This book is my first book - first published - first written - and soon to be the first to be turned into a script (one of these days). As a first it will always hold a special place in my heart, but as a first it also has a few issues. As a first, this is the book that was where I did all my learning and made all my mistakes, and I'm talking about publishing mistakes. Not that I know it all, but it's rough when your first baby ventures out into the world and it's not treated with the care you think it should be. That is why I will never recommend a subsidy publisher to another writer; they don't care about the book, they want the money. Don't worry, this story isn't completely dead. It's still available from me under this cover, and will be until I run out.
At first, when it was all alone, having 50 books on hand was really cool. Knowing this box sitting in the corner held a book I wrote was an amazing thing. I mean, really, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I never imagined I'd write a book let alone publish it and people would buy and read it, and above all, enjoy it. Even though it has issues that bug me, I never got a bad review, and this is the book with the most reviews.
As I published more books, I was slow in learning the lesson about how many books to order. Through a mailing mishap, I started out with 100 of this books. When I published The Fortunes of Magic, another first in that I did it all by myself, I ordered 50 just because it was a nice round number. In the mean time, getting the books of my trilogy was hard, but I ordered 25 of the first book. It wasn't until much later that I could get the other two. When I published The Speed of Dreams, in order to make the book available in paperback, I had to order 50. By now, I was accumulating quite a stack of book boxes. But I did learn my lesson. When I discovered I was running out of my last two books, The Trials of the Youngest Princess and The Guardians, I only ordered 10 each. I have a stack of book boxes in the corner of my room that is waist high. My days of ordering 25 or more per book are over.
I still have over 30 of King by Right and Speed of Dreams, and more of Fortunes of Magic, but the rest are down within manageable numbers. Perhaps it's time for another give-away. I do love my readers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
