NEW IN 2026
Hi guys! I have a TON to talk about (why does everything always happen when I’m trying to take a break? 😅) so I’ll list the topics and then get into them below. I’ll try to be brief, so if you want more info on anything, let me know!
Oh, and before I get into it, yes, I am still as dormant in my author stuff as I can get away with to try and boost my physical & mental health. Things keep happening to keep it from being the true hibernation I’ve been aiming for, but I think things are cooling off again! So after this update dump I’ll be radio silent for a while again.
Happy end of 2025, and even happier beginning of 2026! ❤️
—Kickstarter
—New Merch Site
—Author Assistant Team
—Amazon issues
—New & Amazing Upcoming Book Platforms (Yearn & PagePerks)
KICKSTARTER
Kickstarter is cool because they’re continually updating and changing things, and pretty much always for the better! One feature that they’ve added is the ability to send updates to followers! They’ve always had it for backers, but now if you’re following a campaign before it even launches, you can get updates from the author!
So I will be utilizing this for early artwork reveals! I dislike waiting to reveal my pretties as much as you guys may dislike waiting to see them. But I also don’t want to spoil everything long before the campaign even launches, lest the excitement wear thin by the time the book becomes available.
My compromise is early reveals, spread out by follower numbers! So as we grow, we can celebrate! Much like stretch goals during the campaign, but this will all be before we even launch!
I’ve already revealed the foiling, sprayed edges, 3D book mockup, and one side of the foiled bookmark! We’re so close to hitting 125 followers! When we do, I’ll send another follower-only update with all of the unlocked art (previously unlocked and the new one, so new followers don’t have to miss out if they join a little later than the others)!
In January, I’ll be updating the banner to include the new 3D mockups, but otherwise nothing will be revealed outside of those follower updates until the campaign launches!
I’m VERY excited for my first super deluxe book! I’m still hoping for a 2026 launch, but it could be 2027 if my brain needs more of a break from writing than I’ve planned for. Anyway, to follow and to learn more about the book (since we get to add more info to our pre-launch landing page as well!) check it out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/authorkatiecherry/the-reborn-crystal-dragon-saga-book-3?ref=adoo01
NEW MERCH SITE
I’ve finally found a good site for print-on-demand merchandise—and it even hosts a site for me to sell the merch from!! So there’s no more store connection issue like I was having with the previous site! This does make it so I kind of have two websites, but nothing’s changed with my regular one.
https://www.authorkatiecherry.com is where you can read these blog posts, info about the books and my current work in progress, and of course my store where you can get things from me, personally!
https://www.merch.authorkatiecherry.com is where you can order print-on-demand merchandise! (Which is perfect because you can grab sizes and colors that you like rather than being stuck with whatever I happen to have on hand!)
PS—This merch site is extra cool, because you can join a membership! There are different tiers with different rewards—like merch discounts, you choose what merch comes next, and more! It’s honestly so cool, and I’m excited to explore it more once people start joining!
AUTHOR ASSISTANT TEAM
Authors wear too many hats. It’s just a fact. Well, my goal for 2026 is to start building my team of helpers! I hope to eventually have a Social Media person, a PA who does all the little things in the background that you never see, someone to run my store and send out orders, and more.
We’ll be starting with EVENT HELPERS! So if you’ve ever been to a convention, fair, or anywhere else that you’ve seen authors selling and signing books LIVE and in person…and want to go to those events and help out as well…I have an opportunity for YOU!
Learn more about the position and apply here! https://forms.gle/W4FCfVDCxT1wNrTt9
I only have one more event scheduled for now—StoryCon in SLC, February 27 & 28th! If you want to be considered to be the lucky person to spend two whole days with me (and get a free ticket to the event!), make sure you apply by the end of January!
AMAZON ISSUES
Alright, here’s where the announcements get more lengthy and…frustrating. Amazon is rolling out an AI feature called “Ask This Book”. Supposedly, it will only answer questions with information from the books in the series up to the point that the reader has read to. So they won’t be able to get the rest of the story without buying and reading the books. But honestly…any series that’s complicated enough that you’d need a recap has a recap from the author at the beginning of the new book. (Or in my case, I made a whole Guidebook for the series lol.) So why, exactly, are we stealing billions of books to dump into AI???
When questioned by myself and dozens of other authors, there’s a few things that have become clear.
- There was no warning before this feature was released.
- Authors are not allowed to opt-out.
- They’re refusing to say much about it besides authors can’t opt-out. They wouldn’t even answer if they already scraped my book and stole everything.
- Authors won’t be compensated for their work being fed into Amazon’s AI to train it.
- They don’t care about authors. (Okay, we authors have known this for a long time. They treat us awfully. But now? It’s so much worse than I imagined it getting.)
This has been my last straw.
So I’m leaving Amazon. My ebooks can no longer be found there. (Was it before they got scraped by the AI? They won’t tell me, so I have no idea, but I did it ASAP so I’m hopeful…)
It’s been terrifying, of course, leaving such a powerhouse, but also such a sweet relief. They’re bullies, and their relationship with authors is so incredibly toxic. I’m not one to hang out in a toxic relationship, so I’m out of there. If there’s ever a right time to take a leap of faith into the unknown, it’s before Amazon can do even worse with AI thievery. And for me personally, my sales there have been absolutely abysmal lately anyway. It’s time for something new.
Thankfully, two groups of people have already been preparing to provide it, and their launch dates are coming up quick!! 😍
AMAZING NEW PLATFORMS
YEARN
I heard a tiny bit about Yearn before the Amazon issue and signed up to get more info, which I received a few days after the Amazon fiasco and me pulling my ebooks from the platform. What I learned greatly eased the sickening panic around Amazon and the “what the heck do I do now?” that came after I unpublished my ebooks.
Yearn is set to replace Kindle Unlimited (without the exclusivity), so they will have a monthly cost to join, but it’s less than KU (I think they said it would probably be ~$4.99), and I think you can also earn some affiliate commission on books shared. (I forgot to specifically ask about that, and the whole meeting was like 45 minutes of just so much information it was like drinking from a fire hydrant!)
They’re focused on books that have magic and some kind of romance (so the broadest definition of Romantasy) but they may eventually expand from that genre. There will be NO AI, they’ll have ebooks, audiobooks, and even links to the authors’ storefronts for direct purchases!!
You can make reading lists like Spotify playlists, you can mark tropes as something that you love or something you never want to see (including spice levels), and there are NO ADS. Instead, once you mark the kinds of books you like, it’ll recommend other books that you’ll probably also like! There are also social features so you can make and get recommendations that way! It makes finding the exact books you want to read such a breeze!
This platform is predicted to launch around Valentine’s Day (so mid-February)! I’ve applied to be an author, and I hope to hear back from them soon!
PAGEPERKS
I’m still not sure how much I can share about PagePerks, lol. But I think the following information is fine to share… This platform will be tackling SO much, so it’s been in development for…I want to say 2-3 years at this point? It is SO SO SO close to finished—I expect to receive the invite to join as a tester/bug finder pretty much any day now! They’re aiming for a launch in Q1/Q2 of 2026, so right behind Yearn! Of course, this will depend on any bugs that are found and how long it takes Apple to approve the app to be on their store and such.
As amazing as Yearn is, PagePerks has my heart. There will be no subscription costs, no genres excluded, and will definitely have an affiliate program where readers can earn money by just recommending books (and it doesn’t come out of the authors’ pockets)! They’re also firmly no-AI, no pirated books, no exclusivity, no review bombing (where people will get together and drop a bunch of 1-star reviews on a book without even reading it. It’s usually done to cripple whoever they see as competition.), and more. So much more…
PagePerks is set to replace Amazon, ARC services (like BookSprout), Newsletter services, social media, and more that I’m sure I’m forgetting about. You can also set your settings to never show you tropes/spice levels that you don’t want, and you can search by genres/tropes/spice levels and more to find the perfect book! You can follow authors and get their updates without fighting those frustrating social media algorithms, ads are restricted and only from authors who are on the app (so they won’t be as intrusive as anywhere else, and you’ll actually care about the product), and more that I’m sure I’m forgetting and maybe shouldn’t spoil quite yet anyway.
PagePerks is the reason my Crystal Dragon ebooks weren’t on Amazon yet (thank heavens for that, now!!). I love the platform so much that I am not only joining as one of the very first authors, but I’m also keeping my Crystal Dragon ebooks there exclusively for a while (even though they don’t require exclusivity) in the hopes that I can support their launch!
There’s simply no one out there that will be taking care of authors and readers like PagePerks. We need this platform—now more than ever. I want it to succeed, to blow everyone else out of the water, and bring a new age to book lovers everywhere. They can do it. As long as readers are brave enough to look somewhere other than Amazon, and support authors as we tiptoe away from the abusive giant.
Lol, I’m waxing poetic in my passion. I’ll just end by saying that it’s worth checking out the landing page and signing up for the email alert for when the platform launches! I seriously can’t wait to see you there!!! https://www.pageperks.com
Thanks for reading all that! It was a lot to dump, but even more to schedule out into multiple announcements. Thanks for bearing with me. The next announcements I have for you will probably be in February when Yearn launches, and then another when PagePerks launches! 🙂
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! Here’s to 2026 being the blessing we’ve all been waiting for!