ClaireJ_KL asked Sylvia Day:

What advice would 2019 Sylvia give to 2013 Sylvia with regards to turning the series from a trilogy to the 5 book saga? I still remember my absolute shock at the end of book 3 when it didn’t end; I was unspoiled so it came as a complete surprise.

Sylvia Day I never thought of the series as a trilogy. When I was halfway through writing the second book, Reflected in You, I told my editor it was going to be at least 4 books, maybe as long as 6. I think there were two big issues that led to the series being marketed as a trilogy even though it was never planned to be one. 1) The concurrent release alongside 50 Shades led ppl to think of Crossfire as a similar "trilogy," so many bloggers, bookstores, etc. referred to it that way and still do. I still see ppl writing things such as, "I just finished the fourth book in the trilogy." 2) The publisher originally contracted for only 3 books and our relationship grew contentious during the publication of the third book. It was uncertain whether I would stay with them or move the following books to another publisher. The situation was so precarious that the third book was on shelves and I still had not even begun negotiations with the publisher for the last two books. Because they didn't know if another publisher would be handling the future books or not, they made no effort to tell readers they were publishing more than three books. So there's nothing I could have done on my end to write the series differently and I wouldn't. I'm extremely proud of Crossfire and I wouldn't change the experience of writing it. There were external factors--public perception and publisher marketing--that created an issue for readers in understanding how many books were in the series and that's unfortunate in many respects but not anything I could control. Believe me, I tried!

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