It seems like every time…
I say this is going to be my last one, and usually, it isn’t. As an author, increasing market saturation and competing media is a frustrating reality, and things aren’t what they were ten years ago. Of course as a reader, the same is true and conversely, one has much more material to choose from. That of course is a positive. Just like anything else, the more you do it, the better you get at it. I’m quite proud of my recent work and the feedback has been increasingly positive as well. Yet sales have been on a steady decline. So I was going to hang it up after Entrenched. (and after The Tenth, and Conrad’s Honor, but seriously, for good) then something like Area 91 comes along.
It didn’t just ‘come along.’ It’s been sitting idly as a work in progress for the last three years. It took some inspiration, a great idea and three full fresh slate rewrites plus a kickass editor. It was going to be another standalone like Entrenched and Rain upon Death, but on the third rewrite, I decided to bring it back in to the Bruce Highland series. I did this for two reasons. First, Bruce is a cool guy, with sense of dry humor. Second, there was some unfinished business left over from The Tenth. If you read The Tenth you know what it is. If you haven’t, well, you might want to.
I’ll give you some stats. Area 91 is my fifteenth book since the initial debut in 2015. In terms of unit sales, it is currently my second best seller overall, and that is in the space of a little over a month since release. Already, after a paltry Q1, 2023 is currently my third best year, and that is with a single book over the course of a month. The bottom line - people love it. The critics don’t. But, you can’t please everyone (see my previous blog post.)
Where do I go from here? I already have some ideas kicking around in my head. I don’t share a whole lot in blog and media posts, because like Bruce I’m paranoid about violating OPSEC and giving out a title or a plot too soon before release. But rest assured it’s in the works.
