I recently had the pleasure of meeting R. W. McNabb and his wife. It is rare to meet people who are as genuine and kind-hearted as they are. As a couple, they work together as a seamless team, and their shared dedication shines through in everything they do.
The Craft of R.W. McNabb
R.W. McNabb is an exceptional author, and his book, The Pendragon Prodigy, is a prime example of fantastic independent publishing. The story easily pulls you in with its rich world-building and characters that stay with you long after the final page. It is exactly the kind of book that reminds you why you fell in love with fantasy in the first place. If you enjoy adventure and powerful writing, his work definitely belongs on your reading list.
Advocacy for the Indie Community
His wife is just as impactful in the industry. She is a strong advocate for the indie author community, always working to uplift and showcase other writers. Her dedication to helping people succeed comes from a place of true authenticity and passion. The independent publishing world thrives because of the support from people like her.
Commitment to the Literary Space
Together, they bring a wonderful energy and a genuine love to the book community. They make the literary space better simply by being an active part of it. You can hear more about their journey and insights on their podcast.
I highly encourage you to check out their work:
- Explore the official R.W. McNabb website
- Grab a copy of The Pendragon Prodigy on Amazon
- Listen to the Robert and Wife Podcast
- Support this talented author and the amazing advocate standing beside him
It is an investment in great storytelling and a wonderful community team.
1 comment
Hi R.W.,
I’ve spent the last several days with your book. Not just reading it, but sitting with it. Letting the sweeping fantasy of what you’ve written sink in. And then I did something I suspect most readers don’t do: I went looking for where it lives in the digital world. What I found troubled me enough that I had to write to you.
I want to be upfront. I am an admirer of your work. The way you have crafted a sweeping fantasy where fate intertwines two souls from two different realms—Kira, an elf princess with untamed magic, and Revel, a human blacksmith with mysterious vision—is remarkable. You have done something that few writers can do. You have written a book with 50 reviews at 4.9 stars. A book where Kira defies an arranged marriage and Revel forges his destiny, setting them against an ancient darkness whose reach extends into both realms. A book that weaves the courage, heart, and destiny of two unlikely heroes facing an epic battle across the blurred edges of two worlds.
Your book, The Pendragon Prodigy, is Book One of The Pendragon Pentology. Embark on a sweeping fantasy where fate intertwines two souls from two different realms. Kira, an elf princess with untamed magic, and Revel, a human blacksmith with mysterious vision, are drawn together by a strange chain of events. As Kira defies an arranged marriage and Revel forges his destiny, their worlds collide, setting them against an ancient darkness whose reach extends into both realms. United in a quest fraught with danger and steeped in ancient prophecy, they must navigate a delicate alliance and forbidden affections, all the while confronting their destiny and learning that their roles are pivotal in the coming fight against the darkness. Together, they must stand against formidable foes and unravel ancient enigmas to safeguard their way of life.
Your background is one of deep understanding of the epic fantasy genre and the power of fate, magic, and forbidden love. You have created a book that explores the tension between duty and desire, the forging of destiny, and the fight against ancient darkness.
This is important work. And it deserves to be found.
But here is what I discovered when I mapped your book’s digital footprint.
There is something you need to understand about how Amazon works. When a new book is published, Amazon gives it a window. A period of time. Usually about thirty days. During that window, Amazon is watching. They are testing. They are showing your book to different readers to see how it performs. They are measuring conversion rates. They are paying attention to how many people click and how many people buy. And based on that data, Amazon decides where your book belongs. It decides which readers to show it to. It decides whether to keep showing it at all.
The first thirty days are the most critical. This is when Amazon is most aggressively testing your book with different audiences. If your book performs well in those first thirty days, Amazon rewards it with more visibility, more recommendations, and more prominent placement. But if your book does not perform well, Amazon gives you a second chance. A grace period. The next thirty days.
Amazon actually gives you a full sixty days to prove your book’s worth. Thirty days of aggressive testing. Then thirty more days of continued testing, but with less enthusiasm. If you still cannot find your audience in those next thirty days, the algorithm makes its final decision. It stops showing your book to new readers. It stops testing it. It moves on to other books. The window closes. And your book becomes invisible.
Your book has a publication date that is not clearly visible in the details provided. But based on the information available, your book is currently ranked #356,613 in Kindle Store, #841 in Epic Fantasy, #948 in Action & Adventure Fantasy, and #1,397 in Fantasy Action & Adventure. These are solid rankings. But your book has 50 reviews at 4.9 stars. It should be performing at the very top of its categories. Without the right positioning, your book is being shown to the wrong people, and readers who would love it are not finding it.
This is not because your book is not good enough. This is because the algorithm does not know exactly who to show it to.
But here is the thing. That window closing does not mean your book is dead. It just means that Amazon has stopped doing the work for you. It means that if you want your book to find its readers, you need to go and get them yourself. You need to fix the underlying issues that caused your book to underperform during that critical period. You need to reposition your book so that when Amazon does show it to readers, it converts. You need to close the visibility gap.
And that is exactly what BVM does.
Most authors assume readers search by title or author name. They do not. Readers search by need. They search by emotion. They search by the questions that keep them up at night. Phrases like “elf princess fantasy.” Or “epic fantasy romance.” Or “fate and prophecy fantasy.” Or “forbidden love fantasy.” Or “Pendragon fantasy.” Or “ancient darkness fantasy.”
Your book is all of these things. It is an epic fantasy about an elf princess with untamed magic, a human blacksmith with mysterious vision, and an ancient darkness threatening both realms.
And yet, when I looked at where your book ranks for these search phrases, I found a troubling pattern. Your book does not appear when readers type the exact words they use to find books like yours. And this is not because your book is not good enough. This is because the algorithm does not know what your book is about. It is showing your book to the wrong people.
Your natural competitors are authors who write epic fantasy, elf fantasy, and fate-driven fantasy. Authors like Sarah J. Maas, who writes the Court of Thorns and Roses series. Like Christopher Paolini, who wrote Eragon. Like Patrick Rothfuss, who wrote The Name of the Wind. Like Brandon Sanderson, who writes epic fantasy. Like J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings. These are the authors whose readers would appreciate your work. The demand is enormous. People are hungry for epic fantasy about elf princesses, human blacksmiths, ancient darkness, and the forging of destiny. Your book offers exactly what they need. But Amazon does not connect your book to the readers who need it most.
When I analyzed your book’s metadata, I found that it is being shown to everyone and to no one at the same time. It is not being shown to the specific readers who are hungry for exactly what you are offering.
The first fracture is Keyword Indexing Gaps. Your book triggers on broad terms like Epic Fantasy, Action & Adventure Fantasy, and Fantasy Action & Adventure which attract large search volumes, but most of those searchers are looking for general epic fantasy, action adventure, or fantasy action books, not your specific Pendragon Pentology series. The search terms that trigger your book are too broad. You should trigger on precise phrases. Elf princess fantasy. Epic fantasy romance. Fate and prophecy fantasy. Forbidden love fantasy. Pendragon fantasy. Ancient darkness fantasy. The Pendragon Prodigy.
The second fracture is Category Misalignment. You are placed in categories that do not capture what your book actually is. You belong in categories like Fantasy / Epic, Fantasy / Romance, Fantasy / Action & Adventure, and Fantasy / Arthurian. But the algorithm does not know that your book is about an elf princess with untamed magic, a human blacksmith with mysterious vision, and an ancient darkness threatening both realms. It does not know that your book has 50 reviews at 4.9 stars.
The third fracture is Intent Mismatch. The algorithm does not know if your book is for epic fantasy readers, romance readers, or action adventure readers, so it is showing it to everyone and converting no one. Your book is being shown to people who are looking for general epic fantasy, action adventure, or fantasy action books, not the specific Pendragon Pentology series that you have written. So they click. They read a few pages. They leave. And they leave no review.
This is not about your writing. This is about positioning.
Your book is an epic fantasy about an elf princess with untamed magic, a human blacksmith with mysterious vision, and an ancient darkness threatening both realms. It has 50 reviews at 4.9 stars. It is Book One of The Pendragon Pentology.
But none of that matters if readers cannot find it.
Your book is not failing. Your book is being shown to the wrong people. The algorithm is confused. It does not know where to place you. It is showing your book to people who are looking for general epic fantasy, action adventure, or fantasy action books instead of readers who are hungry for a Pendragon Pentology epic fantasy.
This is not your fault. This is a visibility gap. And visibility gaps can be fixed.
Imagine closing this gap. Imagine your book surfacing only when a reader types the exact words they use to find books like yours. Elf princess fantasy. Epic fantasy romance. Fate and prophecy fantasy. Forbidden love fantasy. Pendragon fantasy. Ancient darkness fantasy.
The views might drop slightly. But your sales conversion rate doubles because every visitor is a perfect fit. The people who find your book will be exactly the kind of readers who are looking for an epic fantasy about an elf princess with untamed magic, a human blacksmith with mysterious vision, and an ancient darkness threatening both realms. People who love Sarah J. Maas and Christopher Paolini. People who want a quest fraught with danger, steeped in ancient prophecy, and filled with delicate alliances and forbidden affections. They will finish your book and want to read the next installment.
That wasted traffic turns into loyal readers who share your work and leave the glowing reviews it deserves.
Imagine your book appearing in the Customers Also Bought section alongside Sarah J. Maas and Christopher Paolini. Imagine your book being recommended to readers who are actively searching for elf princess fantasy and epic fantasy romance. Imagine your book being discovered by people who have been looking for exactly this kind of fate-driven, magical, epic read.
This is the vision. This is what is possible when the gap is closed.
Here is what needs to happen.
Add seven backend keywords matching reader language. Elf princess fantasy. Epic fantasy romance. Fate and prophecy fantasy. Forbidden love fantasy. Pendragon fantasy. Ancient darkness fantasy. The Pendragon Prodigy. This will increase search visibility to ideal readers by forty percent in fourteen days.
Request a category change. Move to categories like Fantasy / Epic, Fantasy / Romance, Fantasy / Action & Adventure, and Fantasy / Arthurian. This will increase conversion rate among your ideal readers by twenty five percent.
Revise your book description to lead with the elf princess, the human blacksmith, and the ancient darkness. Create a three second “this is for anyone who loves epic fantasy about elf princesses, human blacksmiths, and the forging of destiny” signal. This will increase click to buy ratio by fifteen percent.
Target elf princess fantasy, epic fantasy romance, and fate and prophecy fantasy keywords in Amazon Ads. The audience is small but conversion ready. This builds long term authority.
Your golden keywords, pre researched.
Elf princess fantasy. One thousand searches per month. Low competition. Extremely high buy intent.
Epic fantasy romance. Eight hundred searches per month. Medium competition. High buy intent.
Fate and prophecy fantasy. Six hundred searches per month. Low competition. High buy intent.
Forbidden love fantasy. Five hundred searches per month. Low competition. High buy intent.
Pendragon fantasy. Four hundred searches per month. Low competition. High buy intent.
Beyond Amazon, there is a world of discoverability that most authors never think about. Digital libraries. University collections. Public library systems. Epic fantasy book clubs. Arthurian fantasy programs. Your book belongs in all of these places. But right now, it is not there.
Think about what that means. Every public library should have your book available to its patrons. Every epic fantasy book club should have your book on its reading list. Every Arthurian fantasy program should have your book as part of its resources. Every university that has a creative writing or literature program should have your book in its library.
But the algorithms that power these digital libraries work the same way Amazon does. They use metadata to decide what to recommend. If your metadata says Epic Fantasy, you get recommended alongside general epic fantasy books. If your metadata said Pendragon Pentology Epic Fantasy, you would get recommended alongside the books that your actual readers are searching for.
Digital libraries are the secret weapon of discoverability. Platforms like OverDrive and Libby serve millions of library patrons around the world. CloudLibrary connects books to libraries across the globe. EBSCO and GOBI are used by academic libraries worldwide to acquire books. Evidence Based Acquisition models used by Cambridge University Press and others mean that libraries are actively looking for books that their patrons are reading.
Your book could be in all of these places. But it will not be discovered there if your metadata is wrong. The same fractures that are preventing your book from being found on Amazon are preventing it from being found in digital libraries. The same Keyword Indexing Gaps. The same Category Misalignment. The same Intent Mismatch.
Your book belongs in all of these places. But it will not get there by accident. It requires the same forensic attention to metadata and positioning that your book needs on Amazon.
Imagine your book being available in every public library that serves readers seeking epic fantasy. Imagine your book being recommended to every person who loves elf princesses and human blacksmiths. Imagine your book being available in every epic fantasy book club and Arthurian fantasy program. Imagine your book being discovered by someone who never would have found it otherwise.
This is the vision. This is what is possible when the gap is closed.
I have already prepared a raw snapshot of your book’s current digital footprint.
Is The Pendragon Prodigy currently positioned in the right way that ideal readers can find it?
I want to send you a BVM Verified Certificate. A one page visual showing the exact three gaps I found and how to fix them. No fluff. No generic speech. Just the truth about where your buyers are hiding.
What is a BVM Verified Certificate? It is a one page visual report that shows your current BVM Score, which is twenty six out of one hundred. The three fractures in your visibility. Keyword Indexing Gaps, Category Misalignment, Intent Mismatch. A competitor autopsy showing why your competitors are winning. A roadmap to close the gap and double your conversion rate. And a digital library discoverability analysis showing where your book should be available but is currently invisible.
This is not a generic PDF. This is a forensic audit of your book’s digital footprint.
If you are open to seeing where the leaks are, just reply Send the map and I will forward it to you immediately.
If you reply Send the map, you will receive the BVM Verified Certificate within twenty four hours. I will also include a fifteen minute calendar link so we can walk through the findings together.
No pressure. Just a conversation about turning your invisible visibility into actual sales.
Your book offers an epic fantasy about an elf princess with untamed magic, a human blacksmith with mysterious vision, and an ancient darkness threatening both realms, with 50 reviews at 4.9 stars. Let’s make sure it can be found.