Monday, February 15, 2016

The Undiscovered Country

To stave off the flood of comments (one of which would be a 50% increase over the life of this blog), the title does not refer to my death of that of any of the characters in The Chronicles of Reztap. However, the nuts and bolts of the published series itself are undergoing an extensive shift. The books themselves are experiencing a death and a rebirth of sorts.



First, an acknowledgement to Megan LaFoyett (then Director of Publishing) and Jeff Hastings (Owner) of Chart House Press. Without them, book zero of The Chronicles of Reztap, Mishaps and Mayhem, would never have come into being. Megan requested it as a forward copy edition to be sent to book sellers as a kind of pre-marketing push. Unfortunately, her involvement with Chart House Press ceased before that aspect of book zero could come to fruition. Still, those previously untold early adventures would likely not seen the light of day any time without a push to get them written and published. Second, getting book one into a professional shape and appearance is due in no small effort to the expertise of many others working behind the scenes at Chart House Press, from the internal layout to the revised cover design, the second edition of The Adventures of Reztap was a sparkling shiny present compared to the clumsy first edition I pushed out years ago. Thank you both for your involvement in getting Tar and Gorth out to be seen and enjoyed by many more readers than ever before.

Chart House Press has since adjusted their charter to be exclusively pushing non-fiction books from here on out. Even as we speak, both books, Mishaps and Mayhem & The Adventures of Reztap. are no longer available on Amazon. As much as it pains me to see it, I realize it is also for the best. Given their new direction, Chart House Press is not be able to devote the time, energy and expertise The Chronicles of Reztap series is due. This is a mutual agreement - I wasn't just shut out of Chart House Press. We came to an agreement that the book series would be better served elsewhere.

This pushes me into the Undiscovered Country. By default, I need to get The Chronicles of Reztap published by another publisher, and not just self-published. However, I don't want to get put in a bind again with my books being essentially out of print before they've had a decent chance to catch on. My only recourse - start my own publishing company. It's the only way to ensure I retain the rights to my books and can keep them published continually from here on out. A perfect solution with only two drawbacks - time and money. I literally have no time to devote fairly to this endeavor, and that is largely driven by the fact that I have no money I can dedicate to getting this started right now. Seriously, starting one company at a time is enough of a drain on my time and money. Starting a second would be a quick trip to the poor house.

Unfortunately, that means, at least for a time, there will be no copies, electronically or otherwise, of either book zero, one or two available. What you can get now is what you'll be able to get for at least a few months if not a full year. I'm committed to getting everything going as soon as possible, but that could easily push into next year.

I wish it wasn't so, but that's where I'm at. I'll need time to get both financial and professional resources gathered to launch the publishing company in a manner that will ensure it produces quality products. This will not be an overnight effort pushing out a substandard product. For the fans out there, and I've actually met a few, I'm sorry to say it will be a while before I can get everything running again but once I do, I can assure you it will remain a steady company that will keep the products alive and available.

Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks and months as a Reztapian phoenix rises from the ashes of this expiration. I will keep you updated on my progress.

Thank you for you time and dedication.

Regards,
Artemus