July Update

‘Serpent Princess’

Thanks to everyone who’s been waiting so patiently for the update on ‘Serpent Princess’, the new Dark Heavens novel. I finished this book at the end of last year, and gave it to Harper-Collins in January. Last week, after a number of emails where I received no reply, I contacted the publishers by phone, and my lovely editor, terribly apologetic, said that they had to reject it. My sales haven’t been strong enough for them to gamble on it.

This is actually good news for the fans! If not so great for me.

It means that I can self-publish ‘Serpent Princess’, will have complete control over how the cover will look (no bad martial arts or Japanese gi, for example), and I will be able to have some really special hardcover limited editions printed to present to my beloved Patrons (and to sell on my website and at conventions).I’ve always wanted special editions of the Dark Heavens novels – and I know you guys would love boxed sets – but Harper-Collins have never considered them, as they’re not economically feasible. Harper-Collins 100% own the rights to all the previous Dark Heavens novels, and I don’t have the right to print anything myself.

I am also talking to them about getting the rights back for my novels, and if that happens I can print them myself all the same size. Boxed sets could also happen. Note that 90% of the time they don’t reply to my emails, and this would require them to do a great deal of contractual work and lose the income they gain from my books, so I’m not holding my breath about it.

It felt really strange to go from ‘published author’ to effectively ‘unemployed’ and I admit it was a blow, particularly at this stage of my life. But after building a completely new base in Subnautica and discovering a new galaxy in No Man’s Sky I am back to doing what I love, adding to the sequel to Serpent Princess (which I’ve started already) and I’m well on the way to finished ‘Bodies of Stone and Water’, the sequel to ‘Minds of Sand and Light’. (Harper-Collins have made it very clear that they aren’t interested in anything else that I write, so I’ll have to self-publish that as well.)

I’m not stopping, I’m changing direction. As my friend Traci Harding said, ‘You were the last Voyager author standing, and that’s an achievement.’ (She means the last author recruited by the legendary Stephanie Smith in the heyday of Voyager, when she successfully built Australian speculative fiction from nearly nothing.)

I’ll continue writing what I love, and thank you for loving it as well. Watch this space as I have ‘Serpent Princess’ edited and arrange for the cover design! Next time you see me at a convention, I’ll have new Dark Heavens for you, and not before time. And the Patrons will be getting their own, special, versions of everything!