Talk about conflicted.

This week, I'm going to do something weird (...weirder). I'm going to ask you to not buy my books.

Yet.

What's on deck?

1. What you want next (early results from the reader survey);
2. The Empire's Rogues, and
3. Not buying books.

Let's get in there.

Next project: Tyche's Lost

Most of you seemed to enjoy Tyche Forever. I'm now working on Tyche's Lost, which follows right after Forever. It features Saveria Complex and Chad Forradel, the heroes of Tyche's Gravedigger.

Spoilers, but the end of Tyche's Angels sees our heroes pretty banged up. Tyche's Lost is about their vacation*. They'll holiday on a jungle world, rich with native flora and fauna. The story is mildly influenced by Beauty and the Beast, because it's what y'all want.

Wait, what?

In reader survey responses, the most popular choices for next stuff:

• 62% of you want me to write another Tyche story, and
• 46% of you want the next story to be Beauty and the Beast, but with Ezeroc.

Y'all are twisted, but okay, we'll do this.

* It's not a vacation.

The Empire's Rogues

I spent a chunk of last year on an experimental project: attempting to write Young Adult™ fiction. Having been a Young Adult™ before, I figured this would be easy, but ... it's not. It wasn't that long ago, was it?

My editor made a few comments; my favorite was this one:

I asked Rebekah to mint pictures of Nate and Grace as teenagers. These feature in the books at the start, but I figured I'd share 'em with you:

Which brings us to the thing where I don't want you to buy 'em.

Not buying books

I thought I'd be able to keep this under my hat until closer to launch, but some of you are devious and found these on the store. I see pre-orders coming in, which is lovely, but hold the phone.

This is tricky and nuanced, but it's all about a) giving you stories at a fair price while b) still gaining a decent percentage. The Empire's Rogues are on the store at 2.99 apiece, which is the lowest price they can be while still netting the 70% royalty level. They're pretty quick reads, 50-60pp each, and while length is not hard linked to dollars, I'd like you to get 'em without feeling destitute. They're also in KDP Select, so on launch day I'll be offering a special. Market research says Young Adults™ like shorter works, so here we are.

Expect book one to be free worldwide, and the rest to be 99c for US/UK people. The first four release at the same time; this lets you try the first with zero guilt and see how you find 'em. If you've got Young Adults™ who might be interested, this is also zero risk - they can try one without impovershing themselves or their financial controllers.

Six stories with the first being free is 0.00 + (5 x 0.99) == $4.95 if you get 'em during their respective launch weeks. I know some of you don't like episodic releases, so there's a compilation for $4.99.

Whew! I hope all that makes sense. The six stories are:

...and the compilation is The Empire's Rogues: Volume 1. The ebook release comes out after the rest, but the dead tree edition should be out there now.

That's it from me. Next week, I figure on sharing a sample or two of Ganymede Steel. Until then: rock and roll with the rest of your week/end.

R