Frequently Asked Questions

If I have the paperbooks in stock, I will ship them as soon as humanly possible.

If I don't have them in stock, I will have them shipped from the printer straight to you. This can take a few days longer.

I do not have my own shipping trucks or warehouses, so I'm not as speedy as the big bookstores, but I make up for it with charm. 😉

The short answer:

I don’t know for sure, but at this time, there are no new Gertrude books in the pipeline. Sorry.

The longer answer:

I love Gertrude as much as anyone (maybe more), and I would love to write about all the adventures she’s been having since we last checked in with her. However, there are so many stories to tell and so little time!

Book sales pay my bills, so the better the Gertrude books sell, the more likely I am to add to the collection. So, if you want more Gertrude stories, tell your friends to buy Gertrude books! Or even better, someone with film connections, get her onto the screen! Then there would be more adventures for sure! (And don’t you just think Lesley Nicol would make the BEST Gertrude?!)

Kindle Unlimited, Amazon’s eBook subscription program, is tricky. In most cases (unless a big publisher works out a special deal for you) an eBook must be exclusive to Kindle in order to be included in Kindle Unlimited.

So, if I have an eBook in Kindle Unlimited, it cannot be sold by Kobo, Nook, Apple, or anywhere else. I’m not allowed to give them away or sell them on my website. And most disappointing, I’m not allowed to have them in libraries.

A special word about Kobo: I worked as an editor and writer for missions organizations for more than a decade, so I’m pretty nations-minded. Kindle books are only available in a handful of countries. Kobo eBooks span the globe. Seriously, I don’t even know how many countries Kobo reaches, but it’s most of them. So, as an author who writes Jesus-stories, I do want my books to be available in all countries.

Hence, at this time, my books are not in Kindle Unlimited. However, I do want to reach those readers in the "KU store," so I may enroll books in KU in the future.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause a reader. I understand that subscription programs can save avid readers some money. However, this one does restrict what an author can do with a book.

Have you ever looked into a yarn bag after the cat's been in there?

Then you've seen how the thought processes in my brain work. It's a tangled mess. Not only do I have trouble staying in one lane, I have trouble seeing the lane. As Gertrude would say, I bounce around like a fart in a mitten.

Plus, pen names are fun!

But here's the scoop:

Robin Merrill: Original recipe. Christian fiction: romance and women's fiction.

R.E. Merrill: Cozy mysteries that don't take themselves too seriously. Not overtly Christian but still clean reads.

R. Merrill: Only a few books so far. Peretti-style supernatural goodness.

Penelope Spark: (Retired) Sweet romance

There may or may not be others which I may or may not reveal in the future. 😉

We all have our favorite stores and brands, right?

I am grateful for all the bookstores, but yes, Kobo is my favorite. It's where I usually buy my books.

Here are some reasons why Kobo is awesomesauce:

• When I publish in the Kobo store, my eBook becomes available in more than 190 countries. That is so awesome.
• I can hook my Kobo ereader directly up to my OverDrive library account and then borrow books from my library right on my ereader. So easy. I love finding a book to read and then having the option to "buy" or "borrow." (This might change when they complete the switch to Libby. I hope it doesn't.)
• Kobo takes very good care of authors.
• Kobo allows me to sell auto-narrated audiobooks.
• The Kobo store is a clean, simple interface that makes shopping easy and stress free.
• I love the Kobo ereaders.
• I love the Kobo app. It makes listening to audiobooks simple and convenient.
• My Kobo audiobook subscription is less expensive than a lot of other subscription options.
• Probably other reasons I can't think of right now. 😉

No.

Only in the sense of Tim O’Brien’s brilliant “Story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.”

I’m not sure where or how this rumor started, but no, Commack is entirely fiction.

Commack was inspired by an image. When I was young, my grandfather told me about something he’d found in the woods: a ring of stones with bones in the middle. That image stuck with me for years and served as the genesis for the novel.

But Commack is fiction, and Commack is a fictional town.

For that question, I refer you to this page: https://robinmerrill.com/the-ben-fuller-connection/

Creating audiobooks is incredibly expensive and most of mine have not made enough money to cover the cost of creating them. (Not to take anything away from the professional narrators--they are worth every penny.)

I hope to be able to get all of my books into audio one day, but as of now, I just can't make it happen. (So tell everyone to read my books, and then I'll sell more books and be able to afford audio!)

I am currently working on getting some of the books into audio via AI narration. Some of them are available now via this website, Kobo, YouTube, and Google Play. Please stand by for more auto-narrated books in the future.

I'm not really sure what's going to happen with my YouTube channel (Free Christian Audiobooks, https://www.youtube.com/@freechristianaudiobooks).

For now, I'm experimenting. I am grateful for the technology that allows for the auto-narration, which is time-consuming for me to do, but affordable. I guess we'll see where it goes, but for now, I'm having fun playing with it and giving away good stories.

And please, subscribe, like, and comment. 😉

I'm getting this question a lot!

For nearly all things writing and publishing, I recommend author Joanna Penn's website: The Creative Penn

For a comprehensive training, I recommend author Mark Dawson's foundational course: LaunchPad

If you have specific questions or are looking for personalized advice, I offer coaching calls: Work with me