The Same But Different

Why am I going "Indie"?
Good question. I know it's good because I asked it.

Here's why I'm going Indie.
Because publishing is changing and my Ondine books don't fit the traditional mould.

It doesn't mean they're rubbish, it just means they don't fit the way publishers do business these days.

Way back when I signed a deal for Ondine with Egmont UK, it was for UK and Commonwealth rights only. Which meant my agent and I still held the rights to sell into the USA.

Later, when the books came out in the UK to rave reviews, my agents tried to get USA interest. However, the times were already changing and the USA publishers weren't interested.

In rave reviews!
In a ferret hero!
In a diabolically funny romance!

They weren't crazy, they were being ultra cautious. Because publishing was changing. And also, ebooks were storming on in and everyone was NERVOUS. And that global financial crisis thing. Upshot being, if a US publisher was going to pay out for a book, they wanted as many rights as possible so they could get back their investment. And we'd already sold most of those rights.

But, I have the rights to the USA, which is why I'm releasing the first two Ondine titles, as ebooks, into that territory. The clever thing is, I can geographically restrict the sale of these titles to the territories I still have rights to, without infringing on the deal I've previously made with Egmont UK.

So, I'll be releasing the first two Ondines into the USA-only in June and September, and then . . .

The NEXT TWO ONDINES will be released as ebooks WORLD-WIDE in December and then March.

Are you still with me? Excellent.

Here's where things get tricky. That global financial crisis? It kicked in.

I wrote the Ondine trequel, and in 2012, Egmont UK passed. Not because it was crap, but because the first two books hadn't sold enough to warrant further investment. Traditional publishing is a business and they are in it to make money.

But I still had a story to tell, and for me, it was worth the investment of my time and money to write the next two books and deliver them for the fans. I hired a freelance editor (who, as luck would have it, used to work with Egmont). All up, it will cost me a few thousand dollars to release these four books, and I'm confident I'll get that investment back.

The downside is, the covers won't all match. If you're in the USA, and you're buying all the ebook versions, they will match. But if you've been a loyal fan who bought the paperbacks in the UK, books 3 and 4 will only be on your ereading device, rather than your bookshelf. I can only apologise for this, and for the different covers. I've tried to make the most gorgeous covers in the world, so that you'll be happy. Ultimately, it's what's between the covers that will count, and I've written the best books I can as my way of thanking my existing audience, while appealing to new readers.

Speaking of counting, I'm counting down the days. It's May now, and that means THE SUMMER OF SHAMBLES will be available in the USA next month. NEXT MONTH!

I have work to do.