Misunderstandings and what not

So. . . . . .

 

Apparently my publisher received complaints from Amazon that had been forwarded by readers about two missed release dates on my books. Since we’ve never announced a release that wasn’t already set to go, and since none of them has ever not been released on the date set by the publisher, all I could figure was that it was coming from the updates I sometimes post here about what I’m working on and when I hope to have it available.

But all that has ever been, all it was ever meant to be, was simply letting anyone who wanted to know what I was doing get an idea of where I was on a particular book and when I hoped to have it ready for delivery. I’ve never posted a release date, by which I mean an actual “book available on such and such a date”, that we have missed.  There have been times when I couldn’t get a book out in the time I had meant to, most recently with Trial by Fire, but that was simply a case of my believing I could get the work done by then, only to discover that I couldn’t. There had not been a ‘hard’ or set delivery date for Trial by Fire, just an estimate that I had provided based on where I was in the book and how quickly I thought the rest of the book would develop.

In view of this difficulty, though, in order to avoid any further misunderstandings or misconceptions that might create difficulty for my publisher, and ultimately for me, I have decided that in the future I won’t give updates like those. Doesn’t mean I won’t respond to questions, and I can still reply that “Such a percentage finished” for whatever book in question, which is probably a better way to do things like that anyway had I thought it through. Hopefully doing things this way will smooth out any problems and make for better communications about future projects.

I apologize if my estimating when I could have something done has led to this misunderstanding, and hope this new way of doing things will make things better.

As always, thanks for your support, your encouragement and your patronage.

NCR