Update: More Books Coming???

Hello friends and enemies. Right upfront I’ll say this: nothing is changing with Arena 3 at this time. No matter what, it will be published. My tentative release date is for the second half of 2021, but depending what happens going forward, that schedule MAY change.

Here’s what’s up:

I had initially decided to take a break from traditional publishing for at least a year. However, I had several outstanding emails with literary agents regarding my noir fantasy novel from months ago – some even before the pandemic hit. I’d hardly heard anything back on the book and had assumed it was dead in the water. Then about two weeks ago, I started receiving replies asking to read the book and if it was still available. The enthusiasm I’ve received has convinced me that I need to seriously pursue traditional publishing again much sooner than I thought.

The fact that multiple agents are interested in the book is a very good sign. This means it’s well written enough and marketable enough that it could sell to publishers. Everything is still very tentative right now and nothing might happen at all, BUT this does mean my noir fantasy series MAY get picked up by the traditional market. And that means possibly even more books coming to you in the future.

What this also means is that I need to capitalize on this situation and email more agents. Just like when you’re selling your house, the more people you have interested, the better it is for you. But here’s the rub: each agent has different submission guidelines and each submission takes a lot of time. So, I need to put Arena 3 aside for a few weeks while I work on these submissions. Like I said, this shouldn’t affect the timeline of Arena 3 at all. IF my noir fantasy does get picked up and scheduled for publication, then Arena 3 may get pushed back (or bumped up) depending on several different factors that aren’t worth getting into now. I will keep you all informed though as things change.

So, for the next few weeks, there probably won’t be a word count on Arena 3. Part of me feels like I’m flaking all over the place on you guys, but this is how publishing works. There’s no activity for months and months, and then suddenly everything happens at once. Putting Arena 3 on the backburner actually gives me the time to push this noir fantasy book as much as I can and see if we can’t get MORE BOOKS lined up for publication.

So TLDR: Arena 3 is still on schedule, but there will be no word count updates for a few weeks, and more books may be coming to you eventually. It’s all very exciting but I stress very, very tentative for now. I apologize if any of this is confusing. It’s difficult to fully explain what’s going on in a post like this. It may be months from now before I know anything for certain about my noir fantasy, but I promise to keep you all update and I’ll be sure to let you know when I’m switching back onto Arena 3.

Thanks so much for all your support. I love you all.

Rock on, gamers.