Dear readers,
Merry Chrismakkuh! I hope this finds you well.
We celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah around here, and the two rarely overlap, so this year has got me feeling especially grateful.
I don’t say it often enough: Thank you for joining me on this publishing journey.
It’s thanks to you I get to explore other worlds and turn my imaginative misadventures (and those of my uncooperative characters) into novels, books and stories.
It’s thanks to you I have an audience to share them with. Authors are nothing without their readers, and while I spend most of my time writing alone, this is not a solo pursuit. It’s about building a community of readers. It’s about rallying around characters and worlds we love.
This time of year often finds me in a reflective mood. So, in a spirit of thanks and introspection, here’s a recap of what happened this year in M.G. Herron books.
Plus, what you have to look forward to in the year to come!
2022 Year End Wrap-Up
This year saw the publication of two major M.G. Herron books, Raptor and Hidden Relics, the latter of which now holds my personal record for bestselling sequel.
Relics of the Ancients has been out for 14 months, and in that time it has outsold my other series (looking at comparable time periods) by a wide margin.
Each year of my publishing adventure has been bigger than the last in important ways. In 2022, Relics spurred rapid growth, with tens of thousands of new readers discovering my books. New readers are most likely to begin reading with Starfighter Down. But toward the end of the year, because of promotions I organized, The Auriga Project experienced a stout resurgence. The Translocator books are still my highest earning books, primarily a factor of time.
On the writing front, I spent most of the year working on Rogue Swarm. I completed the first draft in early December and I’m on schedule for an April 2023 release. The Kickstarter campaign for Relics of the Ancients is on track overall.
Several life events yanked me off track throughout the year, and I didn’t get as much writing done as I had initially hoped, but in the end I delivered the goods and I’m happy with the stories.
What life events, you ask?
The first took place in the spring. My wife and I got licensed for foster care, and in May our first foster child, a two-year-old girl, was placed with us. Suddenly, I didn’t have as much time as I used to!
To no one’s surprise, it took me about six weeks to adjust and get back to writing. The next six months were full of twists and turns as Shelly and I learned to navigate parenthood and the foster care system. In November, our little girl was reunited with her family. We’re currently looking for our next placement.
While that was happening, toward the end of summer, my Nana’s health began to decline. I was fortunate enough to visit with her in October, but she unexpectedly passed away in November, less than two weeks later. The whole family attended her memorial service. It was a beautiful but tear-filled farewell.
Grief is a hell of an experience. That took me out of the game for a little while.
But not for long. I managed to get back on track with the writing in late November and hit my deadlines with room to breathe.
So, that’s my motto for 2022: room to breathe.
Even as these life events took place, I wrote a book, published two others, and landed several big promotions with BookBub and Chirp. I’m having fun, telling stories, and growing my craft while juggling family and a full-time job (yes, I still work full time).
If I hadn’t left myself room to breathe in my writing schedule, life would have flattened me like a steam roller. Instead, wise scheduling decisions and a flexible attitude made this year a success.
Plans for 2023
I’m a big believer in starting how you plan to go.
So what you’ll get from me in 2023 is more of the same. More Relics stories, more tight focus on production, and the kind of marketing that’s working for me.
After giving myself time to decompress, catch up on admin stuff, and write this letter, my next big project is Starfighter Origins 3. A novella about Kira Miyaru, back when she was a young officer cutting her teeth on the Kryl War. This book will serve as the final waypoint of a narrative arc that threads through all 6 Relics books, tying the two trilogies together with a character-driven throughline.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that SO3 completes plans I put in place back in 2019, when I published Spare Parts, the story that started the whole Relics of the Ancients universe. I’m excited to put the finishing touches on this phase of the project.
While I work on that, I’ll simultaneously be approving edits on Rogue Swarm (when they come back), putting that novel through the beta reading ringer, and then producing it in ebook, paperback, hardback and audiobook for the release on April 24, 2023. The audiobook may need extra time, but hopefully not too much.
When it’s ready, I’ll publish Starfighter Origins 3. By that point I’ll have a title for it! These two books are also the final deliverables in the Relics Kickstarter campaign, so I’m budgeting time in March/April to print books and fulfill the rest of those goods, digital and physical. It’s a hundred-some-odd boxes to mail, so it’ll take a little while.
After that, into late spring and early summer, I’m going to remember my motto and give myself room to breathe.
I haven’t decided yet what project will come next. Instead, I’m going to list several ideas in no particular order, and simply say that I want to do them all at some point.
- Relics of the Ancients 4 — The next full-length novel of the Relics series. I’d like to start writing it in 2023, and I plan to run a Kickstarter campaign for this book when it’s done. Without spoilers, the adventure of Captain Elya Nevers and the Furies continues down a new branch of the story. While Book 3 wraps up the narrative arc of the first six stories (as I alluded to above), new adventures await.
- New urban fantasy novel — I have about 20,000 words of my first urban fantasy novel written. This is a new genre for me, but I’m an avid urban fantasy reader and absolutely love the concept: an artificer inherits his father’s shop after the old man’s death, along with a mysterious bloodline contract.
- The Gunn Files 4 — Gunn’s next book is outlined, but not yet written. It’s a fun story that plays with temporal manipulation, something I’ve never done before in a novel. I think it would stretch me as a writer, and I’m excited as the prospect of revisiting Gunn and friends.
- Space opera anthology — I have an idea for an anthology of space opera stories. I’ve never edited an anthology before, so it’s a new frontier and an interesting challenge. Curating anthologies would allow me to get more projects out into the world between book releases, network with other authors, experiment, and reach new readers.
It’s unlikely I’ll get through all of these projects in 2023, but I have an estimated quarter million new words of potential production in me. Which of these projects excites you the most?
On the marketing front, I’ll continue doing what works for me while leaving room for experimentation. Most of my focus will be on production (writing new books), but I had a lot of fun and significant results with Kickstarter, so expect more campaigns from me in the future.
Beyond Kickstarter, I’m committed to publishing my work wide (on all retailers), and expanding direct sales capabilities, which I built out this year on mgherron.com. There’s more to be done there. BookBub and Chirp deals drove the most growth for me on retailers, so I’ll keep applying for those, too.
Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback about the blog at mgherron.com/blog. I made a few design improvements based on your suggestions. My efforts there will continue with a focus on publishing more short fiction in more genres—public domain + my own—and inviting guest authors on for the two series of original articles. Let’s Talk SFF hosts perspectives on popular stories in SFF genres, and Best of Science Fiction/Fantasy focuses on publishing curated reading recommendations. I’ll write a few original articles for the blog myself, too, of course, as my schedule allows.
The main business lesson I’ve learned is that I experience the most success when I market directly to my audience (i.e. email/blog, Kickstarter campaigns) and focus on content marketing (books and blogs).
I’m also the most creatively fulfilled when I maintain full control of my IP, and avoid hamster-wheel exclusivity programs that don’t fit my lifestyle or production rate. With a family and full-time job, I’m not a book-a-month writer. I can reliably produce 2 or 3 books per year at a sustainable pace. So, the wide, direct, long-term approach works for me.
All that’s left is execution.
Don’t miss the holiday sale!
That’s a wrap on 2022, and now you know my plans for 2023 as well.
I hope you enjoy the upcoming holidays. Don’t forget that I’m running a 25% off holiday sale on mgherron.com/store. Everything—ebooks, audiobooks, merch—is on sale if you use the promo code cheers22. Good through December 31st at midnight.
Merry Chrismakkuh and a Happy New Year!
Thanks for reading,
-MG
P.S. Since you made it this far, do leave a comment and let me which of my 2023 writing projects you’re most excited about. I use reader feedback to make decisions in my author business. I’d love to hear from you personally!
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