I've given "A Faerie Fated Forever" a facelift - at least on Amazon. The changes will boogle over to B&N and Smashwords eventually, but the new version is bright and shiny and STILL FREE for Kindle. Why isn't the new version available everywhere right now, you ask? Because of the technical magic behind the scenes. I can only work minor magic (tweaks I can make in Word). It takes my hubby, John the Magnificent, to work the high-grade magic Smashwords demands.
Right now, Faerie feeds out FREE to all the bookstores from Smashwords - except Amazon. And the meat-grinder at SW is not for the faint of heart. Sometimes even John the Magnificent has to tweak things a couple of times to satisfy the oh-so-exacting SW meat-grinder. Like all wizards, John the Magnificent stays busy. When he has time to direct his magic to the SW version of Faerie, we'll get it out there.
The older "enlarged" version of Faerie also remains in the Forever Series Bundle on Amazon and elsewhere. I may leave the enlarged version in the bundle. It gives an incentive to buy the bundle because then it'll be the only place to read the full, original version. (Inside every author building a platform marketing genes must grow - otherwise, the author's career won't grow either.)
The edit to Faerie started with an email from the KDP maestros. They said a customer had complained of spelling errors in the book and asked me to check it out. The maestros didn't remove the book or do anything a'tall heavy-handed. They simply made a request. The huge, hideous error pointed out in the email was that once (and it was only once) I used the word brown when it should have read brow. Okay, that was snarky, wasn't it? I have a little snark inside but I try never to feed it! Anyway, none of the spelling errors was major and in the original 100,000 word plus version I only found about 3 or 4 ( brown for brow, losses for looses, a missing e, and blond for blonde). All were minor, but all are now fixed.
The spelling "errors" were smaller than many I've run across in books published by the big houses, but that's no excuse really. And my snarkiness is like a porcupine's quills - a defense mechanism. Truthfully, if an error bothered a reader, then it should be fixed. And it was. But that's where the journey started. While I was listening to readers, I recalled some of the book's reviews that complained it was too long. So I turned a sharp eye to editing for length.
Some of my favorite events are missing from the new version, but they were things that kept Heather and Neil in England for a while after their reunion. I loved those events because they confirmed that Neil and Heather loved each other. But a goodly number of readers wanted the story to pace a little faster and now it does. But it's not just the plot edits that pace the tale faster because I also edited for word choice. I tightened the language and kicked more adverbs to the curb than I thought I knew. But it turned out - when I wrote Faerie, I had a near Guiness Record setting mass of "adverbial knowledge." I didn't just know the adverbs- I loved them in a deep and meaningless way.
Yes, Virginia, you guessed the next part - I sprinkled a generous helping of my adverbial prowess in Faerie. But undoubtedly, assuredly and categorically, I guarantee that the remaining adverbs are nearly absolutely necessary.
Now that Faerie's had a facelift, I'd appreciate all y'all checking her out, especially if you read or reviewed the prior version. It's my understanding that if you email Amazon, they'll let you download the new one even though the older version is still in your library. Since Faerie is free, you have nothing to lose by checking out the new model. If you like the story, you might pick up the Forever Series Bundle which will let you compare and contrast the new lean mean tale with the original gauzy, gaudy fuller version. The Bundle is only $5.99 on Amazon.
Like I said, right now the trim, toned version of Faerie is an Amazon exclusive. Pick it up free for your Kindle or Kindle Fire (Or Kindle for PC - available as a free download from Amazon). And be sure to quack back and let me know what you think because the changes to the story were made based on reader reviews and feedback. See, I love y'all. I really, really love y'all. And just like any red-blooded romance heroine, I want y'all to love me back.