The culprit was a story that I added into my schedule in January, mistakenly believing it would be a novella. Kiss of Enchantment is a full-length book and one that has to be nestled into the existing world of the Dragonfire Novels. It’s the first book in a new PNR series and hopped onto my schedule during my Kickstarter campaign. It also publishes in April. I was just too optimistic about getting the story done in a short period of time and, as a result, everything moved a little bit further along the conveyor belt.
On the upside, my next Kickstarter campaign will feature new print editions of The Bride Quest – not omnibus editions, but individual hard covers and mass market editions. That will launch in May or June, and I’ll tell you more as we get closer to that. You can also follow me on Kickstarter to be notified of all new campaigns.
The Wolf & the Witch is now available in a Portuguese edition!
Negado de seu legítimo legado, Maximilian de Vries elaborou um plano para vingar-se do pai e garantir seu próprio futuro. Aliado aos seus dois meios-irmãos, ele segue para a antiga e misteriosa Kilderrick, determinado a tomar a fortaleza prometida a ele, não importa o preço. Uma mulher que se diz bruxa é a única ousada o suficiente para desafiá-lo, mas Maximilian tem uma solução, ele a tomará como esposa, quer ela esteja disposta ou não, e selará a reivindicação.
No entanto, este poderoso guerreiro ainda precisa ganhar uma batalha de mentes com Alys Armstrong, uma donzela com sede de vingança e uma fúria que pode exceder a dele. Alys não tem intenção alguma de se render ao ladino orgulhoso e poderoso que roubou tudo dela. Não importa o quão sedutor seu toque possa ser, e ela não compartilha da compulsão dele de lutar de forma justa.
Inimigos amargos desde o início, Maximilian e Alys travam uma batalha de vontades. Quando a paixão se inflama, algum deles será capaz de resistir à tentação? E quando a própria Kilderrick está em perigo, será que os dois unirão forças para salvar as terras que ambos tanto valorizam, e o amor inesperado que tanto estimam, acima de tudo?
We started the new year off well with that sale on The Wolf & the Witch. Even when I returned it to the regular price yesterday, Maximilian was still on the charts. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a long tail on a BookBub Featured Deal. He is one stubborn guy. LOL
I’m also thrilled with the results of my first Kickstarter campaign ever. The 15th Anniversary HardCover Omnibus Editions of the Dragonfire Novels funded at 350%, which was great. My plan for 2023 is to work on building my platform at KS, so I’ll be offering other existing series in new editions. Based on this campaign’s performance, I’m not going to bother with stretch goals and my new campaigns will be shorter. They’ll be more like flash sales and limited-time opportunities to buy both digital content from me and signed print books. I’ll only be selling print books directly through Kickstarter. In 2024, I plan to offer more new content through Kickstarter and Patreon early, before it’s available at the portals.
Kickstarter requires one campaign to be completely fulfilled before I can create even a landing page for a new one, so my planned campaigns for this year won’t have long previews. I hope to have four campaigns per year, two for my PNR and two for my historicals. We’ll see how the timing works out on that!
My second campaign at Kickstarter will feature hardcover omnibus editions of the Bride Quest trilogies. (Can you believe it’s been 25 years since the publication of The Princess?) There will be two omnibus editions, one for each trilogy, and the covers will look a lot like the digital bundles. There will, of course, also be some exclusive swag and the omnibus editions will only be available through Kickstarter. This first campaign will be your opportunity to have your copies signed and the page edges gilded. (This is one of my new tricks!) That will run in the spring, ideally in April, but maybe in May.
My third campaign will be for a hardcover omnibus edition of The Dragon Diaries with interior illustrations. I’d like to run another Delacroix Kickstarter in the fall, but we’ll see how the timing works out. Fulfillment of print editions can be an issue in November and December.
If you love special editions for your keeper shelf or early access to new stories, you’ll want to follow me at both Kickstarter and Patreon so you don’t miss out. Short campaigns mean you need to act quickly!
Some years fly by in a hurry and some move a little more slowly. 2022 seemed like a slow-mover to me, but maybe I was the one moving slowly. Covid really gave me a kick in January and it took me a while to get back to my regular speed. I took the month of May off, choosing to spend it in my garden and rethink my work schedule. That was great and I may make a habit of it. After that, I decided to concentrate on my historical romances for the rest of the year.
New Releases:
The Hunter & the Heiress was a surprise addition to the Blood Brothersseries – I hadn’t originally expected Amaury to need his own book, but I was happily mistaken in that. The Dragon & the Damsel was just as much fun to write as I’d anticipated as Rafael and Ceara were a great match for each other. Both of these books were also published in large print hardcover editions, like The Wolf & the Witch, and The Hunter & the Heiress is also available in audio.
I also returned to the Regency era and that interesting courtesan Esmeralda Ballantyne. She inspired a new series called The Ladies’ Essential Guide to the Art of Seduction. I published the first two works in that series, both of which were longer than I’d originally expected. I had this notion that they would be novellas of 25K words or so. Nope. The Christmas Conquest is 40K words and The Masquerade of the Marchioness is close to 70K. I need to block out more time to write these because they are longer, but they are a lot of fun to write.
This year was enormously busy for translations of my historical romances. As you can see below, there were thirty-two of them altogether. While it’s fun to see my books in other languages, I’ve dialed it back twice already because the formatting and uploading is just too much work. I’d rather be writing new stories.
Other Changes:
I did have most of my books in Kindle Unlimited for about a year, but decided this past fall that it wasn’t working out for me. They’re available at all portals again – although my Apple links have changed – and the reloading is a job I’m glad to have done. Some of my translations are still enrolled in KU and we’ll see how that goes in 2023. My newsletter moved to a new service, as well.
Coming in 2023:
I have several pre-orders already listed for the year ahead. First, there will be the next book in the Regency series, The Widow’s Wager, which features the younger sister of the Duke of Haynesdale and her secret crush, her brother’s best friend. The Scot and the Sorceress will be next – that’s Murdoch and Nyssa’s story and the finale of the Blood Brothers series. After that, I’m returning to the Rogues & Angels series with One Knight’s Desire, a tale of disguise and unexpected love. It’s pretty clear what I’ll be doing for the first six months of the year!
The Wolf & the Witch is discounted to 99cents this week, and I had a BookBub Featured Deal yesterday to promote the sale. This book has never been discounted before and it’s a series starter. Let’s have a peek at results.
The book earned an orange #1 bestseller ribbon at Amazon, in the US store, the CA store, the UK store and the AU store which is pretty exciting. I’m not sure that’s happened for one of my books before. Here’s the US store ribbon:
The ranking in that store was #201 paid overall in the store, #1 in Scottish historical romance and #1 in medieval historical romance.
At the CA store, The Wolf & the Witch is #122 paid overall in the store (yay!), as well as #1 in Scottish historical romance and #2 in medieval historical romance.
In the UK store, Maximilian and Alys’ book is #680 overall paid in the store, as well as #1 in medieval historical romance and #2 in Scottish historical romance.
In the AU store, The Wolf & the Witch is #139 overall paid in the store, plus #1 in medieval historical romance, #1 in ancient world historical romance and #1 in Scottish historical romance. Yay, Australia!
At KOBO, The Wolf & the Witch is #2 in historical romance, and #2 in romantic suspense this morning.
At Nook, The Wolf & the Witch is #12 on the Top 100 ebook list.
It’s also #3 on the Top Indie bestseller list at Nook:
And it’s #1 in both Historical Romance indie reads and Romance indie reads at Nook, too. Phew!
Finally, at Apple, The Wolf & the Witch is #75 overall paid in the store:
And it’s #27 paid on the Romance bestseller list at Apple.
That was quite a ride! Thank you to everyone who bought a copy yesterday and helped to make this possible. Alys and Maximilian’s book will be discounted until January 7, so don’t miss your chance to grab this deal!
Denied his rightful legacy, Maximilian de Vries devised a plan to avenge himself upon his father and see his own future secured. Allied with his two half-brothers, he descends upon ancient and mysterious Kilderrick, determined to seize the keep once promised to him, regardless of the price. A woman rumored to be a witch is the sole one bold enough to defy him but Maximilian has a solution—he will take her to wife, whether she be willing or nay, and seal his claim.
But this powerful warrior has yet to match wits with Alys Armstrong, a maiden with a thirst for vengeance and a fury that might exceed his own. Alys has no intention of capitulating to the proud and powerful rogue who stole everything from her—no matter how seductive his touch might be—and she does not share his compulsion to fight fair.
Bitter enemies from the outset, Maximilian and Alys’ match is a battle of wills. When passion flares, will either of them be able to resist temptation? And when Kilderrick itself is in peril, will they join forces to save the holding they each prize—and the unexpected love they value above all else?
Claire Delacroix 