Rosell in Review 2023: My Year as an Author
You know, that Sanderson guy was on to something.
Okay - Brandon Sanderson has been on to lots of things. But the particular thing I’m referring to is his “State of Sanderson” updates every year, where he gives a progress report on the last twelve months as an author as well as hints as to what’s going on moving forward.
If he can do it, why can’t I?
Introducing “Rosell in Review,” in which I’ll go into (too much) detail about my happenings over the past year. The victories. The failures. And a little of what’s still to come.
Let’s get to it!
A SUSTAINABLE CAREER?
Perhaps the most vital thing for me to come out of ‘23 was that my author career finally feels… sustainable.
What do I mean by that, "sustainable”?
It’s something like I don’t feel like the sky will fall day-in, day-out. Like people will stop picking up and enjoying my books. Like I will suddenly and spectucularly fail as an author.
Don’t get me wrong, I still have days of self-doubt, plenty more than I care to recount. But they’ve grown fewer and fewer as the year went on, and I’ve even been able to relax when away from the laptop on occasion.
With some luck, this will continue into ‘24. I have (some) confidence it will.
The reason for this? Community, first and foremost! There are so many kind readers who pick up and express excitement for my upcoming works. I try to give back to my fellow authors and readers as often as I can, and I don’t see our online web fraying anytime soon.
In that vein, Kickstarter has been a big boon for me this year, encompassing around a quarter of my income. Seeing as that’s all about community, you can see how vital my readers (you, assumedly, who is reading this!) are to my ongoing career.
Another pillar is, for good or ill, advertising. I’ve invested a lot of time and money into both Facebook and Amazon ads this year and, fortunately, seen results from those efforts. Since I’m building marketing skills as well as expertise in the platforms, I’m hopeful I can make them work for me at least one more year!
For the moment, I’m quite content to have a comfortable income from last year, giving me a cushion moving forward and a bit more confidence I can keep it going.
This business isn’t easy for many reasons. The unsteady income. The interference of real life into the writing. The challenges of writing itself. The internal pressure.
But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’m so glad I’ll be able to keep on for another year, and, with the blessings of the powers that be, many more to come.
BOOK RELEASES AND UPDATES
In 2023, I released two new books:
The First Ancestor, Book 2 of Ranger of the Titan Wilds
The Stone of Iron & Omen, Book 3 of The Runewar Saga
To be honest, it’s not as much as I planned on. I realized toward the latter half that I had let the writing lapse a bit in favor of working on marketing, Kickstarters, and other miscellaneous ventures.
Still, two books isn’t too shabby, so I can’t complain about it too much!
I’ve written a decent amount of words toward upcoming books as well. By an eyeball estimate, I have some 275k-300k words in editing or waiting to be edited. That’s on one nearly complete novel, two novellas, and the beginnings to two more upcoming novels.
But more on next year below!
DELUXE EDITIONS AND KICKSTARTERS
This year saw my second and third Kickstarter campaigns! Those two campaigns were for:
The First Ancestor
The first Legend of Tal deluxe edition, for Book 1, A King’s Bargain
That brings me to my next point: my first deluxe edition went into production this year! At the moment, I’m (im)patiently awaiting the digital and physical proofs for it. But I’m sure once the holidays are over, we’ll start making plenty of progress again.
I only see Kickstarter growing in importance for me and my career - not necessarily in the number of campaigns, but how much I invest in them. So look forward to more in ‘24!
A MISCELLANEOUS VICTORY
Two years ago, at the tail end of my twenties, I went skiing for the first time.
…And so I encountered the growing fragility of my body.
That sounds dramatic. Really, I just received a lingering knee injury, perpetuated in large part by stubbornness and frugality. No big deal in many ways.
But for two years, my knee bothered me. I stopped running, which I’d been doing since high school. Squatting to fetch something from the floor? Forget about it!
Only as my recommendation for PT was about to run out from my physician did I finally relent and get help.
It was, in a phrase, life changing. My knee is 90% of the way back to normal. I’m running again. Perhaps more importantly, I feel like my body doesn’t have to just degrade - it can improve. And that has a huge impact on mental health, let me tell you!
This doesn’t directly have to do anything with books. But it was a vital victory for me, one at which I have to work at each day, and will have to continue doing so moving forward.
If you take one lesson from it, let it be this: don’t get in the way of your own health. Medical professionals just might know what they’re talking about!
LOOKING FORWARD TO ‘24
So what lies ahead for Rune & Requiem Press?
(That’s my official press name, by the way. I never talk about it, so don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard it before. But moving on…)
First, we have the things we know will happen:
The Hidden Guardian, Book 3 of Ranger of the Titan Wilds, will have a Kickstarter launch on January 9th and the Amazon/Audible releases to follow
The second book of Legend of Tal, A Queen’s Command, will get its shot at a deluxe edition
I also have at least one omnibus edition slated to release that should certainly happen next year - more on that as I have firmer details!
And there’s two novellas I don’t see a reason wouldn’t release, too:
The first of the Tal Tales, stories following Tal Harrenfel’s early life
A Battle Between Blood, a novella directly after the events of Legend of Tal
If I have my way, I’ll also write A LOT more words, too. These will probably be on these projects:
A secret novella in collaboration with a big-time indie author
The first book in the Legend of Tal sequel series
The second Tal Tales novella
The fourth Ranger of the Titan Wilds book
The fourth (and likely final) book in The Runewar Saga
…Okay, that actually sounds like too much. Because, if I did all that, it’d total around 650,000 words… and that’s ridiculous.
But we’ll see how far we get!
A CONVEYANCE OF GRATITUDE
If you’ve read this far, you’re awesome. Thanks for being interested in me, my career, and my books.
I can't properly convey my gratitude. The only way I know best how to is to keep writing the novels you enjoy - and, if I can, doing it better with each one.
To 2024! May it be joyous and fruitful for us all.
Happy New Year! See you on the other side.
~ Josiah
