The heading isn’t misleading. I just wanted to talk about my first solo foray (we’re not counting collaborations here, or anthologies) into mainstream publishing after **coughcough** years in indie and small press. More importantly, why I’m not regretting it, but why I also am still not going fully trad in the coming years.

First of all, having the opportunity to write in the bestselling Black Tide Rising series was a massive honor. John Ringo and Toni Weisskopf’s having faith in me and and my capabilities by letting me write Mountain of Fire still blows my mind. For a first solo Baen book, it’s doing amazingly well, thanks in large part to having a built in fan base of Ringo’s BTR universe. It also helped that I’d been prepping my own fans for the past four months before release that this wasn’t going to be on Kindle Unlimited, nor was the ebook going to be the usual price (I really like the $4.99 price point for ebooks… less than my venti peppermint mocha… don’t judge me!), and the hardcover (that was amazing!!!) was going to cost more than my usual prints did. Because of the prep work, nobody suffered from too much sticker shock when the book came out. I know we still lost some sales because I have, ah, stubborn readers, but that’s okay. Knowing Baen, the ebook price will be dropped next year when the mass market paperback comes out (there’s something about their distribution deal that forces them to start with the higher ebook price, then drop to lower later… no, I don’t know why. Yes, I still work at Baen in the mailroom, but I don’t do contract stuff like that) and those stubborn readers (who I adore) will probably pick up a copy by then.

Another plus is that cover art. Kurt Miller has been my life goal to having do a book cover for me since I first thought about becoming a writer in 2003. His portrayal of Maddie on the cover of Mountain of Fire is simply amazing. It took a lot of back and forth before we got the right looks for her, and Kurt was engaged the entire time. That was pretty awesome! Oh, and Baen letting me have the hand drawn maps by Violet in the book was superb. As cool as it might have been to have a professional artist draw the maps, it just made more sense to have a teenager draw them, since it was supposed to be a set of maps drawn by a teen in the books anyway. The production team at Baen had a lot of fun with that one.

Also, since I gave Baen the audiobook rights to sell on my behalf, they managed to work out a deal with Audible way quicker than I would have. I didn’t have to worry about any of that stuff, and the audiobook is currently nearing completion (from what I heard, it could be out this month). Plus, I got paid. That’s always nice.

Being edited by Toni Weisskopf was an eye-opening experience. Not a bad one, just far different than I’m used to. I’ve worked with many editors in the past, but never had I truly worked with a developmental editor who was looking at future stuff I might write while editing and helping me develop the current story. She pointed out some things I did well, and also what I needed to work on. It was a great learning experience and I’m already putting them to good use for my next book (not a BTR novel).

Now, some of the downsides…

Not seeing my book in ANY local B&N, despite my constant lobbying at the stores, was a huge let-down. Same goes with the indie booksellers here in Raleigh. For some reason B&N, despite claiming that they let store managers pick what they want, seem to only have the identical selections of new releases across all their stores. Not sure if this is a corporate decision or what, but it seems like store managers only get to pick once the books have been out for a certain amount of time. Not the best situation for a new author to find themself in.

Marketing is both easier and harder in trad publishing. Baen does some of the work (I should know) but a lot of it also comes down to how hard an author hustles. Gone are the days when the author can just turn in a book and crawl back into their library to work on the next book while the publisher releases said manuscript and it makes money. Indie authors already know this (we #RespectTheHustle because we have to hustle) but for newbie trad authors, it can come as a surprise when they discover just how much work they still have to do.

Now, Baen was very cool about asking me if I wanted to set up signings to promote the book, but since I was diagnosed with cancer the week before the book came out, I declined on any book signings or appearances until just this past week, though I had started making plans for a few. But no longer do bookstores seem to want author signings. It felt like every single B&N and indie bookstore we contacted gave us the vague “we’re not doing signings at the moment but you can email our store manager at blah blah blah” response. Now, I followed up on all of those, as did Rabbit, Baen’s Sales and Marketing Director, but with Christmas right around the corner, I know there won’t be any good signing opportunities between Nov 15 — Jan 3.

Coming back to the price point and ebooks… while I did warn the readers this would happen, it was still a shock to see the ebook price that high. Now, I’ve bought more expensive ebooks in the past (mostly nonfiction stuff) but I know it turned off a good portion of readers. Being indie allows me to adjust the price point to match audience expectations and needs, as well as affordability. The economy sucks right now and I’m in a field that many would call “artsy fartsy” (I know this because I call it this) and not necessarily one of the “needs” for someone to survive. Books become luxury items for people when the economy turns bad, so I need to adjust my own expectations.

This reason is pretty much the defining point as to why I’m sticking with being a hybrid author.

Working with Baen Books has been great, and I’m going to continue working with them on both anthologies and other projects. However, being able to adjust my pricing and having control over that is a HUGE thing. Let’s take Side Hustle: Vol. 1, for example. Even though it has a larger word count than Mountain of Fire, I was able to price it $5 less because I could. I wasn’t restricted or locked in to any distribution deal who set my prices for me. Having that flexibility is massive in indies.

Now, I still have projects I know will be better suited for trad publishing, which is why I’m still doing it. More specifically, after diving deep into analytics for urban fantasy, my untitled UF series (six books planned, which means I’ll probably write ten) is still going to go trad. My SF and milSF stuff will remain indie and small press (unless something really weird happens). Epic fantasy series is still up in the air. My gut says it should go trad, but recent observations of how badly burned the epic fantasy fan base is right now suggests I hold off for a few years. I’d love to turn in a completed trilogy so the fans won’t have to worry about whether or not the series will be complete.

So that’s pretty much where things stand at the moment. Mountain of Fire is doing well enough to give me some encouragement in the trad publishing market. While it didn’t break any records during the release, it did enough sales that I probably earned out my advance (my math says I earned out on release week, but publishing uses weird math). I’d like that sell-through to be higher, but it’s hard to do when bookstores won’t order your freaking books and 85% of your sales end of being from Amazon (don’t bitch about Amazon, people, when B&N won’t carry any of your favorite author’s books). Positive reviews across the board (from what I’ve heard; I don’t really read reviews very often) and lots of people asking about a sequel (hadn’t thought about it).

So a success, albeit limited, but with potential to blow up still.

By the way, I have a new book set in the Salvage Title Universe out now–Salvage Purgatory. Co-authored with Kevin Steverson and Nick Steverson, it is book 1 of a brand new series! Book 2, Salvage Harbinger, is coming out November 8th!