What's happening over Christmas and into the New Year

Posted on December 18, 2014 (Subscribe to Blog)

This is a round-up of my plans for the next couple of months -- and they're pretty busy months!

RECENT BOOKBUB PROMOTION

First, I did a BookBub promotion for Island of Fog yesterday and reached #33 in all Kindle Free Books, my second highest ranking yet! (My record is #27.)

For those who are wanting to try BookBub, it cost me $65 and (so far, nearly 48 hours later) has gained me 5400 extra downloads. Sales of other books in the series will of course come later.

With the help of this promotion, my total number of free downloads for this book in the past few years has now topped 75,000. That said, to date "only" 3000 people have gone on to buy Book 2, so that's 72,000 readers unaccounted for. I often wonder how many of those just didn't care for it, but I also know it's normal for people to download a free book and never get around to reading it.

Naturally, each subsequent book in the series has a progressively fewer number of sales, but those numbers are fairly close. Overall, aside from the free downloads of Book 1, I've sold something like 12,200 other books in the Island of Fog series to date. This will seem like a good figure to some and a pitiful one to others. Personally, I'm both proud and wistful; it's a decent achievement, but I will never stop wishing I could sell two, three, four times as many!

I wish the same could be said of my other books. Fractured, Quincy's Curse, and Sleep Writer are lagging way behind and can't seem to pick up momentum. I have no doubt they'll share the limelight one day; it just takes time to get there. :-)

But speaking of Fractured...

FRACTURED BOOK 2, UNEARTHED, DUE FOR RELEASE IN JANUARY 2015

Unearthed, the second book in the 2-book Tale of Apparatum, is finished except for some final edits, a beta read, and then some more final edits! I have no doubt it'll be ready for publication in January 2015.

As Brian Clopper and I were wrapping it up, he made a seemingly throwaway comment about a prequel. Now, neither one of us has a desire to milk this story for all its worth. We always saw this as a two-parter, and that's what it is. However, there's a very clear pre-story that wouldn't involve Kyle and Logan but would feel very familiar, and we know this book would be worth writing. We already have a name for it: Colonized.

In addition to that, we have plans for a number of short stories surrounding the world of Apparatum, and we think we'll compile these into a single volume. So this two-part story might end up being four books.

ISLAND OF FOG SHORT STORY FOR CHRISTMAS

Watch this space for a short story coming very soon. It will be posted as a FREEBIE on this blog, a chapter-length tale about Hal's first Christmas in a new world. More on that when it's published next week. Subscribe to this blog to get an early notification!

ISLAND OF FOG CHRONICLES

Time is marching on, and I had planned to get the first in the Island of Fog Chronicles, Eye of the Manticore, out in January. Whether I manage that is another matter, but rest assured it will very soon be my top (and only) writing priority.

THE REST OF THE YEAR

After Eye of the Manticore, what I write next will depend on where reader interest lies. There are two contenders: either the second book in the Island of Fog Chronicles, or the second book in the Sleep Writer series. I'm itching to get started on both, but obviously one has to come before the other.

The rest of the year is undecided, but I have strong plans for more Chronicles, more Sleep Writer books, and possibly a sci-fi comedy with Brian Clopper. I really want to write Quincy's Journey too.

So, lots planned. 2015 is shaping up to be as busy as ever!

Show/hide all posts