Welcome, new folks!

Hi, there. I've had a number of people join the mailing list recently. I want to make sure everybody gets their free Frosthelm book, Traitors Unseen. If you haven't gotten it, you can get it free from many sources here. It's a great introduction to my Inquisitors' Guild series of fantasy detective novels.

The anthology opportunity is almost over!

Some good news: our anthology funded, so it will be a real thing that exists in the world. You can read the stories as soon as December. Some bad news: if you haven't signed up, your opportunity to get this book is slipping away. The Kickstarter campaign ends in five days, on September 21 at 8pm Eastern.

If you're new to this project, the anthology brings together 34 indie authors, each with a fantasy, sci-fi, or other speculative fiction story that was written specifically for this collection, all with a unifying theme of rings (although each author did something different with that idea). You can get an ebook, a fancy hardback, or an ultra-cool story-a-day model, holiday calendar style, where you get a story in your email each day of December (plus some extra days). The stories are all written already, and the campaign is fully funded, so there's no risk that the project won't deliver. You can learn more on the Kickstarter campaign page shown below.

A new audiobook on the way

I have always wanted to do an audiobook version of my funny fantasy novel, The Glorious and Epic Tale of Lady Isovar. I've done four audiobooks so far, one fantasy, two sci-fi, and one mystery. The trick is, I've had a little bit of a trouble making a speedy positive return on my investment on these - I've spent $6735 to get the books made, and my total revenues are about $2100, although obviously each book will continue earning and should eventually recoup its cost.

When I was in Anaheim for WorldCon at the end of August, I met with two folks, Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir. They had been on a panel at WorldCon on audiobooks for indie authors (Wil Wheaton and John Scalzi were on the panel as well, along with Mary Robinette Kowal, a successful author and narrator).

In the picture above, Stefan is on the right, and Gabrielle is on the left. The panel was really interesting as was my discussion with Stefan and Gabrielle. They run an audiobook production studio, Skyboat Media, which has produced hundreds of audiobooks, often for big name traditionally-published authors, and many with celebrity narrators, such as Anne Hathaway, Emilio Estevez, Elijah Wood, Nancy Cartwright, and Eric Idle.

I submitted my Lady Isovar book to them for review, and they responded positively. Today, I had a good talk with Stefan about the process. One challenge with the book is that it alternates chapters between Lady Isovar's perspective and that of her squire, Chevson. They suggested that the two of them could narrate the book, taking on those two roles. They're accomplished narrators in their own right with many, many books to their credit, and they've won numerous awards, including Grammys and Hugos and Audies and Parsecs. Stefan's Hugo award rocket was visible on his desk behind him in the Zoom call.

We had a productive conversation, and I decided to move forward with Skyboat. I've got a contract in my email now to review, and then we're off to the races. One possible concern is that the cost to produce with them is significantly higher than with the relatively newer narrators I've worked with on ACX. They are asking $525 per finished hour. SAG/AFTRA suggests a minimum of $250 per finished hour for their members, with many asking more, and I've generally paid closer to $150 for mine (with mutual agreement with my non-SAG narrators). So, this is a big jump in cost, but that higher cost includes their distribution network, a studio doing the editing and processing and error checking, and obviously their lifetime of experience and connections, not to mention their well-known voices and Gabrielle's experience directing projects. They distribute through the prestigious audiobook publisher Blackstone, which has lots of distribution channels and promotes its own catalog, while my previous audiobooks have all been limited to Audible plus a few other low-traffic sites and have been promoted only by me. So, the extra cost here could be justified in a lot of ways - narration, production, distribution, reputation, quality, and experience.

I'm not sure how soon (or if) I'll recoup this investment, but like the other marketing and publishing efforts I've tried with my books, this is an experiment. I'm very lucky to have some extra money to invest in things like this from my successful days years ago with my computer game, Snood, so I can afford to take some risks that other indie authors might not feel comfortable trying, a privilege I'm very much aware of. Time will tell how this goes, and I'll definitely let you know when the audiobook is ready. It might even be by the end of the year.

Writing update

We've had a great month for Best, a romantic comedy and my newest release, co-written with a friend. That book's been going gangbusters since a BookBub free promo back in August, and it's up well over 100 ratings on Amazon now, the fastest any of my books has ever reached that milestone. Things are finally coming down to earth after that big buzz, but I'm going to start doing some more marketing for it to keep it in front of readers. If you haven't checked it out, please have a look!

I've been working some more on my new space opera science fiction book, which is at about 80,000 words and (as of today) has a cover artist. Progress was slowed in the past week or so by me foolishly but gloriously buying and downloading Star Wars: Zero Company, which I am absolutely loving and playing a lot of. I'm almost done with it (only two missions left!), so that particular distraction should resolve soon. I was just the right age (seven) to fall head over heels in love with Star Wars as a kid when it first came out, and I consume almost everything that comes along. Recently, I've really gravitated towards the Star Wars titles that don't wallow in the Jedi superhero stuff, and this game, like the Andor show and last year's Outlaws game, looks at regular people trying to make a go of it in the Star Wars universe.

I've also had the wonderful opportunity to have my play, A Light Reign, chosen for a staged reading by the theatre folks at Creative Greensboro, the community arts organization run by my local city. We'll have a cast of nine reading the play in the Hyers Theatre downtown on December 11. The reading will be directed by my good friend, Matthew Cravey, who's directed several local plays and acted in tons of them. He's currently doing a stint as Oaken in Frozen, just after another role in Edwin Drood. He's been an assistant director, a director, and a co-star in the three plays I've done in recent years, and he's been a friend for longer than that. I'm really looking forward to seeing my play become a little more real, and to seeing what actors do with the roles. If you're in town, please consider coming.

Some stories to try

I'm part of several author collectives, and we share each other's work to try to help all of us reach more readers. In many cases, the books we share are are free or discounted. Sometimes, they ask that you sign up for a newsletter like this one. Here are some new opportunities I have to share this month:

First, I have a set of forty-six absolutely free fantasy novels from tons of authors. There are witches and orcs and queens and ox people - all kinds of things to explore, and no cost to you.

Next, I have a set of thirty-one fantasy and sci fi books and series that are all free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. These are full novels in all sorts of genres, with dragons and spaceships and weird DNA and swords and blaster pistols. Even if you're not a KU member, there might be something great for you here, and indie books are almost always a bargain.

Finally, I have a set of sixty-four indie mysteries and thrillers to choose from, again with all sorts of themes and subgenres and tropes. There's sure to be something to puzzle and excite here. Have a look!

Thanks

Thanks so much for being a part of my newsletter. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for upcoming books! I love hearing from people. As always, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or book ideas, I'm all ears, especially if you want to talk about one of mine that you've read. If you want to swap Zero Company stories, too, I'm totally down for that. I was completely thrown by one of the plot twists and loved every minute of it.

May the Bloodmother watch over you - 

Dave