It was one year today that my debut novel — KNIGHT RISE — was
released into the world, the result of a decade-old dream. A little over nine
months later I followed that up with its sequel — FALLEN KNIGHT. A lot has transpired over the course of the past 365 days,
some good, some not so much, but I thought it would be appropriate to document how
things are going, my own state of the union, so to speak.
To be candid, things haven’t gone the way I hoped.
Despite all my backbreaking efforts and those of my publisher (Wild Lark Books), my books failed to gain any traction in the marketplace. Total book
sales have been less than 500 units (for both books and all formats combined)
and during the past couple of months, sales have become downright stagnant. My
monetary take-home was less than $1000. On the encouraging side — and the thing
that is most frustrating — is the reviews and ratings for the books have been
overwhelmingly positive, and KNIGHT RISE
was even a finalist for the Page Turner Awards.
My venture into publication (long sought after) was
never about the money – although I did set a goal of earning enough to cover my
expenses. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. As a result, the time has come for
me to make some hard choices. My vision of introducing readers to a group of
middle-aged friends who are teamed with a feisty female private investigator
(as one reader put it – The Goonies for adults) must take a back
seat and placed on indefinite hold. I won’t say it is over because anything can
happen in the publishing world, and I will never say NEVER, but for now, I have
no further plans for more entries in this series. It’s such a shame because I
had some creative ideas for where these stories might go. Oh well. I will
continue to promote these books in the most cost-effective ways possible, and
who knows, maybe someday they’ll find their niche.
That doesn’t mean my publication efforts are finished.
Not even close. My literary agent (Tina P. Schwartz of The Purcell
Agency) and her associates represent three of my YA novels and are
presently submitting them to various publishers. I still have irons in the fire
and possibilities to aspire to!
What have I learned over this past year? Maybe a
better question is would I have done anything differently? The short answer is
NO. I still believe in Wild Lark Books and its concept, and I’m proud to
have my books associated with them. What I discovered is just how hard it is to
achieve exposure when you’re a newbie author with limited resources (and time)
— regardless of the quality of your product. Yes, there are exceptions that
come along which are celebrated (rightly so), but they are truly that,
exceptions.
Despite this disappointing setback, I’m looking
forward to the upcoming year with buoyant optimism. Hopefully, for my next
annual update, I’ll be reflecting on more positive achievements.
Until then.
DL