It just occurred to me that I have not said anything here about what’s up with the My Immortals Series.
The rights to the first two books are still held by Grand Central Publishing. There are foreign language sub-licenses that prevent me from getting those books reverted even though they are well under the sales threshold in US sales and even though My Wicked Enemy is legally and officially out of print.
Because I do not control the pricing or any in-book links to the first two books, it is impossible to effectively market the series. Unfortunately, based on past experience, it would be extremely foolish of me to agree to any co-promotion or other co-marketing efforts with Grand Central. The subject was raised, but I declined. I’m not an idiot.
Since it is now clear I might not get reversions until 2021, I have decided I will write two prequels to the series to act as “new” Books 1 and 2. That way, I can do sensible, effective promotion of the series. When the time comes that My Wicked Enemy and My Forbidden Desire do revert to me, those books will still fit into the series.
I have longed planned to do some significant rewriting of My Wicked Enemy, mostly to return several key scenes to the way I wrote them in the first place and back-out editorial caution that I feel, to this day, significantly weakened the book. For book 2 (RITA finalist My Forbidden Desire), I realized I’d have to write scenes I knew my editor would insist be cut so that I could keep the scenes I really wanted. For that reason, that book probably needs less rework to return it to my original concept of the series.
I’ve already started writing the first prequel. At the moment, the title is My Infernal Lover, but I suspect that won’t stick. The second one is tentatively titled “Blow Back” and will fit with the other two shorter novel/novellas, Dead Drop and Free Fall.
Tags: My Immortals Series
[…] The first two books are still with Grand Central. Over at my website, I talk about my plan for the series and the two forthcoming […]
Bad news and good news. I’m not familiar with Dead Drop and Free Fall. I’ll have to see if I can find them. I don’t see how you could improve My Wicked Enemy as it’s written now, but I trust you will do exactly as you say. Prequels are always fun, as long as they fit seamlessly into the existing series. I’ve seen a couple that don’t, and the resulting mishmash is always confusing. But on the other hand, yay! More My Immortals! What could be better?
You shouldn’t have any trouble finding Free Fall or Dead Drop. They are on sale at all vendors. If you make a donation to the Electronic Frontier Foundation here https://supporters.eff.org/donate/pwning-tomorrow you can get Free Fall along with stories from several other authors of Speculative Fiction, including Neil Gaiman, Cory Doctorow and many others.
Love this series, have all the books and I was waiting impatiently for the next in the series. I will definitely buy your prequels. I also loved The Crimson city, anymore of those coming?