First Look: A Holiday Collection / Announcements: People Like Us Update + Patreon Content Going Forward (Patreon)

Brace yourselves, patrons! There's A LOT in this announcement. Some good news, some bad news, and some hopeful news to round it all out. We're going to start with the good news first!

1. FIRST LOOK: A Very Addicted Christmas is coming soon!

This will be officially announced on our social media Monday, October 28th. Preorder will be available the same day, but we wanted all of you to get the details first!

Current patrons who remain subscribed at the $5 tier in December will be able to download the eBook for free via Bookfunnel when it releases in December. If you don't plan on staying subscribed, you can still buy the eBook on Amazon for $4.99.

We're super excited about offering the holiday collection as we know it's more fun reading the bonuses in eBook format!

2. People Like Us Updates

Now onto the not-so-great news. Three years ago we had grand ideas about compiling all the major bonus scenes from Charming Like Us, Wild Like Us, and Fearless Like Us timeline into a paperback companion novel. Much like how Some Kind of Perfect exists. We love this idea because we adore SKOP with our whole hearts, but we didn't realize that there was a major difference between SKOP and PLU. For SKOP, we had zero other projects we were working on at the time. For PLU, we have lots of other projects that take priority, including traditionally contracted work. So we've had less time to devote to People Like Us as we've wanted, and as a result, we're now three years away from the books/timeline that we're writing in. And, we won't lie, it's getting tough to keep writing in this timeline when creatively, we're CRAVING to write ahead. We want to write the Cobalts, Frog and Quinn, and everything that happens BEYOND Nobody Like Us.

There've been many, many times where we were contemplating writing in the timeline of the summer after Nobody Like Us ends, but we felt an obligation to complete People Like Us, so we didn't touch it. So we've come to realize that the pressure of PLU has driven a wedge into our creative wells, making it even more difficult to finish a bonus in a timely manner. At times, these bonuses can take 4-7 days (which is not the usual), and it's not productive for us. We've always said that Patreon bonuses only work if they don't impede our writing schedule for full-length novels. And unfortunately, they're now eating up our time to write the books.

For that reason, we're pulling a Marvel here (RIP Blade which just got pulled off the MCU schedule entirely), and we're going to cancel People Like Us. What does that mean? We're no longer planning to compile the PLU bonuses into a paperback or eBook. They'll still be here on Patreon as bonuses, but we will start removing the People Like Us tags off the posts to avoid confusion.

For those that love Jane and Thatcher, have no fear, you will still see the rest of their wedding! It just will be a regular bonus scene like all the others on Patreon.

We know this is disappointing news for everyone who's been looking forward to People Like Us as we've been teasing if for (what feels like) forever. This has been such a hard decision to make. To the point where we were pumping ourselves up, thinking we could make it work, but we really sat down and said, "What's the best for the future?" And that's creating new, amazing content that progresses these characters and this world as a whole.

We don't take this road lightly. We hate cancelling anything, let alone a project we've been slowly working on for so long. But it feels right to go ahead and eliminate this looming pressure that's been stifling our creativity and motivation.

With the Holiday Collection, we're really experimenting with compiling bonuses in themed collections and releasing them for limited times in eBook...and maybe even paperback in the future! This is a really good way for us to see if this'll work again. And if you all love this, we could compile the Marrow bonuses or Cobaretti bonuses, Highveria bonuses, etc. into eBook format the same exact way! And we could create collections in eBook for these characters. We realized that the concept of People Like Us was confusing to a lot of new readers since it covered a strange specific timeline. Having bonuses in a collection focusing on one couple/triad might eliminate that confusion.

But this is just an idea! We'd love to know your thoughts on it going forward and whether it's something you'd like.

3. Patreon Content Going Forward

That brings us to the very hopeful news. After Jane and Thatcher's wedding is posted, Patreon content will look a little differently going forward. We'll be softly closing the chapter on writing bonuses during the Like Us timeline -- with the exception of Nobody Like Us. We say "softly" because we won't creatively limit ourselves -- if we happen to feel a stroke of inspiration to write in the earlier stages of the Like Us timeline, we'll still do it. But for the most part, you should be seeing more content that's in the current timeline.

Until Burn Bright releases, we're going to primarily (but not exclusively) write in two POVs: Quinn Oliveira and Kannika "Frog" Kitsuwon. And these will take the form of "chapters" rather than bonus scenes.

So at the $5 tier, you will get two written pieces every month, either in the form of bonuses or chapters. This gives us more flexibility and also more creativity, as we've been eager to write something new and fresh on Patreon. Throughout the Cobalt Empire, we'll have Cobalt brother POVs and love interest POVs.

We hope this change brings more excitement than disappointment. We want Patreon to feel fresh and fun, and we think this route does both!

Thank you all so, so much for your support and love 💗 If you have any questions, we're going to do a live audio in the chatroom and try to answer as many as possible, and we'll be there talking more in depth about everything 😊

xoxo Krista & Becca