The Varcross Key Updates

Now that final editing and proofreading are done, things are starting to move at a breakneck pace. I sent the cover concept Forge and I created this morning to professional cover designers. The turnaround is 7-9 days, which is quite the relief since I’m running behind schedule.

I’m still going through the PDF and correcting any typos or spelling mistakes I find that were not caught in editing. Also, my ARC reviewers have been wonderfully pointing out mistakes, typos, formatting issues, etc… This is one of the many reasons I get my book in the hands of around 50 people before it touches the market, because I want to make sure I put my best and most polished product out there.

I have set a preliminary release date of March 15th, which I’m 90% sure will stay that date, but with the cover still being designed, and with pre-orders needing at least a month to really get going, that may change. It won’t change by much, though.

E-book Distribution and Pre-orders:

To the delight of many and the dismay of some, I’ve decided to put The Varcross Key on Kindle Unlimited. What this means is I will not be able to distribute wide for 90 days. Think of it as a contract. I make my e-book exclusive to Amazon for the first 3 months and in return I get better royalties, more market visibility, and the Kindle Unlimited market is open to me where it wasn’t when I released The Mark of Amulii. I believe this really hurt my potential sales.

Just because I’m going Kindle exclusive for the first three months doesn’t mean it will remain Kindle Exclusive. Once the 90 day period is up, I will be once again distributing wide: Apple Books, Google Play, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, etc…

Digital preorders will be up on Amazon a few days after I approve the concept for the book cover. I will make that announcement on every platform once it’s up. I will be pricing the e-book at $4.99, which is a dollar more expensive than MoA, but Varcross is much longer.

Print Distribution and Pre-orders:

Just because my E-book will be limited to Kindle at publication doesn’t mean printed books will be as constrained. I will be publishing again (begrudgingly) with IngramSpark. They will then distribute to all of the major bookstore websites where you can order the books. I will be getting the print pre-order up as soon as I can, but I make no promises on how fast IngramSpark does this. They are one of the slowest companies to work with, so I may not get printed pre-orders available until 1 to 2 weeks before release.

As with The Mark of Amulii, printed books will be available in Paperback and Hardback with dust cover. I will not be using Amazon this time for hardcovers as this confused a lot of people expecting Amazon to be selling the hard copy with the dust cover. This design will be different, and will feature the cover image on the cover of the hardcover itself as well as the dust cover.

Amazon does not do printed pre-orders, so if you’re looking to pre-order the print copy, you’ll need to look at major online bookstores instead. I will post when printed books are available and where you can get them.

I am very excited to finally get this book out there, as this has been probably my best story to date. It’s also been a blast to work on, and while I’m sad working on it is coming to an end, I’ve never been more relieved. The feedback I’ve gotten has been phenomenal, and I have no doubt this book may be the book that puts me on the map as an author.

Time will tell, and I am very thankful for all the support!

-Aeron