I don’t often post on the business side of publishing, but I felt there were a few things going on that readers and other authors might find interesting. And I’ll also give an update on what’s happening with my career going forward.

A while ago my agent and I were keen to pitch my new series, starting with Revenant Winds, to Harper Voyager to see what kind of offer they could come up with. I’ll note here that there have been no clashes with HV, no missed deadlines or creative differences, or any other issues that might lead to publisher/author conflict. My Sorcery Ascendant series has sold extremely well overall throughout its life in all formats and has passed the 145,000 mark in sales.

It turns out that Michael J Sullivan’s experience which he detailed here: Why Del Rey and I will be parting ways is also my experience. My audio rights are valuable to me. The same as MJ Sullivan, I always try to reserve audio rights and do a deal for them separately. No only are they valuable, I have a fantastic relationship with Audible which has worked out extremely well for the both of us. When HV were approached about a deal for Revenant Winds they insisted on audio rights or no deal — a policy which is now standard for most if not all of the big publishers.

I’m not a big enough fish that I can negotiate on these things, and so I had a decision to make: I either keep audio and kiss goodbye to a deal with any of the big publishers, or I hand over a very valuable right for which I’ve build up a significant listenership in partnership with Audible.

It’s worth going over what I’d be giving up if I handed over audio rights: 1) I’d lose a significant advance, 2) I’d lose Audible’s exceptional marketing and promotion ability, 3) I’d lose around 65% of the royalties since HV would take a cut and their audio producer would also take a cut.

I decided not to hand over audio rights. This meant any deal with a big publisher was dead in the water before it started. It’s crazy, since both HV and I wanted to continue working together, but that’s the situation.

So going forward: I’m self publishing Revenant Winds and the sequel, with Audible producing audio. I have another series I’m working on (with more of a sword & sorcery bent) of which the first book is in the revision stage. And I also have another series which I hope to have more news for you on soon.

Perhaps a publisher might be interested in taking on the print rights for my self published works, but those deals are rare. Edited to add: I’ll still be releasing print versions, however I won’t be able to price as low and they’ll only be available online.

At the moment I’ve decided it’s best if I work on growing my sales, and solidifying my name and brand, before approaching either HV or another publisher who will insist on audio. So I’m taking stock and consolidating, then I can see where to go and how the publishing landscape has changed once I have a few more books out there. Hopefully it goes well and I can push for that “next level” deal.

It’s an interesting time to be an author!

If you’re interested, here’s a link to Revenant Winds on Goodreads: Revenant Winds

And it should be released on 5th September 2017 — in less than four weeks!

Edited to add: As previously, I’m not approaching self publishing lightly. Revenant Winds has had two structural edits by different editors, two copy edits by different editors, two proofreads, as well as eight test readers, and I’ve sent out 39 ARCs. I’ll be following a similar process for all my self published works.

Tower of the Forgotten pre-orders are up! Official release date for all formats is May 16th, 2017 — so less than a month away! Then only a few months after that Revenant Winds will be released…

Ebook on Amazon

Audiobook on Audible

Description:

This is a standalone novella of 16,500 words set before the events of Revenant Winds.

From Mitchell Hogan — Aurealis Award winner and author of the Sorcery Ascendant Sequence.

Niklaus, master swordsman, has not aged a day since being chosen by his mercurial goddess. A slave to her will, he moves from one cryptic mission to the next in the hope of ascending to become her equal.

But even a man who has lived for centuries can sometimes find himself out of his depth.

When Niklaus is sent to kill a sorcerer of the Tainted Cabal, overconfidence leads to a fatal mistake, and neither experience nor skill with a blade can prevail against the forces unleashed against him.