In an earlier post, probably a wrap up, I teased some information about a secret project. I’ve done this before and I’ll likely do it again. I tend to do this when I have interesting information to share but I’m not quite ready to share it YET. I always break that silence when I’m ready to talk about something.
So, it’s time to chat about the newest secret project.
When Breaking Eselda was first published back in 2018, I made the choice to use a popular print-on-demand type publishing company for that release. There were a lot of reasons for that. The most important reasons were that I knew next to nothing about formatting and cover design. I knew I would need serious help with those aspects and, more importantly, I didn’t really know where to begin on that front. Enter the publisher. They had resources available for all of that and I took advantage of it, loving the product.
If you look at my catalog of available books, however, you’ll notice I never used another company like that again. In fact, by 2019 we had already filed all the appropriate paperwork for Tabatha Shipley Books to be an official LLC and the publishing company of record for the rest of my titles.
Through the years, I’ve learned a lot about this industry. I have a catalog of people I can turn to for things like cover design, editing, and interior formatting. I’ve learned to do a lot of things myself. I’ve learned there are actually a lot of things I prefer to do myself. The things I’m capable of doing NOW would surprise the me who first started with Breaking Eselda in 2018.
When I go to an event to sell something in person, I do this as an established business. I have profit and loss sheets and I am able to set my prices the way I see fit. With one exception. Breaking Eselda continues to be the book that I’m required to pay out that original publisher for and, honestly, they keep raising their prices. Friends will tell you that not having control of that one book really bothers me.
So, as I sat at Fan Fusion this summer looking at the books in front of me and really thinking about how much it would mean to me to take control of that book again, I made a decision.
I’m re-releasing Breaking Eselda.
Now, I could just go ahead and release it with the same cover and interior that it already had. But where’s the fun in that? Honestly, I’ve been thinking a lot about changing up the interior of the series anyway. I have a font I like better, I wish I’d included Jonathan’s artwork earlier in the series on the headers, and I want them all to be the same.
So, this summer, I’ve been working on it a lot in secret. I’ve played around with that formatting, rewritten the back blurbs, and redesigned the covers. All along the way I kept telling myself I’d stop if I ever didn’t like how it was coming out or if it was just too much work for not enough of a pay off. That never happened.
So the entire series is getting new paperbacks.
In the next few weeks, they’ll be available. New covers, new interior, same books.
If you already own the ebooks, there’s nothing wrong with them at all! I would say there’s no reason to repurchase those. I AM resubmitting the interior of those, just to keep things uniform, but nothing is changing. In fact, if you purchased them through Kindle they may update automatically once your Kindle updates. If you have old files and want new ones, let me know. We can probably make that happen.
If you already own the paperbacks … keep yours! They’re beautiful and they’re still good. I promise! Nothing about the stories is changing or has changed AT ALL. This was all superficial changes like spacing, margins, or font usage. It’s the same story!
If you don’t own them all, have read yours to pieces, or want the new covers … they’ll be here soon! The original covers will continue to be the faces of the ebooks because I want them to live on. The new covers will ONLY be available in paperbacks. I’m planning to have my paperbacks available at all major retailers before the end of July. My copies should be here around that same time or shortly after. I’m hoping to have the brand new ones for sale at the Desert Lights event at the end of August, for sure. For now, go ahead and place your orders for Kingdom of Fraun books on my website and expect that I’ll email you to ask you which cover you’d prefer. Once those original paperbacks are gone … they’re gone! They’re being retired. So if you want those originals, definitely place those orders soon!