We're even more golden!
We might even be glowing! Details inside plus your first look at the new redesigned covers for our newsletter adventures special editions.
Hey, I'm back some good news finally and a dilemma.
After weeks of calling customer service and getting nowhere, multiple reps told Melinda that her original account is not recoverable. :(
The only option left: create a new Amazon account and and call each department and tell them the situation and beg them to transfer her content to the new account.
So Melinda did that. She replied to the email from the publishing group (KDP) and requested they merge her old account with her new one. They haven’t replied yet, but they have been recommending that Melinda do this for a week now, so we’re not worried about that.
Audible
Melinda called Audible and an angel answered the phone. Melinda told her the situation and she was surprised the account recovery reps told her to do that. She knew just who to contact within the back office and by the end of the 40 minute call, ALL the audiobooks Melinda bought over the years were moved to her new account!
So Melinda is relieved and much happier. She was losing sleep over this because she listens to audiobooks every day, except when she’s writing. So not having access to them was really getting to her.
I suggested she should listen to that app on her phone that reads our story aloud so she can edit Storm Spells and why not start editing Void Spells too?
She doesn’t need to finish the book before editing it. That’s just a formality.
So she took my advice and did that, and I am happy to report that Storm Spells is back from the editor and ready to send to Patrons and paid Substack members. It’ll go out to those lucky folks today
Prime Music & Video and Kindle Books
Today, Melinda will call the department for Kindle books and the one for Prime Music & Video and ask for her content to be moved.
When she asked about this two weeks ago, a rep at Kindle said they couldn’t move kindle libraries between accounts. So I’ll report back next on whether she succeeded.
So please take this as a cautionary tale and buy digital content from kickstarter or directly from your favorite author so no company can take it away from you.
While going through this, Melinda proved to the account recovery team that Amazon’s system will create a new account if you enter a different password even if an account already exists for that email address. And it will remove your email address from that original account.
Unfortunately, they won’t do anything about that bug.
Melinda even spoke to their supervisor, but he didn’t even listen to anything she said and just dismissed her. He didn’t care that she works in ecommerce and finding these kinds of bugs is literally her job. But she does that for another company.
I warned her that might happen. Amazon makes a lot of money. They can lose customers, and it doesn’t affect their bottom line much. And now onto our dilemma.
The Dilemma
Since the books based on our newsletter adventures has grown to 7 books, we’re having trouble figuring out how to contain them.
When did that happen?
Last week! Read about the new book that might be the series finale:
Originally, we planned to do 2 hardcover omnibuses. But we can't fit all seven stories into 2 omnibuses. There’s too many pages, and there are limits on how many pages you can have in a physical book.
We can put the brand new Curse Breaker in NY trilogy in one omnibus, since it’s 3 books. Since the Curse Breaker’s Companion series is now 4 books long, we’ll divide this one up into two hardcover omnibuses.
So that’s the current plan. Three hardcover omnibuses divided up thusly:
A Curse Breaker in NY Books 1-3 (it will have the following books inside: Catch the Scribe, Book Battles, and Rogue Characters.) ← 3 new books!
Curse Breaker’s Companion Books 1-2 (it will have the following books inside: Dragon Spells and Rogue Spells)
Curse Breaker’s Companion Books 3-4 (it will have the following books inside: Storm Spells and Void Spells.) ← 2 new books!
But that leaves us with a problem for paperback omnibuses because the Curse Breaker in NY Books 1-3 omnibus is over 800 pages long, and that would strain the spine of a paperback book.
There's no good way to divide up the seven books so each paperback omnibus stays under 600 pages and contains all 7 books. At least none we can think of unless we split one book in half and put half in one omnibus and half in another.
But that would be weird. So we’re not doing that.
The other option is to offer the paperbacks as individual books, but they will be the retail editions with no images, no foiling, and no fancy edges. So just the hardcover books will have the fancy stuff.
And we’re making them even fancier!
Take a look at the newly redesigned covers:
We licensed the border and some illustrations from an artists recommended to us, and I can’t wait to show you the backside of each cover. Unfortunately, Melinda hasn’t finished redesigning them, so you have to wait until next week.
The blue may print darker than shown in the image. We’ll find out when we get proofs. But we can’t get them yet since I might have convinced Melinda to make the edge design more epic too!
What if the edges from all 3 hardcovers formed an image if you stood them next to each other?
We’ll still have the NY skyline when you open the book, but when the books are closed, their edges could make an image. Melinda is trying to figure out how to do that while trying to finish Void Spells and fighting all my attempts to get a side quest.
So come back next week to find out if I got one and for more sneak peaks as Melinda finalizes designs and stops taking design direction from me.
I’m Ran, Sarn’s son from the Curse Breaker series, and I’ve been your host this week. follow the campaign so you can get 5 brand new epic fantasy/portal fantasy mashups. We’re still shooting for January to launch it.
Book Deals & Special Editions
Riders of Fire: Dragon Masters 1-3 Luxe Omnibus
Epic dragon rider fantasy with high-stakes adventure and no-spice romance, bound in a gorgeous illustrated, holo-foiled edition! Back it before it ends:
Goodness, your books look more and more attractive. Though what's inside continues to be stellar. I'm relieved to hear the "golden" good news regarding rescues of stories. I hope all with you is good, as good with Ran.