Riyriacon, New Release, and Cycle Update

Sorry for the late post on this, but we were busy with Riyriacon and had to get the Luray house winterized and catch a plane for Key West.  

What is/was Riyriacon? 

 It was the second year of a get together of Riyria fans at our place in Luray.  Robin had to fly up from Key West and we hosted several days of "Riyria" events including Q&A panels, listening to The Storm and The Eternal Winter audio recordings, playing a Riyria TTRPG, meeting and greeting, and a Riyria inspired Cards Against Humanity game. There was also a field trip to the Luray caverns and I believe some people did a hike down Dark Hollow Falls in Shenandoah National Park. For aspiring or self-published authors, there were critique sessions where their work was reviewed by members of Novel House including Lorian Ellis, John Patrila,  Gregory Amato, and Tora Mutsagama.  

And speaking of Lorian Ellis . . . we had printer proofs of the physical books of her debut novel, so she could hold them in her hands and even take them with her.  There are a few minor adjustments that need to be made, but all in all they came out well.

New Release - Book #1 in the 5th Elan Saga Series

The digital versions (audio and ebook) of Out of the Ashes (Book #1 in the After the Fall series) are now out in the world.  As I said, the print books need a few minor adjustments to them, but we hope to have them on the press by next week. This is is our sales so far:

• 1,942 Audiobooks (through end of September)
• 1,982 ebooks (through mid-October)
• 1,100 deluxe hardcovers editions (through early-October)
• 1,277 regular hardcover editions ((through early-October)
• 6,301 total books

For those that don't know, here is what a debut fantasy author can expect if they had a standard "modest" launch from a traditional big-five publisher (like Orbit, Del Rey, or Tor)

• 1st year's US sales: 1,000 - 3,000
• lifetime US sales: 2,000 - 5,000

That means we've already past the lifetime sales, and it's only been 10 days since the release of the audiobook and 8 days since the release of the ebook. And of course the print book numbers are only pre-orders that were sold through our Kickstarter.

If you missed the Kickstarter, you can pre-order your hardcovers through our Late Backer Survey.

For those looking for audiobooks, here are your choices: Apple Books | Audible: US | CA | UK | AU | DE | FR | ES | JP | IN 

For those looking for eBooks (but avoiding Amazon), here are your choices: From the author | Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble (nook) | Apple Books | Kobo | Smashwords | Vivlio | Thalia

For Amazon eBook Shoppers: US | CA | AU | UK | MX | BR | DE | FR | IT | ES | NL  | JP | IN 

We are still waiting for links to populate for the following: Google Play, OverDrive, Everand, and Hoopla, and we'll make those available when they go live.

The Cycle Update

It's been awhile since we've had a Cycle Update, and to be honest it's on a bit of a hiatus at present.  I need to get my office setup again and there is a lot of yard work to do in Key West since we've been gone for several months. But here is where things stand.

• Lorian Ellis now has books #1 thorugh #3. She's the first person other than Robin to get a look at them.
  
  
• Book #4 is definitely past the halfway point. It's currently at 88,464 words and 18 of the 30 chapters are completed. My hope is to have it finished by early April 2027.
  
  
• Book #5's outline is being fleshed out as Book #4 is written, and the hope is that it will come together quickly.  
  
  
• If the above dates hold firm, and assuming the final book comes out to my satisfaction, then we plan on releasing the first book of the series in 2028.