June 2025 Lopt & Cropt Releases

the slipper scandal cover

The Slipper Scandal by Melanie Rachel

Cinderella x Pride and Prejudice? Sign me up!

When Elizabeth loses her slipper running away from a creep (I was going to call him a "determined suitor" but let's call a spade a spade, yeah?) at a ball, Darcy is the one who picks it up...which leads to gossip about compromise, and then all of the sudden they're ENGAGED??

Elizabeth is NOT having that—she doesn't want to get married, and she'll do anything she can to get out of it, using her wit and her words to try to put Darcy off. But Darcy is enamoured, and he wants to protect his and Elizabeth's reputations.

And between accidental food dumping, a war of words, and family meddling, Elizabeth is kinda accidentally falling for him too...but she has reasons for not wanting to marry. Can she overcome them and fight for the love between her and Darcy?

Funny, fast-paced, fabulous—The Slipper Scandal is out in KU now!

THIS is the #1 thing that trips up writers

Do you know what the #1 thing is that trips authors up when they’re writing?

I’m talking even authors with a great voice.

Authors with an incredible premise for their book.

Authors with all the talent in the world.

It’s TIME.

And specifically it’s time management.

I can’t tell you how often I see writers coming down to the wire of a deadline and not being able to accomplish all they wanted to with their story because time caught up with them. Or they had to extend the deadline and then got stressed because it still wasn’t enough time. (For all of my clients who are reading this and going "is this about ME?" it's not! I know how you all think.)

Obviously, none of us have as much time as we would like, with so many responsibilities and goals and desires pulling us in different directions. (I promise, this will not turn into a “just wake up early and write!” kind of email. First of all, I would never tell you anyone to wake up at 5 a.m.—5 a.m. does not EXIST to me—and I also get that for many people, there is literally not enough time in your day to stretch any further.)

As a romance writer, especially if you’ve already written at least a book or more, it feels like there’s a very loud ticking clock to release the next book and the next book and the next, and there’s not a lot of time to breathe in between. I could go on and on about how this is a function of capitalism, and of an oversaturated publishing market that requires romance writers to produce at a rate that will eventually burn most people out if you don’t put your foot down—but you have probably heard this from me before.

I cannot magic you more time to write, but I can offer you some ideas to help you give yourself enough time to write a great book: 

Be realistic 

There are a lot of timelines pressing on you as you write a draft: your own internal deadline, the deadline to get it to your editor (the latter two often end up being one and the same), scheduling betas/ARC readers/proofreader/cover artist/etc. Lots of people are counting on you to make those deadlines, so you need to be so for real about how long this is actually going to take you. 

Consider the complexity of the story you’ve set out to write, what else you’ve got going on in that time (is there a holiday? is it a busy time at work? are your kids doing multiple extracurriculars that you have to ferry them to and from?), and how much you can write in a day/week/month. 

So, if you’ve never written a book in less than four months, but you haven’t started yet and you want to release in September? Let’s not do that to yourself or to everyone else involved in the production of the book. You might not get it out in the insanely short timeline publishing experts “say” you should get it out in, but you have to give yourself the liberty to take a little longer and let your creativity have room to breathe and not feel so stressed out. Do NOT burn yourself out for the sake of a completely arbitrary deadline.

Budget your time

When I was a TA in grad school, I often left my grading until the last minute, which meant I was marking a stack of undergrad English essays in a two-day frenzy. After too many late nights of essays beginning with “Since the dawn of time…”, I finally decided I would divide up the essays so I had X number to grade per day over the week or so that I had before I had to hand them back. Total common sense, and yet it took me years to figure it out.

Do the same with your writing. How many words can you write in a session? How many words do you expect the book to be? When do you want to be done by? From there, work out how many days you need to finish the book.  

You definitely do not have to write every day without fail (I actually think it’s better for most writers to not write every single day), but again be realistic about how many days you can write per week and for how long per day. Build in extra time for the days when things come up and you can’t write at all or as much as you’d like, or in case the book gets longer than you anticipated. 

Do not fall victim to the pressures of publishing

One of the reasons why there’s a push to get books released multiple times a year is because the market is so saturated that readers will forget about you if you’re not feeding them books regularly. And apparently the Amazon algorithm responds better and pushes you out more when you’re publishing at regular intervals, but it’s not at a pace that most writers can easily maintain. If it’s every four months, that’s three books a year, which maybe you can do once or twice (and that’s not possible for most people), but imagine doing that nonstop, forever. You’d get bored or frustrated or burnt out trying to keep that consistency.

I’m a fan of consistency, but consistency that actually works for you. If your goal is to be a best-selling author or to write full-time, yes, you have to put out a lot of books quickly to start getting momentum—and then you can let off the gas once you’ve got enough of a backlist and a fanbase that you can make money regularly. 

But if your goal is simply to write your books, put them out into the world, and hopefully make some money off of them as a part-time gig, there is much less stress on you to release books at an unsustainable clip—a book or two a year is going to be enough for you.

And if you don’t want your readers to forget about you, make sure you give them lots of incentive to sign up for your newsletter (have a really good lead magnet) and to follow you on social media so they know what’s going on with you and can get hyped for your next book.

Don't let time steal away just how good your book can be!

This was originally published in my newsletter. If you want more on what’s new and important in romance writing, marketing, and the romance industry at large, join my newsletter and get my Romance Resource Roundup, a collection of the BEST romance books/websites/podcasts you should be consuming as a romance writer.

May 2025 Lopt & Cropt Releases

All Her Broken Pieces by Mya More

PLOT TWIST INCOMING

Bridget has exactly one (1) use for men, and then she's done with them. She definitely has no desire to fall in love--and certainly not with the 23-year-old cinnamon roll of a man she took home from the club one night.

But Ethan is not easily deterred. He knows there's more behind Bridget's ice queen exterior, and he's determined to make her melt. When she needs help following a surprise medical event, he's going to be there for her and show her that love is worth falling.

Then there is a crazy plot twist that even I didn't see coming (do you know how much it takes to surprise me in a romance novel?? A LOT), and whoa! Check it out—All Her Broken Pieces by debut author Mya More is available on KU now!

cover of All Her Broken Pieces

Can you be a romance author without being on social media?

Honestly, does anyone want to be on social media anymore?

If I didn’t have to be, I probably wouldn’t be. (I would probably have an account so I could lurk, but my real life is way too boring for anyone to be interested in what I take pictures of.) And I think most authors don’t want to be on social media either, or at least don’t want to be spending their time promoting themselves there.

So, what if you could just… get rid of it entirely? Do you NEED to be on social media as a romance author, especially an indie one?

Well…no.

Wait, wait, wait—I don’t want to get your hopes too high.

I mean, if you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to. There are lots of other avenues open to you. Unfortunately, they will probably cost you a lot more money than free social media (but then, how free is it when it’s costing you time and energy that you could spend on other things?). Here are some of those other avenues:

  • Amazon ads, which if you can figure them out can be fruitful—but the learning curve is steep, from what I’ve heard. And you can pour a ton of money into them before you can figure out how to most effectively use them

  • Book promo sites, like BookBub and many, many others (David Gaughran is my go-to guy for everything book promotion, and he has a big list of them and how to use them here)

  • Hiring a company to distribute your book to book influencers to create posts for virtual book tours (e.g. cover reveals, release date blitzes, reviews, etc.)

  • Giveaways of print or ebook copies

  • Accessing NetGalley or other paid sites to reach ARC readers to review your book

  • Book influencer friends or fellow authors shouting out your book (this one is free, but you have to cultivate these relationships—which might be hard to do without social media, especially for the introverts)

  • Word of mouth (also free, but this one is mostly just luck of the draw and can take a long time—one of my clients’ books was mentioned on a busy romance subreddit, and she saw a huge spike in sales just from that)

  • In-person events: romance conventions (which may include travel, hotel, and con costs); talks at local libraries, bookstores, book clubs, etc.; an in-person book tour (if you’ve really got money to travel)

  • Your own newsletter, Substack, Patreon, etc. (links to all of those should be in the back matter of every book you write)—and yes, a newsletter is a non-negotiable for every author, whether you use social media or not

This guy seems to think that authors don’t need social media in 2025, but he doesn’t really give a lot of alternatives. Apparently all you need to do is just be successful as an author and then you don’t need to use social media at all!

But realistically, what do you as an indie author really have to do to sell your book?

As much as I’d love to say that all you need to do is write a great book, that’s just not the case for even the greatest author out there. Trust me, I’ve seen so many books from my own clients that I think are stellar and are beautifully written and deserve all the hype and sales—and they don’t have them.

So: you absolutely do have to promote. If you’re indie—and even if you’re trad, and especially a trad BIPOC author—you will probably be doing that legwork all on your own, unless you can afford to throw money at the problem. And you will have to throw some money at it in order to look professional. (Your cover counts as promo, and please do not skimp on that—we can all tell when a cover has been made by someone who doesn’t have experience designing romance covers specifically.)

You need a promotional strategy that includes some paid methods (like a virtual book tour, for example) and some free ones. So I really don’t think it’s a good idea to abandon social media entirely, unless you are indeed SO big that you don’t need it. There’s so much noise on social media, but if you can carve out your own little niche, it’s a great way to talk to your readers and to find more. Also, I am someone who lovesa deal—and social media is free, and I love free.

That said, social media is hard work. I’ve said this a million times here, you have to promote way more than you’re doing right now, whether that is on social media or elsewhere. With the way algorithms work, people aren’t seeing your posts enough, so you have to just go hard with quantity and put out a ton of posts to get visibility.

And yes, promo as an indie author SUCKS. It’s probably not something you’ve been trained to do so it’s hard and exhausting, and it takes time and energy away from doing the thing you’re here to do, which is write the books. I get it—all I want to do is edit and book coach, and making silly Reels is not something I super love. But I do it because it supports the things I actually want to do by getting me in front of potential clients who will hopefully follow and then hire me.

Listen, I am rooting for you to get so big that you don’t have to have social media. In the meantime, though, use it to your best advantage as a tool in your promo arsenal!

This was originally published in my newsletter. If you want more on what’s new and important in romance writing, marketing, and the romance industry at large, join my newsletter and get my Romance Resource Roundup, a collection of the BEST romance books/websites/podcasts you should be consuming as a romance writer.

April 2025 Lopt & Cropt Releases

Jump into spring with two new releases: a contemporary romance where the FMC is healing from her trauma with the help of her best friend’s brother, and an Austen variation in which Darcy and Lizzy realize their folly…while in a folly.

The ABCs of You & Me by Megan McSpadden

Sophie is coming off a bad relationship and starting fresh with a new job—and happens to be working with her bestie’s brother Foster, who she’s always had a crush on. For an upcoming event where she’s going to revenge-dress her ex, she needs a date—and she and Foster agree that they’ll fake-date for her event, and then for one of his to get his matchmaking friends off his back.

And then suddenly they’re going on friend-dates to help Sophie get back into the swing of things, and the dates become alphabetical—and also more real than either of them are expecting. But Sophie is still healing from her past—will Foster help or hinder that?

Friends to lovers, best friend’s brother, fake relationship—all that trope-y goodness in The ABCs of You & Me, out now on KU!

Mr. Darcy’s Folly by Melanie Rachel

Darcy and Lizzy get trapped inside Rosings's crumbling folly--and you know what that means? FORCED PROXIMITY, BABY.

Elizabeth maybe changes her mind about snobby Darcy after they're in a life-and-death situation together, but can love flourish outside the folly? Find out on KU today!

The question all romance writers are asking right now: to KU or not to KU?

You may have seen a lot of people lately talking about how they’re going to stop buying from Amazon, and as a consequence will be getting rid of their Kindle Unlimited subscription. If you’re a romance author on KU, you may have seen a downturn in your page reads since January. If you are on social media, you may have seen lots of book influencers and authors and others (me included!) imploring people to keep their KU because it helps authors, who are essentially small businesses who happen to need Amazon in order to run said business.

So as an author, what do you do right now when a huge income source is being boycotted and affecting your take-home pay? Do you stay on KU, or is it time to jump ship?

As a reader, I love KU. I get my money’s worth every month with the way I read—like many romance readers, I go through a ton of books in a month between KU, the library, and actual purchases (though I have shifted from buying ebooks on Amazon to buying on Kobo). KU is not only an economical way for me to read a lot, but I’ve found some of my favourite writers on KU, and KU gives me a ton of flexibility in my reading tastes (just this weekend, I was like, “I need to read something UNHINGED”—there’s no better place for KU than that).

But as someone who supports authors, I’ve long been wary of KU and its practices (peep this blog post from 2018! Who remembers Cockygate?), which tend to be not at all transparent and can seem almost indiscriminate in the way it applies its rules and exercises its authority. And now in 2025, the KU romance market, which was alwaysoversaturated, is even more so, which means there’s less money in the pot and more competition for eyeballs and page views.

Still, KU remains one of the best places for discoverability if you’re able to cut through the noise and carve out your own niche there. And for readers like me who are willing to try a new-to-them author based on a gorgeous cover or a great blurb or an enthusiastic recommendation, it’s a way to discover a new favourite author.

KU’s exclusivity requirements have always been a headache for authors. You cannot put your books for sale anywhere but Amazon while your books are in KU, which obviously narrows your potential sales, and Amazon can get very punitive if you’ve forgotten to take down one book on one other platform. Basically, they very much encourage putting all your eggs in their Amazon basket—but now that Amazon is facing backlash, is it still worth it to stay?

I still think it's worth being on KU because it's still where the readers are. There hasn't been enough of a mass exodus yet to warrant jumping the ship. BUT...there are more options now for authors going wide, so maybe it's time to reconsider your strategy?

Going wide (i.e. not being on KU) is an uphill battle—you need to convince people to pay money to take a chance on an unknown quantity. But you have a lot more freedom and a lot of places to experiment and find your niche. (This can be a good or a bad thing, depending on how much work you want to put into your strategy and how much time you have for experimentation.)

But if you're hoping to divest yourself from Amazon entirely, being wide won't necessarily do that. You probably still want to sell your books there (it controls the majority of the market). And having your books wide is more work for you to keep track of them on all platforms, which will not have nearly as many sales as Amazon. Amazon has so ingrained itself in the book market that trying to extricate yourself from it—as a reader or as an author—has become very, very difficult. So, unfortunately, a strong ethical position against Amazon is not really for your author business—but of course that's your decision to make.

If you do want to go wide, I’d suggest experimenting a bit when you have a few books under your belt—can you put some in KU and some wide, and see how they do and determine where the best place for you to be is?

If you’re wide, you also might consider putting your book in Kobo Plus, which is Kobo’s version of KU. Unlike KU, it does NOT require exclusivity, so you can sell your books on other platforms too. It’s not nearly as saturated with romance as KU is, but there are also way fewer readers there than there are in KU. The royalties aren’t a ton more than KU (here’s a nice comparison of KU vs Kobo for authors), but if readers are jumping ship from Amazon, they’ll probably head over to Kobo for book sales and to Kobo Plus, which gives readers unlimited borrows per month and includes audiobooks in one of the plans. 

If you remember the heyday of KU in the mid-teens when people were making big money on there, Kobo Plus hasn't gotten to that heyday yet, as it's still in its relatively early days. So I think there’s a lot of opportunity for authors to find their niche and their audience on Kobo Plus, especially as it grows—you’d basically be getting in at the ground floor now. And if readers are leaving KU, Kobo Plus, with its similar format, is probably where they'll go. But to be on Kobo Plus right now means you can't be on KU because of their exclusivity clause, and there are more readers (and money) on KU than on Kobo Plus.

I don’t want to say “yes, everyone should be on KU!” or “no, get off of KU ASAP!”—it really depends on a variety of factors: how many books you have out, what kind of romance you write, where your ideal audience is and how they read, how quickly the market changes, the concerns of your particular business, your ethical stance, etc. etc. I want you to make the choices that are best for your creativity and your author business so you can continue to grow. Don’t be afraid to experiment and see where you’re actually doing really well—maybe it’ll surprise you?

Where are you at right now? To KU or not KU? If you’ve always been wide, have you considered KU or Kobo Plus?

This was originally published in my newsletter. If you want more on what’s new and important in romance writing, marketing, and the romance industry at large, join my newsletter and get my Romance Resource Roundup, a collection of the BEST romance books/websites/podcasts you should be consuming as a romance writer.

March 2025 Lopt & Cropt Releases

This month, we’ve got an angsty Austen variation where Elizabeth's independence is threatened and Darcy can't intervene without questioning that independence, and a second-chance rom-com where the golden retriever hero is desperate to win back the black cat heroine, and a soapy second-chance romantic suspense with lots of intrigue and glamour.

Without Undue Pride by Heather Moll

Elizabeth is a war widow who’s been deeply traumatized by being on campaign with her late husband and has been terribly disappointed by all the men in her life, so much so that she’s never going to let anyone—and especially not any man—have any power over her again. But it’s 1811, and her husband has died without a will, which means she has no money and her unborn baby can be taken away by her husband’s hateful family.

Darcy is the only one willing to help her find her own independence. The problem is he’s also falling in love with her, and Elizabeth MEANS it when she says she’s not going to let any man have any power over her—and that includes marriage. How far will she go to assert her own autonomy and prove that she can cope on her own? Find out on KU today!


Coming Swoon by Sarah Estep

Big black cat x golden retriever vibes here! Peter loves love, and he’s never forgotten his first, Sybil—and has been certain that serendipity will bring them together again. He didn’t expect she would be his best friend’s wife’s best friend, but now that he’s back in her life—and back in her hometown shooting a movie—he’s going to do everything he can to win her back.

Sybil’s heart was broken when she and Peter split, and she doesn’t trust love at all. But Peter is doing all he can to show her that this is real and he’ll never let her go again—if only Sybil would believe it.

This was supposed to be book 2 of the series, but I managed to convince Sarah to make it book 4 because Peter is so freaking charming and an absolute scene-stealer that we had to keep you waiting for him. And he is worth the wait. Coming Swoon is out now on KU!

Lush by Tinia Montford

Laurene left town after her fiancé Conrad's tragic death. She also left because she was having an ill-fated affair with his brother Reese Ashbourne...and maybe there are things about the brother's death they don't want coming to light.

But now Laurene's back in town after six years, and her family is again trying to arrange a marriage with the Ashbournes for both families to maintain their legacies... this time with Reese, who hates her for leaving him.

Laurene's return and arranged marriage coincides with threats against her and Reese about what happened when Conrad died. They'll have to work together to protect themselves--if their chemistry doesn't explode first.

A morally grey heroine, an intense bad boy hero, and TONS of drama in this deliciously soapy romantic suspense. Check out Lush on KU today!

How to Write Memorable Sex Scenes in Romance

In eight years of being a romance editor, I have never done a post on writing sex scenes! An oversight I will be rectifying now.

So what makes a sex scene one of those ones that a reader will bookmark and come back to again and again? It can be a setting (an unusual, unexpected place or moment, e.g. carriage sex), an object being used in the scene (e.g. Haunting Adeline—iykyk), another person present (e.g. in a voyeuristic sense or a group sense), a position (let’s go tamer for this example: something like the man who never submits down on his knees), and of course, words that become iconic (if it has an acronym that BookTokkers can identify without any help, e.g. stfuattdllag).

But all these are really just gimmicks (which I’m not knocking—you gotta sell this book, and sex scenes can be great marketing), so let’s get into what’s really going to connect with the reader in these scenes in terms of craft.

Choose the right POV

For any scene, your POV character (if you’re do alternating POV) should be the one who is most vulnerable or has the most to lose in this moment, and this is especially important in a spicy scene. There’s a stronger emotional impact if you show your POV character leaning into that vulnerability or how the other character helps them let go by making them feel safe or uninhibited.

Be comfortable with what you’re writing

Choose your steam level. How descriptive are you going to go? Are you worried about your mom or your grandma reading it? Here’s one time I will say not to write with an audience in mind—just go straight from the id here and write what you think is sexy. If you’re feeling way too self-conscious writing about sex, scale back or even just fade to black—your words will probably come out stilted and readers know when you’re holding back.

Engage the senses AND the emotions

Sensory details are important here—what’s going on with sight, sound, taste, hearing, touch? Unexpected details can make a scene much more memorable—for example, the scratch of lace against skin and the reaction that feeling provokes in the partners. If you’re a writer who falls prey to white room syndrome (i.e. description isn’t your strength), this is a good opportunity to stretch a bit! 

Start with the sensory to ground the reader in the scene, and then get into the feels. What kind of emotions are these physical details evoking? Sex can bring up big emotions—are they overwhelmed? Are they afraid of feelings and wanting to run? Are they feeling affirmed or at peace by the end? Play with the tension between the physical and emotional.

Match the tempo of the scene to the writing

Pace your scene based on the kind of sex the characters are having. If it’s a quickie, the pace should feel fast to match that intensity. (My favourite trick for this in editing is to take out commas where I can—commas are there to pause for a breath, but we ain’t got time for that!) If it’s slow and languorous, you can draw out the sensuousness of the moment in the pacing. 

Should the sex scene move the story forward?

This is a debate: can you just write a sex scene for the sake of writing a sex scene, or does it have to move the story forward? Some claim the former is too gratuitous, but I come from fanfic where there is literally a sub-category for this: PWP (either Porn Without Plot or Plot? What Plot?). I think it’s easier to get away with this in fanfic, but as an editor, I lean toward the sex scene doing some kind of work for you—either moving the plot forward or showing character growth.

(By the way, I swear that any innuendo that you think you see here was purely unintentional.)

How do you write sex scenes? Are they fun for you to write or stressful? 

This was originally published in my newsletter. If you want more on what’s new and important in romance writing, marketing, and the romance industry at large, join me and get my Romance Resource Roundup, a collection of the BEST romance books/websites/podcasts you should be consuming as a romance writer.

February 2025 Lopt & Cropt Releases

February 2025 Lopt & Cropt Releases

This month, we’ve got stories about measuring the courage of one’s convictions, about gay wizards and vampires in a reimagined Gilded Age NYC that doesn't discriminate against same-sex couples, and about what you’re willing to risk for love,