Koen is home

After nine months of being traditionally published with Grendel Press, the rights for Koen: Quills from the Raven’s Nest have reverted back to me. I have already republished the book via KDP without incident. I was even able to keep my reviews, which was something I was very concerned about.

To give the book the new life it deserves, I also updated the cover so that it will settle in nicely with my other Lucardian tales, especially the Absolution of the Morning Star series. Of course, this meant I needed to update the trailer, all my marketing material, and my website, including fixing all the links. It took about a week’s worth of work and tweaking, but it is just about done. The one last issue is that Grendel uses Ingram for its paperback distribution, and it takes them a long time to make changes. This means the old paperback is appearing in strange places on Amazon under the old ISBN. It is also linked to my version, so that I could keep my reviews. I’m hoping that once Ingram removes it, everything will solidify. Fingers-crossed. Luckily, Amazon has actually been very responsive with this issue, so I’m confident it will get figured out over the next week or so.

I did a lot of soul-searching and had apprehensions about going down this road, but now that I am here, and some of my worries are behind me, I feel very good about this decision. Actually, I feel great. It is so satisfying to have the control back. Just being able to link it to the AMS series and make little adjustments here and there that have been bothering me for almost a year has been refreshing. That isn’t to say that Grendel Press wouldn’t have done these things if I had asked (they actually gave me a lot of control), but they had other authors to worry about, and were busy running a small press. I didn’t want to be a prima donna and reach out with every little imperfection. But now, instant gratification. Plus, when something doesn’t work, I can just change it–such as the cover.

Although I designed the original version too, it was with an old skillset, plus Grendel felt strongly about using a color scheme that shifted to a colder realm. I don’t know if I entirely agreed, but I went with it because I figured they knew best. But now, I have a few more years under my belt creating covers, and this reversion came at the perfect time because I had just updated the AMS covers to celebrate Dawn of the Lightbearer’s fifth anniversary. It all fell into place. Now, Koen feels part of that world and is a true prequel. I hope you agree.

My next step is to correct a few small things in the story itself to align it slightly better with the trajectory Sylvanus: Swords and Sons is moving. I don’t think anyone would really notice the difference, but continuity is important to me, plus I like the door this slight change opens for me, both in the above, but also in the future two books in AMS.

With it all said and done, will Koen sell better now? I have no idea, but I hope so. At the very least, I can take a more active role in its marketing and promotion and give it the best chance I can. Plus, with each sale, it is roughly equivalent to three sales before the rights reversion due to my now receiving all the royalties.

It has been a long journey, much like the one that is the core of the book. From writing to editing, to querying, to editing again, to attempting to self-publish, to unexpected news, to publishing contracts, to editing once more, to traditionally publishing, then back again to self-publishing, Koen has been part of my life for almost four years. Koen’s journey in the story was only three, so I got him beat. And let me tell you, it has just as many ups and downs.

Please support my writing journey. Check out Koen: Quills from the Raven’s Nest, share it with a friend, and if you’ve already travelled with Koen on his journey, please leave a review! Every bit helps.

Cheers!