A GRIPPING, KICKASS 19th CENTURY COWGIRL STORY!
Kindle Unlimited is an extremely useful source of information as regards readers' progress through authors' books. I suppose it's a bit 'Big Bro is watching you', but it's the only means of working out whether or not your reader is actually enjoying your book. It's all guesswork otherwise. In this case, I don't think ignorance is bliss. I'd like to know whether or not my readers are enjoying the writing I poured blood, sweat and tears into over the course of thirty-plus intermittent years.
PA hubby keeps an eye on Kindle, reporting back every day if there's activity and what kind of activity it is. Even I know now, that it's a library system whereby subscribers pay a flat fee to have access to millions of books. The authors of the books the subscribers read are paid a proportion of the fee per page read. I believe. Don't take my word for it. I'm only just getting a handle on this!
Apparently, when readers stumble upon - organically or otherwise - and borrow the first book of my epic western trilogy Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl! they steam through it at a rate of knots. Hubby observed that two books have been read in one day, and, in a couple of cases, almost non-stop. That's a lot of pages! Three hundred pages, in fact. So far I've had two hundred and eighteen readers altogether. Is that trying to tell me something? It's clear that when readers who enjoy my kind of story find my book, not only do they enjoy the story, because it's their kind of 'thing', it seems they don't want to put it down!
We put it up for free on Amazon for two days recently in order that selected reviewers could read and review it (authors need reviews!), there followed an apparent 'rush' of a hundred-and-sixty readers downloading the novel over those two days.
Maybe it was the result of promoting the book on a writing acquaintance's blog (Smorgasbord New Book Spotlight – #Western #Women’s Adventure – Go West, Girl!: (Alias Jeannie Delaney Book 1) by Kit MacKenzie ). Maybe it was organic. Whatever. I like it. No, I love it. Who wouldn't?
My story isn't for everyone. No novel is for everyone. But this story in particular is a very niche-y story. Singular. One reviewer, who thoroughly enjoyed it and gave it five stars, said it was unique. Thank you so much! It won't appeal, I think, to conventional readers. My female hero, Jeannie Morgan (I won't call her a heroine because she doesn't fit into that category in my view), is the fastest gun in the west and a great lover to both men and women. Various chapters describe juicy adult hanky panky relevant to the story. I've injected humour into that sometimes. I think it works.
Jeannie is OTT in the personality and looks department. But that's the way I wrote her and I wasn't going to change her for all the ginger lemon black tea in Timbuktu (I checked. That tea is real!). Hell no! I thought about toning her down once. What? Was I crazy?! It's a story, and what story isn't OTT at times?
So I wrote this exciting, supercharged novel. Not everyone, particularly lovers of traditional westerns, will like a female western hero who gets shot and punched, shoots and punches back like a galvanised person on Speed and gets bloody. Just like your traditional western hero who happens to be a man. Jeannie is bisexual - she's got a girlfriend and a boyfriend. (How that's managed is another story). She's incredibly fanciable. Devastatingly tomboy beautiful. A pretty boy, some call her. Not chocolate boxy feminine beautiful. Not muscly. Athletic more like. I worked hard on this. Charismatic. A magnetic, powerful personality. Funny. Scary. Terrifying. The whole shebang.
The three novels cover forty-five years of her life. A saga you could call it. It's definitely epic. It spans half a lifetime and takes place on an epic landscape.
Earliest artwork & inspiration,
plus novel & Amazon page.
The subject matter is highly controversial, and it took me a long time to reveal the story, and even longer to write it. Over thirty years. But since westerns starring women are on the increase - thank goodness, and about time - PA hubby and I reckoned it was high time Jeannie was liberated. Now she is. We launched on Amazon last summer, and we soon appreciated how hard it would be to promote. It didn't seem to fit into any Amazon categories. It is a western, but a singular one. Over the six month period since its launch, my first readers loved it and took their time to read it. We went through a patch of drought, but the novel picked up as we've learned to promote.
It feels surreal. A little detached. Those words that I penned and typed over that humungously long period of time are being read by strangers, mostly Stateside and a few UK readers. Well-wishers and followers have called this journey exciting. Thanks, guys, but it truly ain't. It's been harrowing. Particularly for my fragile mental health.
I'm getting back to artistic creativity, particularly YouTubing artwork, and that is rather exciting when viewers view and like and subscribe. That's immediate. You can see that people like what you've done. It doesn't do your head in. More of that, please, Jo Ballantyne, Artist (that's me, folks!). It stops me from going bonkers. (Does it, though?). 😕
p.s. Keep an eye out for Book 2 of Alias Jeannie Delaney this summer. PA hubby and I are reaching the end of editing and it'll soon be time to send it to my editor. 😁
A charity organisation supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
(I'm supporting Stonewall & they are posting links to Amazon & Alias Jeannie Delaney on their social media posts).
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