Where Are Your Fantasy Books? A Hard Decision

Hello readers,

thank you for reading this today. I have some pretty big news to share and it feels a bit scary typing it up even now. Hitting the "publish" button on this post is going to feel scary. I've decided, at last, to make a pretty big decision about my books and the future of my writing.

As many of you know, I have self-published three fantasy novels in my series Instruments of Sacrifice and two poetry collections over the past six years. It has been a wild ride and an experience I wouldn't exchange for anything. Although my books have not reached "the masses" so to speak in the way I have hoped and dreamed, the writing and publishing experience got me to where I am now. I have constant and enjoyable work as a freelance ghostwriter and editor. I am now doing what I've always dreamed: I am writing for a living! I am, however, not writing my books under my name. I love ghostwriting. It is a wonderful time and source of income and I hope to do it for many years to come. With ghostwriting, however, I don't have a lot of time left over to dedicate to my own books and the marketing that comes with self-publishing. I love self-publishing and I encourage anyone who is looking into doing it for themselves to go for it. It is not, however, something I have much time for at this point in my life.

As a result, I have decided to take down all of the books in my fantasy series Instruments of Sacrifice from Amazon for the time being. I would like to explore my options more before dedicating any more time, effort, and money to the continuation and later on, the completion of this series. I've been working in the world of Instruments of Sacrifice since I was 10 years old. 11 years! I'm not letting it go now. Not by a long shot. What I am going to do is explore some other options in both traditional and self-publishing. I want my books to be distributed more easily in more parts of the world - not just in the U.S. I want my books to reach wider audiences, and I need some help in order to do that.

This means I have also chosen to not publish the fourth book in my fantasy series on September 9th as previously planned. I don't think this will disappoint many people since I only know of a handful of people who have made it through Time Passers. I don't say this is in any self-deprecating manner. I would like to see it for what it is and still thank the people (abundantly) who have read the books I've published so far.

My plan, for the next few months, is to query Time Passers as the first book in my series to literary agents. It is a story I am immensely proud of and the doorway with which I would like to reopen the series in another way.

Now, maybe querying agents won't work out too well. I am prepared for rejection. I am prepared to turn right back around and have to publish these books on my own. I am okay with that. If an agent does not pick up Instruments of Sacrifice, I will re-self-publish them. Either way, these books will become available to you again.

Thank you to everyone for your patience with me on this journey. I am so excited for all that is to come. (A little scared too, but I think I'd have to be for this to all make sense.) The reviews I've accumulated for this series is going to help when querying so THANK YOU to anyone who has ever left a review.

Both of my poetry books will still be available on Amazon for purchase.

Thank you for reading and for being with me on this journey.

Cam and crew will be back to you soon. I promise.

Much love,

Lydia