I’m making some changes to the Flatiron Five series and the Secret Heart Ink series, and I thought we’d talk about that today.

If you subscribe to my newsletter, Heroes & Happy Endings, or belong to my Facebook Readers Group, you know about this upcoming change already. (If you don’t subscribe, why not??? 🙂 )

When I started to write Flatiron Five, I had a plan of what the books would be like, based on what I saw as strong trends in the market. By the second book, though, I was telling the kind of stories I like to tell, which was a little bit different from the original plan. I really like Simply Irresistible and Snowbound – okay, mostly I like Tyler and Spencer! – but the fact is that they’re a bit different from the other books in both series. That makes them less effective as series-starters. In terms of good marketing, a series starter should demonstrate what a reader can expect from the rest of the series.

In addition, the two series don’t look similar in their branding. I like the covers, but they’re not doing their job as well as they should. At a glance, readers may not realize the stories are set in the same world.

I had been mulling over all of this since finishing Bad Case of Loving You and Under the Mistletoe last year, then I went to a conference that offered a lot of amazing workshops on marketing. Wow! I learned so much – and developed a new plan. I need to do a better job of marketing these books, so there are changes ahead.

First of all, I’m changing the covers on both series, both to look more like other contemporary romances and romantic comedies and to look more like each other. I’m working with a new-to-me cover artist with fabulous credentials in this niche and I’m thrilled with our progress so far. (I love even her first draft!) I’ll be revealing those covers first in my newsletter and Facebook group, hopefully later this month. They’ll appear here on the site on April 15.

Secondly, I’m making some changes to the books. Some are small – like fixing the continuity error of Sonia/Sonya/Sonja’s name being spelled differently over the course of the series ARGH! – some are medium – like changing the titles – but one is bigger.

The big change is that Tyler is getting a new story, with a new heroine. He’s still the same finance guy who needs to be nudged out of his comfort zone, but Shannyn is a lot more forthright than Amy was. She’s sure Tyler doesn’t remember her from college, and really hopes he’s forgotten her telling him off at a party. But Ty remembers Shannyn very well – and he’s intrigued by the changes in her. She’s not his type and he knows he’s not hers, so she might be perfect for a fake date to his sister’s wedding. Ty suggests a deal and Shannyn surprises him with her terms. Ty takes it as a personal challenge to surprise her in return – and that’s only the beginning of these two shattering each others’ assumptions….

I’m having so much fun with this new book and I think you’ll love it!

This change will have a ripple effect and create some smaller continuity changes through the other books. For example, one of the things that I wanted to address was that Amy doesn’t have much of a role in the later books. There’s not much for her to do at F5, since she’s a writer. Shannyn, though, is a photographer and the whole idea of the billboards for the club is now her idea. She’ll be more actively engaged in the promotion plans for the club, which I like. She also has tattoos, so we’ll get to meet Chynna sooner. There are a lot of small tweaks like this that will add to the cohesion of the books in the series.

I’ll also make some revisions to Snowbound, to make it more similar to the other books in that series. (I’m still deciding whether I’ll lengthen the books in the Secret Heart Ink series to make them more similar to Flatiron Five. I need to finish Ty’s new story before I can think about that.) Those new editions will probably be available this summer.

And this will all set things up well for me to write a new series set in the same world as Flatiron Five. Yay! That will mean that some of the existing characters will make cameo appearances in the new books and is part of the reason I’m working on the Character List here on the site. I’ll tell you more about that new series later this year, once all these changes are published.

If you’ve bought the books, you’re probably wondering how the mechanics of all this will work. Don’t worry! It’s pretty simple. Simply Irresistible will be unpublished and become unavailable. The new series starter will be published and will be a free download. If this doesn’t happen immediately at the portals, subscribers to my newsletter will be able to download a free copy from BookFunnel.

The new versions of the other books, with their new covers, new titles, and slight content changes, will be published under the same ISBN#’s and ASIN#’s, since the changes are minor. This means you’ll be able to download an update free of any of the books you’ve bought. It also means the buy links to the portals will remain the same. I’ll add a note to the metadata of the revised books of their previous titles, so their history will be clear on the portals and at Goodreads.

But if you want any of these books in their current print editions, you should buy them now, as those editions will soon be going away.

Phew! That’s my big news! To be the first to see the new covers, and to have a chance to download Tyler’s new book free, please be sure to sign up for my newsletter, Heroes & Happy Endings!