Tag: release schedule

The Best-Laid Plans…

Posted on by karennacolcroft

I try to plan in advance what books I’ll be working on and when.

If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that those plans often get changed.

This is partly on me. Sometimes I bite off more than I can chew, so to speak, and plan too many projects in too short an amount of time. That was the case this year, when originally I’d planned to release 6 books. Accidentally deleting my Amazon account back in May and having to republish everything slowed me down. So did struggling to write the first draft of Bring On the Broccoli (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 7), since having to scrap most of the original draft and start the whole book over ate into the time I’d set aside for a different project. Which is why Ebb and Flow, originally intended as a September release, ended up being released in October instead.

Another thing that contributed to the change in plans was that two of the books I’d originally intended to release this year weren’t actually paranormal romance. I wanted to rerelease my Can’t Drag Me Down series, three contemporary romance books originally published between 2013-2016. The series was another example of changes in plan; I’d spoken with my editor at the publisher where these books were being published (Loose Id) and discussed at least two additional books in the series, but right about the time I started working on book 4, I started having panic attacks when I sat down to write anything romancey. Then Loose Id closed its doors, so Can’t Drag Me Down wound up being only three books, each of which follows a different drag queen from a club in Boston.

Book 2 of that series, Last Chance Tattoo, takes place in Ludington, Michigan, but the drag queen main character came from Boston. If I’d rereleased the books as planned, I intended to rewrite Last Chance Tattoo to take place in western Massachusetts instead. I also would have ended up doing some rewrites to the other two books to accommodate Remington Real, the drag queen character introduced in Fill the Empty Spaces. The main characters of Can’t Drag Me Down make walk-on appearances in Spaces, and I’d justified rereleasing CDMD by the fact that the series is now directly tied to Fill the Empty Spaces, which *is* paranormal.

But I ultimately decided against doing those rereleases, at least this year. There were several factors in that decision: First, as noted, Bring On the Broccoli took much longer for a workable first draft than I’d anticipated, which took away time I’d budgeted for doing the CDMD rewrites. Second, CDMD is not a paranormal series, despite the tie-in with Fill the Empty Spaces. When I was writing for publishers, a decade-ish ago, I wrote both paranormal and contemporary romance, though even some of the contemporaries had minor paranormal elements. But when I relaunched as Karenna Colcroft in 2022, I planned to focus only on paranormal.

Also… werewolves.

Fill the Empty Spaces is the only book I’ve released since 2022 that *doesn’t* have werewolves, and even that actually does. (Suzannah Daigle, the Boston North Pack healer who appears in some of the Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat books, makes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo appearance in Spaces, in the scene where Del breaks down in Piers Park. In the original draft of Spaces, there was even more of a tie-in with RWDEM characters, but I cut that out in the final draft because it was bogging down the story.) Of the other books, 6 are directly part of Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat; the Chance Met duology is connected to RWDEM since one of the main characters of Chance Met is a secondary character in RWDEM; and Ebb and Flow is an intentional spin-off from RWDEM. Hooch and Howls is now also connected (loosely) to RWDEM because the main character of Hooch is also one of the main characters of Ebb and Flow.

Because I am apparently completely incapable of not creating connections and threads between books, whether I intend to or not.

But the point is that of the 11 male/male romance books I’ve released since 2022, 10 of them have werewolves and are either part of or connected to the Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat series. Fill the Empty Spaces is the outlier, despite Suzannah’s cameo appearance, and its sales seem to reflect that. (A Fighting Chance, book 2 of the Chance Met duology, has sold more poorly than Spaces, but that in large part is due to it only being out for 10 days before I deleted my Amazon account, so it didn’t have as much time to gain an audience. And I’ve slacked on promoting it since I republished it.) So I’m kind of thinking that I need to embrace the werewolfery of it all and keep my books focused on those characters, either through continuations of RWDEM or books that are somehow connected to that series.

Which rules out Can’t Drag Me Down, at least for the time being. It also rules out Dawn Over Dayfield, my suspense-with-romantic-elements novel, which I’d slated for rerelease in April 2025. Dayfield is also not paranormal, but because of the historical aspects of the story, it *feels* paranormal to me. It’s also one of only two of my books to have won an award, first place in the Mystery category of the 2016 Florida Authors and Publishers Association President’s Book Awards. (The other book to have won an award is, somewhat ironically, Fill the Empty Spaces…) But if I’m focusing on werewolves, Dayfield doesn’t have a place. And also, after I released Ebb and Flow, the main characters Quinn and Malachi started whispering in my mind’s ear about a sequel… which I’m currently working on.

I don’t know if all the changes in plans I’ve made over the past couple of years means I need to try harder to stick to the plans I make… or means that I need to stop planning more than a couple-few months in advance. But either way, werewolves.

Progress and Process

Posted on by karennacolcroft

For far longer than I anticipated, I’ve been working on Bring On the Broccoli (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 7). I wrote a draft that took me over 3 months to complete, which is nearly twice as long as my drafts usually take, and then realized that that draft was mostly unusable. There wasn’t enough action, and Kyle Slidell, my vegan werewolf who narrates this book, was almost entirely just narrating instead of being part of the story. Some aspects of the story didn’t work, and some either contradicted or ignored plot points from the previous books.

So I started over.

I spent about a week doing a brainstorm/outline of the book, which isn’t something I typically do, but this time it felt necessary so I could make sure the book actually proceeded as planned. The brainstorm came to 15 pages, longer than some short stories I’ve written.

And within the first week of working on the new draft, the outline was pretty much out the window. Because my werewolves are oppositional cusses.

I kept working on the book, but after a while decided I needed a new brainstorm/outline so I could keep track of what was going on. I spent about 3 days on the new brainstorm.

And now half of *that* one is out the window.

On the plus side, the book is proceeding much more smoothly than the original draft. Even though the werewolves keep throwing me curveballs. I hope to have this draft finished within the next week or so.

Bring On the Broccoli will be available in January. (Unless the werewolves have other ideas.)

New Month, New Projects

Posted on by karennacolcroft

Well, technically one of the projects I’m currently working on isn’t new. After spending a week going through my universe bible (the document in which I try–and sometimes fail–to keep track of all the details of the world in which my books are set, plot points of the books, characters, and so on) and previous books, and writing a brainstorm that’s longer than some short stories I’ve had published, I’m now working on the rewrite of Bring On the Broccoli (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 7). I wrote a draft of this book previously, but because of personal life stuff that was happening, I wasn’t able to focus on it as much as I needed. I also hadn’t done a sufficient amount of brainstorming and planning. I wound up with a draft that left out a couple of really important plot pieces that needed to carry over from previous books, had one character acting far more out of character than could reasonably be explained (even though his acting out of character is an arc in the next few books of the series), and had Kyle Slidell, the narrator, acting more as a narrator and less as a participant in the story.

It needed a LOT of work. So I’m pretty much starting from scratch. This time, because I did the necessary preplanning, I have a better idea of where the story will go and how to get it there. This draft is already going better than the previous one. Bring On the Broccoli will be released in January.

I’m also working on the cover for Ebb and Flow, my next release, which will be out in October. I’m hoping to put Ebb and Flow up for preorder this coming week, and I would really, really like to have the cover done before that.  (A cover isn’t required to put a book up for Amazon preorder, but I would *like* to have the cover when I set up the preorder.) So far, it hasn’t been exactly easy. Finding stock photos of models who fit my mental image of Quinn and Malachi was difficult at best, especially when there are certain aspects of their appearance that are stated in the book and so needed to be on the cover. I’ve seen some people say that models on book covers don’t have to look exactly like the characters, it’s more important that they fit the “vibe” of the genre, but honestly, as both an author and a reader it bugs the hell out of me when the model(s) on the cover of a book don’t match the in-book description of the character(s) they’re supposed to represent.

I think I’ve gotten the right models. I’m a little worried that people will assume the one representing Quinn is underage; he does look young to me. (Then again, now that I’m in my mid-50s, anyone under 40 looks young to me…) But going by some of the other pictures of the model available on the stock site, he is an adult, even if he’s a young-looking one. And Quinn looks young; he’s 22 and “far too thin,” according to the description.

I’m even more concerned about being able to put together the cover the way I envision it. I do make my own covers, because I enjoy doing it, but I’m far from professional and there are some tricks and intricacies of the program I use (GIMP, which is a free program similar to Photoshop) that I haven’t learned yet or am still figuring out how to use. I will end up with a good cover, but it might not be the exact cover I’m seeing in my mind.

So that’s what I’m working on as we begin a new month. And this is the background I’ve chosen for the Ebb and Flow cover. It’s from a picture I took from the ferry between Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia; somewhat fitting since most of Ebb and Flow takes place on a private island in Nova Scotia.

Hooch and Howls Preorder Is Up!

Posted on by karennacolcroft

On Leap Day, I put my historical M/M/M novella up for preorder! Hooch and Howls was originally published in 2012. When I looked through it with an eye toward rereleasing, I came across one scene that completely made me cringe. The original concept of the story was that the werewolf, Malachi Powers, was affected overly strongly by even the smell of alcohol, with the result that he joined in on sex with two humans without their consent. As originally written, consent was given retroactively (the humans said they were fine with what had happened), but given that I wanted Malachi to be a *heroic* character since he appears in the next Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat novel and is being spun off into his own novel and possibly series, I couldn’t leave that scene as written.

So for the rerelease, I did some major rewrites of that scene. While Malachi is still affected by the fumes of the hooch the humans spill, and he is admittedly spying on them when they start their sexual encounter, he quickly realizes he shouldn’t be there. And the humans *explicitly* call to him and invite him to join them before he does anything.

The rest of the book has been revised and re-edited, and it will be released wide on March 14 in digital versions. I’m also doing a paperback version of it because I like having physical books. You can find your retailer and preorder your copy at my universal book link. And here’s the cover!

My Next Releases

Posted on by karennacolcroft

Last week, I blogged about the book I was worried I wouldn’t be able to rewrite in time to release it in May.

I’m not quite sure how I pulled it off, but I did the necessary rewrites in one DAY this past week. An 11-hour day, but still, one day. So May’s release will be, as originally planned, A Fighting Chance, the follow-up to Chance Met. I need to do another round or two of editing on that book before it’s completely ready, but now I know I’ll be able to accomplish it.

Before that, on March 14, I’ll be rereleasing my novella Hooch and Howls, with some rewrites from the original version that was published in 2012. That will be up for Kindle preorder on February 29, and I’ll be sharing the cover art then.

In July, I’ll be releasing Take Some Tahini (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 6).

And in September, I’ll be rereleasing Dawn Over Dayfield, a suspense-with-romantic-elements novel originally published in 2016.

I’m planning to have a holiday story ready in November, but I haven’t completely planned that one yet.

Beyond that, I’m not stating definite plans yet, just in case things change. For 2025, I’m not entirely certain whether I’ll have 4 or 6 releases (or maybe just 5) in 2025, but I have a little while to figure that out.

Release Schedule Changes

Posted on by karennacolcroft

I’m still fine-tuning things. The advantage of being a self-published author is the flexibility to change my release schedule as needed. The disadvantage of being a self-published author is that I’m the one who has to make those changes.

Hooch and Howls will be out on March 14, as previously announced. That book is nearly ready to go; another round of proofreading and the cover, and it will be complete. I’ll be putting it up for Kindle preorder on February 29, and it will be released wide on March 14 (meaning it will not be available through Kindle Unlimited).

Take Some Tahini (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 6) will be out on July 11, as previously announced. I’m working on edits for that one, but I’m confident it will be complete and ready to go in time for Kindle preorder on June 27 and release on July 11. (I have not yet decided whether it will be in Kindle Unlimited for 90 days, as I did with Tempeh for Two, or just go wide off the bat; stay tuned for more on that.)

On May 9… I’m not sure. Originally, that was going to be Hooch and Howls, and my novel A Fighting Chance (a follow-up to Chance Met) was supposed to be the March 14 release. I flipped those two because Hooch was closer to being ready than A Fighting Chance. I figured I could easily get Fighting ready for May.

That was until I got the notes back from my beta reader. I had known *something* was not working with Fighting, but I couldn’t figure out where the problems were. My beta reader pointed all of the issues out to me, which I greatly appreciate. With her notes, I can see exactly what she’s talking about, and now I understand why the story wasn’t resonating for me.

But… I am not completely sure I’ll be able to fix those problems in time for a May release of this book. And to be honest, between the depth of the issues and the fact that it’s a follow-up to a book that was released a year ago, I’m starting to wonder if I actually *want* to fix those problems and release this book.

When I was working on Chance Met in early 2023, I realized that expanding that book was going to take longer than I’d anticipated, especially since at the time, I was also dealing with the immediate aftermath of my mother’s passing and trying to help my dad cope with paperwork, cleaning out the house, and so on. I completely changed my 2023 release schedule with very little notice to readers, because there wasn’t much else I could do. And at the time, I committed to only stating my release schedule 6 months in advance. I thought that would give me enough time to solidify things while making it easier for me to tweak and change the schedule without having to backtrack on releases I’d already announced.

But this time, because of the need for more extensive rewrites on A Fighting Chance, I’m going to have to say “Please stay tuned.” The March and July releases for 2024 are definite. I have plans for September’s release. But for the time being, I’m going to have to start working on A Fighting Chance and see whether I can actually regain my joy with this story and whether I’m capable of getting it ready for May 9. I will know for certain what May’s release will be by the time I release Hooch and Howls.

Meanwhile, I’m going to spend part of today working on the Hooch and Howls cover art and giving myself compassion for the need to change… because change happens sometimes.

Tiny Book

Posted on by karennacolcroft

As previously announced, on March 14, I will be rereleasing my novella Hooch and Howls. This is a historical M/M/M novella, set against the backdrop of the rumrunning trade in 1930 Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. I’ve done some heavy rewrites on part of the story, and some minor revising and re-editing on the rest.

Because this is a novella, not a novel, I was planning to release it only in digital formats. But… I like having *physical* copies of my books. I’ve tried reading on Kindle (and I’ve had three different kinds of Kindle devices over the years), and it makes my eyes do weird things. Plus I can’t flip back and forth through the pages, and…well, I like holding a book, not an electronic device, in my hands.

So I’m considering–strongly–doing a paperback version of Hooch and Howls as well. I’m sure some people wouldn’t want it, and that’s fine, but *I* want it. I want to have a physical copy of the book to hold in my hands.

Do you prefer ebooks or physical books? Or do you have a preference?

March Release Update

Posted on by karennacolcroft

For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to update my release plans for this year. I think I’ve got it…

Originally, I was going to only release one book this spring, an April release, which was planned to be a novel called A Fighting Chance. This is a a sequel to Chance Met, which I released in March 2023.

Meanwhile, I’d also decided that I wanted to rerelease my previously-published novella, Hooch and Howls. And I was trying to figure out *how* to rerelease that; did I want to make it part of my main release schedule, or did I want to make it a giveaway, or… ? A couple of weeks ago, I decided I wanted to make it part of the main release schedule, because it’s now a lead-in to two other novels that are coming out this year.

So I’d changed from planning an April release to planning releases in March and May. The question was, which book was I going to release in which month? Since Chance Met was a March release last year, I wanted A Fighting Chance to be this year’s March release. But A Fighting Chance is turning out to need a bit more editing than I’d anticipated, and I also ran into a scheduling snag with my beta reader. I want to make sure I’m giving readers the best story I can with A Fighting Chance, so I’ve decided to give myself more time to prepare and polish it.

So on March 14, I will be releasing Hooch and Howls. A Fighting Chance will be out on May 9. The current plan is for both books to be released wide on these release dates, meaning they will *not* be available through Kindle Unlimited (but will be available for Kindle).

Hooch and Howls is a historical novella originally published in 2012. Taking place in 1930, Hooch and Howls introduces “hermit” werewolf Malachi Powers as he finds unexpected sexual and romantic connection with two human smugglers, Roger and Jonathan, who are reluctantly involved in the rumrunning trade between Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and Gloucester, Massachusetts.

I’ll be sharing cover art soon! Meanwhile, here’s a picture of the cottage that once (until around 1984 or 1985) belonged to my grandparents. In Hooch and Howls, this cottage is where Malachi lives.

2023 In Review

Posted on by karennacolcroft

2023 has been over for just past a week now. Last week, I talked a little about what I have planned for 2024. Now I want to take some time to celebrate what I did in 2023.

I released two Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat novels. Even though the original plan was to release three, that didn’t work out, but I did release two. And I’m proud of myself for that.

I changed my release schedule when life stuff got in the way of what I’d originally planned. This is definitely cause for celebration, because in the past, if I’ve said I was going to do something, I’ve felt like I had no choice about doing it. Even when it wasn’t possible to actually follow through. In 2023, the book I’d slated for a March release took longer to revise and rewrite than I’d anticipated, especially since I wound up almost doubling the length of what had originally been a novella. Expanding the story took time, and I was trying to do it while in the thick of dealing with the fallout from my mother’s passing and my father’s health issues, among other things. Instead of forcing myself to stick to the release schedule I’d set and risking putting out a shoddy product, I chose to delay the March release by a couple of weeks, which then resulted in delaying the May release (which would have been Try the Tofu, Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 4) to July, the September release to October, and not planning to have a November release at all. I felt a little guilty about that, and also dealt with some “people will forget I exist if I don’t release books often enough” fears, but ultimately it turned out to be the right choice, both for my books and for my mental health. And I did end up having a late November release with my Christmas short “Snow on Christmas Eve.”

I wrote two novels. Fill the Empty Spaces was started in December 2022, but I wrote the bulk of it in early 2023. I also wrote Take Some Tahini (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 6)… and then rewrote the first few chapters of it. I also wrote a few short stories and started a new novel, Ebb and Flow at the end of November. (Ebb and Flow is a spin-off from Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat, and will probably be released in fall 2024.)

In addition to the two Real Werewolves novels, I released two other novels and a short story (or short novella, depending on how you look at it).

I dealt with family issues, health issues, and life issues, including one that knocked me for a severe loop at the beginning of December 2023. I’m still dealing with that one, but I’m doing much better than I was at first.

Like I mentioned last week, I have plans for 2024, and hopefully this time next year, I’ll be celebrating a lot more!

2024 Here We Go!

Posted on by karennacolcroft

It’s a new year. Which is a little mind-boggling. December went by way too quickly.

It’s now 2024, and I’m still kind of wrapping my head around that. Usually I spend December, and sometimes start as early as October, planning the upcoming year. My goals, my hopes, my “if there were no objects in the way” dreams. It’s a month or more of daydreaming, brainstorming, Tarot and oracle cards, and various other means of sorting out what I want to do, what I’m capable of doing, and what I would really love to do if I could figure out how. I didn’t do that this year. At the beginning of December, something hit my life (and the lives of a number of others in my social circle, as well as my family) very hard, so I didn’t have the bandwidth to do much more than process, grieve, and figure out how to reconstruct my day-to-day life.

However. I do have some plans for 2024. It might be worth noting here that I don’t do “New Years resolutions.” For me, personally, resolutions are the “I should do this” things that usually get put aside because either I can’t figure out *how* to do them or because I only decided to do them because I thought I “should.” I don’t deal with shoulds anymore. As one of my past therapists was fond of saying, I stopped shoulding all over myself. I make goals and plans, not resolutions.

For 2024, tentatively, I’m planning:

1.To release Tempeh for Two (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 5) on January 11. This book is already up for Kindle preorder! I’ll also be releasing Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 6, titled Take Some Tahini, in July. Take Some Tahini is the first brand-new Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat novel since 2014; the previous five, including Tempeh for Two, were originally published between 2011 and 2014. (All the rereleases have been revised, updated, and re-edited, and some have been expanded with new content.)

2. To figure out the timing of the rest of my release schedule. For 2023, my original plan was to release books in January, March, May, July, September, and November. But my March release, Chance Met, got held up because of personal life stuff as well as issues with expanding it, so instead of releasing the second week of the month as intended, it came out toward the end of March. Because of that, I didn’t want to have a May release, because it wouldn’t have given me enough time to promote both books. So I skipped May, made the September release an October release instead, and then wound up doing a Christmas story in November after deciding not to release anything that month. Yeah, it was all as confusing as it sounds. For 2024, I’m currently planning releases in January, April, July, and October, with another Christmas story at the end of November/beginning of December, but that might change.

3. To make all of my books available “wide,” meaning through multiple retailers. This means they will no longer be available through Kindle Unlimited, which requires that books be sold exclusively on Amazon. I apologize to my readers who prefer KU because of finances or other reasons. There are multiple factors behind my decision, including a reduction in the amount Amazon pays authors for Kindle Unlimited reads and hearing from readers who would like to buy my books but won’t or can’t by from Amazon. After considering and talking with other authors, I decided it would be worth trying having my books available through other retailers in addition to Amazon, including Kobo and Barnes & Noble. I’ll be starting this change in February with Fill the Empty Spaces, followed by Chance Met in March. Tempeh for Two, along with the rest of the Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat series, will be available through Kindle Unlimited until April, at which time the entire series will be released through other retailers. I’m still fine-tuning how I’ll approach new releases; my options are either release them through all retailers from the beginning, or make them Amazon exclusive–and available through Kindle Unlimited–for the first 90 days after release, then put them with other retailers. Stay tuned for announcements on that as I make decisions and see how releasing my books wide affects my sales and readership. Yes, I write books because I love writing books… but I also do it to help pay my bills, and sometimes that means needing to make decisions that benefit the bank account.

4. To start a subscription. A number of my fellow authors have Patreon or Ream accounts through which they offer readers bonuses and perks for a monthly subscription fee (which in some cases is as low as $1 a month!) I actually have a Patreon but haven’t done much with it because creating things for it and promoting it felt like a little too much. I’ve been following those other authors, though, and learning more about how to make it all work without breaking my brain, so I hope to either brush up my Patreon for a relaunch or set up a Ream subscription (Ream is like Patreon but exclusively for writers) by my birthday, June 30. If you read this and have thoughts about what you’d like to see offered through a subscription like this, please leave a comment!

5. To release the follow-up to Chance Met, titled A Fighting Chance. This book will probably conclude Trey and Jeremiah’s story, as it brings their romance to a logical happy-for-now ending as well as tying up plot threads introduced in Chance Met. I don’t really see anywhere for their story to go after this one. This is the only “I’m not completely sure yet” plan on this list; I haven’t decided whether I’ll actually release this one. If I do, it will be out in March or May.

6. To rerelease my novella Hooch and Howls. Originally published in 2012, this is a historical MMM novella featuring a crotchety hermit werewolf and two young men sucked into the rumrunning trade in 1930 Nova Scotia. I’ve rewritten a portion of this novella to address a plot point I found…we’ll say distasteful, and I’m looking forward to reintroducing Malachi Powers, the hermit werewolf, and his love interests Roger and Jonathan to the world. And speaking of Malachi…

7. To release a new novel, currently titled Ebb and Flow. This novel follows from Take Some Tahini, but is not part of the Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat series. (You can tell, because the title doesn’t reference a vegan food.) In Tahini, Tobias meets a young werewolf named Quinn Bouchard, who had a traumatic entry into the werewolf world that reminds Tobias of his own. After Quinn’s pack ejects him for reasons beyond Quinn’s control, Tobias takes him in as one of his guards and brings Quinn with him and Kyle to meet with the Anax of Canada. While in Nova Scotia for that meeting, they meet Malachi Powers (yes, the one from Hooch and Howls, which is why I plan to rerelease that novella), a friend  of the Canadian Anax–and, as it turns out, Quinn’s mate, something which disturbs Malachi both because Quinn is mourning the loss of his partner and because of a major age gap; Malachi is somewhere around 150 years old, while Quinn is only 22. Though their story begins in Take Some Tahini, it’s fully formed in Ebb and Flow, which I’m currently in the process of writing and am very much enjoying. I hope to have this novel ready to release in September or October.

Other plans, particularly for book releases, are in flux right now. But the good thing about planning and writing and working for myself (and my readers) is that I have the ability to be flexible.

I hope your 2024 is off to a wonderful start! If you have plans you’d like to share, leave a comment!