Hello readers and fellow book enthusiasts!

It’s brand new Summer, which means a brand new Summer blog tour event with our friend, author Gail Z. Martin.

The Hawthorn Moon event was started as a way to celebrate the solstice, which for Martin, dates back to her first series The Chronicles of the Necromancer. Each year the tour hosts visits on multiple blogs, giveaways and serves as an introduction of new work coming out.

Last year, Gail shared an excerpt from her, then, upcoming novel Scourge and talked to us all about secondary characters!

Author Gail Z. Martin talks Secondary Characters and new releases

When we found out recently that Gail had made some changes to the way her work is published, we couldn’t think of a better thing for her to share with us! Take a look!

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Taking the Plunge

by

Gail Z. Martin

“Going indie” is a step many traditionally published authors are making these days. It means stepping away from the contracts—and advances—of large publishers and bringing out new books on their own, self-published. It’s exciting and daunting, and I think it’s increasingly where publishing as an industry is heading.

 

I’ve been very fortunate to have worked with a Top 5 New York publisher and a top UK publisher, as well as many excellent small presses and audio book publishers. While we’re continuing to bring out new work with small presses and audio book publishers, we’ve stepped away from working with larger firms for a variety of reasons, one of which was editorial turnover.

 

It’s no secret that publishers have dramatically cut staff in recent years. In my experience, with one publisher, that meant that over a six-year period, I had three editors, and for two and a half of those years, I didn’t have an editor because they were hiring replacements. That kind of churn means that the editor-of-the-month can’t hope to have continuity—with the series or the author—and is not going to be able to give the kind of insight as someone who is invested in the project and the writer over time. More seasoned (and expensive) senior editors have frequently been replaced by new graduates who have zeal and talent, but lack industry connections, experience, and perspective.

 

It’s very frustrating, as an author, not to have an internal champion in an editor who can vie for scant promotional resources, talk up your book to the trade, and represent your interests within the publishing house. Publishing already has long odds; the lack of a champion makes that a daunting game.

 

Going indie means we put on the publisher cap for our own books. We hire the editor and cover artist, take care of formatting and producing the print and ebook versions, manage the reviewers and promotion, handle the ads and social media. Many of the editors, artists, and other professionals have come from large publishers themselves, so we’re working with the same caliber of talent that we had before, but with more continuity and control.

 

I’m very fortunate that my husband, Larry N. Martin, is talented with editing and formatting. He handles the back-end production as well as creating a lot of the covers for the short stories and novellas, and the promotional materials. The production piece is a new responsibility since we have gone indie, but the promotional element was something that publishers have largely outsourced to writers anyhow.

 

The best thing about going indie is that we can write and publish at our own speed—bringing new material to readers much faster than the traditional pipeline allows. This year, if all goes well, we will be averaging a new book every month in a broadened number of sub-genres.

 

The Darkhurst epic fantasy series continues with Vengeance, the sequel to Scourge, and continues the adventures of the Valmonde brothers and their friends as they hunt the monsters plaguing Ravenwood and discover a much darker conspiracy behind the bloodshed. Assassin’s Honor, coming this fall, will be the first in the Assassins of Landria epic fantasy buddy flick series. Imagine Butch and Sundance as medieval assassins, and you’ll capture the humor and edge-of-the-seat action.

 

Tangled Web is the third novel in the Deadly Curiosities urban fantasy series, set in Charleston, South Carolina. We’ve also collected all the short stories and novellas about Cassidy, Teag and Sorren in two volumes, Trifles and Folly/Trifles and Folly 2. The Mark Wojcik snarky monster hunter series (co-written with Larry) is a tie-in to John Hartness’s Bubba the Monster Hunter books, only Mark hunts cryptids in the wilds of Pennsylvania. Watch for Sons of Darkness, the first in the Night Vigil series, a dark urban fantasy adventure set in Pittsburgh.

 

That’s just a sample of what’s coming. We’re so excited that we are now able to explore stories that publishers might have steered us away from writing because they didn’t want to ‘confuse’ readers with different sub-genres. We’re confident that our readers can figure out for themselves what they like, and we hope we provide a lot of fun choices to explore in their spare time!

 

Enter for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate in my Hawthorn Moon Blog Tour giveaway! http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/9751c04211/?

 

 

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About the Author

 

The Hawthorn Moon is the annual summer blog tour for Gail Z. Martin, and features guest blog posts, giveaways, surprises, excerpts and more on a number of blogs worldwide. Find the master list of posts and goodies at www.GailZMartin.com

 

Gail Z. Martin writes epic fantasy, urban fantasy and steampunk for Solaris Books, Orbit Books, and Falstaff Books. Series include Darkhurst, the Chronicles Of The Necromancer, the Fallen Kings Cycle, the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, and Deadly Curiosities. The Mark Wojcik Monster Hunter series and Iron & Blood in the Jake Desmet Steampunk series are co-authored with Larry N. Martin, along with the related Storm and Fury Adventures. She also writes urban fantasy MM paranormal romance as Morgan Brice, including the Witchbane and Badlandsseries.

 

Vengeance: A Darkhurst novel, is the second in a new epic fantasy series. Her Deadly Curiosities urban fantasy series set in Charleston, SC has a new novel, Tangled Web, and a new collection, Trifles and Folly 2. The Mark Wojcik Monster Hunter series includes Spells, Salt, and Steel, Open Season and Deep Trouble in a new comedic horror/urban fantasy series (Falstaff) and the Iron & Blood universe has the  Storm and Fury Adventures collection of short stories, and an upcoming new novel, Spark of Destiny.

 

Gail is also the author of Scourge: A Novel of Darkhurst, Ice Forged, Reign of Ash, War of Shadows and Shadow and Flame in The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, The Chronicles of The Necromancer series (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven, Dark Lady’s Chosen); The Fallen Kings Cycle (The Sworn, The Dread) and the urban fantasy novels Deadly Curiosities and Vendetta. Gail writes three ebook series: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures, The Deadly Curiosities Adventures and The Blaine McFadden Adventures.

 

Her work has appeared in over 35 US/UK anthologies. Newest anthologies include: Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs. Aliens, Gaslight and Grimm, Hath No Fury, Journeys, #We Are Not This, The Baker Street Irregulars, In a Cat’s Eye, and Afterpunk: Steampowered Tales of the Afterlife.

 

Find her at http://www.GailZMartin.com, on Twitter @GailZMartin, on Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms, at DisquietingVisions.com blog and on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/GailZMartin. She is also the organizer of the #HoldOnToTheLight campaign www.HoldOnToTheLight.com

 

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It’s no secret that we have much love for Gail Z. Martin around here and that started with being a fan first!

I (CC) have read The Chronicles of the Necromancer series, The Deadly Curiosities series and Scourge and look forward to putting the other series on my read list soon! You should too!

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Thank you Gail for taking the time to stop by the blog again. It’s always a pleasure to have you and to support your work!

~CC