Friday, July 27, 2018

On Your Mark, Get Ready... Wait. What Time is It?!

How the heck can we be more than halfway through the year!?

A lot of what I'd planned to accomplish this year is complete or in the process of completion. Like my new website, for example! But some of what I'd hoped to do, even with tempered expectations (or so I imagined) was simply too much. That's the problem with being an optimist. We tend to overestimate our own resources--as well as everyone else's.

Anyway, I can't do more than four novels within a year. There was a time I could--and did. That time seems to be gone. But it's been a really productive year so far (from my perspective) and there is nearly half the year left!

(There's that optimism showing again!) :-D

But it seems like I can squeeze out a bit more if some of the things I'm doing are serialized and I'm writing them at a snail's pace. That does seem to be doable, as proven by my experience at Patreon. But generally speaking, three to four novels a year is all I can manage.


This year's novels were:
The Magician Murders (The Art of Murder 3)
Murder Takes the High Road
In Other Words... Murder (Holmes & Moriarity 4)

Still to come in 2018:
Seance on a Summer's Night (Patreon exclusive)
The Ghost Had an Early Check-out

That's it. I might manage another short story and at least a chunk of the next serialized story for Patreon, but realistically, that's my limit for 2018.

Now there's other stuff coming. There are audio books, print books, digital boxsets. I'm starting to build a PAYHIP store so that when a book doesn't go live as scheduled, it can be purchased through my website. Not that I want to keep having issues with preorder dates, but that'a another area where optimism gets me into trouble.

I'm still working on a lot of things I talked about earlier in the year--moving my print catalog from Createspace to Ingram Spark, for example. But one thing at a time.

There are four projects slated for 2019 
Blind Side (Dangerous Ground 6)
The Monuments Men Murders (The Art of Murder 4)
Haunted Heart: Spring
Something serialized for Patreon

There's also Mr. & Mrs. Murder, but that's non-fiction and, while it does take time to write, doesn't drain me creatively the way fiction does. So that leaves room for one additional large project next year, but I'm not going to jinx it by promising anything in the here and now.

So that's pretty much where we are at this point in the year. A lot of the remaining year will go to figuring out more audio and rethinking how best to repackage and market my oldest titles. But I'm quickly running out of road. October is jammed with stuff -- everything from visiting family to GRL and then we've got the holidays. So essentially...I've got two months of creative production time left.

On the bright side, compared to last year this has been an enormously productive year. Last year I did a novel and two short stories! So I'm happy with what what I did manage to achieve--and I didn't burn myself out doing it. Progress!


18 comments:

  1. I admire what you have accomplished, Josh.

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    1. Thank you, Sabine! When I started tallying everything -- from new website, Patreon, to the number of books that came out -- I was pleasantly surprised. :-)

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  2. Hi Josh,
    It has most certainly has been a great year, not only for you, but for all your readers eager for their next JL fix. And yes, you are essentially an optimist. It's good, though, to see you always tempering that by acknowledging the possibility of something—anything—going awry. I still remember your 2013 sabbatical, and none of us want a repeat of that—especially not you I'm sure. Regardless of your output for the rest of 2018 and into 2019, the most important thing is for you to be happy about what you are writing. Release times must take a backseat to your well-being. Thank you for everything you do. <3

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    1. Thank you, Susan. <3 I've actually made "Happiness" a daily goal in my Best Self journal. It keeps me conscious of making decisions that are healthy, and so far, so good. :-)

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  3. so Seance on a Summer's Night (Patreon exclusive)will not be available as a print novel (preferably)or kindle to anyone outside the Patreon community????

    On an entirely different matter will your book Stranger on the Shore ever come out in print? It's one of my favorite standalones and I would LOVE to own a print copy of it.

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    1. Sorry for the confusion. Seance WILL be available for sale in print and audio. It will not be made available in digital for the foreseeable future, except to Patreon members who all get a copy on their sixth month anniversary.

      Stranger on the Shore is unlikely to ever be made available for sale in print.

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  4. Optimism is good. :-) And congratulations on your accomplisments! You’re certainly making this reader extremely happy. Every day.

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  5. I'm so excited for 2019! :D Three of my favorite series in the same year?! *dances* I'm going to have to dedicate an afternoon to reading Haunted Heart 1 and 2 back to back when the second comes out because of how impactful the first one ended up being.

    I have to say that I'd never tried reading the Art of Murder or Holmes & Moriarity series before this past month because I wasn't sure if they'd be quite my type, but when you mentioned them being on sale at Smashwords I figured it was the best time to give them each a try and so I grabbed the first in each series! (Not to mention a few other ghost story mysteries I'd had my eye on.)

    It's been about a week since I started my on-sale buying spree and I'm now hooked on the Art of Murder series and am currently reading through the third book. I absolutely adore Sam and Jason despite originally thinking I'd prefer H&M based on book samples. xD

    Nothing better than having a stash of good books to read for the week and future books to look forward to. ^__^

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    1. Isn't that the truth! I am a book hoarder. I CONFESS. :-D

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  6. I'm not sure how I missed this blog post! This really has been a productive year and I'm especially happy because two of the books you put out were parts of favorite series, and the third was a really fun murder mystery. I'm looking forward to everything and anything else you put out this year.

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    1. Thank you so much, Steve. I'm trying to stay focused on what I DID get done rather than what I didn't (for a change). ;-)

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  7. I’m reeeeeeeally excited for the new Haunted Heart. Poor Flynn - I just want him to be in a better place. ❤️

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  8. Your work is amazing! I noticed that the next "Art of Murder" book is due out in winter, 2019. Is that the 2018-2019 or 2019-2020 winter? Just trying to prepare myself. ;-) Either way, I'm pretty well set in the meantime, as it's the first of your series that I discovered. I have a lot of catching up to do!

    One more question: I listen to your books through Audible (I love to read, but have a neurological condition that prevents me from physically reading as much as I'd like, so Audible is my savior!!) Timing-wise, how much longer do your audiobooks take to come out than the Kindle/print copies?

    Thanks so much for providing real love stories with complex, raw individuals. <3 I can't wait to discover them all!!

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    1. Hello! Sorry I missed this comment.

      Art of Murder 4 should be coming out early in 2019. Somewhere between February and May, judging by previous years. ;-)

      Usually the audio books follow within a month or two. So long as I stay on schedule, the narrators are usually able to deliver as promised. The times we've run into problems are when I couldn't deliver the book or I delayed in booking the narrator.

      Thank you for your very kind comments!

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