I wrote the last two books in the Warm Bodies Series back-to-back, and I intended to publish them the same way. THE BURNING WORLD came out February 2017, and I imagined THE LIVING would come later that year. A chance for the readers to catch their breath and for me to do a little further polishing, and then the story would be complete.
It didn’t quite work out that way.
THE BURNING WORLD was released into one of the most chaotic moments in modern American history, a perfect storm of political mayhem, social upheaval, and mass distraction that consumed all cultural bandwidth and sank dozens of books that were “supposed to be big.” Despite glowing reviews, THE BURNING WORLD went largely unnoticed by media and fans alike, reaching only 1% of the first book’s readership.
So my publisher dropped the series. And just like that, four years after nearly topping the NYT bestseller list and seeing my name on movie screens around the world, I was out on the streets.
I spent a year looking for a way back into the system. I approached several smaller houses and heard the same thing over and over: “We love the book but we don’t know how to publish it.” And I get it. The creaking gears of traditional publishing won't mesh easily with a book like this: the orphaned fourth entry in a hard-to-package series that's evolved from a simple, crowd-pleasing riff on the zombie genre to a post-apocalyptic fantasy epic that challenges society, explores the nature of reality, and takes a shot at the meaning of life.
It’s a lot to ask of a struggling industry that can’t afford to take risks. But this story needs its ending. You've waited long enough. So to quote a large purple man who dominated pop culture this year…fine. I’ll do it myself.
I am publishing THE LIVING independently.
If all goes as planned, it will be available from all major online retailers and hopefully some stores.
It will be released simultaneously worldwide.
And most importantly, it will be released soon.
This year.
FALL, 2018.
That’s all I can say for now. More details will be coming soon, so if you want that news to actually reach you instead of being shoved aside by social media algorithms to make room for more ads, JOIN MY EMAIL LIST.
Thank you for staying with me and following this story to its end.
#WakeTheLiving