Writer’s Corner: Author of the Future – Selling Books

Posted: March 2, 2026 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Book Promotion, Book Release, Book Sales, Books, Crowd Funding, Direct Sales, Kickstarter | Tags: Crowd Funding, Direct Sales, Kaye Lynne Booth, Kickstarter, The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2 Double Visions, Writer's Corner, Writing to be Read | 2 Comments

I’ve run a few Kickstarter campaigns in the past, and I’m running one this month for my Time Travel Adventure Series and the release of the second book, The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions. It began yesterday, March 1, and will run through March 28th, 2026. (Little secret: March 3rd is my birthday, but your gift of support lasts forever.) If you’d like to check it out, and maybe even support this author with a pledge, you can check it out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kayelynnebooth-wcp/the-rock-star-and-the-outlaw-2-double-visions

I started down this road back in 2023, when I successfully funded two campaigns, including one for the first book in this series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw. I chose to sell my books through Kickstarter because the buzz is, that Direct Sales and Kickstarters are the successful author’s future. Since the WordCrafter website isn’t set up for direct sales as yet, Kickstarter looked to be the best option.

We’ve Come a Long Way Baby

When I first started writing books, the publishing world was entering a transition phase. Traditional publishers had run the show for a very long time, and if you were an author, you peddled your book to literary agents. Once you found one of those, they would peddle your book to publishers and hopefully, found it a home with one of the Big Five. Or, you could peddle your book to smaller, independent publishers and try to find a home for your book yourself. Either way, very few authors found a way in, and even fewer made the best seller lists. If you were fortunate enough to be picked up by a traditional publisher, you might get a substantial advance when you signed your contract, which the book would have to earn out in sales before you could receive any further royalties. If the book didn’t earn out, you never saw another dime. But this was the way the publishing industry worked. You didn’t get in without making it past the gatekeepers; the agents and publishers who held all the power.

At that time, independent publishing carried a nasty taste with it. The world of independent publishing was filled with vanity presses that would publish your book for a cost, and they thoroughly took advantage of authors who tried to buck the system and bypass the gatekeepers. As publish on demand (POD publishing) gained popularity, it offered authors the opportunity to publish their work for much cheaper, but it also opened the door for anyone who wanted to, to claim authorship. Not everyone cared about quality, and authors who chose this cheaper route were likely to have skipped costly steps like editing, too. This flooded the market and gave independent authors a bad name, but traditional publishers still viewed them not as a threat, but a nuisance.

Traditional publishers stuck to their guns, and continued to do things the same way they always had, because that was the way it had always been. But as they began to falter, their advance payments grew smaller and smaller, and today, even if you get a traditional deal with one of the Big Three, you may not receive an advance at all. Indie authors began to hit the best seller lists, offering some real competition and traditional publishers began to take indie publishing more seriously. Suddenly, there was a new route past the gatekeepers. If your book hit the best seller lists, a traditional publisher might come knocking with an offer, even if you weren’t looking for one.

And why should independent authors go trad? With only small advances being offered, if at all, and less and less of the marketing efforts being put forth by trad publishers, there really was little reason to go with traditional publishing unless you were just after the literary prestige. An indie author, who did the work to publish and market their own work got to keep more of their royalties than the 40% traditional publishers were offering.

With the rise of aggregators, such as Lulu, Smashwords, and Draft2Digital, independent publishing became even cheaper for authors, and traditional publishing continued to look less and less appealing, at least to me. So today, authors can do it all. Write the story, publish the book, and market it, all by themselves. That’s a lot. So, of course, they can also choose to outsource any of the work, depending on how much they want to spend. Because it’s all up to them. The author is the boss and the choices are all theirs.

Now we are faced with more choices about where to sell our books. We can publish exclusively, placing them on Amazon in Kindle Unlimited, but to me, that’s putting all your eggs in one basket. We can publish wide and place our books on retail sites around the globe. Or we can sell direct from our website, start a store on Shopify, or sell through crowd funding on Kickstarter.

Many authors use a combination, selling direct or crowd funding and placing their books on retail sites, as well. This is what I perceive to be the future of book marketing. Direct sales are how authors can make the most money from their books, but retail stores have the visibility to get their books discovered.

Why do I say these are the future of book marketing?

Come along as we explore the pros and cons, below.

Direct Sales

Direct sales are the best way to go if you are able to set up a store on your site. Having an onsite store would be a bigger expense from the hosting site, in order to give your site monetary capabilities, so it is more expensive initially. I’m still struggling to get enough sponsors and donations to cover the annual costs of the Writing to be Read site on the current level, so the upgrade must wait, although this would be my preference for selling my books.

Why?

One big reason is authors who sell through direct sales cut out the retailer middle men and get to keep more money from each sale. So, when you can buy a book directly from the author’s site, you are supporting that author more than the person who buys the same book through a retail site. Because they don’t have to pay 30-70% of their royalties out to retailers, the savings can be considerable.

Authors may have to do all the marketing for their books, but these days, that may be the case even with traditional publishing, so why not do the work and reap the reward?

The Kickstarter Platform

Kickstarter is a crowd funding platform that can be a great way to finance all your creative projects, if done right. They keep a small percentage of each project that is successfully funded. So, while you are giving them a small cut of the royalties, they handle the collection and distribution of monies, and provide promotional materials in return. Plus, it gives.you access to the crowd funding community, which is big on creative projects and accustomed to supporting them. And if it doesn’t fund, it doesn’t cost you anything.

I like running Kickstarter campaigns upon launch because I can offer books at less than the prices set on retail sites, and exclusive offers, such as signed print copies or special edition books, which aren’t available anywhere else, so my readers benefit, too. I can also offer package deals, combining two or more books.

For those same reasons, it pays to support your favorite authors on the Kickstarter platform because you can get some really awesome deals on some really great books. I not only sell on Kickstarter, but I’m also a supporter of the projects of others. You can show your support, usually for as little as $5. It’s a great way to get books and other exclusive merchandise, and of course, I wrote reviews for all the books I bought to further show support for the author.

International bestselling author, Kevin J. Anderson, runs at least two Kickstarter campaigns per year, with some astounding results. Likewise, Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Katherine Rusch run several each year. As does author Russell Nohelty. But you don’t have to be a big name to run a successful Kickstarter campaign. I’m the proof of that. To date, I have run three successful campaigns and only one that failed to fund.

The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions Campaign

If you’d like to support this author and help to fund my current campaign for The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions, drop in via the link below. We have great deals on Books 1 & 2 of the Time Travel Adventure Series, including signed print copies, plus posters and goodies bags available only through the Kickstarter campaign. All support is greatly appreciated.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kayelynnebooth-wcp/the-rock-star-and-the-outlaw-2-double-visions

About The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions

In 1887, LeRoy is stuck, bringing trouble down on those around him. Sissy is kidnapped and he’s the only one who can save her.

She wakes up in 2030, in a future very different to the one she knows, one in which she may not have been born. Amaryllis will stop at nothing to find LeRoy fix what she messed up in the past.

She and a version of Monique which is different from the one she grew up with travel back to 1887 to try and make things right.

Add two time travel regulators from the future who are after the time module, and things begin to get wild.

When the time loops are crossed, things change, but not the way Amaryllis intended and pretty soon, everybody is seeing doubles.

Book Cover: The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions by Kaye Lynne Booth

If you’d like to know more about the second book in the Time Travel Adventure Series, we’ll be running a book blog tour March 23-27, 2026, right here on Writing to be Read. Join us for readings and guest posts about the inspiration and creation of this series, and a great giveaway of digital and signed print copies.

About Kaye Lynne Booth

For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and Book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders.

Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.

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Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.

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This segment of “Writer’s Corner” is sponsored by the Robbie’s Inspiration blog site, where you can find ideas on writing and baking with hostess, Robbie Cheadle.

Writer’s Corner: Who Are You Writing For?

Posted: February 2, 2026 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Book Promotion, Writer's Corner, Writing | Tags: BookMarketing, Kaye Lynne Booth, Writer's Corner, Writing, Writing to be Read | 2 Comments

Who are you writing for?

This was the first question posed to me in graduate school. And it baffled me. What did my instructor mean? I write because I have something to say, because there are words inside of me that need to come out. At the time, if there was any one person I wrote for it was my deceased son, Michael, who had been my biggest fan when he was alive.

But that wasn’t what he meant. He meant who was my target audience. I wasn’t writing for an audience of teenaged boys, who were on the verge of becoming men, which is the audience my son would fall into. At the time I had written a few short stories, and had not yet tried my hand at a longer, book length work, but nothing that members of such an audience would be drawn to.

He meant that I needed to know about the persons who would want to read my books, so I could write them in a way that would appeal to them and draw readers from that group to them. I needed to know what their reader expectations are, so I can be sure my story meets them. After all, it’s not a romance if there isn’t a HEA (Happily Ever After), or at least a HFN (Happy For Now), in the ending.

That’s a trope of romance, but it is one that every reader of romance will expect to find, and they will be disappointed if your story doesn’t deliver it. So, it’s important to know the tropes for your genre, as well. But the original question of who you are writing for is important for more reasons than that one, because you need this knowledge about your target reader audience not only to write to expectation, but to market your book properly. You need to know who your book is aimed at and then you need to know where to find them, so you can get book promotions in front of them.

Being a multi-genre author makes it all more difficult. Multi-genre authors need to know tropes for each genre they write in, and they need to know the audience for each genre, as well. I must be sure I’m not marketing my western historical women’s fiction of my Women in the West adventure series someplace where all the gamers hang out, because they won’t give a fig about those books. However, they might be interested in the dark fiction anthologies in the Midnight anthology series, so it might be smart to market those books there. Anthologies have several authors, who all write to a slightly different audience, so in that way, they may widen the scope of audience appeal. But the need to know who you are trying to appeal to is just as great, if not greater than it was when I was creating the books.

Children’s books are tricky, because you’re writing for the kids, but marketing to the parents. Although the books aren’t written for adults, if they don’t appeal to the parents, they aren’t going to sell. When you write for kids, you bury the message within the story framework, so it is delivered subtly, as they are entertained by the story. In my marketing, I point out that each book carries with it a moral lesson, even though the kids wouldn’t give a fig about that. If the wonderful illustrations by Robbie Cheadle draw the child’s attention, the ammunition is there to help convince the parents.

As you can see, who you are writing for is important to know for several reasons. So, what’s your answer?

Who are you writing for?

About Author Kaye Lynne Booth

For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders and The D.I.Y. Author writing resource.

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This segment of “Writer’s Corner” is sponsored by the Robbie’s Inspiration blog site, where you can find ideas on writing and baking with hostess, Robbie Cheadle.

WordCrafter News: February – Writing Month: “The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions”

Posted: January 26, 2026 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Book Promotion, Books, Fiction, Science Fiction, Time travel, WordCrafter News, WordCrafter Press, Writing | Tags: First in Series Promotion, The Rock Star & the Outlaw, The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2 Double Visions, Time Travel Adventure Series, WordCrafter News, WordCrafter Press | Leave a comment

If you follow Writing to be Read, then you know that I was a big NaNoWriMo participant each November for several years now. I found that it offered an opportunity to get a good start on a novel in a thirty-day period, and I enjoyed the more structured writing regime, although I don’t think I could keep it up over a longer period. It is just too rigorous.

But in November of 2025, there was no more NaNoWriMo, and so, I had to decide how to proceed, since I had the month set aside to start writing the third book in my Women in the West adventure series, Marta. The solution I came up with was to run the challenge for myself. I didn’t have the fifty thousand words by November first, but I was very close. I crossed that threshold on December 3. Not too bad.

Doing it on my own, proved that I didn’t need a fancy digital counter to keep track of my progress, or fancy digital badges to tell me I was doing good. It proved that I had the discipline to get the words to page and determination to follow through. 50,000 words is a good start on a novel and Marta is now at over 55,000. But doing it on my own also taught me that I like cranking out novels in this manner. So much so, that in my 2026 production schedule, I’ve set aside two months to be writing months, and February is one of them.

For this February, my focus will actually be on putting the finishing touches on The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions, the second book in my time travel adventure series. This book was originally scheduled to release in 2025, and the story is written. Computer issues prevented me to complete it on time, so I’m really happy to finally be able to set it up for publishing. I will be doing a final read through and edit, adding the extensive playlist for the second book (with more viewpoint characters in this book, there are more than two playlists for this one), and do all the formatting to make it publishing ready.

Perhaps I should call this a production month, rather than a writing month, since my focus will be on publishing preparations and promotion. Whatever I call it, there is no doubt I’ll be busy. I’m planning to launch Double Visions with the usual blog tour, but I’m going to do it during the additional Kickstarter campaign for the book, so the two will run simultaneously. There will plenty to do to set all of that up, I assure you. There are blog posts to write, excerpt readings and book trailers to create, and rewards to set-up, as well as organizing tour hosts and soliciting reviews.

About Author Kaye Lynne Booth

For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders and The D.I.Y. Author writing resource.

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This post sponsored by WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services.

Whether it’s editing, publishing, or promotion that you need,WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services can help at a price you can afford.

Stop by and see what we have to offer today: https://writingtoberead.com/readings-for-writers/wordcrafter-quality-writing-author-services/

Christmas for Kids Sale

Posted: December 13, 2025 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Book Promotion, Book Sales, Children's Books, Holidays | Tags: Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home, Heather Hummingbird Makes a NEw Friend, Kaye Lynne Booth, My Backyard Friends series, Robbie Cheadle, Timothy Turtle Discovers JEllybeans, WordCrafter Press, Writing | 3 Comments

Starting Black Friday, November 28th and running clear through December 25th, for those last-minute gifts.

Click on the book title to go to the landing page. Then, select the distributor of your choice.

The My Backyard Friends kid’s book series is inspired by the birds and animals that visit the author Kaye Lynne Booth’s mountain home. Beautiful illustrations by children’s author, poet, and illustrator, Robbie Cheadle, bring the unique voices of the animal characters to life.

Timothy Turtle Discovers Jellybeans – $2.50 – Timothy Turtle Discovers Jellybeans is a picture book with a moral message from a young turtle’s perspective. Meet Timothy Turtle, who has a sweet tooth. He eats too many jellybeans and finds himself in a pickle. His friends Katy Cat and Betsy Beaver try to help, and Timothy learns that you can get too much of a good thing.

Heather Hummingbird Makes a New Friend – $2.50 – Heather Hummingbird Makes a New Friend is a picture book with a message of friendship and cooperation. Heather Hummingbird and Ethan Eagle are two unlikely friends who discover that it is good to accept help from others and that is what friends are for.

Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home – $2.99 – Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home is a story of survival from a young bird’s perspective. Charlie Chickadee is happy with his family in their cozy nest. But whem the violet-green swallows take the nest for their own, Charlie finds himself alone, separated from his parents and on his own to face the dangers of the forest. His new friend Nicholas Nuthatch shows him the ropes and teaches him about the other birds and the woman who puts out food each day, and by a stroke of luck, Charlie discovers the perfect spot and builds a new nest that he can be proud of.

November 28th – December 25th, 2025

Get your copies today!

The Gift of Poetry Sale

Posted: December 11, 2025 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Anthology, Book Promotion, Book Sales, Books, Collection, Poetry | Tags: Behind Closed Doors, Feral Tenderness, Poetry Treasures, Poetry Treasures 2: Relationships, Poetry Treasures 3: Passions, Poetry Treasures 4: In Touch with Nature, Poetry Treasures 5: Simple Pleasures, Poetry Treasures Series, Small Wonders, The Gift of Poetry Sale, WordCrafter Press | 4 Comments

Starting Black Friday, November 28th and running clear through December 25th, for those last-minute gifts.

Click on the book title to go to the landing page. Then, select the distributor of your choice.

The Poetry Treasures Series

Open the cover

and you will discover

Poetry Treasures

from the guests on Robbie Cheadle’s “Treasuring Poetry” blog series on Writing to be Read.

Poetry Treasures – $2.99 – Open the book and discover the poetry treasures of Sue Vincent, Geoff Le Pard, Frank Prem, Victoria (Tori) Zigler, Colleen M. Chesebro, K. Morris, Annette Rochelle Aben, Jude Kitya Itakali, and Roberta Eaton Cheadle.

Poetry Treasures 2: Relationships – $2.99 – Relationships are golden and each of Arthur Rosch, Elizabeth Merry, D Avery, Robbie Cheadle, Harmony Kent, Lauren Scott, Jules Paige, Leon Stevens, Colleen M. Chesebro, Miriam Hurdle, Marjorie Mallon, and Lynda McKinney Lambert pay poetic tribute to their most intense personal moments.

Poetry Treasures 3: Passions – $2.99 – Passion treasures within. Included are treasures from: Patty Fletcher, D. Wallace Peach, Yvette Prior, Penny Wilson, Colleen M. Chesebro, Abbie Taylor, Yvette Calliero, , Smitha Vishwanath, Chris Hall, Willow Willers, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, and Robbie Cheadle.

Poetry Treasures 4: In Touch with Nature – $ 2.99 – Included are poetic gems from: Andrew McDowell, Robbie Cheadle, Patricia Furstenberg, Marcia Meara, Luanne Castle, D.L. Finn, Emily Gmitter, Kaye Lynne Booth, Selma Martin, Merril D. Smith, Frank Prem, and Colleen Chesebro.

Poetry Treasures 5: Small Pleasures – $2.99 – Join poets DL Mullan, Barbara Harris Leonhard, Jude Itakali, Ivor Steven, Robbie Cheadle, Michelle Ayon Navajas, Gwen M. Plano, Elizabeth Gauffreau, David Bogomolny, Dawn Pasturino, Maggie Watson, and Colleen Chesebro share their own small pleasures in poetic verse.

Individual Poetry Collections

Small Wonders: Reflective Poems, by Kaye Lynne Booth – $1.99 – The world is filled with amazing things, if we will just stop a moment and take notice. In this vast universe, we are but tiny individuals, filled with awe and amazement. From reflections on first love, to reflections on growing old. The poems within these pages express a lifetime of unique reflections in Small Wonders.

Behind Closed Doors: A Collection of Unusual Poems, by Robbie Cheadle – $2.99 – What goes on behind closed doors: in the boardroom, after death, in the home, during lockdown, and in nature? This collection of poems, ranging from rhyming verse to twisted nursery rhymes, captures the emotions and thoughts people hide behind the masks they present to the world.

What thoughts are hidden

Behind her immobile face

Quite expressionless

Eyes cold and indifferent

Scrutinising me – hawk like

This book includes some of Robbie Cheadle’s spectacular fondant art and cakes.

Feral Tenderness: Poetry & Photography, by Arthur Rosch – $2.99 – A lifetime of poetry and photography gives a unique view of life, nature, the world, and the universe.

November 28th – December 25th, 2025

Get your copies today!

WordCrafter Holiday Book Bash

Posted: December 8, 2025 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Book Promotion, Book Sales, Books, Dark Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Paranormal, Science Fiction, Short Fiction, Stories, Time travel, Western, Women's Fiction, WordCrafter Press | Tags: Baiting the Hook, Chris Barili, Danari Lai series, Delilah, Hidden Secrets, Kaye Lynne Booth, Sarah, Shadow Blade, The Rock Star & the Outlaw, Time Travel Adventure Series, Women in the West adventure series, WordCrafter Holiday Book Bash, WordCrafter Press | 3 Comments

Starting Black Friday, November 28th and running clear through December 25th, for those last-minute gifts.

Click on the book title to go to the landing page. Then, select the distributor of your choice.

WordCrafter Novels

Women in the West Adventure Series, by Kaye Lynne Booth

•Strong Female Protagonists

•Fictionalized Historical Characters

•The Western Frontier Brought to Life

Delilah – $1.99 – Delilah is a woman haunted by her past.

Her homecoming from prison quickly turns into a quest for vengeance when she is brutally raped and left for dead, and her fourteen-year-old ward is abducted. Sheer will and determination take this tough and gritty heroine up against wild beasts of the forest, Indians and outlaws to Leadville.

Can the colorful inhabitants of the Colorado mining town work their way into Delilah’s heart, offering a chance for a future she thought she’d lost along with her innocence?

If you like strong and capable female protagonists, you’ll love Delilah.

Sarah – $2.99 – Sarah is a young girl trying to make a place for herself in the world.

Sarah is not the young girl stolen away from Delilah anymore. Now she is Hair of Fire, mate of Three Hawks, even as she blossoms into a young woman and tries to make a place for herself among the Ute tribe.

When she is stolen away from the life she’s made, she struggles to survive in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. A streak of stubbornness and determination take this tough, feisty heroine up against wild beasts of the forest and the rugged mountain landscape to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where she receives a less than welcoming reception by some.

Will this young woman find her way back to the Ute tribe, which she’s come to think of as family, or will she discover a place among the colorful inhabitants of the Colorado hot springs and mining town?

Follow along on her journey to learn who she truly is and where she belongs in this rough, and often hostile frontier.

If you like strong and capable female protagonists, you’ll love Sarah.

Marta – Coming in 2026

Time Travel Adventure Series, by Kaye Lynne Booth

The Rock Star & The Outlaw – $2.99 – A time-traveler oversteps his boundaries in 1887. Things get out of hand quickly, and he is hanged, setting in motion a series of events from which there’s no turning back.

In 1887, LeRoy McAllister is a reluctant outlaw running from a posse with nowhere to go except to the future.

In 2025, Amaryllis Sanchez is a thrill-seeking rock star on the fast track, who killed her dealing boyfriend to save herself. Now, she’s running from the law and his drug stealing flunkies, and nowhere is safe.

LeRoy falls hard for the rock star, thinking he can save her by taking her back with him. But when they arrive in 1887, things turn crazy fast, and soon they’re running from both the outlaws and the posse, in peril once more.

They can’t go back to the future, so it looks like they’re stuck in the past. But either when, they must face forces that would either lock them up or see them dead.

The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions – Coming in 2026

Shadow Blade, by Chris Barili

Shadow Blade – $5.99 –

The Denari Lai: An order of religious zealots who control their assassins through an addiction to magic.They haven’t failed in over one hundred years.

Ashai Larish: An unstoppable Denari Lai assassin sent covertly to kill the Pushtani king and his daughter. But he falls in love with the princess and finds himself, despite struggling withdrawal symptoms from his magic, as they flee from a second assassin and the King’s guard.

Makari: A beautiful and unconventional princess seeking to change the laws of her father’s kingdom when she learns Ashai’s true identity.

Pachat: A Pushtani slave who unknowingly sparks a slave rebellion all along the border between their nations.

Will Pachat gain the revenge he so lustily seeks?

Can Ashai kill the second assassin, win back Makari’s love and return her to the throne that is rightfully hers?

Short Fiction Singles

Baiting the Hook – Free! – On the ice-polished rooftops and the otherwise dark allies now choked with snow, Tabe Ge Nishi, the past pursues the future, old chases young. The Chargh Lai—leader of the brutal assassin’s guild, the Denari Lai—searches for the perfect leader to take over the order when he passes on. But the boy has other suitors and wishes only to be left alone. Betrayals have made Ashai cautious, and just as he rebuffs the advances of a street gang, he also rejects the Chargh Lai’s offer of constant brotherhood. But “no” is not an answer the Chargh Lai is used to hearing. And he pressures Ashai to join him. And meanwhile, another assassin hunts them both.

What will Ashai choose? The camaraderie of the Denari Lai, or freezing alone on the streets? The final battle will determine the fate of both men, and an entire nation.

Hidden Secrets – $.99 – Cassie wants nothing to do with the legacy her grandmother wants to hand down to her.

She doesn’t believe in all those Native American legends anyway.

She and Tony are to be married and start a family. They’re returning to her ancestral lands now to tell her grandmother to pass the tribal legacy on to someone else, along with the cursed gold that goes with it.

When she forces herself to go out on the lake where her parents drowned, she discovers the cave which holds the tribal treasure and the lake takes another life. Now Cassie must rethink all that she believes. If the treasure is real, could the curse be real, too?

Can Cassie find a way to stop it before Tony becomes the next victim?

November 28th – December 25th, 2025

Get your copies today!

Midnight Oil & “The Boy Who Loved Horses” on Joseph Carrabis

Posted: November 4, 2025 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Anthology, Blog Tour, Book Promotion, Books, Dark fiction, Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Short Fiction, Stories | Tags: "The Boy Who Loved Horses", Anthology, Dark fiction, horror, Joseph Carrabis, Midnight Anthology Series, Midnight Oil: Stories to Fuel Your Nightmares | Leave a comment

https://josephcarrabis.com/2025/11/04/my-the-boy-who-loved-horses-in-midnight-oil/

Midnight Oil & “Them Doore Girls” on Joseph Carrabis

Posted: November 3, 2025 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Anthology, Book Promotion, Books, Dark fiction, Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Short Fiction, Stories | Tags: "Them Doore Girls", Joseph Carrabis, Midnight Anthology Series, Midnight Oil: Stories to Fuel Your Nightmares, WordCrafer Press | Leave a comment

My “Them Doore Girls” in Midnight Oil

Writer’s Corner: Love it or Hate it, AI is here to stay

Posted: November 3, 2025 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: AI Technology, book marketing, Book Promotion, Book Sales, Publishing, Writer's Corner, Writing | Tags: AI Technology, book marketing, Genereative AI Search, Kaye Lynne Booth, Publishing, Writer's Corner, Writing, Writing to be Read | 4 Comments

I’m not one to trust technology. I’m leery of devices such as Alexa, or Seri, or Google Assistant. Call me paranoid, but in the words of Rockwell, “I always feel like somebody’s watching me.” 👀But, seriously, how do these AI devices hear the trigger word and respond unless they are listening to us all the time. I know my Google Assistant on my phone responds to words spoken in casual conversation with someone, and often it responds to words spoken by the other person. It’s not even my voice and the trigger words were never spoken. Scary, I say.

But like it or not, AI isn’t going anywhere, and in fact, it is infiltrating more and more aspects of authors’ lives, slowly and quietly, or sometimes, not so slowly. We can have whole conversations with generative AI; it can write stories for us, create cover illustrations, and even narrate audiobooks. I’m smart enough to see that AI is here to stay, and so, I’ve done my best to adapt and find ways that AI can be used to my advantage as an author.

I have most of my own books available on Google Play Books as AI Narrated audiobooks. I’ve heard both sides of the argument for and against AI narration, so I’m aware, but I thought I’d give it a try. Those who are against it may not have so much to worry about as far as AI taking jobs from human narrators, since I haven’t sold even one, and they are free!

I’ve also used generative chat, specifically, Chat GPT, to help me visualize scenes I’m trying to write in places where I’ve never visited personally, or places I have visited, but not in the time period I’m writing about. And I’ve used covers that were created with the assistance of AI, (not by me, I’m not that artistic), and I hope to publish a special edition collection of my Women in the West series, with color illustrations created with AI assistance next year, when I’m finally ready to release the third book in the series, Marta. My stand on the issue is that it is fine, as long as I am transparent about it, as the author.

According to Ricardo Fayette, over at Reedsy, the next wave of generative AI technology is about to flow in, or rather, it’s already here. We’re talking about AI search, which is about to upheaval the way searches are conducted, and in specific, the way folks search for books.

It May Not All Be in the Metadata Anymore

By now, we all know how a keyword search works, and publishers, both traditional and independent, try to play to those searches, hoping to choose the right keywords in the metadata that will help readers to find our books. But, Ricardo Fayette claims that with the rise of AI search, that is all about to change. Instead of searching for keywords, AI search looks for a string of words which are related to those you search for, words that the AI search connects based on what’s been entered in your search, combined with what the AI knows about the reader. Already, we have advertisements pop up in our inbox related to earlier searches, (which is kind of scary, in itself), but AI search will combine all the information it has about the searcher, such as previous purchases, and combine it with words from the search box and others connected to those words, and search through all the available books which fit to give us more accurate search results in a fraction of the time it would take to do it manually.

If that’s confusing to you, you aren’t alone. That’s the best way I could describe it, but I’m not technologically inclined at all. Ricardo Fayette did a whole series of newsletters explaining all this. He claims generative AI searches are based on three things and he wrote a newsletter covering each one.

You can bet I’m going to be watching those Reedsy newsletters in the near future to see if he explains how to apply this knowledge to ensure our books have maximum visibility, but the way I’m understanding it, because of the personalization factor, two people could run the exact same search and come up with completely different results because each person has a different history, so I’m not sure where that leaves us. As it stands, it always feels like I’m playing catch-up when trying to get my books out there, so you can be sure I’m going to do everything I can to find out and then, jump on before it takes off without me.

About Kaye Lynne Booth

For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders and The D.I.Y. Author writing resource.

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This segment of “Writer’s Corner” is sponsored by the Robbie’s Inspiration blog site, where you can find ideas on writing and baking with hostess, Robbie Cheadle.