Introducing The Raek Riders Series: A Completed Series Published at Once

October 18, 2023 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

Introducing The Raek Riders Series: A Completed Series Published at Once

By Melanie K. Moschella

I’m a new author, and my debut work, The Raek Riders Series, will be available in March, 2024 as a completed five-book series—as in: fully-formed, ready-to-read, start-to-finish, doneso. Readers won’t have to painstakingly wait for each new release, won’t have to refresh themselves on the previous book before delving into the next one, won’t have to start the series just to forget its name and google things like “books with feathered dragons.” My readers will have the unique experience of being able to start a brand new series with the guarantee that they can enjoy it to completion whenever they want!

You could say I’m trying to be the Netflix of authors or that I’m following the “5 down and 1 in the hole” technique coined by author Liliana Hart, but really, I just write the way I read—I immerse myself completely and don’t come up for air until the story is over. After I finished Iron-Bound Flames, book one of The Raek Riders Series, it didn’t even occur to me to stop there and start the publishing process. My work wasn’t done. The story wasn’t over. Instead, I put my head down and kept writing and kept writing until the entire series lay before me—a completed product.

And boy-oh-boy (or girl, man, woman, nonbinary person, or any other air-suckers) did I need to focus on the thrilling, romantic adventure in my books! I was a new mom with a colicky baby in the middle of a pandemic when I started book one. I was isolated, overwhelmed, exhausted, and desperate to be anywhere other than in my poop-smelling townhome in New Jersey with my beloved little demon. I retreated into the story in my head—then the story on my pages—because I needed to. Fantasy is so much more exciting, seductive, and downright satisfying than real life at times, so I embraced the fantasy.

I believe in immersion. I believe in escapism. I believe fantasy exists as a genre and is so compelling for people because it rips us from our oh-so-mundane existences and ferrets us away to more exciting places and plotlines. And if my readers are anything like me, once they’re in those places—living the lives of characters that in no way resembles their own—they don’t want to be yanked back into the real world mid-adventure. So, I won’t do that to them!

Sure, I also believe in the practicality of my decision to publish all five books at once. Completing the series before putting my work in front of readers gave me the freedom to make changes throughout when needed. It also allowed me to hire an artist to design the covers as one project instead of hiring someone for book one, hoping they’d be available whenever I got around to book two, etc. It’s practical to make a cohesive product in one go … I’m not much of a baker, but even I wouldn’t bake a cake one slice at a time—because in my mind, a series is a whole, delicious cake, and I, for one, like to stand at my counter and dig into cakes with a fork and only my stomach to tell me when to lay off and take a break.

I haven’t published yet, but I certainly hope readers will take to my series like a cake and devour book after book as intended. It should help that I plan to make the first eBook free—to give people that first taste to get them going. In theory, that’s one of the benefits of publishing five books all at once; the money and effort I put into marketing can come back to me five-fold rather than just in the sales of one book—or at least four-fold, assuming the first is free. In addition to being a practical way to write and create, I’m hoping publishing my full series will have financial benefits. I mean, as much as I loved writing my books and would gladly give them all away, gluten-free cake is expensive, and I’m a voracious eater …

Only time will tell if the decision to publish all at once will help me sell books or gain traction as a new author. But as the little elves in my head plan and plot my next series (the next two if I’m being honest), I don’t foresee doing anything differently. Like I said, I believe in immersion—I escape into my writing like I have always escaped into reading and will surely write and write until my next story is complete. I won’t pause to breathe or publish one book at a time. I will undoubtedly publish my next series all at once as well and the one after that, and I can only hope there are readers out there—readers like me—who will appreciate my approach.

Just to recap: I write and publish the way I read and eat cake—in large, satisfying quantities. If you start one of my series, you will be able to finish it as quickly and single-mindedly as your life permits. If you come to my house, I will serve you an entire cake instead of just one slice. It’ll be gluten free and might have some bites taken out of it, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll be too busy living some other adventure in your head to notice.

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Melanie K. Moschella is an escapist reader and writer living in the beautiful White Mountains of New Hampshire. Her two true passions are parenting and writing—both of which require stamina and creativity, but only one of which allows her to sit down. Despite Melanie’s overpriced English degree from an overrated university, she attributes her debut work, The Raek Riders Series, to the isolation of new motherhood—after all, what could make a person crave adventure and romance more than dirty diapers? Connect with Melanie at www.melaniekmoschella.com and follow her on Instagram and Facebook @melaniekmoschella.