A while back, I said that I had follow ups for "The Vixen" almost ready to publish. They are still in that state. Why? Because for each new draft, I like to get some fresh beta readers and this time something clicked from the fresh feedback which I think helped understand an older feedback I was ignoring.
In this case, the older feedback said something felt missing. The new feedback said there was too much of something. That too much of one thing, in my opinion, is what caused the feeling of absence. Why? Because of the concept of "broken/unfulfilled promises". I recently watched Brandon Sanderson's series of lectures on creative writing and he relayed a similar experience where beta reader's feedback helped guide him to what went wrong and what promises he had failed to live up to. These promises are not always intentionally made, but a reader can pick up on them and if not handled properly, can make or break an ending.
In other news, the beta reading process has helped me observe that the immediate follow-up, while technically has enough information to serve as an intro, works better when read with the Vixen. In combination with me experimenting with something, I feel like in order to not make the wrong promises to new readers, I should not release it as a standalone. What this means is there will be a Second Edition of "The Vixen" with 3 short stories.
What does this mean for people who have already bought or downloaded the first edition? As thank you to everyone who supported me early, the two short stories appended to "The Vixen" at no extra cost. Just make sure your Kindle/App updates. And when the update goes live, I will also raise the cost to $3 to maintain the $1 per short story ratio.
When will the updates go live? I hope in September but that also depends upon another thing I want to try and that is illustrations. If you recall from my post on cover art, there was a piece that felt very comic-book and I am in talks to see about having that artist contribute some illustrations for "The Vixen" Second Edition. Depending upon how that goes, it may take a bit longer.
Until then, dream on!
J. D. Nyle
