State of the Collaboration, June 9, 2023

~ Jenny

So we got an offer on Lavender’s Blue, with a pub date of Fall, 2024. Bob and I looked at each other over the Internet and shook our heads. So we’re going to self-pub because we can have Lavender out at the end of July, Pink at the end of August, Vermillion at the end of September. Preorders are up now and people are actually preordering it, which boggles my mind because we didn’t tell anybody we were putting up preorders. Unless Bob did. You’re the first people I’ve told (of course). So now I can go back to moving and finishing Rocky Start. Also my internet is screwed up–time to move!–so if I’m erratic coming in here, that’s why. One damn thing after another.

But at least the Liz series is finally moving toward publication. Publishing is slow.

Lavender’s Blue, out on July 25, 2023.

ETA: Bob says they will be available in hardcover, trade, and paperback.

105 thoughts on “State of the Collaboration, June 9, 2023”

  1. Sigh. She just posted the Amazon link. It’s on every ebook platform. Along with the other two books. That only took me a couple of days. But do I get any appreciation? Any acknowledgment? Nope.

    1. Hi Bob! I acknowledge and appreciate you and preordered the entire series. Money is still the sincerest form of appreciation. I’ve been waiting to throw money at you and Jenny, seems like forever!

        1. Gary –

          Going to announce on my instagram, fb & blog.

          Is it okay to send people to your blog for Amazon preorder links? I couldn’t find 2 & 3 no matter what I did. I went off of your blog links to preorder.

    5. Thank you Bob. I ordered the entire series. I hope somewhere in this article they are going to say what you are using to self publish because I’m thinking of doing it and I absolutely know i will not use Ingram sparks.
      I’m hoping you have a better option. Can’t wait to read the books.

    6. Greatly appreciate all the work you put in – not only have I ordered my own copies, but see that it’s in the Overdrive marketplace. So many library customers will be able to enjoy!

  2. Pre-ordered, and thank you! I’m so happy to hear this and really look forward to finally getting to read all of Liz!

  4. This is so exciting! Congratulations to you both! Is there any chance it will be made available to other regions? Amazon will not let me order from the US store.

    1. I’ll ask Bob. He’s doing the self pub tech.
      Bob?

      His answer: “it should be on their Amazon in their country.”

      3. It’s on Amazon Australia. I’ve remembered to follow you on Amazon, so I should get notifications each time you publish.

  6. Woohoo! Thank you for not making us wait that long. Off to preorder on Kobo!

    1. Congratulations to you both. So pleased you have self published so we can have them sooner. And available on Kobo Australia which I am thrilled about. Preorder done. Searched by title first & then linked to the Liz Danger Series to find the others.

      1. Oh great to know, thank you! It’s definitely not coming up on Amazon Australia, so I will try Kobo.

  7. I’ve managed to find them eventually on Amazon UK, but searches on Jennifer Crusie, Jenny Crusie, & Lavender’s Blue all came up blank. I had to follow your US link to check how it was listed, and then search on both your names. Don’t know what’s broken there.

    Looking forward to reading them.

      1. Ah, should have read ahead. That’s what he said, too, but it’s been a busy day. I think he’s trying to fix it.
        I’m still impressed: he got them all up on all the formats in less than 24 hours. Boy was motivated.

    2. I noticed that, too. Bob put them up and said Amazon had only listed his bio so he went back to check to see if they’d only put him in the search criteria.
      Either that, or Bob is gaslighting me.

      1. Both bios are there now
        although mine is still listed below that because these books are coming via Cool Gus Publishing.
        As far as foreign, never had this problem before, but just reloaded and instead of worldwide tried checking every territory. Let’s see if that works better.

  9. It’s available for pre- order on Apple in Ireland. Yay! Well done Bob, as we often don’t have access to self-published works by American authors.

  10. SO glad these books, which we have all following on this blog for many years, are being published right away!!! A definite treat to look forward to in late July.
    I live in Canada, and like Jane said for the UK, I was unable to find the Kindle link on Amazon.ca when searching only for Jennifer Crusie or Jenny Crusie, along with Lavender’s Blue.
    When I searched for the same title using both author’s names, there was the same lack of a link – no matter which name I listed first.
    But the link to Lavender’s Blue popped up right away when I searched just for Bob Mayer Lavender’s Blue.

  11. SO glad these books, which we have all following on this blog for many years, are being published right away!!! A definite treat to look forward to in late July.
    I live in Canada, and like Jane said for the UK, I was unable to find the Kindle link on Amazon.ca when searching only for Jennifer Crusie or Jenny Crusie, along with Lavender’s Blue.
    When I searched for the same title using both author’s names, there was the same lack of a link – no matter which name I listed first.
    But the link to Lavender’s Blue popped up right away when I searched just for Bob Mayer Lavender’s Blue.

  12. I generally don’t pre-order books, because I don’t figure I need to lend Amazon my money before I get my fix, I mean book. Since you’re self-publishing, does it help you if I order now? I know I’m going to buy them all, so I certainly could.

    1. I’m not sure, but don’t worry about it. I preorder because I forget, which is why I’ve got preorders in for Murderbot and the next Aaronovitch, but otherwise, I always wait.

    2. I believe you’re not actually charged for the pre-order until the day it’s published. Someone else may know for sure, but that was always my understanding. It’s weird from the author dashboard point of view, because pre-orders affect the book’s ranking as they happen, but there’s no money shown until the release day.

      Pre-orders help the authors, not so much in money terms, but in visibility terms, which can lead to more sales. I don’t recall the details, but pre-orders affect ranking and algorithm stuff. Increased visibility and awareness of the book’s existence lead to more sales.

    3. You don’t get charged until you actually get the book
      And Amazon doesn’t pay out until you get the book so it’s up to you. For us its the same

  13. Good news! Woohoo three books by Jennifer Mayer and Bob Mayer this year. I have a Nook, just because. Search under Bob Mayer; it was the last book on the list of novels. Same with searching under Jennifer Crusie.

    Searching the title of each book, each comes up immediately except for One in Vermillion. There is another book, same title. another author comes up first. After yesterday’s fiasco with Martha’s new book and a book with same title, different author on BookBup makes me super vigilant I’m buying the book by author I want.

    Ordered all three. The credit card is charged on the day of publication.

  14. Yay!!! I needed some good news today. Preordered. Any chance of a print version for my apocalypse library?

      1. Bob is doing all of this so I don’t know. He said it’s in e-book, hardcover, and trade paperback.

  16. Pre-ordered-o-rooney. Congratulations on getting them done and going into the self-publishing lane.

  20. I’ll check again later, but they’re only listed in Kindle edition right now. Would MUCH prefer a ‘real’ book. 😉

  22. I have been reading these Blogs for years ,going all the way back to the originals . Because I live in the UK (South Wales) I used to binge read every couple of days ,until I found out how to receive them in my in box daily. I have just finished re-reading all the Crusie, and Crusie/Mayer books for the umpteenth time, so this is amazing news for me. I’m so excited I’ve pre ordered them all in Kindle as it is nice and quick ,and can order them in book form later. This is so good I,ve had to break out of lurking to make a comment.

    1. Oh, welcome out of lurk, Wendy! It’s always good to see people come out of the shadows (g).

  26. No luck finding them on the Australian Amazon site (I’m not Australian, but I guess NZ is too small to have our own Amazon so we are lumped in with them).
    Hopefully they pop up in the next little while. I can’t wait to read them.
    Jenny your books are my emergency comfort reads. I buy them both on kindle and in real book form so I can still read them if an apocalypse kills all electrical devices. Or a cyclone knocks out the power for 5 days. Which happened just this February. No zombies though. Sorry Bob.

  27. Congratulations, Jenny and Bob! This is a long awaited outcome, and far superior to Fall, next year! I am amazed that all the connections were made and the books are actually out there. I am so happy for you and us.

  28. As an author, I’m curious if the offer wasn’t very good, or if you just didn’t want to wait another year (which isn’t long in terms of publishing, but it is true that folks have been eagerly awaiting these books)? Or if you just decided in the end that you wanted more control over the whole process?

    I’ll be waiting for the hardcover versions, because these will definitely be keepers.

    1. We sent the books to the agent in October but because of several factors on her end plus the holidays, she didn’t sent them out until January. Then it took FOREVER which everybody told us was normal for now but made us crazy with the waiting. They also told us advances were low so we were expecting that, but the terms weren’t good either. And at this point, we both wanted to self-publish to get some control back and to see what happened. We were both just tired of the hurry up and wait. And when we made the decision, after we made the decision, no second thoughts set in, we were just relieved and kind of excited to see what happened next. We were just tired of waiting.

      Now my only worry is that the books won’t be good. I mean, I like them, but I helped write them.

      2. I bet what will happen is when you get lots of sales and buzz going around, a publisher will come to you with a better deal.

  29. I preordered all three as well. I love when there is something fun to look forward to and now I have three something’s to watch for!

      1. Will do. Actually several of us do lurk here. I know it’s shocking that we might do anything quietly, but we are older now and … well we’ll just stick with older. But we still hang out together, we just keep the mayhem to ourselves.

        1. Bob was just saying that the reason we weren’t fighting this time was that we were more mature.
          I find that hard to believe, but we’re definitely get along now. Remember the old meltdowns? Good times.

          You guys were always great, though. I will never forget the time Bob put up a blank page for his blog post by accident and you all posted over a hundred comments on it, offering suggestions as to what it meant. I loved it.

  34. I’ll get the ebooks, and I’ll take the announcement to my library ASAP so they can preorder.

    Any chance there will be audiobook versions at some point? I hope so, as I have intermittent vision issues.

    Thank you for the great news!

    1. Bob just said that we had to look into audiobooks. I have no idea. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m an idiot about self-pub. I just asked Bob so he’ll probably be in here later to answer.

    2. I followed you. Since I’m on TikTok too. I’m truly bad at tick-tock. Mostly my son handles it for me.

  37. I read on multiple platforms. So my question is which one(s) has/have the best terms for authors. Both ebook and print (since I will get both)?

  38. So…pre-ordered the e-books, waiting impatiently for the print books. Sometimes you just need all the versions. Like Sarah said, gotta have print in case of apocalypse or zombies. And with hard cover, you can fight off the zombies, a la Agnes and her frying pans.

  39. This is me too! I want to support with pre order mania (all three ordered!), but I really want my hard copies.

  40. Pre-ordered via Kobo (which thinks both Lavender and Pink are coming out in July). I’m so pleased this is happening, and can’t wait to read them!

  43. Really excited for your new book. I delurk to proclaim myself a huge fan of many years’ standing! Your words, whether they be novel, recommendation or day-to-day blogging, never miss.

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