I have some exciting news to share with you… the Desert Nights series is getting a makeover and will be released as four novel-length books!
In this post, I’ll give a bit more info about the new series and explain what’s happening with the existing novellas. There’s also a sneak peek at our brand new cover!
Why are we repackaging the series?
Readers told us that while they enjoyed the serial novella format of the series, they preferred reading novel-length books.
We already had plans to group the final two novellas together into a bumper last book, so we thought, why not re-release the whole series at the same time!
Not only will we be repackaging the books as a quartet, but the relaunch gives us a chance to highlight that the series isn’t a straight Aladdin or Thousand Nights fairytale retelling, but a brand new epic fantasy world.
What will happen to the existing series of novellas?
As I write this, the series has released on Amazon up to The Sorcerer in the Shadows (book 9). I’ll be uploading The Secret of the Lamps (Book 10) ASAP so readers currently reading the novella series can get up to date – book 10 will line up with the end of book 3 in the new series.
The novellas will be delisted in March 2020 to make way for the rebranded books (and preorders).
What’s changing?
The short answer? The titles, the covers and some of the story.
In order to make the grouped novellas work as novels, we’ve had to make some heavy edits and cuts, as well as adding brand new material to make sure they work as longer books.
New book 2 combines novellas 4-7 and this one will have the biggest rewrite.
But don’t worry, if you’ve read the novellas, you’ll be able to pick up the series with the final book (4) without having to reread the new novel versions.
How long will you have to wait to find out how the series ends…
A little while. We still have the last half of the final book to write, and at the moment we’re focusing on the rewrites and rebranding of the first three books in the series.
If you’re up to date and want to know how the series ends as soon as possible, drop me a line and I’ll make sure you get added to the list of ARCs for book 4, so you’ll be the first to know how Zadie and Kassim’s adventures end!
Want a peek at the new books?
Of course you do! The overall series will still be called Desert Nights. The first book will combine The Girl with Seven Wishes, The Queen of Forty Thieves and The Sand Beneath the Stars, and it’ll be called….
Throne of Sand
Sounds pretty epic, right?! And the new cover features a badass, sword-wielding Zadie (dressed in finest Khirideshi red, obviously):
We’d love to know what you think
If you’d like to review an ARC of the first book in the new series, do drop me a message via my contact form. We’ll be losing all of the lovely reviews we had for the original series when we delist them, so it would mean a lot for us to have a big batch of reviewers giving their thoughts on the new books.
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If you’ve read the series so far, thank you for following Zadie’s adventure with us! It’s almost a year ago to the day that Helena messaged me asking if I fancied co-writing a series of novellas with her, and my instant reply was, ‘You had me at Aladdin’.
Helena and I have loved writing them and we’re so excited about the brand new look and feel. And of course, to keep writing the series!
Elm x