Howdy. It’s been a bumpy couple of months on the health front. I spent nine days in hospital a few weeks ago. The good news is that I’m through the worst of it and my challenges were not related to a progression of my cancer. It may in fact have just been side effects related to treatment.
But the experience still left me eager to keep crossing things off the bucket list to the extent that I am able.
That’s why The Crucible Tree, the follow-up to Bane of All Things, is now up for pre-order on my publisher’s website. The manuscript has been ready for more months than I care to count, the hard work long done, so, why wait?
But we need pre-orders to get this story into print and to you.
Why pre-orders again, Leo?
If you recall how this worked before with Bane of All Things, we pull enough pre-orders and the book gets the greenlight to go into production. If we don’t, you get your pre-order refunded, no strings attached.
This is how my publisher Inkshares, as an independent press, keeps its costs down, can pay better-than-average royalties, and can give fledging authors like me better odds of getting noticed. Unlike self-publishing, I don’t incur the production and marketing costs out of my pocket. Inkshares pays those bills out of the pre-order revenue. It also handles production, marketing, and distribution.
I had mentioned before that Inkshares has been looking to shift away from the pre-order model, but the challenges that have faced the publishing industry coming out of the pandemic have delayed those plans. I am told that even the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike is having an impact (Inkshares has Hollywood adaptions underway for several of its books as well.)
Which means, if I want to get my next book coming your way sooner rather than later, it’s batten down the hatches and run a pre-order campaign like before.
What will it take to get The Crucible Tree published?
The magic number for my publisher is 750 pre-orders. There’s no reason to drag this out – we want to hit that mark by fall.
We didn’t get to 750 with Bane of All Things, but my publisher liked what they saw enough to take a chance and say “yes” anyway. Sales of Bane of All Things then proved to be modest. So, this time, we really want to hit 750.
More pre-orders means more money for marketing, which means more exposure, and more shock and awe to woo reviewers and other readers. That will mean more sales of both books. Consider that I’m competing for attention against the likes of Brandon Sanderson and Leigh Bardugo!
There are enough people on this mailing list to reach 750 if everyone pre-ordered one copy of The Crucible Tree for themselves and one for a friend. It doesn’t matter if it’s a print copy or an ebook copy – any copy counts as one pre-order. And as before, any hardcore supporter can order up to 10 copies on their Inkshares account, in any combination of ebook and print.
So, what happens in The Crucible Tree?
SPOILER ALERT: Our chief protagonists, Ryn and Josalind, are caught between conflicting forces that would either use them, kill them, or venerate them as lost gods returned.
Now bound till death to the Living Sword, Ryn could spark religious revolution across the Four Kingdoms. Some revere him as a messiah figure he has no wish to become. Others see him only as a tool to feed their selfish ambitions.
As the Vessel of the Four, Josalind continues to fight for free will from these holy ghosts who haunt her. She has always thought herself at the mercy of their divine power. But what if the power has in fact been hers all along, twisting her into something dark?
The answer for them both may lie with the mysterious Crucible Tree. They find themselves in a race to prevent its destruction, risking the murder of innocents, the sacrifice of family, and devastating war.
Where to pre-order?
Visit The Crucible Tree on the Inkshares website and follow the instructions.
You can also preview the first three chapters. SPOILER ALERT: There are many spoilers if you read those chapters without first having read the other book.
Let’s see how this goes. Thank you again for your interest and support.
Cheers
Leo
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