Updated Publication Plans

For the new Three Investigators series

Dear Friends and Fans of The Three Investigators,

As a beautiful fall day blasts sunlight and shadow on the still-green grass, I am once again struck by how sublime this season always is. Though it was the season in which Steven and I had expected to publish the first of the new Three Investigators books, we've decided to postpone the launch until early next spring.

As of last May, I really believed we'd see lift-off by this autumn, but we got delayed in our progress toward completing what sometimes seems the bottomless list of "Jobs Still To Do" by two prolonged events. One was the disagreeable Amazon imbroglio - which, as it turned out, was set in motion by a foreign publisher making nonsensical claims about my father's novels - but the other one was marvelous.

In early summer I was approached, right here on Substack, by a fantastic illustrator who turned out to be so right for the new series that Steven and I decided to abandon our original cover art and start over with him. In addition to being a fabulous artist, he grew up on the classic books and remembers how important the original cover art was to his own interest in, and loyalty to, the series. At the moment he's off on another job, but when he gets back, he'll be putting the final touches on all twenty-six of the new covers.

The fact is, either the Amazon screw-up alone or the new cover art, all by itself, would have made it tough to start publication when we'd originally planned to, but the two together made the decision to move the start date into the new year a lead-pipe cinch. (With thanks for the idiom to Blackbeard the mynah bird, and the Englishman who called himself John Silver.) 

The old plan was to publish a book a month for twenty-six months, and the new plan is to publish three books at once, every three months, on the third day of that month.

So on March 3rd, 2025, we'll be publishing Books 1-3, with Books 4-6 to follow on June 3rd, Books 7-9 on September 3rd, and so on, until all twenty-six have seen the light of day. (The last two books comprise a single story and will be published on March 3, 2027.)

Since the first book in the new series begins and ends in Bob's point-of-view, the second in Pete's point-of-view, and the third in Jupiter's – with the cycle repeating from Books 4 through 24 – the books have actually always clustered quite naturally in groups of three.

Publishing three books at a time, every three months, will allow an eager reader to read three books in quick succession if he or she wants to, but the new schedule will also provide plenty of down time for readers who want to proceed more slowly.

As some of you already know, I will also be publishing the first four chapters of each new book (for free) right here on The Salvage Yard, either prior to or shortly after the publication of the book itself.

Originally, I thought I would publish the four chapters four Sundays in a row, but my current plan is to publish all of them (clustered together, but in four separate posts) sometime in the middle of every month.

I plan to publish the first four chapters of Book 1 in mid-February, the first four chapters of Book 2 in mid-March, the first four chapters of Book 3 in mid-April, and the first four chapters of Book 4 in mid-May - just before the second round of three books is published on June 3rd.

The books will be available in three different forms - as e-books, paperbacks, and hardcovers - and having learned an unpleasant lesson from Amazon, Steven and I have decided to make them available through four different publishers. We'll be publishing e-books through Draft2Digital, and paperbacks and hardcovers through Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and IngramSpark. Draft2Digital and IngramSpark are aggregators which will make the books available on multiple platforms and also provide them to interested libraries, bookstores, and foreign distributors. (I have another Salvage Yard reader to thank for bringing Draft2Digital to my attention.)

As for a streaming series, at the moment our plan is to get the first twelve books into the world before we start to work seriously on any adaptations. Right from the start, I've been determined to have the return of The Three Investigators series begin with new books, and I want to let the books find their natural audience before we try to move the new stories into a realm beyond the written word.

With apologies for waiting so long to give you this update, I look forward to sharing the first four chapters of the first book in the new Three Investigators series with you just before spring arrives.

As for my father’s books, they went back up on Amazon at the end of July. Hopefully, they’ll be staying up for good this time, but since nothing seems certain in the world these days, if you want to snaffle either paperbacks or e-books, now might be a sensible time to do it.

You’ll find all ten books listed on the Robert Arthur Author Page – https://www.amazon.com/stores/Robert-Arthur/author/B0D3691VF3 . When you go there, you should also hit the “Follow” button to get news of new books or editions directly from Amazon in the future.

Also, now might be a reasonable moment for you to visit my own Author Page – https://www.amazon.com/stores/Elizabeth-Arthur/author/B000AQ8PJC – so you can hit the “Follow” button there, as well. When the time comes, each new book in the new Three Investigators series is going to be linked to my Author Page, not long after its release.

If I don't post again soon, this brings my warm wishes (and Steven's) for a spooky Halloween, a grateful Thanksgiving, and a terrific holiday season.

With all best wishes,

Elizabeth Arthur