October 2025 Newsletter (belated)
Ok! Finally getting this out. Nothing but apologies, folks (and a lot of cursing behind the scenes). This month (and a half) has been packed with the last-minute things, namely formatting. From here there are a few items that I will discuss on the front end.
Big news first: I am releasing Book 2: Unseen Wrath on November 19th. I am re-releasing book 1 on the same day, November 19th. Why re-release? See item #3.
Other up-front news item, the ebook of Book 1 (in its current form) will be free on Halloween (you know… witches… halloween… all that (be warned that book 1 will change form soon. Read on for more information)).
Main items for this update:
1) Reviews and review calls and our first raffle!
2) Formatting and class
3) Business aspects
4) Life, the sky, the pit
5) The Fate of October
I would be delighted for your review for book 1, The Witches of Serna. You can leave your review here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHZZQPFG
Book 2 will be released on November 19th, along with the re-release of Book 1. If you are interested in reading those early, please check out the form.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdXGipNkqRySrzvFxn6wBaCTNrH6Du_cSxje3ryE88-5EaOqw/viewform?usp=dialog
I hope to have reviews from you regarding the new version of book 1 and/or book 2. Sign-ups close November 2nd.
Your interest will get you entered in a raffle. What’s up for raffle? The winner will get to pick a custom portrait in the style of this setting, valued at $250. The commission will be fulfilled by Ben Foster (https://www.behance.net/Art-Glorified). Here is some samples of his work from his portfolio.
From Ben Foster’s Dark Fantasy collection.
I have also launched an ARC (stands for Advance Review Copy or Advance Reader Copy) on Pen Pinery. This is one way that readers can get a copy for free (ebook only), read it and leave a review. I have another similar program pending with Book Bounty. Here’s the link for the Pen Pinery ARC drive:
https://penpinery.com/user_1784b97/the-witches-of-serna/
I also have an ARC drive for Book 2: Unseen Wrath. So, if you’ve already read book 1 and want to read book 2 sooner, have a looksie:
https://penpinery.com/user_1784b97/unseen-wrath-book-ii-of-the-war-of-the-mountains/
You can also just hit me up by emailing me at morgan.springglace@gmail.com or a contact form from my website.
One last thing on the raffle, just you informing me of your interest in reading and reviewing either book 1 or book 2 (or both) will get you entered in the raffle. There is no incentivization of writing the review, but it would really help me out and I would be incredibly appreciative.
I hit 9 reviews yesterday (October 13th). Over the past year or so, I have sold 47 copies (ebook and paperback) off of Amazon and off-loaded about ~80 copies (paperback) from personal interactions. Reviews really drive further sales. A great many of you are kind to me and ask, ‘how can I support you and other indie authors?’ My friends, reviews. Especially once books get over 50 reviews, they start to trend up in the Amazon algorithm.
Item 2 - Formatting and Class
Why re-release book 1? Well, for starters, to keep the cover art consistent. But beyond that, the appendices for book 2 got re-organized from how I had them arrayed in book 1. This re-release reorganizes the appendices to be consistent with how they will be in book 2 and also adds description and context to scenes. For a few of them, things are reworded in an effort to be clearer. But, what are we really getting from the reformat?
Double-page map spreads in the beginning, and…
Illuminated letters by Esther Wong. The illuminated letters will be at the start of each chapter. It’ll look something like this,
And, as you see, I’ve turned the in-book maps sideways, so that they’re larger. I had split opinions on this, but, to the best of my ability, the maps are on the left side and as large as they can be so the reader can best appreciate the work of Luke Bauer.
Item 3 - Onto business. So, with the reformatting, the new cover, and other bits and bobs, the price is going up. One of the things about which I consistently got advice was the price of the book. For the paperback, all paperbacks, they’re going to $20 -flat. The ebooks are going to $8.99. Part of this folks, especially at conventions, like round numbers. If they have a $20-bill, they’ll just hand it over. Many times, I got told to keep the change. Another reason is that it makes marketing it on broader distributions attainable. Eventually, when I can get past the anxiety of it (and get further down on the list of things to do), it’ll go into broader distribution networks. Not the same problem, per se, with the ebook. There (it seems) that the median price for a lot of ebook novels is $7-9. ‘If you value your work lower, then why should others value it enough to read?’ is the thinking here. So, we’ll see.
Authors, in general, (from my perception) have more flexibility in ebook price than paperback BECAUSE… you can just change the price of your ebook and that’s easy day. For printed books, they need a barcode (which I buy from bowker.com - same place I buy my ISBN (and the only authorized distributor and tracker of ISBNs in the U.S., from my understanding). So, when I change the price of book 1 from $16.99 to $20, it needs a new barcode. This further means that I need a modification of the cover. The uploaded cover image has the barcode as part of the image. So, as you can see, it’s a bit more of a to-do to change the price of a paperback or hardcover for this reason.
Item 4 - Life, the sky, and the pit. Life has a lot to do with why the newsletter is two weeks late. There’s a lot going on. Of course, this is not my full-time actual job. Re-learning Adobe InDesign (which is what I (and most industry) uses to format manuscripts into printable PDFs for printed books) has rougher than I realized. I also did not help myself last year by saving/modifying the template that I finished when I made the first release of book 1. Things can sometimes get a bit rough, with finishing the editing, formatting both of the books, chasing the every evasive marketing rabbit, and life, in general. And so, you look at the sky.
Beautiful October sky, here in the Midwest, this past Sunday.
And when you look up at the sky for a time, eventually, you have to look down and realize that you’re in a pit.
I’m digging out the soil to expand my concrete pad with goal of screening in my back porch. I wasn’t done digging when I took this picture (and I’m still not), but that part’s nearly done. I am hoping to get this project done before Thanksgiving… let’s hope. Hard to find time (and energy) that coincides with the weather that’s conducive to working on it. I’ll send more pictures or admit (temporary) defeat.
No song of the month this month. I had a few in mind a couple weeks ago, but they fell out of my head.
Item 5 - The Fate of October. October is a fateful month in my family. Several birthdays. But, like I mentioned last year, October reminds me a lot of my Dad. His birthday is today, October 14th, and he died on October 20th. When I was writing what is now chapter 16 of book 1 (many of you read it in chapter 17), I was freshly processing my Dad’s passing.
So, I hope to have next month’s newsletter to you in a timely manner with updates about how early reviewer recruitment has been going. Remember to please sign up and think about which character you might pick if you win the raffle.
