Some of you may have received notices from Amazon that a few of my upcoming pre-orders were canceled, so I wanted to explain what happened.
The last few months have been a lot. Between losing time earlier this year, returning to my day job, and trying to maintain the publishing schedule I'd built, I eventually reached a point where I was simply moving faster than I could keep up with.
It sucks to find your limits. I don't particularly enjoy admitting that I found mine.
I didn't burn out. But looking at the schedule ahead of me, I realized that if I kept pushing the way I was, I was probably going to. More importantly, the books were going to pay the price along the way.
Life happens, and I think what matters more than anything is what you do once you realize something isn't working.
I had a choice. I could keep pushing to hit the dates I'd already announced, knowing that I'd be rushing books out the door, or I could take the hit, cancel several hundred existing pre-orders, and give these books the time they actually need.
I chose the second option.
The books themselves are not canceled.
Legacy & Succession, Ashes & Anchors, and The Battle of Eldermoor are still coming. I've simply removed the deadlines hanging over them for now. When they go back up for pre-order, it'll be because I'm comfortable with the book and the release date—not because I'm racing a clock.
Career Dazed and Tides of War are still scheduled as planned.
I'm also incredibly grateful to Amazon/KDP Support. They were gracious enough to take my recent circumstances into consideration and allow me to retain my ability to offer pre-orders in the future despite the cancellations. This isn't something they do often, and I genuinely appreciate the empathy they showed me.
Right now, my first priority is going back through Glyphs & Merit and giving it the additional attention it deserves. After that, I'll move forward with the rest of the schedule at a pace that lets me do the work properly.
Canceling those pre-orders hurt. There were more than 600 of them, representing readers who had already trusted me enough to buy books months before they existed. I don't take that lightly.
But I'd rather take that hit now than keep chasing momentum at the expense of the books themselves—or push myself until I actually do burn out.
Thank you to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, recommending the books, or simply waiting patiently for the next one.
They're still coming.
They just deserve to be done right.
