The above picture is somewhat relevant to this month’s progress report, alas.
You see, I am closing down my own little publishing house this month. More about that further down, though, in the Life Progress Report. In better news, I’m having fun writing a little short story set in the Winds & Pillars universe.
Writing Progress Report
On Mastodon, one of the authors who is a horse addict like me, publicly mused about an anthology with horses (including any fantasy variation of them) as a focus of the stories, since next year is the Chinese Year of the Horse.
And I instantly thought about a story with West (of West Flows), my shapeshifting Wind. I asked if that were okay, and then told Writer Brain to start plotting ASAP.
In fact, I started writing almost instantly, even though the deadline is only in February. Today, I’m less than 1k words away from finishing it. (It has to be less than 1k because I’m running up against the max length of 6k words.)
Most of all, however, writing has been fun and easy again, without the heavy pressure of writing books to finish a series. This feels like writing fan fiction in my own universe, it’s so much just having fun with the two favorite characters from that Universe.
Anyway, I’ll let you all know if and when that anthology happens. And if that falls through, well, it’ll be serialized on my Patreon. In fact, I’m thinking about writing little adventures for all my chars and making a new book out of those. (Do not expect that any time soon. I’m still trying to get similar stories written for my Wolves.)
Winds & Pillars Progress Report
Moon is on hold for another few days, but writing the West and Jeko short story has brought me back in the universe in a way that the Moon story could not. I really think I can now dive into Moon’s tale as well, especially as I’m in a good spot with it right now.
Sales are way down, though. So if you could get interested enough to snag the first book (South Breaks) for free – and maybe leave a review, I’d be beyond grateful. I even put all the Winds & Pillars into Bookwyrm, which is like Goodreads but better. Just find it there and tell people what you liked about it.
Wolves Progress Report
Well, the Wolves continue to be my bestsellers, but I don’t have the brainspace to write a new Wolf book right now.
However, Timothy’s story is coming. I don’t have a title for it right now, but as you know, it’ll start with “A Wolf’s”. I’m thinking of using “Courage”. Or maybe “Pain”. If you have any suggestions for a story where a man is hopelessly in love with a woman he can never have, only to eventually realize that there is another wolf who means even more to him… tell me on Mastodon.
This book will be the one I write after finishing Moon, hopefully early next year. My productivity is difficult to predict, however, and I learned long ago that pushing myself only goes so far. Creativity does not function well under pressure.
Twin Worlds Progress Report and a Little Rant
Steps of Courage has sold… five units by now.
That makes me sad. I really love the four characters in there, especially the dynamics between them. I love the world that I created – I put more energy into the worldbuilding of the Twin Worlds than any other book I’ve written. I even created a calendar with inbuilt festival times for it.
And yes, it’s my marketing to a large degree. I’m not good at it. I hate screaming about my book in social media, and Mastodon does not encourage that, either.
But there is something else at play that I run into more and more:
It’s hard to market the first book in a series. More and more readers wait until a series is finished because they want to binge it. They want to get in and slurp it all up in one go.
Readers dislike waiting for the next book to be written. So they wait until the series page says “completed”, before giving a series even a second look.
At the same time the author gets incredibly discouraged when the first book or two don’t sell. Authors read this as a sign of disinterest, of not having met the market’s focus. So they turn away from a fizzled series and try something else.
It’s a bad cycle, and it leads to ever more series being unfinished and abandoned if there is no clear incentive to keep writing. And yes, some of that incentive is the fact that a book is actually making money for an author. Because we authors do like that, even if writing is not our main job, mostly because producing books and marketing them actually does cost money.
Other Series Progress Report
Yes, there’s the Terragons. And the Goblins. And the dragons, my first series ever.
I have plans for all of those, but they are on the back burner for now. Sales are discouraging and after my rant above, you know why. Happiness is a major factor for creativity.
So… give them some love?
Life Progress Report
As I mentioned above, I had to make a difficult decision this fall.
I’m closing down my little publishing business. The reason is very simple: My book sales no longer outweigh the cost of doing business. If I’m very lucky, I’ll end this year in the plus. Last year, I made not quite three figures in profit. (Yes, you read that right. Not even €100 in 2024. But at least it was in the plus.)
I have cut even more cost this year. I bought as few covers as possibly (two Wolf ones), and those were not expensive. A Wolf’s Hacker has earned it back, A Wolf’s Mate is close. That’s good. But I do have running cost for marketing (BookFunnel, Website, Fussy Librarian, Amazon Ads), and those have eaten up most profit. Yes, I’ll ditch Amazon ads next, and spend some of that money on Fussy Librarian (which gets me better results).
I guess that was more information than you wanted, but that’s a glimpse into a self-publisher’s reality. It’s not glamorous. It’s often tedious and frustrating and a struggle.
Anyway.
I will not stop writing. I also won’t stop publishing books. But from now on, it’ll legally be a hobby.
Because between the AI slop sloshing into Amazon and the ongoing crisis in my main market (USA), my books and my visibility are getting squeezed out of the profitable zone. The sensible thing is to get out of a business while it is still a little above water (see the raft above).
So how can you support me?
Buying my books is just the first step – albeit the most important one. Thank you for that!
Even more important, however, is spreading the word about my books. Tell your friends. Write a review and post it. (Have I mentioned Bookwyrm already?) And well… feel free to talk to me. I’m on Mastodon, it’s easy to find me.
(If you comment here, do not expect a fast reaction. I get so many AI-generated spam comments, it’s not funny anymore.)
Ember Progress Report
Ember is quiet these days. My mind is on so many things, and I suppose she knows it. But I’ll come up with a story for the newsletter, as I always do.
If you sign up for my newsletter below, you’ll get writing news (basically a link to this blog post), a special monthly deal via coupon for my own little store, plus a book recommendation and more deals through BookFunnel. And the Ember Tale.
I send it out every month on the 13th (because I like the number), so no spamming.
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