Newsletter Short Stories and more (Will Change in 2022)

What are the exclusive short stories?
The unedited short stories are often in-between book content, side characters doing something, or a real look into a backstory.
Example: I wrote a 3 chapter look at Kaliya’s backstory, specifically how she met Hisao. It starts off with a chapter from his point of view, finding her and his feelings about it. Then there’s 2 chapters from Kaliya.
Another I wrote was a short about what Kaliya is doing right after Legends ends.

These aren’t content you will find in the books, except for referenced, or alluded to. 90%+ of these will not be rewritten book chapters.
These are new content, in a sense.

They’re raw. I write them, I make them into the correct file type(yes, you can download and keep these on your devices! No more looking for the right blog!). I make a ‘cover’ then it goes up for download. Here’s cover examples:

Plans for the future:
-A bonus chapter (for lack of a better description) for each book, like the short I sent out after Legends that shows Kaliya a couple of days later. This will come at the end of the month the book released. Legends released in November, shorts were sent out last day of November. Rogue Alpha is this month, so a newsletter with TWO (possibly 3) short will go out on Dec 31.
-Shorts of Dirk and Landon, a look inside the friendship that led to their relationship.
-Random shorts of other characters. This could be Hasan pacing around his office, thinking about things. It could be Subira wandering her territory alone and what is normally on her mind. It could be a date night for Callahan and Corissa. Just anything I can think of, honestly. I have a lot of these one-off thoughts. Most have nothing to do with the stories.
-I plan on doing some after series end, showing the characters as time continues to pass. I’ll write shorts from Kaliya’s POV about how her people are doing afterwards. I’ll also be writing a short showing the day she hears the news about [redacted](nothing anyone says can convince me not to write this).
(I almost wrote a short chapter from Saranya’s POV covering her last moments. Decided that was too harsh/dark)
If there’s anything story relevant, it’ll be revealed in the books if/when it’s necessary.

So there’s lots of ideas, but writing them can’t just be my free time to give everyone for free. The fact of the matter is: there’s just no benefit or motivation for me to do it like that. In fact, whenever I try to do free stuff for reader, it often became demanded. Being demanded to spend hours of my time for free things is a bit soul crushing.

So for free writing, I am now asking for a trade. The trade I’m offering is simple. (And this could change at any point. I’m still workshopping what is and isn’t going to work for me, my schedule and more. Another possibility: Newsletter only getting bonus chapters for releases, and more unique/varied going to a different platform.)

Sign up for the newsletter, get free writing about different characters, new moments, bonus chapters, and anything else I can think of. They’re canon, they exist… and you have to be a subscriber of the newsletter to get them. You don’t get them when you sign up, but rather, you have to stay a subscriber for when I send out a download link for them, which is only ever open for a limited time (generally 2 weeks). You can’t get a link to the newsletter then download them. They really are only available to subscribers (the download verifies your email).

About the newsletter

I send out 2 newsletters a month, sometimes only one. Here’s a link to my most recent so you can see the sort of content normally in a newsletter (with the exception of an exclusive teaser. Those are also a bonus of the newsletter, but they don’t go out EVERY newsletter, just like the short stories don’t. Release newsletters, like the one below for Rogue Alpha, doesn’t have exclusive content)

https://preview.mailerlite.com/a5a9h2
(this is the valid link, don’t worry. this is just how they generate the links to see a newsletter by itself)

I’ll do a simple break down.

• Main announcement and a catch up. A mini blog, in a sense. For people who don’t wanna try to catch every blog post or always be on social media, this is the place to hear what I’m up to. Just a blurb of it. There’s a blog section at the bottom of the newsletter to read more deeply into things.
  Oh, and the newsletter subscribers got to know about the signed book sale on Etsy a day before everyone else. So, they do get special privileges by letting me live in their email inboxes.
  Sometimes, I have a poll or survey. Still playing with this sort of engagement idea.
• If there are exclusive shorts to download, they will have a section immediately after this message from me.
• A book with blurb, this one being Rogue Alpha because this was the release newsletter.
• If there’s no important book to shout out, this is where the exclusive newsletter teaser goes.
• Audio news. It’s a new section, born out of the constant questions for news about the audiobooks. I don’t send out a newsletter when an audiobook is released (only ebook/paperback). This section is now going to cover what just released and what books are currently in production.
• Character spotlight. I think I’ve only skipped doing these… once or twice ever. Normally, it’s about a character in a current release. Rogue Alpha uses Ranger Bryne, because he’s a member of the Dallas Pack we know and (clearly), he’s going to show up in the book dealing with the Dallas Pack.
• Current Preorders. All of them. In a simple line. Release dates on the images. Images link to the store page. Very easy. Never miss a preorder, never forget a release date. Just for you.
• Blog. Normally had 2 of the most recent blog posts link, though may have a more substantial section in the future with all the blog posts since the last newsletter, so people see everything they could potentially read.
• The bottom: my PO Box(yes, you can send mail to it. No, I will not eat food from people I don’t know. Don’t try to poison me), unsubscribe button, etc.

It’s a fairly extensive newsletter. You don’t want to try and keep up with 7 different announcements from different days. It has all of them. You can email me back as well, if a link is broken and more. I can fix links in newsletters, by the way, so I will probably get it fixed then ask you to try it again.

And you know, I’m always up to suggestions about what people would like to see in the newsletter. Two a month is the most I’ll ever do, so adding more fun is a possibility. Maybe a word count tracker for whatever I’m writing. Maybe secret pictures of my notes. ARC slots can also be announced on the newsletter. All of these things can happen and more.

Now that I’ve explained all of that, have a wonderful day!

… And sign up for the newsletter before more short stories are released at the end of the month.