The Retelling - Issue #9 (June 18th 2025)

Jun 18, 2025

In this issue of The Retelling, I’m getting real.

Things are in motion behind-the-scenes, and this issue will reveal to you (before it’s announced anywhere else):

The release date for Blood Magic’s sequel.
Details about the upcoming cover reveal.
A special edition of Blood Magic which is coming in August.

Plus, you’ll get to see some fanart, hear about some of the very real challenges I’ve been navigating this past month, and see the exact steps I’m taking to change things.

(P.S: At the very end is a little riff on stepping into the identity of a full-time author + a shoutout to my long-time, go-to mentor, so definitely check that out as well!)

RECENT BLOGS

I am back in the blogging flow again, and you can expect to see new blogs coming out more regularly over the next month.

In the meantime, you can check out my most recent blog talking about the Kingdom of Sirens and Monsters series (and why it should be next up on your TBR) here.

Blood Magic Post-Launch Promotion

It’s been two months since Blood Magic released. Sales are still coming in, even if it’s slowed to a trickle at this point, but I have a few things up my sleeve to turn this around.

Moving forward, keeping the momentum building for Blood Magic (and keeping it relevant) is a huge focus of mine, and in the previous instalment I shared a few things that I was already working on in relation to this.

Artwork

I’ve finally locked in three artwork commissions, one of which is already completed (which you can view below - credit to Artfully Lindzee). This commission is the one that I organised for the photobooth I want to have at physical events, which I’m so excited for!

In the pipeline, I also have a general, promotional/interest piece on the way (for vibe marketing) and a NSFW artwork that was *very heavily* requested in my DMs from readers. ❤️

Collaborations

I’m still participating in a group collaboration with a handful of other authors, and I’m looking into some more influencers who might be willing to receive my book as well.

Giveaways

I am planning on doing a paperback giveaway for Blood Magic soon (probably late June / early July) to pair with my cover reveal for book two. I’ve had to change my plan for this a little which is the only reason for the delay in revealing it (more details on this further down in this issue).

Guerilla Marketing

I fell down a rabbit hole of out-of-box marketing ideas the other day and had a really genius idea... then immediately designed and placed an order for 500 flyers. 😉

Let’s just say, this is the start of a new content series where I’m out in the wild, documenting some guerilla marketing strategies for fiction books. And you’ll want to keep an eye out for episode 1 when it drops.

Announcements and delays

There are a few things I’ve had to reschedule and change my approach towards, as well as some upcoming things to look forward to.

Burnt Magic - Release Date

The sequel to Blood Magic (titled Burnt Magic) will officially release on May 5th, 2026.

I originally wanted to release Burnt Magic later this year, but I've realised that it's not going to be ready until next year.

When I walked away from my publisher in 2020, part of the decision was to not be tied to deadlines and to follow my own creative process.

Having already hit 65k words, I know the first draft will be finished in the next month or so... but I also know it's going to require another rewrite and some deepening before it feels 'ready' for publication.

I will never rush a book for the sake of 'momentum'. My goal is always to deliver something I can be proud of, feel good selling, and know that it's the story I set out to tell for readers.

So, I’ve settled on this day, and I already feel so much relief and space with this new timeline so I know I made the right decision.

Burnt Magic - Cover Reveal

I am also actively working on a cover reveal event for Burnt Magic, but I want to go bigger than a standard teaser + graphic reveal on Instagram.

I originally had plans to do a burnaway cake, but I quickly realised that the full cover would not fit on a burnaway cake (and it was going to cost $300).

You might remember that I had a beautiful cake for my Blood Magic photoshoot and that cake alone was challenging to organise pick up/drop off for with a full-time job and no car. The challenge with a burnaway cake is that you pretty much have to burn it immediately, so coordinating the filming and collection would have been a nightmare for a $300 cake that wouldn’t even reveal the full cover. 💀 In the end, not worth it.

The thing is… I really want to do a burnaway something (given the title of the book and the one-time opportunity…) so now we’re working on a plan B (which might be a little bit dangerous, but thankfully I have a lot of engineer friends). 😉

Blood Magic Amazon Exclusive Edition

On August 5th I will be releasing the Amazon Exclusive Edition of Blood Magic.

This special edition includes a bonus chapter from Percy's POV at the back of the book and is the only edition that will include this chapter.

The reason I'm releasing this edition is because Amazon has been withholding from processing orders that readers have placed via Amazon since I use IngramSpark as my main printer (who is Amazon's competitor).

Quite frankly, this is disappointing but not surprising behaviour from Amazon, and at the end of the day, Amazon is the biggest book retailer in the market and the preference for many of my readers. So rather than fight them, I wanted to give them a good reason to prioritse orders for Blood Magic moving forward.

The new edition will be printed directly via Amazon's printer, and with the bonus chapter included, my hope is that it will increase demand (and therefore, increase the stock that Amazon keeps on hand in their warehouses, effectively reducing wait times for order processing).

More details about this (including how to pre-order) will be shared soon!

RECENT PODCAST EPISODES

Taking an honest look at myself

I got a little bit vulnerable this past month as I processed a lot of feelings around the release of Blood Magic.

I'm by no means discrediting the success it's had, and I'm extremely proud of what I've created (nor am I finished promoting and pushing the book).

But, it feels like I poured absolutely all of myself into this one and it didn’t even earn me a month's worth of rent coverage. So I was really sitting in this feeling of knowing I have a talent for writing, the drive and dedication, but even after 10 years I’m not able to do it full time in a paid capacity.

It was this feeling of “what else do I have to give for it to be enough?”

On the other side of this, were the logical, non-emotional thoughts and observations.

If I really look at my habits right now… they suck. I’m spending evenings scrolling on TikTok, exhausted after my day job, instead of writing the next book.

If I look at my current content and branding… it’s giving ‘indie author’ rather than global success. I even had a reader proudly display my newest book on a shelf with ‘all their other indie books’ (and I KNOW I’m proudly indie, but… why am I not just on the bookshelf with all the other books? Why am I on a specifically indie shelf?)

That’s how I know something isn’t landing right in my branding and messaging. So it actually, honestly, makes sense why I’m not there yet. I’m certainly on the right path, but there’s still work to do and things to improve on.

So, I’m actually doing something about it.

Aside from all the marketing stuff I listed out in this update, I’ve decided it’s time to do another push on upgrading my identity and stepping into the next level again. I went back to my go-to mentor, Stephanie Anne Hughson, and signed up for all her upcoming programs that spoke to me.

I’ve bought a lot from Steph over the years and I have her to thank for a lot of the business and identity work I’ve done. Even though she primarily helps online service based businesses with her work, I always get value out of her teachings because she has a fantastic way of looking at and explaining things.

Most of all, her teachings activate my delulu and help me run at things that most authors would write off as ‘difficult’ or ‘impossible’.

She’s currently running a number of upcoming programs, including:

1) A free masterclass on illogical income (which you can join here if you’re interested).

2) A secret offer (I don’t know what this is yet, I just know I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I jumped in).

3) A new program that I’ve joined in early bird which was an immediate yes from me. I won’t spoil what this is because it also hasn’t been publicly announced, but I will say that I had her Mid Year Quantum Leap 2024 session (specifically branding focused) on my purchase wish list for the past 12 months… and this feels like a natural stepping stone towards it.

(In fact, it honestly feels like divine timing given some of my realisations around branding and content that I outlined earlier.)

The reason that I mentioned Steph in this issue is because I anchored in a really important lesson earlier this week from one of her training bundles, which was this:

Your identity and who you are being is EVERYTHING.

Let me share an example that landed with me from one of her trainings, which I’ll then apply back to authorship (stick with me here).

↓↓↓

Let’s imagine, for a moment, that you’re a high ticket coach or mentor, who wants to sell a $10k offer 10 times, and bring in 6 figures.

If you’re a fellow author, I want you to really envision that scenario for a moment, of being able to close $10k sales and see that land in your bank account, and then deliver on an offer worth that much… it feels big, doesn’t it?

So the question becomes… can the average person actually hold this offer and bring in this amount of money without completely upleveling (not changing—uplevelling) themselves to do it?

→ Can you energetically/emotionally hold it?

...really visualise yourself selling and delivering this offer.

Are you showing up like a hot mess on social media promoting it? Are you running late to every client call? Are your emotions a wreck after your 9 - 5 job? Are you able to emotionally navigate what the client is bringing to the table in every call? Could you actually hold space for 10 clients at once?

Or… do you have rock solid boundaries between personal stuff and business stuff? Have you figured out a way to show up for your clients when you’re solid and can actually hold space for them?

→ Can you physically hold it?

...are you someone who can sell with consistency? Who has the stamina to do the emotional labour of 2 - 5 calls per day (possibly in your evenings or weekends?)

Or are you showing up for yourself and for your clients burnt out, unfit and exhausted?

→ Is the business even in a place to support it?

...do you have the customer service team, the onboarding processes, the automations to support the caliber of client experience your client expects after paying $10k?

↓↓↓

I took you through this example to help you really see the difference between someone doing the bare minimum vs someone who has made intentional shifts and decisions to be able to hold and show up for a bigger result.

So bringing this back to authorship… sure, your book can absolutely bring in a million dollars. And you might even argue that if only it would just happen already, of course you’d have the time and energy and money to show up on a bigger level and create a bigger result.

But you have to go first. It doesn’t happen the other way around. A million dollars won’t create itself out of thin air.

If you are not currently showing up with the identity that matches what you’re trying to create, you will struggle to actually hold that result.

And that’s why I go back to Steph, time and time again. Because she uplevels and expands and activates me. She forces me to go beyond what feels normal or comfortable. She helps me strengthen me so that I can reach my potential.

If you really want to change your results, it’s time to get brutally honest about how you’re showing up each day for your book(s). And these questions can help you audit your actions:

1) How do you approach and view marketing?

Is the majority of your time (and content) spent complaining about how hard it is and how you wish you never had to do it?

Or are you constantly working to elevate your content and make it better?

Do you stay consistent for a while then fall off the bandwagon (then repeat the cycle?)

Or are your working on processes and habits that support you to be able to show up regularly?

2) How do you handle interactions with readers?

Does one negative review throw you or lots of DMs overwhelm you?

Or can you confidently say you could hold a community with hundreds of daily conversations?

Do you actually seek out new readers and create spaces to engage with them?

Or do you ignore your readers because it’s already a lot to respond to comments/DMs and it’s the last priority on your list right now?

3) Are you showing up daily like someone doing it professionally?

Do you even write regularly? Do you hit the wordcount goals and deadlines you say you want to hit?

Or are you constantly making excuses for why you can’t and pushing it back? Are you choosing exhaustion instead of intentionally changing your habits?

How do you expect to be someone who releases 2 books a year (without a day job getting in the way) when you aren’t even trying to write regularly and build that habit now?

^ When you really visualise yourself in the identity of a full-time earning author, does that person match who you’re being right now?

If not… there’s nobody who teaches this stuff like Steph does. She is my go-to for this.

And… if you want to experience her work and see if you vibe with it, any of her free trainings are a great place to start.

Her Illogical Income Business Plan masterclass is happening this Friday, which you can sign up for here.

OTHER THINGS

Subscribe to The Retelling (free tier) to get notified when new issues are released.

Watch the 2025 Book Launch Planning Workshop to discover the exact publishing and marketing framework that I have used for my past 10 books, and adapt it for your own 2025 book releases!

Subscribe to my podcast, Bestseller Energy; the podcast for creative visionaries who are ready to transform their relationship with marketing and selling, bring their creative work to life, and launch their creative empire.

Want a preview of BLOOD MAGIC? Subscribe here to get the first 3 chapters of BLOOD MAGIC delivered straight to your inbox.

Or, you can get your copy of BLOOD MAGIC now!

If you made it to the end, thank you so much for reading this week’s instalment! I’ll be back soon with some more, behind-the-scenes updates and resources to share!

The Retelling