For at least a year now, I’ve had a bit of a problem with Demoness.
I don’t know what to do with it.
You’d think the answer would be simple and straightforward: write Demoness VI.
But it’s not.
Let me explain.
I think I first came up with the idea of Demoness in late 2016 or so. In its original incarnation, I envisioned basically another Exploration or My Undead Lover. A novella. Hell, the first time I thought about it, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to come up with enough words to fill the 12,000 word goal I’d set for myself. But when I actually got to writing Demoness, it grew. And then it kept growing.
I had a rough deadline in mind, and I wasn’t done as it approached. I could have wrapped it up quick, or let the story keep going. I decided to let the story keep going and wound up with what was at the time the longest single title I’d ever written. I really liked it, and I really liked the characters, and the ending was clearly left wide open for a sequel.
I published Demoness June 8th, 2017.
Even as I pressed on with other titles in my serial fiction series, the idea of Demoness II wouldn’t leave me alone. By then, I was already wanting to move on to novel length material. Over the second half of 2017 I experimented with my first full-length novel, Women of the Wild, which I felt good about. But as 2018 started up and I struggled through the third season of Sex & Survival, it occurred to me that I simply could not go on writing serial fiction. I couldn’t. It was driving me nuts. And so in early 2018 I made the decision to start writing Demoness II, because I had a lot of ideas.
I tracked down a real cover artist and had her make covers for Demoness I & II. I went back and touched up Demoness.
The first real novel I ever released was Demoness II, on April 3rd, 2018. It was very well-received, and people seemed very happy about the longer format. I know I was.
And it sold well, really well.
Although all the shit that went down in Mid-2018 happened, I knew I wanted and needed to write Demoness III. So I did, and I got it out by August 18th, 2018.
It was around this time that I was beginning to realize that while I was seeing a bit more success overall, Demoness was my big earner then. I needed to invest in it more. I added in about 15,000 words to Demoness I, and I wrote a pair of short stories taking place in between the novels, all while working on Demoness IV. That one was huge. It remains the single longest novel I have ever written, at about 102,000 words.
I loved writing it so much. I loved the plot and the characters and the locations and the events. It was all so fantastic.
I published it February 15th, 2019.
Unfortunately, that was when the change began. Although at first it sold decently and was well-received, it didn’t do nearly as well as I had hoped. And it was obvious to me that doing something like Demoness IV again was not sustainable. I had put a tremendous amount of work into it, and while I don’t regret writing it, clearly interest in Demoness had fallen off.
So I shifted my focus to Haven and Parasexual.
But I wrote and got out a little collection of sexy shorts by April 20th, 2019. And then I set aside Demoness for awhile. I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the sequel, but I also knew it would have to wait.
Finally, as 2019 came to an end, I set aside time and got to work on Demoness V. I loved the idea, and although my execution of the novel didn’t quite hit the way I had hoped it would, I did like it, and I got it out April 21st, 2020, almost exactly a year after the last Demoness release.
This reaction was even more underwhelming. It seemed that few people read it, and fewer still reviewed it.
After that, I knew I wanted to write more, as John and Yelena are my favorite characters, and Demoness is my favorite series, but I also realized that it would have to be relegated to a passion project, something worked on only when I had the time. For awhile, I had an idea of what I was going to do for the rest of the series. That changed and the series took on even more responsibilities overall as I realized that I no longer wanted to add to my Fantasy Universe, but I didn’t want to abandon several cool ideas I had, so I decided I would roll them into future Demoness titles.
And this is where the problem came in. The problem that I recognized even back in 2018.
Something I’ve learned the hard way is that a series is only as strong as its first book. And although there are parts I like about Demoness I, it’s clearly the weakest entry in the series. The biggest problem is that when I first started writing Demoness, I had no idea it was going to be a series of novels. I had never even written a series of novels at that point.
And so my conundrum became: every cool idea that I want to pin to Demoness brings me back to this problem. The simplest way I can put it is: It doesn’t matter how cool Book 7 is if Book 1 sucks, because basically no one is going to show up for Book 7.
Now don’t get me wrong, I know there are fans of the Demoness series out there that love John and Yelena, and would keep reading the books. And that’s really appreciated. I’m right there with you, honestly. I want to see them more, watch their relationship evolve more, write about them fucking hot monster chicks more. That’s why I keep coming back to what I now call The Demoness Problem over and over.
At this point, it’s become obvious to me that basically all my older series are done with. I can update the cover art, change the descriptions, pretty it up a dozen subtle different ways, but nothing I wrote before 2018 is ever going to be a bestseller, or even a decent earner.
Hell, probably nothing I wrote before 2020 will be.
Now, I’m not in this JUST to be a bestseller. And that’s why while I’m willing to let just about everything else lie where it has fallen, I can’t leave Demoness behind.
I’ve thought about this problem a lot. I mean, in one form or another, I’ve thought about it for years.
There’s been a solution that I haven’t allowed myself to seriously consider for a long time. And, well, I finally actually let myself consider it recently, and I realized maybe the solution isn’t as impossible or wrong as I thought.
The idea is: I want to reboot Demoness.
Delete everything and start from scratch.
I’m still mulling over it. It would be a lot of work, but the potential to make it much, much better than it already is becomes high. I’m a much better writer now than I was in early 2017. I’ve got a ton of ideas. I could actually use it as a vehicle for not just John and Yelena’s relationship, but that massive ultra epic idea I keep referencing. I could weave more of the already established characters and events into the series. Honestly, I could make the series more coherent. It’s a bit all over the place.
Right now, it’s kind of a moot point. Although I’m leaning towards doing this, I know that even if I decided to do it literally this moment, I simply have too much to do. Way too much. Beyond A Warm Place and my fantasy caveman series coming up…well, let’s just say there are other projects on the horizon that are really big.
I’d say, as I’m writing this, I’m pretty confident that this is the decision I want to make. So I guess I’d say: be prepared for Demoness to get rebooted. I may change my mind, (I’ve been doing that a lot lately as new data comes in), but I doubt I will on this one.
I would, however, like to hear from you. What do you think about this?