Just a quick update because the end of August is going to be a busy one for The Witches of Scotland. 😊

I’ve got two new books coming out within three days of each other, including something completely new that I’ve been wanting to write for a long time.

💜 The Witches of Scotland Romance Series: Book 9

Coming 28th August

Book Nine of the Romance series arrives this Friday.

We’re heading back to Glasgow, back to the witches, the shops, the relationships and, of course, the magick that seems to be getting considerably more complicated with every book. 😆

If you’ve been following the Romance series from the beginning, you can find/pre-order Book Nine here:

👉 https://geni.us/WOSRomanceBook9

🔥 Then something completely new... 1653

Three days later, on 31st August, I’m launching the first book in a brand-new Witches of Scotland series called 1653.

This one takes us right back to the beginning.

Long before David Hunter. Long before Jessica. Long before the witches we know today.

We’re going back to Scotland in 1653 and exploring the origins of the world, the magick and the bloodlines that eventually become The Witches of Scotland.

It’s still very much part of the same universe, but it feels quite different from anything I’ve written before, and I’ve loved working on it.

You can find Book One of 1653 here:

👉 https://geni.us/Witches1653

So, two books.

28th August: Romance Book 9
31st August: 1653 Book 1

Thank you, as always, for reading these books and allowing me to keep expanding this slightly mad world of Scottish witches.

I hope you enjoy what’s coming next. ❤️

Please leave a comment if you enjoy the books or if you have any questions

Steve

There are numbers in this one, but I’ve put all the working into boxes like this so you can skip them. If you’re newer to this, read straight past them ,and you’ll still get everything you need.

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I’ve mentioned typing videos before, particularly when I talked about turning our stories into different types of content.

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I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, especially after getting a lot of replies to my email asking what kind of things you need to know.

What would I do if everything disappeared tomorrow and I had to start my self-publishing career again?

• No existing readers.

• No reviews.

• No email list.

• No advertising data.

• No catalogue quietly earning money in the background.

Just me, a laptop and a new book.

Obviously, I can’t guarantee everything would work. There are no guarantees in publishing. But I could save myself a lot of time, avoid the mistakes that cost me money, and start building the different parts of the business much earlier, instead of waiting until I thought I was successful enough to need them.

When most of us begin self-publishing, we think almost entirely about writing the book. That makes sense. The book feels like the job. But writing a book and building a publishing business are two different things.

The book is the product. Publishing is the business. You quickly go from being a writer who publishes to becoming a publisher who writes.

Your advertising, social media, email list and reader community are the systems that help people discover your business. If I were starting again, I’d try to build all of those things alongside one another: not perfectly, not all at once, but from the beginning.

1. Decide What Kind of Author You Want to Be

The first thing I’d do is decide exactly what kind of books I wanted to write, and who I wanted to read them.

When I first started, I thought my books could be for everyone. How naive was that? No book is for everyone, and trying to appeal to everyone usually means a book ends up appealing strongly to nobody.

So I’d spend time studying the genre first, looking at the Top 20 books in the closest Amazon categories and asking what the covers looked like, what titles were being used, whether the books were standalones or part of a series, what tropes kept appearing, and what readers were praising and complaining about in the reviews.

That doesn’t mean copying anyone. It means understanding the market I was entering. There’s a big difference between writing to market and copying the market. I’d still want my own ideas, characters and voice, but I’d make sure the book was packaged in a way that helped the right reader recognise it.

We sometimes get obsessed with being different: a unique cover, hidden tropes, a clever title that means nothing until you’ve read it. Then we wonder why nobody’s clicking. I’d aim to be original inside the book, but very clear outside it. The cover and the title should say exactly what the book is about, so a reader knows at a glance whether it’s for them.

2. Write a Series

Unless I had a strong reason to write a standalone, I’d begin with a series. This is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned: a single book can make money, but a series gives every reader somewhere to go next.

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I’ve got some frustrating news to share, but the fix is quick and easy.

Amazon mistakenly cancelled all 500 pre-orders for Book 8 — through no fault of yours or mine. To get the book back up and available, I’ve had to delete and re-upload it.

What this means: if you pre-ordered Book 8, your order was unfortunately cancelled on Amazon’s end, so you’ll need to place your order again at the new link below.

👉 Re-order Book 8 here: https://geni.us/WoSRomanceBook8

I’m so sorry for the hassle. I know how much you’ve been looking forward to this one, and I hate that Amazon’s error has caused this hiccup. The good news is the book is live again and ready for you.

Thank you for your patience and for sticking with me and the series — it genuinely means the world.

With love and gratitude,
Steve

One of the things I see indie authors struggle with most is social media.

Not because they don’t understand it matters, but because it feels like there are too many platforms, too many opinions, too many trends, and too many people telling them to be everywhere at once.

TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, Threads, X, Pinterest, Bluesky, Substack Notes, Goodreads, BookBub, Reddit, Discord, LinkedIn, and probably a couple more by the time this goes out.

It’s a lot. And for an author already writing, editing, sorting covers, writing blurbs, thinking about ads, checking royalties and trying to have a normal life, it can feel like another full-time job.

So I want to keep this simple.

This isn’t a post telling you to be on every platform. I think that’s exactly why so many authors end up doing nothing. They look at the whole landscape, feel overwhelmed, post a few times, get no reaction, and quietly stop.

Social media can be incredibly useful for authors, but only if we stop treating it as a place to shout “buy my book” and start treating it as a place to test attention, build connection, and let readers get to know the person behind the books.

That last part matters more than most authors realise. Readers aren’t only interested in the story. They’re interested in the storyteller. They want to know who you are, why you write what you write, and what kind of person built the world they’re spending time in.

That doesn’t mean sharing your whole private life or becoming an influencer. But if all you ever post is a cover and an Amazon link, readers never get the chance to connect with you. And that’s a missed opportunity.

I will show you a great way to cut back drastically on your time using social media once you’ve got going.

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Back in Episode 2, I talked about the five silent tests every reader runs when they land on your Amazon page.

Cover. Genre clarity. Social proof. Hook. Value.

Most authors think those tests are answered by three things: the cover, the blurb, and the reviews.

They’re not.

There is an entire section of your Amazon page that you control, that costs nothing, and that most indie authors leave completely empty.

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Every month I share my numbers publicly, but the numbers themselves aren’t the important part.

The important part is understanding what created them.

A royalty statement tells you what happened.

A business analysis tells you why it happened.

This month was one of my strongest months of the year, with £44,719.27 in royalties and £21,994.40 profit after advertising costs.

So, lets take a look at the numbers first and then we can talk about the lessons learned.

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One of the biggest misconceptions in indie publishing right now is this:

“If my ebook is in Kindle Unlimited, I can’t put it into libraries.”

That used to be true.

It isn’t anymore.

Amazon quietly updated its position, and authors can now distribute their KDP Select ebooks to public libraries while remaining enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

Most indie authors either:

• Don’t know this yet

• Or haven’t realised how big an opportunity it actually is

Because libraries are not just about borrows.

They are another discovery engine for your books.

Another income stream.

Another way for readers to find your series without relying entirely on Amazon ads.

And if you’re not set up properly, you could also be missing additional royalty payments through schemes like PLR and ALCS.

So let’s break all of this down properly.

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Most authors struggle with content for one reason:

They think they need to become marketers.

You don’t.

You need to become better at telling stories.

You might recall, back in episode 4, that I spoke about the Hook-Story-Close way of telling stories for marketing purposes. Well, a lot of people wrote back to say they didn’t really have any stories like min…

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I’ll be live today at 5pm BST / 12pm EDT / 9am PDT. Join me here: https://fb.me/e/3JVCvqixV

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know that I’ll be going live today and I’d love for you to join me.

Live time:
5pm BST
12pm EDT
9am PDT

If you have any questions at all about the books The Witches of Scotland, about the writing process, about the business of being an author or my inside leg measurement, feel free to ask, so if you’re free, come along and say hello.

Join the live here:
https://fb.me/e/3JVCvqixV

Hope to see you there.

Kind regards
Steve

Back in 2015, I used to teach people how to grow their Facebook page to make money from their content.

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If you’ve read the first series, you’ll recognise them straight away.

The Glasgow streets are wet, the air hums with magick and none of them know what’s about to happen.

Before their power fully woke up.
Before any of them really understood what they were capable of.
Before they realised how connected they all were…

This is how I see them:

Alicia Collins, Aunt Gen, David Hunter, Jessica Campbell, Joseph Campbell and of course Terence 😉

They didn’t choose this.

But none of them would walk away from it now.

The funny thing is, when I’m writing, this is the version of them that sits in my head.

Not the polished version. Not the fully realised version.

This moment.

Right on the edge of everything changing.

Most people will notice the pentagram first.

Then the dragon.

But I’m always drawn to the ones standing in the middle.

That’s where everything starts.

I’m curious…

When you look at this, who stands out to you first?

Or better question…

If you had to step into that street, who would you stand beside?

Let me know what you see 👇

And if this one gave you a shiver, tap the ❤️ or restack so another reader can meet them too.

Are you new here? Start with book 1 here 👉 Book 1

When I first thought about writing The Witches of Scotland Romance Series, I hesitated.

I’m a guy writing from a female perspective. There’s a lot of noise around that. And I wasn’t sure how it would land.

But I kept coming back to the same thought:

It’s a good story.

So I wrote it anyway.

Fast forward to now and the series is sitting at number one in Witches & Wizards Paranormal Romance. That’s roughly 150 sales a day to hold that spot.

That surprised me.

But here’s the part that really made me pay attention.

After book 7, I had around 35 readers email me.

Not reviews. Not comments.

Emails.

Asking me to continue the series.

I hadn’t planned to.

In fact, I was ready to move on.

But I added a simple note at the end of book 7:

“If you want me to continue this series, email me.”

And they did.

So I wrote book 8.

And now I’ve got another 6 books planned.

That’s the real lesson for me.

Sometimes we overthink things. We worry about how something will be received. We try to predict the outcome before we’ve even given it a chance.

But the only thing that really matters is this:

Put the story out there and let readers decide.

Not everyone will like it. And that’s fine.

I’ve had a few people say they wouldn’t read books about women written by a man. I get that.

But enough people did read it. And enough people wanted more.

That’s what matters.

What do you think?

Have you ever second guessed something that turned out to be the right move?

PS: If you haven’t checked out the romance series yet, you can find it here…

Series 1: The Akashic Chronicles | Series 2: The Edinburgh Files | Series 3: The Romance Series | Series 4: 1653

A lot of authors have written to me about creating Facebook ads.

So this week I thought I would do a video to show you exactly how to set up a facebook ad and Amazon attribution link. up and show you inside my facebook ads account.

If you have any questions at all about this let me know in the comments.

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Just a quick note to let you know that book 8 of The Romance Series is up for pore-order just now.

I am also going to release it earlier than planned; the 30th June instead of August.

You can check it out here: Click here to pre-order

The Edinburgh Files Book 7

We also have book 7 on Pre0order for the very same day; the 30th June

Click here to preorder book 7

I am now focusing on the first book in the new series: The Witches of Scotland: 1653

Okay that’s it.

Have a brilliant day

Steve

As indie authors, there’s a moment most of us have at some point in our career.

We look back and realise we’ve been writing for months… maybe years…

And we’re still in exactly the same place.

Same output.
Same results.
Same frustration.

We’ve been busy… but we haven’t actually moved forward.

And when you really look at it, it usually comes down to one thing:

We’ve been treating writing like a hobby…
while expecting it to pay like a business.

That doesn’t work.

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I’ve been a huge fan of Rory Sutherland for a few years now, and I genuinely see him as a marketing genius.

Over the last few months, I’ve found myself thinking about how he would approach promoting a book using Facebook ads.

If someone like Rory sat down to run ads for a book… he wouldn’t start where we usually start.

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You know that all the series of The Witches of Scotland are linked and they all share the same universe i.e. the same time (3 years in the future), the same place (Glasgow and Edinburgh), and the same magick system.

So I wanted to go over what I am doing in each series.

The first series: The Dream Dancers: The Akashic Chronicles is complete. That was really an introduction to the world of the witches. I mention this as I keep getting emails about it, asking if I am going to continue, and obviously I point them in the direction of The Edinburgh Files, which is a continuation of the 1st Series.

The Edinburgh Files - (Click here)

Book 6 of The Edinburgh Files has recently been released (Click Here for more info)

I have just finished writing Book 7, and I have spoken to Lianne Walker, the narrator, and we should be releasing the Audiobook and all other formats by the 30th June 2026, which is 2 months earlier than planned.

Book 8 of The Edinburgh Files will be released later this year too.

The Romance Series - (Click Here)

At the end of book 7 of this series, I asked readers to email me to let me know if they would be interested in me continuing this series. I had a load of emails telling me I had to continue it.

I will continue the adventures of the newly formed coven. So book 8 should be out relatively soon, too. I will tentatively say at the end of June, too, but I will let you know.

Book 9 will be out later in the year, too.

1653 (Click Here)

The first book in the new series, The Witches of Scotland: 1653, is out on pre-order and will be published on 31st August this year.

These books are a lot harder to write as they are set in Edinburgh in 1653, and a lot more research goes into these books.

Translations

I am working hard with Lorri Emmott to get all the series translated into as many languages as possible. So far The Witches of Scotland 1st series has been translated into: German, French, Spanish and Italian and we’re working on other languages soon.

Your feedback

I have a load of ideas for storylines for the books but I would love to hear your ideas. What story lines would you have for the women from the romance series?, or what type of case should David and Jessica take up next in The Edinburgh Files?

I honestly welcome all feedback so please leave a comment or reply to the email.

Anyways, I’m off to the gym to keep my body fit, which keeps my mind going so I can keep writing.

Have a brilliant day
Steve

I came back from the Indie Network Ireland show last week with something stuck in my head.

Not a strategy. Not a new ad angle.

A single word.

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