I’ve been sadly quiet since May, mostly because I’ve been trying to juggle several different projects. First off, the long-running “Politics for Worldbuilders” project is finally being compiled into a book series; the first volume is nearing completion. Second, Lagrange Books is getting ready to publish our first single-author book, by fantastic author Misha Burnett. More news on that soon…

But it’s the third project, which was actually the first project, that I want to tell you about.

Back in May, I was spamming everyone with the Kickstarter project for The Wand that Rocks the Cradle, our fantasy anthology on magical families. Since we met our funding goal, I’ve been working hard to finish the editing, coordinate with our cover designer (the talented Melody Knighton), and produce the actual book. And now, behold:

We are now taking pre-orders on Amazon for the Kindle edition, with a special pre-release price of $2.99; once we launch in September the price will go up to $3.99.

(But there’s another way you can read it for free… If you sign up for the Lagrange Books mailing list, you can join the Advance Reader Team—you’ll get access to prerelease copies of Lagrange publications, in exchange for leaving totally honest reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, or other online sites. This is a totally optional, but totally fun, way to be involved.)

We’re all incredibly excited for this release. And once you start reading, you will be too!

Here’s a brief sketch of my internal monologue during the Kickstarter project for The Wand that Rocks the Cradle, now about five days before the deadline:

Day 1: Oh my God we just got over 25% in one day that’s amazing!!

Day 3: Oh my God we just crossed 50%! Holy cow holy cow holy cow! We’re going to get so many backers and then we can do an audiobook and interior illustrations and all the authors get paid more than pennies and it’s going to be amazing!!

Day 7: Okay, slowing down a bit, but we still hit 70%, not too bad, not too bad!

Day 13: Okay, we’re stalled at 75%… do we need more PR? Maybe offer a cool new backer reward? Something?

Day 16: Awright, back in business! Not exactly rolling in dough, but good solid progress. Up to 88%, going great. We’ll get there.

Day 22: Um, hello? Anyone there?

Day 23: Okay, this cannot be the end! Time for some shameless begging…

Day 24: Okay, shameless begging got us a few bucks, up to 92%. Maybe update the graphic? Maybe I was spamming people too often with updates? Maybe the updates weren’t interesting enough? We’ve got a bunch of followers who haven’t contributed yet, maybe some of them will chip in right at the end?

Day 25: Seriously? Less than $40 left? Aargh! That’s like a cup of coffee a day or something! How can it be this hard?? Come on, Kickstarter, do your thing!

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In the meanwhile, I’ve been scoping out a huge number of cover artists in different places online. We have options. The frustrating thing is that it’s hard to get a sense of what will attract our audience in particular; the emotional tone of this anthology is very different from my usual. I’d call it “wistful,” “poignant,” “tender” at times, with a few darker and lighter bits thrown in for spice. But the design aesthetic for a lot of cover artists these days seems to be “glowy action chick with a low-cut dress and werewolves,” which might not be where we want to go. Except, what if it sells anyway?

The marketplace is a fickle temptress, yea verily!