Come March 20th The Shadow Regent will have seen one year of publication. This being the first standalone book I've written in the Tralodren universe, I thought to take a moment to revisit the story in this post.
This book was a first for me in many ways. First in being published with a full marketing effort and tour, first in being a standalone story, and first in being something that hadn't been something I had in the backlog for very long. With the pandemic fears and concerns finally put behind us—at least when it came to book events—it was great to finally experience a marketing push as it should be from the get go, complete with an active book tour which saw me interacting with fans—both old and new. And as nice as getting out again was it was even more interesting to see just who showed up.
I was curious to see if readers of the Wizard King Trilogy would cross over to the new title. Some did, but others have arrived later to the party as the months have rolled on. I was expecting to snag some new readers and interested folks with the option of having something standalone so they didn't have to commit to a larger trilogy before getting into the story but it seems more have opted thus far to make that trilogy trek before venturing into this new volume.
It's always interesting to see how that plays out. You think you may have something figured out and then you realize people have this thing called free will and end up doing something else. Not that I'm complaining. I'm still learning how this wild ride will play out from book to book, story to story. If anything, it's given me some pointers into how to work with Rainier's Legacy when it launches later this year.
For those of you who have picked up a copy of The Shadow Regent already, thank you. If you're close to where I'm going to be this year for tours and events feel free to stop by and I'd be happy to sign it for you. And for those who prefer audio to prose for their fiction Recorded Books, my audiobook publisher, has put together this great page letting you pick up the audiobook option that's right for you.
And if you missed it you can also download some wallpaper options of the cover art for your devices and get some further insight on Tralodren by checking out the following site.
Finally, if all of what I shared thus far has piqued further interest then you might enjoy taking a listen to an audio behind the scenes of the tale, which you can find here.