In my last couple of what’s-happen-with-my-actual-creative-works updates I’ve been a little bit cagey about what’s going on with the Kate Kane series because things were a bit up in the air and I didn’t want to say anything until I was pretty sure I knew what was going on.
I have now formally requested the rights for the first book back from my publisher and will be requesting the rights for the second when that contract expires early next year. I intend to work on polishing up and finishing my first draft of the long overdue book three, Fire and Water, over the December break. And aim to move forward with a self-published version of all three books some time towards the end of 2018.
I do appreciate that this creates a delay for those readers who are waiting for book three. Embarrassingly, and I can’t quite believe I’m saying this, a lot of it comes down to a branding issue. Since my publishers will retain the rights to the layout and cover art of the existing editions it would be difficult for me to produce a third instalment that felt in-keeping with the first two. And I don’t know very much about publishing but keeping your series looking like a series is, from everything I’ve ever been told, really important. All of which means it’s just cleaner all round to start fresh once the rights revert.
While I’m on the subject of the series, do be aware that my publisher has arranged a Bookbub for the first book mid-way through October (I’m not allowed to give the actual date). This puts me in a slightly awkward position because, while I’m obviously always happy for people to buy my books, I would not personally have chosen this October as the best time to encourage new readers to try the series, given that the rights are in transition, and I don’t foresee being able to release volume three before the end of next year. Of course, if you do want to take this opportunity to invest in some f/f paranormal that’s cool. It’s just you’ll have a bit of a wait before the series picks up again.
In other news, How to Blow it With a Billionaire is apparently up for pre-order in all the usual places you can go to pre-order things. I think it’s coming out early-to-mid December. And I seem to recall being told that the first book, How to Bang a Billionaire, will be on sale around the same time. So that actually is quite a good time to get into the series. The third book—provisionally titled How to Belong with a Billionaire—will be out some time in 2018. (Also check out what I did with those universal links there – my social media person is gonna be so proud of me).
And since this the post where I try to be really transparent about stuff, I should warn those readers to whom it is potentially an issue that the central couple aren’t together at the end of book 2. I tried not to make it an epic downer but, well, the couple kind of have to break up at some point otherwise it’s just a book about some people having a lovely time. And in any case, spoiler, they get together again in the next one. I’ll talk a bit more about, um, Blow nearer the time.
So … watch this space, I guess?
And I think that’s it for me on the writing front. Now back to blogging about nonsense.
Good luck!!! And can’t wait!
Thank you <3
I would have thought that the uncoupling of Arden and Caspian was kind of obvious given the title of the second book, no? Or are people thinking the “Blow It” part of title referred to…something else? 😀
Well, I think people do actually keep misreading it as How to Blow a Billionaire.
Which I won’t deny was … part of my thought process.
Excellent marketing technique 😉
Yaay! Well, it’s too bad we have to wait for Kate (poem!) a bit longer. But still yaaaay!
And is it crazy that I’m excited to buy the first 2 *again* in softcover? I can’t wait to see what the new art will look like. Though I love the original art 🙂
Oh! Will they be available in softcover too? *hopes*
Also it’s weird but Amazon US finally let me pre-order How to Belong the other day. But the title still just says Arden St. Ives #3
Oh one more thing, did you know there’s a pre-order out there already for A Lord for Whenever? On Amazon US, at least. Which I immediately jumped on of course! ❤❤❤
Oh, also about Blow, well, I figured as much. But *sigh* If this was anyone else I’d wait for the 3rd book before reading the 2nd . . . But nope, I don’t think there can be an Alexis Hall book in existence and me not instantly reading it. I will just have to, err, read it and weep :'(
Thanks for mentioning the pre-order links, Pam! I didn’t think they’d be up already.
Hmmm. I have no idea what happened there but that was supposed to be 3 smiley faces!
Lemme try again . . .
I love the “nonsense” posts! But it’s great to find out what’s going on with your books. Looking forward to the new releases and re-releases!
Thank you! I do occasionally try to be useful amongst the nonsense.
Ahhh, thank you for the spoiler about How to Blow It with a Billionaire. I suspected as much, but now, faithful but cowardly reader though I am, I shall await book three and thereby avoid as much inter-book agony as possible.
Glad I’m not the only self-confessed cowardly reader here!
I propose a mandatory pre-purchase disclosure when a book belongs to an unfinished series, along with at least an estimated release date for any ultimate happy resloution, so that I might continue being a well informed cowardly (but happy) reader 😉
Actually, in this wonderfully utopian existance, I would request a series of mandatory on-cover warnings for all authors, including but not limited to: unfinished series (with additional warnings for excessive estimated time before next book in the series *coughMrMartincough*), unresolved stories, ugly cry inducing stories, poor editing and grammatical violations (especially the excessive and unnecessary use of commas), badly proofed stories (dear pulp authors everywhere, please stop accidentally swapping character names) etc.
And then, I just need the willpower to heed said warnings, not read them anyway and be left metaphorically side-eyeing myself afterwards for my own stupidity (hasn’t happened yet (see terrible, badly edited and proofed pulp authors), but I can hope :-))
I propose one additional warning, related but not identical to yours about proofreading: WARNING for “No rewriting, editing, or proofreading has been done on any of the material in this book that is not included in the sample text.”
Alexis, I need hardly say that we are not talking about you. God knows, we are not talking about you.
Yes! And I felt it went without saying, but given the whole point here probably should have known well enough to actually explicitly state: I’m definitely not referring any Alexis Hall books for mandatory warning recommendations, other than those regarding an incomplete series 😉
I know you’re both joking, but I definitely don’t think it’s cowardly to prefer romances to come to their HEA/HFN before you jump in. Like any book in any genre is a kind of … negotiation between the expectations of the reader and what the writer is delivering. And something I really like about romance is that it makes transparent a bunch of things that are equally transparent in other genres except we pretend they’re not.
So I very much feel it’s my job to deliver at HEA/HFN at the end of a book/series (as appropriate) because that’s the unspoken contract I have with a romance reader. But how I get there is, um, up to me 🙂 So I don’t believe a HEA = marriage for example. Or monogamy. Although some characters will get married and some will be monogamous.
All of which is to say as complicatedly as possible: wanting to be sure a book is delivering what you’re looking for is perfectly reasonable 🙂
Yes! I do have certain expectations, in that I expect to feel we’ve come to a proper and satisfactory end point (which is really rather ridiculous when you look at any real relationship), but I also appreciate an author that takes me on an unpredictable or suprising journey to get there – just warn me about unfinished series while you do it 😉 Realistically there are only a handful of authors I actually *expect* this wonderfulness from. But just because you’re one of them, y’k, no pressure 😉
Counting down the days to December
Hehe, thank you 🙂
I *am* so proud of you! *pinches your (face) cheeks*
*preens*
Simply knowing that there WILL be a 3rd Kate Kane is enough for this fan! YAY! XOXOX
Yay! Thank you 🙂
Also, I’ve clearly been rather too well conditioned by this blog. I got to the end of this post and immediately thought…where’s the rest? :-p
Hahaha. Yes, I hope a mildly redeeming feature of the blog is that I can at least apply brevity to bibbling about myself.
I’m inclined to think brevity is often overrated myself ;-p
Yay! I’m delighted that there will definitely be a Kate Kane Book 3. Thank you for letting us know. 🙂
Thank you for supporting Kate 🙂
Very happy to know about Kate Kane 3.
I’m mixed about knowing about How to Blow It. I assumed from the title that they were unlikely to be together, but I hadn’t made up my mind about whether to go ahead and buy it anyway, or to wait. The only other series I’ve read where the protagonists were not together at the end of the book is Josh Lanyon’s Adrien English books, and I came to those after the series was over. And I have to admit I skipped right over books 3+4 at first. I’m not good with too much tension.
But one of the things I love about your books is that there’s so much more going on for the characters than the relationship alone, and so much more to think about than just the main characters, so I’ll probably end up getting it because I care about Arden and want to see how he manages post-Oxford, since his time there reminds me of me. Though he was certainly having more and better sex.
Really appreciate the transparency. No vague things thank you!
I also appreciate the warning about how the second Billionaire book will end; I’ll probably buy it and then try not to read it. (I doubt I’ll be successful, but then I’ll have only myself to blame if I’m unhappy.) I haven’t read the Kate books, and I’ll just wait now until they’re rereleased. 🙂 Thank you for this update!
On the “so much more than the main characters” front, I’d like to insert a brief love note for the friends of your main characters. Just finished re-listening to For Real and am so very fond of Laurie’s sarcastically supportive friends. Not sure there are Americans who are sarcastically supportive – our sarcasm tends towards mean. The friends in Pansies were very lovely too as were some of those in Glitterland and the old ladies in Waiting for the Flood.
How exciting! This is genuinely the best news I’ve had in weeks.
OH MY GOD!! More Kate! You’ve made my fall.
I am very much looking forward to splurging on all three books as soon as they are out.
Cannot wait.
I was binge reading your blog in reverse order* and I’m SO GLAD I DID — learning that another Kate Kane book is on the way is just about the best present there is, and now I get to be the one to tell my friends! I can even get the matching set since I’ve been meaning to buy new copies of Shadows & Dreams and Iron & Velvet to replace ones I loaned forever! I hope everything goes smoothly for you; however long it takes, I’ll be looking forward to it.
*much more enjoyable than trying to watch Rellik I think?