2017 was definitely a transformative year for my author career, so I wanted to take a look at some of the things that happened. First, I wanted to break down my total income from the past year by series. This past year, I started two new series, both of which were intended to be more commercial than the series I’ve done in the past. But that doesn’t mean I gave up on my past books. Though I ended those series at the end of 2016, I did still do some light advertising on them.
I launched the Nakamura Detective Agency series at the beginning of the year in January. Fallen Idol was the first book in the series, followed by Murder Walk in March. Instead of launching the third book, I instead decided to do something different and began work on Devil’s Due, the first book in the Luther Cross series, which was released in June. I did write a third Nakamura book, but with the success of Devil’s Due, I decided to focus on Luther for a while and released Devil’s Descent, the second book, in September.
And the numbers have been pretty crazy. Here’s how my series have performed over the past year:
So in one way, both the Luther Cross and Nakamura Detective Agency books did do well as they performed better than all other series. However, Luther was the clear runaway winner, making up almost 85% of my total sales this past year—and that’s just from two books! Nakamura, on the other hand, made up just under 7% with only two books. Meanwhile, the five-book Vanguard series, which concluded at the end of 2016, still managed to sell almost as much as the Nakamura series, making up just under 6% of total sales.
One of the things I found surprising was that my stand-alone novels sold just a little bit better than my Infernum series. And The Myth Hunter series still pulls in some sales. Not as many as I had hoped a six-book series would when I began it, but it still has some tiny legs on it.
What’s this mean for 2018?
The one obvious effect is that there’s going to be more Luther Cross. That series will be my focus for the immediate future. I will likely still release the third Nakamura book, but I need to really take a hard look at it when I have the time, because I think it needs a lot of work.
Speaking of Luther, many people have asked me about audiobooks. There was an initial attempt to turn Devil’s Due into an audiobook which unfortunately didn’t pan out. However, it’s good that it didn’t, because there’s some exciting news about Luther Cross audiobooks coming soon. I can’t say much more about it for now, so just stay tuned.
Does this mean I’ll only focus on Luther? Not quite. I do have ideas for other projects that tie into the Luther Cross series. The core Luther books will still be my focus, but time permitting, there’s some tie-in stuff I’d like to pursue.
I do also have another project coming from a publisher. I can’t say anything more about that until an announcement is made, but once it is, you’ll definitely be hearing about it. I will tell you this: it involves a classic character that everyone in the world is somewhat familiar with. More on that later.
And I’ll end this on some more exciting news: Devil’s Shadow, the third Luther Cross book, is finished! Here’s a look at the cover:
As you can tell, this cover’s a bit different from the ones so far. If you’ve read Devil’s Descent, you might already have an idea as to why. If not, then you’ll find out very soon, because the book should be released later this month.
Here’s to a great 2018!