Brand Spotlight: Nova Blake

Hi guys. Welcome back to Finding Your Indie. I'm Bonnie Paulson. And I'm Mandie Stevens. And we are here today with another Brand Spotlight.

This one's going to be a little different because we actually had a specific question come from the author that we're going to be spotlighting. We're doing Nova Blake.

Thank you so much, Nova, for reaching out to us. Nova has a question. I'm going to read the question, and then we're going to dive into the spotlight. As you know, if you want to have us look at your work and tell you what you're doing with your brand or look at your ad account audit, there are links down below and you can sign up and we would love to have you or your brand on the show.

Nova's question is: I have a bunch of books that aren't currently up on any store that I want to rework, and I have a hard time knowing where to split my list if I was to create another pen name. So, we're going to be talking about the books that she has up, if we think that they're in the correct genre and then to kind of be like, hey, if you're going to write in these genres, yes, you can put it under this name. Anything else?

No. Does that sound about like what we're going to do?

Yeah. Okay. I'm going to share screen. Okay. Here we are. I just did a fast search for Nova Blake before I started the call with Mandie.

I didn't look at her stuff and we are going to dive into actually her author. Mandie, can you see what she's seeing? What can you see? Everything?

Yes.

Okay. We're just going to look at where I'm going to skip the bio.

We're going to skip this list of these. We're going to move down to the books. These are sorted by popularity, meaning her more popular books are on top. So we have Courting Envy. It says a Sons of Satan novel. Then we have how the Marquis Found His Meow. Okay, I love that title. That's really cute.

Me too.

Looks like we have some kind of a… is that like a splicer or?

It looks like a historical shifter romance to me.

Historical shifter romance, okay.

Then this one is a retelling it says. And then this one is the Royal Celestials books. We have book nine. We have book nine in the top four.

We have a book one, which is in the top four, that's really promising actually. And this one just says it's part of the Monster's Ball series. So I'm not sure where that one number is. Queen of Disaster, Seeker of the Gods, Ebony Ascends, that's book three. I'm assuming that we're talking paranormal romance. Is that what you're getting?

Yeah. A hundred percent.

Okay. So, I mean, when I first saw the historical one, I was like, whoa, that is like way out. But then I saw the cat head and like, okay, it's not that way out.

Yeah. It's not that. It's kind of cute, actually.

It is kind of cute, but I don't know. It's still a lot different than the other ones.

Yeah, so I'm wondering if it's because this is one where it's like the guy is a cat all the time that's more of a monster style. She does have it called a Regency monster romance and usually you see that with like monster and alien romance writers. You don't usually see that with paranormal.

I think that's kind of what we have to figure out here, is she writing straight up dark romance with some kind of a paranormal or magical twist. That's cool. That’s a thing.

That's a good brand. But if she's writing sci fi romance and she's throwing monsters in here and she's writing paranormal and she's writing like, that's a really big broad.

So far, so far. Will you click on the Monster Ball? Cause I want to see if it's several authors or just her.

Absolutely. Let's go and look. The series is Nova. You're right. It's different authors. Okay.

Okay. So that's, so maybe that's why. Okay. Yeah. Which is great. Like that's, these are all different authors.

I mean, the monsters aren't that far from paranormal romance, right? They're just not, they're steamy.

You're right. Yeah.

Okay. I mean, so far everything looks really good.

Yeah.

Okay. Let's go down a little bit.

I love these covers. Those are awesome. And I like the Hexes and Vexes. That's cute.

Wow, man I want to read these. It's really good.

Oh, it's really good. Yeah. The only thing that I'm finding concerning is the reviews aren't that great. I mean, they’re not bad. They're just not enough.

There're not enough reviews. This one, she got a good, nice big chunk of reviews here. Okay. I'm going to go in. I'm actually looking at the ranking. Let's scroll down and look and see what the ranking is. These are Kindle Unlimited. So romantic fantasy. This was out in 2022. Okay. I'm thinking let's go look at the series.

I just want to see the series page. These are all different authors too.

Yeah. Okay. Let's go in and look and see what another one is, because this is why I always tell people you're writing these books for these like collaborations and these things, which is fine, but you need to be working on, cause see like this, this one's a collaboration and it has 184 reviews.

This one's 109 reviews and it's a collaboration. But when it's books that are written by yourself. Let's look in. Let's go and look at these. Yeah. Okay. Is that one fantasy? I just a second. Oh, these are all different authors as well. Okay. So, just like right out of the gate. I honestly feel like this author is not Nova. Sorry, I'm going to be blunt. Mandie, you can tell me if I'm being right or if I'm wrong or whatever, like, tell me what you think.

I feel like this brand isn't actually identified as a clear brand because the top three books are all series with other people. You aren’t able to build your own brand because you're working on building with other people.

That makes it really difficult. And I understand why some people do it, but.

I get it.

Yeah, but these are three different things. I mean, these are three very distinct, like, we're both like, is that fantasy?

Different genre. Yeah. Yeah, they're different genres.

And they're in your top four sellers. Like, that's kind of a big deal.

Those are super cute. Yeah, she needs to work on that brand. Secret of the Gods.

But this one, that, that looks good too. Yeah.

Yeah, that one looks really cool. Is it part of a series? It doesn't say if it's a series or not and hey, I'm all for people.

There are two books in it.

Okay. There's, where's the second book? I don't see it.

I don't know. We go going up. Okay. Where it says one or two book, one or two secret stuff. I'm like, huh. I'm not used to them doing these weird. Okay. It's so book two is just not out yet. Or maybe it is even on pre order. Maybe it was out and it, oh yeah, this is Queen of Disaster.

Okay. So double check. This is a prequel. Okay. So, Nova really quick. I want you to go in and I want you to put the prequel as book one, book 1 that you have marked now is going to be book two because nobody's going to start with your prequel because they don't see it. It's just seen as like a related to series.

Can't you put it as book zero now?

Oh, if you can do that, do that, but unless that's what this did, because it does say prequel. See, I wouldn't, if it was me and I was selling them on Amazon, I would do everything to make sure it shows up on the series page.  I'd be like, oh, prequels now, number one, book two is now our book.

One is now number two.

Right. I feel like putting out these other books in these collaborations is kind of muddying the waters for what your brand expectation is. And I get it. I really love the idea of collaborating with authors sometimes. Cause I think it's, you know, great, great being seen and stuff, but usually if you're not like in the first one or two, you're not getting the sales and stuff, you know, you should be working on yours.

Not just yeah, just not that I was going to say you need to be concentrating your writing efforts on building your own brand. It's one thing if you have like 10 to 15 books in a series and then you go do a collaboration.

Okay, so that's a novella. That's coming out.

That's really cute.

Yeah, it is cute. It's really cute. I love the way this one looks.

Okay, so she does have a monster series here. Right. Is it hers though? Let's look. The monster, you know. Yeah, well, yeah, she has book one and book two. Looks like it might be on pre order. Okay, I'm looking a second.

Book two isn't. It looks like maybe it was on pre order, and I had a series and then maybe she took it out down. Yeah, she needs to, she needs to concentrate on getting reviews. Yeah, and another thing too would be I'm looking and I, like, this monster book has really great reviews. You know me, I don't believe in like stalking our reviews.

I don't believe in that, but I do know that if it's something where it's like, gosh, am I, why am I not making sales? If you go to the reviews and you actually dig through them, it'll tell you what you're doing right. And it'll tell you what you're doing wrong. Like the readers, people say, oh, just write the book for you and whatever.

But. If you are trying to make money with this, you've really got to be paying attention to the customers and the customers are readers. You're not hitting something with your 20 reviewers, there's a four star is might even be less than four star.

Let me go in and look. Yeah. Because I mean, four stars is not bad. No 4.1. It's 4.1 out of five. That's great. That's totally great. And I'm, and I'm not saying, Hey, but it's like, what? If there were a lot more reviews, that one star that's there wouldn't even matter, you know what I'm saying?

Exactly. Exactly.

You can't please everybody. But yeah, she needs to focus her marketing efforts and building her brand. But she says she has a lot of books that she has not published yet. Right. So that was her question. I'm wondering what genre they are. Okay, here's my thing. This is what I think. Since she's established her collaboration with the other one, Nova Blake might be her, we would call it dark romance books.

That's what I would say. Dark romance books.

They can have a thing of it does look like they're paranormal or they have some kind of a paranormal twist to them. Fantasy twist. The thing that's, that you have to for sure have some kind of a fantasy or monsters in here is the Marquee Found His Meow. And then it's so cute.

Run red or whatever. Run red, red run. This one is a monster book as well. I'm assuming this one's going to be as well, something like that because it looks witchy.

Yeah. It looks witchy for sure.

If you're, I would think this is me, Mandie, you go ahead and chime in as you will. I'm glad. I would think monsters and paranormal romance would not do; I would not include shifters cause you're the cat meow.

That's more of a monster, not a shifter. I would stick to the monsters and like the dark paranormal style, maybe the dark magic, something like that. I wouldn't add anything else to this specific pen name. If you have like steamy contemporary, no, not on this pen name.

We're not sure what the genre is of your other books, but I do think you should be building this pen name and stop doing collaborations and start really honing in and getting a nice fat series going.

There was that seven book series, which one was it? The cat one. And that's part of 11 books and it has 184 reviews. So that tells you that readers really want something that they can stick with, right? So, a nice big fat, fat list, I would think. Wouldn't you like a nice big fat series or a catalog that they can actually be like, yes, this is what I'm looking for.

That's what I would think. If you can maybe even push onto the Envy of All books, that looks like it's, I mean, book when book one is a really good seller. That means that your marketing efforts are going towards that book. That means that you're counting on read through and it looks like your read through is probably pretty good because book two went to 20 reviews out of from 53 and then 13.

I'm betting that this series is pretty strong, could be stronger if you put more marketing and you had more books in it. Maybe I haven't read the books, but the covers are all very well branded. And did we say this one, where does this one go again? This one was with one of the books Secret Odds.

I think she just said that one book. Yeah, this one right here. And then yeah, that's the prequel on them. Yeah. Those are like two totally different genres. I mean, yeah, I'm like not even see how this one has the trim around it. It should have the same thing. It should have these things here should be down around here as well.

Yeah. It looks like a totally different. I can't some of the books that are further down. Oh, yeah, they look like I don't know exactly like Hexes and Vexes looks a little bit lighter to me. And Gemini Bless, looking at the covers, look a little bit lighter to me.

Agreed. This is cute.

What's these? Is that the Monster's Ball? That's the same one we were just looking at, Taming the Viscount Viper. That's cool. Sons of Satan. That was a collaboration.

I agree with what you're saying. This one. Oh, it looks like she did have a book, two.

Yeah, and that looks great. That's really nice. See? Yeah, that's really cool, Brandon. That's awesome. Yeah, I would totally pick up that series.

Yeah. I would read this one. That one looks really good. But she only has one book. I would probably finish this series.

I would finish some series. If you're feeling like, Oh, I'm just not into it.

Stop making money. Book ones usually don't. You pick the genre where the readers like specifically prefer finished series or at least a dedication showing you've made it through three books. If you only got one book and then you pull down your pre orders, you're going to be shooting yourself in the foot.

Yeah, because reader expectation. I mean, and some people just in the genre just do not read it until it's finished. They just don't. Yeah, that's just how it is. Like, so if Ebony Slumber series, the Envy of All is finished make sure that you're putting on a complete series and also set up a box set. Yes.

Ooh, yes. A box that would really help, especially in Kindle Unlimited. Are these in Kindle Unlimited? They don't say that they are. Hold on. Let's look. Some of them are. Okay, so she's. So she's wide with them. That's cool. You know how I feel about wide right now. That's pretty sweet. Okay. Now I want to go in and look, look at the thing with that in mind.

Her first book is free.

So 17,000, I bet with some really strong ads and stuff on this, I mean, she's got good reviews. Okay. So, yeah. So, I mean, there's always going to be brats when you have a free book. There's going to be people who are always, it's hilarious. I would fix the formatting on this. Give yourself some more white space, maybe work on your blurb a little bit.

I know it's a free book, but you really want to be really clear on what they're getting because that'll cut down on those more negative reviews. Cause you're at 3.8 and that happens. Like Mandie said, that happens with free books. I have a book that had like 4.8 stars until it went free. And then it went down to like 4.1 and it's just, it is what it is, right? Those crazy people. I don't like this. I got something for free and I don't like it.

Okay. Thanks. Keep walking, but this one, yeah, I mean, if there's, if you could put more books in it, I would definitely have them.

Well, let's see how long they are. Cause she's got book one free. 134 pages. Okay. The pricing makes sense. If they're not very long and it's easy for you to write, maybe you can keep adding to the series because three books with one free, you're probably not going to make very much cash on it. I mean, I think that's pretty fair. Yeah.

You need at least five, six.

Yeah. To have a free book in there. It's a first in series free when it's wide. I totally support that. I think it's smart. I think it's a really great move. Let's actually look in. Let's see. Those covers are so nice. I love the covers. Very eye catching. Okay. These are pretty. Okay. The inside looks really nice.

I'm just going to click through and see if I can see what the back matter looks like. Come on. Please give me some back matter. No. No. No. Okay, it did not let me have back matter. Oh no, let me have Amazon the back matter. Okay, shoot. Okay. Well, I was hoping I could see some back matter on that sucker. I don't know how to close this.

There we go. I got it. How do I work the computer? It's fine. Okay. So, I mean, I think that's pretty clear. Did we need to clarify that some more? That's the brand that you're going to stick with. Monsters and paranormal romance.

Like stick with that. Don't go astray. Finish some series that you've got and make them longer. If you can, we totally support the idea of going wide. We support going in KU, whatever people want to do. We totally support it. Just make sure that you're sticking with something right. And actually, being consistent. So, Nova, go ahead and reach out.

Let us know if you have any questions your action steps are probably going to be to find out what your readers are expecting from your books. I would go a little bit longer if you can, just because people like meaty books, but add on to your series, make them like it's a commitment.

Right. And then like Mandie said, definitely do some box sets. If you can do some box sets, if you have those other books, I would be sticking them. I would put in as many books as you can and really get your back catalog really growing here. Cause you, you've got a nice, I mean, these covers are beautiful.

Mandie's already downloading the books, I think. Right. So let us know if you have any questions. And then reach out and let us know what kind of what kind of genres, your sub genres, your books are that you have done what they are.

And maybe we can talk about where you would put those, but I wouldn't put anything in this genre, in this pen name that is outside of like what Mandie and I said, monsters and paranormal, like the steamy, like it looks like you have, so. That's what I would say. Mandie, anything you want to add to that.

No, I'd say I don't know how steamy some of these look because you look at Queen of Disaster, that looks steamy. But you look at some of the other ones, they look more kick butt, to me anyway. Yeah, the Sekhmet's Desire, which is actually supposed to be in the same series as the Queen of Disaster, that one looks more urban fantasy to me.

Oh, for sure. It looks fantastic. I would totally grab that. I said, I wouldn't grab Queen of Disaster because I'm an urban fantasy reader, but I would grab that one. And it just, them being in the same series, I was like, whoa. Yeah, it's kind of offsetting a little bit. Ebony Ascends looks like it's kind of sexy to me because of the way she's dressed and the way she looks.

Like that series, The Envy of All, looks sexy. This one looks more, like you said, urban fantasy. Most monster books are steamy. Like that's the expectation of that specific readership. I don't know, Hexes and Vexes. I know it says contemporary witchy fiction. I'm sitting here thinking that sounds more like PWF, right?

Like the paranormal women's fiction and the cover does, like you said, it was a great point. It lends itself to a very lighter feel.

Yes, a much lighter feel. I guess it just comes down to what exactly the promises that you're making to your reader are, and if you're delivering on that promise. So let us know if you have any questions.

I feel like answering that question was kind of hard because we don't have all of the variables in place to help us solve this riddle. So maybe let us know what you've got and we will see if we can continue this. That might be a fun one to do a follow up on.

Yep. I agree. All right. All right. Stick with your brand.

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Thank you, Nova again.