2014 Year in Review

So how was your 2014? Mine was excellent. I not only met my future wife but also managed to not get hit by a falling piano.

I'm very pleased with my writing accomplishments, too. 2014 has been my most profitable year since 2010--$300 whole dollars in royalties! Yes, we're slugging it out in the rear, but I do better with each book. This year I did the Wolf series under the name Dean Breckenridge, which have run their course and we shan't be seeing Mr. Wolf again, but maybe Dean will come back with something or other.I started a new spy series, and sales of the Steve Dane series have improved.

We had our challenges, and still do. My ebooks never seem to be "good enough" and I'm always finding issues despite hiring professional help but I think we're on the way to finally nailing down the outstanding problems.

What's most encouraging for me is that I finally figured out a formula for producing a 60-to-80,000 word manuscript, which, finally, after too many years, frankly, gets me away from struggling just to reach 50,000 words.

And while some are already looking at me as if I've kicked a baby, in 2015 I'm going to write a new book with plans to sell it traditionally. That's right, I'm gong to try the hybrid method while still self-publishing and try to leverage one to promote the other. If it doesn't work, no harm done--I can run the new book myself. But this experiment in indie publishing has made me a better writer than when I started out, and I want to try the old way. I may regret it, I may not, but it has to be done.

I know, I know, I've broken the indie code or some such crap. Self-publishers really have a cult mentality, I have no time for that, and I've never been much of a joiner, so maybe that's my motivation. We can dig up Freud and see what he thinks; meanwhile, I have work to do.

Happy new year!