One of the most common questions I’ve gotten this year is … what happened to the rest of the Sheet Cake series? Specifically, where is Collin’s book, The Wild Card?
I’ve discussed this in my Facebook group and on Instagram, but had never written it out here for anyone who might hunt down a blog post instead of social media for answers. It’s high time I share this here!
Because this involves taking kind of a deep dive into my publishing schedule, I want to make sure I give a quicker version in case you aren’t interested in what I like to call How the Sausage Is Made.
If you don’t want to read a whole post, the TL;DR is: Due to publications updates and life things, The Wild Card and the final book in the Sheet Cake series will be coming in 2025!
Now, if you want to know more (because you’re curious, not nosy!), then read on!
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WHERE IS THE WILD CARD?
Originally, The Wild Card was slated to come out in May 2024. It’s the fourth book in the Sheet Cake series, and to understand why this series has taken me SO LONG, we’ll have to go back a little bit.
The Buy-In came out in 2022, followed by The Bluff just a few months later. It took about a YEAR after that to get The Pocket Pair published, which was the start of the issues.
It’s not Sheet Cake’s fault: You can blame the royals. Specifically: Royal Gone Rogue.
HOW MY BRAIN HIJACKED MY PUBLISHING SCHEDULE
I’ve learned while writing that I have ADHD. This is never something I’ve been treated for or done any kind of medication or had tools to consider treating it because I didn’t know. And now that I’m in my 40s, I’m not sure if I want to change how I operate. But this did really help me understand a bit more about my decisions.
While I LOVED being so focused and putting out the entire Love Cliches series in under a year, I also really like new ideas and jumping around. Both in reading and in writing.
So I thought I could publish one royal book a year that would just give my brain a little break while finishing a longer series like Sheet Cake. Only … Royal Gone Rogue took me about nine months to write instead of the usual two to three.
That pushed back The Pocket Pair, and honestly, it really killed the series momentum. The sales were FINE, but not what they would have been if I released the next Sheet Cake book sooner than I did. Which means going forward, I’ll be fighting more of a battle with momentum and sales in the series. That’s just how it works.
HOW DO I MAKE MY PUBLISHING CHOICES?
Authors write for very different reasons, and while I love love love writing and will always do it, I’m also the primary income for our family, which means I have to make decisions based on things that are selling. At least, in part.
Another huge part of my decision-making process is what I’m enjoying and what stories are coming easier. Writing is a practice (and, for me, a business), but it’s also a creative endeavor. Sometimes the creativity takes a turn.
After The Pocket Pair, I had planned to write The Wild Card, BUT fellow author Courtney Walsh and I decided to spearhead the Sweater Weather series. That sweet little series took off WAY more than expected.
As I was writing Just Don’t Fall (which is now out of the Sweater Weather series and part of the Appies), I KNEW those hockey players would demand stories, but I figured I’d just wait.
Except… they didn’t want to wait. The Appies were speaking to me (not literally … mostly) and it was much easier to immerse myself in their world rather than hop back into Sheet Cake.
OH AND THE OTHER BIG CHANGE…
The other big thing that happened is that I got a traditional book deal with Thomas Nelson. Though If All Else Sails is not out until NEXT year, it was due in summer of 2024. Like, RIGHT AFTER Collin’s book was due. While I’ve continued to write and publish my own indie books, I’ve been writing and editing a whole other book that won’t be out until 2025. It’s an adjustment.
As I started looking seriously at my schedule and how it was going to work to write a traditional book and finish out the hockey series and also some secret projects (I always have those), I realized I want to close out the Sheet Cake series TOGETHER. As in, I want to write Collin’s book and Tank’s book close together and not have all these big breaks.
THE OVERALL PATTERN IS … A LITTLE CHAOS
Are you seeing a pattern here? Because I have.
The pattern is… when I write too many series at a time, things get wonky.
But also? I LOVE writing a million things at a time. It’s a joy to my brain. And then, it stresses me out.
I don’t slow down well. I like to run a million miles an hour on a lot of things. (See: note above about how many books I’m writing at a time.)And as I’m learning to navigate my newly discovered but always had ADHD, I’m discovering what’s hard for me to do in this career and what leaves me feeling like a failure or feeling overwhelmed with pressure.
Hard dates are one of those difficult things.
For the past few years, I’ve done preorders a year in advance so I’d have room to write in my own time.
But … a year isn’t always enough. Circumstances change and things happen that make it hard for me. PLUS the pressure of a firm deadline makes it harder for me to write.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM EMMA GOING FORWARD
I think tentatively, going forward, I’ll have very short preorders, when the book is DONE (or almost) so I can get the book up and ready, but won’t have the hard date pressure.
The exception will be my traditional books (assuming I’ll do more after the first), where there will be a firm preorder and launch date. I think that’s the ONLY kind of hard date I can handle. My other books may come suddenly or by surprise, which is just what works best for me right now.
I know people are disappointed about The Wild Card delay, and as a reader, I totally get it. I also know that I have to make the best decisions for my mental health AND my business–plus there’s always the element of creative work as a little extra challenge.
Y’all are amazing readers and have been so supportive over the years! The last time I canceled anything was back in covid times, and obvs, there were tons of circumstances there precluding that.
So, I hope you’ll understand and get excited for whatever might be coming from me even if you don’t get hard dates further out.
WHAT’S NEXT?
I’m working now on The Wild Card (among other things)! But I’m not sure when it will release. And I don’t know what books will or won’t be coming out for the remainder of 2024 or what’s coming when in 2025.
This will make things… kind of surprising around here?
There are so many authors really great about advance notice and hard dates, but I think I’m just realizing that is NOT ME.So, you’re going to have to be patient and be prepared for a lot of surprises. I hope to write some really great books that make all the waiting worth it!
Thank you guys for understanding!!! And if you read allllll the way to the end of this very long explanation, way to go! You get a gold star. You go, Glen Coco!
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