Greetings folks!
It’s been a little longer than intended, but I didn’t want to post anything until I had something substantial to say. Now I do! For the record, I do want to post monthly updates, so (hopefully) going forward you’ll be hearing a lot more from me.
If you want something in between these newsletters, you’re welcome to follow me on Instagram or tiktok!
First things first, I’ve been receiving mixed feedback on where emails end up, specifically this newsletter. If you subscribe and you don’t see a newsletter for a while, I suggest checking your spam/junk mail because Life in Alhan may have ended up in there. Once you see it, make sure to mark as not spam and you shouldn’t have any issues. I guess because this is a new website and something you haven’t received anything from yet, emails from me are suspicious to your email. But now you know! Make sure to check your junk, but hopefully I end up in your regular mail!
Remember in my October Newsletter I mentioned being on a podcast? Did you not get to tune in for the whole thing? Well here is a link to said podcast! Highlight: Into the Geekdom!!! Author Hannah Manders joins us – Twitch We talk about my book and a few other nerdy things. If anything, it’s an hour and forty minute listen for you to pass your time and get to know me more as a person!
A couple notes: 1) you’ll want to skip to about 5-6 minutes in as it takes that long for us to start.
2) If you aren’t a fan of Harry Potter, there are mentions of it around, 15 minutes, 18 minutes, 21 minutes, and 54 minutes in, albeit very brief! 3) At one point I mention the shirt I’m wearing which says In My Fantasy Era. You can purchase this shirt from https://fictionandfibre.ca/ a lovely local small business!
SO, did you purchase a copy of Time, Swords and Blood yet? If you have, chances are you may have one of the pre-revised versions! I submitted a revision at the beginning of December so most of those spelling/grammar errors I mentioned in my last newsletter have been resolved! I had some help from a good friend then read through it in three days after not touching it for two months. Fresh eyes really helped and I’m honestly super proud of myself because reading a book in three days is currently my fastest book-reading record. It was first held by Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. Now that title is shared with my own book (which I originally read in five days during my last edit before my first submission).
If you have one of these books, know you now have a collector’s item! Or I imagine it will be one day! There are less than 85 copies out in the world without the revision and I’m super excited to order a shipment of the new revised copies.
Anyway, here are some other things I was hoping to cover with this newsletter:
I FIXED MY SHIPPING RATES!
For the first month and a half after my book release, my website was trying to charge $20 for shipping a bookmark and that was a COMPLETE overcharge. However, I solved the issue after reading three different articles about understanding how to navigate prices with the personal website creator I use. I’m happy because if you do it right, you only have to do it once AND NOW I DON’T HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT AGAIN! HA!
I can’t check worldwide, but I know it’s definitely resolved for Canada and I can only assume it’s working for every other country too. It’s supposed to be shipping based on the highest shipping cost. For example: a book is being shipped for $20 CAD, a bookmark is being shipped for $5 CAD. If you ordered both a book and bookmark, you should be charged $20 for shipping. Not $25 OR $40 because my website was trying desperately to charge $20 shipping for every item. No thank you.
Again, I’m positive this issue is resolved, so I’m glad I don’t need to think about it any more.
That being said, have you noticed there are more goodies available for purchase on my website?
What’s the most exciting thing you can get on there? Along with the bookmarks and stickers I have available, I’d love to tell you about Letter From A Friend which will be available before the release of my ebook in 2025.
Did you really like a character in Time, Swords, and Blood? Did you wonder what it would be like to have them as a friend? Now you can! I encourage you to check that listing for more details once it’s up!
I was inspired to do this after seeing etsy sellers selling love letters and care packages from fictional characters. Who better to write a letter to you from a fictional character than the person who created that character themselves!
When can I expect an ebook?
I am currently in the process of converting Time, Swords, and Blood into EPUB format, which is what I need to submit my ebook for purchase. You can expect it for sale as of Sunday January 19th, three months after the release of the print copy of Time, Swords, and Blood!
If you want an ebook, I will encourage you to purchase it at launch because I’m going to be pricing it lower for the first three months of release. This is in an effort to gain more traction on my precious book baby before raising the price to the number I want to sell it for permanently. I did some research with a fellow author and a friend who is a big reader on pricing and this is the direction I’ve decided to go. I’m so so SO excited about this next step!
Have you started writing your next book?
Though I’ve been trying to stick to the more business side of things with being an author, I admit the goblin brain does win most days and the next book in the series is underway. I originally told myself I had to finish all my website modifications, ebook, ect. before I allowed myself to start working on the next project, but the fact is I have about 70 000 words for it so far. As you read this, I am probably finishing my DRAFT ZERO. (Draft zero being my super disgusting word vomit draft before I am ready to say my first draft is done) I’m so excited for you guys to read the next one.
When can readers expect your next book?
2026.
I want it to be good. I want it to be better than Time, Swords, and Blood. I know how I want to change things for this book vs how I did them for Time, Swords, and Blood. After going through a lot of the beautiful growing pains being a debut author has, I have a better understanding about how I want everything to go for my next title. My readers will receive an actual release date next year on the one-year anniversary of Time, Swords, and Blood. This way I can really promote this child of mine with the love it deserves.
Do you have a name for your next book?
Yes! I have the names for my next four! Time, Swords, and Blood was actually the most difficult title for me to name and was the last one to get named during my creative process. SPOILER: Throughout the next four books readers will be following the same spirits they got to know in Time, Swords, and Blood, but they will be brand new characters/people. Readers will really get to know them because they will be watching them grow over the course of these four books rather than just one!
If you want to know the title of my next book, you should give the Into the Geekdom Podcast I did two months ago with my buddy thechefmike! (Link somewhere earlier in this post)
Anyway, I can’t think of anything else to bring up other than I’d like to mention that I want more people subscribed to my newsletter! SO, here is an incentive for you readers:
Invite your friends to join! Tell them all about me and my book!
If I get 15 more subscribers before the end of January, my next blog will include a scene I pulled from Time, Swords, and Blood during one of my final edits. Just so you really understand: this is canon information for the world in Time, Swords, and Blood. It simply did not make the cut for the final book. I’m hoping to have a collection of short stories about different characters in the distant future and these pieces of bonus content will be included in said collection, but if I have 15 more subscribers before the end of January readers can have them sooner!
If I get 10 more, I’ll post a recipe for one of the dishes readers saw in the book instead. If I get 5, readers will just have to wait until I put out a new incentive!
This is your monthly reminder that if you have a discord and haven’t joined my discord for Alhan yet, you’re welcome to do so here: https://discord.gg/reSxJUfj
I’d love to see my book community grow and I really am a sucker for talking about anything in my book. You can chat with me directly there! How often do you get to rant directly to the author about things?! Now is your chance to get in on that!
With that, chat again next year!
HAM
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