From the BookSirens summary, the answer to the question "How'd your second book launch go?" would be somewhere between "Middling" to "Pretty OK." Fewer reviews overall, but the scores we higher, so I'll take that as an incremental improvement. What these analytics don't capture is the successes I've had with libraries. It seems that the barrier to entry is the first book, because I was told that getting The Magic of Deceit into a library was very easy if it already had stocked The Path From Regret. It'll be a while before I get actual sales numbers from my publisher, but overall I feel that things are at least on par with my debut, if not a little better. Slow progress is better than none.
My short story for the Shapers of Worlds anthology is complete and I am happy to share the title: Magic that Cannot be Undone. The details of the publishing contract are being hammered out now and I've been told that editing will begin shortly after I ship the story out. I'm very excited about this one because it follows a trio of characters who are trying to gain admission to the Archive and become made mages. It's a process that's hinted at in the novels, but never explained explicitly. I had a blast writing it, so I hope that excitement comes through in the story because it details some important Archive lore.
In July I formally started drafting my next novel, which is set between The Magic of Deceit and The Path From Regret. It continues to chronicle the challenges faced by Thorne and Reihana and how they continue to clash while attempting to fulfill their ambitions. At the end of July I had an impressive start (at least for me) with a little over 15k words written, which equals about 500 words a day. I wish I could have kept that momentum going in August, but for both work and "real life" reasons, by productivity took a nose dive and I'm currently sitting at 18k words now with only a couple days left in August. I'm about scene away from having the first four chapters written, so my goal is to ramp back up in September and hit 25k, which I anticipate would be near 25% complete for the novel.
This past week I had an opportunity to talk with Jordan H. Bartlett and be on her podcast. We had a great chat about magic systems, the dangers of being a lone wolf character, and why being an under-powered wizard might actually be an asset from a narrative perspective. I've put the link to the YouTube version of the episode in the Media tab. Jordan was a gracious host and asked insightful questions, so I think the episode is one my favorites of those I've done so far. I'm continuing to reach out to bloggers, reviewers, and podcasters in an attempt to make more people aware of my books, but since that competes with the free time I have where I should be writing I'm not sure if I'll make much headway (at least this fall). One thing I do have in the pipeline is that my publisher has gotten a booth at a large book festival that will happen in a month and I've volunteered to staff it for a few hours one of the days. I've never been to a book festival before, so I'm excited to see what they are all about.
Thanks for stopping by.
Comments