Pivot on the Precipice

NO MOAR MIDDLE GRADE!

Well, that’s not entirely true. No more… for right now. We’re changing how we do things for the year.

It’s good to reassess where you’re at after every project. Should you continue in the same pattern? Is it time to pivot? Time to change things up or charge ahead?

And we’ve considered.

In the past, we’ve focused on publishing a six-book middle grade series every school year. We’ve done that for two years successfully! Madelyn of the Sky and Cade and the Last Starship are complete!

But this year we’re publishing one book for lower grades.

But… but why?

There are a bunch of reasons.

Six books year is… a lot. Like, a lot. Especially since we still have one kid not yet in school, it’s hard to find time without someone crawling on at least one of us. That’ll change soon, though, as the youngest heads off to all-day kindergarten!

However, even with our maybe-more time coming, we still needed a little bit of a break. So, one book this year!

Maybe. See, in previous years, we planned out six books. This year, we have one… maybe. We’ll be starting the Kickstarter on May 1. This Wednesday! And if we get enough backers, we’ll expand it to a two-book series! And if we get enough, a three-book series! We’ll follow your lead on how long the series runs.

And that’s one of the reasons we’re aiming a little younger. Madelyn and Cade both are aimed at middle grade readers, and they tell one complete story in six volumes. While younger readers still certainly care about continuity (I did at that age!), I’m not worried as much about a big overarching plot. I don’t have to plan ahead huge twists. Each volume will stand pretty much by itself, unless y’all happen to back us to get, say, six books again. In which case, I may well weave something bigger in!

Another reason we’re aiming at a younger audience this time around is simply… well, I wrote the book, it was fun, and we wanted to get it out into the world. Tah-dah!

But what happens if we don’t fund enough to get a big series?!

Helen and I met this last week and talked out our plans. If Mr. Frankie, Substitute Dragon ends up with just a book or two, we have a YA trilogy mostly-written and ready to go. Oh, and another six-book middle grade series is also almost completely rough drafted.

So there are plenty of things coming yet!

But for right now, we’re retooling for the year. Come along for the trip! We launch Wednesday!