Shadow Demons Update

I know there are a lot of people waiting for updates on Book 4 of the Peachville High Demons series. Last night, I met with my critique group. They critiqued the first half of the book and reassured me that the story is on the right track. I have some revisions to work on after talking to them last night, but more importantly, I am still working on edits for the second half of the book.

I hate to announce another delay. I don’t want anyone to think that I am flaking out or not reliable in any way. On the other hand, the book isn’t ready. I don’t want to publish something that’s not up to the same quality as the first three books. Art is such a funny thing. It can’t really be rushed, so if it’s not coming together as fast as I hoped, all I can do is keep plugging away and keep focusing on the story.

This is something that highlights a difference between Indie authors and traditionally published authors. In the traditional print world, a book is finished and turned in to an editor months and months before it is actually scheduled to come out. Sometimes an author will turn in a book up to a year before the publication date. With self-publishing, most authors finish a book and publish it as soon as possible. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since October. As soon as my critique group and my husband have read the book, I work furiously on edits and revisions, then post the book within a week. The process has been working for me so far, but for some reason, Book 4 has been the most difficult book I’ve ever written.

The challenge is that there are only five books scheduled in this series. I know that everything in Book 4 has to begin pulling all these threads together so that Book 5 can have the huge impact that I want it to have. The end of Harper’s story is very powerful, and I want to make sure I set it up just right. I think that’s why this next-to-last book has been such a challenge.

Basically what I’m saying is that even though the book is progressing and is going well, it’s still not finished. I am not confident enough to give an expected release date at this point except to say that it will be out this summer. I’ve been so nervous to announce this because I really don’t want any fans of the series to be disappointed in me. All I can do at this point is be honest and keep working hard to get the book ready. As an apology for the book being released late, I have decided to post one chapter every Friday from Shadow Demons, starting with Chapter 1. This will be a free read and sort of like short teaser chapters while you are waiting for the book to come out. Chapter 1 will go up this Friday on my blog, so stay tuned!