Release update

I’ve been thinking about my release calendar. My plan had been to try to put Alexandra’s Riddle out either right before or right after Arriving from Arkansas, so readers who find my writing through that series will have something else to read right away. However, I was talking to my publisher about it, and I realized that if I were to do that, it may backfire on me—you see, the next planned book in the Northwest Magic series after Alexandra’s Riddle is Old Flames, which is currently planned as a novella. It takes place chronologically before Alexandra’s Riddle (though every book in the series is a stand-alone, so you can read them in any order), and my intention was to make this a free release for my newsletter subscribers, as a thank you to my early readers and a means of introduction to the series for anyone else. However, I was not planning on making this novella available outside my newsletter—i.e., it’s not going to be on Amazon.

I realized that if I put Alexandra’s Riddle out quickly to coincide with Arriving from Arkansas, readers will then have a long gap between full-length books, especially if they don’t realize Old Flames exists. On top of it, I don’t want to start out releasing books rapid-fire only to disappoint readers who may expect books more quickly than I’m able to produce them. Based on my past writing experience and depending on the length of each book, I’m expecting to be able to get 3-4 books published per year. I don’t want to get people’s expectations up only to not deliver.

So what I’m thinking now is delaying the release of Alexandra’s Riddle by a few months so that Old Flames will be done or close to it by the time the first book comes out. Then I can get to work on the second full novel of the series, Fool’s Gold (synopsis and cover for that one coming soon), which I’m hoping to release sometime in the fall. At that point, the first “phase” of the series as I’d planned it (Cass’ story and the two McCarthy sisters, Laney and Taryn) will be done and hopefully released relatively close to each other. If readers enjoy the first two books and the novella, I have at least two more books planned for a second phase!

I hope this makes sense. I know I have very few readers right at this moment, so I feel like now is a good time to make adjustments to the schedule, rather than later when I have more people (hopefully) eager for a book to come out and who may be disappointed. I will keep you posted on when I have a concrete release schedule!