Scheduling, or Why So Long Between Series Releases?

Every writer is asked “When will X book be out?”

This is a good thing! Someone is interested in more of our work!

Many times we have a specific answer: “August 11, 2026” (Which is the answer to “When is the next Below Stairs Mystery coming out?”). Or, “September 16” (For “When is the next Leonidas the Gladiator Mystery?”).

But sometimes I don’t have an answer, because I don’t know, and it’s very frustrating (however that is changing–as I will reveal).

Here are the reasons why I have had gaps in book releases:

I write multiple series. Current series are: Shifters Unbound, Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries, Below Stairs Mysteries, Stormwalker, Mackenzies / McBrides, Leonidas the Gladiator Mysteries, Riding Hard, and this doesn’t include other, shorter series that I’ve started. My goal is to have at least one entry in each every 18 months, but sometimes this is impossible.
I can only write so many books a year. I know authors who can write one book per month, even long ones! I can’t. It takes me, from starting the draft to finishing up the proofreading, anywhere from two and a half to four months. Now, during the editing and proofreading stages of one book, I can be drafting another. I love to write, so once I’ve sent the book off to my editor, I go on the next book. I can usually manage three to four novels a year and one to two novellas on top of that using this method.
Real Life has a way of intruding. Like most people, I’m constantly dealing with things in my life. In the last five years, I’ve gone through my mom’s death, losing two cats, watching my husband’s health lag with MS, moving, and trying to take care of my own health (e.g., the sciatica I’ve developed), as well as the usual home maintenance, doctor’s appointments, etc. I have to help my husband a lot, and there’s no one to take care of physical things while I’m writing. Plus, I need vacation once in a while!
Publisher contracts can be restricting. It is a rare publisher that doesn’t try to control what their authors are writing. To be fair, they don’t want to spend a lot of money and time on an author, and then she’s too busy to write the books in her contract and another publisher is making money from her other books. I used to write for multiple publishers and had to negotiate carefully to do so, though now I mostly publish myself. But my publisher’s contracts will state specifically what series I’m allowed to publish and when. So, while I’ve been writing one Below Stairs Mystery novel a year, my contract restricts me from publishing other books under the Jennifer Ashley name too close to those releases.
Sometimes I just don’t have it in me. I love all of my series. I know the characters like they’re my family and I enjoy the heck out of entering their worlds. But sometimes the romance between two characters who need to get together just doesn’t come to me. Romance is a journey, and if I can’t vividly visualize how that journey will go, I can’t write the book. I don’t want to crank out something mediocre just so Character A and Character B can get together. I want the story to be intense, and at times it doesn’t happen (see “Real Life has a Way of Intruding” above). And no, I won’t turn to AI to write them for me!

That all said:

I’ve come up with a way to organize myself and get all of these books written, which is why I will have releases this year in August, September, October, and probably November, then again in either January or February. First, my contract restrictions have eased. Second,

I have a spreadsheet! It’s color coded and everything. What could go wrong?

But seriously, I have over the last six months, pounded out a working schedule of my upcoming releases.

I won’t necessarily post this schedule to the world, because I need to remain a little flexible, for things like Real Life Interference and I Don’t have It In Me.

However, I have worked out how to rotate through my series and make sure I have releases in each one a little more often. I will post dates and titles for each book once I’ve started drafting it or am very confident of the release date. I hate when I post a date and have to change it for one of the above-mentioned interferences.

What’s Coming Up (For Real)

This where I am on my next releases:

Murder in Blackfriars (Below Stairs Mysteries, Book 9) Release date August 11. Status: Completely done (on pre-order) and ready to be read!

Brother at Arms (Leonidas the Gladiator Mysteries, Book 4). Release date September 16. Status: In proofreading and on pre-order.

Below Stairs Mysteries Novella. Release date October. Status: In edits (I’m being a little cryptic with title and release date, because I’m waiting for Murder in Blackfriars to be released. See Publisher Contracts can be Restricting for why.)

Riding Hard: Jack (Riding Hard, Book 9). Release date November. Status: Drafting (I have chapter 1 mostly done). Note: This will be the last Riding Hard book.

Dylan (Shifters Unbound Book 17). Release date beginning of 2027. Status: Brainstorming. I won’t post the release date until I start writing, because I have a lot of Real Life stuff coming up Oct-Nov, so that might slow me down. But, it will be the next book after Jack, no matter what.

The three books after that will be Mackenzies (Megan’s story), Stormwalker (Shape Changer), and then a novel in the new mystery series, Robert Archer Paranormal Mysteries (A Matter of Vengeance). All three of these are in Brainstorming mode. These three might flip around depending on Real Life factors, and I will post firmer dates once I start writing each.

After that, I will start all over again with Captain Lacey (Book 18 in that series, Murder on the Rhone, was just published this past March), and then continue with another Elizabeth I book, then back to Below Stairs, and around we go. I’ll pop another Satin and Silk book in somewhere (this will be a 3-book series) and perhaps start something new as well.

(By the way: ALL of these books will have paperback editions as well as e-book, and most will have Audio editions. Almost all will be translated into German and French with some in Italian as well.)

So there you have it. The more-or-less answer to “When is the next book coming out?”

I also post all this info on my websites, which I update every couple of weeks. (I love updating my website. There are actually people who don’t. How is this possible?)

Check out my Forthcoming pages here:

Jennifer Ashley Forthcoming Books

Ashley Gardner Forthcoming Books

If you’ve made it to the end, thank you!!!