I Released My Debut Poetry Collection :)
A Number One Best Seller in 3 Categories!
Hey there, dreamer. I have a really big surprise for you…
I am happy to announce that last week on January 20th, 2024 I released my first collection of poetry, For Hearts of the Wilder Kind on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I have been blown away by the outcome! As of right now the book is number one in three categories on the Amazon Kindle store: American Poetry, Poetry About Nature, and Two-Hour Literature & Fiction Short Reads.
The blurb:
“In her debut collection of poems, For Hearts of the Wilder Kind, Bella Bankes explores spirit, identity, and messages from nature. The selections were written during a transitional period ( 2020 - 2023 ) when she became both a newlywed and empty-nester, inspired while examining the Appalachian landscape with a deepening sense of adoration and belonging.”
Grab the Free eBook Before January 31, 2024
The eBook version is free between now and January 31, 2024. For Hearts of the Wilder Kind is also available in paperback and hardback. For Hearts of the Wilder Kind is book one in my Heart Poems series. If you do grab a copy, I would so appreciate your help with leaving the book an honest review.
About the Release
I chose to release the book in a different way than I have done in the past, without mentioning it on social media first. This took a lot of time, patience, planning, and learning. And it definitely proved to me that while social media is helpful in supporting a book’s release, it is not mandatory for its success. This is exciting, because I used to put so much time and effort into social media and spent way too much time wondering how a book would be received. Now I can use all of that time and energy to write and create more books for you to enjoy, and those of you who are newsletter subscribers will always be the first to know. The intimacy of that feels so right and good!
Behind the Scenes of This Collection
At the book’s conception, it had a different title and a slightly different concept. Honestly, I was making it way more complicated than it needed to be, so it got pushed to the back burner. Until one morning when I stepped outside on a wintry eight degree day, then wrote a poem about it, it hit me: it was time to release a collection. With the winter months in tow, it was the perfect time to select, organize, and revise my poems into a collection— something I have put off far too long. The rest is history.
The book that was originally intended to be a spiritual journaling experience became what is now For Hearts of the Wilder Kind.
I hope you love it, and I hope it encourages you to take look at your life with love in your eyes, even on the hard days. Even when all you want to do is skip town and never return, I hope you find that you are already home.
Note: Book two, Scarlet Retrograde: Heart Poems, is set to release on April 8, 2024 <3