Holy crap, it’s November!
I don’t know how this happened. I’ve had my head down working, mostly, so all of my coming soon pages seem to be outdated. I’ll be going through and updating the site this week, but they will be small updates. I don’t yet have a date for the Blacksmith’s book (or even a title yet, though I’ve been tossing some around). As soon as I do, I’ll post all that information here.
Upcoming Releases
THE KRAKEN KING‘s compiled release is coming this Tuesday, November 4th.
The anthology NIGHT SHIFT, featuring my first barbarian story written as Milla Vane, will be available November 25th. (Also, don’t forget there’s an ARC giveaway until November 3rd!)
I’m working on the Blacksmith’s now and that will probably be coming next year (and it will be a six-part serial.)
After that?
I’m not sure. I still have a few projects (the Guardian novella, INTO THE LIGHT, Mara and Cooper’s novella, and let’s pray that Scarsdale’s story comes together) that I hope to get out over the next year, but whether there will be more Iron Seas novels or if I move on to another series is still up in the air. We’ll see what happens.
November 1, 2014 @ 1:54 pm
((Scarsdale)) 🙂
November 3, 2014 @ 7:02 pm
🙂
November 2, 2014 @ 1:44 pm
Yay, another serial!! I had such fun with the last one.
November 3, 2014 @ 7:03 pm
Oh, I’m glad! I liked it a lot, too, and I think the book was all the better because of the serial structure.
Plus, it comes faster this way! So it’s a win/win. Readers who want the compiled version will get it at the same time it would be out normally, and those who want it earlier or who like the serial format will get it that way.
November 3, 2014 @ 4:30 pm
*starts saying prayers for more Iron Seas*
.
.
.
What can I say? I absolutely adore that world.
.
.
.
And if you don’t write Scarsdale’s story, there’ll be a sad sad Mexican over there in the corner, staring at you with accusing eyes for eternity.
.
.
.
but no pressure.
November 3, 2014 @ 7:10 pm
Well, honestly, even if my publisher wants more, unless sales turn around pretty dramatically I can’t really justify pursuing the series through them. They’ve done pretty much everything possible to boost the series but it’s just … steampunk is hard to sell for some reason and I spend SO MUCH time writing one story that I can’t seem to get ahead.
That doesn’t mean that the series would be dead — I would just have to do it on the side as a self-pub project and then work on other projects with them. (If they want more from me, which I hope they do.) It will be kind of like: I’ll work on other fun and awesome things, and if that’s successful, I’ll have more breathing room to ALSO work on my steampunk fun and awesome things.
November 3, 2014 @ 7:11 pm
But don’t worry, I won’t give up on Scarsdale.
November 4, 2014 @ 7:37 am
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
And hell, yeah! for more fun and awesome things from you, Ms Meljean!
November 4, 2014 @ 4:46 pm
You mean it’s finally November. I’ve been staring at the release date of that anthology since it was announced. 🙂
Both my roommate and I were so ecstatic you planned to write a Blacksmith story. He’s the most intriguing man, whom I know pretty much nothing about, ever. I’m probably going to force myself to wait for the complete release though. I like your stories too much. Your serials, for me, are like running down a flight of stairs that is shorter than I expect it to be. In my excitement, I wind up tripping over the lack of steps and then standing on the landing like an idiot, going WTF just happened?
And Scarsdale! … I admit I have a hard time connecting with him because of the alcoholism, but since part of the charm of your characters is their diversity and imperfections, I know I’ll end up loving it.
And more Guardians too! Can you believe it’s been a year since GD came out?
Okay, clearly I’m just looking forward to everything you write.
Though… Mara and Cooper… Mara and Cooper… *headdesk* OH MAN why can’t I remember who they are?! Ugh, I’ve failed as one of your fans. Oh the shame.
November 5, 2014 @ 2:34 pm
Mara & Cooper are Zenobia’s bodyguards in The Kraken King 😀
November 6, 2014 @ 6:27 am
Why, oh why, is amazon taking so long to ship The Kraken King to me?
November 6, 2014 @ 8:03 pm
did you get it yet? I hope it came by today!
November 6, 2014 @ 5:45 pm
I cannot wait for the Blacksmith’s story. I will read anything you write, and you are one of maybe three or four authors that I am willing to purchase novellas from. I just read too quickly to afford them compared to a full length novel, but yours are never a disappointment. But I have to say, I’m sorry to hear that the Iron Seas books have not been selling well, and I wonder if some of it is due not to publisher marketing, but decisions at the bookseller level. I buy all my books as ebooks these days, but I purchased the first four or five Guardian books in paperback and The Iron Duke when it was released in trade. The Guardian books I found in the romance section. The Iron Duke was in SciFi/fantasy. I’ve encountered that in most major booksellers over the years when they’re dealing with books that cross genres, and while I was one of those people who could easily browse entire sections in a short time and see what was new, I think a lot of people never get past the labels.
I never even looked at romance until the paranormal craze started plopping what to me was clearly fantasy-related into the romance section. Sometimes books in the same series ended up in different sections. Ebooks are much easier to locate based on similarity as they can be categorized from broad categories down to truly specific, and search engines like Amazon’s have to be given credit for their ability to suggest similar titles (though I find the policies on Amazon’s ratings damn near price fixing when they weight the results based partially on an author including their works in Kindle Unlimited and Prime). For brick and mortar stores, though, I wonder if the sometimes seemingly random decisions on which category a book will be in might not influence sales. I would be curious to know if there was an eBook vs brick and mortar disparity in your titles, or a difference between brick and mortar chains based on which section they put the Iron Seas in.
My decision to go eBook was made when I developed rheumatoid arthritis and paperbacks just became too difficult to hold, but I miss actual paper books and would probably still be trolling three or four sections trying to locate all the good paranormal/fantasy/SciFi/cross-genre at my local BAM and B&N if not for that. I’ll mention that I spent nearly ten years as customer service at BAM, so I’m most familiar with how they treated cross-category books, and it used to drive me nuts how similar books could end up in different sections for no apparent reason. EBook ordering definitely makes it much easier to keep track of everything an author puts out. And I can’t be sorry I have easy access to all the great self-pubbed stuff! If you write it, I’m always in.
November 6, 2014 @ 7:59 pm
I think it’s probably a lot of different factors — one is that many readers still have no idea what steampunk is. Online, that situation is different. But I still have to explain what it is to most people that I run into who ask me what I do for a living. So it’s been hard to grab a wider audience (and I think this has been true for many steampunk writers). Not that everyone has low sales; I’m guessing some are doing quite well. It’s just been a tough genre to gain a large readership in.
I’m also a slow writer and it took me a year to write Guardian Demon, then almost another year to write The Kraken King, which meant that almost two years passed between steampunk novels in my series. That’s pretty much a kiss of death for a series in this market (and the reason why we put it out as a serial first — to shorten that time.) It’s why we’ll do the same with the Blacksmith (because I’m still slow.)
Print is just a tough market right now, anyway. It’s hard to get shelf space in a bookstore (and even if you do, then it’s hard to keep that space after the release month has passed. The only local store I can find my backlist in is Powell’s, for example. Barnes & Noble, even though I’ve visited and talked to the booksellers there many times? Nope. Meljean Brook (and many many other midlist authors) might as well not even exist to the print reader who browses the store.))
As far as I’ve seen, almost everyone has shelved them in romance — of course there must be exceptions (and I’ve heard of a few) but I think the majority of the stores put them in romance when they came out. So that might have been a factor but I suspect the other variables (unfamiliarity with steampunk, the time between books, and the lack of a visible backlist) had the most impact.
Or maybe my writing just doesn’t appeal to a larger audience! I can’t ignore that possibility, too. The Guardian series struggled, too. Part of that was a rocky series start, but also I write long and complicated and that’s not always to everyone’s taste. 🙂
November 9, 2014 @ 7:48 pm
Yay still hope for Scarsdale!!
Looking forward to the Blacksmith’s story and the others in the meantime. It’s frustrating that your books are hard to find because they’re so good. The Kraken King in print isn’t listed at our major bookstore chain (Chapters/Indigo) and Amazon.ca says it’ll be 6-9 weeks for it, so I’m ordering it from the U.S.. I bought the Iron Duke in the U.S. as well because it took so long to cross the border. I am going to check out Powell’s when I’m in Portland for a conference next year and I’ll make sure to buy some books while there. 🙂
November 10, 2014 @ 4:00 pm
Yay!! The Kraken King is one of my favorite books, however I would honestly read anything you wrote. You are one of my favorite authors and even though the wait time may seem long, in the end reading such well developed books with complex characters is worth it. I am so excited for the Blacksmith’s story!