Amanda Hocking

Sigh….

This is a picture of my office from at my old house:

This is a close up the fantastic Christian Bale poster that my mom got me (from France, oddly enough):

In the process of moving, it was torn. I left it behind. I can only assume it is in the garbage somewhere. So now I don’t have Christian Bale staring at me, looking vaguely disapproving.

I wanted the poster as a motivational tool, and it really did work. In my mind, Christian Bale is like the human incarnation of perfection. People always take that to mean that I find him really attractive, when I don’t, and I am in fact slightly terrified of him. But fear is a very good motivation.

It’s just anything he wants to do it, he does it, even if it seems impossible. Anything less than perfect isn’t good enough. But he always manages to achieve it, which is what I find so stunning about him. It’s like he’s invincible.

Anyway – the moral is, when I think, “I don’t want to write this chapter right now. I’d rather be watching Archer or reruns of Income Property on HGTV.” Then I would look up and see Christian Bale, and I’d be all, “He wouldn’t go watch Archer. He’d write like 15 chapters tonight, while doing push ups, and learning Japanese.” And then I sigh and go back to work, because that’s what Christian Bale would do.

So I need a new poster. I’ve looked at other Christian Bale posters and they’re not good enough. I can mostly find Batman ones, which oddly enough, drives me nuts.

Here’s a random blog from last year where I end up talking about how Christian Bale is better than our government, for no apparent reason. I’m sharing it with you, because I like it, and I like to share things. So you can read that: here.

Okay. Here’s the deal. I’ve been waiting to break the news to you guys until I had everything squared away, and you might be upset at first, but honest, this is really good news.

Here’s the bad part: I’m not going to be releasing Lost Without You. I’ll explain more about that in a minute.

Because the really good news is that I’m going to be releasing Virtue in it’s place, and Virtue is about a million times better than Lost Without You. I wanted to be sure that Virtue would be ready for release this month before I announced it, and it will be out by Memorial Day.

AND I updated the Upcoming Projects tab to include all the books I’m releasing in the next year (including the release dates for Hollowmen and Swear.)

The thing is – Lost Without You sucks. I wrote it like seven years ago, and I have a really strong emotional attachment to it for a a couple reasons. So I was blinded by how terrible it was until I was editing. When I started talking about publishing it, I didn’t realize how bad it was.

It really wasn’t until a couple weeks ago that I was going through it for the fifteenth time when I was like, “Wait. This is really quite bad. I can’t force this horrible mess on people.”

And I know. I shouldn’t announce projects until they’re absolutely ready to be published, because things can change. But it’s hard when people are like, “What’s next?” And I think, “Alright, what am I thinking of next? I don’t know. How about this book?” And then people start asking me questions and getting all excited about it.

The problem is that I keep forgetting that people actually want to read my books now and care about when they come out. I’m used to talking to myself and nobody giving a damn. It’s quite an adjustment.

But back to the good news (and trust me, this really is good news): Virtue will definitely be out by the end of the month. Eric claims its the best thing I’ve ever written and the most engaged he’s ever been in a story. So… that’s something. Also, I got to work a unicorn into the storyline, which is something I’ve wanted to do since the day I was born.

So, you’re asking yourself, what is this Virtue you speak of?

Well, here’s the basic idea: I wanted to write a fairy tale. Also, I wanted to write a book that if it had a film adaptation, it would require the work of the Jim Henson Company. But it’s a fantasy with romance and action and good vs. evil and a unicorn.

Here’s all the info:

Virtue

In a world filled with magic, love might be the final answer in the eternal battle between good and evil. When Lux is tasked with retrieving the virtuous Lily for his master, his entire world is put in danger. Lux must battle goblins, demon dogs, and sea dragons to rescue the one he loves, and that’s only the beginning… 

Virtue is a fairy tale for young adults with action, suspense, and romance. It contains mild language and some suggestive dialogue. Recommended ages 14 and up.

Click here to read an excerpt
Click here to listen to the soundtrack

Here’s the press release that went out today:

Self-publishing phenomenon Amanda Hocking’s USA Today bestselling TRYLLE trilogy, three young adult paranormal novels that the author previously published as ebooks, again to St. Martin’s, for publication in both print and ebook starting in Winter 2012. 

So what does that mean for you, the reader? 
If you’ve already read the series, it doesn’t change a whole lot. It’ll just make it easier to get a paperback, if you want one, because the books will be in stores. If you haven’t read the series, it will make it easier for you to find, and the books will have fewer errors.

What does this mean for the Trylle Trilogy? 
It will get a bit more polished with some editing (but don’t expect the story to change. It will stay the same. It’ll just be cleaner). The books will be more readily available for the people unable to find them and for the majority of the populace that doesn’t have ereaders. And having paperback books stores, with publishing house sales behind it, will help ensure that the movie adaptation gets made.

Will the prices of the ebooks go up?
To be honest, probably, yes. I’ve talked with St. Martin’s, and it sounds like they’re going to keep the prices down from usual ebook prices. But because they are a major company with overhead costs, they can’t really afford to price books at $.99. I will still be self-publishing the trilogy for the next few months at their current prices, though, so there is plenty of time for people to get them. Paperback prices will be about the same as what they are now, though, and that’s a good thing.


So, why would I choose to sell a series of books that’s already doing so well on their own?
Three reasons:

1. The movie. As soon as Terri Tatchell started talking to me back in January about a possible film adaptation, I knew I wanted to get the trilogy in stores. It needed to be selling in major outlets with a big publisher to back it so it would give a movie studio the confidence to green light the project. Getting this series turned into a movie would be a dream come true for me, and I’ve heard from a lot of readers who would be really excited to see a film version, too.

2. The readers. It’s two-fold for you guys.

• One part is because of the messages I get from people all the time who don’t have ereaders and they want to read my book. Having paperbacks in stores will make it much easier to reach people I’ve been unable to until now. 
• The other part is a proper editing. That’s not to knock the people I’ve worked before, and I have a really great editor going over Hollowland. But I know there are errors that need to be corrected and things that can get smoothed over in the series. I want them to be the best they can be, and hopefully, my editor at St. Martin’s can do that. People will get to read the Trilogy the way it was meant to be read. I think of it as going from a standard TV to HD. It’s still the same product – it just looks better.

3. I don’t know how to phrase this exactly, but I want to see what the books can do. The Trilogy has been selling really well in a small portion of the market, and I don’t want to limit the books. I want to see what will happen if they have opportunity to reach the full potential audience.

If you’ve read the Trylle Trilogy and you liked the them, this is good news. Libraries will be more likely to carry my books. The movie will be more likely to get made. If you want to get your friends or family the books as gifts, it will be easier for you to find them.

If you haven’t read the books and you want to, there’s still time to get them at their current prices in their current form. And if you don’t get them within the next couple months, they’ll be back out in in early 2012, only with less errors, so it’s still a win for you.

If you haven’t read my books and don’t want to, or you have read them and you hate them, then really it doesn’t affect you at all. There’s still plenty of other books out there for you to read and enjoy.

And that’s what I have to say about that stuff.

Some fun stuff:

I got a message from Paul Durham the band Black Lab today. I use their hit song “This Night” in the book trailer for Letters to Elise, and he likes it. But he also wanted me to let people know about their big radio launch for their new album Two Strangers (which I bought months ago, because it’s awesome, and you should buy it too).

So, you can get “This Night“:  here  and learn more about the band here: http://blacklabworld.com And you really should. I’ve mentioned them before on my blog because they really are an excellent band. Check out the song “Ten Million Years” if you haven’t yet.


And here’s the trailer for the video, with “This Night” on it: 

Also in fun news:

I took a fan made quiz for Hollowland on Goodreads, and I totally got one wrong. Some of the questions were hard. If you want to see if you can beat my score, check it out: here.


On a related note, hopefully within the week, I’ll have a blog announcing release dates for a bunch of books, including Hollowmen (the sequel to Hollowland) and Swear (the final book in the MBA series).


And this song is my current obsession (at least for today).

This is going to be a blog that contains both pictures AND words, which I think is the best kind of blog. I’m officially back to work. We are completely moved out of our old house, and our new house is almost entirely furnished. (Aside from a broken mirror and a missing nightstand).

Eric fixed the internet this weekend (WOOT!), my office got painted on Thursday, and my wonderful family came over on Saturday and slaved away all day helping me and Eric put together our desks. I just finished getting everything put away, so I finally have a space that I’m comfortable writing in in this house.

Anyway – as I said earlier, my family came over to help assemble my office and work on other stuff around the house. This was my mom, my step-dad, my aunt Cindy, my cousin Tina, her husband Corey, and their two kids Leyton and Miley, who are four and three.

Not only did they help me do work (MAJOR SHOUT OUT to all of them – they did a ton and really made my house feel like a home), but they came bearing gifts. Leyton and Miley brought these wonderful guys for me:

Bruce & Wayne

That’s Bruce and Wayne. Bruce is the white one with spots, and Wayne is the orange one. They’re currently living in the kitchen, because I’m afraid that I’ll forget to feed them if they’re in the office, since I probably won’t be in the office every day. But they would make the office better.

I keep wanting to call them Kyle and Steve because my friend Fifi used to have two goldfish named Kyle and Steve that I was obsessed with. But they died a long time ago, and it was very sad.

And without further ado, here is the magic of my new office:

Where the Magic Happens (er… Will Happen)

My Desk

River Phoenix Poster

Heroes in a Half Shell

Eric’s Half of the Office

My Dog, Elroy

Oh, and for those of you wondering about this, I have the explanation:

It’s not ready yet, because I’m still getting it formatted, but it’s a limited edition omnibus paperback edition of the Trylle Trilogy. I will only be selling 100 of them, and I will be selling them directly through my blog. All of them will be autographed and numbered. All of the proceeds from the Special Edition Trylle Trilogy will go to the Jacob Wetterling Foundation. The omnibus will be available in paperback only.

After this, I will stop selling autographed books from my blog. It’s gotten to be too complicated and too time consuming. I wanted to do this as one last hurrah, and readers have been asking for a boxset. I found a boxset to be cumbersome to make, but an omnibus edition worked since it is only three books.

Also, I kinda wanted to do something special because that is my good friend Pete on the cover. She was the original cover model for the first copy of Switched that came out last July.

 
The cover changed, but not because Petey isn’t the prettiest girl in the world (because she is). So I wanted to do something with her, and Claudia at phatpuppyart.com was kind enough to work with the image for me. And I love it.

I do have more news coming this week. But that’s enough for today. And I am soo, soo glad to be back.