This might be a bit of an update, but it's a good one!
So, you may remember I got the rights back for my first* novel,
A Prophecy for Two? (More on that in a bit.)
(*first written. A Demon for Midwinter came out first, with JMS, because of ~hand-wave~ things involving the timeline with That Other Publisher. But I wrote Prophecy first!)
Well, the contract has been signed, so I can say it now: JMS Books will be re-releasing Prophecy - an expanded edition, about 10k longer, with a new bonus story! - in late November!
*throws confetti*
Also, the new bonus story? Is Tir's POV, six months later. I had so much fun getting back to this world and these characters, and I hadn't done a Tir POV story the first time around, so...you get it now! He's got a lot to sort out, but he's very very happy.
So, if you want to know - and because it might be helpful for other authors - here's more or less how the rights thing went...
I'd decided to work with Inkshares way back when because a) I hadn't written or published a novel before, and b) the semi-crowdfunding model seemed like a decent compromise: people would pledge money for the project, I'd write the book, Inkshares would help with editing and distribution and print paperbacks and some promo, and get some of the money, and that seemed fair.
I'll be upfront about it: did I, fundamentally, get a book out of it? Yes, I did. It did work, in that sense. And it was never mean or antagonistic or anything. So that...was fine.
I will say, though, that for the percentage they took...they did nothing. No, that's not quite fair. They did one round of copy-editing, which was slightly useful (catching some inconsistencies in a character's age, a couple typos, etc) and slightly not useful (taking out Oxford commas, leaving me notes like "is this the same character? you introduced her as Istrael but Tir calls her Rae, here??"). They did print paperback copies of the books. Again, fundamentally, did a book happen? Yes, it did.
They also did zero promo, not even any social media posts, not even reposting when I tagged them in my own posts. Zero. None. Never. Those paperback books? They had them sitting in a warehouse until I asked about them. At least five had weird stains on the cover. Several more were inexplicably dirty.
Awesome Husband and I did everything else, and I do mean everything - we registered the copyright, we did promo, we did the back cover - that gorgeous front cover was done as a gift by the wonderful, brilliant, Helene Boppert, and I'm glad to say we're keeping it for the new version!
Inkshares also priced the book oddly high - I mean like $15 for the ebook. It was baffling. I can't imagine people paying that. I asked about it. They said that was what their pricing was.
I let it go because, well, it had worked, more or less; we had a book; it was selling a little, and some people were indeed buying it; and that was what mattered, right? And I went and wrote other things, and got published with JMS, and wrote some stories that people seem to like, which is very very cool.
And then two things happened: Inkshares told me the specific level of the program that I'd been published under - a certain threshold of funding - was going away, and also they thought mine wasn't selling well enough to be pushed to the bigger tier, so what would I like to do? Give them more money to help finance it? Also literally none of the people I'd worked with were still at the company.
And I said, well, frankly, in that case, I'd like my rights back, please.
And then we had a several-month-long (honestly, probably the good part of a year) chain of emails, in which they seemed genuinely baffled about what I was asking for and why. To be fair, again, it was never antagonistic - they weren't mean or nasty about it. They just seemed very confused and a bit unprofessional. At one point one of the emails even said something like, "isn't this email sufficient? you've let us know what you want?" (Paraphrasing, but that was pretty close.) And I said, well, no, I would like something signed, please, so it's all legal, so I can republish it and we're all very clear that that's allowed and no one has any obligations anymore.
Eventually they sent me a signed notice about rights reversion (signed, oddly enough, or maybe not, by the finance person who handles author payments), and said that they would fulfill any outstanding orders (they had outstanding orders? they said it wasn't selling well!) so that might take a couple months, but also they still had about 15 paperbacks (still, evidently, sitting in that same warehouse?), and would I like them, if I paid for shipping? Yes, I said, thank you.
So, ultimately: I did acquire a signed release, and about 12 more paperbacks (I've given away a couple) of that first edition. (Anyone want one? Free, aside from maybe shipping? Unless you're local-ish, in which case let's meet up and hang out?)
And then I asked JMS Books, my current publisher, if they would like to republish Prophecy. And they said yes, very enthusiastically! (JMS is fabulous - great at promo, author support, real love of queer romance and good stories. So happy here.)
So I took this opportunity to do a little light polishing - not too much, because I want the book to be what it was and is: it was me writing it, back then, with all the attendant ups and downs of a first novel! there are some things I'd do differently, or write differently, perhaps, today; but it was full of joy and discovery, in the writing - and I also wrote a little six-months-later extra bonus story, for something new, as a thank-you for readers, and because I hadn't written a Tir POV story yet in all of it, and he's such a delight.
And now it'll be out in the world again, November 25.
Thanks for reading it. I hope you love Oliver and Tir as much as I do.
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