New Book: When Life Gives You Werewolves

Hello fellow readers and werewolf romance enthusiasts!

For the last 5 years, I've been funding all aspects of my books myself, everything from audiobooks to printed copies. As you can imagine, the expenses can be overwhelming, oftentimes putting me into the red for a few years. This year, I want to try to raise the funds for my newest book "When Life Gives You Werewolves," which I hope to have published by the end of the year.

For those of you that follow me and have read my work, you know that I don't release a book without making sure it's the best it can be, and this book will be no exception. Before I break down the expenses, let me tell you what the book is about:

Tentative Blurb:

Cody Schultz’s life has been a struggle since childhood. His degree isn’t getting him anywhere, and his minimum wage job can’t keep up with the bills. After bombing another interview, he encounters a homeless werewolf named Roscoe who turns his clean and orderly life into chaos.

Lycanthropy doesn't just affect older teenagers, and after a night of regret with Roscoe, Cody discovers he’s turning into a dirty beast himself. Now facing eviction, the new half-turn has to accept a magic contract with a werewolf, and Roscoe will do just about anything to keep his meal ticket from slipping away. To make matters worse, a mix-up at the government agency for werewolf housing forces another bonded pair into Cody’s dwindling personal space.

While things start out rocky, he grows closer to his new roommates and discovers that all of the preconceived judgements he made as a human weren’t true. Every hilarious antic or rage-filled outburst reveals deep scars from their pasts.

When a mistake puts one of his packmates in danger, Cody has no choice but to turn to the feral werewolves residing in the woods outside the town. That decision sends them all on a spiritual journey that could either be a cure or a total loss to their humanity.

Why I wrote this book:

I originally wrote this story for a former friend's characters, but began to realize it was much more than just a silly romantic comedy. As many of you know, I love the found family trope, and this story encapsulates this kind of close friendship at its most raw. This book will have you laughing and crying as you take a journey through Cody's life, watching as each character grows into their own.

I named this story "When Life Gives You Werewolves" after a cliché my mother used to tell me whenever life would get hard. She passed away back in 2014, and I wanted to use that and the theme from her favorite movie "It's a Wonderful Life" to create a book that's more than just the sum of its parts. It's more than just horny werewolves, irony, and comedic timing. There is a lot of emotion spread throughout, and if you're going through a tough time in life, this book might be the pick-me-up you need.

With that out of the way, let's get into publication costs:

My first two books were entirely funded by me, and while I'm seeing growth in readership, I still have not made back the costs, which often makes me nervous with each new published book. Even though I see these books as an investment, I still worry about the costs, which is why this year I want to try crowdfunding. I have a lot more readers now than I used to, and there are quite a few people who are just as passionate about my books as I am. My goal is to raise $10,000 by winter, which will cover all of the costs associated with publication.

The cost estimation breakdown is the following:

$4500 for audiobook production. This is not easy, nor is it cheap, and it takes the most time outside of actually writing the story. For the size of this book, this price is still on the low-side. Skuru will be putting in so many hours of hard work, edits, corrections, and it takes him away from his other job. We have a great working relationship, and I want to make sure he is properly compensated for so much of his time.

$2500 for editing. This includes line editing and proofreading. Since I have several rounds of beta reads, developmental editing is not necessary. This might be a bit of an underestimate considering the length of the book. This is the second most time-consuming step, and the second-most expensive.

$1100 for cover design and illustration.

$600-$800 for internal book/ebook design.

Whatever is left over will go to extra ISBNs, marketing, ARC distribution (I want to go physical ARCs this year), and any overage costs I didn't calculate above.

Since this story is so character-centered, I'm going to be using a full illustration for the book cover, which increases the costs as well. I would love for there to eventually be swag and character-designed products to sell in the store, but all that takes time and money and depends on the success of the book after it launches.

If you want to know more about me and my books, visit TheLiterateBeast.com