Always Jane: release date changed
My YA publisher, Simon & Schuster, has made the decision to move the publishing date of Always Jane from Fall 2021 to Spring 2022. The reasoning for this has to with the pandemic and how it has impacted my former imprint at Simon & Schuster, Simon Pulse, which was a teen imprint that published most of my YA books until this one. After the pandemic struck, my publisher lost its CEO unexpectedly, and the new management made changes, like shuttering Simon Pulse. My editor was moved to a new imprint, as were my books (BFYR—Books for Young Readers), but that impacts…everything. So here we are.
As for Always Jane, book itself was finished in June of 2020. A second draft was finished in December of 2020. But who knows how long it will take for bookstores (and families) to recover from the pandemic, and I though I can’t read my publisher’s mind, I’m guessing they feel like they have a better shot at selling me next year.
It stinks. I know. I’m a little devastated myself. I’m sorry for my loyal readers who are accustomed to reading a new YA contemporary romance from me every year. In the meantime, there will be two reprints of older titles releasing this year: the purple edition of Serious Moonlight (already out as of January 2021), and Hate to Love You, a bind-up of Alex, Approximately and Starry Eyes with a beautiful illustrated cover. Hope these will tide you over! And if you want to talk to me, find me on Instagram.
–Jenn
January 25, 2021 @ 9:44 AM
Aww, darn. I am always looking forward to a Jenn Bennett new book, or books ever year, but the situation is totally understandable. I think I missed the announcement on social media and saw this update via Goodreads.
September 14, 2021 @ 7:17 PM
That’s extremely unfortunate that your publisher did this to you. It seems like you’re a successful enough author at this point in your career that you could go into self-publishing with great ease. You could release books as soon as you finish writing them. Plus you’d get to keep 75% of the cover price of your novels. What is your publishing company offering you that you can’t buy for yourself in the open market at this point in terms of editing and cover art? They certainly can’t offer you anything in the way of promo that’s worth anything. You can put your own ARCs on NetGalley. Getting reviews is where it’s at. That’s all any mainstream publishers have to offer these days, trawling for reviews the same way authors always have to do on their own anyway.