Updates!

1: JMM 2/3 News:

Last night around 1am (after putting in a 14 hour day), I FINALLY finished the rough draft for JMM2/3. It came out to 334,612 words, which is absolutely massive for a rough draft of mine. For context, the rough draft of my Nova Roma books typically came in at about 100k words and then during editing they increased to about 250k words.

If the rough draft of JMM2/3 is 330k+ words, then the final versions might be 500k words or more! If so, I'll be splitting it into two books and I'll need to come up with another fancy title for book three. I already know the scene I want to use for the cover, so that part is covered. : )

2: Audiobook News:


After negotiations with my old audiobook company and Podium, things ended up more or less how I thought they would (and how many of you suggested things should go). My old audiobook company couldn't secure slots with Travis. Podium could secure slots with him, but they wanted 60-65% of all my royalties AND book two audio wouldn't come out until mid-to-late 2023 and book three wouldn't come out until mid-2024.

So I would lose 60-65% of my royalties and the books would be seriously delayed anyway. It just wasn't a workable option for me. The audiobook income is a major reason I can afford to write full time now. Losing the majority of royalties was already going to be a huge blow, but the fact that the audio would also be delayed so much? It just wasn't worth it, no matter how much I love Travis.

After reaching out to several narrators suggested here, I ended up contracting with John Pirhalla to take over the series. I'm going to fund it myself (that way I keep all the royalties).

I'm not going to re-record book one at this time, for three reasons: (1) I love Travis' version and don't want to see it taken down, (2) I'd lose all the great reviews and ratings on the audiobook and have to start from scratch on those, and (3) I'd have to negotiate with my original company and buy back the rights to book one, which could end up costing 10k+ or more. Then I'd have to pay John to record a new version (about 7k-10k) and the sales are likely to be almost nonexistent. So that's a 20k loss, more or less.

The good news is that John seems like a great guy to work with and I really enjoy his voice. I think he will do a good job taking over and capturing the essence of Jake. He's also had experience taking over other series from Travis because several authors have had to do the same thing I'm having to do. John has done a really good job for them, and has a great relationship with Travis so they can coordinate the handover smoothly.

3: Timing!

My hope right now is that I can release the Kindle version of JMM2/3 around mid-December. Audio soon after.

If I have to break it into two books, I'm hoping to release both around the same time or have book three come out as quickly as possible after book two. So JMM2 in December or early January, and then JMM3 end of January? And audio around the same time, with possibly a small delay of a couple weeks or so.

So that's my big update! Right now I'm gonna take a week or so and relax after finishing the behemoth of a rough draft and then I'll be jumping right into editing mode. Thank you all for the all helpful advice for what to do with the audiobook and your continued support here. Means the world to me!!