Oh my goodness, thank God you're back! As the most influential YA author who keeps a blog, I've been waiting with bated breath for your return! Where the heck have you been?!
     Calm down, huddled masses! I have returned from a not-at-all-self-imposed hiatus with a new view on things, an improved piece of writing to incessantly talk about, and a better theme song (it's angrier).
     I will certainly address the way in which my professional life (by which I mean the sad hours spent not writing or reading or writing about writing or reading) have pretty much become a trailer for the latest Stephen King mini-series in a later post. For now, I'm excited to talk about the changes to my series (because it's a series now) and how you, all of my rabidly adoring fans, can get on board with the action.
     Not yet a rabid fan of my work? Have you never even heard of me? To quote the awesome kid in the edited-for-TV version of Four Christmases: "Google me, Barbara! Look  me up sometime!" Or don't, because this website is pretty much the extent of my digital footprint, so... you may be directed to return to this very page and that would be a waste of time.
     I'm very proud to be announcing that, this week, I'll be taking my work back to the masses in a sleeker, smoother, and better reboot. With a pretty new cover.
     Why re-release?
     My original novel was great, and I was very proud of it. The reviews I got reflected what I wanted the book to be received as. However, there were some issues that quickly became apparent to me as issues that might impact the long-term viability of the project.
     First off, cost became an issue. I published the paper copy of my work through a company called Lulu. They were awesome, and I had no real issues with them. I didn't use any of their "premium" services (I formatted the text myself, designed the cover myself, and created my own PR - you're enjoying it), but all of those are probably awesome. My problem? The novel, in paper copy, came in at over $8 a copy for me to have printed, and I had to wait weeks for them to be delivered. Which means I had to charge more than I wanted to for the retail of the book and sometimes had to make people wait while they were being printed. In it's current form, I'll be able to sell the books for $8.50 on Amazon and probably $7 or $8 in person (I like to keep it cheaper for my students because, hey, keeping them reading is kind of job security for me as an English teacher). What did I change? I cut the book in half (split the original into two) and changed over to CreateSpace (I know, start playing the Darth Vader music and saying I sold out to the Amazon machine).
     Secondly, as I already mentioned, I sliced the original in half. WHAT?! Didn't that feel like cutting up your child into bits and pieces? No. No, it actually felt very liberating. I wasn't sure that I'd feel that way, to give full disclosure, when I started. I opened a new Word document, copied the first 17 chapters from my original, pasted them into the new, blank document, and deleted them from the original, complete work. Where I had been the author of one novel, now I was the author of two. I had around 85,000 words in each document, and that felt right. I was able to take a second look at the work, and, as two pieces, I could edit things differently.
     And I was so much happier with it.
     Finally, I had a few people suggest it to me. Even at my level of greatness, I still have some folks whose opinions I respect. When all of them give you the same advice, you have to think that there's something to it. They loved the book, but it was intimidating to recommend it to others at it's hefty word count.
     I was able to find an awesome new cover from selfpubbookcovers.com for this new work (BTW, they have awesome artwork - I advise perusing their material), which had always been the plan. While I loved my original cover, I had always hoped to be able to replace it with a professionally done piece when I had made enough money from sales.
     Currently, promotion of "Assigned" (the name of the new novel that represents the first half of the original) is taking up a lot of my free time. It will be available for sale on this Friday. Then, we start moving forward into the world of being a "series" author with work on editing the second and rough drafting the third.
     I was afraid that I would feel like I was admitting defeat by splitting my novel, by re-releasing it one half at a time, but I don't. I'm so much more happy with what I'm putting out there this time around with "Assigned". To be honest, the original novel was massive. Was it egotistical to try and take on filling the role of George R. R. Martin in the YA genre? Possibly. More than that, maintaining that kind of length made the whole writing thing harder than it needed to be. I once had a mentor who told me that you needed to create a system which allowed you to focus on your work more than the system. 
     My new novel isn't really a new novel, but it feels like a different project. "Assigned" is not the way I originally anticipated my second novel as entering the market, but I'm happy to say that it's my next step.
     "Assigned" is now available for ebook pre-order on Amazon right here, if you're interested: 
Check it out on Amazon