Kissing the Old Year Out...

This will most likely be the last general info update of the year because tomorrow begins the annual Advent Calendar! :-)

It has been quite a year! And although writing is always a precarious business--and it feels especially precarious at the moment, given the very latest changes on Amazon--I'm feeling mostly satisfied with what I managed to accomplish in 2018 and very much looking forward to 2019.


Patreon has been a big factor in my restored equilibrium. While I can't survive solely on those monthly donations, they've more than once made up the necessary difference in my book earnings--this month is a case in point. Patreon has allowed me to produce new product (the audio for In Other Words...Murder and Green Glass Beads for example(s)) when I really didn't have the funds. And, crucially, my Patreon income allows me to advertise, which is no longer an optional strategy. It's definitely been a learning curve though, and moving forward I will most likely structure my Patreon like a high end subscription service so that (depending on tier) members receive everything I produce during the year as well as the extras and bonus items. I think that will be simpler (and more rewarding) for everybody.


Print. Well, it turns out that pulling all my print books out of Createspace and off Amazon was not necessary. WHOOPS! All that was really required was to take everything out of expanded distribution and then do expanded distribution through IngramSpark. So my old print backlist has been restored to Amazon. We're currently going through one title at a time and reformatting, changing covers, updating back material for IngramSpark and expanded distribution channels (so the Amazon titles will also be updated). The goal is to have this completed by the end of March.

Our first print title is Seance on a Summer's Night (the novel I did for Patreon) and you can order it right now right here.

Audio. I produced a number of audio books this year. The first experiment with going wide was In Other Words...Murder which can be purchased at Nook and Google Play and Scribd and Audiobooks.com as well as the usual places. You can purchase "The Boy Next Door" through PayHip and "Halloween is Murder" through Payhip.  Green Glass Beads will be going up hopefully before Christmas! I have to be honest, so far the results of going wide have not been encouraging. For example, if you search In Other Words...Murder on B&N, the audio book does not come up. It's only available on the Nook. I'm not ready to throw in the towel, but my audio needs to earn out, and going wide so far seriously reduces the chances of that. Yikes.





Ebooks. This year saw the release of The Magician Murders, Murder Takes the High Road, In Other Words...Murder, and Seance on a Summer's Night. The Ghost Had an Early Check-Out comes out December 18th. All in all, more than double what I managed to produce last year!

The first projects scheduled for 2019 will be The Monuments Men Murders, my novella for the Footsteps in the Dark anthology, Blind Side, (Dangerous Ground 6)  and the first book in the new Bedknobs and Broomsticks trilogy I'm writing for Patreon, Mainly by Moonlight.

I haven't talked much about this last project yet, but it's going to combine mystery and paranormal and romance. A bit more romance (and sex) than usual, in fact. I describe it as Adrien English meets McMillan and Wife meets Bewitched. (Okay, I need to clarify that because Cosmo Saville is NOT Adrien English and John Joseph Galbraith is NOT Jake Riordan -- I'm referring more to the intimacy of the characters and their relationship than the actual characters, if that makes sense).

Here's the initial blurb:

Though they’ve only known each other a couple of weeks, San Francisco's first openly gay Police Commissioner John Joseph Galbraith is all set to marry antiques dealer and (little does John know) witch Cosmo Saville in a big, society wedding—until Cosmo is arrested for murder after being discovered standing over the body of longtime rival dealer (and witch) Seamus Reitherman.

I start writing that next month and hope to have the entire trilogy finished by the end of 2019. Fingers crossed because there's already a LOT planned for next year.



Anyway, a good year. Not every plan came to fruition but a very productive year overall. And still some good stuff to come!

See you tomorrow for the beginning of the annual Advent Calendar! :-)