Post-Release
Well, Gardens is out and is most of the way through its first week of sales. Numbers have been pretty good so far – it’s already up to about 40% of the sales of Favours, which isn’t bad for something that’s only been out for four days. Early reviews have been very positive as well, so there’s a decent change that it might end up overtaking Favours in time, despite my earlier novella having a head start.
These novellas have been surprisingly fun to do – they let me try out new things, and since they’re relatively short they’re much less of a slog than a full novel. I wrote both Favours and Gardens in only a month or so of focused work each, though once you add in editing and planning time both took more like two months than one. And since I often have a spare month or two in between novels, there’s a good chance I’ll find the time to keep doing more in future.
However, as I said last year, these novellas/short stories are not going to become my focus – my main job is ‘novelist’ and that’s not something I’m planning to change. On that subject, I think we’re about due for another update on my new series, so now that the novella’s released and the excitement’s over, next week is going to be a catch-up about what’s been happening with that book’s road to publication.