The State of Starla: Release Schedule and a Hypothesis

So, back in January, I decided that 2014 would be my Year of No Queries. Admittedly, it’s been a hard habit to break, but, so far I’ve only slipped twice, that being responding to a reply to a query I’d sent out last year (which I reluctantly backed away from), and a what-the-hell Twitter pitch I threw out that I immediately regretted doing. Anyway, I embarked on this year with a little hypothesis I wanted to test.

The idea was that rapidly releasing books would make a large impact on my career as an author.

My first step in this was the decision to release all three of the Evolution series books at two-month intervals. So far, the results have been great, but I’m not going to share them just yet, as I’d like to see how it plays out a little longer first.

I also decided to finally release my steampunk adventure, Master of Myth (Antigone’s Wrath #1), this year. It just made sense to release it on Talk Like a Pirate Day, which falls, happily, about two months after the release of Evolution: HEX (the third book in the Evolution series). That’s Friday, September 19th, if you’re looking forward to that.

Four books in a year sounded great, but I wasn’t yet ready to say that was all I was going to do this year. I had a few other works in progress I could potentially release one of this coming winter, but I hadn’t decided which one. Of the three I’ve been working on in the last 6 months, two are now finished. After some deliberation, I’m holding back on Lex Talionis (a contemporary story that leans pretty firmly in the Literary/Women’s Fiction direction), as it’s very different than all of my other work, which is all speculative fiction of one sort or another. I may yet query that one, but I’ve not decided.

What I did decide, was that on November 3rd, 2014, the last book I’m releasing this year will go live. I’ve shared a bit about this before, but Shadows on Snow will be my final release of 2014. Unexpectedly, people seem very excited about this one. Both the cover and the blurb have been shared on Facebook and Twitter, so here’s that now, for all of you wonderful readers:

“Once upon a time, a dark evil crept into my kingdom, stealing my loved ones and the happy life I knew. The world turned against me, and I swore to become stronger, to keep myself safe.

Once upon a time, there was a handsome prince, hair dark as ebony, skin as pure as the freshly driven snow, and I became the only one who stood between him and death.

Once upon a time, our stories intertwined, and now, healing my heart may be the only way to save us all from the evil that threatens to destroy what little we have left.”

Add it to Goodreads here.

One thing I’d like to point out is that both Master of Myth and Shadows on Snow are releasing under “Starla Huchton” rather than “S. A. Huchton”. This is my indicator of content. Only one work of mine bearing “Starla Huchton” is unsuitable for all audiences, and that’s a single short story I did for Erotica a la Carte in… 2010, I think? Anyway, any books bearing the “Starla Huchton” author name are clean in language and are without adult situations (unless a bit of kissing bothers you, LOL).

Come the end of the year, I’ll post a thorough reporting of my findings in this rapid-release experiment, but I’m hopeful for now. It’s a slow, steady process I’m keeping an eye on, and I want to share my results with other writers out there looking for new strategies and tools in the ever-changing publishing world. This will only be my experience, of course, but I think someone out there will find it interesting.

Next up for me this year is my annual pilgrimage to Balticon, followed by UtopYA the end of June. If you know where to look, you can see the cover for Evolution: HEX, but I’m not posting it myself until June 6th. I know there are lots of folks anxious for the final superhero installment, and I can’t wait to hear what they think of it!

For now, it’s a waiting game. Thanks to everyone that’s helped me on this journey!