Dear Indie | From Hybrid to Fully Independent

Hi Indies! It’s been too long–yes, since I’ve posted–but, also that I’ve been waiting for this day. 😀

Today, I am officially no longer a hybrid author, but fully Independent. Today, all of the rights my publisher ever had for any of my books are completely reverted to me to do with whatever I want!

That means revising, polishing, re-editing with an editor who actually knows what editing means, re-covering, at least one re-titling, and then re-publishing all – but not just in eBook format. Now I can take these beauties and make them available in paperback and audiobook format, too!

That’s the upside and I wouldn’t trade it again for anything!

The downside, though, means that none of those Titles are available for sale anymore and I’ve lost any and all reviews on retail sites I may have received for them. If you were one of those reviewers, I’m deeply sorry and I will be offering free copies of the new versions as they become available for those who would like them. *Note: Reviews will still be up on Goodreads, since they don’t allow the deletion of any books, even out-of-print versions.

The even bigger downside is that I now have to pay a butt-ton of money to get these books back out onto the market, which means it won’t be happening as quickly as I would want it to.

Changes

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Currently, I have already revised both Hearthstone Alpha and Little Queen, they’re ready to be sent off to my editor and I do plan on getting those back on the market first in every possible format. If you’re a fan of the Úlfrinn series (now the Midgard Úlfrinn series) please know that I have not changed anything in the story, only cleaned it up to get rid of unnecessary words and a timeline issue I never noticed before – and already have Violet Night underway, which will be the 3rd installment for that series, starring my violet-eyed wolf, Shayd Eklund. (Don’t worry, you’ll still get plenty of Reyna and Corbyn, they’re just no longer the MC’s).

The Zen Lounge will be given the new title: Seducing the Darkness and getting a major clean-up revision, but again I won’t be changing the story, just hopefully making it easier and more enjoyable to read! 😀 The second book to the trilogy is nearly complete and will be in editing before I re-release the first book.

Dark Duplicity, book 1 of my Dark Descendants series will be getting a fresh edit and will not be released again until book 2, Dark Legacy is already in editing, which is currently about halfway finished.

Euphoria, book 1 of the Pleasures of Paradise trilogy will be completely re-written. The elements of the story will remain the same, but not necessarily the structure or storyline. If I decide to re-release this one at all, it will be last on my list for ALL of my books and probably not until the whole thing is complete.

In Other Book News

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Between revising these older Titles from my publisher, I am also working as quickly as I can on Fox Trot, the 3rd installment to the Dark Day Isle series, which is about halfway completed and will *fingers crossed* hopefully be released by the end of this year.

Irreparable, book 1 for the Broken Ones duet, a new dark psychological romance is finished and ready to go to my editor, but will not be released until book 2, Irrevocable is in editing.

The remaining 6 books for the Hell on Earth series are worked on as much as possible, and I’m still unsure which will be released next, Lust, Envy, or Gluttony, they all currently have about the same amount of material completed–but Sloth, Wrath, and Pride will be the final 3 books released, in that order.

A Personal Note

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2020 has unarguably been the hardest year so far for a lot of us between the COVID-19 pandemic and all of the severe crimes against humanity being conducted–issues that shouldn’t even be issues still in the 21st century–we’re all struggling with something in our lives, so please let’s not forget that.

In March, I lost 2 people that I love, respect, admire, look up to, and had known since I was 9 years old as if they were my own parents. They passed away within 3 days of each other and our large, unruly family is still trying to cope with their loss.

On top of it, I’m one of millions of people fighting an autoimmune disease, taking medicine that suppresses my immune system during the worst pandemic of our time, and was just recently super, scary sick – so PLEASE, to all my fellow humans: Stay safe & healthy, take really good care of yourselves, be kind, compassionate, PATIENT, and uncharacteristically understanding of the other humans around you. Be with your loved ones in any way you can and most importantly, never forget that YOU matter.

❤ A.C.

Okay, Lay It On Me.

Am I selfish, horrible at time management, or is this another side affect of being an introvert?

Apparently, I haven’t found that balance I talked about in previous posts between life, blogging and writing.  It takes a particular recipe, I think and I’m ashamed to admit that I just haven’t wanted to divert my attention away from my novels any more than I have to.  I currently have 3 to 4 in the works at any given time. Not that working is a bad thing and it does pay off: I got contracts for two books last month!  That’s a lot better than one book a year, let me tell ya!  Especially when they can take up to 2 years to actually publish.

In fact, I’m currently working with the cover artist for my next new release, Euphoria, and it’s the first I’ve heard from my publisher about it since signing the contract back in July of 2014!  It’s so exciting when you finally get to see what the cover of your book is going to look like, too.  Maybe I write so much to ward off the anticipation! 😉

But I’ve forgotten how important it is not to close myself off to everything else going on out there in the world, in the blogosphere.  All of the awesome, funny and touching things I’ve undoubtedly been missing out on by becoming this mad-scientist type recluse… although, a friend did just send me this epic text:

Good ol’ Poe.  Always did know how to put things in perspective, didn’t he?  The blunt poet.  Some of us are contrary by defiance and others by circumstance… kind of like the writer that forgot how to blog. Oh, yeah.  That’s me.  *sigh*  If I promise to try harder, will you believe me? lol (I wouldn’t, either).

♥ Happy Hump Day! Or what’s left of it, anyway…

 

 

There’s No Going Back

Say it, like a mantra, and keep charging forward.  Everything is a choice.  Today, I’d like to talk about certain choices I’m determined to change, in order to continue reaching my goals.  I’ve crossed that line from dream to reality and there’s no going back; because I don’t want to.  But, there’s one thing I had as an aspiring writer that I no longer have as a published author:

TIME

No, I’m not whining. I’m attempting to rewire my bad old habits.  You know the ones that would allow me to sit on an unfinished novel for years, until a sudden spark of inspiration renewed my creative interest in it?  I no longer have that luxury.  Not if I plan to continue on with my ultimate dream of being a best selling author when I grow up. You thought I was going to say take over the world, didn’t you? Ha-ha, it’s okay, I know I give off that whole “evil mastermind” vibe…

So, how do you reprogram the creative side of your brain, when it’s so temperamental, completely unreliable and about as flighty as a six-winged bumblebee drunk on ambrosia-nectar?  You don’t want your readers to lose interest while waiting for your next book to come out.  They’ll just find another author they love, because there are 9,768,453, 210.62 ½ plenty to choose from!  No, in order to keep the readers you have (the ones that actually like what you write) and hopefully gain more, you should probably keep a steady stream of new material entering the marketplace.  Speaking of marketplace, I now have a ‘marketing budget.’  I never had that as an aspiring writer!  Okay, it’s actually more of a marketing ‘expense’, the term ‘budget’ is just tossed in there to confuse the enemy…kind of like Federal Reserve.

The pressure to hurry up and write/submit is new and intense…albeit, mostly self-imposed.  I know now, from start to finish, exactly how long it takes for one book to actually hit the retail shelf.  About 18 months(!!!) give or take. In hindsight, I wish I would have submitted more books to my editor while The Zen Lounge was still in the earlier stages of its publication process, so I could have new books coming out every few months.  As it stands, my next book won’t be for sale until about Mid-Winter 2016 (if I’m lucky, at the tail end of 2015).   Once a year novels are great… if you’re J.K. Rowling – or the author of any other major series that has scores of people lining up worldwide just to pre-order a book you’re still writing!

The problem is that the pressure is causing my creativity to short-circuit.  Kind of how stage fright might cause an actor to forget their lines, even though they’ve been rehearsing for months.  I feel the time crunch squeezing in on me, suffocating the flow I’m already used to, every artsy brain cell defying against these changes I’m trying to impose.  I know they’re for the best.  I know that my writing habits haven’t been the greatest and that I’ve always let it ebb and flow naturally – but time’s short now.  It’s precious and fleeting, so my creativity just needs to put her big girl panties on and suck it up!

Oh, hey, there’s a surprise…she’s not listening.  Looks like there’s only one way we can get this done.  Bribery – uh, I mean with some good ol’ fashioned elbow-grease and a healthy dose of habit-reconditioning! (Ixnay on the elfsay-isciplineday, change never happens when one realizes they actually have to work at it!) Oy.