As I mentioned in a previous post, John and I’ve worked together at MuseItUp for quite a few books. DARK WIZARD, if memory serves me, wasn’t our second book together, but it was the second book released by MIU.
A publisher’s release timetable is, at times, a complicated balance. The legality of contracts is one aspect, and at first glance may seem to be all that should matter. MuseItUp always states the month/year of a contracted book’s release. The exact date is a little more fluid. One reason being, life. We all know life loves to throw wrenches into every carefully laid out plan.
More importantly, we want each new release to shine and be showcased to its full potential. If we have five Sci-fi releases coming up in a month, is it best to release all in one week? Or, will they catch more attention mixed in with other genre releases, spread out over the month?
With that said, May 2011 saw the release of:
Kan not only has complete amnesia but superhuman strength and the ability to bring back the dead. Then a beautiful girl complicates things even more. When Kan learns his identity, he finds he is faced with a deadly evil and a cosmic mission.
Blurb:
Kan not only has complete amnesia but superhuman strength and the ability to bring back the dead. Soon a beautiful girl complicates things even more. As Kan learns his identity, he finds he is faced with a deadly evil and a cosmic mission.
Excerpt:
Kan knew at once the little girl was dead, her brain and body smashed beyond repair. Yet he ran across the street to where the child’s mother knelt screaming.
Passing the stunned school guard, Kan didn’t even glance toward the driver who had raced off down the street.
By the time he reached them, the mother had gathered her child’s crumpled body in her arms and was wailing, swaying back and forth on her knees. Over the girl’s bloodstained chestnut curls, the woman’s upturned eyes were puddles of grief imploring an indifferent sky.
“God, don’t let her die, don’t let her die. Oh, God…”
The mother’s desperate, pleading voice called onlookers like a siren’s song. People crossed the pavement, some at a run, some at a cautious walk. Even as he was preoccupied with thoughts of the child, Kan tasted their minds, finding some shocked, others curious, and a few hungry for suffering in a repulsive way he had never understood.
“My God,” a man said. “Did you see what happened?” His eyes passed over Kan’s tall muscular frame. “The car must have thrown her twenty feet.”
“It was a Nebula 10,” someone replied. “Black. Didn’t get the license number.”
In the middle of the street, the crossing guard still stood frozen in the hot sun of San Luis Obispo, California, her chalk-white face staring in their direction. Kan sighed and nudged her mind. “Not your fault,” he told her. “Call the police.”
The guard blinked and came to life. She reached for her cellphone.
Within a minute, a dozen people clustered about the mother and child. Get back, Kan wanted to shout, though he had no business being here himself. Have you no shame? Respect her grief. Every day, he fought a ceaseless battle to keep his nature secret, to slink beneath the radar of prying eyes. True, so many of these creatures needed help. He was the only one, though, and their vampiric needs drained him. If he got careless or let compassion rule his head, they would learn what he was and hate him for being different.
He started to leave just as a man pressed against him, eager for the sight of a little blood. Nor was he the lone ghoulish rubbernecker. A plump, middle-aged woman pushed forward, too. Kan’s hands twitched with an unfamiliar hunger of their own to smash and destroy. The desire alarmed him. Tempted to give in, he knew he would be no better than they if he did.
Despite his need to leave, the mother’s wails and the child’s limp, ruined body held him. He glanced past them at the elementary school seventy yards away beyond a well-trimmed lawn. Yellow daffodils stirred in the breeze. It looked calm and sedate, though he knew the doors could burst open at any moment and new company could come.
Kan began to turn.
As he did, the mother’s stricken eyes found his. Help me, they seemed to cry. Help my little girl.
Before he could stop himself, Kan knelt and held out his arms. “Give me the child,” he said.
“What?”
He cupped his hands, moving his fingers. “Your child. Give her to me, while there’s still time.”
Beautifully presented, Chris, and a beautiful cover. The suggestive editing wasn't bad either, sometimes giving me an opportunity to pick and choose between possibilities. This is the only MIU title of mine that takes place in a locale I was actually familiar with — San Luis Obispo, CA where my sister taught at the university and retired and where my parents lived near her. My other books take place in fantasy realms or on distant worlds.
To answer a question you raise, I don't think you want to release five SF titles all at once in one week or perhaps books of any genre. Spread 'em out and mixed 'em in with other genres. Who knows, maybe you'll attract new readers that way.
And that's exactly the reason behind Lea's balancing of releases each week. Spotlights each one.
Ahh, now I didn't know that at the time, but it does come across in the story telling…that you were familiar with the area.
Final decisions are always with our authors…well, okay so I've been known to push a time or two 😉