A Succubus for Valentine's Day is now available in print book version

This post was supposed to go out yesterday, but the best-laid plans and all that...

This book has a bit of a cursed history. Amazon has various automated checks to make sure somebody isn't ripping off an existing book. So what tends to happen is my attempts to republish the books under my own author account get flagged as infringing the copyright of my books when they were previously published with eXcessica. This is usually easy to resolve as I have signed documentation from eXcessica to revert the rights back to me after they closed down.

Except for this book, for some reason...

I had a hellish fight trying to get the ebook out in 2022. I just ended up with the wrong people on Amazon's Kindle Content Review team and it took a while to find someone that wasn't an idiot to resolve the problem.

I'm getting the same flags come up now I'm putting out print versions. For A Succubus for Christmas it was resolved within 10 minutes. I sent the same reply and documentation back for A Succubus for Valentine's Day, and nothing...

Given the fight I had to get the ebook out, I was dreading having the same problems.

Thankfully, it seems to have resolved, albeit taking about 36 hours rather than 10 minutes.

A Succubus for Valentine's Day is now available, again, as a physical print book for the first time in a few years. With a lovely, if extremely deceptive :D, new cover courtesy of Marwmellow. I've also updated the ebooks on Amazon and elsewhere to use the new cover (except Smashwords, as I still need to properly merge it with my Draft2Digital account).

I've tried to keep the price as low as possible, but Print-on-Demand paperbacks are unfortunately more expensive to produce than mass-market paperbacks, so the lowest I could drop it was $15.99. It is at least now an option if people want a physical copy for their bookshelf.

(With a very innocent-looking cover to properly traumatize anyone reading the first story by mistake. :D )

You can find it on Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GNH6K3G6

I hope you enjoy it and happy Valentine's Day!

Coming Soon - "A Succubus for Valentine's Day" in Print

I received the print proof for the new print version of "A Succubus for Valentine's Day" with new cover art by marwmellow.

Looks fine. I'll be making that available to purchase on Amazon roughly around Friday 13th Feb (depending on when it goes live). Look out for more on that next week.

I'm going to be traumatizing romance readers again with that cover, aren't I...

Print Book Version of A Succubus for Christmas Available

Not actually ready in time for Christmas, sadly. I wanted to make sure the proof copies looked okay, and they were held up in the Christmas post.

Fortunately, the print-on-demand version looks okay, so I've made it go live on the Amazon store. You can find it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GDR1PBQS

This is my first collection back in "print" print with new cover art drawn by marwmellow (and very deceptive art at that - don't be fooled by her cuteness!).

I've tried to set the price as low as possible while still being able to make something from each sale. PoD paperbacks are sadly more expensive than mass-market paperbacks to produce, so $15.99 was as low as I can go.

Throughout 2026 I'll be commissioning new cover art and making more of the A Succubus for series available as print books. It will be nice to give them a physical presence on the bookshelf again.

Print version of Succubus Summoning 201 is finally here!

A little (lot!) later than planned, I can finally say the paperback version of Succubus Summoning 201 is available to buy.  This continues Phil's sexy (mis)adventures with Verdé, Rosa and friends as the hapless warlock tries to learn magic while surviving the amorous advances of various seductive succubi and monster girls.

You can get it from Amazon here, or directly from my publisher, eXcessica here.  I get more money from the second link, but sales from Amazon bump up the book's rating and make it easier for new readers to find, so I don't mind where you get it from.  Go to whoever suits you best.

Here are some 'inside-baseball' answers to a couple of questions I imagine people will have.

Why is it so expensive for a paperback book?

POD (Print on Demand), I'm afraid.  This is the reality of being a quasi-independent author.  Mass-market paperbacks have print runs in the thousands to keep the costs down (with the downside that the publisher ends up out of pocket if the book turns out to be a dud).  I'm below that level, so the only way to produce paperback versions is as a speciality item with prices to match.  On the flip side, independents can price their ebooks lower as they don't have to worry about cannibalising their print market.

Why did it take so freaking long to get the print version done?

Um, yeah.

The tl;dr version is my cover artist and I managed to get horribly mixed up on what was meant by bleed area on the cover template and mistakes were made... over and over.

The even shorter version - see those metallic embellishments on the corners of the book, don't do this on your book designs.

I'll go into the full sorry saga tomorrow as it might be of interest to other self-published (quasi or otherwise) writers looking to put out print versions of their books through CreateSpace.

But back to our regular scheduled content...

The print version of Succubus Summoning 201 is now out.  Sorry for making you all wait so long.  I hope you all enjoy it and find a place for it on your bookshelves.  Although you might want to put it somewhere where innocent neighbours don't pick it up and flick through by accident.  Or maybe you do... 😈

A Succubus for Saint Patrick's Day available in Print form

A few months late, but it's here.

This is the physical copy version of my latest short story collection.  The ebook version did come out around Saint Patrick's Day a few months ago, but the print version ended up lagging behind for one reason or another.  This has now been fixed, so if you prefer to read my stories in physical book form rather than on an ereader, the latest collection is now available.

Here's the blurb:

Who is the lucky one - the man given sensual pleasure beyond his dreams, or the succubus that ensnares and drains him? 

Dangerous and delectable sirens abound in M. E. Hydra's sixth collection of horror erotica.  Within these pages you'll find thirteen tales that will tempt, tease, titillate and terrify.  Read and enjoy as dark temptresses weave their seductive webs and draw in their (un)fortunate prey. 

In "A Succubus for Saint Patrick's Day" a down-on-his-luck gambler thinks his fortune has changed when a magical succubus comes to his aid.  A strange agency provides an unusual service in "The High-School Sweetheart Removal Agency".  A researcher has a dangerous and highly sensual encounter with an alien creature in "A Real-Life Goo Girl".  In "Number 66" an expat searches for an unusual girl in the fleshpots of Bangkok.  An accomplished thief falls prey to a shadowy guardian in "Rogue vs. Lamia".  A rich man gets the bigger dick he's always wanted in "Crabs", only to discover the treatment has some alarming side effects.  And finally, a young man gets a surprise when he tries to rape the wrong victim in "Joe Boyega Picks a Bad Night to Become a Rapist". 

They'll give you pleasures beyond your wildest dreams, and terrors beyond your darkest nightmares...

The collection consists of 13 stories of sexy succubus/monster girl horror erotica.  Six of these can only be found in this collection while a seventh only appeared previously in a horror erotica anthology from eXcessica.

The print versions aren't big sellers for me, mainly because Print-on-Demand makes books considerably more expensive than typical mass-market paperbacks, but I always like to make a print option available if I can because I know some people prefer to own physical books over ebooks.  It's also a nice ego-trip for a writer to see their own books sitting on a bookshelf. :D

Anyway, sorry for making you wait so long for this, print lovers.  I'll try to make sure the print and ereader version releases are synchronised a little better for future books.

Print version of A Succubus for Remembrance out! (finally)

In all the recent chaos I completely missed the print version of A Succubus for Remembrance has gone live.  It can be found on Amazon here.  The curse of slightly different titles strikes again.  I'll see if I can get that fixed so that the kindle and print editions are linked in Amazon's system.

Again sorry for the high price.  That's the downside to Print on Demand.

I'll also repeat the same warning from the ebook version.  The last story will be outside some people's comfort zone.  If you thought "The High-School Sweetheart Removal Agency" was a little too dark, treat "Nazi vs. Succubus" as a bonus story for extreme horror fans and give it a wide berth.  The rest should be the usual sexy succubus stuff.  Apart from the skinless people having sex . . . and the giant octopus queen . . . and the weird slug thing summoned up from the bowels of hell . . . and the . . . Okay, so usual might not have been the right word.

Anyway, apologies for making print fans wait a little longer for this one.  I'll try to make sure both ebook and print version come out simultaneously for the next one (which should be here next month if I pull my finger out).

Now I've got to go and order my own author copies for the Shelf That Must Never Be Seen By Others.

More for the Bookshelf No One Can Read

My print copies finally wound their way to my remote abode.  I always look forward to seeing the finished book. (and that the covers are the right colour, in the right place and not wrong in the many ways printing can sometimes go wrong).

It's a little chunkier than my other collections (although obviously slimline in relation to the average George R. R. Martin epic).  I ran out of the short short stories and got too carried away writing all the sex in the new ones.

You can pick up a copy of your own from Amazon here, or here if you live in the UK.  One day it would be nice to have a mass-market paperback printing to make the price a little more acceptable, but that would mean I'd have to write something more mainstream and who'd want to do a boring thing like that . . . ;)