Tying Up the Loose Ends

This is going to be a sort-of end-of-the-year round-up because tomorrow I Buried a Witch goes live and on Sunday the annual Advent Calendar begins.

2019 was...an interesting year. A lot of things changed. Some of those changes had to do with the whole publishing industry and some of the changes had to do with what's happening with me personally. And some of the changes had to do with how I feel about those other changes. If that makes sense.

From a publishing perspective, a challenging business has gotten even more challenging. But some of the things I put into motion in 2018 are beginning to pan out. My print sales through IngramSpark are now higher than my Amazon print sales! That's cool--and what's even cooler is my books are now available for order in libraries and bookstores. That's a win. Also about a third of my audio backlist is now wide. I can't say that the sales rival Audible :-D but the sales are climbing, so that's good. That's the direction it needs to go. I just have to bite the bullet and put some of my series wide too.

I also resigned myself to the fact that Kindle Unlimited is a reality of writing life, and I'm cutting my nose off to spite my face if I refuse to participate in any way. So in addition to my foreign translations, I've begun rotating older titles in and out of KU. For a time I had the Dangerous Ground series, the Holmes and Moriarity series, the I Spy books, and some assorted standalones in KU. Those will all be pulled by December 10th and the only things still in KU will be Man Oh Man and the two collections of Christmas codas.

Financially? Well, the way it works now is most of my earnings come right at the start with preorders. That's a big chunk of change because my preorders remain high. And that's fortunate because it's very hard for anyone to stick on that bestseller list for long given the insane rate of turnover due to new titles. Most readers are shopping off the best-sellers list, and if they don't see your book on those first few pages, they're not going to keep scrolling--unless they're specifically searching for you. And now days there's just so much to read. So I usually have a good first month and then it's done. So in order to keep a few things on the lists so that I don't get completely forgotten, I made the decision to use KU when and where it makes sense.

The books I've pulled out will be updated and reformatted--and two of the series will get brand new
covers! LC Chase redesigned the Holmes and Moriarity series. I think these covers are SO fresh and SO fun--even though I loved those old covers so much. And then the Dangerous Ground series is getting a facelift too. Ron Perry at Ron Perry Graphic Design redid that series. Aren't these great?? I plan on a lot of repackaging my backlist next year.

I still haven't tried putting anything new straight into KU, but I'm trying something (at least I think I am--unless I chicken out) in January. I'm working on a new series--a classic cozy mystery series but with gay characters. I envision these as fun, fast light reads--I mean, that is the point of a cozy mystery. Off-screen violence, off-screen sex, hopefully funny, hopefully comforting, and a bit of slow-burn romance...just classic cozy mysteries but with a gay protagonist. Now the prevailing thought is that M/M readers will not be interested in such a series because of the no on-screen sex rule (yeah, it's a rule, not a guideline), and maybe that's true now. It didn't use to be but we do have an increasingly different readership for M/M fiction.

But as we all know--and to the frustration of some of you--I like experimenting, I like trying new things. It keeps the writing fresh for me--which pays off for all my readers, even the readers who don't like the experiments.

Oh, but to return to my point, the new series, Secrets and Scrabble, will be wide for the period of preorders (at a reduced price) and then it will go into Kindle Unlimited. I'm announcing this ahead of time so that everyone has time to buy it wide. I'm trying to minimize the frustration for all of us. If you don't do Kindle or if you're a re-reader, buy the book during the presale period so you can take advantage of the sale price. Having said that, they're not up for sale yet. :-D TBA

What else?

Blind Side (also not yet listed on Amazon) comes out in December. The sixth novella will complete the series. Also in December, Hide and Seek begins. That novel is a Patreon exclusive--and will probably remain so for some time (although I'm not sure about print--and I will probably put the audio wide). You can find out more about Hide and Seek on the Works in Progress section of my website.

This was one of my most productive years in a while, and I'm hoping that trend continues. I plan on it continuing--in fact, I plan on stepping up my productivity--but life is a precarious business, so you never can tell. I'm still thinking over the schedule, so I won't go into detail now (seeing that I don't have the details).

Hey, there's still PLENTY of room in the Advent Calendar if you'd like to contribute art or a story or whatever!  

I'm always interested in your thoughts. And I like to know what you're enjoying and what other authors are doing that you wish I'd consider doing. I've gotten some of my best ideas from listening to you guys!