My goal to publish in 2022 did not go as planned. A lot of that had to do with a knee injury that left me in a great deal of pain and altered my writing habits significantly. I’ve been able to sneak in some writing sessions over the holidays when I wasn’t working. These proved to be fruitful which brings me to my announcement.

I had mentioned during summer and fall of 2022 that I was working on another project and not just the final book of The Crystal Crux series.

The first part of that other plan is partly done and in motion.

After researching the philosophy behind authors releasing 2nd editions of books, I decided to use my claim on my intellectual property to re-edit and re-work the first two books in The Crystal Crux series.

I didn’t take away anything important from the storyline. All the chapters and characters are still there. I just trimmed them down and repaired certain phrases and paragraphs I felt were cumbersome or not written as well as they could have been. And it is still an adult tale, but I found some more creative ways to express things that weren’t handled as well as I would have liked. I’ll admit I was researching and being unduly influence by other books I was reading in order to learn how to capture those moments and I didn’t like how they turned out.

Creating 2nd Editions, especially for self-published authors is not uncommon. I was pretty green when I released my first book, Betrayal, back in 2016. In fact, its anniversary date is this coming Tuesday – 7 years ago.

Another thing that inspired me to do this is Amazon allowing us to Hard Cover books. I always wanted hard cover copies of my books. I figured if I was going to do this, I may as well go back and fix them the way I want them to be. When I originally wrote The Crystal Crux story as a teen, it was less than a hundred pages long. It is now going to be five full-length books worth of material with characters and plots I never imagined back then. And a lot has happened in these books that I did not foresee. In creating the 2nd editions, I can better clarify some things that help feed the story coming down the line.

So here is what I know…

1. The KDP (tablet) version of BETRAYAL, the 2nd edition, will be going on presale soon. The book will be released on Friday, January 13, 2023, so if you grab it during the presale, it will automatically download to your tablet on that date.
2. I have created a Paperback and Hard Cover version of Betrayal. I ordered proofs of these but that takes time. I should receive the paperback version in a couple of days. It should be released soon afterwards. The Hard Cover version will take longer. I won’t receive the proof of that until the end of January.
3. Of course, the least expensive version is the KDP, followed by the Paperback. Hard Cover will be the most expensive. The perfect gift for the collectors of all things Epic. 🙂
4. I have removed the 1st Edition of Betrayal and Blue Grotto from the store. If you have a copy or copies, they may be worth something in the future if I get famous and sell thousands of books (Fingers crossed)
5. Blue Grotto should have a 2nd edition released sometime later this Spring. A lot of that editing is completed already.
6. I haven’t decided yet if there will be a 2nd edition of Cold Knight and Shimmer. I definitely want Hard Cover versions of those as well.
7. As for the 5th book, it is written and I am working hard on the edits and timelines, putting all the ducks in a neat little row. Also getting artwork completed. If I stay healthy, I don’t think a summer release is out of the question.

With a new second edition, I also created a new book cover.

Here is the new cover for Betrayal.

I believe the original manuscript for Betrayal was around 130,000 words whereas the 2nd Edition will be just over 96,000 words. That’s quite a bit of fat removed so it should hum a long quicker and smoother for the readers.

That’s all I got for now. Keep reading!

Allen M Werner is the author of the Epic Fantasy series The Crystal Crux