Progress on the new mystery

I am on the second half of the second-to-last chapter of my latest mystery, which means I may well finish it tomorrow, or if not, then Monday. That's always a lot of fun. It's at about 106,000 words now, which is a tad long for a mystery but still reasonable. Some of those words will probably be cut in the editing, but sometimes I add parts too, so no telling exactly how long it will end up.

I have commissioned another cover from Abby Blanchard, the artist who did the wonderful cover for What Grows From the Dead. She sent me several mockups as examples, and I chose this one, showing the full wraparound paperback cover:

The book is about a librarian who discovers a body in her home the same day her housemate disappears, so this cover is right on the money. Still working on a title.

I've also asked Abby to do a new cover for Got Trouble, and that will mean all my mysteries and thrillers will have a unifying art style, which I'm so excited for.

I will sometimes look around on Google Maps for places I want people to visit in my book. I seldom use actual places (although the abandoned bar in Ramon, NM in Got Trouble is totally real -- I've driven by it). In the case of this new book, I was looking for a place near NC to set one of the later scenes, and I found this building supply shop and yard. The scene is inspired by this place, with some details the same, some changed. I like doing this because it helps me imagine how real places look and are used by the people who live near them. In this book, I've done that multiple times, for houses, lakes, a hardware store, and a library.

Once the first draft of the book is finished, I do a big start to finish readthrough and edit, which usually takes me a few days. That's when I come up with my pun-laden chapter titles. Then I'll share it with my wife and Reader Number One, who always gets the first crack at it. I'll also share with my early reader team, a small group of folks who get these early versions and help me sharpen and shape them into something better. After I incorporate their suggestions and do another big editing pass (or two), then it's off to Tami, my copyeditor/proofreader. Picking a title, something I'm often terrible at, goes in here somewhere. Then the art goes to the cover designer to put the text over Abby's art. The timing on all this is can vary, but I think it will probably be ready to share with you some time in late April.

A bunch more Frosthelm readers

I was chosen for a BookBub Featured Deal in early February, and those always give me a big spike in readers. In this case, the deal was for the three-book set of Inquisitors' Guild stories, and they asked that I make that book free. That led to a bonanza of over 25,000 free downloads as shown here:

For comparison, I only have 128,517 downloads for all nine of my books over the six years I've been doing this, so to get a fifth of those in five days is remarkable. Most of those downloads came from this and other free promotions - I only have a little over 5,000 paid sales over six years.

As far as the economics, that's a lot of free books to give away all at once, for which I don't get any income, and I also had to pay $489 to secure the feature, plus another couple hundred with other book lists who can advertise my feature. That sounds like a losing proposition, but I make back that money in a couple ways. One is that a feature like this sparks a good number of sales after the free period - I had 94 sales of my books in February compared to 34 in January, and I sold some audiobooks too. But the big way it helps is with Kindle Unlimited subscribers, for whom I get a flat rate per page for any of my books they read. A feature like this with that many downloads launches my book upward in popularity on Amazon, and that means a lot of Kindle Unlimited readers who would otherwise not found my books learn of them and read them, sometimes all of them. Here's what that looks like:

You can see the big increase in pages read on Feb. 4 and 5, sustained throughout the month. That comes out to about $600 in page reads, which, when combined with the sales, more than pays for the promotion. And the surge isn't over yet, although it usually tapers off after a couple months.

As a bonus, I've added about 70 new ratings and some new written reviews for the Inquisitors' Guild box set over this time, so that's been neat to see and certainly helps the visibility of my books. These BookBub promotions are the only 100% reliable way I've found to market my books effectively.

The play's the thing

Another fun thing that happened in February was I got cast in a play at the Little Theatre of Winston Salem. The show is Unnecessary Farce, and I'll be playing a bumbling, raging Scottish hitman named Todd.

The cast and crew are wonderful, and I'm having a tremendous amount of fun hamming it up in my questionably authentic brogue. If you're in the area and want to stop by, we'd love to have you there.

Ways to follow me

If you want to follow me on various retail and review sites, you can do that here. You'll get notified of new releases, and you can check out reviews and find other folks who enjoy my stuff. I'm also on BlueSky, where I post some on writing and other topics.

• Amazon
• Goodreads
• BookBub
• BlueSky

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 books I have to share this month:

First, I have The Singer and the Charlatan by D.C. Fergerson. This looks like a silly, funny, cozy fantasy tale about a bard and a prophet on a mission they don't fully understand with sidekicks who aren't entirely helpful.

Next, I have Distorted Purposes by Morgan Douglas. This is a high-concept story exploring a bizarre transformation where everyone on Earth turns into indistinguishable blank figures. That'll put a dent in your influencer career, but at least you won't need to pay for that gym membership anymore. The mystery behind this seeming curse beckons!

Next, I have The Survivors by Richard Rimington, a free space opera story about an ambassador who must fight for humanity's survival.

Finally, I have a feature of eighteen fantasy stories and series that are available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited. There are a lot of genres and a lot of stories to choose from. Check it out today!

Thank you!

Thanks so much for signing up for my newsletter. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for upcoming books! I love hearing from people. If you've read one of my books and wouldn't mind leaving a review anywhere (Amazon, Goodreads, Bookbub, LibraryThing, StoryGraph) I'd really appreciate it! Each review helps me reach more readers. 

I hope you and your friends and family are having a safe and rewarding 2025!

May the Bloodmother watch over you - 

Dave