In addition to finishing off The Shadow Men, I’ve also been spending some time revisiting the two previous instalments in the Anna Scavolini series, In the Silence
and Cruel Summer. As you may be aware, while In the Silence was released by Bloodhound Books, all my subsequent work has been independently published. For a while now, I’d been toying with the idea of asking Bloodhound to return the rights to In the Silence to me. This makes sense for a number of reasons. It allows me to apply consistent branding across the board and also affords me a level of control over how I sell and market the series which simply wasn’t possible with the first instalment is in the hands of a third party. I’m happy to reveal that Bloodhound kindly agreed to my request, meaning that, as of last month, In the Silence
has been under my sole and exclusive control. A new ebook edition has been published, with a paperback version to follow later in the year.
In the process of re-issuing In the Silence, I took the opportunity to reinstate a small amount of material that was removed during the final editing process and which I was always a bit sorry to lose. These additions don’t fundamentally alter the nature of the book, but I think they help flesh out some of the characters a bit more, particularly Zoe and her brother Victor. If you’re interested in reading some background information on both the process of writing In the Silence and the rationale behind this “director’s cut”, I’ve made the same notes
contained in the new edition of the book itself available online.
In the near future, it’s my intention to offer a free ebook copy of In the Silence to everyone who subscribes to the Mailing List (something I couldn’t have done while the publishing rights resided elsewhere). For the time being, it’s available on Amazon for only 99p (UK)/99¢ (US) – though please note that the edition currently available, while containing the new, expanded text, uses a placeholder cover design rather than the new and improved artwork Dissect Designs is currently cooking up for me.
I’ve also been going through a similar process with Cruel Summer, again revising the text to restore some material not present in the previous edition. My hope is to make the new edition available at around the time of The Shadow Men’s release, though it remains to be seen whether Amazon will agree to “push” the updated text to people who already bought the Kindle edition (everything I’ve read on the subject suggests that it’s a bit of a crapshoot). Either way, I intend to make sure anyone who wants a copy of the revised edition and can provide proof that they own the previous version a free ebook copy directly from me – including those who bought the paperback release and don’t mind owning the revised edition in ebook form. (Sending out free paperback copies would, I’m afraid, be too cost-prohitive.)
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