Thursday, April 20, 2017

Next year's Books!

Happy Spring, all!
I'm tucked away in my recliner recovering from spinal fusion surgery, and I haven't been ignoring you! I finally got into my FB and email account to get some work done!

WOW! You've all been busy asking questions!

Today, I figured I'd answer some of them. You know, since I'm a captive audience. (Think Misery! Send help! hahahhaah)

I hope you all had a happy Easter season, and it was filled with blessings, peace, and love. Now, on to the questions.


Morgan,

Are you okay? You've been suspiciously quiet on FB. I miss your funny posts. Are you alive? Do you need help? Has one of your fans kidnapped you and are they monopolizing you? We can come find you!

Tricia.

Well, first off, Tricia, no, I'm not being held against my will, but thank you for making me spill my coffee all over myself in laughter. Last week, I underwent my second back surgery, and I had to have my spine fused in my neck. Years of athletics in college and child birth have not been my friend. I'm on hiatus to recover. I'll be back in the office right before Revenge has Come releases in June. Thank you for offering to rescue me. I suspiciously think you might make me write for just you...

Morgan,

I saw on your website www.morgankelley.come that you have two paranormal series coming out. Can you tell us when?

Maxie


Maxi, I do have them in the line up. I'll be honest. They may come out, and they may not come out. It's all driven by reviews. When a series breaks, we look at the feedback and decide if it's popular enough to hold it's own. How? Reviews. We go in and see how many books are sold per unit, and if it will sustain the market. (Meaning can I pay the team and still pay for marketing, covers, promos, etc.) It's a business model, and I won't bother you with that. Basically, if you don't leave me reviews, I don't know if you like the book. No reviews to us means it's a flop, and we drop it from the rotation.

For example, we have the vamp book. In 6 books, it sold over 8000 copies. We only got 50 reviews total. I have to decide if that's feedback enough to push a spin off out, or if I have to free up that spot for another book from a stronger series.

That's the only way I can tell if I'm doing a good job.
So, as of right now, there is a hold on the Chronicle series, and the Vamp series spin off. If you want to see it out there, I need feedback. Leave a review.


Miss Kelley,

Thank you for the Littlemoon/FBI crossover. Will there be more? What can I do to make sure that happens? Do you need a back rub? Bribery? How about my first born? I'm not using him right now and he can cut grass.

Sally S.


LOL.
Well, come to think of it, my shoulders are a little... kidding. You don't have to bribe me. Well, okay, that's total BS, and channeling Elizabeth, I'd say something like, if you want me to deliver the goods, stop the jackassery, head on out to Amazon, and leave some reviews!
That's bribery enough for me.
If you see the above question, it deals with how to get me to do what you want--in lieu of book releases. If you want more crossovers, then leave a review. I'll be honest. Sales were good for the Crossover, but it only got 13 reviews. 13. That's the lowest reviews ever for an FBI or Littlemoon book. As of right now, there was a crossover planned for March with the FBI/Crofts, and then Littlemoon and Oracle in the future. It's on hold. If the books aren't getting reviews, I can't justify the time for the writing and editing. Writing a crossover is a lot of work, and with a 14 book schedule this year, I barely have time to eat and sleep.

SO IF YOU WANT MORE...Yeah, I hate to sound like a broken record, but reviews matter so much. If I don't see feedback, I assume it's because it sucked. So, right now, the team and I are not going forward with the next crossover. That can change, but only you can do that. You have to decide if it's going to happen.

So, Sally, I know it's a pain in the ass, but go to Amazon, or at the end of your kindle page, when the reviews pop up, write one. You can't just put in stars. They don't register. Instead, you have to write something. It doesn't have to be long. Go back and do lots of reviews! Show me some love so I can keep delivering books to you!


Morgan,

If that's your real name. How do you keep coming up with books? Are there more of you? Are you employing ghost writers? What's the secret? How do you not have writer's block?

Jess.


It's actually not my real name. LOL. Sorry, but if you try to find a Morgan Kelley, she's not real. She's my alter ego. I wasn't born a Morgan. I will tell you that my real middle name is Elizabeth. That's all you get. As you can see from some of these emails, I worry about being abducted to be your personal writing monkey. (Misery). lol.

How do I keep coming up with books? Well, I don't know. I've been asked this before, by readers and other authors, but I don't have an answer. In my head, there's a whole lot of chaos. Writing calms it. I let the stories out, and in exchange, they let me sleep 4 hours a night. lol.

There are not more of me. (That terrifies my husband. You get a gold star!) I'm one woman, in her office, from 2 am to 3 pm every day, writing.  I sit, I write, I move on to the next book. Rachel and Laura will attest that I answer all of my own emails, i'm only one person, and I do the job pretty much on my own (they do the editing, and my kid does the book covers--along with other artists). I don't employ ghost writers. When you read someone's book, or books--in this case--you can't duplicate that style. The sarcasm, how I always use certain nuances for my books, and that can't be copied. Elizabeth is Elizabeth, Emma is Emma, and they are all in my head, and my head alone.

There's no secret. Stephen King once said you go to your office, and you write 2000 words a day--every day. PERIOD. You keep writing. It's like a craft. If you stop, you get rusty. It's NOT like riding a bicycle. Ex? Right now, I'm rereading the FBI series. There is a HUGE difference in my writing style from The Killing Times to now. HUGE. While you might not notice, I do. It's cleaner now, it's smoother, and that only comes from practice. I've been releasing books since Sept 2013. 4 years this September, and they do get better because I'm honing my craft.

That's it. Practice makes perfect.

As for writer's block... This isn't going to be a popular answer among my writer friends. There's no such BULLSHIT. If you can't take a story further, there's a reason. You screwed up in the formula. When I hit a wall, I back up and reread my work. Usually, it's because I've written something that's not working. If you have the ability to tell stories, you will tell them. If you don't, you can't. I can't do brain surgery. Not because I wouldn't want to be a great surgeon, but because that's not my gift. I'm a storyteller. That's what I do. So, I don't buy into the whole...'I can't finish this book. I have writer's block. I'll go get some coffee and put it on the back burner for now.'

You will NEVER finish it. The odds are NOT in your favor. You push past, and you get the story out. Then you go back in a month, reread, and see what happened. Like Stephen King...you keep writing.


I hope that answered all of your questions!
Again, if you want more crossovers, go leave reviews! Some of you have posted in the reviews that you wanted more, and I heard you. Now... time for the rest of the readers to do the same!

Leave a review, and I'll fill your 2018 with vamps, witches, and crossovers galore!


See you in June for another month of fun! Bonnie's coming! Be ready!!!!

Much love, mayhem, and murder,

Morgan