I have been thinking about this project for awhile now; producing a single volume that contains all three of the novels that constitute The Sorrow Song Trilogy. It became a slow-time activity; something I worked on when I felt that I needed a break from other projects that were more demanding. Today, I finally finished formatting the combined manuscripts, which proved to be a major exercise in itself. I had deluded myself into thinking that I had followed the same rules for each book in turn, but that quickly turned out not to be the case. Indeed, there was some formatting in there that I did not even recognise. All of this makes submitting the book to a publisher even more problematic. However, just before noon today, I managed to complete it to my satisfaction.
Of course, with a new book comes the necessity for a new cover. I had at first toyed with the idea of combining elements from the three extant books: The War Wolf, For Rapture of Ravens, and The Blade's Fell Blow, but this did not fire my imagination. Eventually, I settled on the image of a lone huscarl, a Saxon warrior, my protagonist, Coenred; the last man standing. I liked the design almost immediately, but it took time and effort to realise the idea to a satisfactory degree. I could not submit the manuscript without a cover and I somehow managed to complete both within hours of each other. At this point I am very happy with the result.
It might seem a bit curious, strange even, to want to produce a single volume that contains all three of my Saxon books when they are all readily available as individual items, but I am working to a strategy here. I hate marketing. I find it boring, tedious, and time consuming, but I do not have the money to hire experts to do it for me. I have to accept that it is a fact of life as a struggling author that I have to do this chore myself. I have tried all the usual methods associated with book promotions and none of them actually worked for me (I would not be writing this post if they had!). It occurred to me that there may be another approach, however. I am not going to reveal too much too soon, but The Sorrow Song Trilogy in one volume is key to it. Hopefully, I will be able to write more on the subject in the very near future.
My proposed cover art for the book
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