It’s been a month! In 3 short weeks, we found a ranch in Arkansas, packed up our house and livestock and left our native Colorado state. It’s been an adventure, not all of it fun, but we’ve learned so much about the new state we’ve chosen to call home. On a day that I was feeling slightly homesick, I received an email from the American Legacy Book Awards. End of Crows won the Epic Adventure category! Not only that, it was also a finalist in their Fantasy AND Adventure categories! This brings my series to SIX book award wins so far, with Rise of Falcons being nominated for four categories this year. To say I’m excited is an understatement.
I’m also in the process of rebranding. Years ago, when my series was first being banned, I followed several authors’ advice to use that banning to market and promote the series. The belief that banning books caused huge jump in sales proved to be the opposite for my series, for whatever reasons, and I didn’t like the negative connotation that came with it. I was also confused on which category/genre my series fit into. It’s won YA, Adventure, Action and even Fantasy. I was told that I needed to focus on a specific genre and stick with it. After summarizing my series, we narrowed it down to dystopian. With that figured out, I’ve changed the categories, the blurbs and even updated the covers to fit the top selling books in my genre. I won’t lie, I’m LOVING the new covers!
I’m finishing up the fifth book in the series and excited to move towards this new direction my Small Sacrifices is going. I’ll be celebrating more wins, accomplishments and rewarding those fans who have supported and loved Willow’s story even during the trying times. Thank you is not enough!
