First Cup of Coffee – May 7, 2026

I have finished copies of the NEVER THE ROSES trade paperback and the foil is so shiny! I have also finished BLADES, BOOKS, AND THE BANDIT, releasing a week from today!! I'm also talking publishing industry predictions and the "stuff they aren't telling you."

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

00:01.43
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning, everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy, also writing as Jennifer K. Lambert, or am I Jennifer K. Lambert, also writing as Jeffe Kennedy? Deep thoughts to mull this morning. I am an author of epic fantasy romance, and I am here with my first cup of coffee.

00:26.90
Jeffe Kennedy
Which is delicious. Today is, who knows, today is Thursday, May 7th, 2026.

00:38.33
Jeffe Kennedy
And welcome to my topsy-turvy week. um Did the podcast Monday, doing podcast today. going to be out tomorrow, so that's why.

00:51.90
Jeffe Kennedy
um So, all the news there is to know. ah I did finish Blades Books on the Bandit. Finished that on Monday. In between things, it ended up being such a busy day, but I... um Revised Monday morning what I'd written over the weekend and verified that, yes, indeed, that was the ending. So it ends where it ends. um Then I had to go off to get my hair done.

01:26.36
Jeffe Kennedy
and Sorry, if you're not on video, I paused to ah to Vogue a little bit there.

01:33.69
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, and then that ended up taking longer than I thought. And so then I got home and had to turn right around to go for a very important mani pedi. So it ended up being like a day of beauty. And then I got home and, ah yeah, wrote the last little bit and sent it off for proofreading. So it was out of my hands.

01:58.74
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, yeah, so that's exciting.

02:02.92
Jeffe Kennedy
It's not formatted and uploaded yet, but that's what I'll do over the next couple of days here. have a lot to do over the next few days. um No, that's not true.

02:16.41
Jeffe Kennedy
I have a lot of cleanup to do. Let me stay on task, though. So we are good for release of Blades Books and the Bandit on the 14th, week from today. So that's very exciting.

02:33.02
Jeffe Kennedy
um And then on Tuesday, I went to the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Convention, Independent Booksellers Convention, and did the ah the Dog and Pony show. That was really nice. I had a good time, of oh little bit of weather delay, but I made my connections fine.

02:54.07
Jeffe Kennedy
Got to San Antonio, which was very warm and humid and lovely.

03:00.06
Jeffe Kennedy
Got to see some people i haven't seen in a while. Rebecca Zanetti was there. I had not seen her in oh years and years. Who else was there? Sierra Simone. She was very funny.

03:14.65
Jeffe Kennedy
Some newer debut type authors. ah We were having this conversation that it um feels like everything is either us, like our age, or 20 years younger.

03:30.42
Jeffe Kennedy
So, but but it was very fun to have, ah meet the, see other people, hang out for a little bit. At one point, um we had these questions that we were supposed to answer. It's supposed to be kind of rapid fire. we were supposed to answer in 30 seconds or less. You know, some people are better at that than others.

03:52.57
Jeffe Kennedy
But one of the questions that our moderator asked was, what is bringing us joy in these times? And it was interesting hearing people go around with the various things, reverse direction each time. So this time I was second to last. And I said, you know what?

04:12.54
Jeffe Kennedy
My publisher paid for me to come here. They flew me to beautiful San Antonio. I got to stay at a historic hotel. ah I went down to the Riverwalk and walked around and enjoyed the water and the old architecture. And I had an amazing lunch, a blue crab tostada by the water, a little table by the water. And I had wine. And I'm actually going on longer here. I tried to keep it to 30 seconds there.

04:44.54
Jeffe Kennedy
And then I got to go back and see people I haven't seen in a while and talk about books and writing and romance to booksellers, people who also love books. And I was like, this is what gives me joy. I seriously have the best freaking job in the entire world.

05:03.98
Jeffe Kennedy
Cheers.

05:07.58
Jeffe Kennedy
um It's amazing. It can be a hard job. I feel like I'm always saying that and giving that as the cautionary tale. It's an industry of ups and downs. But right now I feel very up and it's it's amazing and I'm enjoying it. And even though there are so many difficult things going on in the world, it's um it's a relief to have at least this part of my life going well. So speaking of, look what I got.

05:39.64
Jeffe Kennedy
Look, look at the shiny. So this is the trade paperback finished version of never the roses out on June 2nd, I believe. And it's got the beautiful foil on the cover. Uh, the never the roses in is in gold foil. And then there's, um, gold on the spine and the little spark leaves at the edges. I don't know what those are supposed to be. Rose leaves maybe. Um,

06:10.01
Jeffe Kennedy
But look how beautiful. I just like got a box of these like as I was leaving the house on Monday. And um yeah, so beautiful. Oh, and look, look, I just saw this.

06:24.15
Jeffe Kennedy
They put the the gold rose case stamp on the inside jacket. Oh, and on the back. How beautiful. so you could tell I haven't really looked at this book yet.

06:37.50
Jeffe Kennedy
o And then they've got the nice advertisement at the back for Among the Thorns, which is out a month later. This is so beautiful. ah The map.

06:50.74
Jeffe Kennedy
Lots of praise in the front. I'm happy about this, too. What brings you joy? let's Let's answer that question. This is bringing me a lot of goddamn joy.

07:05.18
Jeffe Kennedy
Also, this book has officially earned out. I talked about this little bit on Monday. It earned out by a lot. ah I'm just going to say that I got a royalty check that's I mean, it's less my agents, 15%.

07:23.42
Jeffe Kennedy
ah And it's still almost the same as my initial advance. So let me tell you that. ah And it's joint accounting. So this was the advance for both books. So that means everything that goes forward now with Never the Roses and Among the Thorns, I get royalties. Yeah.

07:44.79
Jeffe Kennedy
which is brilliant. It's brilliant. I'm so excited about this.

07:53.53
Jeffe Kennedy
it's a um It's a level of financial security for at least the next little while that I have not had in 10 years, ever since I got downsized from the day job. but And even before that, because before I got downsized, the day job was uncertain in many ways. And I was sometimes on part-time with them. of And, yeah.

08:20.63
Jeffe Kennedy
So... Hooray. Hooray. ah and And I just think it's interesting because we are having these conversations about um Amazon underreporting sales since like March.

08:37.66
Jeffe Kennedy
And a lot of self-published authors are having a hard time. My self-published sales are... down, uh, quite a bit, certainly down at Amazon, which seems to be under reporting, but we'll find out, will there be a class action lawsuit inquiring minds are wondering that,

09:01.42
Jeffe Kennedy
uh, you know, what do you do when they under report your sales?

09:09.08
Jeffe Kennedy
For some references on the Amazon thing, this is a letter that one of my friends got from Draft2Digital support saying, um because they distribute to Amazon, right?

09:25.94
Jeffe Kennedy
And they said, we think the data started to go wrong near the end of March, right around March 26th, which coincides with when Amazon switched from KEP to vendor central for reporting, which they did not just did not do just for drafted digital, but for all individual authors accessing Amazon KDP directly, which is why you are seeing so many authors reporting something being off. From that day forward, the daily say sales data looks off as in low.

09:59.41
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, however, as the final month and numbers get totaled, that data looks correct. Uh, they hope to everything have everything straightened out with Amazon by the time they issued monthly statements. Uh, but I think, feel like people have been reporting things being off for longer than that. So.

10:22.97
Jeffe Kennedy
We shall find out. But the thought I began and did not complete is that I've had track publishing deals before, and I have made very little money on those deals. I have earned out every one of my books, which I know makes me fortunate.

10:44.79
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But Tell you what, you know, like the hardback sales that really does bring in the money in a very different way. And I'm feeling incredibly lucky that I got to have Never the Roses at the time that I did and that I'm working with such a fabulous team at Tor Bramble.

11:08.89
Jeffe Kennedy
And, you know, I'm just feeling good about things. Thinking about adding on my dream remodel to the house. How much should I like save for the future and be smart or dream remodel?

11:28.41
Jeffe Kennedy
I am putting in a pretty back gate. I know we already talked about that, but. ah So let's see other relevant things that I wanted to be talking about.

11:40.48
Jeffe Kennedy
There's these predictions for the publishing industry and a friend of mine, one of my mentees, uh, shared this one and,

11:55.58
Jeffe Kennedy
As for my thoughts. And I think my thoughts came up a lot harsher than maybe even I expected. ah But the the title, and I...

12:11.61
Jeffe Kennedy
I feel so Gen X. I feel so shaking my cane and telling all of you clickbait kids to get off my lawn. But I'm so tired of clickbait titles. And I know why people do it. And this is an individual person, um you know, like just trying to make their living. But

12:32.73
Jeffe Kennedy
anything that's like... what nobody's telling you about is just so absurdly irritating to me. Um, because it's almost never true.

12:48.09
Jeffe Kennedy
I mean, let's just put that out there. If anything says what nobody's telling you, it's absurd.

12:59.08
Jeffe Kennedy
It's absurd.

13:04.70
Jeffe Kennedy
I think this is okay. it says failed to resume recording, but we'll see.

13:13.85
Jeffe Kennedy
I think we're fine. Um, it is, there's nothing that nobody's telling you, right? It's, it's this whole, Oh, here, I'm going to give you the real information. Uh, but no, this, this information's out there. And so this is like what nobody's telling you know about what's happening in the industry. And which is, I'm sorry, I'm repeating myself, but,

13:44.96
Jeffe Kennedy
Everybody's telling you. And among this person's observations, some of it's just flat wrong. um Some of it is so obvious as to be, like one thing I said, I don't even know why they bother to write that down, which is, um let's say I'm trying to find it here. I mean, I kind of want to find it word for word and I probably shouldn't because I don't want to call out this person in particular, although, yeah.

14:21.53
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, but basically they said the publishing industry isn't going to recover until the economy does. And that's like, Oh my God, the, the wisdom, the insight, uh,

14:35.32
Jeffe Kennedy
Also, the publishing industry is cyclical. You are going to hear this. If you are newbie in this first time you've heard this, note it down because you are going to hear it again. And when you are like me, low these 30 years later in the industry, you are going to be sitting back, shaking your cane at the clickbait kids on your lawn. And you are going to be going, sipping your espresso and saying, the industry is cyclical.

15:07.29
Jeffe Kennedy
I don't know how many times I have heard over these 30 years that traditional publishing is dead. Um, self publishing is on the rise. These are all things that were in this amazingly insightful article.

15:20.21
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, the let's see, um, editors are buying fewer books. Um, advances are good, are lower.

15:31.03
Jeffe Kennedy
ah publishers are putting less into marketing. And then, of course, the evergreen, this genre is dead until it's not anymore. um It is, say it with me, kids, cyclical. And you really have to not worry about it. And I i did the first time i went through a publishing industry crash, which I'm putting in quotation marks, air quotes,

15:56.06
Jeffe Kennedy
um You know, and everybody said, no, it's not really dead. It's just this is a cyclical thing. And you know what? They were right. it was. um

16:09.08
Jeffe Kennedy
One of the things that somebody else chimed in and said, and that I actually believe is true and insightful, ah which is someone who does work in the traditional publishing industry, is that more authors are getting traditional publishing contracts for smaller advances per book. And believe I believe that I think that's probably true and that was smaller advances of 10 to 15 K. I know a lot of people getting 2 to 3 K per book. Um, which is nothing to sneeze at, especially if you earn out, ah getting a big advance is nice.

16:48.66
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm certainly not complaining. They put more money into supporting you with a big advance. That's really the biggest advantage. But remember, it's an advance against earnings, right? So getting those later earnings is great.

17:05.91
Jeffe Kennedy
ah So, you know, like the whole brick and mortar stores are declining. of fewer imprints means fewer deals. It's not true. You know, like, and this is my favorite one is it starts out, the industry has shifted. I'm sorry, but the industry is shifting all the time, you know, and self publishers love to complain that traditional publishing doesn't change fast enough. And maybe that's true, but

17:42.74
Jeffe Kennedy
And the advantage of self-publishing is a fast pivot to go with the marketplace. But traditional publishing also does know what they're doing. um And nobody, but i now I sound like one of these articles, nobody wants to hear this. Nobody's talking about this. ah No, it's traditional publishing does know what they're doing. And that's part of the reason is they don't change day to day to day because they have a certain model that is absolutely working, no matter what anyone wants to believe.

18:17.78
Jeffe Kennedy
of Are there problems? Sure. ah are fewer authors getting deals? Empirically, no. No. Our advance is smaller, maybe,

18:30.33
Jeffe Kennedy
but ah you know, like this fewer imprints thing that I think, I think the thing to remember, and it's, this is always, always, always the case is that you have to consider the source. And so the person writing this is someone who is an author and also an agent whose business is not going well right now.

18:54.39
Jeffe Kennedy
And, know, They're trying to find the reasons why their business isn't going well. If you talk to an agent like mine, Sarah Younger, Nancy Yost Literary, the fabulous, ah Sarah is going to tell you a different story because her business is going well.

19:14.17
Jeffe Kennedy
We should get Sarah on here sometime. That would be kind of fun, wouldn't it? To talk about what she sees in the industry.

19:24.57
Jeffe Kennedy
So anyway, um, another thought that I started, but did not complete uh, I'm taking all of next week off of writing. I'm going to clean up this incredible mess in my office. Maybe deal with some of this consignment stuff. I have business things to take care of. Uh, I will be podcasting, so I'll talk about that more, but I have a whole lot of things I'm going to try to get off my list.

19:49.08
Jeffe Kennedy
So, I am going to go do some of those things. I hope you all are doing well. while look at the beautiful paperback again. So beautiful.

20:01.75
Jeffe Kennedy
And I will talk to you all on Tuesday. You all take care. Bye bye.