Here are the results of my first ever reader survey!

First off, a huge thanks to the nearly 600 (yes, 600!) people who took time out of their week to share their feedback. I honestly was only expecting 100 or so responses, so this extreme outpouring of support just floored me and made me happy cry!

But you didn’t stop there, you also provided amazing and detailed answers to each of my questions. You told me how I can become an even better author and how I can make you (and others like you) a happier reader.

As a special thank you, everyone who filled out the survey will be sent FREE copies of my two newest releases, A WEDDING MIRACLE and A COWBOY KIND OF LOVE. I hope you love reading them as much as I loved reading your thoughts and answers!

I also want to provide a few prize upgrades by sending the first 5 people to comment on this post an autographed book from yours truly! I will also send a free audiobook copy of A COLORFUL LIFE to the first 10 people to email me, and—yes—everyone still gets the eBooks too.

Okay, now onto the meat of this post. Since you were open and honest with me, I want to do the same for you. This post is all about how your feedback will be incorporated into my writing, publishing, and marketing plans. What? You didn’t think I’d look at your feedback, think “Hmm, well, isn’t that nice?”, and then proceed to change absolutely nothing, did you? No!

The number one thing I learned is that you guys love my novellas and shorts, but you want a read with a little more flesh on it. That’s why I’ve changed around my entire writing schedule to focus on my new full-length series, The First Street Church Romances, and have moved the release of book one, LOVE’S PRAYER up to this summer! Next month you’ll also see the release of TEXAS & TIARAS, the follow-up to WALKER TEXAS WIFE and the second in my full length mystery drama series, co-written with my WBFF (writer best friend forever), K.M. Hodge.

You said my books make you feel happy, good, hopeful, excited, emotional, relaxed, inspired, loved, and warm, which I love! Actually, even though the question required a write-in response, an overwhelming majority said my books make you happy, and that’s the highest praise! Many of you also said you wouldn’t change a thing about my books, except to have more of them faster. I promise I will do my best to make that happen!

Because it’s important to about a third of you that my books stay clean (which means no sex, swearing, violence), I will keep them that way. This includes going back to edit existing books that have mild swearing and taking that out of there. I love that you feel comfortable and relaxed reading my books, and I’ll do my absolute best to keep it that way!

Most of you prefer to read on a Kindle, but a lot of you still prefer good ol’ fashioned print books. I’m going to work even faster to get more and more books out in print so that everyone can keep reading at the pace that best suits them and no one has to wait to be able to enjoy one of my new releases. The same goes for audio.

Since a huge majority of you found me through social media, I’m going to keep doing what I do best—playing (and also procrastinating, lol). I have loved hearing what my books mean to you and just chatting and sharing our lives with each other. If you’d like to get to know me better too, consider joining my Street Team. We have such a great group, and I would love to see you there too!

Another thing I learned? Most of you have only read a couple of my books (and a staggering number enjoy following me on social media but haven't even read a single one of my books yet!), which is definitely something I want to change. And since you enjoy sales and freebies, I’m now opening up my ARC team to anyone who would like to receive free review copies of my books before they release! If you’d like to sign up, email me at author@melstorm.com with the subject line “I want to be an ARC reader!” and I’ll help get you on board.

Last thing I thought was really cool? We have a lot of the same favorite authors! We both love Nora Roberts, Debbie Macomber, Susan Mallery, Jill Shalvis, Marie Force, Bella Andre, Barbara Freethy, Nicholas Sparks, and Karen Kingsbury. You also suggested some authors that are new to me that I definitely plan to try like Pepper Winters, Colleen Hoover, Mia Sheridan, and Fern Michaels. If any of these authors are new to you, they may be ones you’d enjoy as well!

Well, that’s everything!

Thanks to your generous feedback, I will now be focusing on writing more full-length novels, novels that make you feel hopeful, happy, and inspired, which is why I’m so excited about the upcoming First Street Church Romances—they’re all about finding love and light in the darkest of places. I’m going to put out more print books and make sure that readers who can’t afford to buy as many books as they like are welcomed into my ARC team with open arms. I’ll continue to play on social media and work on getting to know everyone even better—which is super fun for me! And I have some new authors to check out—yay!

Thank you again for everything you do, and thank you for opening up your hearts and your minds to my work. I can’t wait to write even more of what you love and make everyone that much happier!