Tag: ebooks

Christmas in August with Mommy’s Night Before Christmas Audiobook!

August 2, 2025 / Katie L. Carroll

The cover of Mommy's Night Before Christmas, written by Katie L. Carroll and illustrated by Phoebe Cho. The illustration shows a woman with a messy bun and a coat on her shoulders standing outside the door of a house with Christmas lights. She is looking up at Santa and his reindeer silhouetted in the moonlight.

I know it’s usually Christmas in July, but I’m making it Christmas in August this year with a picture book special and a Middle Grade Back to School Bundle.

That’s because my picture book Mommy’s Night Before Christmas, illustrated by Phoebe Cho, is coming to audiobook this holiday season! Even more exciting is that I’ll be doing the narration myself because this book was very much written from personal experience and I’ve always enjoyed reading it aloud.

Some of you longtime readers may remember that Mommy’s Night Before Christmas started out as a poem that used to appear on my blog every year. It was quite the journey from that initial burst of inspiration when I was a very mom with two young kiddos to it coming out as a picture book. This will be my first time narrating an audiobook, so it’s a whole new adventure for me and Mommy’s Night Before Christmas.

The cover of the picture book Daddy's 12 Days of Christmas, written by Katie L. Carroll and illustrated by Phoebe Cho. The illustrated cover shows a family with two dads and their five diverse kids. They are dressed in winter coats on a snowy landscape, and they hold music books as they sing Christmas carols.

To celebrate, the ebook of both Mommy’s Night Before Christmas and my other Christmas picture book Daddy’s 12 Days of Christmas, also illustrated by Phoebe Cho, will be on sale for $2.99 for the month of August. My next goal for 2026 is to create a musical audiobook of Daddy’s 12 Days of Christmas since that is a sing-along book.

To keep the celebration going, my upper middle novel Witch Test is in a bundle with five other middle grade novels. From August 11th – 17th, you can get all six books for just $8.00. You can find the Middle Grade Back to School Bundle at this link, but bookmark it because the link won’t be live until the sale starts on the 11th.

Chalkboard background with text that reads "Middle Grade Back to School Bundle! August 11 - August 17, Only $8 USD for 6 Great Reads!" Six book covers are underneath the text for the books Witch Test by Katie L. Carroll, Goblin Girl by K.A. Mielke, The Berge Sisters Tour the Neitherswarth by JL DuRona, The Young Necromancer's Guide to Ghosts by Vanessa Ricci-Thode, Bad Grains by Susanne Schmidt, and River of Crows by N.P. Thompson.

Have you noticed I haven’t released any new books yet this year? I’ve been working on a lot of things, including an adult cozy dystopian series that will have four books. Yes, you read that right, an adult series! I’m also working on a few picture book things that I may have news on soon. But maybe nothing brand-new this year, which be the first year I won’t have anything new in many years…since 2020, I think. Wow, that’s a long streak.

It’s been a busy year personally, and this fall is no exception. My oldest kiddo will be starting high school, my middle kiddo will be starting middle school, and my youngest is going into 3rd grade. That’s three different schools with three different start and end times. Plus, they all play soccer in the fall. It’s a much different busy than when they were little and I wrote my silly poem about being a mom on Christmas, but it’s busy all the same.

A graphic with the book cover of ONLY DARK EDGES by Katie L. Carroll with a background of a stormy sky and sea. The book cover shows a girl with auburn hair flying around her face in the wind, a stormy sky and sea behind her. Text reads, "Beware the Storm! We Were Liars meets You've Reached Sam in this modern-day Hamlet retelling. Sale $1.99"

Summer Reading & Book Deals 2025

July 7, 2025 / Katie L. Carroll

A person in a hammock, holding the book When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson. A yard of trees in the background. — The hammock is one of my favorite summer reading spots!

How’s your summer reading going? I’m usually a mood reader, meaning I don’t really plan my reading lists ahead, rather I read whatever I’m in the mood for. This summer, however, I’ve decided to make a list and see if I stick to it. No promises!

The month of July is my birthday month, so I’ve decided to celebrate by putting all my novels on sale! ONLY DARK EDGES, my modern-day Hamlet retelling is $1.99 all month long on all ebook platforms, including directly from me on the Purchase Books page. If you’ve been watching the TV show adaptation of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, ONLY DARK EDGES will devastate you in all the same ways.

My five other novels are 50% (that’s $2.49 each) on Smashwords for the month of July! Choose from My YA fantasies ELIXIR BOUND and ELIXIR SAVED, the YA dystopian thriller BLACK BUTTERFLY, and the middle grade books PIRATE ISLAND and WITCH TEST.

After finally having conquered the ability to read audiobooks (see “Long-Awaited Update on Training My Brain to Read Audiobooks”), I’m right on track with my reading goals for the year. I’ll be doing a bit of traveling in July, which should give me some time to conquer my summer reading. I’ll also be working on revising my first ever adult novel, a cozy dystopian that I plan on releasing this fall, so keep an eye out for more about that. If you subscribe to my newsletter, you’ve already gotten a sneak peek at the cover. Busy, busy as always over here!

I’d love to hear what’s on your summer reading list this year, so please feel free to share in the comments.

Ebook Redistribution and Author Updates

February 28, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

Quick announcement about ebook availability. I’m redoing how I distribute some of my ebooks, so there’s a chance those titles won’t be available on some retailers for a limited time. I am now selling all my ebooks directly on my Purchase Books page, where you can also order signed paperbacks, and none of those listings will be affected. The Amazon listings also shouldn’t be affected, so you can find them there as well.

Is it just me or is this year quickly flying by in a big ball of stress? Let me be honest on here for a second (I’m always pretty honest here), I have felt very stressed out this year. The world is feeling ugly and I’m constantly worried about keeping my family healthy, and I’m guessing I’m not the only one feeling this way. It makes it hard to focus, so I keep telling myself writing books for young people is always important–maybe even more so in trying times.

So I’ve been doing my best to take the moments I have for work and keep my head down to make the most of them. Still, I’ve hardly written anything new this year. I have so many solid ideas waiting in the wings. Lots of projects in the works, though. One of these weeks, I’m going to dig into revisions of that NaNoWriMo book of mine, the young adult Hamlet-inspired tale of a teen mourning the loss of her sister. Here’s a little mood board I put together for it.

The illustrations for my upcoming picture book MOMMY’S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS are coming along. Soon I’ll be able to share some of what the very talented illustrator Phoebe Cho has been working on for that book. I’m also working on fun marketing and release details for the October publish date.

Events for 2022 are coming along as well. I have a few writing workshops lined up to teach, and I’m hoping to have some in-person books events and festivals lined up for when the weather warms up. I recently did a virtual author visit for my son’s 5th-grade class, and they wrote me the sweetest thank-you letters, many of them sharing the story ideas they came up during the guided writing exercise I did with them.

Believe it or not, I’m making publishing plans for 2023 already. I have one other book that might come out this year and even more planned for next year. So I guess it’s okay that I haven’t been writing much. I’m working…in between sick days and snow days and stressing out about war. Also taking a moment to appreciate how lucky I am…always important to practice gratitude.

What’s on your mind lately? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.