Changes – What’s Coming Up This Year?

Changes – What’s Coming Up This Year?

Hello everyone! If you’re a regular reader, I want to thank you for sticking around. If you’re just dropping by to see what the place is all about – welcome! Be sure to check back next week for more regularly scheduled geekery. I just want to take a moment to explain some upcoming changes.

I’m planning a major overhaul of the site layout sometime in the near future, so I apologize if you drop by and the site looks like it’s exploded – I assure you it’s only temporary and all will be well soon enough!

Announcement the First: The Mystical Island Trilogy is coming to Kindle Select!
Why? Even though I’ve been doing this self-publishing thing for three years, I’m still struggling to find my audience (IE: more people like you fine folk reading this). The people who have read the trilogy have loved it; I’ve gotten tons of amazing feedback from all of you (so thanks for that). The main trouble is getting my work in front of readers who will enjoy it. Part of that is because I’m still learning how to market properly (and that’s on me), but there are so many well-written self-published books out there, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. I’m still a relatively new author, not a lot of people are familiar with my work, and it’s a risk to spend money on something when you aren’t sure you’re going to like it. Putting my books in Kindle Select will alleviate some of that risk, and hopefully help me reach more people. Not to mention that about 75% of my sales come from Amazon in the first place.

Now I’m not a fan of DRM, I’ve said that about a million times, and I know not everyone reads their digital books on a Kindle. If you want to read my work, and you’re worried that it can only be found on Amazon – fear not! My books are DRM free, so if you want to use any of the many available conversion tools (such as Calibre) to convert my books for your Nook or other device, feel free to do so!

Another reason for the switch; the time has come for me to switch distributors (which requires me to pull my books from extended distribution anyway). When I started publishing, Smashwords was the best option for someone who wanted to easily reach a wider range of bookstores. Being Canadian, I didn’t have the option to publish directly to Nook, for example. And although I’ve always felt like some of their formatting guidelines were a bit overbearing and silly, I never had issues getting my books through the meat grinder the first time around. That has, sadly, changed. The more ridiculous the guidelines get, and the longer it takes to get a book into the premium catalog, the more time it takes away from more important things – like writing the next chapter of Eternity’s Empire. Draft2Digital has been highly recommended and I think I’m going to give it a try. So when the Mystical Island books finish their time in Kindle Select, they will return to other digital bookstores, and probably even look a bit better. (For the moment, Eternity’s Empire will be staying put, so you’ll still be able to find it in all the usual places.)

Announcement the Second: Eternity’s Empire is moving to a bi-monthly release schedule
Why? It has been my pleasure for the last year to bring you, with a few exceptions, monthly installments in the Eternity’s Empire saga. But my writing schedule looks different now than it did a year ago. I’m querying a fantasy duology at the moment, because hybrid-author has always been my goal. It’s a time consuming process. Not to mention I’m about to plunge into a re-write of my massive space opera, Symphony of the Stars, which I’d like to have cleaned up in short order. On top of that, Eternity’s Empire has grown bigger and more complex than I ever imagined it would – which is fantastic! But it does mean that the time investment is larger than it used to be.

Long story short, producing a chapter every month is starting to feel rushed. My beta readers, especially, have put up with some hustle for the last three installments, and that just doesn’t seem fair. Quality has always been more important to me than quantity, and I want to make sure every chapter gets the attention it deserves. If I continue at the monthly pace, I just don’t think that’s going to happen. In exchange for the slightly longer wait between chapters, I will endeavor not to leave anyone hanging on a massive cliffhanger like the one at the end of chapter 5 (sorry, but only a little). Chapter 9 of Eternity’s Empire will be available later this week and chapter 10 will release in June as planned. Book 2 of the Eternity’s Empire Collection, featuring chapters 6-10, will be available in August, and then chapter 11 will be along in October. I’ve got a lot of plans for this series, and I’m looking forward to sharing them all with you!

Announcement the Third: The Mystical Island Trilogy is getting paperbacks!
I saved the best for last! One of the main reasons for all these changes, is that the Mystical Island books are finally going to enter the physical world. With real pages and everything! I always intended to release the books as paperbacks but, when I published the first one, it felt more important to finish the series than to learn how to format a print book. There’s actually a lot more that goes into it than you might think (as I have recently learned). But people have been asking about paperbacks, and I recently met some fantastic people who offered to help me through the process. With the universe basically beating at the door, what else can you do but open it?

Island of Lost Forevers will be available in paperback sometime in early July – stay tuned for official details. Crossroads of Frozen Eternity will follow in September and I expect Sea of Twisted Souls to be available in November. I’m so excited that people are finally going to be able to put my books on their shelves! And I assure you, they will fit nicely in your purses – it was a primary part of the design process!

Thanks to everyone who has read my work, to everyone who has reviewed it and to everyone who encourages me to keep going. 2017 is going to be an exciting year, and I’m hoping to carry that momentum straight into 2018!

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