Hi everyone,

I wanted to give an update, and to explain a little about what’s been going on. First, an apology for not getting back to you sooner, but the fact is that I didn’t know what to tell you. I was caught in indecision, trying to determine the best path forward, and didn’t know what I was going to do. I’ve never had this problem before in fifteen years of writing.

I’ve finally figured things out, and wanted to explain what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. That’s especially important as many of you may not know much about the indie publishing world, as I didn’t when I first started. And still don’t, in many respects—I am definitely still learning.

But I have picked up on a few things, such as the fact that putting out really long books means that I basically don’t get paid at all for the paperback versions. Printing costs are simply so high that they eat away all of my profits. For the last Dory book, for example, I made nothing on any paperbacks sold, because the book was 161,000 words. After publisher’s profit and printing costs were subtracted, there was simply nothing left.

That was a problem for me, because indies already don’t make much off our books in the first place. I realized that, next time, I really needed to try to keep the word count down. Most traditional publishers also operate this way. They much prefer books to be between 100,000 and 120,000 words, because that increases their profit (it lowers publishing costs) while still giving the readers what feels like a substantial book. My books almost always went over that maximum, in some cases by a lot, but fantasy requires a lot of world building, so they put up with it. It didn’t exactly make me popular, though.

So, there was always that tension between telling the story the way I thought it should be told, and telling it in a short enough fashion to be acceptable to my publisher. And now that I am an indie, that has become even more of a consideration. I therefore tried, really hard, to pare down Ignite the Fire, without realizing that I was warping the story in order to do so. When I went back in to do the edit, however, the time when you are looking at the whole book instead of taking it piece by piece, I realized . . . this isn’t okay. This isn’t what I want to put out.

As a result, I went back in to make a few corrections . . . and then a few more . . . and then to better explain that over there and this over here and . . . and ended up with something that read, oh so much better! It’s such a good book, it really is, and I’m so very proud of it. But there’s just one problem. No freaking way can I publish it and make any profit at all. Or else the price I’d have to charge for the paperbacks would be so high that no one would buy them anyway.

So, what to do? I finally realized that the book, or should I say books, have a natural break in the middle. I can split them into Ignite the Fire: Incendiary and Ignite the Fire: Inferno, and put out the whole, properly paced and properly told story. Which is what I’ve finally decided to do, although I know full well that it will annoy some readers. I can understand that: who wants to pay twice to get a complete story? Especially now, when money is tight for a lot of us. I get it, and I am aware that I will likely lose sales over this. But allow me to give you my reasons.

First, I got into writing to tell beautiful stories. Maybe you think I’ve succeeded, maybe you think I haven’t. But I can honestly say that I have always given you my best, every single time I put something out. I never stinted, or cut corners, or said, welp, that’s not right but I have a deadline, so screw it. And let’s face it, we’ve all read books from writers who we know did that. I don’t blame them; they want to keep their jobs, and publishers put amazing pressure on their authors to get books in on time. I lost my job largely from missing deadlines, so I can certainly sympathize. But . . . I just can’t do that. I can’t put something out that isn’t my best or isn’t finished or has been chopped to death to fit a page count. It might not be as good as what someone else can do, but it has to be my best or I can’t live with it.

Second, I would like to keep writing and telling my stories, but I have to eat. I don’t need a lot of income, because let’s face it, I never made much at Penguin anyway. But I have to pay the bills, and to do that, I have to keep the books shorter. Now, for any new series, that wouldn’t likely be a problem. Touch the Dark was only 107,000 words, for example, which is about industry standard. But it was also the first book in a series, not the eleventh.

The longer a series goes on, the longer the books tend to get, especially fantasy stories (look at Harry Potter) because the world gets bigger and themes and plot threads from earlier on in the series start to get tied up. And that is especially true of fantasy stories that deal with another realm, like Faerie. World building eats up pages like nothing else, but without it, the stories feel unfinished, unreal, or just unsatisfying. But putting out a 190,000- or 200,000-word book as an indie is simply not feasible. Not if I want to make enough to keep writing.

So that is why I am splitting the book. I have wrestled with this decision a lot, and I hope you understand. But I also know that it’s the right thing to do. I have spent too long with Cassie to screw her—or you—over now. And what’s the point in being an indie in the first place, if you can’t tell stories the way they need to be told, instead of the way a publishing company’s rules allow? At the end of the day, I’m a writer. If I can’t write good books because of artificial restraints, then what’s the point?

And Ignite the Fire is a very good book.

So, look for Ignite the Fire: Incendiary in late May and Ignite the Fire: Inferno in late June. And, as always, thank you for your support and patience while I figured everything out.