Publishing three books in quick succession (each about a month apart) is fairly unusual, although less so in the self-publishing world than traditional publishing. So, this is part background story and part proactive explanation in case any AI-writing accusations come my way!
The latter is very understandable without context. There are a growing number of “authors” who are self-publishing a succession of “books” quickly, which have been written by AI. They should absolutely be called out and removed from sale, to be honest.
My books have not been written using AI at all (unless spell checking in Microsoft Word count!). The reason I’ve released them within a few weeks of each other is that, although I’ve been writing them for 12 YEARS, I’ve been waiting until all three were finished in order to publish them together.
For three key reasons…
The first was to ensure consistency between them. Each book had always been plotted not only as a complete story but also as a trilogy, fully connected, with an overall story arc. But writers discover new things about their stories all the time, so I didn’t want to publish books 1 and 2 and then discover when writing book 3 that there was something I could foreshadow, or details I could include, in earlier books to enrich the whole series.
I also wanted there to be consistency with the quality of my writing. My writing has been honed with practice over the years, and my voice has probably changed slightly as well. I wanted this original trilogy (as I like to call it!) to sound like one book, split into three.
Secondly, if I had got an agent and publisher for Give Me The Stars, there would have been no guarantees that Hold Back The Darkness and Sing Out The Light would also get published. If Give Me The Stars hadn’t sold as many copies as a publisher wanted, them it would have remained a standalone! I may or may not have even been allowed to self-publish books 2 & 3, connecting them as a series. Devastating!!! It was more important to me that they were published as a set, than that one was traditionally published and available in Waterstones!
The third reason was because, when I love a book, I do not want to get to the end and suddenly discover I have to wait a year (or longer) to read the next instalment. It takes writers time to write good books, and I’m sure there’s some good marketing explanation for the delay too, but it’s so painful! (Especially if a book is left on a cliffhanger – don’t get me started, I would never do that to my readers!)
While I think there are some great uses for AI, writing is not one of them. And you can be sure I’m not using AI to write coz it’ll be another couple of years before any more Enturi Saga books are ready (sorry!), although I will be publishing another book in early 2026 – a competition-shortlisting YA sci-fi book set on a future Earth with different characters. Watch this space!
Hi, I'm Mel (you figured that out already though, right?!) and this is where I chat about things that relate to and inspire my writing, as well as share some of it.