Happy New Year 2015!

Wow, 2015 already.  Had so many plans for 2014 and I'm happy to say that progress was made on most of them.  Let's recap.

1.  Republish Volume 1: The Fourth Age  --  It was cleaned up a bit and republished early in 2014, but still wasn't quite where it needed to be. 

2.  Get original artwork as cover for Volume1 --  Done.  Yep, there is a cover art section now on the website and you can see Amy Nagi's amazing cover for The Fourth Age.  It's going to look even better on the book.

3.  Encourage more readers --  Didn't really get anywhere with this, but if I am going to find any new readers, 2015 will be a key year.

4.  Publish Volume 6:  Council's End --  Very sad this didn't happen.  Gave the final draft to my son a year ago to format and publish, but he never got around to it.  Still, I don't think any of my friends made it through Book 5 yet.  If anyone is looking for this volume, let me know and I can push a first draft version out there at any time.  This may not happen officially for a while.

5.  Make books available through other means --  Not yet, but getting very, very close to having The Fourth Age available through all ebook sources.

6.  Explore options to get more original artwork for other volume covers --  I didn't think this would happen until 2015 and am still on track for this.  The cover for Dark Passages will be done any day now and I'll post the image on the web-site.  The actual book may take a while.

7.  Explore options to get the books formatted to a hardcover edition --  I did explore this and cost considerations have put this on hold.  It'll resurface more quickly if there is interest beyond me personally.

8.  Finish writing Volume 9:  The Fifth Age -- Done.  At least the first draft.

9.  Try to see if I can't firm up some dates for publishing Volume 7:  Out of Time and Volume 8:  The Rise of Magic (title still subject to possible change) --  I said this may be a 2015 activity.  Dates for this are totally up in the air right now, even though the books are written.

So where does that leave things and what are the plans for 2015?  I'm glad you asked (may be talking to myself at this point).

I've submitted my work to Lulu to have them work their professional magic on the cover and internal format.  The format process is done and right now the book is in process of being sent to their printer.  I expect the book to be available some time in January.  What's more, I'm going to try and stretch my limited budget and buy a little bit of marketing.  This will be the first time ever that these books are actually being proactively introduced to the world at large.  It's kind of scary.

The better news is that I've done two more proofreadings of The Fourth Age.  I'm amazed that I still see typing errors that were missed the first five or six times I read the book, but the number of them is getting very small.  I think the last time through I only found about 20-30.  So I can't swear you won't find any, but they should be few and far between.  This should hopefully make the reading experience better.  When I think of how many errors made it into the first printing I cringe with embarassment.  Even though my intent was to just get a print copy available for myself and some friends, I still wished it was of better quality to start.  I believe it's much better now.

So what are the plans for 2015?

1.  Officially publish The Fourth Age.  Said publishing will occur in January and include several ebook sources including Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  The republished version will have an original art cover and be the best quality version printed to date.

2.  Market the The Fourth Age.  This will be a limited type of marketing, but from what I understand a communication will be sent from Lulu to thousands of contacts interested in new works.

3.  More original art covers.  Cover art for the second book will be available some time in January.  I expect a new cover for the third book and possibly the fourth book later this year.

4.  Officlally republish Dark Passages.  This will happen in 2015.  I started proofreading it again this week.  However, how quickly it goes to print will depend in large part upon my budget.  Sales of The Fourth Age can play a big part in this.  Any profits I do generate are going to go right back into publishing more books, buying more original art or researching other market opportunities.

So, the list looks shorter for 2015.  I have a few other things in mind, but some of them depend upon whether a reader base develops for the series.  I talk about that and those potential plans next time.  I promise not to wait six more months before my next post.