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11-05-2021 Publishing in Reverse?

Publishing in Reverse?

(Click to watch the Vlog)

As many of you know, I've been on my author's walk for a few years now. I self-published for the first time on May 30, 2018, and have never looked back. I love indie publishing. It gives me a great amount of control over when and how to publish my stories. That's awesome.

Over the last few years, I've seriously studied publishing and marketing. I've learned a lot. I've also realized that I have a whole lot more I still don't understand and that things change a lot. That's okay. It's all part of the journey.

Coming soon to a book nook near you!

A while back I realized that I needed to do something radically different if I was going to have any real hope of getting my stories in front of readers. I made the decision to publish in short-read miniseries. I also decided to publish as much of the backlist as I could before I had to return to the full-time day job in my professional career.

The idea of publishing parts of a series in quick succession is known as rapid release. I did that without knowing what it was until I had been doing it for a while. (Sadly, it didn't help me as I learned later that it had helped others. But I didn't market it so that's okay. It did help me another way that I never expected. I'm very pleased with the results.) 

It allowed me to increase the size of my bookshelf. That meant that when readers did stumble over the stories in the dream, there was more for them to read. And read they did. So if you've never met Stephen A. North the sci-fi author, allow me to introduce his advice. "The size of your bookshelf matters." No truer words have ever been spoken when it comes to book marketing on a budget.

While beginning to publish the short reads, I learned some more about self-publishing. For me, pre-orders don't work well. For an in-depth explanation on why pre-orders might not be a great idea for new and unknown self-published authors, I would like to refer you to Dave Chesson over at Kindlepreneur. He explains that far better than I ever could. Suffice it to say, I needed something fast.

I have a very large backlist of written stories that I want to publish. To publish them quickly, I needed to stop wasting time uploading then revisiting for changes to include links to the next title in the book before it in the series. I also didn't have time to post preorders of books that were published in reverse. (In reverse? That sounds weird, but yeah that's right.) It was a bit of a conundrum.

Parts of a miniseries soon to be released!

So I began reverse publishing. Once a title was live, I copied the embed link into the title that comes before it and published the entire miniseries in reverse, one title at a time in rapid succession. As I was publishing several miniseries at the same time while waiting on Amazon, things occasionally got confusing. (This was before I made the decision to publish wide.)

I wanted to explain so no one got upset. I do still publish in reverse on Amazon on occasion. If you see a book titled Part 4, but can't seem to locate a part 1, 2, and 3, please be patient and check back in a few days. I will likely have the entire miniseries available with all of the appropriate links in place.

(I in no way endorse this idea as any kind of good self-publishing advice. I am just being honest about what I am doing. If it sounds crazy, I'm okay with it if you laugh. I was and am simply doing what works for me and my goals at the moment.)

Also, to all who read my stories whether in order or not, thank you! Some do read out of order. I don't exactly understand that, but hey I read upside down, backward, and in mirror reverse, so what can I say about people who read out of order? Nothing. So I will be appreciative and simply smile as I shake my head in wonder and a bit of incredulity. Different is great.

Readers are Awesome

A shout out to Tori Price who let me in on a possible Kindle glitch with Synner and Sainte Part 1. Thank you so much! Reaching out matters. 

Draoithe: Synner and Sainte Part 1 is only $.99 to purchase so if you've been considering stepping into the dream here's a perfect chance. Warning, all of my stories are urban fantasy/PNR. They're intended for readers 18+. Synner and Sainte is the Forbye Volume explaining some of the backstories about how the dream has become unbalanced while also introducing readers to the devils of Blar Elding and the harem Markus Sainte builds with Logan Synner and Riggs Sainte. Devils do walk in the Leaindeail, but that's because they were born there. 

There are a couple of extra deleted scenes from the cutting room floor at the end of the miniseries. You can find out just how slimy Frank Grimes is and learn how Luke met Fox and Artie as well as get a bit of back story on Ryker.

I also want to shout out to Deann Spangler for reaching out to ask questions about the dream. The stories set in the dream are more saga than series. The more you read, the more you discover.

Oftentimes the timelines for one story may extend further, introduce other characters, and include information about events that haven't yet been explained fully in other books. The series read order is on my site at OpheliaKee.com


I apologize that I've as of yet been unable to publish it all. I promise I'm trying. But it does take a bit of time to get it all ready and uploaded to Amazon. Never mind about all the other places the stories are also going as my journey has now led me to publish wide. I promise there are more stories. Many are complete as far as the writing. They are simply waiting on me to get them ready to be published.

Others are in various stages of being written, but I'm confident that there is an end. I didn't always know. I know what happens to Peter Elliot at this point. Sorry, you have to wait for that though. That story is one of the ones that isn't finished though so no spoilers.

In Other News

Building the storyboard tiles that I use to craft the storyboard preview videos for the saga volumes and also as promotional tools is a lot of work. This one is from the Draoithe: The Library. It's volume 16 in the Draoithe Saga. I love to write, and I love to read, but I also love to create.

Building the book trailers and storyboard preview videos is just fun. I even recently began crafting research videos detailing some of the inspirational research that went into writing many of the characters in the Draoithe Saga.

If you haven't checked them out, subscribe to my YouTube channel and watch a few. I use a program called Corel to craft the videos in case other creators were curious. (I bought the program for less than a hundred bucks. So no subscription service fees.)

Be warned you need a serious desktop with a lot of memory to store the images, music tracks, and to craft the videos. So if you were thinking to go Indie all the way, it's possible with very little money invested beyond a good computer and a few programs. 


Sleep and the dream call me so, I must run away. Until next time, please be kind and leave your reviews when you read.

Be Careful!

Happy Reading,

Ophelia Kee