Hi , welcome back to my author newsletter with alien peens, monsters, magic, and the readers who love them! Don't forget to check out my NEW website! It's all pretty and redesigned! www.steviemarie.com
I have a rant in my author updates section about how I might stop writing in the Trillume Universe and start something different. Still alien but pivoting due to depression and lack of readership growth. I'll be at a wedding when you read this, most likely, for my brother in-law, so I may not respond right away to emails. Hopefully, the distraction will help realign my mental state. In other news:
Check out my fellow indie author's book! Etta Pierce's Convergence available in KU!
I read Convergence in 2023! And have continued to read new books from Etta Pierce! Convergence has Over 1.3K ratings on Amazon! All it takes is one book to take off and find readers to create a fan base, and boy did Etta hit it out of this universe! You go Etta!
My own alien romances have taken the slow track towards author fandom, but I've been steadily growing! Every author journey is different, and I look forward to being an author that future authors look up to like I look up to Etta!
If you've read Etta Pierce and loved her Convergence series like I did, then I think you'd love my Treasures of Trillume Series which has a similar kind of feel of an interwoven universe with standalone romances from book to book.
What Readers are Saying about my newest release Her Alien Delegate!
"OMG. I finished this book within a couple hours!! It was glorious, had the spice and a HEA!! And 3 hot alien men to boot!! You will not be disappointed!" 5-star Reviewer Desiree
"The guys have TENTACLES!!!And how they use them to worship Evie!" 5-star reviewer Sandra
"Sky Robert is never—NEVER—boring! Her aliens are TRULY alien, and these stories are as much about immersing us in the weirdness as they are about the sex." 4-star reviewer Jeanne
If you like tentacles, an absurd amount of alien seed, and caring aliens that worship their human mate then this is the book for you!
https://books.steviemarie.com/aliendelegate
You can read immediately from my author store, or grab your preorder from Amazon to support future stories written by yours truly!
Her mating contract is sold. Her future and freedom uncertain. Until an alien leader scours the universe to keep her!
- Protective partners
- Bonding rituals
- Fated mates
- Reverse harem/polyamorous (3 mates) FMMM
- Tentacles
- Breeding
Read the book today when you grab my book directly from my author store to help support more books written by yours truly here: https://payhip.com/b/Rp28b
Her Alien Delegate is launching on Amazon on August 26th 2025!
Being an author has been a constant struggle for me mentally. I wanted to create a universe to promote acceptance, and empowerment through fun escapism and fancy peens.
And to do that, one must have a thick skin to not let negativity weight down the joy and allow those who don't enjoy your writing bounce off and find a different fictional universe to support.
But I've found that negativity is harder to keep out, if there isn't enough positive reinforcement to counter it. It's like wrapping yourself into a positivity blanket, and that blanket is made of supportive readers and community.
Read the rest of this rant at your own risk. It's just a mental health word vomit journal entry that can be used as A) a means of confirming you are not alone in feeling like shit in the world, I too feel unqualified to ever be consider main character energy B) a reminder that indie authors are fueled by readers whether that be their positivity or their negativity or their support or lack thereof C) an author update about potentially ignoring all forms of marketing and never looking at my Goodreads, posting on Instagram, TikTok, or subscribing to BookFunnel or other author services excepting this newsletter ever again, relying only on word of mouth, my website, and this newsletter in order to isolate myself from giving up on sharing my writing.
The community of book socials feels like a space I don't want to be a part of, and that's mostly because I don't want to be part of the world outside either and people have so much rage with no process of where or how to direct it without harm, so it just gets spewed everywhere, not exclusively in the bookish community, but in most communities. And no, this isn't directly associated with any particular bookish incident, there are too many out there, and I refuse to participate.
I've found myself struggling more with my latest launch of Her Alien Delegate, because I had many readers who wanted to have a story to learn more about Evie, but the reception of the book is my least positively received story with a majority of the negative complaints being about how it was incomplete, or confusing. Usually, I can ignore those voices because enough positive enjoyment has outweighed the negative, but with this book, I feel like the positive matches the negative which leaves me in a mental state of blah and doubt about whether my books should be shared at all.
I can write books all I want to and enjoy living in my universe and stories whenever I want to but bringing them to life and sharing them with readers is an investment and labor on my part. I don't make any income from being an author. Sure, readers pay to read my books, but that's more of a small contribution towards the expenses to exist digitally and make my stories available. My expenses to be available to readers exceeds anything I've received in return.
I've been super depressed lately to the point of not even being able to write and do something that I enjoy. I'm not sharing this because I'm trying to stir up sympathy for my self-pity and mental health status, but I've always been brutally and annoyingly transparent and honest about things.
I've put a lot of effort in finding readers and ARC readers who are supposed to be the readers who enjoy my writing style, and the worlds I've created, but if I can't achieve positivity in the ARC launch of a book, it means I've failed to keep a promise and build trust with the readers who are supposed to be my positivity blanket to protect me against feeling the hits of readers that find my work that the book isn't meant for.
I think mainly this problem stems from having my ARC team open to new readers from the very beginning. I'm not saying I'll ever exclude anyone who wants to ARC read my stories, but maybe I need to have ARC phases. Phase one could be sending my ARC to readers I know have enjoyed my writing style and stories first, then phase two sending the ARC to the rest of the team who may enjoy the book but are more likely not going to love the book. And no, at no point do I penalize or bash any reader for their opinions on my book. I've kept readers on my ARC team that rated my books 1-star, used it as fuel and motivation to turn them into a 5-star for other books, but that strategy of motivation only works a few times before an author becomes mentally exhausted, and defeated.
It's like allowing myself to be love bombed by readers I know will love it based on past experiences with my other books to create a blanket of love to protect me from negativity paralysis. And I haven't even received a 1 or 2 star review from Her Alien Delegate, just an equal amount of 3 stars to my 5 stars, resulting a flat 4.0 average.
The reason this launch average gives me anxiety is because all it takes is 1 single 1-star review to totally tank my rating average on this book that hasn't even launched yet. And I know every book gets a 1-star review from someone, and the only way to combat it, is to have more readers with 4 and 5-stars of enjoyment to balance it, but my 5-stars have only balanced my 3 stars which means a majority of readers enjoyed the book, but it was an average enjoyment.
Average books don't get shared with fellow readers, and below 4-star averages usually scare off new readers from trying it.
Thus, this spiral of thinking has made me super depressed. I should be thinking, YAY I have a 4.0 average on my book, and that means most readers have enjoyed it! But, instead I'm in a state of fear because I know the 1-star is going to come from a reader eventually, and the book won't be able to handle the hit at the moment. And that thought makes me fear sharing another book, and thus stops me from writing the next story.
This isn't a bash on the 3-star reviewers, or even a future 1 to 2-star reviewer. Everyone has their preferences and not every book is meant for every reader, but every writer weathers storms by having enough readers who enjoy their books to balance it out. The problem is that there is a stigma that 3-star reviews are "bad" when a 3-star review simply means enjoyable, but "something" didn't mesh with the reader.
A majority of the 3-star reviews I get on any of my books is most frequently being upset that the book didn't feel complete to them and they feel misled about my "standalone" expectations. There are two different ways of understanding what "standalone" means. A completed story arc that can be read without having to read any other books first is usually how I view it the term, but as with any story, an author must choose when one story ends and another begins. Romances have a story arc and then an acceptance of their mate that results in a HEAFN, but those same characters can still have another story after that, which the second story arc would then not be considered a standalone, but a book better read after reading book one, thus expanding the standalone story into a series.
And being as I write alien romances, where you discover more about the aliens as you read, my second most common complaint is being confused because some readers prefer to have things explained and make sense right away, but part of my writing style of the alien stories is to have the alien and otherness unravel the more you read. Every book reads that way, and the more books you read in the universe, the more it makes sense, but trust me when I say, reading in "order" won't make you be less confused depending on which book you read first. You aren't "missing" anything by reading one book over another for context. It's discovering the "missing" things bit by bit, and romance by romance. They all layer on each other. It isn't an accident, and it isn't a poor execution of writing or story development. It's a style choice, because I became bored with most alien romances because of feeling like I knew everything about the world building right away because the aliens weren't really all that "alien", and the romances felt derivative to the point where even a well-written and thoughtfully made world lost my interest after the first sex scene of instalove and then I could care less about reading the rest. I was DNF-ing books that aren't bad, just more like palate cleansers that are meant for an easy read.
The alien romances I write are exactly what I wanted to help me enjoy what I love about alien romances without being bored. But that comes with knowing my books aren't supposed to have everything explained, but be more immersive. They are for readers like me, who want the easiness, empowerment, and acceptance of alien romances without feeling like you've already read this before.
It isn't writer's block that stops me, because the story is in my mind ready to be written, but more of a mental block that is trying to protect me from being hurt. This is why I shouldn't read my reviews at all, but it's hard not to check on them and have my mind spin about whether something will prevent my perfect reader from taking a chance on my books and building my reader community.
I'm not really in a headspace right now to participate in human society, and I don't really want my depression to infect other people, but there are times where I just feel unappreciated and doubt whether I should be sharing my stories at all. I don't have creative burnout, I have self-doubt that wonders whether the universe really needs another book from me at all.
Sometimes, I think about cancelling everything except for my newsletter. No ARC team, no Bookfunnel, no BookSirens, nothing but my website, and this newsletter. When I'm finished writing a book, launching it on a site like Curios or my Payhip store, and on Amazon, and then just letting it go. Stick it and forget it. Maybe it gets reviews, maybe no one reads it at all, but just throwing it to the cosmos and not even see what happens. Just be pleasantly surprised if an autopayment comes in.
Then occasionally go to some fun bookish events like Hot & Steamy where the readers who come are genuinely positive to be around. This has been my depressing rant for the week fueled by my lack of mental health due to feeling like I'd never qualify to be Main Character energy based on only have one skill that is in one of the most competitive and under-appreciated industries where those skills are constantly torn down by various reader preferences. It is a common struggle for indies like me to find our tribe and feel protected within it to survive the negativity and keep putting positivity of our words into the universe.
I'm going to be RETURNING to HOT & STEAMY 2026!
Grab tickets for 2026 PNW Hot & Steamy from Eventbrite!
Next books I have planned: Her Alien Captor with Commander Ten-sel and Jayden, and Her Alien Nectar with Prince Gho-ran, Commander Li-aq, and Faith.) But right now, I'm not really writing any of them. I'm really struggling with motivating myself to continue this universe. I might stop writing in Trillume and create something new with no expectations. I feel like the reader community would have to show me they actually want me to continue writing in the Trillume universe and enjoy the writing style of layering books and revealing universe plot over the course of several standalone books. I think there's enough books in the universe right now that continuing Her Alien Captor or Her Alien Nectar doesn't feel fun when so many readers have repeatedly stated they feel my writing style choice is "confusing" for this series.
If you want to convince me otherwise, feel free to help support the Trillume Universe by sharing with other readers. Obviously, if I see the universe grow in readership, I'll consider coming back to it. Her Alien Insurgent is an excellent example of being a well-received book with a 4.8 star-average, but remains stagnant at 39 ratings on Amazon, and 74 ratings on Goodreads. It's had 5 ratings received in 2025 so far. It is both my highest rated, and my lowest read, meaning anyone who has read it liked it a lot, but very few readers give the book a chance, because it's the one book that is not a standalone and should be read after Her Alien Prince.
Standalone plot with spice adventures of fated mates, space vampires, knotting, and bonds that will last beyond the stars! All available in Kindle Unlimited!
Check out all books by Sky Robert here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0BNXSFHZ4/allbooks
Discover all books by Sky Robert:
1) Jewel of the Alien Bandit 2) Her Alien Exchange 3) Her Alien Prince 4) Her Alien Savior 5) Her Alien Warrior 6) Her Alien Insurgent 7) Her Alien Starbreaker 8) TKManAteHer -Short Erotic Terminator Sex Bot Romance 9) Her Alien Delegate
Books by S.M. McCoy
1) Taking Medusa 2) Breaking Fate Upcoming: Reaping Olympus, Goblin's Treasure
All of my books are standalone alien romances, each a separate complete romance, read in any order, and with their interconnected plots, each book layers and you find out more about the world the more you read. Have questions from one book? Read another one, and you're sure to find more answers, and perhaps more questions as the universe unravels. That's what I love about sci-fi adventures set in the same universe, there's so much room to play!
Happy Reading and Thank you for being part of my author journey,
xoxo
Sky
LINKS
Check out all books by Sky Robert here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0BNXSFHZ4/allbooks
Follow me on Instagram here: Stevie McCoy (@authorsteviemarie) • Instagram photos and videos
Getting too much mail? You can join my monthly newsletter instead:
Join Monthly Sky Roberts on or around the 15th of the month
0 comments