Cover reveal - Indestructible by Emma L. Adams

It's time to reveal the cover for Indestructible, the first in my next series!

Two years ago, the fiends invaded, with a devastating explosion that split the world in two. Even now, energy blasts strike without warning, destroying everything in their paths. The fiends hunt anyone unlucky enough to escape.

My name is Leah. An energy blast killed my group. It should have killed me, too. Instead, I woke up alone in the wilderness, stalked by the fiends.

My only hope is the red-cloaked strangers who call themselves the Pyros. They can do the impossible and make flames shoot from their hands. Right now, my one chance for safety -- and revenge -- is with them.

But they’re keeping secrets from me. Like those skeletons hidden under their base. And the reasons I developed a psychic link with someone who can’t stand the sight of me -- after he saved my life. 

If I don’t uncover the truth about why the world ended the first time, my new safe haven might go up in smoke…

Indestructible is the first in a YA post-apocalyptic superhero-fantasy trilogy. It'll be published on the 12th January 2016.

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Indie Publishing: What I did right, what I did wrong, and future plans.

What I did right

• Learned how to write a book first. I had to put this one here, because I think it's the most important. I had over ten years' experience struggling through first drafts and revising and rewriting and working with critique partners, beta readers and editors. I knew how to put a story together, and that knowledge was half the battle (and the reason I wrote the series so fast). I'm not Shakespeare, and I've had my fair share of bad reviews, but I always try my hardest to put out my best work.
• Wrote in a series and published consistently, constantly re-evaluating my goals and brainstorming new ideas. I made a plan and readjusted it as I went along, and ultimately planned to play the long game.
• Paid for professional covers and editing. I made sure my first venture into indie publishing was one I could be proud of.
• Had realistic expectations. I didn't expect to sell a million copies. It probably helped that I'd had a different series published with a small press, so I knew what to expect from the first few months (and was pleasantly surprised with the results).
• Used 99c sales (with advertising), cross-promotion and newsletters, rather than spending money on other promotional services which haven't worked for me in the past.
• Ignored spam emails from marketing companies. Seriously.
• Quit Goodreads (as an author). I love the site as a reader, but I'm so much happier not reading reviews...
• Used trackable links (smarturls) to figure out which promotional methods actually lead to sales. (Spoiler: not much, aside from ads.)

What I did wrong

• Wrote cross-genre. You can have a truly amazing premise, but if it doesn't fit into a recognisable sub-category, readers will struggle to find it unless you're already established. Of course, there's a chance it might be a runaway hit regardless, but given my track record, I'll be sticking to clear sub-genres in future.
• Wrote novellas and short stories. Prequel novellas have worked very well for some authors, but for me, they've been my worst-selling titles to date. Because I charge less for them, it's impossible to break even on a novella unless you do your own cover art, which I really should have considered beforehand.
• As for short stories, they work as an incentive to get people to sign up to my newsletter... possibly. I've only had one person contact me to say they enjoyed the story, out of over a thousand subscribers, and based on my trackable links, nobody who downloaded the story went on to buy any of my books. I find short stories more time-consuming to write than novels, so I probably won't be doing this again.
• Published widely and only moved to KDP Select later on. I wanted my books to be widely available, but ultimately, most of my sales came through Amazon. Based on my time in KDP Select, I could have done much better if I'd opted in from the start, especially with Countdown Deals.
• Committed to a long series without breaking even. This is a tricky one. I love the Alliance series, but the fact is, if I wasn't still living with my parents and didn't have any disposable income to invest in publishing once my setup budget ran out, I couldn't have afforded to publish six books in a series that was never going to make back the initial costs. However much I love a story, I never want to be put in the position where I'm forced to let fans down. Publishing is a harsh business.

What I'm planning to do in future

• Publish shorter series. I'm writing an urban fantasy trilogy which I plan to publish in 2016-17. If it does well, I have outlines for two follow-up trilogies set in the same world and ideas for other spinoffs, too. If it doesn't do well... I'll move onto something else.
• Pay more attention to the market. Enough said.
• I'll only be doing paperback versions of books if there's strong reader interest.  (Partly because of extra costs for paperback covers, partly because of the time formatting takes. None of my books have sold more than ten paperback copies in a lifetime.)
• If a marketing strategy or promotion doesn't work, I won't try it again with the same series. (This means things like pre-orders, paid advertising, etc.)
• Looking at my current sales figures and the amount of time I have available, there's a strong chance I won't be putting out all three remaining books in the Alliance series next year. Naturally, each subsequent book in a series sells fewer copies than the previous volumes, and I'm already finishing one series next year (the Darkworld series). Production costs are high, and most promotional tactics aren't having the effect they might have done a couple of years ago. (Even sales and freebies.) The remaining books will be published, because it's only fair to the readers who want to finish the series, but unless the books dramatically take off, I'll be putting other series first.

I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone who ultimately wants to write full-time, or at least have the main part of my income from selling novels. (At the moment, it's something like 80% freelance editing income, 20% book sales, with all my book earnings going back into production costs. And I've been published for over two years, with eight books currently on shelves.) I love what I do, and I'll continue to write fun side-projects as well as series, but I know I need to be more strategic about what I publish and when, if just to make this sustainable.

I'm sharing this because I read a lot of posts from self-published authors who are doing really well, which is great -- except it can seem to the rest of us like we're doing something wrong, even after following tips that have worked for other authors. Publishing isn't easy, and neither is building a fanbase. It's possible that some of these methods might actually work for authors who have fans who'd happily buy their grocery list, but after two and a half years of working overtime on promotion and making entirely too many sacrifices, I'm rethinking my strategy.

There are a lot of reasons books don't sell, and I can't pretend to know all of them, but I do know that luck is a major factor in a book's success. A lot of advice says "write what you love", but it tends to come from people who wrote something they loved that happened to be commercial. That isn't the case for all of us. And though a lot of factors can affect a book's success, once you've hooked a large number of readers on one book, it's much easier to sell future books to that audience, especially in the same sub-genre. On the other hand -- and this is from direct experience -- if a book isn't selling, it's extremely difficult to revive sales on a consistent basis without pouring more money into advertising and digging an even deeper hole.

Right now, my focus is on hitting the tipping point where my books sell themselves -- not necessarily in huge volumes, but enough that I don't feel like I'm throwing money away when I publish more sequels. So I'm putting my more commercially viable ideas first (though I admit all my ideas are pretty weird, and it's impossible to judge beforehand which book might inexplicably take off). I do have some other experiments in the works, too, so 2016 is set to be an interesting year. We'll see how it goes!

Release Day: Collision (Alliance, #3) by Emma L. Adams

It's release day for Collision, Book 3 in the universe-hopping urban fantasy Alliance series! I had a lot of fun writing this one, even though edits almost finished me off. (I went through eleven drafts before I got the story in the right order. A very good job I love this series!) Anyway, Collision contains angry forces of nature, a rabid unicorn, griffins, and the usual world-hopping magic and monsters. And an ending that changes everything… (*muahahaha*)

When Earth suddenly gains inexplicably high levels of magic, all fingers point at the Alliance.

On a distant world, where magic-fuelled forces of nature rule over humans, a disaster is sweeping the land, threatening to knock the Balance across the Multiverse out of sync. When Kay and Ada are sent there with the other Ambassadors, they’re thrown into the centre of chaos. Nature is alive, and angry.

Ada embraces the magic she still half-fears, but learning to control it proves harder than she can imagine. Kay, meanwhile, becomes more reckless than ever when testing the boundaries of his own abilities. When faced with living magic, no one is safe from its influence. Ada and Kay must choose what they’re willing to risk for the sake of saving a world that might already be doomed. Can mortals overcome the gods?

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Excerpt:

“Guys, stay back!” I yelled at two other guards who’d come to stand alongside me. “It’s not stable.”

I’m not stable.

But I had no choice. I struck with the stunner, sending a searing bolt of lightning at the nearest beast. Except the lightning didn’t come from the stunner. It came from my hand.

A nearby guard swore. “I’m out of shots.”

“Take mine,” I said quickly. “I can fight without it.” Magic seemed to want me to.

“Thanks,” he said, blinking like he was surprised I’d give away my weapon, and caught the stunner.

A snarling bundle of red smoke descended on us. How many of these things were there? For every one I knocked down, two more appeared, sparking and trailing smoke. I struck another with a bolt of magic, aiming at the floor to make sure I didn’t hit any of the other guards. The beast dissolved in smoke… and then divided in two. Like some ghastly hydra. Both halves growled at me, sparks flying out from their clawed, smoky red hands.

Shit. I backed away, thinking hard.

A rumbling sounded, and the ground trembled under my feet. What the hell? I’d thought the reinforced floor was impervious to any kind of hit. The magic. It’s got to be the magic. Lucky my shoes were magicproof, too.

“I’m getting outta this corridor!” someone shouted, and the sound of running footsteps clattered on metal.

A growl sounded, but before I could strike the two smoky creatures down, both dissolved into a formless red haze. Through the fog, guards ran everywhere, shouting, while I struck out with magic, to no effect. The magic-creatures had turned themselves into smoke, and it was like trying to beat up a cloud. At least we all looked equally ridiculous, I thought as I spun on the spot in what probably looked like an undignified ballet manoeuvre. Another guard face-planted, while a second tripped over him and brought the two of them crashing into a heap.

And the floor shook again, the smoke coalescing in the centre to form one formidable beast, filling the space from floor to ceiling. A shower of purple-red danced off the walls. I jumped back, but not before a spark grazed my forehead. The pain was more sharp than electric. Wincing, I braced myself against the wall, out of range of the magic. I still couldn’t see the creature. It was made of pure magic, and didn’t have a solid form. But I could feel the energy burning, and it was all concentrated in one place. The monster had pulled all the magic in the area into itself. It has to burn out. It can’t keep going like that.

But the monster didn’t show any signs of slowing down. Stunner shots mingled with the sparks, and inhuman screams told us at least one hit the target. My hands shook too much to risk aiming another magic shot, even as I felt the creature’s magic surging through the air. A bolt of pain shot through my forehead. I reached to touch the skin, and found it blistering hot. I thought magic couldn’t hit me!

Start the series from the beginning with Adamant (Alliance, #1), only 99 cents this week!

Ever since a devastating magical war tore apart Ada Fletcher's homeworld, she and her family have lived under cover on the low-magic Earth. Stuck in a dead-end job in London, Ada has spent her life hiding her true identity--and her magic. Until she loses her job, is chased by a rampaging monster, and is arrested as a prime suspect for a murder she had nothing to do with. It really isn't Ada's day.

Kay Walker, grandson of the Inter-World Alliance's late founder, expects to spend his first week as an Alliance employee hunting rogue monsters, not solving his supervisor's murder or questioning a strange, fierce young woman caught trespassing in the Passages between worlds. Killer or not, her abilities raise questions about the Alliance's history, and the closer he gets to the truth, the higher the body count rises.

The last thing Ada wants to do is help the infuriating Alliance guard who arrested her, but it soon becomes clear that the Alliance knows too much about Ada's magic. More, in fact, than she knows herself. One thing's certain: she's not the only one keeping secrets, and trusting the wrong person might cost more than her life.

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What reviewers are saying

"Adams delivers high suspense throughout the whole book and manages to get you emotionally attached to the main characters which keeps you worried at every twist and turn. I basically flew through the action-packed story with its monsters and magic." - Goodreads reviewer

"Adamant is a fantastic start to a fun, adventurous and super cool series... Can't praise it enough!" - Alisha at Reality's A Bore.

Discovering she's a walking magical weapon is just the beginning of Ada's problems.

Joining the Alliance might be the key to seeing the worlds she's always dreamed of, but now Ada's in trouble with her family and her boss has put her on goblin-catching duty. With enemies around every corner and a centaur uprising threatening to bring a bloodbath to Earth's doorstep, the Alliance has their work cut out. While investigating the mysterious death of the centaurs' king, Kay and Ada navigate tensions between humans and centaurs and find the real, deadly potential of magic.

Against an enemy they quite literally can't see, Ada and Kay must face up to the power that almost destroyed their lives...

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The Passages between worlds are out of bounds for a very good reason, but nineteen-year-old Kay Walker sees them as another challenge. Exploring the monster-ridden tunnels offers a thrill nothing on Earth can match. Until a rivalry escalates into a deadly game, and the lure of magic comes with a high price...

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Some tips for streamlining the writing process!

I've been writing long enough that I know the subjective nature of most writing advice. My weird process probably won't work for most people. For example, I draft fast because I need to keep my head in the story consistently from beginning to end, otherwise I lose track and the story ends up a confused, contradictory mess. I haven't always been a fast writer, and I've found that, over time, I've become more efficient at writing cleaner drafts in less time, too. So, here are some of my tips for getting some control over the chaotic process of writing a book...

• Write everything down. Most of my ideas develop quickly because I have so many notes from old projects and ideas. I can't control when an idea will strike, but I can control the process of developing a concept into a workable outline (I've written about this before, and my process is essentially the same but more character-focused). I've had years of stalled and failed projects to learn from, and this planning process has worked for all the manuscripts I've written in the past year and a half.
• Related: Scrivener templates. I made a workable template in Scrivener and I reuse it for every new manuscript. I used to plan by hand and still sometimes brainstorm in notebooks before an idea's developed enough to make a project folder for, but Scrivener makes reorganising and cut-and-pasting easy. So I have an "Ideas" folder where I write down my initial inspiration and any ideas that occur to me. Then I have different folders for the main characters and their arcs, synopses for each book, various areas of worldbuilding, etc. And then I have a main manuscript folder divided into chapters with my outline template pasted into them, complete with story beats. It did take a while to actually set up the template (it's a work-in-progress that changes slightly with each book), but now, all I need to do is create a new folder and the tools for writing a book are right there in front of me. I never entirely stick to the actual outline, but I've used this basic template for the last eight books I've written and the chapter/story beat estimator is pretty much spot on. Since setting this up, not only are my ideas much better-organised, but I'm quicker at outlining and actually *gasp* don't mind writing a synopsis. Much.
• Things I figure out in advance: character arc, main conflict, goals, stakes. An issue with one of these can undermine the entire story, so by figuring these out in the beginning, I'm hoping to avoid major problems in edits. Even if I don't entirely stick to my outline, the one thing that usually doesn't change is the main character's arc. Figuring that out in advance is key to understanding that even if the story takes a new direction, it makes sense for the character(s). Most of my outline diverging happens when my characters take the reins anyway...
• Plan ahead, especially with a series. I always pre-outline my series and it saves so much time in the long run.
• Or have multiple projects on the go, especially when waiting for emails. I'd have driven myself crazy during the ten-month gap between edit rounds on the third Darkworld book if I hadn't had other projects. The risk, of course, is that everything will land in your inbox at the same time (as happened to me), but it's better than constant inbox refreshing!
• Bookmark everything. I have folders of bookmarked pages on writing advice, plotting, research, etc. Again, it took a while to set up, but if I want to check on something, I can do so without falling down an internet black hole. (I also sometimes take notes if I find a particularly useful article, and work them into my Scrivener template so I can find them when I plan a new project.)
• And... write everything down. I have a list on a post-it note of the steps to develop an idea into an outline, and another of the various editing stages. I keep these on my desk so I can grab them whenever I'm stuck mid-draft or before starting edits. Again, this is subjective, but after working with CPs and editors, I know what my own weaknesses are, so I can be sure to try to address them (see this post on my editing process). I hesitate to say it gets "easier" with each book, but you do tend to become attuned to your own problem areas as a writer after years of feedback! 

Obviously, this advice is coming from a self-confessed organisation-freak. Sometimes I wish I could just throw myself into a draft with abandon, but I've compared it to jumping out a plane without a parachute before and it never ends well for me. One thing I will say is: experience definitely helps reduce the fear of starting a new project!

Some excellent resources I've used:

Rachel Aaron - 2K-10K: Writing Faster, Better, and Writing More of What You Love
Libbie Hawker - Take Off Your Pants: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing
Chris Fox - 5000 Words Per Hour

Cover Reveal: Collision (Alliance, #3)

It's finally time to reveal the cover for Collision (Alliance, #3)! 

Oh, this cover. *heart eyes* I kind of want it as wallpaper. I've been so incredibly lucky with covers for this series!

Blurb: When Earth suddenly gains inexplicably high levels of magic, all fingers point at the Alliance.

On a distant world, where magic-fuelled forces of nature rule over humans, a disaster is sweeping the land, threatening to knock the Balance across the Multiverse out of sync. When Kay and Ada are sent there with the other Ambassadors, they’re thrown into the centre of chaos. Nature is alive, and angry.

Ada embraces the magic she still half-fears, but learning to control it proves harder than she can imagine. Kay, meanwhile, becomes more reckless than ever when testing the boundaries of his own abilities. When faced with living magic, no one is safe from its influence. Ada and Kay must choose what they’re willing to risk for the sake of saving a world that might already be doomed. Can mortals overcome the gods?

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What's coming next: release dates and more!

As Demon Heart released on Monday, I thought I'd update on my current book release schedule! (For a quick reference, the "Release Schedule" tab above is usually the best option.)

My next release is Collision (Alliance, #3). The cover reveal is on the 26th, and I'll be putting the pre-order up this weekend. It'll be published on the 17th November.

Next... is when things get confusing. Because I have some books with a small press, and two series in various stages of edits, I'll be alternating releases between the three series throughout next year.

My next release after Collision will be the first in my YA post-apocalyptic trilogy, Indestructible. I've set the 12th January for release day and the pre-order will go up at the beginning of January.

My second release of 2016 is Darkworld Book 4, Souls Forsaken. You can already add it on Goodreads, and it's scheduled for the 7th March 2016.

Afterwards, Alliance Book 4 will most likely follow in the last week of March or early April. The second book in the Indestructible trilogy will also be out in April. (I told you it was confusing. :P)

Then the third and final book in the Indestructible trilogy will be out in June.

Right now, I'm estimating July for Alliance Book 5. Then Darkworld Book 5, Darkness Falling, will be out on the 7th November 2016. Alliance Book 6 will either follow before or after, depending on scheduling and edits.

*breathes*

Five of the eight books scheduled for next year are already edited, so this is do-able! My YA fantasy is also in edits, but I'm waiting until I have a better idea when that'll be ready to decide when to fit it into the schedule. 2016 is going to be fun! :D

Release Day: Demon Heart (Darkworld, #3) by Emma L. Adams

It's here! At last! I'm so excited to share the third in the Darkworld series. I originally wrote this book in the university library in Lancaster between March and May 2013 as a break from my final-year dissertation. This is the turning-point in the series, where things really heat up and I get to share that plot twist. ;) I've had some of these scenes planned for over seven years! (I recycled some of the unused plot points from my first, unpublished series when I planned this one. Including a certain character...)

Anyway, here it is! :D

Can a demon’s heart of ice be thawed?

Ash may have escaped death several times, but now things are finally looking up. The doppelganger is gone, she’s dating Leo, and the Venantium are staying away from her – for now. But a new threat rises from the Darkworld, and only the fortune-teller knows the true extent of the danger they’re in.

Lucifer, a sorcerer who did the impossible and cheated death through escaping to the Darkworld, is on the move. Now his second-in-command, Mephistopheles the demon, is loose in our world – and will do anything to win Ash over to his side.

The Venantium fear a repeat of the Demon Wars, the demonic invasion that wiped out the Blackstone family. But there’s more to those events than the records reveal. When Ash finds the lost diary of Melivia Blackstone, she starts to dig into the past to find the town’s forgotten history – leading to a revelation that shocks her to the core.

Leo seems to be the only person Ash can rely on, yet can she truly open up to him, knowing what she is? Blackstone’s dark history is rising to the surface, and it seems even memory can lie. The worst betrayal waits around the corner, and Ash has to decide whether to trust Leo with her darkest secret, even when it has the potential to destroy them both…

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Excerpt

Fire sprang up all around me, orange flames licking at my skin. I flinched away from the writhing wall of fire, which cut off any chance of escape.

I stood in a large room, a bedroom. Through the haze of smoke I could see a four-poster bed, its feathery curtains ablaze. Flickering tendrils of fire ate away at the posh-looking furniture, smoke gushing out in clouds. On the wall opposite hung a magnificent, gilt-framed painting of a girl with long, curly black hair. As I watched, the paint peeled away from the background as the ever-spreading blaze devoured it. Underneath the roar of the fire I heard a whimper, and realised I wasn’t alone.

A girl crouched in the corner of the room, arms wrapped around her knees, apparently oblivious to the fire raging around her. I tried to walk over to her but a wall of flames barred my way, flaring out of the lush carpet.

"Stay... out."

 The girl raised her head, but she didn’t seem to see me standing there. She was older than I’d thought; her hunched position had made her look like a child, but she was probably around the same age as me. Her dark hair spilled from a bun, and her gown, similar to the one in the painting, was crumpled and stained, as though she’d fallen in the mud outside.

“Stay… out.”

 Her eyes looked right through me, and I gasped. They shone violet. A demon’s eyes.

 She doubled over, coughing. I tried to call to her to get out of the burning room, but it was like something had stapled my mouth shut. Dreaming. I’m dreaming.

“Stay… out!”

Her eyes flashed again, turning grey-black, ordinary, human. I recognised it. She was fighting possession with everything she had.

“Is this what you want?”

The demon used her mouth to speak, but didn’t need to; its voice sounded in my mind, sliding through me like an ice-cold knife.

“I’ll burn you,” she said, in a tremulous voice. “I’ll burn with you.”

“Then burn.”

Start with Darkness Watching, the first in the YA paranormal Darkworld series.

Watched by demons no one else can see, eighteen-year-old Ash think she's losing her mind. But the truth is far more frightening: she can see into the Darkworld, the home of spirits, and the darkness is staring back. 

All she wants at university is a second chance at a normal life, but her new home in the small town of Blackstone has secrets of its own. The Venantium, the sorcerers who maintain the barrier keeping demons from crossing from the Darkworld into our own world, have their eyes on Ash. And a group of rogue sorcerers might be the only ones who can offer the answers she's looking for. In a world where darkness lurks beneath the surface, not everyone is what they appear to be...

#1 Bestseller in New Adult & College Fantasy

Winner of the Blogger Book Fair 2014 Speculative Fiction Reader's Choice Award for Paranormal/Supernatural Fiction.

Amazon   Barnes and Noble  Goodreads  Read Chapter One.

When you have a connection to the Darkworld, nowhere is truly safe.

Ashlyn has found a new home in Blackstone, but when a spate of grave robberies across the country spark fears that someone is practicing illegal sorcery, she comes under the radar of the Venantium, the protectors of the Barrier between her world and the Darkworld, who are suspicious of any sorcerer unaware of their origins.

The trouble is, what Ash does know might just get her killed.

Sufferers of the dangerous condition known as the vampire’s curse are being brutally killed, and the latest victim is Leo’s guardian, the ex-head of the Venantium. Ash determines to help Leo find out what’s really going on, but it isn’t long before events are spiralling out of control. The dead are rising from their graves, and the barriers around Blackstone are threatened by a demon which looks exactly like Ash herself…

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When university student Claudia's life takes a turn for the weird, she finds her new social life revolves around fighting sinister shadow-monsters and trying not to get arrested by the creepy organization which hunts them down. When a fellow magic-user comes to her for help, Claudia is pulled into a web of secrets -- secrets that might cost more than her life.

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Emma spent her childhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly average reality, so it was probably inevitable that she ended up writing speculative fiction with magic and monsters. She lives in the middle of England, but dreams of exploring the Multiverse. When she's not immersed in her own fictional worlds, Emma works as a freelance editor and proofreader and reads an improbable number of books.

Emma is the author of various fantasy novels, including the universe-hopping urban fantasy Alliance series and the YA paranormal Darkworld series.

Visit www.emmaladams.com to find out more about Emma's books, or subscribe to her newsletter (smarturl.it/ELAnewsletter) to get a free Alliance short story and monthly updates on upcoming releases.

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Announcing... new books! :D

I've been looking forward to announcing this one for a while! :D Yes... in 2016, I'm publishing a new series!

If you're following my blog, you've probably heard me mention a certain YA post-apocalyptic fantasy novel called Indestructible. It's had an interesting history--I wrote it in 2013/14, put it through three rounds of critiques and polishing, drafted the sequel... and shelved it for a year, because a) post-apocalyptic wasn't selling, and b) when I decided to try self-publishing, the Alliance series demanded my full attention.

Once I'd finished drafting that series, I pulled out Indestructible again and decided to rewrite the sequel and turn it into a trilogy. I then revised all three books, hired a freelance developmental editor and did another major overhaul, and I've been waiting for the madness of my summer schedule to be over before I announced the news!

So: Indestructible. It's a post-apocalyptic superhero story about invading monsters from another dimension and a group of super-powered warriors who were supposed to defend the Earth, but failed. So we're kind of screwed. ;) The series has a few things in common with the Alliance series, but it's more YA in tone and content. I'm publishing Indestructible early in 2016!

Before Alliance series readers panic, I'm still publishing the rest of the books in the series next year! In fact, I've now confirmed a release date for Collision (Alliance, #3): 17th November 2015. The Alliance series books are much more complicated and need a dozen rounds of editing each (unfortunately, I'm not exaggerating!), and I don't want to overwhelm my CPs, beta readers or cover artist. The Indestructible series is already complete and edited and cover art is in progress, so I can publish those books on a quicker schedule. And the dates for the Darkworld series are set by the publisher.

Want early news? I'll be sharing covers, blurbs and excerpts with my newsletter subscribers first.

I'm also officially opening membership to my Advance Reader Team! The ARC Team is like a mailing list, except I'll only send an email out when I have advance copies of one of my books available. To explain a little: I've published six books in two years (I know! I can't believe it, either. :)), and I haven't been super-organised with keeping track of blogger and reviewer details. I get 30-50 emails a day, and it's easy to lose track... especially when I'm publishing multiple series next year. I don't want anyone to miss out on my future releases! So, you only need to sign up to the team once, and you'll get an email when copies of each book are available to review. There's absolutely no obligation to sign up to review every book, and you can opt out at any time. That way, I'll have all the information on one spreadsheet when I send out e-ARCs of Indestructible in December!

Sign up here!

If you want to help out and get access to behind-the-scenes stuff, there's also my street team, which is always open for members. :)

Thoughts from six months of self-publishing

I always meant to blog about things I've learned since starting self-publishing, but for some reason I keep forgetting to. (Okay, it's probably because I'm having too much fun self-publishing to blog about it. :P) But I thought I'd share some thoughts and lessons learned in the six months since Adamant released.

• This is absolutely the right path for me. I write non-conventional stories that don't subscribe to one sub-genre, and have a knack for completely missing trends. Everything's a hard sell these days, and publishers can't afford to take too many risks (which is why so many established indie authors and people who've done well on sites like Wattpad are landing contracts--they've already proven they have an audience). But at the same time... well, just look under the urban fantasy and dystopian categories on Amazon. Plainly, readers do still want these stories, even if agents and publishers are burned out on them. Also, I write MG, YA, and adult books in all sub-genres of fantasy and sci-fi, and I jump around a lot. I'd hate to be tied into a contract that stopped me exploring all the worlds I want to write about.
• Related: with indie publishing, there's room to experiment. You can write that time travel werewolf cyberpunk romance without fearing rejection. (No, this is not on my project list. :P) If something doesn't work in marketing, you can stop, research, find a new approach. You can replace book covers, rewrite blurbs, make your own release schedule and decide whether to do pre-orders. If something goes wrong, it's much easier to fix it yourself than sending multiple emails to your publisher hoping they'll put it right (believe me, I know).
• I'm eternally glad I learned the craft first. I think this is the part that makes some people wary of self-publishing--the lack of quality control. I self-published my fifteenth novel, after I'd already signed contracts for five other books with a small press and spent years working with critique partners, beta readers and editors. I could have gone indie sooner, but I'm glad the first two novels I wrote are on my computer never to be touched again. It can be tempting to rush into publishing, but I definitely don't regret the time spent learning to construct a story (even if my first novel took ten years...).
• It's always worth getting a professional edit and cover design. I wrote more about this in my post on marketing, but you only get one chance to impress potential readers!
• People will try to scam you. You'll get marketing companies bombarding your inbox asking for money, and start-up publishers begging you to give their services a try. Be extremely wary of anyone claiming to be "experts" on publishing or asking for your time, money, or partnership. Not everything's a scam, but some "services" are completely unnecessary. I'm not the most tech-savvy person, but I saved $100+ on ebook formatting by learning to do it myself using Scrivener. There are people who'll offer to upload your books to e-retailers for a price, when, well, it's free. Research is absolutely key.
• But the vast majority of people will welcome you. It's a very odd feeling, because my publishing history has been shaky, to say the least. As a 20-year-old student, I signed a contract with a "small publisher" (read: vanity press) for a middle-grade fantasy book which turned out to be the worst mistake of my writing career. I lost a lot of money, and I watched my book crash and burn as a helpless onlooker. But I think the worst part was feeling like I'd squandered that all-important "debut" opportunity. I wasn't allowed into debut author groups, and I put off re-querying because I dreaded having to explain my potentially career-ruining mistake to agents when I was already getting derisive comments from (luckily only a few) other writers, telling me I wasn't a "real author". But as an indie author, I've had nothing but support.
• You can be business-focused without compromising your creativity. It's an advantage to have a series and a solid release plan, but ultimately, it's writing more books that will win you readers -- not spending hours chasing new marketing strategies for just one book (I've made this mistake before!). I've also seen people put off self-publishing because of the fear of admin cutting into their writing time, but traditionally published authors also have to register as self-employed, keep expenses records for tax purposes, and deal with resulting admin headaches. And ultimately, it's the author who has to decide which project to work on -- no matter how they publish.
• This post from Hugh Howey really spoke to me. I admit part of the reason I put off self-publishing even though I'd been researching the process since 2012 (!) was due to the fear of having to do everything myself, with no publisher for backup. There's a learning curve, but the actual process of self-publishing was far less intimidating than I'd been led to believe, and there are whole forums and communities of other indie authors (like KBoards) who are happy to offer advice. Yes, I probably work more hours than I did before, but those hours are invested in my career. And let's face it, I'm a workaholic anyway. ;)
• I'm much happier indie publishing. Of course, I'm not ruling out querying again, but right now, I'm more inspired, more prolific, and far less frustrated with the few irritating parts of the process (like paperback formatting) than I was with my attempts to break into traditional publishing.

Obviously, this is just my experience. It probably helps that I work freelance anyway, so I'm used to the uneven hours, keeping track of expenses and doing my own tax returns, and never being entirely away from work. I'm fairly prolific, I want this to be my career, and I never want a repeat experience of the helplessness of watching a book taken out of my hands and mishandled by a publisher who knew less about the reality of publishing in this day and age than I did at the time. As I said, I won't rule out querying again, but I can't deny the control over my release schedule and the ability to watch a book go from first draft to finished product is addictive. ;)

Of course there are risks involved, but without a doubt, I'd rather put a book out and risk it not selling than invest months or years in a project which might never see the light of day at all. Maybe I'll never have a breakout success, but as long as I can keep writing and publishing the stories I love, I couldn't be happier.

Cover reveal: Demon Heart (Darkworld, #3)

I'm so excited to finally share the cover for Demon Heart (Darkworld, #3)! No joke, this has been sitting on my computer since June 2014. But it's worth the wait! :D 

*eek* I absolutely love it, and I'm beyond thrilled to share the third book in this series!

Here's the blurb:

Can a demon’s heart of ice be thawed?

Ash may have escaped death several times, but now things are finally looking up. The doppelganger is gone, she’s dating Leo, and the Venantium are staying away from her – for now. But a new threat rises from the Darkworld, and only the fortune-teller knows the true extent of the danger they’re in.

Lucifer, a sorcerer who did the impossible and cheated death through escaping to the Darkworld, is on the move. Now his second-in-command, Mephistopheles the demon, is loose in our world – and will do anything to win Ash over to his side.

The Venantium fear a repeat of the Demon Wars, the demonic invasion that wiped out the Blackstone family. But there’s more to those events than the records reveal. When Ash finds the lost diary of Melivia Blackstone, she starts to dig into the past to find the town’s forgotten history – leading to a revelation that shocks her to the core.

Leo seems to be the only person Ash can rely on, yet can she truly open up to him, knowing what she is? Blackstone’s dark history is rising to the surface, and it seems even memory can lie. The worst betrayal waits around the corner, and Ash has to decide whether to trust Leo with her darkest secret, even when it has the potential to destroy them both…

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You can sign up to promote Demon Heart on the 19th October and/or Collision (Alliance, #3) on the 11th November here. :)

Marketing: What I've learned!

I've been published for over two and a half years (if you count my first book, which is currently out of print). So I frequently get asked questions by new writers about how to market their books. I'm definitely not an expert, and the first rule of marketing is that nobody knows what works. ;) But I know I've picked up some things, and let's face it, I've made every mistake possible. It's like when people ask me for careers' advice... (Er, "Don't do what I did"? :P) But I thought this'd be helpful to share, so here are some of the things I've learned.

Be professional. 

If you have a shiny professional website and/or blog, you'll look like a professional before you sell a single copy. The same goes for the books themselves--never skimp on editing and cover design. I have zero graphic design skills and like most writers, I never spot all the issues in my own work, so the majority of my publishing budget goes on editing and cover art costs. Meanwhile, tweet and post on social media as if you have a dozen fans eagerly awaiting your release--not the same as spam, which I'll get to in a second...

Please, please don't spam. 

Direct Messages to strangers on Twitter will turn people off buying your book, and some people--like me--will automatically unfollow. I can no longer find genuine messages in my DM folder because of all the "buy my book" auto-DMs. Please don't!

If you're promoting, keep it interesting. 

Okay, that's kind of vague... Some people advise you not to use scheduled promo tweets, for example, but I've actually found them to work--if targeted right. Don't just say, "buy my book", because when everyone's tweeting the same thing, it just turns into white noise. Quote a review, mention the genre/category, or tell me something cool (the "unique selling point"). In the past, I've bought books because the authors' "promotional" tweets are hilarious (see Chuck Wendig's Twitter and blog, for example), or they mention something that catches my attention (anything with dragons, a cool magic system or multiple worlds, for example. But that might just be me. :P). You don't just want to sound like a promo-machine, but a person.

Be generous.

If it's your first time publishing, reach out and fellow writers will be happy to help--with everything from answering questions to promoting. Cross-promoting with other authors is a great way to build relationships. The KBoards forum is great for indie authors, and there are lots of groups like the Waiting on 2016 group (for MG/YA/NA books coming out in 2016) open to new members (indie or traditional).

The best way to build reviews is to contact book bloggers in your genre asking for a review in exchange for an advance e-copy of your book. Be sure to research their genre preferences and write a personalised request. Book bloggers are some of the hardest-working people out there, and might well become your biggest fans!

Be ruthless when it comes to protecting your time--and money! 

Marketing can not only be a time-suck, it can lure you into paying for things you don't need. You can actually do most things yourself, without paying someone else to do it for you.

Okay, it's time for some honesty here. I was not sensible with this when I first published. With Darkness Watching, as an example, I:

• Booked three release blitzes with different tour companies.
• Booked a cover reveal, review tour and review feature with Xpresso Tours.
• Spent an unknown number of hours emailing over 300 bloggers asking for reviews.
• Took part in over a dozen giveaways and Facebook events and gave away 200+ free copies.
• Paid for various other services (e.g. Goodreads advertising)

None of this was reflected in sales. (Ouch.)

Let's compare with Adamant...

• Lola's Blog Tours organised a cover reveal/pre-order promotion six weeks before release.
• I organised the release day book blitz and sent out review copies myself. (Note: I already had a small group of interested readers from my other series, but I was still starting from scratch in a new genre.) I emailed a select number of bloggers, as well as people who'd enjoyed my first book.
• I put the second book in the series up for pre-order the day before the first book released.
• I took part in a multi-author book promotion a month after the release, dropping the price to 99 cents.
• I also dropped Adamant's price the week Nemesis (Alliance, #2) released.

I spent much less time and money promoting Adamant, yet sold a lot more copies. Part of that was luck, and having a slightly bigger following than I did with DW. I'd also used trial and error with my first book to figure out what doesn't work. For instance, blog tours are great exposure, but cost at least $60-200. Personally, I've never sold enough copies during a tour to justify the expense, and writing interviews and guest posts cuts into my novel-writing time. Now I'm mostly indie publishing, I've had to cut my marketing budget down in order to cover editing and cover design costs.

Money management isn't my strongest point, admittedly, but there are so many publishing costs that sneak up on you, like web hosting, ordering proofs and paperbacks, posting giveaway prizes, swag, and the main one: advertising.

Here's my general rule: if the time and/or money isn't worth it, I don't do it.

Time is just as important as money, especially if you work freelance, like me. For instance, I rarely write short stories and novellas, because they take me just as long as novels do, but don't sell well/at all. I've written a couple of short stories for my newsletter subscribers, and I'd love to be able to do more--but I just haven't had enough response to justify spending time on that when I could be working on novel-length fiction. I'm a freelancer with a busy schedule. If something isn't working, I have to reshuffle my priorities.

Unfortunately, that also applies to releases, which is where Creativity and Business sometimes go head to head. For instance, I mentioned I cancelled my first MG series because of poor sales. I literally couldn't afford to publish sequels, even though I got the rights back from my ex-publisher. I have another MG fantasy I absolutely love, but given my past sales in the category, I just can't justify the costs of publishing it.

With DW, on the other hand, I had a publisher and a planned series. I wouldn't advise quitting a series over disappointing initial sales, though I was extremely lucky to have a publisher to shoulder the costs of the Darkworld series. My advice would be: publish Books 2 and 3, market the hell out of the first book (maybe setting the price to 99c or free), and if sales still aren't picking up and you have a 10-book epic planned... well, if it were me, I'd have to put it aside. Because of this, I'm only planning trilogies for now, except for the Darkworld and Alliance series (and they're subject to reshuffling, too).

Now, as I plan next year's release schedule, guess which projects get priority? The ones readers want. If readers ask for something, it goes straight to the top of the list--literally. I track book sales on spreadsheets, and I have a Scrivener document for marketing, where I'll plan future promotions and make notes on what worked and what didn't. And I schedule my releases based on two things: time and reader enthusiasm. For instance, my next series is pre-drafted and has received an enthusiastic response from readers so far. For this reason, I'm launching the first book early next year with a big promo push.

So, what marketing works for me? 99c sales, freebies, newsletters, some advertising and cross-promotion.

Currently, DW sells better than Adamant... because of a BookBub ad in May that catapulted it to the top of the Amazon charts. So DW actually has a much wider appeal, despite its initial low sales: it just took that extra push. BookBub is incredible, but is also extremely competitive and expensive for certain genres. DW took eighteen months and 50+ reviews to get in! (Another reason why reviews are so important.)

Here's what I do to promote:

• I keep my website updated, and stick to a limited number of social media accounts--my blog, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. I also use Tumblr and Pinterest, but more casually. I don't actually do a lot of direct promotion, but posting semi-regularly helps. Even if it's about my stubborn manuscript. :P
• Personally, I feel a little tacky using scheduled tweets, but they do actually work sometimes, especially during sales or promotions. (I recommend Buffer App because you can see which tweets got the most clicks, but Tweetdeck scheduling works, too.)
• I run a street team for my most dedicated fans, who get first look at everything from covers to blurbs.
• I send out a newsletter if I have something to share. For example, this year:

January - Adamant’s cover and blurb, and an early chance to sign up for e-ARCs.

February - Sneak peek at the first chapter of Adamant.

March - Adamant release day, and early cover reveal for Nemesis, subscriber-only giveaway.

April - Adamant 99c promotion, Blogoversary giveaway.

May - Free short story, which I now offer to all new subscribers for free. DW 99c sale.

June - Nemesis published, Adamant reduced to 99c.

July - Early cover reveal for Delinquent: An Alliance Novella, early review opportunity.
August - Delinquent published. Early news about my next series.
September - Cover reveals for Demon Heart and Collision. Subscriber-only giveaway.

• With new releases, I offer the chance to sign up for advance copies-first my street team, then my newsletter, then I'll post about it on my blog and social media. I keep a list of reviewers who've enjoyed my books and reliably post reviews, so I can contact them again about future releases. 
• I don't do much advance promotion. Big publishers promote their books up to six months in advance, because they get longer pre-orders. The only reason I did a cover reveal for Adamant was because it was up for pre-order on all platforms, so there was a chance of making sales (which I did). However, I'm doing Twitter chats and cross-promotion with the #WO2016 group this year, which should help build buzz for my next series in 2016.
• I do pre-orders, but I'm still experimenting with this. I find 2-4 weeks in advance is better than the full 3 months (the maximum allowed by Amazon), unless there's a huge audience waiting to buy the book.
• If I'm doing a blog promotion, I'll organise it myself. I only do this for the first book in a series, and I send a HTML blog post to participants. along with review copies to anyone who signed up for one. I've worked with some wonderful blog tour organisers over the past two years, but I have a very limited marketing budget, which almost exclusively goes on advertising now.
• Each time I plan a 99c sale on the first in one of my series, I'll sign up to as many free promotion sites as I can, then pick a limited number of paid ones. Aside from Bookbub, sites I can recommend are: Ereader News Today, Book Barbarian (for fantasy and SF), Fussy Librarian, BuckBooks. (These are all sites I've used and actually made back the money spent on promotion--not always a guarantee, unfortunately!)

So here's my final tip... research.

Hear about a new site? A new opportunity? Research. Anyone can call themselves an "expert" or set up a tour or publicity company and charge for anything from promotions to reviews (please, please don't pay for any reviews. It's against Amazon's Terms of Service, for one thing, and there are hundreds of bloggers who'll happily review for free). I get multiple emails a day from people offering me the "secret" to marketing, or begging me to submit to their site. I'm automatically sceptical, because I've been burned by so-called-professionals in the past. Be extremely wary, especially for anything that charges money. I say the same thing about editing services, but most professional editors and proofreaders, like me, provide a sample edit first. For marketers and tour companies, look for testimonials from other authors to prove their services actually led to sales. To quote Mad-Eye Moody, constant vigilance.

Recommended resources

Kboards.com - the Writer's Cafe is one of the best places to find answers to almost every question.
http://www.susankayequinn.com/p/for-writers.html - Susan's blog is another great resource, as is her Indie Author Survival Guide. For more experienced writers, her new book, For Love or Money, is invaluable!

http://www.lindsayburoker.com/ - Lindsay Buroker's blog is also packed with useful information.

Let’s Get Visible - David Gaughran

Indie Author Survival Guide – Susan Kaye Quinn

Let’s Get Digital – David Gaughran

Write. Publish. Repeat – Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant

How to Market a Book – Joanna Penn

Release Day: Delinquent: An Alliance Novella + a $10 Amazon giveaway!

It's release day for Delinquent: An Alliance Novella! This is a novella set two years before Adamant. If you're curious about certain events mentioned in the series, this is the place to find out what really happened! :)

Nineteen-year-old Kay Walker seems to have it all, including an assured future with the Alliance after he graduates from the prestigious Academy. But when he and his friends discover the lure of the Passages, the place between the worlds where monsters hide, they’re caught up in a contest with rival student Aric - which soon escalates into a deadly game.

A perfect life hides lies, and Kay becomes a target for alluring yet deadly magic he has no way of understanding. Magic is a force on its own, and on no one’s side…

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Buy the book ($0.99/£0.99): Amazon   Kobo  Barnes and Noble  Apple  Smashwords

Excerpt

“Not to worry,” I said. “If there’s anything around, it’s nothing worse than we’ve faced in training.” Which was true. Coming face to face with a Passage monster wasn’t a big deal. We’d be doing that on a regular basis in a couple of years. And if it turned out we couldn’t handle it, we’d run like hell. If anything wandered this close to the stairs, then like I’d said—it was our duty to deal with it.

“Let’s do this,” I said.

My fingertips found the hidden panel in the wall. Loose. Something had tried to get it open before—recently. Marks on the edge became visible. Okay, something with really big hands had tried to get it open.

Hmm. Maybe this wasn’t my smartest move. But it was too late to turn back. The panel opened at the slightest touch, and sure enough, a steep staircase appeared in the gloom.

The staircase was shorter than I expected, and led into another corridor. I definitely heard movement ahead. Our footsteps made no noise, and gradually, a faint growling became distinct.

“Damn,” I whispered. “That’s way too close to first level.”

Andy froze, swearing under his breath. Simon and I continued, and when we rounded a corner, we found our monster.

It was easily seven feet tall, and looked like a hairless bull, except it walked on two legs. Its pinkish skin was marked with scars, and two cracked tusks protruded from its huge jaw. It prowled the tunnel on legs thick as tree trunks. This was a kruchifal, and they were known for munching on stray travellers walking between the worlds. This one had wandered way out of Cethrax. Damn thing. No guards had come here, but if they went near those stairs—which newer guards might not even know about—then this monster could easily make trouble for them.

And us. The kruchifal turned around with a bellow loud enough to alert half the Passages this side of Cethrax.

Oh, shit.

“Be quiet,” I muttered.

The kruchifal swiped with a giant hand, forcing us to back away. Towards the stairs. Damn. Just what I’d wanted to avoid.

“You don’t wanna be here, trust me,” I said.

The kruchifal roared angrily again.

Great. I hadn’t reckoned on actually playing the part of a guard without their fancy weaponry to back it up. We didn’t have a way to alert the Alliance without giving away that we were here illegally. Besides, the monster was only metres away from the stairs.

We had to scare it off.

Simon’s eyes widened as he realised what I was going to do, and got out of the way just in time. I ran, launching myself into the air, and grabbed onto the beast’s back, pulling myself up to balance on its shoulders. The kruchifal roared as it realised it had an unwanted passenger, and rocked back and forward, trying to throw me off. Laughing, I clung on with one hand, while Simon charged it. He dodged the snarling tusks and kicked at the beast’s thick leg. The monster roared again, and this time, it dislodged me. I flipped over backwards and landed on my feet. Andy was still here, to my surprise, but wasn’t inclined to join in the fight.

All the more fun for me and Simon.

Enter here to win a $10 Amazon gift card! :)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Start the series with Adamant (Alliance, #1).

Ada Fletcher is twenty-one, keeps a collection of knives in her room, and lives under the Alliance's radar in London, risking her life to help her family smuggle people away from a devastating magical war on her homeworld to hide on the low-magic Earth. But when a simple delivery goes wrong and she's forced to use magic to defend her own life, she becomes a prime suspect for a murder at the heart of the Alliance.

Kay Walker, grandson of the Alliance's late founder, expects to spend his first week as an Alliance employee chasing monsters out of the dark Passages between worlds, not solving a murder or questioning a strange, fierce young woman he arrested in the Passages. Killer or not, she stole something highly dangerous - something tied to a dark time in the Alliance's history. The closer he gets to the truth, the higher the body count rises.

The last thing Ada wants is to help the infuriating Alliance guard who arrested her, but it soon becomes clear that the Alliance knows too much about Ada's magic. More, in fact, than she knows herself. Now she has to choose between loyalty to her family, and helping the Alliance save the Earth - and the Multiverse - from a deadly enemy.

Buy the book:  Amazon  Kobo  Barnes and Noble  Apple   Smashwords 

Add on Goodreads   Read the first chapter

What reviewers are saying

"The world building is magical. Even though we only get a hint of what's out there, I am already in love with this world." - Lola at Lola's Reviews

"...the beginning of a potentially brilliant and addictive series" - Jeanz Book Reviews

"This book is a unique, fun read, and I'd recommend it to everyone who enjoys sci-fi and fantasy." - Amazon reviewer

“Adamant is a fantastic start to a fun, adventurous and super cool series… a world so well written and brought to life you can totally lose yourself in it... Can't praise it enough!” - Alisha at Reality's A Bore

Cover Reveal: Delinquent: An Alliance Novella!

It's time to reveal the cover for my next book: Delinquent: An Alliance Novella! This is set two years before Adamant and I originally started it while I was working on the first book as a way to explore backstory events. I was having so much fun writing it, I ended up turning it into a complete story. Once again, thank you to the lovely Amy, my cover artist, for doing such a fabulous job! ^_^

Nineteen-year-old Kay Walker seems to have it all, including an assured future with the Alliance after he graduates from the prestigious Academy. But when he and his friends discover the lure of the Passages, the place between the worlds where monsters hide, they’re caught up in a contest with rival student Aric - which soon escalates into a deadly game.

A perfect life hides lies, and Kay becomes a target for alluring yet deadly magic he has no way of understanding. Magic is a force on its own, and on no one’s side…

Add on Goodreads

Pre-order: Amazon   Kobo  Barnes and Noble  Apple

If you've read my other posts, you'll know that things are crazy-busy in Writerland right now! Once the summer madness is over, I should have a better idea of the timeline for the rest of the Alliance series (yay!), and I'll also be able to announce NEW BOOKS (double yay!)! As always, the first people to find out will be my newsletter subscribers. :)

Release Day: Nemesis (Alliance, #2) by Emma L. Adams

Nemesis is live! *throws confetti*

Nemesis is the second book in the Alliance series, with the usual magic, monsters, multiverse-hopping and stubborn characters. It was more tricky to write than Adamant and I knew I was taking a major risk in the story direction, because the characters are dealing with the aftermath of the end of the first book, and it's... dark. No fluffy kittens or sunshine and rainbows here. ;) But Nemesis does contain invisible goblins, hover bikes, and a lot of angry centaurs.

Joining the Alliance might be the key to seeing the worlds she's always dreamed of, but Ada's new job causes a rift to form between her and her guardian, Nell. As she struggles to come to terms with the events of the previous month, Ada is reluctant to use magic again after the damage it caused.

Kay, meanwhile, faces his first challenge as one of the Alliance’s offworld Ambassadors - helping his colleague, Markos, investigate the mysterious death of the centaurs’ king back on his homeworld of Aglaia. When they realise magic is involved, Ada is pulled into the investigation. But tensions between humans and centaurs run high, and avoiding a bloodbath will be more difficult than any of them expect. Especially when Kay discovers something about his own magic that could affect the future of the Alliance.

Against an enemy they quite literally can’t see, Ada and Kay must face up to the power that almost destroyed their lives…

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And here's a teaser from Chapter One:

My communicator buzzed in my hand, and I flicked the touch screen to unlock it and accepted the call from my boss. Ms Weston never seemed to leave Central, especially in the last few weeks. There was always some crisis or other.

“We need you to go offworld, tomorrow,” she said, without preamble.

“Whereabouts?” I asked. Damn. I’d been intending to talk to Ada, because she didn’t have the code for this new communicator.

“Aglaia. You should speak to Markos. Aglaia’s in the middle of a crisis, and we urgently need an Ambassador to be there.”

“Isn’t Markos enough?”

“A non-Aglaian Ambassador. More than one. It seems the centaur king’s been assassinated.”

And there I was, thinking I’d be able to get through one day without someone mentioning murder.

“Damn,” I said, moving away from the guards so they wouldn’t overhear. “There’s no way they’ll let outsiders in.”

“It’s part of Alliance custom to oversee the change of leadership, as we’re a neutral force. I’m sure you already know Aglaia’s history with the Alliance.”

“Unfortunately,” I said, with a glance at the dark shape of Central silhouetted against the perpetually-grey London sky. “Is Markos back on Aglaia, then?”

“He’ll give you the details.” There was a sound of papers being shuffled. “The peace treaty with the humans was due for renewal next week, so the timing makes it all worse. This could be perceived as an attempt to ignite old conflicts. At the very least, it will delay all plans, including consultations with the Alliance.”

“You need someone who speaks Aglaian, right?” I was hardly experienced in this kind of diplomacy. Least of all with a volatile, high-magic world.

“Not just that,” said Ms Weston. “We specifically need a magic-wielder. Just in case.”

What? “Are you sure? I was under the impression centaurs hated magic.” I retreated under the overhang outside the training complex. The last thing I wanted was anyone to hear me talking about magic.

“Yes, they do. But humans on Aglaia are all magic-wielders, and if it turns out one of them did have a hand in the centaur king’s death, then it’s better for us to be prepared. It goes without saying that you won’t be able to reveal you are a magic-wielder in front of the centaur contingent, but considering Earth’s lack of magic, they have no reason to suspect that you are.”

Yeah, that’s reassuring. “If you say so. The humans, though–they’ll be trained magic-wielders. We aren’t.”

No. What I knew of magic, I’d learned on instinct when fighting for my life. And I couldn’t forget that two streets away from here, it had almost caused a wave of destruction across London. Even the guards who’d fought in the Passages that day didn’t know just how close Central had come to being wiped out. For all I knew, they were the ones who’d started the stories. People needed to believe someone had had the situation in hand.

Ms Weston paused before saying, “Actually, magic-wielders on Aglaia are relatively peaceful, at least with each other.”

“It’s the centaurs I’m more concerned about,” I muttered. “Who else is going, aside from Markos?”

“A small team. You’ll meet here tomorrow at seven.”

“Right,” I said, resigned. Aglaia was hardly an opportunity to pass up, but it felt uncomfortably like the conspiracy scenario I’d ended up mired in at the Alliance a few weeks ago. Assassination, magic, and aggravated centaurs? Still, nobody signed up as an Ambassador purely for the Valerian hover bikes.

“Good,” said Ms Weston. “Best of luck. There are two aims. Reinstate a new monarch before certain disparate centaur groups take power, and find out who killed their leader, if possible.”

“I’m pretty sure most of that is up to them, not the Alliance. They don’t like humans meddling in their affairs.”

Ms Weston drew in a breath. “Well, given the circumstances… Markos will tell you. Essentially, you’ll be acting to stop a group of enraged centaurs from declaring war on humans.”

“Great,” I said. “No pressure?”

Start the series with Adamant (Alliance, #1), reduced to 99 cents this week! :)

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Magic. Monsters. Murder. Welcome to the Multiverse.

The Inter-World Alliance is the only force standing between Earth and the terrifying monsters of offworld. But one girl is about to shake up the balance...

Ada Fletcher is twenty-one, keeps a collection of knives in her room, and lives under the Alliance's radar, risking her life to help refugees from a devastating magical war on her homeworld hide on the low-magic Earth. But when she's taken into custody by the Alliance, her unusual magic makes her a prime suspect for a supervisor's suspicious death.

Kay Walker, grandson of the Alliance's late founder, expects to spend his first week as an Alliance employee chasing monsters out of the dark Passages between worlds, not solving a murder. But when his supervisor dies in suspicious circumstances, he finds himself in charge of questioning a girl he arrested as a suspect. A girl with secrets that force him to confront his own narrow escape from magic's destruction, and threaten to make both of them into the murderer's next targets.

The last thing Ada wants is to help the infuriating Alliance guard who arrested her, but it soon becomes clear that the Alliance knows too much about Ada's offworld origins. More, in fact, than she knows herself. Now she has to choose between loyalty to her family, and helping the Alliance save the Earth - and the Multiverse - from a deadly enemy.

What reviewers are saying

"The world building is magical. Even though we only get a hint of what's out there, I am already in love with this world." - Lola at Lola's Reviews

"...the beginning of a potentially brilliant and addictive series" - Jeanz Book Reviews

"This book is a unique, fun read, and I'd recommend it to everyone who enjoys sci-fi and fantasy." - Amazon reviewer

“Adamant is a fantastic start to a fun, adventurous and super cool series… a world so well written and brought to life you can totally lose yourself in it, and it's utterly fantastic... Can't praise it enough!” - Alisha at Reality's A Bore

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I haven't yet made an announcement about what's coming next, but I'll be publishing a prequel novella to the Alliance series and Book 3, Collision, later this year (release dates to be announced when I can confirm them!). You can add Delinquent: An Alliance Novella on Goodreads now!