Author Allen M Werner

Back in 2016, I officially became a self-published author with the release of my first book, The Crystal Crux – Betrayal.

I started writing The Crystal Crux when I was a teenager in the early 80s. The original story was less than 100 pages long. It was a long journey with a lot of changes before getting the first book published. I learned a lot along the way. And technology also changed allowing me to self-publish. Yeah!

Publishing that first book also brought with it a host of new challenges. I was swept up in the world of other authors and I started gleaning advice from dozens of sources suddenly open to me. And in my haste to embrace this world of authors, I accepted some advice that wasn’t beneficial and helpful.

The one piece of advice I regret accepting the most was the urgency many authors have to stay relevant and publish another book as soon as possible. Many say it’s important to keep your name out there and keep offering your audience new material.

I suppose that advice is fine for people who don’t work fulltime jobs and have families that they enjoy spending time with. I spend a lot of time with my family and writing is a very time-consuming process and when you self-publish, you are doing all the writing, editing, publishing and marketing. I’m not a rich person and there is no extra money to chase my dreams. I can’t afford to pay other people to do all this other stuff for me. It’s my job to do the best job I can with every aspect of self-publishing on my own. I owe that to my audience. And marketing is the worse. Thank God for word of mouth. Those who have read The Crystal Crux books and liked them and told their friends and acquaintances about the series are the best!

So after I published Betrayal, I rushed into publishing The Crystal Crux – Blue Grotto. In fact, Blue Grotto was published a few months later in 2016. And although I was happy with the story and the response I got from my audience, I was not pleased with the final result. Blue Grotto has been for me, a ghost that has been haunting me. Now I have redeemed myself and fixed it.

It is not unusual, especially for self-published authors to write and release Second Editions. But what is a Second Edition?

Authors at any time can make minor adjustments to published books and push the changes through the publisher stage without having to make any announcement of the changes. This often involves a few simple things like spelling and grammer etc…

I had more drastic changes in mind. I had already completed a Second Edition of Betrayal which was released at the beginning of 2023. It was my first book and there were some tweaks I wanted to do, so I did them. I was also, for the first time, allowed to publish a hard cover version and I wanted a hard cover version of the book available.

The Crystal Crux – Blue Grotto Second Edition is now available on Amazon through Kindle (KDP). I am waiting for the proofs of the paperback and hard cover versions to come this week. Once they are approved, those will be available as well.

I’m extremely pleased with the results! I can read the Second Edition of Blue Grotto and not cringe over certain elements of it. I feel this is a much more satisfying product. I hope everyone who takes the time to read it will agree.

And lastly, the final book in The Crystal Crux series will be released later in 2023, before the holidays. I am responsible for everything involved in publishing it but not the artwork. I have hired a professional this time around – and she’s the best!

Thanks once again to my supporters, to those who have purchased and read my books and have spread the word!
I am so grateful to you all.

Here is the link to the Second Edition of Blue Grotto.
Be sure to leave a review after reading it!
https://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Crux-Blue-Grotto-ebook/dp/B0CG38VBWB