I’ve been down this path before when Drollerie closed, but this hurts way more. Endings are sad so I’ll concentrate on the possibilities ahead.
News broke this weekend that Samhain Publishing has decided to slowly wind down and close this year. The good news is that they’re doing this smartly–up front, above board, everybody paid, rights returned. This isn’t going to be long silences, worry, and wondering if I’ve lost my books for good. So don’t be afraid that your favorite authors won’t get their money if you buy books, even knowing Samhain is closing. They’ve always treated me very well, and I’ve always been paid on time.
All my Samhain titles are still available and will continue to be for sale, until my rights revert to me. I don’t know when that will be, but likely not for many months yet. Unfortunately, they might be unavailable for awhile after that because I’ll have to pay for new covers and formatting. That will take time. Possibly a long time. But I’ll cross that bridge when I must.
In the meantime, I’ll be re-evaluating my plan for the year. I’d already been facing some tough decisions based on sales. It makes me feel a little better that low sales weren’t just troubling me, but across the board at Samhain. I couldn’t see investing months into the third Lady Wyre book when Lord Regret’s Price hasn’t even sold 200 copies after being published in Dec. 2013. Yeah. Pretty depressing. Crawl under the bed and die depressing. The numbers in the Connaghers series haven’t been much better. I’d already decided not to write another Billionaire book. The numbers just haven’t been there.
I worked really hard in 2015 but felt further behind than ever. I’ve been bogged down in numbers, branding, stressing, trying to figure out what I could do to turn things around. Now… I need to come up with a new plan.
I’ve barely written since November. I’d already decided to take off through the holidays, but it’s been hard to get back into it this year. Here it is almost March and I’ve barely written a few thousand words on a story that just isn’t working.
So, it’s back to the drawing board. I’m going to use this opportunity to really think about what I want to write for the foreseeable future.
I’m sure Gregar, Charlie, and Vincent will have some interesting ideas.
I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been under such stress, and also sad to hear that Samhain’s closing; I’ve always enjoyed the books I’ve purchased there. I’m also surprised that the Lady Wyre and Connagher books haven’t been doing well; I adore them, and have been waiting for the next installment in each series eagerly (not to mention the third Keldari book!). I hope that, after you’ve had a break and have been able to decide what you want to do with the books that are reverting back to you, that you’ll be able to finish those series in addition to your new work; if not, I’m sure I’ll still love everything you publish (at least, I have so far), but I will miss seeing how the storylines resolve. No matter what happens, I hope that you’ll be able to de-stress and rediscover your joy in writing.
Thank you, Jennifer! I’m hoping once I get rights back I can repackage and finish a few things. It’ll just take time since I’ll need to buy new covers.
The news about Samhain was a shock, but as you say they seem to be handling their authors as well as they can. I’m sorry you’ve hit a bad writing patch—the Samhain closure and time of year doesn’t help. I think market uncertainty is affecting many people. Hope your clouds lift soon.
Thank you, Christina! I’ll slowly starting to move forward.
Oh that’s sad. I loved lady wyre. Only 200? I bought mine from Amazon. Is this included in the 200? Oh well, onwards and upwards.
Yep, that’s all sales from all vendors. I might have better luck when I get the rights back if I repackage with new covers. We’ll see!