The Prince of New York is a B&N Top Indie Title! Also, some updates on audiobooks, answering a bunch of questions recently, general news!

Hello, folks! In the past week or two, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the background economics of books (thus the series of posts, adjustments to the chart, etc), and I wanted to take the time to dig through the question archive and answer some of them. (If I tried to answer all of them, we’d be here for months.)

But before I begin, Barnes & Noble curated The Prince of New York as a June / July Top Indie Favorite! Hooray! Good job, baby book!!! I’m so proud of you. It is under the Science Fiction and Fantasy category.

Audiobook Updates

Currently being recorded:

• Life-Debt and Experimental Voyage (Keira Grace)
• Partner-in-Crime (Cameron Hill)

To be Recorded:

• Everything that isn’t already recorded. (Literally.)

I prioritize new releases over old titles, so essentially, once the latest release has been done, I slide in an older title. Please be patient, because this is an expensive process that I pay for out of my personal money. I will not be doing kickstarters for audiobook editions, nor will I be doing anything similar to kickstarter. (It stresses me out way too much.) As such, I record audiobooks when I have the money available. Right now, it’s a continuous stream, but that might change.

Fortunately, I’m at the stage where the monthly earnings of my audiobooks are (barely) sufficient to pay for the production of new audiobooks, so it’s a neutral fiscal activity for me.

Unless that changes, I will not be accelerating my audiobook production. They will come as they come. Much like print editions, audiobooks are something I do for personal enrichment and accessibility, not because these formats put food on the table.

As such, when money gets tight, audiobook and print editions are the first to get the axe.

To give you an idea of the audiobook situation, I have invested over $180,000 in producing the 60-something audiobooks I have available on market.

I have earned approximately $110,000 from selling audiobooks.

Don’t expect me to have a pleasant response if you act like you’re entitled to audiobooks or become upset that I’m not producing them faster.

They are labors of love, that I’m paying for with money that should have gone onto the table. Instead, I wanted to make the books accessible. I’ve been running into a lot of people who feel entitled to stuff lately, and… no. You are not entitled to that. (You are not entitled to me spending $4,000 to $5,000 per audiobook. I do it because I want to make the books accessible.)

And no, I will not be using AI to narrate my books. I abhor the entire concept of replacing human creativity with computers.

Now, onto some of the more general questions!

1: How do you decide which audiobooks to produce?

Age (new releases prioritized) is the primary factor. The intent is to produce ALL of my titles as audiobooks. But the expense says I have to pick and choose my way through the catalogue.

2: Will the spreadsheet mean you won’t be producing some series?

No. All the spreadsheet means is that I will be better prioritizing the series that DOES sell, better monitor when it’s ideal to release a new book in a series, and otherwise keep as many series healthy as possible.

Here is a ‘ordered by series’ version of the spreadsheet including the first year the book produced money. Books between 1-2 years old are expected to be in the 35-55% Total ROI earnings range. Ideally, the books will start earn out (pay me for having written them) by the time it is 3-4 years old.

The Production ROI should be paid within a month of release. If a book does not earn back the production ROI in its first month of release, the series will automatically be flagged as dead, it will be put on the back burner until I can afford to burn / waste money, and if it were to be part of a long series, the series will be rewritten/replotted to end in the next book.

To give you an idea, the Prince of New York is not even a month old, and it has already tripled its production costs. This is a very low bar to reach for publication, so if the book is not earning its production costs within a month, there is a serious problem.

3: How can I support a series?

Rate and review the books. The lower you rate a book, the lower the likelihood that random customers will buy the title. If you really want to see books produced, give it 5* and tell other readers why you liked the book.

Ask your local libraries to stock the book… and should the book be acquired, check it out. Circulation is important! If a book is requested and it doesn’t circulate, the libraries will not acquire more books by that author. And, when you recommend the book to a local friend, and you know that book is available to the library, tell them to check it out from the library.

Yes, authors are paid for library copies. (Some libraries pay us per checkout, some pay us for one copy. But we are paid, and I love libraries. Please use them.)

Buy the books. Even if you’re the kind of person who won’t read a series until it’s completed, buying the book is how you cast your vote for seeing it finished.

Garbage can the entitlement when communicating with authors. Authors are NOT beholden to you to release a book on your schedule.

It takes me roughly 300 hours to write a book that often only takes you 3 hours to consume. I have to spend my time wisely so I can keep writing books. So, please garbage can the attitude.

All you accomplish is driving talented authors out of writing more books for you. Most authors love communicating with our readers, but not when the readers are like that so-and-so that did an excellent job of postponing Client from Hell because I don’t fucking think so. (Yes, Client from Hell will be put into the roster of things I will be writing after a few of the books on my plate are published. It’s scheduled for the next batch of books.)

4: When will you write (This) book?

When I get to it. Creativity needs space to breathe. That’s why I sometimes just pivot and change my schedule.

Sometimes, a book just isn’t working.

Sometimes, I’m not in the mood.

Sometimes, well, fuck that character and the horse they rode in on.

Sometimes… money.

5: But what about Bernadette Franklin?

I’m currently working on Murder Floof. It will get done when it gets done. I can’t fiscally afford to do anything other than pick at it when the mood strikes me. As such, I pick at it when the mood strikes me.

So far, I’ve written 23,000 words of an estimated 60,000 to 75,000 words.

It will get done when it gets done.

6: I want the Cindercorns Trilogy but I refuse to do print editions!!

I will be doing an eBook version of the trilogy. Please stop panicking. Any time I do a ‘combined’ special edition hardback with a: new material inside b: super fancy artwork, etc, I will be doing an eBook edition of the collection.

I will not be doing Bookbubs or discounting the collections, however. (This plan might change, but for now, it will not.)

Once the hardbacks (the less fancy B&W editions) are ready, I will put everything up for sale at the same time.

7: Where can I get books signed???

I will be looking to do at least one convention in 2026. I am currently eyeballing the Miami Book Fair if I am approved to have a table. That will put me in Miami for a week. This is, of course, assuming that planes remember how to keep flying and that the airline industry does not come crashing down.

Otherwise, I will join forces with a local author friend of mine and see about doing a Barnes & Noble event. (I might do that anyway.)

But yes, I will be trying to make an appearance or two at conventions/signings.

Please note that I will not be bringing much in the way of book stock unless I go to Miami. Should I do a Barnes & Noble event, I will be making an arrangement so you can order the books you want from the store. (B&N relies on people buying books to do author events.)

I MIGHT see about lining up a B&N signing with the release of the Cindercorns Trilogy, but this is something I’d have to speak with my local B&N about.

Yes, if you’re a convention runner, and you’d like to invite me to your convention, please do drop a comment to my contact form and tell my PA which convention you run, the dates, costs for tables, etc, etc, etc so she can pass me the information. Please leave your convention’s website/sign up form information in the form.

8: Can we meet when you go on a road trip?

As a general rule, when I’m road tripping, unless you are a human who talks to me daily, it’s slim chances I’m going to be meeting anyone on a road trip. That’s family time with my husband. However, I usually do have at least one such friend along the way, and I sometimes decide to organize something.

But as a general rule, if you see me talking about a road trip, that is personal time with my husband or I am doing research for books. Often, it’s both. So, please don’t have your feelings hurt if I go ‘not this time, but I’ll see about a convention.’

I am going to try to do one convention a year starting in 2028 or so. (Years I plan road trips with my husband are off the table for conventions unless the convention is super local to me.)

9: What happened to your photography?

Stress. Stress happened to my photography. Yes, I still have my camera. Yes, I still use it. No… I haven’t gotten my pictures off my camera from my trip to Canada yet.

No… I haven’t gotten my pictures off my camera from my trip to AUSTRALIA yet.

… long story short, my computer’s hard disk is basically full, I need to upgrade my computer, get a better server system set up for my photos, and well… upgrading the computer will be a huge expense. We are in process of doing the computer upgrade. But since we’re keeping my old computer (to become my photo editing machine / storage / other stuff), this is a process since I’m not selling the old machine back to Apple for credits.

The current computer is named Jace.

The next computer will be named Valor.

I bet you can guess the naming theme for my current desktops…

I’m going to leave you here for now, as today is going to be a long day. Yes, that blog series that annoys some of you will be continuing later today. (In good news, we’ll start seeing multiple days between assignments because I am doing the assignments before I post the assignments for you to do… and some of these assignments take ME some time.)

And yes… this project is very much me forcing me to write Rise of the Rift King.

(Maybe that’ll soothe some of you… you get an entire damn novel out of this nonsense.)