The End of an Era

As of a few days ago, I pulled the plug on the As The World Dies series self published editions. I'm not sure how long it will take for the books to come down, but already a lot of the ebooks and the Kindle editions are no longer available.

I noticed Friday that Amazon changed the status to "In stock, but make take 1 to 2 days to process." I translate this as "Rhiannon, are you crazy? Put these back on sale. You got a few days, chump, then its ovah!"

Update: Now Amazon.com is listing the books as "2 in stock" "1 in stock" with the added verbiage of "order soon."

I recognize that this is a very different experience from most writers that are in the process of being published by a major publisher. Their manuscript has most likely never been seen outside a few select friends and family members. They have never had to deal with book cover design, interior formatting, publishing headaches, and sales tracking like I have. They don't know what it feels like to click on a button to "unpublish" the work they poured their heart and soul into.

I won't lie, I got teary eyed.

This is the end of this era of my great adventure. There have actually been several eras: the original posting of the story online, pulling it down to revise and submit it to publishers, deciding to self publish and working hard to make it happen, and the time period from August 2008 to August 2010 when the books were self published and my sole responsibility.

Now the books are firmly in the hands of Tor and I know they will treat my little darlings very well. Without a doubt, this is the best next step for me as a writer and for the series. From editing to the cover to marketing and promoting, Tor is going to do an AMAZING job. My zombie epic will get polished up so it can reach out to an even wider audience.

Just today I received the edits from my editor at Tor. I'm thrilled to be able to dive back in and revise the novel. I truly want this novel to be the best it can possibly be. Growing up, I was used to my mother always taking a red pen to my writing and I embrace the editing process as one to learn from.

Already, I have seen where having one massive tome divided up into three screwed with the story a bit. For example, in the later books, the history of Juan and Travis' friendship is explained, but not in the first one. So at one point, it seems like Travis magically knows something about Juan. I never would have caught this since I wrote the story and I know all that information. But my editor caught it. And that is why I love editing!

Again, I cannot state how excited I am that As The World Dies will have a fresh new look and polished up story when the Tor editions hit next year.