A Lion's Pride is out!
It's not enough to write a book. I was 'finished' writing Pawn of Samsara and sending it to agents for over a year. It wasn't until Summer 2025 that I hired an editor and took charge of publishing the work as two books: A Lion's Head and A Lion's Pride.
I've made so many stumbles and caught myself several times with my face barely inches from face-planting on the floor. For one, this is the second historical fantasy that bears the name A Lion's Pride. The original was by P.L. Stuart, a fine author with whom I'm acquainted on social media. A Lion's Pride, published February 2024, is the fourth book of The Drowned Kingdom Series. His books fall squarely in the medieval fantasy genre, think King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. Worth a read.
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I digress. A Lion's Pride, published in January 2026 by D.M. De Alwis, completes the Pawn of Samsara Duology.
In the first book, a lion-headed man, aided by three humans, accepts the quest to kill a king. In the second book, he discovers that knowledge alone is not the same as lived experience. Sinha seeks to reunite with the human reincarnates of those he once knew. When an army of hungry ghosts threatens to overrun the world, Sinha intercedes only to discover his ancient enemy still holds a grudge.
The last week of December has been crazy. I kept saying, "Only two more chapters to revise," but when my editor went through my book, it had been one volume. Making one volume into two has resulted in a bit of an expansion, allowing for flashbacks and refreshers. On the whole, I think it reads better, and I've grown in my craft.
Imagine my surprise when I finally finished revisions, having added about 8,000 more words to the story. In September, I released A Lion's Head. It was a lot of work, and I got lucky with the cover design—a little too lucky. Fast-forward three months, and I'm looking at the matte reader's copy of A Lion's Pride and worrying if the two can sit next to each other on a bookshelf.
Perfectionist cover designer: "It's too dark! Too many colours. Gah, something's off, but I don't know what."
The necklace and medallion are more visible on this new version. The problem is, I don't have enough time to print another proof copy. It's New Year's in a couple of days, and the deadline for 'finalizing' everything is less than 3 days from now. How confident am I in my design abilities? I've seen enough crap covers to say f*&k it—let's move forward, I'll take the risk. The dream has always been to make enough money to . . .
- Make the audiobooks for the books.
- Have custom-illustrated covers for the books.
I'll take my chances. The story is good. I'm happy with this cover. Let's print it.
Here's a snapshot of what the next 12 hours of my life looked like.
I had a long conversation with my publisher last night. Our market analyst conducted her research and provided recommendations to grow readership in 2026. Her problem was that I (the author) refused to tick that DRM box on Amazon. I love that I can borrow a book from a friend, and eBooks should be the same. TBH, it's hard enough to get anyone's eyes on my work—why would I limit opportunity? The creative genius is in my head, and if it resonates, they'll come back for more. We eventually... came to an agreement. But our meeting was interrupted by our cover designer, who shrieked that the colours on the test copy were all off. The yellow wasn't right, the blue was too dark—her creativity in putting a necklace and medallion on the back cover was lost. But the "ebook's metadata is out for pre-orders," our product manager reminded. Yikes!
No matter, the CEO stepped in and made an executive decision. Cover design would be updated for the print books. The eBook would remain a slightly different cover, and that was fine. She then railed at all of us about our book pricing and how we can't have a different price listed on Barnes & Noble or bookshop(.)org from that on Amazon.
Long story, even longer—we quibbled into this morning about the price of hardcover books. They're manufactured in the States, but my predominant market is in Canada. No matter, obstinate readers will just have to decide if it's worth it. For these, there'll be a distinct price difference between Amazon and other vendors. The customer / our readers / come first, and
Why would we seek profit over the opportunity to lower costs? Seriously, on Indigo it's going to be $40 CAD... that's way too much, but we can't distribute it any other way. On Amazon, we can reduce costs (lower manufacturing and distribution costs) to offer the hardcopy for $5 less.
My copyeditor came back with the last notes. He found one random mistake in a heading. That corrected, the files were reloaded . . . again. At present, our product manager is hyperventilating into a bag in a corner because no more changes can be made after the next 3 days. Production is wondering how soon they can hit go on printing local copies (at our local printing/binding company) for me (the author) to distribute. It takes 2 weeks for me to get my copies. Marketing wants to move fast so we can get our books in the local Indigo soon after the New Year. All this drama for one more timeless book... but the duology is complete. **Insert evil count laugh** ⚡️🪘👹🦁
I laughed when a follower on Threads replied, "Sounds like amateur hour." Yes. I am an amateur. I am humbled by the knowledge that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I am making this all up as I go.
p.s. My 15-year-old son, Kiran, is my copyeditor; I humbly hold all the other roles for lack of an actual payroll to hire professionals.
Link to original Threads Post
You learned something from that post above, eh?
The prices are controlled by the distributors. You see, I as the publisher take all the risk for returned books. The distributor sets the base price of the book (usually about half) and then any book-sellers will take 55% or less of what's remaining. Taxes and other expenses play a roll. For a book costing $20, the author is lucky to see $4. So if Amazon produces a cheaper book, we could price it cheaper. Setting a decent margin helps an author mark the books for sale and lower prices from time to time. We can't actually go as low as the bookseller in dropping prices as we'd be owing the distributor money. Booksellers can do this because they buy 'stock' which they own and cut their losses through their profits. Buying books through a local printer means I control the quality AND the price. It still costs me money to print them but I save on shipping by picking them up locally.
If you buy the physical book from me, I can give you a decent discount. . . if I'm not gouged by shipping . . . which is why most indie authors make their $$ selling books in person.
What do I know that reassures me?
"Every step I take grows my skill." Mainly because I'm willing to take a risk, make some mistakes, and stumble to 'done'.
- I don't have to get it perfect the first time. If it's wrong, I can issue a reprint, a new edition, at a later date (I'd have to figure out how but I could totally do this.)
- I can change anything anytime. If I'm terribly overwhelmed and needing time to finish—I can and will bump the publish date. Despite the marketing, no one—EXCEPT ME—is holding their breath for this book. I am such a small minuscule author in the scheme of things.
- Having a deadline is good. It makes me push go without puttering around waiting for perfection.
I have it on good authority from a publisher friend that we're allowed 5% mistakes on our publications. For me, in A Lion's Head, that was some small minor formatting mistakes that I did not even know existed until someone more experienced than I pointed them out. (We're not even talking about copy, plot, or storytelling mistakes.)
Those formatting mistakes have all been accounted for and corrected in A Lion's Pride (and subsequent print copies of A Lion's Head sold on Amazon but not the copy distributed through Ingram because that would cost me $... and they're so small as to not be noticed by the masses.)
So... without further ado. The book is out. Go read it. If you haven't read the first one, try to pick up a copy before the end of the year—when my prices will go up.
There's more coming in the new year. Hopefully this particular chapter closes soon and I can tell you what's coming next.
Happy New Year my friends!
-D.M. De Alwis
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