So…that Yonder book…

Is that still happening, or what?

In a word. Yes? The release date I’ve been given is April 3, 2023, so I’m going to roll with that.

For those who haven’t been following the Yonder saga, I will explain… No there is too much. Let me sum up.

• I landed a deal with the Yonder reading app (It’s an app for reading serialized books. Similar to Radish/Kiss/Vella, etc. but has a larger international reach)
• The release date was pushed back from January to April
• They changed the title on me for a stronger marketing stronghold
• I got a nice advance.

This story is an exclusive deal with this app. So, for now, this is the only place you can read it. When the contract expires, my publisher, City Owl Press and I will decide if it stays on the app, or if we’ll pull it and they will release it wide on their end. Either way, the story will have a home.

Now, will my story chapters release Weekly? Daily? Hourly? Honestly, I have no clue. I’ll be finding out the answer to that myself on the 3rd. How’s that for being helpful? ha.

But, Danielle, what is the book even ABOUT?

This is the blurb I created for it. Will it be the blurb Yonder uses? No clue. Ha. Guess I’ll find that out soon too. But in the meantime, this is what I came up with.

She thought she was getting fired. It was so much worse.

When unlucky-in-life office grunt, Shelly Carter, is invited to her boss’s mansion for dinner, she assumes she’s about to get fired. Instead, Mrs. Kaden has a different position in mind for her. Marry her son, William, and become filthy rich. What?

There are a few catches. Her son has no interest in Shelly or getting married. And then there is that slight issue of his agoraphobia. He hasn’t taken a single step outside the mansion he was raised in since he was a child.

Shelly was only planning to marry once in her life. Should she marry for love or financial freedom? Why not both?

If you like fish out of water, arranged marriages, reluctant billionaires, enemies to lovers, and spicy romance, then this one is for you. This title is exclusive to the Yonder App only.

That’s it. You now know as much as I do about the project. I should have more details next week because, in theory, it will have launched.

Also, if you haven’t entered the 5 paperback giveaway yet, you do that here!

Until next week!

Danielle/Dani Bannister, author and vague release

Advertisement

Spring Giveaway Time!

Despite the lingering snow on the ground, the fake ladybugs emerging in my windows to annoy me tell me that it’s Spring! Well, the calendar tells me that too but the fake ladybugs announce it louder.

With the changing season, I thought it was a great opportunity to celebrate the season with a giveaway of some signed books! These books, more specifically.

What better way to bring in the season of rebirth than with some romantic comedies! Something bright, light, and fun! I like doing giveaways as a way to give back to readers who have supported me over the years.

Enter giveaway

That’s it. Easy peasy.

Until next time, friends, stay awesome!

---

Danielle/Dani Bannister author and giveaway gal

Well, this is embarrassing

I’ve been at this indie author thing for over a decade. I’ve written over twenty books. After that much time, you might think I knew what I was doing by now. You would be wrong.

This week Amazon announced a new tool for authors. For years, people could ‘follow’ you on Amazon, like you might follow someone on social media, and when you had a new release, Amazon would let the followers know. Or at least, they used to. At the time, it was a symbiotic relationship. One I never really pushed because, well, I’m an introvert, and asking people to ‘follow me’ is uncomfortable. If people wanted to follow me, they could. I didn’t need to beg them.

The number of followers wasn’t visible. Not even to the authors. So it became an ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ thing for me. Well, Amazon just turned on the visibility to authors. Which means we can finally see how many people are following us. I’m seeing authors report the thousands upon thousands of followers that they have.

And then there’s me.

Wow. I just… Not even 500. The temptation to say I suck is STRONG. Talk about being a small fish in a massive ocean. The proof of why you need to hang it up is right there in black and white, Danielle.

And yet…

Here I sit. Butt back in the chair. Fingers poised on the keyboard. Why? Because there are 399 people out there that are interested in my words. That’s not nothing.

If you want to follow me on the Zon, here’s how. Follow the link, and hit the follow button. Or not. I’m going to keep on keeping on no matter what.

Follow: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Danielle-Bannister/author/B005G7PJNU

---

Until next week, friends.

Danielle/Dani Bannister author and stubborn fool

The Day Job: One Year Later

Today is the one year that I’ve been working for athenahealth. More specifically, I work in an app they own called epocrates. It’s a medical app used by doctors and patients to look up drugs to find out information about dosage, prescription side effects, read up on medical news, and all that fun stuff. It’s a remote job that I currently work M-F 8:30-5:00. How is it going?

When I first started last year, I’ll be honest. I had NO idea what I was hired to do. I knew that it would involve HTLM coding (of which I had zero knowledge) but that was about it. Not only that, this life-long PC user needed to learn how to use a Mac and a whole slew of corporate tools like Teams and Sharepoint that I’d never used before. The learning curve was steep, to say the least. Because I was so green they knew that it would probably take two years before I was up to speed in my job.

And then, just a few months after I was hired, the woman training me got pregnant. At that moment, my training timetable escalated. When she left on maternity leave guess who was going to have to fill her role? Yep. Me. That meant I’d need to lead meetings, be the US point person for account managers, and push THE button to launch some of our products to the app. Oh, yeah, and learn how to code as well. So much for that two-year learning curve. Ha.

It’s now a year later and the maternity coverage will be over by the end of the month. And you know what… I’m doing okay. I know enough coding to do the tasks I need to do and will learn more once she’s back and can dive into more training. I’m handling launches, answering account manager emails, and leading calls. All while maintaining my book release plan, raising two teenagers as a single mom, and living with a chronic illness. I’m still a bit shocked at how far I’ve come in such a short window, honestly.

Work essentials: the Mac, my ergonomic mouse, my folder of notes, my work iPhone, my personal Android (which is taking the pic,) my coffee/tea warmer, and lip balm.

In April, I’ll be working a four 10-hour day work schedule which will likely throw my writing schedule off track until I get my groove back. The plan is to still try to do my power hour before I log into work, but that will mean basically writing the second I wake up, which will take some adjusting. It might be worth it though to have a weekday off. Working a 9-5 I never realized how hard it was to schedule simple things like an oil change or a doctor’s visit. (When you’re covering for maternity leave, getting time off is challenging.) Having a weekday off will be a great benefit to the work-life balance. Not just for errands, but for catching up on the writing stuff I might fall behind on.

So far, releases for this year are still on track. The first one is already out, and the second release (Vol. 5) is on target for May. The manuscript for my August release with City Owl Press is already in their hands. It’s just awaiting their final edits so that should be good. And my fourth release for this year is being polished off now. I tend to work about six months to a year in advance. That means I’m already working on projects for next year. That gives me breathing room and time to adjust to things that come up, like figuring out a new work schedule.

Speaking of writing, it’s time for me to get some words down!

Until next week, friends!

Danielle/Dani Bannister author and anniversary maker

Mistakes were made…

By me. I’m an idiot.

What’s new there? If you got my newsletter over the weekend, you already know why I’m a moron. And I’m sure you concur with my assessment. For those of you who missed it, let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. *a million points for knowing that reference.

I bought 500 bookmarks with all of my books to date on them. Signed them all even.

Then, my publisher decides we need to change the title of one of the books before it releases in April.

*head meet desk.

So… who wants a bookmark or two? Seriously. I need to offload these ha.

Gimmie a bookmark!

If you’re curious as to what title changed, it was for the Yonder platform release.

is now…

The marketing team wanted more searchable words in the title to get as many eyes on the story as possible. Which, I get. I just wish I had known that the name change was a possibility or else I wouldn’t have blown money on bookmarks. ha.

That’s what you get for assuming everyone. 500 useless bookmarks. ha. Grab yours today!

*snort but also take some!

Gimmie a bookmark!

---

Dani/Danielle Bannister author and collector of bookmarks that are wrong

New Release, New Contract!

A new contract in February was NOT on my 2023 writing BINGO card, but I’m here for it!

I just signed another contract with City Owl Press for a new project, making this my 4th contract with them. The first project I signed with them was their acquisition of Enigma which was retitled/recovered/re-edited to become Girl On Fire. They later acquired film/TV rights negotiation rights for my book The First 100 Kisses, followed by a contract late last year to sell A Single Step to the Yonder App. That title is aligning for an April 3 release, but stay tuned as that gets closer.

This new project that I just signed for was something I was going to pitch to them for their 2024-2025 lineup. Mostly because I knew their release schedule was pretty tight and I still hadn’t written the book at that time. They had wanted me to write another dark romance/suspense/thriller to jump off the success of Girl on Fire. Sure. Easy. No problem. *panics

Fast-forward to December 2022. I had a rough draft of the manuscript but I knew it was flawed. There were some problematic situations and I was dealing with a subject matter I wasn’t sure would be ‘fit-to-print’ given the taboo nature of what my crazy brain thought up as a story. (Seriously, WHERE did this idea come from????) I presented this conundrum to City Owl Press and they suggested assigning me a content editor of theirs to see if, together, we might figure out what things needed fixing to get it to a project I’d want to pitch to them. I took them up on the offer and was quickly assigned such an editor. They asked the content editor to have it finished by April so they could determine if it would be a good fit for their 2024-2025 lineup.

I’ve never worked with a content editor before so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but we had until April to figure out the issues, so I sent her the draft of what I had and went about my normal writing schedule, putting that project on the way back burner. It was in someone else’s care now. I had months to focus on other stuff while that draft was ripped to shreds. I gave them the draft on December 28, 2022.

Seven days later, the manuscript came back to me. The content editor devoured it. And had some great suggestions for where to improve the story, but overall, loved what she saw. Twisted as it was. Places I thought they’d ask me to tone down or remove, they said to leave in. She helped me see the places I’d been struggling, and offered up ways to smooth over the rough edges. We bounced back ideas and messages.

Suddenly, that backburner project was bubbling over and needed tending. Not wanting my current writing plans to go off the rails, I did my revisions on this project at night and on the weekends until I addressed all of the issues the content editor had. I sent my final revisions back to her and she, in turn, let City Owl Press know they needed to sign this book right now. An offer came the next day to publish it for August of THIS year.

*gulp

Now what? Now, I come to terms with the fact that this book is going to see the light of day. *double gasp. I can count on one hand the number of people who have read this story. It is NOT a sweet romance. It is NOT a steamy romance. But there is romance. Just not where you might expect it. This one is dark. I’d say it’s darker than Girl on Fire… I honestly don’t know what genre to even call it. Is it dark romance? Is it a thriller? Horror? I’ll let the publisher decide. That will be their headache when they try to market this one. ha.

But… but… WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

I’m not quite ready to say yet. I know that’s a lame answer but this one is going to take some time to carefully explain/promote/discuss. As of now, I only have a draft of a blurb, no cover, and no marketing materials. Just a finished content edit of the book and a signed contract for an August release. I’m not even ready to say the title as it might not end up being that and if it does end up with that title, it will give a big clue as to what the book is about so…

In the meantime, I have to write the second book for it. Currently, this story arc is outlined as a duet. And I’d like to have the second book ready to go shortly after the first book is live because I hate waiting for sequels to come out just as much as you do.

So how does this shift the 2023 release plan? Not much, actually. Vol. 4 of Where You Left Me came out last week and Vol. 5 is still on track for its May release. The Yonder project in April, which is done except for promotion, then, this new project in August (which is done save for copy edits), and then MAYBE something in November. The bulk of my writing for 2023 is done. I’m working on projects for 2024 because, despite my constant releases, I am a pretty slow writer. It only seems fast because I write my books well in advance of my release dates.

For now, I’m busy promoting Vol. 4 and trying my luck with Facebook ads (it’s so confusing. ha.) *shameless self-promotion to follow:

WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 1 (0.99 Cents)
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 2
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 3
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 4 (NOW LIVE)
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 5 (Pre-Order)

---

Until then, I have some writing to do. 🙂 See ya next week!

Danielle/Dani Bannister, author and signer of contracts

Book Birthday Time! Vol. 4 is LIVE!

Epp! It’s another book birthday for me! This makes #21. She’s legal, baby! hehe. I actually had to get up and count my books because I’d lost track! I LOST TRACK! How have I written so many books that I’ve lost track? I used to marvel when authors told me they wrote so many books they couldn’t remember how many they had. I’d laugh and think, I’ll always know how many titles I’ve published. And now, boom. Karma is laughing at me. ha.

WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 1 (.99 Cents)
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 2
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 3
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 4 (NOW LIVE!)
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 5 (Pre-Order)

I’d post the blurb for Vol. 4 but that would give away spoilers to those who haven’t started the series yet, so if you want to read the blurb, just click on the link above. 🙂

If you wanted to help lend a hand with the release, the best thing you could do is to copy/paste the info below with maybe a sentence or two about how you’ve enjoyed the series, or if you haven’t read it, if you had plans to. It’s soooooooooooooooooooo hard to be seen in the romance world. Especially with a 4th book in a series, so any shares I can get I totally appreciate!

Info to share, if you can:

---

Where You Left Me, Vol. 1-5 by Dani Bannister

No groom? No problem. Jasmine Fairchild has been left at the altar. Literally. With the bouquet still in her hands, she’s determined not to let her cheating ex have all the fun. She was going on her honeymoon to The Bahamas. All she needed was a ‘groom.’ Fortunately, she found a mysterious cutie in the crowd willing to partake in a fake wedding and go on an all-expenses-paid cruise with her. In less than 24 hours, she’d be far away from her failures and the embarrassment of being left at the altar. The only hiccup is she can’t keep her hands off her pretend husband. Not that he appears to mind. He can’t seem to resist her either. Is he playing for keeps or toying with her heart? Will Jasmine be able to avoid rebounding with a perfect stranger or will desire win the day? Find out in this red-hot contemporary romance novella series: Where You Left Me, Volumes 1-5. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09P7K8X1Z

---

Ok, that’s all for this week. In the meantime, I’ll be hard at work polishing off Vol. 5 to go to the editor in April, then the series is finished in May! Craziness!

Dani/Danielle Bannister, author and releaser or a drinking age amount of books

In One Week: Release Time-Again!

It feels like only yesterday I was talking about the release day of Waiting in the Wings. And now here I am again talking about a different release! Insanity.

Gulp. In one week (02.07.2023) Vol. 4 of the Where You Left Me series comes out. Vol. 5 is shortly thereafter with a May release. My first series… Nuts!

The tricky thing with a series is trying to promote the books after book 1 until the series is done. If readers haven’t read the first book they aren’t going to care about your subsequent releases. They might perk up once the series is finished but until then, you are basically putting out books a lot of people aren’t reading. It’s a long game and one that can be hard for authors to handle financially. There are still cover and editing costs not to mention marketing expenses, for each release. If readers aren’t picking up those middle books, a lot of authors won’t be able to afford to finish the series.

But there again, that’s the long game for you. Once the series is finished, I will do a bigger market push. For now, I’m just working as fast as I can to get the series done. And your support of these middle ‘Jan’ books is so appreciated. (A million points if you got the Jan reference.)

Haven’t started the series, but want to, and not sure where to begin?

There are TWO places you could start the series. The FREE start is by checking out the prequel chapter that I wrote from the guy’s POV as to how he ends up at the wedding in the first place. It’s not vital to the series, but it is a fun short read that gives you some insight into the character you might not get from the series…

Or you can start with Vol.1 which is only .99 cents. I’m going to be running some promotions on Vol. 1 to try to help get eyes on later volumes. If you see a promo, let me know! I’m curious if these new-to-me sites will be helpful!

WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 1 (.99 Cents)
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 2
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 3
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 4 (02.07.23)
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 5 (Pre-Order)

Well, that’s all from me for this week. I’ll be back next week with release news. Eeep! Until then, I need to get Vol. 5 polished so I can send that one to the editor. In the meantime, thanks for being awesome and supporting indie authors!

---

Dani/Danielle Bannister, author and release of all the books

Vol. 4 Edits Due Back Today!

Getting your manuscript back from your editor is both exciting and terrifying. On the one hand, you’re a step closer to release day, HUZZAH! On the other, the editor’s very job is to tear your book apart and highlight, in red, all of your mistakes. Which you then have to accept. Literally. I have to push a button to accept each and every correction. And there are always a lot. Like hundreds. Despite having read the manuscript backward and forwards. Despite having other sets of eyes on it to check for issues. The editor always finds an obscene amount of errors. Some, as you know, will even pass her careful eyes because…

Some authors will choose to hit the ‘accept all’ button in Word which will take all of the corrections and fix them at once. Not me. I’m a glutton for punishment. I want to know what I messed up. what word did I spell wrong this time, how badly did I screw up my commas this time? Will my editor pointing out my crutch words stop me from peppering every subsequent manuscript with them that she has to cut again? Probably not. Will I ever learn how to use a semicolon properly? Doubtful. Will I ever remember what traumatic past I gave my heroine? Unlikely. But the hope that I will retain the knowledge my poor editor is trying to convey is there. And so I look at each mistake one at a time.

Once those errors are all fixed, I’ll do the final format check for the ebook (I do the paperback upload on release day for marketing reasons) then I’ll upload it to all the platforms so it will be ready for its release day on Feb. 7, 2023. (Ack, that’s two weeks from now!)

Because I now have a pre-order link up for the last volume, I’m trying my hand at some paid promotions. Cause let’s face it, I’m not the world’s best marketing guru. And the competition for visibility in the contemporary romance market is no joke. Even with over twenty titles out, I am a drop of water in the ocean of romance books, so I’ll need all the help I can get!

In the meantime, if you haven’t picked up Vol. 1 and wanted to, it’s on sale for. 99 cents now. Or you can always read the prequel chapter for free right on my blog. It’s only 15 pages but it gives you some insight into what happens immediately before the series starts and gives you a sense of my writing voice.

WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 1 (.99 Cents)
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 2
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 3
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 4 (02.07.23)
WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 5 (Pre-Order)

Now that Vol. 4 is basically finished, I will be starting my third draft of Vol. 5 in February to get that ready for its May release.

What am I working on until then? That’s a secret… for now. Hope to have some news to share on that soon. That’s all for now!

---

Danielle/Dani Bannister, author and maker of typos

Books & Health Update: All the Deets

Some of you may recall that I ended up in the ER about a month ago with serum sickness. I had a rare reaction to a new infusion medication they were trying for my ulcerative colitis as my current meds were no longer cutting it. My body said ‘No thank you’ to that infusion and promptly made my entire body hurt. Like, even walking was agony. So, that was fun. After a round of steroids, I’m able to move again. Huzzah. Our next approach to treating my illness is a drug called Stelara. It consists of a one-time infusion at the hospital and then I’ll give myself an injection every eight weeks thereafter. (Fun. Not) I go for that infusion this week so… stay tuned?

As for book news, I do have a few updates. My Yonder project? This one?

Well, it IS still coming soon, just not as soon as we’d hoped. My publisher, who handled the rights negotiations for this story, City Owl Press, met with representatives from Yonder this week and while they are very eager to get my project (and others) onto their platform, they also want to invest some time to do proper strategic marketing for the titles they release. This tells me they are invested and want to make sure these stories get the best launch they can. They aren’t just going to throw a bunch of stuff to see what sticks. They want to do this right. Not a bad thing. For this research, they need about a month to figure out the marketing push they want to put behind each of the titles. So, for now, it’s a ‘hurry up and wait’ situation with possibly a Feb/March release timeframe. Another stay-tuned moment! I’m hopeful that this marketing effort will only benefit the authors and readers on the app!

While A Single Step is outside of my publishing control, my contemporary steamy romance novella series Where You Left Me is not. The release of that series is still very much on track. In fact, Vol. 4 just went to the editor on Friday the 13th (ooooo) and I just finished the second round of Vol. 5 so that’s still on target for its May release.

I’ve also put Vol. 4 on sale for 0.99 cents and there is always the free prequel PDF if you want to get a sense of the story before you buy which is right here on my website.

WHERE YOU MET ME (Free prequel chapter)
https://daniellebannister.wordpress.com/free-story/

WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 1
https://books2read.com/WYLMV1

WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 2
https://books2read.com/WYLMV2

WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 3
https://books2read.com/WYLMVl3

WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 4 (02.07.23)
https://books2read.com/WYLM-V4

WHERE YOU LEFT ME, Vol. 5 (Pre-Order)
https://books2read.com/WYLM-V5

---

Phew, that’s a lot of updates for one week but there you have it. New year, new med, new writing projects. Bring it!

Danielle/Dani Bannister, author and updater of all the news