Jul 15, 2022
Written By J David Baxter
It has been a busy couple of months. Below are some of the milestones reached and some of my plans for the future.
“I cannot thank everyone enough for the tremendous response the books have received. I am humbled and amazed and thankful!”
Here is a list of just a few things going on:
Back on June 26th, I launched book 3, and I am amazed and thankful for the great reception it has seen.
I also doubled my ad spend at the same time to ensure the books are getting presented to more people to raise awareness. (It has, significantly!)
I have devoted all my spare time to writing book 4 to wrap up this first story arc. I am up to 75,000 words as of today and shooting for 100-115k words on this final book. It will not be the last Greymantle story, just the final book of this first story arc. I hope to publish around the end of August or sometime in September, depending on how long the editing and cover creation process takes.
Set up an Author page on Amazon.
Updated my author website jdavidbaxter.com and added a progress panel on the first page showing the current status.
Reception:
I cannot thank everyone enough for the tremendous response the books have received.
I am humbled and amazed and thankful!
Since the launch of book three, I've averaged about 17 ebooks sold per day and received over 25,000 page reads on Kindle Unlimited daily. I hit over 50,000 page reads for the first time yesterday. In addition, I have ranked in the top 10 in several categories over the last couple of weeks. Today, I simultaneously had two of my books in the top 10 in one category. These are smaller niche categories like Teen & Young Adult Time Travel and Teen & Young adult Sci-Fi Action & Adventure. However, last week my first book hit #116 in Epic Fantasy, which is the biggest category of them all when it comes to fantasy books. That was pretty amazing. So close to breaking into the top 100! :)
For the future:
I am planning two more story arcs; one will focus on Nate's sister Els and her adventures as she trains to become a healer. The second is a series focusing on a character not yet introduced. Once that series is published, hopefully, some of you will have some fun 'wow, I remember that' discovery moments as you remember hints/foreshadowing that I've put in the books.
In addition to the Greymantle stories, I have another book already written and in the final editing stages. It focuses on a vampire character set on Earth. Though it's not a Greymantle story, it takes place on Earth in the same universe from which Nate originates. That book should be out before the end of this year but will not be released until after Book 4 of Nate's story. Fair warning, this new book is written in a much different style (1st person view) and is more in the Urban/Contemporary fantasy genres. It certainly won't have that hero's journey/epic fantasy feel. It's more of a light, fun read despite some dark moments. I had a "What If" inspiration moment back in 2021 and wrote the entire thing in a week. I love it when that kind of inspiration strikes!
I also plan to take a short break from writing for two to three months after finishing the Nate story arc. I want to concentrate on getting his story produced on Audible so that readers will have the option to listen to an audio version of the series as well as an ebook and print. I am planning to voice the story myself. I need to dust off those character voices and accents and do a little prep-work before getting started. However, I am not sure how long that will take since I am new to audio editing. I am hoping for two to three months, but that may be optimistic for completing four books. Still, I am eager to finish this, so I plan to work fast!
Far Future Projects (or maybe not so far distant):
I have another four-book series I have wanted to write for a long time that I have fully outlined, and have even written about 2/3rds of the first book. It would fall into the Dark Fantasy genre. I may work this in between Greymantle stories, depending on the reception of the following two Greymantle series and what fans want me to focus on.
I also have a Supers genre novel with about 20k words already written. This might end up as a novella instead of a novel-length story.
Beyond these, it will depend on inspiration and fan feedback.
Last notes: As always, I want to thank everyone for reading for joining me on this journey. I especially want to thank everyone who takes the time to leave positive feedback on Amazon. This helps me tremendously as other potential readers can see your thoughts and know whether or not my books might be something they would like. If you have story feedback or would be interested in beta reading, please drop me a line at info@jdavidbaxter.com. I am limited in how many beta readers I can accept on each book due to time constraints, but I am always looking for good beta readers able to provide helpful and timely feedback.
Comentarios