Answering the Publishing Question

As many of you know, I’m working on the end of the second novel in Zelstrason’s Saga and, of course, I’m getting excited about completing it. Because of that, I’ve been mentioning it to people now and then. Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in some asking if the first novel is coming out any time soon, and the question has come up enough times now that I thought I should address it publicly. The answer depends on how you define “soon.”

I’ve done a decent amount of research into marketing books and, due to what I’ve learned, I’ll be publishing the first three novels in the series all at once in 2022.

If that sounds impossible, it’s not. It should actually be very doable. My current goal is to complete Book 2 and have it out to beta readers within the next month (*Beta Reader FAQ & Sign-up). But even if I miss that deadline, I’m so close to finishing the manuscript, I don’t think it will be by much.

After that, it’s on to Book 3. And I already have the high-level plot structure written for that one, so I know where the series is going next. It should be no problem for me to get that written prior to the end of the year.

Then, while Book 3 is being reviewed by beta readers, I’ll be researching my publishing options and taking the preliminary steps needed to make that happen, including getting ISBN numbers, getting cover designs done, learning how to do the book formatting for all the different platforms, etc. That’s probably going to be a busy time and not nearly as much fun as writing is for me, but it’s a necessary evil.

Nonetheless, I wanted to give you all the skinny in regard to the release of the novels. Bottom line - we’re looking at the first three books coming out in 2022, prior to August.

And yes, I’m still planning on floating a name for Book 1 in a blog post. But it’ll have to wait. I opted to get this message out first because I’ve been asked about publishing several times since my last blog post.

As a final note just for fun, my manuscript for Book 2 is currently at 91,264 words and I think I have a chapter and a half left to go (she says as she nervously bites her nails). It may be two and a half chapters depending on how things work out. I fear I’m going to surpass my self-imposed 100,000-word limit. Fingers crossed the publishing costs aren’t through the roof.

*If you were a beta reader last time and want to read again, I ask that you complete the form once more. It’s slightly different than last time and, in an effort to keep everything organized, I’m maintaining separate storage for the documentation for each novel.