The Self-Pub Cycle + Fallout is the #1 Fiction Title on Audible! + More Dune

The Self-Publishing Cycle

Most of the writers I know are traditionally published (tradpubbed), which generally means they publish one book per year and that book gets released on a schedule determined by the publishing house. Tradpub writers may have the bandwidth and desire to create more than one book per year, but the publisher can only support releasing and marketing one of their books each year without stepping on other books in their portfolio. Some tradpub writers get around the issue by releasing their other books under a pen name, but usually the rule is no more than one book per year.

Self-publishing is a bit different, and of course your mileage may vary, so I can only talk about my experience. Basically, I set a release schedule after consulting with R.C. Bray and Podium Audio. That schedule includes when I will begin writing the book, when I will send the manuscript to the beta reader team for review, when the revised manuscript will be delivered to Podium for R.C. Bray to narrate, and when the ebook, paperback, and audio will be released. We usually set a schedule 18 months to two years in advance, and sometimes there are minor changes, but generally we all stick to the agreed schedule.

What this means for me is kind of a weird time-lag experience. As I write this newsletter, I am about 90% done with writing ExForce Book 14. That manuscript will go to the beta reader team (lead by the always-patient Helen Ann Dunn) around the middle of January, and I will get their comments back in early March for me to make corrections. Book 14 will launch June 7th, 2022 (when we still will not have flying cars or jetpacks or vacations on the Moon or any of the cool stuff magazines promised me when I was growing up). That means I will type “THE END” on Book 14 about six months before the book launches.

The result is that while my brain is spinning with the events in Book 14, I am talking with Podium and Helen about the plot and details of Book 13: Fallout, and at the same time, I am getting reader questions and comments about the last book that was published, Book 12: Breakaway. To the audience, Book 12 is the latest thing, but I finished writing that and hit the “Send” button so long ago, it seems like another lifetime.

It is also weird to me that I will begin writing the final ExForce book next spring. I know, it seems impossible, but the series will end after fifteen novels, an audio drama, a novella, and two novels about the Mavericks. Sometime next year, I will type “THE END” on the final ExForce book, and that will be the end of the series. What will I do when I am finished writing a series I first published in January 2016? First, I will probably take my wife out for a nice dinner to celebrate the end of a lot of work and to thank her for supporting me while I stared at a laptop for too long. Then, maybe I will finally have time to clean out the garage. (Sadly, I wouldn’t count on that happening.)

After that, who knows? I am very busy in the evenings with my crime-fighting work as a superhero and—

Oops. I wasn’t supposed to talk about that.

OK, the secret is out: I am Batman.

Being Batman is less impressive than you might think; it’s a franchise now, and I am only assigned to fighting crime in my neighborhood. Mostly that means keeping raccoons out of the trash cans. Sometimes, when I get bored, I fight crime in the neighborhood next to ours because the Batman who owns that franchise has really bad asthma and doesn’t go outside when the pollen count is high. (Remember your inhaler, Phil.)

Anyway, it is both exciting and sad that next year, I will wrap up the ExForce story arc that I outlined over six years ago. Looking back, would I change anything? Maybe I should have thrown in a few cliffhangers to keep things exciting. (That was a joke—I am terribly not sorry about the cliffhangers..)

Thank you for being on this wild, weird, and wonderful journey with me. Might we be able to go on another journey together after ExForce?

Shmaybe.

A special message from Skippy...you heard it here first.

My brother’s review of Dune and of my review

Re-Re-Rebuttal

First off, I have never used the word “quibble” in oral or written form, but you two seem to use it frequently. It is now added to my lexicon. So, it is the year 10,000, humans mutated by spice melange can fold space with their minds, and computers have been replaced with mentats, but light bulbs are scarce? I can see certain locations being dark like Giedi Prime but every scene? I agree that the casting was excellent, but there seemed to be an awful lot of mumbling of dialog— so much that I had to watch it with captions. Good thing I watched it from home. I guess that is one benefit of COVID.

I think the movie did a great job of enhancing several parts of the book. 

Ornithopters - While reading the books, it was hard to picture how a mechanical wasp could even get off the ground. Wow! More ornithopters, please.
Lasguns - I believe they were only used in two scenes, but they really showed how powerful a weapon they are. Normally in sci-fi movies, a laser gun fires in volleys, but the continuous laser stream was incredibly powerful. Wow! More lasguns, please.
Sardaukar - The book does a great job of describing what badass warriors they are. This was completely missing from David Lynch’s version. In this movie, they are fierce and still mysterious. I loved the scenes where they slowly and silently descend before battle. The Sardaukar need to be formidable or it won’t mean much later when (SPOILER ALERT) the Fremen using the Weirding Way defeat them.
Overall, I thought the movie was excellent and stayed true to the book.
Quibbling done.

You did it, you hairless monkeys!

In just one day, Expeditionary Force became the #1 fiction audiobook on Audible. The Fallout from this release has been incredible.

If you see me, the merch store is working.

In collaboration with Podium, I have put out some limited edition designs for Fallout t-shirts and posters that are live on their store now. More to come, but I think these first two are already amazing.

ICYMI: RAWdiobooks with R.C. Bray

Many an announcement was made and question answered on RAWdiobooks the other night. Of course, some of them have been made here (like our special merch drop, thanks to Podium), but if you missed the festivities, check the recording out on Bob's Facebook page here.