We’re getting to November! Silas has been out for a bit. I’m currently working on Love’s Cruel Redemption full on. During my off time, I’ve got a few new stories I’m revising/working on. I hope people will enjoy them while I’m writing on LCR.

I’ve had a few concerning comments that keep coming up, so I thought I’d address a few of them here instead. If you see these comments anywhere, please post this link. 🙂

Are you still working on the Academy series? (In regards to As I Write)

Obviously yes. (See above. :)) As mentioned in the previous blog post, I work on the other stuff while waiting. Sometimes on weekends when I’m taking a break from writing a story, I write about these other things. (Yes, I work weekends. When do I have downtime? Not a lot. :))

As I Write is a little thing between books that allows me to get some of that tinkering out of my system and gives you all a chance to look at something while I’m working.

Why are the books taking so long to come out? They used to come out faster.

I write pretty quickly. In the beginning, I was coming out with about four books a year.

However, my process has changed drastically from the beginning:

• When readers requested preorders, it added at minimum two weeks of waiting time even after book is finished (this is a time frame set by Amazon, and other vendors, I have to have it loaded two weeks ahead of release date)
• When readers asked for better editing, I added a new line editor and two new proofreaders
• When readers asked for more, I tried to increase the book word counts, and larger books take longer to write
• As readers requested, I had been taking time out for audiobooks (this is off my plate now thanks to Brilliance, but last Feb and March and April were pretty much consumed by audiobook things to help them get started)

This means one book of 120,000-ish words can take me about two months (two and a half months maybe?) to write. (It gets a little slower when I need to go back and make sure of plotting is going the right way and double checking notes.) And I’d rather take time to make a great book that really makes the story come alive.

It can take at least month and a half to go through beta readers, revisions, and editing, but I’m pretty much at the mercy of other people. And to make sure I don’t mess up preorders (Or as an author, you can lose this privilege) I try to get books in at least a week or two early prior to the deadline set by Amazon, etc.

This can mean *does hand math* at least five months between each book. That’s about two books a year, and maybe a novella if I can get a Meeting Sang book out, too. So if I do a Scarab Beetle book and a Ghost Bird, it is one of each, or two Ghost Bird… yeah…

And if I get sick, need to move, I have to take time out for family etc., it pushes everything back a little further. Remember where I said audiobooks? That took time, and in January I had gotten pretty sick for a couple of weeks. Writing got slower for me, so everything got out of whack.

I’m a people pleaser by nature, but I’m running up to a few issues, as you can see, with time and what people REALLY want. Faster books or better editing, preorder or no?  Is there a correct balance?

I continue to streamline the system as much as possible. I used to spend more time on Facebook and forums with readers but had to cut out a lot of it to make sure writing gets done. I get antsy, too, though. (Thus why As I Write exists, I just wanna write stories and let them get out there). I miss four books a year, too.

The books themselves need to speed up.

I think everyone is very anxious to see the boys and Sang finally getting the hang of their relationship. 🙂 But there are a few topics that come up again in questions.

1. This is a YA series. So… sex?

I had considered this and for the current Ghost Bird series as designed doesn’t have sex. That’s been the number one concern for most people when they’ve asked about ‘speeding up the books’. (Not everyone, but hang in there with me.) Just remember this is a YA series and while some contain sex, I’m keeping this particular series sensual but not really diving into sex. However…

2. This series has eight more books. We’re at the countdown.

This may contain minor spoilers in this paragraph, okay? Skip to the next one if you don’t want to know.

This series has eight books left, yes. You’ll get to see each guy’s POV book. (Yes, Mr. Blackbourne’s is last and the final book in this series.)

However, there are two follow up series after this. You’ll be able to read the Ghost Bird series in FULL as a whole series and be ‘complete’, but the story does continue.

One set will be novellas when she is +18 and will cover her relationships with each of them in a more mature way. I don’t want to spoil too much but sex will be involved, tastefully.

One set will be full books (but probably 80k-ish words each instead of 100k+), and it will contain snippets from the team in their 30s as full adults, so you see how they turn out.

3. Regarding pacing.

If you aren’t concerned about the sex (that was like 90% of the questions), just know we’re pretty much downhill from this point with Sang and the guys. And I’ve got to fit a lot in eight books. So the books are pretty much a race to the finish line to get to the end of the Ashley Waters issues, Volto, her real mom and that history, and a couple of other things going on. 🙂 The pacing has been pretty much the same since the beginning, but when books take longer between to get out, it can feel like we aren’t getting enough. (You don’t notice it reading altogether, but with the time between each book, it feels like at a crawl and then we’re waiting six months minimum for the next one.) But I’d rather not skip intimate moments and those sweet times Sang shares with the guys in realistic ways as their relationships evolve (and at different paces for each guy).

I think that’s most of the concerns, but if you want more questions answered directly, let me know via email (clstone@arcatopublishing.com) and if there are enough, I’ll answer them here or in a newsletter to hopefully help those in the future with similar questions.

 

 

 

 

 

MEETING SANG: SILAS

If you haven’t been aware, Meeting Sang: Silas, has happened. It was recently delivered via the newsletter.

If you haven’t gotten it, and you’d like to get it and get the others when they come out, go sign up for the newsletter.

In addition, if you didn’t want to download Silas and you wanted to buy it (thank you), it is on preorder. You can find more information: https://clstonebooks.com/meeting-sang/

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AUDIOBOOKS

House of Korba has been released.

Next up: Envy: Scheduled Release Date: 10-28-17

I think Sugar is already out, so we’re just filling in gaps. It’s amazing how fast they were able to come out with each book.

Also, if you haven’t tried it yet, if you’ve bought the ebooks on Amazon, you actually may be able to get the audiobook at a steep discount. Go to the book page on Amazon you want the audibook for, see if when you click on “Digital Download” what the price is.

At Audible, prices can vary, but you may get a better deal going through Amazon. For example, Thief is free, and for a lot of people, the audiobook ends up being $1.99. Sometimes it is $7.99. At Audible, it may be $15 or $20 for the book, so you’ll get a really good deal just going direct with Amazon.

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As I Write – Read books free before they are published.

I wanted to introduce you all to a project I’ve been contemplating doing over a couple of years now and I’m finally just jumping in and doing it.

Writing the Academy books takes some time. The writing process slows down a little because I have to backtrack, check notes, check changes around Charleston. The books are very long, too. I love them. I like giving you all details and weaving in a story that you’ll enjoy for years and years.

The editing side is a little slow, so it takes time to piece it together. Especially for books where the word counts are 120,000+ on occasion. Editors, line editors and proofreaders need weeks to check it out and get back to me. If you ever wondered why trade published books take so long, you know their process could take a year or two. Luckily within a few months, I’ve got another book on the way.

But in between those times, sometimes I’m antsy and I want to write. I want to write something new, fresh, and it gets out you pretty quickly. But I wouldn’t want people paying for this. Prior, I talked about doing something similar but in Kindle Unlimited, but a lot of people aren’t in KU and don’t really use it, so to use it just for this seems over the top.

As I Write will have new sections of books I’m writing on the side, where you get to read them as I’m working on them. When I complete a couple of chapters that week, I’ll polish them as best as I can, but remember they will be drafts. However, you’ll get to see how things develop.

But this is a chance for people to read some stuff, and it gives me a little outlet to just go crazy and write a sparked idea.

I am aiming for once a week, although it could be once every two weeks if people prefer slightly longer editions but at a slower pace. Part of the experiment is working out the best way for delivery, the frequency and how it works.

This isn’t a serial, this is sections of novels, a couple of chapters. There may be cliffhangers. There may be times when it is only one chapter, it is just super long.

If you aren’t interested in waiting and just want to read when they are completed, after they are done, I will put them for sale on Amazon, iBooks and the usual publishers (after any revisions or editing). You can wait to read the completed ones, or go back, download all the pieces.

Just know those pieces won’t be as polished as the real deal. But, free, yeah?

The newsletter is absolutely free, but I’ll include a couple of ads in the newsletter itself on occasion just to help support it a little, and also there’s a (completely optional/if you want) Patreon. There are a few rewards for Patreon supporters but this doesn’t affect the delivery of the newsletter at all. I’m doing the newsletter because I want to, the Patreon is if you want to.

Right now I’m going to start with a couple of stories I’ve been tinkering with between books. One of the first ones will be Favored, as I wanted to extend it and add new scenes.

The second one will be something completely new. I will be doing both at the same time, so it is essentially two stories to read the pieces of each week. As one finishes, it’ll be followed up by another one behind it. So far, I have lined up fantasy romances as one, and some contemporary romances for the second option, so hopefully a little something for most tastes.

I’m sure there will be questions. 🙂 I’ll be working through kinks. If you’re interested, there’s a separate newsletter:  http://eepurl.com/c8dL91

If you just want to know when the books are completed and will be published, stick with the main newsletter: http://eepurl.com/03SZj

If you want to support the endeavor, try Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/asiwrite

If you decide to support, there are different tiers.

At a $1 a month, as books are completed, you’ll get the final delivered to you via email as thanks for supporting while I was working on it. So if I write two books on the side at a time, and they take about three months to complete, you’re getting each finished book for $1.50.

For $10 a month, you’ll get a chance to let me know how you want the story to go. I’ll email surveys about different ways the story could go and I’ll let majority rule on certain points. I’ll also send a little something directly in the mail each month as a thank you.

In addition, if you’re really very generous, there is a $30 a month option. This does include everything in the other tiers. With this, you’re also sent a monthly item (mug, tote, custom notebook, it changes each month and sometimes corresponds with something that got released) exclusive to Patreon supporters. You’ll also get to put a message inside each edition of As I Write.

More details are on the Patreon page. Some things may change for it, but we’ll work on that. 🙂

Things may change with all this, so expect some bugs and hiccups at the start and thanks for being patient. 🙂