First Cup of Coffee – May 4, 2026

I'm off tomorrow to the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Conference for a cameo appearance to talk to them. I'm almost done with BLADES, BOOKS, AND THE BANDIT. And I'm talking about authors being idiots on social media and making business decisions about what in-person events to attend. Also, a bit of transparency on my traditional publishing deals. Finally, Lexi Ryan's NIGHT TIDE is fantabulous!

Goodreads Giveaway for AMONG THE THORNS goes May 4-25. Enter here. https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/431710-among-the-thorns

Indie Booksellers! You can buy my indie books direct from me at discount!! Submit a Request for an order here

New Releases ~

Love, Lies, and Ley Lines

MAGIC REBORN

Never The Roses

Preorder ~

Among The Thorns

Blades, Books, and the Bandit

Socials ~ @jeffe_kennedy on all platforms :)

Upcoming Events ~

Tuscon Festival of Books is March 14th-15th this year! See you there! https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org

Follow me on Amazon or BookBub

The posture correcting sports bra I love almost more than life itself can be found here

Thank you for listening! You all take care. 

Transcript

00:02.20
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning, everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy. Also writing as Jennifer K. Lambert, author of epic fantasy romance. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:18.10
Jeffe Kennedy
Today is Monday, May 4th, 2026. And I'm laughing because I have a cat here on my desk.

00:29.08
Jeffe Kennedy
And he's spotted something exciting outside. I'm not sure what he wants. He might want to go out. But Killian's so much better. He's feeling so much better.

00:40.60
Jeffe Kennedy
And he's being very lovey. I think he understands that I helped him to feel better and he is appreciative.

00:52.50
Jeffe Kennedy
So if you don't know what I'm talking about, you have to refer to last week's podcast. I won't go into the whole thing again. But um yeah, it's a good kitty. Do you want to go out?

01:06.22
Jeffe Kennedy
We'll wait and see. ah So let's see. Monday doing podcast today because tomorrow I fly to San Antonio in the morning, just a whirlwind trip. I'm going to San Antonio for the mountains and plains booksellers association, uh, spring conference.

01:34.10
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, I get there midday gonna stay near the riverwalk, which is great. I love that. haven't been there since the RWA conference there years ago.

01:44.60
Jeffe Kennedy
um and I am going to hang out ah for a little bit that afternoon and then a I'm on a thing that evening a panel.

01:56.48
Jeffe Kennedy
Sorry I'm being distracted by scratching a cat. I probably shouldn't be doing that. Um, and then fly back Wednesday morning. So it's kind of cool that I get to do these um, events to promote among the thorns. Ah, but that don't take a really long time to do I like these short things.

02:20.76
Jeffe Kennedy
If I could have, I would have spent a little extra time in San Antonio, but I wanted to get back for my therapy appointment. Did I mention I'm on therapy now?

02:31.03
Jeffe Kennedy
ah I need a hashtag, right? Did I mention? Because my therapist is going to be gone for six weeks after this. so i have to like get in the last um bits of angst and advice.

02:50.55
Jeffe Kennedy
So, of and then on um the weekend, on Saturday, I'm going to fly to Tucson and just go to Tucson for two nights, but spend Mother's Day with my mom.

03:04.37
Jeffe Kennedy
Taking her out to a very nice place for brunch. So that will be lovely. And my stepsister, Hope, and brother-in-law, Galen, are going to join us. So it'll be really nice, I think. I'm looking forward to that.

03:19.03
Jeffe Kennedy
Speaking of Among the Thorns, there is a Goodreads giveaway going on as we speak. It's going May 4th to May 25th. They're giving away 50 copies of Among the Thorns.

03:33.59
Jeffe Kennedy
ah They might be finished copies because release date's coming. The notice i got doesn't say, but link is in my Instagram bio.

03:47.96
Jeffe Kennedy
And yeah, go find it there. Go find it on Instagram. Who knows if I put it anywhere else. I'll try. I'll put it in the show notes. There we go. Between those two things, you ought to be able to find it.

04:04.28
Jeffe Kennedy
So um today is a busy day. It's all about the grooming or at least in one aspect appointment wise. I have to get my hair done, although it doesn't look terrible, but yeah, ah the hair I didn't get done because of this one and his veterinary emergency last week and um and have to get my nails done. That's really important stuff, people. So, and also,

04:32.73
Jeffe Kennedy
finishing Blades Books on the Bandit. I guess that's, is that burying the lead? I mean, it's not definitive. I keep having to pause to sneeze. Allergies are going this morning. At least I'm not explosively sneezing in your ears this time.

04:55.16
Jeffe Kennedy
So um I'm almost done. I think I'm done. of I mean, I think the end is in sight. but I know none of this sounds definitive, but I have at worst three chapters left to write. And I think maybe it's just one.

05:17.69
Jeffe Kennedy
um It ended up the story ended up finishing faster than I thought. Uh, I don't know how to, it just, um, yeah, there ended up not being that much more to the stories. It took some surprising twists. I did post to threads yesterday that, um, there is something i put in there just because I thought it would mess with y'all's minds.

05:49.08
Jeffe Kennedy
ha oh So, yeah, it um it took some surprising turns, I think partly because it's the middle book of the trilogy.

06:06.23
Jeffe Kennedy
It's just sometimes the story does what it does. So I think I only have, um, well, so right now i am at just shy of 70,000 words and I think it's going to end up being around 70,000 words Um,

06:26.19
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm going to look back over what I've done the last couple of days. I did work all weekend, ah but it's feeling good and I don't want to pad it with a bunch of stuff that doesn't need to be there.

06:43.45
Jeffe Kennedy
So I thought I was going to be riding the whole time on the airplane, but I think I'm probably going to have it done today. Amazing. And send it off for proofreading. So, um but that's me, barring me figuring out something is wrong or that I, but I even like went over my story notes and I think I've tied up all of the threads um and I could throw in a few more scenes, but I don't like it when books are padded.

07:12.60
Jeffe Kennedy
I was talking with a friend of mine that I had recommended Tainted Cup to by Robert Bennett da Jackson, and he said that his only complaint was that it's too long.

07:24.44
Jeffe Kennedy
ah And I think that's probably the fantasy aspect that's feeling long to him. He feels like it's long for a detective novel murder mystery kind of thing, which is probably fair.

07:41.59
Jeffe Kennedy
It's 400 pages. um And he said that that's longer than is typical for murder mystery type thing.

07:53.69
Jeffe Kennedy
that is of course not long for epic fantasy. So I think this is the kind of thing that happens when you go cross genre. Um and the thing about the fast and the fae books is they're meant to be kind of well fast and kind of romps and I'm letting the story as always letting the story be what it wants to be and not forcing it to be something else. So that's still, um, with a lot of books coming in at around 80,000 70,000 is a little short, but also, um, I swear I'm not rushing the ending. ah

08:36.09
Jeffe Kennedy
So I know how y'all feel about that. Um, Other news, I finished reading Night Tide by the inimitable Lexi Ryan. And people, this book is so good.

08:52.63
Jeffe Kennedy
It's so good. ah it is um It is difficult to describe books without using what feels like overdone language. But this book is unusual.

09:04.38
Jeffe Kennedy
It's... um in a delightful, wonderful way. It is um emotional and romantic and full of these fantastic epic themes. And the um the premise, the magic, is really um fresh feeling. And even though twisty, it's...

09:31.16
Jeffe Kennedy
it's I want to say unique. It's, it's a new thing. It's not the same thing that you've been reading over and over again. ah but it's going to give you all of the world and romance and, uh, dramatic feels that you want.

09:50.46
Jeffe Kennedy
And I'm, I'm really impressed. Lexi has just knocked this out of the park. It is, it's fantabulous.

10:01.88
Jeffe Kennedy
So I need to write up a blurb for her on that. But it's, um, yeah, really, really terrific book. yall You all, you can't, can't wait to read it. Uh, go pre-order.

10:18.74
Jeffe Kennedy
Did I get in there? Go pre-order it. Now there's now cat on my keyboard.

10:32.92
Jeffe Kennedy
Oh sorry. Well that we're just having comedy of errors this morning. Apparently it was still going. Um, probably because I touched the keyboard. Uh, but we are so happy with recently resurrected cat that we are not going to deprive him of his determination to romp all over my keyboard and disrupt the podcast. If Sydney were still editing these things would be edited out.

11:01.11
Jeffe Kennedy
But She's not. And here we are. Yes. Hi.

11:09.25
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah. And I think I've cat hair in my coffee too, but I even have a mug that says something like everything tastes better with cat hair in it.

11:24.22
Jeffe Kennedy
Okay, so um other things. My brain is really consumed with this book. It was good to spend the whole weekend on it and just have some really concentrated time. I did achieve my goal of not leaving the house.

11:39.83
Jeffe Kennedy
past the end of the driveway I did wheel the garbage bin out but otherwise yeah it was good to get that focus get it all done. mostly done so I'm feeling feeling good about it. I'm I'm surprised I really expected to be kind of miserable this morning and not podcasting and just um,

12:02.54
Jeffe Kennedy
banging my head on the keyboard. So it's, it's nice to feel good about it. There's been a fair amount of drama, uh, in the the threads book world lately. Um, I just, I can't even, um, there is an author who, um,

12:26.20
Jeffe Kennedy
Some of the things that have been going on, I did see somebody comment saying, you know, it's not every day that you see several authors torpedo their careers on social media, but apparently it was this week. um Do people forget like that?

12:44.79
Jeffe Kennedy
I think people forget that they are seen on social media. It's, it's this weird thing. ah One author sent herself hate mail to drum up support for her book and then was caught out using that exact same dummy account that she was pretending to get hate mail from to do an international giveaway. um with other indies involved and then made herself be the winner. So that was cute.

13:13.85
Jeffe Kennedy
This is, um, as summarized by a friend of mine, she's more succinct. So I thought I would just use her wording. ah then this is, this is really interesting because it's a memoirist.

13:32.92
Jeffe Kennedy
Her book came out last year And she insisted on social media. um and And first of all, let us all note that her book has almost certainly not earned out. we can People have ways of telling. But the sales record indicate that it will have not have earned out its advance yet.

13:58.71
Jeffe Kennedy
Anyway, she went on social media saying that um every author who receives a six-figure deal ah spends at least $50,000 of their own money on publicity.

14:14.52
Jeffe Kennedy
And I mean, like doubled down when other people said no, that they hadn't done it. um And I mean, she was insistent. So maybe...

14:26.16
Jeffe Kennedy
Maybe she spent 50,000 of her own money on publicity, which... I hope not because it sure didn't work um because the book hasn't done all that great. I'm sorry to be catty about that, but you know, when you go on and you yell at people and say that, you know, that something is true and other people politely say, this is not their experience. And you insist that, you know, better than they do. Um, not a good look and you you deserve what you get. Um, I am going to definitively say,

15:02.39
Jeffe Kennedy
that Tor Bramble gave me a six figure deal for never the roses and among the thorns. Uh, it was my first six figure deal. I love it.

15:14.17
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, I have not spent half of that. I've not, well, we don't know how many six figures, but mine was exactly six figures. I'll just tell you it was a hundred thousand for the two books because transparency is important. Um, we kept foreign rights.

15:31.10
Jeffe Kennedy
But yes, they gave me $100,000 for the two books. And I'm very happy with that number. I know that other people will say, well, Smok about Bobo's got a million dollars. And it's like, okay, great. you know But it's very good for me because i have already earned out that advance. And while it's great to get money up front, it's also great to earn out your advance and be continuing to get more money.

15:57.53
Jeffe Kennedy
We like the ongoing money. It helps like, you know, pay that ongoing mortgage. unless I get enough money to flat pay off the house, this is how I would like it to go.

16:08.89
Jeffe Kennedy
um I have not spent $50,000 of my own money, quite the reverse. Uh, I am spending a lot less money on publicity because Tor Bramble is doing it for me and I love them for it. It's fantastic. and They've invested in the books and this is,

16:29.72
Jeffe Kennedy
This is part of the deal. They're also paying for me to go do things like this mountains and plains booksellers event that I'm going to tomorrow. They buy the plane tickets, they pay for the hotel, they reimburse me for my you know, ride share and for my meals. And it's great. And I appreciate it.

16:51.45
Jeffe Kennedy
But this is part of why you do a traditional publishing deal is because They're paying for the stuff. You don't have to pay for it. um Do I do a lot of my own promo? Yes.

17:06.74
Jeffe Kennedy
um Do I do $50,000 worth of paid stuff? No. And some of you asked because I like didn't complete my thought, shockingly enough, last week on why is this my last Apollycon? Well, two reasons.

17:22.81
Jeffe Kennedy
One, they've moved it. Maybe it's three reasons. I'm going to go with three reasons. um I'm of three minds, like a tree in which there are three blackbirds. um They moved the date. It's now in August, and I have several conflicts at that time, other things that I planned. You know, we sort of end up keeping a certain slot in the year for these things, and when they move it, it gets difficult. ah Because they're moving it, ah a lot of us are dubious about

17:54.58
Jeffe Kennedy
how well attended it will be um Maybe it'll be great. But to me, this kind of falls under my rule of not doing first time conferences. It's not a first time conference, but it's going be the first time at that time of year. And I'm wondering how it will go because the growing emphasis on influencers rather than readers has made Apollycon, I don't know, maybe not as useful as it used to be. And, you know, I do think that these things tend to mine out their audiences and a lot of newer people can't get tickets to go to it. So it's a lot of the same people. The influencers seem to be really interested in promoting their own influence.

18:41.72
Jeffe Kennedy
A lot of the social media I'm seeing from them is about their great community and how much fun they had and how far they had to walk and the things that they wore to the ball and everything and not so much about the books and authors. There's some of that, but, um, you know, I don't blame them for wanting to expand their own influence because that's the name of the game. Right. But also is that, is that good for my career? Right. Which is what it comes down to for me. I have to think about that.

19:14.78
Jeffe Kennedy
um And then the last thing is, is because I'm in this very privileged, fortunate place right now where Tor Bramble is paying for me to go to events and Apollycon is expensive for me. And why am I spending my own money doing something when I could...

19:35.38
Jeffe Kennedy
Let them spend their publishing money and trust them to target really good events for me. um mountain Mountains and Plains, independent booksellers, very happy to go and talk to these folks because they're the ones who are hand selling my books in their stores. ah The influencers, charming, delightful people, are they selling books for me?

19:59.67
Jeffe Kennedy
hard to say. I'm, you know, a few of them are, and and I really try to support back those people. But um yeah, it comes down to business decisions, right?

20:11.77
Jeffe Kennedy
So on that note, that's where I'm standing on things. um I hope that you all have a terrific week. I probably will do a podcast on Thursday this week, if all goes well.

20:27.74
Jeffe Kennedy
We'll see. um Thank you for all the good wishes, good thoughts. um We're all happy. Killian's better. and And I will talk to you all on Thursday, probably, maybe, almost certainly.

20:42.65
Jeffe Kennedy
ah You all take care. Bye-bye.