Today’s the day for the Romance Book Blast, a multi-author promotion featuring lots of free reads. This is a great chance to find a new author or a new series to love.
There are over 1000 authors participating this time, so you should find lots of new reads. You’ll find Double Trouble on the first page for Steamy Contemporary Romance and The Wolf & the Witch in Historical Romance.
I’m updating the covers for all of the Ravensmuir books, and am starting with the Rogues of Ravensmuir. The new editions will be available in ebook, trade paperback and jacketed hardcover from retailers in February 2027. You can order copies early from me. I was planning to launch these at Kickstarter, but will offer them through my online store instead.
Let’s have a look:
These books are really pretty! As with the new editions of Blood Brothers, the Bride Quest and the Champions of St. Euphemia, we have new illustrations of the couples for each title. The illustration is on the case laminate of the hardcover, and it’s duplexed (printed on the inside) of the cover for the trade paperback.
Here’s the illustration for The Rogue:
Each print book has a chapter background which coordinates with the cover. Here’s a screenshot of the one for The Rogue:
And here’s The Scoundrel, first the new illustration, then the chapter background.
And finally for The Warrior:
These are really pretty books! I’ve ordered samples to show you, and will make a video when they arrive.
I’ve set up pre-orders in my online store for the ebooks of the new editions, which will ship automatically on July 1. You can see them here:
For the print editions, you have two choices. You can order any of the books individually and get your copy signed. If you order a set of three hardcovers at once, the store will offer free shipping for US and CA addresses, and I’ll order them in July.
Or you can order a complete set of all three to be drop-shipped to you if you live in Canada or the US. This saves you some money as well as getting the books to you early. I’ll also send you a signed bookplate for each book and a bookmark featuring the new covers. The shipping is free for US and CA addresses. I’ll leave the pre-order open until July 1, then I’ll order the books and this bundle will vanish.
This is my fake Kickstarter. 🙂 The idea is that as more people order, I’ll be able to add more goodies. I’d like to do postcards with the new illustrations, but we’ll need 15 backers for that to happen. Fingers crossed!
I’ve started the process of updating the covers for the four series set in my Ravensmuir world. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and Dar Albert – as usual – is doing a brilliant job of bringing vague ideas to life. Here’s a peek at the new Rogues of Ravensmuir covers, although they may still be tweaked.
All fourteen books set in the world of Ravensmuir are getting new covers, and new illustrations of the couples. Dar Albert is the designer. They will all be available in ebook, trade paperback (with duplexed cover) and jacketed hardcover. I’ll give you some sneak peeks as we finalize the new covers.
As has become routine, I’ll launch these at Kickstarter first, probably in August, in ebook, trade paperback and hard cover (with dust jacket). The new editions will be available at retailers in 2027.
The current print editions are being phased out at retailers. You can still order them from me at my online bookstore, Hazel & Honeysuckle Press, if you have any gaps in your collection.
Here’s the landing page for the Kickstarter campaign, so you can follow it to be notified at launch.
Amazon introduced a new auto-narrated audiobook feature recently, and I decided to try it out for The Bride Quest series. These audiobooks are available at Amazon and Audible, on their US sites only. This is a new feature so it may perk out to other geos later.
I have mixed feelings about auto-narrated, or AI-narrated audiobooks. As much as I love hiring a human narrator to perform the audio edition of any of my books, the production costs are very high. I don’t think I’ve earned back that investment on any of my audiobooks. On the other hand, these editions are more economical to produce, though they lack the perfomance aspect offered by a human narrator. It is said that some people prefer them for that reason.
The other nice thing (for consumers) is that Amz offers the audiobooks created this way as a bundle with the ebook – it’s only $1.99 more to get the audio as well as the ebook. There are pricing restrictions, and the lowest price I can set is $3.99, which is high for the novella and short story at the end of the series.
I have used the auto-narrate option at Google for audiobooks and several of my Dragonfire Novels are available that way. Unlike the auto-narrated at Google, these ones can’t be downloaded and published elsewhere – they end up being Amz exclusives. Like the Google ones, the script for the audio is generated from the ebook – unlike the interface at Google, the text can’t be edited at Amazon. Pronunciations can be adjusted and pauses can be inserted. I really like being able to edit the text at Google, but there you go. Each portal has their rules. 🙂
If you are an audiobook fan, have a listen and let me know what you think.
The audiobook covers, in this case, are the same as the ebook covers.
Now that the Blood Brothers series is complete in Italian, I’ve discounted The Wolf & the Witch‘s Italian edition (Il lupo e la strega) to 99¢ US. Unfortunately, I can’t set pretty prices for all geos. 😦
The links are still populating for the Italian edition of The Scot & the Sorceress, which is called Lo scozzese e la maga. I’ll update them on the landing page as they appear, then share them in a separate post once they’re all live.
Dopo che gli è stata negata la legittima eredità, Maximilian de Vries escogita un piano per vendicarsi del padre e assicurarsi un futuro. Alleatosi con i suoi due fratellastri si reca all’antica e misteriosa Kilderrick, deciso a prendersi il castello promessogli anni prima, a qualunque costo. Una donna, che si dice sia una strega, è l’unica coraggiosa abbastanza da sfidarlo, ma Maximilian ha la soluzione: sposarla, sia che lei voglia o no, e ottenere il dovuto.
Ma il baldo guerriero dovrà tenere testa ad Alys Armstrong, una ragazza con una sete di vendetta e una rabbia che potrebbero superare le sue. Alys non ha intenzione di cedere al possente e orgoglioso mascalzone che le ha rubato tutto, per quanto seducente sia il suo tocco, e non condivide la sua fissazione per i duelli ad armi pari.
Acerrimi nemici sin dall’inizio, l’unione di Maximilian e Alys è uno scontro di volontà. Quando scoppia la passione, saranno capaci di resistere alla tentazione? E quando Kilderrick sarà in pericolo, uniranno le forze per salvare il castello che vogliono tanto, e l’amore inaspettato a cui tengono più di ogni altra cosa?
Claire Delacroix 