Category / My Work

by Lexine

New Cover Alert!

I have my reasons why I changed the cover of my chart-topping bestseller (in my dreams) The Playgirl. Yesterday marked the end of my book’s exclusivity to KDP Select after being on it for 14 months, and, with its return to wide distribution, I felt like a cover change was needed. If you’ve been keeping track, yes, this is not the first time I changed it. And if you’re a cover collector, here’s another one to add to the trove!

If you’re wondering about the image I selected for the cover…I wanted something that embodied the salaciousness and drama of my story (which has not been changed, by the way). Somehow, I never considered using illustrated stock photos for cover art until recently. (My last cover was a photo of a nude woman silhouette, edited to make it look almost illustrated.) And when I eyed that simple yet striking illustration, after looking through pages and pages of stock photos, I thought, wait…I think I found her. After playing with fonts and line placements, I had done it again. I gave my story a new face. Compared to my last cover, it’s quite minimalist. And I actually like it!

Credit to Dasha Kovtun on Dreamstime.com for the artwork. It’s coincidence that the green lashes and dark brown locks of the illustration mirror the look of my green-eyed brunette protagonist. And this time, I’m sticking with this cover!

ETA: she’s now back on Wide Distribution! And on the jungle site too.

by Lexine

Special Announcement!

playgirl cover (new silhouette didot 5)

Starting December 27, 2024, my eBook The Playgirl will return to Wide Distribution! It will still be sold on Amazon, but it will also be available on other platforms such as Apple Books, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble for those who choose to no longer buy anything through Amazon and Amazon-related sites, which I completely understand! (I’d take my book out sooner, but I’m still enrolled in KDP Select through 12/26/24.) I’ll also be looking into how I can sell my work directly through me so I can get all of the coins.

by Lexine

Yes I Wrote That

Just published: my essay in the latest issue of Bi Women’s Quarterly! The theme for the current issue is “Childfree” (the theme was given back in the spring this year, and it means a lot more now), so if you’re not JD Vance or a crazy breeder, please give my piece a read! (Click on header pic) I actually submitted two pieces to the newsletter, and maybe I’ll share the other piece here another day.

Also, something I noticed: many of the other submissions in the current newsletter have the author’s profile pics as the header image. Kudos for BWQ for not doing that with my piece 😆 although it would’ve been hilarious and fitting if they caught me on a really bad day😆

by Lexine

Happy Saturday

number 7 LGBT fiction ranking (yay)

It’s still Saturday where I’m at (for a few more minutes), and guess whose book is currently in the Top 10 of Free LGBT Fiction books on Amazon right now? 😀 That’s its highest ranking among all the charts it’s been on since its release, by the way. (It’s also currently in the Top 30 of Free Women’s Fiction books.) Now to figure out how to keep it up there when the book goes back to regular price tomorrow…🤔

All the credit to @TheBookTweeters, Freebooksy, and The Fussy Librarian for all the book promo this past few days. And starting next month, I’ll be going exclusive with KDP Select. (It won’t be immediately on October 1st, despite what I may have said before, as I have to delist my book from other sites, and that could take a while.) I’m intrigued over the idea of earning coins from page reads there, and hopefully things work out from the exclusivity. To Draft2Digital, Apple Books, Smashwords, Kobo, and B&N, all my thank-yous, and adios.

by Lexine

She’s Free (Again!)

playgirl cover (new silhouette didot 5)

Who wants a freebie? 😀 My work will be leaving Wide Distribution at the end of this month, as I’ll be going exclusive with Amazon’s KDP Select starting in October. (It’s temporary, but I’ll see how that works out for me for the time I’m with KDP Select.) For those who prefer getting their eBooks on non-Amazon sites, this is your last chance to get my book, and for free! (You can also get it at no charge on Amazon as well.)

This “Goodbye To Wide (Distribution)” sale (I know–not a catchy name) starts now and ends 11:59PM PDT 9/30/23.

Link to non-Amazon stores 

Link to Amazon (and I finally got my first rating there, and it’s not a bad one, too!)

by Lexine

More Changes…And Frustrations!

playgirl cover (new silhouette didot 5)

I finally made the genre change for my book. The simple process may have taken longer for me than it should have, but I was also working on another book cover for it. (And I also hit a busy period with my day job.) I also made some minor changes to the manuscript, which I had to do and I have my reasons why (I can be an edit slut who trips over trivial shit). Even though over 2K people now have my book (thanks to the free book promos from earlier this month) and I may be shooting myself in the foot here. Nonetheless, I’m finally FINALLY done with revising The Playgirl. It’s in the proper genres, the story is now truly to my liking (even though someone on Booksirens thinks otherwise–more on this later), and it’s got a cover I wish I could’ve gone with for its true debut back in July.

A little backstory to the cover: I selected that image as it was another one of my cover alternatives (you always need cover image backups). With my protagonist being a liberated, fun-loving woman, you don’t get more liberated than (an image of what appears to be) a nude woman enjoying herself. I chose the font design/arrangement because there’s something to the Didot font (that you see in the title and author name) that’s stylish and dramatic (and my story has elements of both). I also drew inspiration from the typography found in Harpers Bazaar magazines during the Tilberis-Baron days during the 1990s, and the result just pops. And, yes, I did that cover myself. Graphic design is starting to become my passion, haha.

*VENT ALERT!*

I have to say: I still feel like a total noob in this self-pub game. Here I am, still making some changes to a book I worked on for seven-plus years. I should’ve been fully ready with my shit when I clicked on Publish in late July this year, but I guess I wasn’t.  So I stumbled here and there with my debut. That said, it’s all a learning process. With my day job, I know I was a lot different in my craft when I started in my profession over 12 years ago than I am today. I’m sure I’ll be a totally different writer 12 years from now. Not in terms of content, though–I know what my forte is!

I plan on doing another freebie promo for the “new and improved yet again” Playgirl; it will likely be towards the end of this month. I’ll announce it at the same time I reveal my other bit of Important News. For those who got free copies of my book with its 1st and 2nd covers, you can get one more cover to add to your collection!😆

And, of course, get my book here (Amazon) and here (non-Amazon links).