Where is Book Two?

I get it. You read a book in a series, you really like it, so you look around for the sequel. You look, and look, and look…and nothing. The obvious questions (and requests) begin.

Where is it?
When’s it coming out?!
What is taking the author so long?
Write faster!

You’re here—most likely—because you read Progeny and you liked it.

If you read and didn’t like it, well…why are you here? More importantly, what’s wrong with you? ;)

And if you are here an you haven’t read it…well, you should. I highly recommend it.

So, where is book two, right?

There’s a long and short answer to the question. And, like my books, you get the long version first.

Progeny in its original form came out in December 2010. I then did what any new indie author does to market their book: anything and everything he/she can think of. Time passed, I sold books, I started to get great reviews, and…well, it’s impossible to compress a year of my life into one sentence, but I will try: Good things happened.

In November 2011, a wonderful opportunity presented itself. An agent in NYC wanted to read the Progeny. Happy and ignorant, I sent off the book—as it was—and waited. The long version of this story is here, but the short of it is this: he said no, gave me reasons why, and I agreed.

So, I set back to re-editing Progeny. Turns out, I had written a good story, but a bad book. I was a novice writer, still am to many extents, and the original version needed some work. Heck, who am I kidding? It needed lots of work. I dove in and did what needed to be done.

Three and half months later, I sent the book back to the agent, and after eight weeks of waiting, I got another ‘no.’ This time, however, I disagreed with more than I agreed with in the critique. Deciding to take my eggs out of a single basket and spread them around, I formally queried a large number of agencies.

Turns out, having great sales as an indie, hitting some top-rated rankings for fantasy, and working really, really, really hard pays off. As of this moment, Progeny is under review at a number of agencies. How many? More than the fingers on your hand, less than a carton of eggs.

Through all of this (except for the rewrite), I wrote a dozen short story prequels (the Terrene Chronicles) and book two (and seven chapters of book 3). Currently, I am in the midst of my last editing pass on book 2, and have a small army of nice, loyal readers trailing me, eliminating my typos, dropped words (which I a lot), and pointing out anything that they find, in general, ‘odd.’ I have also started looking for a cover artist. Basically, I am doing everything I need to in order to get the book ready to self-publish as I did Progeny. Whether or not I will is dependent upon what happens with the agencies. I have offers of representation—and a small press publisher interested as well—but until I get responses from everyone, I’m not going to make any decision.

That’s the long answer.

The short version is this: If I self-publish, book two will be out in the fall. If I get an agent and Progeny is published traditionally, well…I don’t know.

A lot of you are anxious for the sequel and I appreciate the demand. It means you like the story as much as I do. But as I believe the book could appeal to a much wider audience than I have been able to reach as an indie, I have to see this path with the agents through. Every aspiring author dreams of walking into a bookstore and seeing his or her book on a shelf or nice display. I am no different.

Thank you for your kind words about how much you enjoyed the book and, please, tell everyone you know. The best thing I have going for me is you. Word-of-mouth is king for me.

Oh—and please—PLEASE—write a review at Amazon. They really help in the long run.

I promise to keep you all apprised of things develop. Thanks again.

Good days ahead.

--R.T.