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Publishing and Republishing

Posted on by karennacolcroft

As I posted a couple of weeks ago, I accidentally deleted my Amazon account–which resulted in my Kindle Direct Publishing account and all books disappearing from Amazon. (Two stories, Snow on Christmas Eve and Hooch and Howls, are available through other retailers, but the rest were Amazon exclusive.)

As of yesterday, I’ve created a new KDP account, as advised by their support team, and have republished books 1-5 of the Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat series. All five are available through Kindle Unlimited until August or September, but at that time I *might* be pulling them from KU so I can publish them through other retailers as well. (So if something like this ever happens again, at least my books will still be out there somewhere!) Next up will be Hooch and Howls, which is part of the Real Werewolves universe but not a direct part of the series and which has a connection to RWDEM 6, Take Some Tahini, which will be released in a few weeks.

Previously, I’d thought that in October, I would rerelease Dawn Over Dayfield, a previously-published suspense with romantic elements novel originally released in 2016. After thinking about it and looking at the in-universe timeline of Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat, I’ve decided to move Dawn Over Dayfield to April 2025. In October, I will be releasing Ebb and Flow, a new novel that connects to Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat and also to Hooch and Howls.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on RWDEM 7, Bring On the Broccoli… but it isn’t going quite as well as I’d hoped. I keep running into roadblocks with the story, and having to go back and change things I’ve already written. I’m hoping to finish it within the next week or so and have it ready to release in January 2025, but those plans might change if Kyle (who is the narrator of this one) doesn’t start cooperating a little better with me.

Progress…Steady Progress…

Posted on by karennacolcroft

As I posted previously, on May 19, due to a combination of factors I won’t get into again, my Kindle Direct Publishing account and all books I’d published (22, across my three pen names) were deleted. KDP support was unable to restore the account or books, so I was told to set up a new account and republish everything.

I’ve been working on it. I republished Salad on the Side (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 1), which went live on May 25 after being uploaded on May 22. I spent a few days trying to get the formatting right on Veggie Burgers to Go (RWDEM 2) and uploaded that on May 27, figuring it would take a couple-few days to publish the way Salad had… only to have it go live three hours later. (I had to do some tweaking to the paperback format, though; the final paperback version went live on May 31.)

I’ve spent a few days formatting Hummus on Rye (RWDEM 3), and uploaded that for publishing today, June 1. We’ll see how long it takes Amazon to let this one go through.

Today, I’ll be checking the formatting on Try the Tofu (RWDEM 4). The good thing is that because Veggie Burgers published faster than I thought it would, I’m ahead on republishing the books that were lost, and *might* have all of them live again before I release Take Some Tahini (RWDEM 6), which will be available for preorder on June 27 and will release July 11. Though now that I think about it, I might hold back on A Fighting Chance, which was only out for 10 days before I lost the account; that book didn’t get much promotion or attention because there simply wasn’t time, so I might hold off on it and do a rerelease in August or September. I’ll ponder that…

I’ve also been working on Bring On the Broccoli (RWDEM 7). That book has lagged a bit, partly because of the traveling I’ve done (two trips to Canada in the space of two weeks, one to see my kid graduate veterinary school and help them get things underway to move back to the US, the other for the actual move because the planned moving assistance wasn’t available) and partly because I got stuck and had to go back to the beginning to do some tweaking and editing so I could unstick myself. I hope to have the first draft of this book finished within the next week or two, and it’s planned for publication in January 2025.

Meanwhile, my kid has now moved back to the US and is living with me and my husband, so we’re in the process of unpacking, fitting kid’s household stuff into our house, and figuring out how to coexist since they (the kid) haven’t lived with us full time since they were in high school–8 years ago. So things are a bit jumbled, but progress is being made.

Since Veggie Burgers to Go is available now, here’s the cover as a refresher. Fun fact: The background of this cover is a photo taken by my aforementioned kid.

So…I Screwed Up. Bigtime.

Posted on by karennacolcroft

I spent the week of May 12-18 in Canada, watching my younger kid graduate from veterinary school and be officially granted the title of Doctor! This was exciting, and I’m very thankful to have been able to not only witness it, but be a part of the ceremony presenting my kid with their white coat, the symbol that they have moved from student to professional. We also did some packing and planning for their move back to the US, which will be happening within the next few days.

On May 19, I sat down and said to myself, “I should close my Canadian Amazon Prime account, There’s no point in paying for it when I only had it so I could send things to my kid in Canada.”

What wound up happening, through a combination of unclear instructions and me not taking enough time to think things through (I own *most* of the responsibility here, but don’t take *all* of it since some was due to Amazon’s phrasing), was that I completely deleted my Canadian Amazon account, not just the Prime part. Which would have been fine… except that it ALSO deleted my US Amazon account. Which was connected to my Kindle Direct Publishing account. Which meant *that* account also vanished–along with all of my books. (As of today, some of the *paperbacks* still show up on Amazon if you search, but they’re listed as “out of print.” The Kindle versions are gone completely.)

I spent May 19 and 20 calling and emailing Amazon customer service and KDP Support. The final answer was “You deleted the account, and when the customer deletes it, we can’t restore it.” KDP Support tried everything they were able to do but couldn’t bring back the books, so a higher-up told me to create a new KDP account and republish the books. This unfortunately means the ratings and reviews are gone entirely, which I am sad about, but at least the books can exist again.

In order to avoid tripping Amazon’s “scammer/bot” button, I am republishing the books week-by-week. I discovered with Salad on the Side that it can take longer than I thought for the books to appear, so the dates below are Thursdays but the books might take until Friday or Saturday of that week to actually go live on Amazon. (I uploaded Salad on the Side on Wednesday evening; the paperback was available Friday evening, and the Kindle showed up sometime during Friday night. I’ll be uploading the rest of the books earlier in the week to try to actually hit the Thursdays listed below.)

My planned schedule for the Karenna Colcroft books:

Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat series:

Salad on the Side                       May 23

Veggie Burgers to Go             May 27

Hummus on Rye                       June 3

Try the Tofu                                June 7

Tempeh for Two                      June 10

TAKE SOME TAHINI        Preorder June 27; release July 11

Since Take Some Tahini is a new release, and is the first brand-new Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat novel since 2014, I will be focusing on releasing and promoting that book from June 27 until the end of July.

Non RWDEM books:

Fill the Empty Spaces        June 14

Hooch and Howls               June 17 (NOTE: This book was published “wide,” which means it is still available through retailers other than Amazon. The date here is *only* for Amazon; you can still buy this book elsewhere before this)

Chance Met                          June 21

A Fighting Chance           June 24

 

Currently, I do not plan to republish Alpha Receptor and Beta Test, the two heterosexual werewolf romances connected to Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat. Under the Karenna Colcroft name, at this point I’m focusing on male/male romance, and those books were not selling. (Also, Beta Test was heavily pirated as soon as it was released, which to be honest pisses me off.) If any readers would like copies of those two books, please feel free to email me at karennacolcroft @ karennacolcroft .com (remove the spaces) to request either an EPUB or PDF of them. I also have a very few paperback versions, which I would be happy to sign and send for the cost of postage (we can discuss it via email).

Salad on the Side is now available again! And since I had to republish it anyway, I chose to give it a new cover.

Um… Oops… Lost Track of Time…

Posted on by karennacolcroft

A few weeks ago, I posted that I would be moving to a new apartment. That was happening in the middle of my husband and me both having and recovering from norovirus, me recovering from minor surgery, and me trying to release and promote Hooch and Howls.

Dang, March was a long month!

We are now mostly settled in our new apartment. I’m still waiting for hubby to purchase the kitchen island/cart/counter/whatever he promised, which he says might happen tomorrow. I also need to buy a new chair or two for the living room, which will happen… um, eventually.

But meanwhile, we’re here. A much quieter, larger, brighter apartment, with pretty much everything that’s here so far in its place. We have our own washer and dryer, which is incredible luxury after almost seven years of sharing two washing machines with 6 other units, and sharing a dryer with two of those other units. I recovered from norovirus only to have a reaction to a new antidepressant I was on (which I’ve since been weaned off), followed by catching a bad cold which, at least, was only a cold.

But on the plus side, in addition to getting through the move, I released Hooch and Howls on schedule, and it’s gotten a 4-star review! I’m feeling much better physically now, and hoping that I’ve gotten all of my illnesses for 2024 out of the way already so I can have a peaceful, healthy remainder of the year. We had a snowstorm on Wednesday and Thursday, but the snow from that has melted.

I hope y’all are doing well. Here’s a picture of part of the living room of the new place:

May be an image of grandfather clock and indoors

Random Stuff

Posted on by karennacolcroft

I really stink at blog post titles.

Tempeh for Two has been out for almost two weeks now, and I’m so excited to see people buying not only this book but the previous books in the Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat series! Also, Tempeh has gotten a couple of really good reviews, which I need to remember to add to this website.

I’m doing a random stuff post because I’m dealing with some personal life things that are taking my time, focus, and mental bandwidth. Without going into a lot of detail, if you’re someone who does energy, or prayer, or anything along those lines, I’d appreciate some going toward my 77-year-old father, and some going toward me and my kid and son-in-law who are trying to help my father.

Since finishing writing Ebb and Flow (which may turn out to be the first book of a new series, a spin-off from Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat) and releasing Tempeh, I’ve taken a short break from doing Karenna stuff to work on some young adult fiction. From 2010-2017, I had several young adult novels published under the pen name of Jo Ramsey. From 2005-2010, I wrote 40 YA novels, some of which were among those published, and which form one long series broken into three “branches,” and a separate but connected shorter series. I’m currently going through all 40 of those books to see whether I can–and want to–rewrite, update, and edit them to eventually self-publish. It’s work, but it’s been fun work, and it’s helped keep me together through dealing with the aforementioned personal life stuff.

Hopefully next week I’ll have an update about my March release. I’m not entirely sure if the book I was planning to release in March, A Fighting Chance (follow up to Chance Met) will be ready, but I have another book that will definitely be ready for March if A Fighting Chance isn’t. So stay tuned!

Tough Time of Year

Posted on by karennacolcroft

At this time of year, a lot of people post about how wonderful the holidays are. They fill Facebook and other social media with pictures of decorations, dinners, family and friends. And for some people, the holidays really are wonderful.

For others, they aren’t. This can be a very difficult time of year for some people, for various reasons. There might be estrangement from family members. Loss of loved ones. Not coping well with the increased amount of darkness for those of us in the northern hemisphere. For all kinds of reasons, this can be a tough time of year.

For me, this year, it’s very tough. I’m not going to go into why, because it isn’t something I want to talk about publicly at this point. I am managing, to some extent. I have some support from people in my life, including my therapist. After the first of the year when things reopen on regular schedules, I’ll be getting additional help to cope with what’s going on. But it’s difficult and painful, and it’s making this season not…something I want to celebrate this year.

I am thankful to my kids and spouse, and to the friends who know the situation who’ve been checking in with me. I am not the person who is most heavily impacted by what’s going on, but I am impacted, and it helps to have that validated.

I’m also thankful to the people who have no idea what’s going on and don’t even know me, who are bringing me bits of joy. Someone bought a copy of one of my nonfiction channeling books (written as River Lightbearer). Someone else bought a copy of one of my children’s fiction books (written as Kim Ramsey-Winkler). Someone emailed me in response to my announcement of the Tempeh for Two release date telling me how much she loves the Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat series and that she can’t wait for this next book.

At this time of year, to those of you for whom it truly is a wonderful time of year, I’m sincerely happy for you, and I hope you cherish what you have. For those who are struggling, be kind to yourselves. Don’t force the “holiday cheer” if it isn’t there for you. Honor how you feel and what you need. And for everyone: Remember that you don’t know what someone else is dealing with. Be compassionate, and don’t underestimate the power of what seems like a tiny gesture.

Yule (Winter Solstice) is imminent here in the northern hemisphere. Darkness will begin to ebb; light will become more prevalent. And hopefully things will become easier.

Advent Calendar Event

Posted on by karennacolcroft

For the month of December, I and a number of other awesome authors are participating in Ellen Mint’s Advent Calendar Giveaway!

ADVENT CALENDAR GIVEAWAY

December 1st-25th

Goodies Given Away Every Day Totaling $550

It’s Christmas every day with this romantic Advent Calendar giveaway. Twenty-Five authors have teamed up to bring you over $550 worth of prizes. Every day another door opens and another giveaway chance for you to win!

Each day, return to the site to click on the calendar and open the door to another fantastic prize. Be swept away this holiday season by gripping romance, pampering treats, cozy gifts, and an amazing offer hidden inside the calendar.

The giveaway is sponsored by these wonderful authors:

Ellen Mint • Melissa McClone • Kara Kendrick • Jordyn Kross • Totally Entwined Group • Heather DiAngelis • Tracy Sumner • Seelie Kay • Kristian Parker • Tracy Krimmer • Cass Scotka • Kat Turner • S J Coles • Sara Ohlin • Karenna Colcroft • H.M. Shander • Katherine Grant • Charissa Gracyk • C. J. Burright • Serena James Chase • Robin Jeffrey • Megan Slayer • Ella J. Smyth • Rosanna Leo • V.J. Allison

Just go to https://ellenmint.blog/advent-calendar each day to see which author is giving away what awesome prize! My day is this Friday, December 15, in honor of my dad’s birthday.

Cat Pic

Posted on by karennacolcroft

I haven’t been feeling well this week and was struggling to think of something to post here. So I decided to share a cat picture. I volunteer at a local cat cafe, which was fictionalized in my novel Fill the Empty Spaces. (The humans who work at the cafe in the book bear no resemblance at all to the real-life humans, but the cats in the story are real cats who lived at the cafe at the time I was writing the book. Some of whom are still there.)

This is one of the newer cats at the cafe, and I absolutely love her. Despite her appearance, she is so lovable and cuddly, and she purrs so loudly you can hear her across the cafe!

Her appearance is also how I feel when I’m sick and trying to edit a book (I spent the week doing final edits on Tempeh for Two).

Enjoy Shaylee!

Lewiston Strong

Posted on by karennacolcroft

I grew up in Maine and lived there until 2009. During some of that time, I lived within 20 miles of the city of Lewiston. A city which is now internationally known for the worst, most painful of reasons. My heart and thoughts are with those affected by last week’s tragedy.