An author and editor, Niranjan’s biggest ambition is to have a character named Garth in every book they write. Niranjan writes books rooted in mythical worlds, and their stories are often a combination of magic and futuristic technology.
When they are not writing or editing, Niranjan can be found cooking or just lying on their couch watching or rewatching C Dramas and writing fanfiction.
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It's another book release!
Published 11 months ago • 8 min read
Hey Reader,
The month has been a mix of good and bad, though I hope it will get better.
News and Updates
New Releases
Before the End released today. As mentioned in the last newsletter, this is the main book of The Lost Race series.
ARCS AND PRE SALES
ARCs for Blade Broken are still open, so if anyone's interested, please sign-up and I'll send you a Bookfunnel Link immediately!
Colliding Forces was cut from the SPSFC with a very brutal one star review. While I expected the cut, I would be lying if I say the review didn't hurt because it did.
I just need some time to get over it, because NOT EVERY BOOK IS FOR EVERYONE, and that judge was obviously not the target audience for the book.
All the same, it's brought the old insecurities to the fore, making me feel like my books are crap and no one will like them.
Just going to take some time to get over it.
BOOKS ON SALE
Heart of a Hero is on sale this month.It's a superhero book and hella gay!
Pradyutita is also on sale. It's a low fantasy novel based on the Hindu epic Mahabharata.
Pradyutita is an Indie Ink Awards finalist as well this year. The official announcement should be coming out tomorrow. It was also an SPFBO semifinalist in 2020.
I would request y'all to get the books I have on sale from my ko-fi shop, if possible, because 100% royalties, y'all. Even on a $0.99 book, that adds up!
Ko-fi shop link to Heart of a Hero: https://ko-fi.com/s/78e3876762
Ko-fi shop link to Pradyutita: https://ko-fi.com/s/d22539024e
You can get Blade of Castrial and Crown of Roses only on my Ko-fi store at present. They're available for pre-order everywhere else.
WRITING
I'm making good progress on the draft of Blade Reforged. I really love how this book is shaping up. We get more of Alaric, Lucian, and Sylvester and Astra is a PoV character in this as well.
It will need some heavy revisions, even if it's going well. There's always room for improvement. I just hope I can finish it in time for betas to take their time with it.
I finished a short story and has started final revisions of Shades of Spring. I want to get this book done this month or at least by the beginning of February so I don't have to feel pressured closer to the release date.
BOOKBUB
Shades of Spring has been selected for a Bookbub New Releases for Less feature. For those of you who doesn't know, Bookbub is a place where you can follow authors or just sign up to their newsletters and they'll send you deals on the books in the categories you prefer. I'm signed up to their newsletter for fantasy, sci fi, supernatural suspense and LGBT books and I've found some great deals there!
When you follow an author, Bookbub also sends you an alert whenever they have a book released. So if you follow me there, you can get an alert whenever I release a book.
As you can see, it also shows my other pen names, so you can follow all three and get alerts, and news on deals. If any of my books are selected for a deal on Bookbub, you'll get an alert that the book is on sale and available with whichever retailers.
Bookbub featured deals are something every author wants to have because it pays for itself. Almost every deal makes the money back and more, so it's worth it to pay whatever it costs.
The New Releases for Less? Not so much. All the same, it does give a boost to the sales at the time of release, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm also planning to set up the pre-order of Death of Summer, Book 2 of Shades of Spring for 2026, and hoping that some of the people who gets Shades of Spring will pre-order Death of Summer as well.
The advantage of New Releases for Less is that it's cheaper than a featured deal, and the book can be full priced.
I hope you all give me a follow on Bookbub as well, which will likely boost my chances of getting a featured deal.
BETA REQUESTS
I'm still looking for betas for Set in Stone and Endless Lives. If any of you are interested, sign up and I'll send you the bookfunnel link asap.
Since both of them are to be published this year, turnaround times are rather fixed, I'm afraid.
BOOKS I'VE READ AND PLANNING TO READ
To make up for my drought in reading books, I finished two books. Three, if you count a beta read.
Rosewood Penny was excellent and I enjoyed the plot, the characters and the queer rep!
Beautiful Serpent, Restless Embers was of a different style with queer rep and a plotline and characters that kept me invested throughout.
Loyalty to the Max, the beta read, is by our Author of the month, and it is excellent! It's a sequel to Ancient as the Stars, but can be read as a standalone too. Though some of the things make more sense if you've read Ancient as the Stars. Which is well worth reading. I really loved that book, and I loved this one too.
I'm planning to read The House of the Red Balconies, Gates of Hope and Dragon Class next. The House of the Red Balconies is also hella queer and Gates of Hope is an SPFBO finalist this year. Dragon Class is an Eastern inspired fantasy, which is among my favourite things to read. It's based in ancient China, which I love even more. Dragon Class and The House of the Red Balconies have also been on my TBR for a while now!
SHOWS i'm WATCHING
Remember I said I was watching Moonlight Mystique? Well, I started watching The Blossoming Love as well just because Vin Zhang! I've been waiting to see him as the main lead in a show ever since I saw him in Eternal Love. He didn't disappoint at all.
I'm also watching Immortal Samsara while I wait for Moonlight Mystique and The Blossoming Love to update because Yang Zi! I loved her in Lost You Forever and I might even watch Ashes of Love for her once I'm done with this one.
If anyone says, Cheng Yi, I'll slap you. Yes, Cheng Yi is the male lead in Immortal Samsara, and he's an amazing actor, but I really didn't like his character in either of the shows I've watched him in before.
Love and Redemption and Mysterious Lotus Casebook are both shows I adored, but I found Cheng Yi's character pretty wishy washy in the former and very insufferable in the latter.
He's far more interesting in this one, but Yang Zi is the star of the show. She's not the morally grey Xiao Yao of Lost You Forever, or the annoyingly naive Jin Mi of Ashes of Love, but somewhere between both. I've never watched Ashes of Love in full because I couldn't tolerate Jin Mi but I might give it a try after this.
Yep, I've been bingeing, and Immortal Samsara has been far more interesting than I expected it to be.
I do love the Chinese mythology and xianxia aspects in this. I watched Ancient Love Poetry after I started watching Moonlight Mystique because I heard the two were connected. The connections are not apparent yet, but it's sparked another idea for a new fic.
I'm very in the mood for Chinese cultivation fantasy shows with gods.
OTHER NEWS
I have a discord server. It's the best place to stay in touch with me. Don't expect much because me introvert no talkie to strangers.
Unless you talk to me first. Then I'll talk and maybe not shut up, so be warned.
Also, do check out my Ko-fi shop where all my books are uploaded now. It has the same price as the other retailers, but I do get to keep 100% of my royalties.
So, please, pretty please, if you MUST buy my book, buy it on my Ko-fi shop
You can get all my books at 50% discount from my Ko-fi shop using coupon 504UJAN only for this month.
Donations are also very much appreciated because BILLS. Ugh, I hate capitalism. I wish I didn't have so many bills to pay because then I can give away my books for free.
RANTS
I'm honestly so annoyed by the organisers of a certain event. They claim it's a fantasy event, but almost everything is geared towards romantic fantasy and when we ask politely, if it would be possible to have some stronger bifurcation of the romance and non romance fantasy, they keep quibbling.
Come on, if I market a book as soulmates, or one bed, or touch her and you die, I'm obviously not aiming at readers of epic fantasy or sword and sorcery.
I'm extremely careful about how I market my books, and if romance isn't central to the plot, even if there's one, I would never market it as romantic fantasy. Conversely, even if there is a romance that takes a lot of space, if that isn't the focus of the book, I wouldn't call it romantic fantasy.
I'm so so so annoyed that I lowkey wanna start my own event for free books for a weekend for NON Romance books. But I don't have the spoons to set everything up, so I might just set up one through bookfunnel.
The trouble with bookfunnel is there are so many promos already. Y'all know it, right, with how many I'm sharing each newsletter? So, y'all are more likely to, "ugh, one more bookfunnel promo" and unsubscribe rather than, "hey, more free books! let's have a look!"
Anyway, I might start a promo for free fantasy and sci fi that are non romantic when I have the spoons to do something properly. The advantage of Bookfunnel is they do all the heavy lifting, so I only have to set up and share. But readers seem tired of the Bookfunnel promos. Unfortunately, it's also a marketing thing, which I'm told I need to, if I'm to pay my bills.
My books in the promo are Pradyutita, Durga, and The Deathless Ones.
Pradyutita, as I said in my previous mail, has made it to the finals of the Indie Ink Awards, but mum's the word till tomorrow when the official announcement is made. It's also at $0.99 till the end of this month.
Once again, reminding y'all that Kobo Plus is THE best platform and subscription, so please, please, please, try it out, y'all. The first month is FREE, so what have you to lose???
You can get ALL my books on it, so no having to buy any! As long as you read it on Kobo Plus, I get paid. And re-reads count as well!
Our Author of the Month has her books on Kobo Plus as well even if they aren't part of any promos!
I will likely be back around the 25th with some more exciting news!
Till then, stay safe and take care of yourselves.
As always, you can find my books on sale here and all my books here.
An author and editor, Niranjan’s biggest ambition is to have a character named Garth in every book they write. Niranjan writes books rooted in mythical worlds, and their stories are often a combination of magic and futuristic technology.
When they are not writing or editing, Niranjan can be found cooking or just lying on their couch watching or rewatching C Dramas and writing fanfiction.
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