New Sale and Why It Matters So Much

I don't think I announced it here yet, but *toots my own horn* my short story "A Few of My Favorite Things" will be part of Evernight Publishing's holiday anthology this year. First off, I'm excited because I love the opportunity to visit with my naughty elves. Second, the theme of the antho this year is kink. WOOT! And thirdly, I really enjoy doing these anthologies as it's an opportunity to stretch a specific set of writing muscles I don't touch through the rest of the year.

Another reason it's important?

I've only had two releases this year.

Now, this doesn't seem like a big deal since I've sold other pieces, and 2013 is already shaping up to be nice an busy and prolific and all that. However, digital publishing isn't like publishing 5-10-20 years ago. Hell, it's not even like publishing now in NY where you can still build your career by starting with one release a year. In digital publishing, backlist and consistent releases are the name of the game. Pretty much, you produce or you die.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm working all the damn time, but that doesn't mean that I'm selling all the time or that those sales will come out in an expected timeframe. A book I subbed in January didn't get picked up until May and isn't coming out until NEXT May. A book I subbed in March(?) got picked up in April, but it isn't coming out until NEXT March. Another I wrote didn't quite fit what the publisher wanted for the series, so I have an entire manuscript that goes with my series that is hanging out on my hard drive, waiting to be re-written. Another that the publisher wants me to make full-length (again, waiting).

So, I'm producing, but due to the fact that I'm currently working with four different publishers, my brain and writing haven't quite lined up with their timelines yet. Which meant that without this holiday antho, I had two releases this year... and they were back-to-back (less than four weeks apart). So, needless to say, I need to work with my publishers and get some timelines nailed down so I can avoid another year like that.

Good news is right now it's looking like I have March, May, and July releases next year (assuming everything gets done when it should be), which is pretty awesome. I'm really hoping to add a January one to that as well as a September (and possibly others). This makes me happy. Like bright and shiny happy.

I don't know if I'll ever be one of those authors who has ten to twelve releases every year, but I'd really like to consistently do at least half of that. Five to six sounds perfect. Hell, four works if they are spread out well. But no more years where I'm looking at my releases and saying "Oh shit. It's been X months since my last one and it's Y months until the next one." That means it's time for me to buckle down and make things happen.

Wish me luck.

And words. Words are always good.

In Case You Haven't Heard

So, a couple years ago, I sold my first story. It wasn't the first to release, but Badlands was the first piece I sold. I blogged a long time ago about the twisty road that story took before coming into being and finding a home at Carina Press.

Honestly, as much as I loved it, I had no idea how well it would do. After all, Ever isn't your stereotypical romance heroine. But, it ended up that even if people didn't love Ever, they were intrigued by the Badlands and by the strength of the female characters in the story. I will admit, Ever is the one who speaks to me loudest. (More like holds a knife to my throat while she whispers in my ear, but really with that going on, I don't hear anyone else.) When it came time to look at a sequel though, I knew I couldn't just keep following her and Spencer around.

As much as I hated it, I knew whose story needed to come next. When I say "hated it," I don't mean because I hate the character (for the record, I don't). It's more that while Ever's method of passing on her story is a little scary, this next leading lady is more... cagey. She doesn't want to share. In fact, as much as she didn't want to share in Badlands, the events of that story made her guard herself even more closely. She's angry at the world in a way that echoes Ever but is so very different that it made tapping into her rather difficult for me.

But, Henrietta Mason needed her own story. Truly, moving forward with the series, she was the only option since so many of the events in Badlands had the marks of her fingernails embedded deep. To skip her and move onto someone else would have been... cowardly on my part. If there is one thing I learned writing these stories, it's that there's no room for cowards in the Badlands.

So I wrote Henri's story, agonized over it in fact (some of you may recall me cursing her quite a lot near the end of last summer over Twitter). Even when I was finished though, it wasn't done. To make a long story short, the road to selling her story wasn't as quick or straight-forward as selling Ever's. There was more bumps and bruises and cursing involved.

I am very pleased to announce that in the end, Henri found a home alongside Ever. As so many people requested, this second book is quite a bit longer (over 50% longer if memory serves). It links together the events in Badlands with the over-arching big-bad that will permeate through the rest of the series.

As of right now, the tentative release date for Clockwork Mafia (title subject to change until I find out otherwise) is March 2013. I apologize for the delay between releases (I'll try not to let it happen again.), and I plan to start work on book 3 as soon as I know for certain that nothing huge will change during content edits of this one.


Thank you for your patience while waiting for this book, and I hope you'll stick around. I think it's going to be a fun ride.