I wrote a post a few weeks ago with some information on the new series that I’m writing. I hadn’t been expecting to have any more news for you guys for a while, but it turns out things are moving faster than expected!
As of yesterday, Book #1 of the new series is now about 50% done, assuming that it ends up a similar length to my Alex Verus novels. I’ve been making much faster progress than I’d been expecting to – when I started the book my most optimistic estimate was that I might finish by the end of the year, but if I keep up this sort of speed, I’ll be done by November.
As it’s turned out, the 50% mark of the new book is also a very natural break point, so over the next week I’m going to add a series synopsis and send the thing to my agent so that she can start showing it to publishers. The idea is to do the contract negotiations for the book while I’m writing the second half, so that by the time the first draft is done I have some idea of when it’s going to come out. Of course, there’s always the chance that negotiations will drag out/go badly . . . but in that case, all the more reason to start early.
(This wasn’t at all how things went with the Alex Verus series, by the way. In that case I finished the first draft of what would eventually become Fated, then sent it off to my agent to be shopped around to publishers. But I’m an established author now, with a track record of finishing books, so I get a bit more leeway.)
But anyway, with any luck, in a week or so, the first half of this book will be in the hands of publishers. At that point I expect things to slow down – publishers usually take quite a while to read and respond to new submissions – so there probably won’t be any firm news for months. As soon as I have any solid information, though, I’ll share it here.
wow, we are so lucky to have such a prolific author writing books we enjoy so much. i’m really excited about this next series.
as an Old, one of the thing i appreciated about the alex verus series was that not everyone was in their 20s. as i get older, it’s nicer to read books where the protagonists and those around them are closer to me in age. i’d love to read a series that follows someone who’s, like, 40. is there a reason authors tend to write younger characters? as for your next series, can you talk at all about the ages of your protagonists? Not a dealbreaker or anything.
How exciting for us readers! I’m looking forward to starting your new series almost as much as I’m looking forward to the last Alex Verus book.
Laila: Young adult characters seem to be preferred as protagonists, probably because that’s when people tend to be exploring and changing the most. Alex is 28 at the start of the series and 34 at its end, which is probably a little older than average for a protagonist. It means Alex starts out right from book 1 as having mostly mastered his own abilities, rather than learning them as the series goes.
I’ll give some more details on the new series and its protagonist once the book’s further along!