What a week! Things are crazy here so I wanted to bring you up to date on it before we crash into the weekend and the new school year, which starts Monday.

First of all… it’s August. When did that happen. I am not prepared.

Second of all… our roof is leaking. Into the house. So that’s a thing I was also not prepared for. Florida do be like that, what with all the tropical storms, but still. Replacing the roof was not on my wishlist for 2024.

Third of all: still no job. -_- Won’t belabor that. I’m still looking.

But on to the creative stuff: so we have about five months left in the year and my plan, tentatively, is to publish two books: FireBorn’s Legacy, and Surela’s Book 2, An Exile Amid Stars, which is about 10% done right now. I would have liked to finish more work this year but there’s no pushing it; in 2024-2025 my focus is absolutely on being mom because this is an important and busy year. So I’ll finish what I can, and focus on bringing in new readers as my stopgap for money since my art/writing income continues to be our sole income at this time.

I actually think the ‘bring new people in’ thing is slowly working, because I am seeing new names float by… courtesy of my shift in focus from retail sales to direct-to-audience sales (through Kickstarter, Patreon, and Shopify).

Aletsen, the Shopify store was a tremendous amount of work to set up (like four solid months of work) and even now I’m only calling it half done: the ebooks, audiobooks, and paperbacks are now available, but I have yet to touch artwork/merchandise. But what a return on that investment! It is truly rewarding to be able to keep nearly all the money I make through the store; to be able to choose how much I earn; to be able to run sales, or bundle books or series the way I see fit. To see names! Every person who buys through the store makes me light up a little when I see their name and address and imagine them on the other end of the transaction. So cool! I love that connection, no matter how fleeting.

I also love the feeling of breaking free from Big Retail and its algorithms. How I hated having to play the algorithm game… like walking into a casino, knowing the house always wins but you have no choice but to play. It’s also fun to feel like so many of my sales are now sliding under the radar. The sales I make directly to my readers and art-lovers are never reflected on some bestseller list or in sales rankings. I don’t have to play that game either. You don’t have to keep up with anyone else, because no one knows what you’re up to. I suddenly understand why my cat is so excited about finding a new blanket to hide under. You’re king of the world when no one knows what you’re up to…!

So that’s honestly been one of the most delightful things I’ve done this year, and I’m so glad I went for it.

The other thing I’m trying this year, as most of you probably already know from the Kickstarter, is bespoke special edition hardcovers. Having my work in hardcover with foil dust jackets and colored endpapers and all the other fancy things that only bestselling authors usually get has been a bucket list item for me all of my life! I wondered if producing it myself would make it feel less legitimate, but it turns out that being able to make them look exactly the way I want is far more important than feeling like someone else thought I merited the special treatment. FireBorn’s Legacy is the first book I’ve designed, and it was definitely a learning curve to figure out how to set up the files, design the covers and endpapers, do the interiors, etc. But I feel like it's nothing but upward motion from here. I want to do a fancy release like this for every book in the future, and get to the back catalog too! It’ll require doing extra art for every book, but… what’s not to love about that?

I’d be happy to produce a hardcover edition just so I can buy it for myself, but it turns out that lots of you also want it, because the Kickstarter skyrocketed when I added them as prizes earlier today. I am a little staggered. In a good way. But you can ask my family I’ve been calmly hyperventilating most of the day. XD

So that’s where I am in early August. My plan for the remainder of the year is as follows:

• Wrap up and fulfill the FireBorn’s Legacy launch
• Continue writing the serial for Patrelocals
• Finish writing and launch Surela 2
• Run one or maybe two more little sticker Kickstarters
• Continue building out the shop
• Continue reaching out to new readers (and rewarding longtime fans!)

And now I’m going to go back to staring at this hardcover. So shiny. Literally!

Oh, right, links:
Kickstarter (running now): https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mcahogarth/fireborns-legacy?ref=c07gmv
Shopify: https://studiomcah.com/