Coming Up for Air
Terrestrial is in its second month, and it has been an absolute whirlwind. Indie book publishing means you have to do all the jobs associated with publishing, and since Terrestrial’s release, that has been a monumental task. But now that I’m finally getting a little time to breathe, I wanted to touch base with everyone about a couple of things.
First off, Terrestrial easily became my best-selling book debut ever. When I started writing my first-ever sci-fi thriller, and also my first non-Xavier Greene thriller, I honestly didn’t know how it would go. I’ve made no secret on social media that my last book, The Silent Death, didn’t do that well, due to a variety of reasons, of which I’m at least partially responsible and some that were out of my hands. In any case, I had set the bar pretty low for Terrestrial and hoped that it would do decent. Pre-orders were there, but nothing amazing, so I approached launch day hoping that the book would move some copies and help kick my writing career back in gear.
Instead, it absolutely jump-started it, blowing all of my previous debuts out of the water. In fact, it sold more in its first month than the first months of The Silent Death and the Firefly Collective combined. Plus, it only fell a handful of books short of having sold more than those two and The Delicate Art of Death’s first months combined. That’s an amazing and unexpected feat, and I know I say this a lot, but I am eternally grateful for you all and the support you continue to show me. I couldn’t do any of this without you. Thank you so much for reading my books.
But, of course, an unexpectedly good launch leaves me scrambling to capitalize on the momentum Terrestrial has built in a very short span, which leads me to lean heavily into marketing. I’ve been a guest on six podcasts since Terrestrial was released, although only one, Excelsior Journeys with George Sirois, has aired. That will change soon enough. This weekend, I’ll be on the Brownsville Matters podcast, which airs locally but can be streamed online here. In the coming weeks, I’ll also be on Richardson’s Rubicon and The Halfling and the Spaceman podcast. In the coming months, I’ll also appear on Creativity Worth Expressing with Ryan Anthony, as well as the SWO podcast with Rob Stewart. I plan to continue adding podcast appearances, so stay tuned, and I’ll list more as soon as I get them.
Plus, next month, I’ll have my first solo author event, here in Brownsville, TX, at Buho Books. I’ll have more information very soon.
The second thing I wanted to mention is that I’ll be very busy for the rest of the year. That means I’ll need ARC Readers fairly soon. Next up, I’m going to have the Tao of STO, my collaboration with my client, Stosaic. This anthology will combine short stories by yours truly with expert analysis by “Chief” Kelvin Brim. Each story will spotlight a key principle of Stoic philosophy to help you navigate adversity, embrace uncertainty, and foster sustainable growth in your life. In addition to the stories, Kelvin Brim will provide expert analysis of the principles and real-world exercises on how you can incorporate them into your life. I’m very excited about this hybrid fiction/nonfiction anthology, not only because I really like the stories we’ve come up with, but also for the good it can do for people’s lives. If this sounds interesting to you, hit me up and ask to be an ARC reader. We plan to announce a pre-order sometime in May, with a release this Summer.
In addition, I’ve already started writing another project that I hope to announce publicly this Summer. I can’t give any details yet, except to say that it’s the pulse-pounding conclusion to the saga that started with Tears of the Dragon. Is this Xavier Greene’s last ride? All will be revealed in time.
There are quite a few other things on the horizon, but those two tidbits are all I can talk about, for now…
It’s been a wild couple of months, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. I’m so glad you are all along for the ride. Stay safe, and we’ll talk soon!
– Ryan
