WEYBURN - Jaclyn Kot has always loved stories, both as an avid reader and Disney fan as a girl, and as a writer, as she would come up with her own stories.
“I loved to read as a girl, and was a huge Disney fan, along with books like the Lord of the Rings,” she said.
Today, the 32-year-old has produced three books with plans for more, and her books are getting a big response on Amazon.
She lives on a farm with her husband about 20 minutes east of Weyburn, and raises chickens and cows.
Kot writes what is described as “dark fantasy romance” stories, with the first one, “Between Life and Death”, in the works for over 10 years before she finished it, and it was released in March of 2023.
The second book in the series, “Between Sun and Moon”, came out in February of 2024, and her most recent release, a prequel to these two books, “Between the Moon and Her Night”, was released in October and had an instant large response with readers. She was given an Amazon “Bestselling Author” banner due to the large response of her latest book, a response that has continued.
“I hit a pretty big milestone (for me) yesterday with my Kindle Unlimited page reads. I hit 10,000,000 pages read through Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program. In terms of books, it equals 20,758 books read. In truth, I’m having a bit of a hard time processing that number,” said Kot on Monday.
She had written her first book when she was 21, then had it on the backburner for a little while until COVID hit. The pandemic curtailed her business of doing weddings, and with more time on her hands, she went back to her story have another look at it.
She had been writing as part of an online writers group, which she found she greatly enjoyed as she interacted with other aspiring writers.
After having an editor go over her story again, “it changed a lot from what it was.”
The online writing forum “is a great way to expand your stories, because you get to see how other people write,” said Kot.
Through this forum, she had developed a bit of a following, and when she released her first book, it blew up on Tik Tok, particularly on BookTok. According to her website, “It hit numerous top 100 categories and had over one million Kindle unlimited pages read within the first month of release.”
In addition, Podium Audio came to her and bought the audiobook right for her series, further expanding the reach she was having in developing new fans.
“It was a little surreal,” Kot admitted as the popularity of her works continues to amaze her.
She noted her second book was at first intended to be a novella, but as she wrote the story and developed the plot, it just kept getting longer and longer, and she ended up releasing it as a full-length novel.
Kot’s future plans include working on the next book in her series, plus she is co-writing a book with another author.
Some of the writers she emulates and who influence her include Sarah J. Maas, Raven Kennedy and Jennifer L. Armentrout.
Kot noted one of her writing instructors said whatever she writes, it should reflect the world she lives in, and as such, she wants to address such issues as domestic violence.
“I want it to be empowering, especially for my female readers,” said Kot, noting she has had women tell her that the stories have been that for them.
One reader in particular was inspired to leave an abusive relationship as a result of her story.
She has also had readers respond to her from around the world, from South America, India, Japan and Australia, to name a few.
“It’s a little surreal, but it’s been an amazing journey,” said Kot.
