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 Skyand Cade and the Last Starship are complete!
But this year we’re publishing onebook 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 Cadeboth 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!
I’m not going to tell you the title or the author. I won’t give bad press to another author intentionally. The book looked neat. It had a great tagline. I wanted to support the author.
Once I started reading it, though, it was clear this was not going to be good.
So why’d I finish it?
Simply put: To learn. What made this a bad book, and how could I avoid writing my own books that way?
In fact, over the last couple weeks, I’ve finished a number of books and been disappointed with… more than one. So I’m going to do a few quick reviews and share some of what I learned.
Mr. Frankie always wanted to be a substitute teacher. After the last incident with the accidental blob, though, no school will hire him!
And that’s when he sees an ad: “Wanted: Substitute Dragon.”
Being a substitute dragon shouldn’t be harder than being a substitute teacher… right?
Mr. Frankie, Substitute Dragon is a silly illustrated chapter book, and it’s on prelaunch on Kickstarter! Click this link, and then click to be notified when the campaign launches! I’m excited for my first children’s book, and I hope you come along for the ride!
Jonathon Mast: Author 