October 10, 2024 Announcement
When I started writing Tall Tales, the plan was for it to be a webserial, told across multiple blogs. And that was exactly what I did! From December 2018 until the summer of 2020, that was the only form the story had. The books were, if I’m honest, something of an afterthought; Volume One was just a repackaging of the webserial, with rounds of edits and three bonus stories, into a format accessible to a different audience. I mistakenly did not put any more thought into it than that. And I should have! Going from blogs to a book requires actual translation of the work into a new format, and I did not put in the effort to make that translation work. This created a number of problems, especially once it became clear that the books were considerably more attractive to readers than the website, and I have been working hard to try to find a way to patch the mistakes I made in slapping the books together the way I did.
The only solution, I finally came to accept, was to start over. Not from scratch, mind you; so much material has already been written, material that I am proud of and believe deserves a better presentation. But a complete reformat of the series, with an eye toward making the books work, will mean a number of changes:
Author Name
First of all, my name. When I started Tall Tales, I knew there was already an author named Tim McLaughlin publishing books for Intervarsity Press, a Christian publisher. I knew I would have to use a different form of my name if I wanted to publish books in that same market (which I do), but I didn’t think it would matter when this story was only intended to be a webserial. But since publishing it into books, I’ve run into issues with the shared name--Tall Tales: Volume Two required almost a year of fighting with Goodreads to get it attributed to my author page instead of his—and I think this reformat is a good opportunity to fix that problem. I’m leaning toward TE McLaughlin at this time, as I don’t see any other authors using that version of my name, but further research and a final decision will be made when re-release day is closer.
Series Name
Tall Tales is concise, a nice summary of the webserial project, and easy to use in a URL. It was, I believe, a fine name for this series…when it was exclusively a webserial. But it’s such a widely-used term that it makes the series incredibly difficult to find in any book marketplace. It just doesn’t suit that format. I don’t have a better name for the series yet, but I’m working on it; and the books themselves will have distinct titles, as opposed to the current Volume (number) format, which will help immensely.
Availability
At the end of 2024, the Tall Tales books will be taken down from Amazon. This means that they will no longer be in print, since I’m using KDP to produce them. This website will be taken down when it comes time to renew our payment for the domain, which I believe will be the spring of 2026. In the meantime, all the story content of this website will be moved to the Rabid Haberdashery website, under my author page, where it will remain available indefinitely. The books already printed will continue to be available until they are sold out, though after the beginning of 2025, they will only be available from me in person or on the website.
Relaunch
As I said, nothing in the Tall Tales canon is going away, just being reformatted. I’ve already begun this process, and will hopefully be able to have the first new book out next year. This will not simply be a copy/paste job, however. The stories are being moved into new arrangements, with a tighter focus on specific stories. So, one book will focus entirely on the Matteson/Jackie/Alethea plotline from Tall Tales: Volume One, with significant rewrites, a more polished structure, and additional content to really let that story play out without the heavy use of time skips that were required to fit the story into its original format. Jackie’s research into the way magic works will be collected and expanded into a book that focuses more heavily on her personal notes and commentary. The documents used to track Benedict’s adventures will be collected into a book that more overtly deals with the trial those documents were being collected to serve (which is stated on the website, but is unclear in the current books). A variety of standalone narrator-sourced short stories will be gathered into new collections.
Essentially, each aspect of the broader story will be given a book, or series of books, that more accurately reflect the nature of that aspect and allow it to get the attention and effort it deserves. Large parts of these books will be new material, whole perspectives and storylines that have never been seen but serve to help those aspects shine.
I will keep you informed as the date of relaunch grows closer! Thank you for your continued support, and I hope this reformat helps you enjoy the story even more.
The only solution, I finally came to accept, was to start over. Not from scratch, mind you; so much material has already been written, material that I am proud of and believe deserves a better presentation. But a complete reformat of the series, with an eye toward making the books work, will mean a number of changes:
Author Name
First of all, my name. When I started Tall Tales, I knew there was already an author named Tim McLaughlin publishing books for Intervarsity Press, a Christian publisher. I knew I would have to use a different form of my name if I wanted to publish books in that same market (which I do), but I didn’t think it would matter when this story was only intended to be a webserial. But since publishing it into books, I’ve run into issues with the shared name--Tall Tales: Volume Two required almost a year of fighting with Goodreads to get it attributed to my author page instead of his—and I think this reformat is a good opportunity to fix that problem. I’m leaning toward TE McLaughlin at this time, as I don’t see any other authors using that version of my name, but further research and a final decision will be made when re-release day is closer.
Series Name
Tall Tales is concise, a nice summary of the webserial project, and easy to use in a URL. It was, I believe, a fine name for this series…when it was exclusively a webserial. But it’s such a widely-used term that it makes the series incredibly difficult to find in any book marketplace. It just doesn’t suit that format. I don’t have a better name for the series yet, but I’m working on it; and the books themselves will have distinct titles, as opposed to the current Volume (number) format, which will help immensely.
Availability
At the end of 2024, the Tall Tales books will be taken down from Amazon. This means that they will no longer be in print, since I’m using KDP to produce them. This website will be taken down when it comes time to renew our payment for the domain, which I believe will be the spring of 2026. In the meantime, all the story content of this website will be moved to the Rabid Haberdashery website, under my author page, where it will remain available indefinitely. The books already printed will continue to be available until they are sold out, though after the beginning of 2025, they will only be available from me in person or on the website.
Relaunch
As I said, nothing in the Tall Tales canon is going away, just being reformatted. I’ve already begun this process, and will hopefully be able to have the first new book out next year. This will not simply be a copy/paste job, however. The stories are being moved into new arrangements, with a tighter focus on specific stories. So, one book will focus entirely on the Matteson/Jackie/Alethea plotline from Tall Tales: Volume One, with significant rewrites, a more polished structure, and additional content to really let that story play out without the heavy use of time skips that were required to fit the story into its original format. Jackie’s research into the way magic works will be collected and expanded into a book that focuses more heavily on her personal notes and commentary. The documents used to track Benedict’s adventures will be collected into a book that more overtly deals with the trial those documents were being collected to serve (which is stated on the website, but is unclear in the current books). A variety of standalone narrator-sourced short stories will be gathered into new collections.
Essentially, each aspect of the broader story will be given a book, or series of books, that more accurately reflect the nature of that aspect and allow it to get the attention and effort it deserves. Large parts of these books will be new material, whole perspectives and storylines that have never been seen but serve to help those aspects shine.
I will keep you informed as the date of relaunch grows closer! Thank you for your continued support, and I hope this reformat helps you enjoy the story even more.
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