Naming the Tome wasn’t simple. Drafts went through multiple ideas, multiple color schemes, and after five years of work following Akin Minds, it eventually became two books instead of one.
For Blog #101, I want to talk about that. The 1,197-Page Spite Book. The Tome.
This’ll stay pretty spoiler-free. It’s more origin story than content breakdown.
Book Two had multiple origin points, and I could plot a crazy-person scale of how it began. For a long time, all of it was part of the same novel. What became Embers of Orden and Stormwrought once lived under the umbrella of Akin Minds.
Once I knew Akin Minds had outgrown itself, I had two choices: carve it down or split it. I never wanted to gut the story for the sake of neatness, so I gave Akin Minds a new ending point and let one book become two..
I was told the same advice from early on. Big books don’t sell, especially from unknown authors. (I rant about it a lot here)
I went through a few titles while figuring out what this book really was. Hierarchy of Lars was my initial, longstanding title (and the title of the previous edition), but I started to feel like it didn’t apply as well as it used to. My next plan I eventually drifted to was the Serpentine Empire, with a green and black color tone. Finally, though, I landed on Embers of Orden.
After refurbishing and rereleasing Akin Minds (which I talked about here), the next beast was editing Book Two. That’s when life hit hard from multiple directions. I suffered one of my biggest losses the year before I released Akin Minds, went through some really rough years, and suffered another huge loss in 2024. That last one, and a shift in environment, really put some wood on the fire. I started writing again, and a lot of that loss (I’m told) comes out in these books. When November came, I entered NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, November, which is since defunct) with the goal to finish the editing and rewriting of book two.
I finished it around a week after the end of NaNoWriMo, and holy, it was a monster. Before making some cuts, it was roughly 1,310 pages. I didn’t have full comprehension of the conversion from MS Word to paperback (does anyone, really?), so I was a little flabbergasted.
I still wanted to release it. This was when I discovered Amazon KDP caps out at 850 pages, while Ingram goes to 1,200. I wasn’t thrilled, but I was stubborn. I cut it down just enough to make it fit: 1,197 pages.
Those comments about large books still rang in my mind. I could’ve split this book in half early on, but I refused. I’m a lover of long-form content, winding TV series, numerous hefty books in a series. I thrive off content of my favorite characters. And, to this day, I’m confident that those like-minded people (of akin minds, if you will) can find a home in my books.
So, I published Embers of Orden, a 1,197-page novel, largely out of spite and love for long-form content. And that boy is hefty. I still have copies of the original, and I had committed people who read that beast. It’s not the kind of book you want to fall on your face while you’re reading. It can be a worthy method of self-defense, though.
After a few months – especially after looking harder at the costs – I made a different decision. I still loved having the Tome under my belt. I’m glad I published it. But it would live better, and reach people better, as two books. I already put out Akin Minds, which is 759 pages, so I already proved something by making the first book as long as it is.
After finding the best spot to divide it, I split the manuscripts myself, commissioned two lovely new book covers, and released Embers of Orden and Stormwrought as two new books. I did this while making the change from Tellwell to self-publishing, thus gaining full control over my series, all while preparing to release Ruinbound, the now-fourth installment to the series!
If I have anything to be glad about, it’s that I made the final decision and acted quickly. Publishing Ruinbound, then going back and splitting Book Two in half, would have made the series numbers confusing for anyone already at that point.
So, where am I at now?
Separating the Tome into Embers of Orden and Stormwrought turned one accomplishment into two. They’re twin books in a way – born from the same fire, shaped by grief, and forged during a time when I had to fight to keep writing at all.
Akin Minds was where these characters found their footing. Embers and Stormwrought shake the foundations of not only the book and its world, but readers. They were written through loss, through upheaval, and through the kind of determination that doesn’t always look graceful, but refuses to die.
My readers have already shared in my grief, and I in theirs. We’ll keep going the same way these books did: one page, one step, one hard-won piece at a time.
Sovereign Soul 