid author, a friend and I had fun figuring out, and playing on, Canva.

In hindsight I now realise that when I released my first book in 2011 I didn’t know as much about what I needed to do to promo it. I figure now, with a backlist to get back out there, self publishing brings with it a chance for a second go.

I’m aiming to re-release my backlist starting next month with a one books a month schedule so I can spread the word about each ‘new again’ release as I go. It’s also an opportunity to tweak a few things, add a couple of epilogues, rebrand a few with shiny covers, and change all the UK/NZ/European set stories into UK/NZ English.

One of the reasons for the Canva fun was that I’ve set up a FB page so I can post all my hosting and reviews there so it’s away from my profile. I don’t trust FB with some of the stuff it’s doing, so having an author page seemed like a sensible way to go so I can promo my own books from it as well.

A new page needs a new banner, and while I was on a banner making spree I updated my profile, and made one for my new readers group. We also made graphics for the regular readers group weekly fun—Promo Monday, Reading Rec Tuesday, and Feline Friday.

I’ve added a landing page for my newsletter and made a shiny avatar for that too. I’m aiming to try to be more regular with that. We’re doing monthly short story prompts for our library’s Writers’ Table group so I will be sharing some of those in my newsletters as they will be featuring characters from my books. This month’s prompt is ‘crime’ and ‘avocado’. I’m going to have fun getting both of those into a story.

I’ve also taken a deep breath and put my photo out on the net instead of the icon I’ve been using.

So, with most of the ground work set, I’m currently trying to finish my first draft of my current WIP, because once I start on re-publishing my backlist, I’m not going to get near it for months.

Most of my books will be re-releasing over the next year, as well as hopefully a new one or two. Going forward, I’m aiming to self publish everything except for the co-written stories. Sunset at Pencarrow, written with Lou Sylvre will be re-released early next year from JMS Books. We also have a new story, The Harp and the Sea, coming from NineStar Press later in 2020.

I want to rework my Hidden Places series more substantially before re-releasing it and add couple of books to it—one at the beginning, and one at the end to finish off the series. Cat’s Quill was my first book and I’ve a learnt a lot since then. I’m aiming to re-launch the series when it’s almost finished so readers won’t have to wait too long between books. Unfortunately, this means the existing books will be unavailable for a lot longer.

Once most of my backlist is back out in the world, I’ll be focusing on finishing my dragons’ series. I’m aiming to hold back book 1 in case I want to rework it slightly, and release all three within six months.

After that, I’m aiming to alternate writing between my new Kiwi Psi series, and my Sleepless City spin off. At my regular writing speed I average two books a year, so that should work out to be one release from each of those series each year. There will be some crossover between the two, so look out for vampires lurking around the halls of Victoria University in Wellington.

I’m excited to be able to write the series I want to, and continuing with the cameos/easter eggs that I love to pop in across my books. I blame the vampires.

Meantime I’d love to see some of you in my readers group and/or signing up for my newsletter.