I write to you today with a sad, heavy heart. I am not happy or proud over what I have to do, and I’m certainly upset, even ashamed, to have to make this announcement to you all. And I don’t want to beat around the bush or go on and on about things you don’t care about…so I’m just going to come out and say it.
So get ready for it…
Are you ready??
The truth is, I have to delay the release of Sweet Redemption. I’m extremely sorry to have to do it. I know how much all of you NEED this book. I really, truly do. I’ve lived through this exact situation as a reader myself before and wanted to throttle the author for delaying the release of the last book in her series. But when that time passed and I had the book in my hands, I was glad she took the time needed to make the book perfect. Because it honestly WAS perfect. It was the most perfect book/series I’ve ever read and will always be my favorite. If the author hadn’t delayed the release, it probably wouldn’t have been as good as it was.
And that is the reason I must delay Sweet Redemption. I know, I promised that I would never delay a release again after I had to delay Sweet Requiem’s release. I absolutely hate that I’m breaking another promise. But the thing is – you are going to thank me for it in the end. If I were to release Sweet Redemption on 10.24 the way it is now, you’d hate me. *I* would hate me.
The way it works is, I finish writing my manuscript, load it onto my ereader, and then start reading from beginning to end and make notes on what I want to change/modify before sending to my editor. Well, when I started my first read-through with Sweet Redemption, for the first time in my writing career, I couldn’t even get to the end. Normally, I’ll enjoy what I’m reading and feel confident enough to make my changes and then it’s off to my editor and beta readers. But this time, there is so much I don’t like about my writing that I had to stop. As I said, this has never happened before and was completely unexpected. I truly believed I was going to read through the manuscript, make my changes, then send it to my editor and betas by the 17th of September. That would ensure the book would be FINALIZED and ready for publishing by October 14th, and then released on the 24th.
But the unexpected happened. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not the story that I don’t like. The story is what it should be. It’s the WAY I wrote it that I don’t like. And that can take time to fix. I need to go through each chapter and heavily modify it so that when it ends up in your hands, you love every word until the very end.
Now, no one but me has seen this manuscript yet. So, maybe you would like it the way it is. I don’t know. What I do know, is that *I* don’t like it. I’m not comfortable with it. And I CANNOT release a book that I myself don’t like or am comfortable sharing with the world. I haven’t even sent it to my mother – and she is always the one I’m most comfortable sharing my WIPs with. So that’s really saying something, guys. That’s how much I don’t like it.
And maybe it’s because this is the FINAL book in the series and I’m being extra critical. But I need this to be a great ending. The characters and the story mean so much to me that I want so badly to do it justice. Or maybe it’s because there is so much stress in my life right now that I can’t get in the proper mindset to write something amazing. Or a combination of both. I don’t want to list excuse after excuse, but I hope you can find it in your hearts to understand that this story means a lot to me, and EVERY single one of you – my readers – mean just as much to me. I do NOT want to disappoint you. That would be the worst thing in the world to me. Please know I am truly sorry for this.
I hope you can forgive me and have the patience to stick with me until November 23rd – the new release date. If you have pre-ordered the book, you will be notified by email from the retailer that the release date has changed, but your pre-order will not be cancelled. Trust me when I say I take this VERY seriously and have thought of nothing but this one thing for the past month. I do not take this lightly – Amazon will be punishing me for delaying the release by not allowing me to set up pre-orders for a whole year. That killed me. But I completely deserve it. And I’d rather that than hordes of readers come stone me for releasing a crappy ending to a series that they invested their hearts in. So I’ll take the punishment and hope this never happens again.
Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to read this post. If you have questions, please feel free to let me know.
<3
Bailey
9 Responses
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October 13th, 2014 at 2:22 pm
Poor baby, I can feel the pain in your words.Trust me when I say that none of us want to read the final book and think
‘why did she let us down”.So put it out of your mind, learn from this mistake and give us a great final book. You know we love you and your writings Bailey and I am so proud of you for taking the time to make it right and something You are proud of.
October 13th, 2014 at 8:16 pm
Take the time you need. I will re-read this series, like the other books and series that I really like, over and over again. I’d rather the wait and love over a specific date.
Relax and let your peace come so the story will have not just the right notes but the right tone.
October 14th, 2014 at 2:50 pm
I am so glad that you care enough about the readers and the characters we have grown to love to wait until it is just right. I am an author myself and if it doesn’t feel right I always go with my gut feeling. I think some authors don’t think enough about the impact that the final book has on the complete series. I will not name the author, but I read a 4 book series that was made into movies. The first three were great and had me begging for the finally. But half way through the last book it felt all wrong. The only way to discribe it is that it read like someone else had wrote it.The style was completely different and I was so disappointed. I think the impact of the success of the movies made the author rush to complete the book. Thank you for taking the time to do it right.
October 15th, 2014 at 10:39 pm
Thank you, Susan! As always, your support and encouragement mean the world to me. <3
October 15th, 2014 at 10:41 pm
Holly – I really appreciate your kind words and support!! Seriously!!! It was a tough decision, but you’ve helped put me at peace about it. Thank you soso much!
October 15th, 2014 at 10:48 pm
Kadrina, wow, I have no words to describe how much your comment means to me. That’s exactly it – if it doesn’t feel right, I can’t go along with it until it DOES. I would forever hate myself and have horrible regrets if I let what you described with that other series happen with my book. Eeek – I don’t even want to imagine it. It’s always hard knowing you’re going to disappointment people by delaying a release, but I know in my heart they’d be MORE disappointed if, like you said, I didn’t take the time to do it right. So thank you so very much for your support and kindness. Your comment really helps solidify in me that I made the right decision, and I can’t thank you enough!
October 21st, 2014 at 1:59 pm
I totally understand. I myself like to write though i’m like in my teens and my little chapter books only get read by family, friends, and my class I have gone through and completely re-written the story, the way the characters are per-sieved, and the setting just because I want it to be perfect! So don’t rush! I will re-read the others and wait for your perfect ending!
October 22nd, 2014 at 1:04 pm
so i’m late to the party, as always and am slightly bummed it’s pushed back Don’t get me wrong, if you don’t think it’s ready then you should wait. No matter how much we love it, if your like “eeh” at the end of the day then that’s all that matters. Still the obsessed person inside me is throwing a huge fit, but i know in the end everyone will be glad to have the book finished perfectly!! Happy writing!
October 25th, 2014 at 9:50 am
That is okay! It shows how much you care about your work and your readers. I’m so excited for the book to come out! I love your books! =)