When I started this journey, I had a story. Like most writers, I just wanted to tell a story. I was blissfully ignorant of a lot of the red tape associated with traditionally publishing; all the gate keepers, the ebb and flow of the industry, and all the research involved. I just had a story and a dream. So, what the heck has been going on? Let's dive in.
The Industry in 2025
New statistics in 2025 suggest that Fantasy has fallen off the coveted top 5 for most agents. That's not to say that nobody wants fantasy or science fiction anymore. It could be that agents and publishers are just inundated with manuscripts in those genre's that they are wanting to shift gears to other things.
The same studies suggest that genre's like Young Adult, Horror, and Thriller are on the rise in 2025, with Young Adult sub-genres being in the top 3 most sought after manuscripts. This means the younger generations are picking up on reading more and more.
Based on my own research, I've also seen that more and more manuscripts are starting to be under the 100,000 word count. Now, I know that my fellow Fantasy writers may cringe at this news. After all, we're in the genre that is famous for having books well over 150,000 words on a light day. This is why I decided to revamp my current manuscript into a more digestible format--and probably for the better.
The Sage's Seal
That's right! I'm officially putting the official title out there! My first manuscript, officially titled The Sage's Seal has seen many different versions of itself. I'm the typical example of having multiple files in my hard drive titled "Draft 1", "Draft 2", "Final Draft", "Final Final Draft", etc. But, as I looked at the state of the industry in its current form, I decided to do a complete overhaul.
My initial story was 177,000 or so words. Then I went in with my razor and trimmed it down several times. My final draft ended up being 130,000 words. After several months of shopping the manuscript around, I ultimately decided to self-publish the story. However, if I was going to do that, I was going to publish the story I wanted to tell.
But, J.D., didn't you already write the story you wanted to tell? Well, sorta.
There were a lot of things I cut from the story that I really wanted to keep mainly for the word count. All my research indicated that as a debut, querying a manuscript over 155,000 words would turn off agents unless I was an already established author. So, I thought about it long and hard and finally came to the conclusion that the story I really wanted to tell would be longer than even 200,000 words. That's when I decided, it needs to be a trilogy.
Thus, The Sage's Seal will be moving to a trilogy and will hopefully be getting released sooner as opposed to later. My goal is to have the first volume released before the holiday season 2025. So, make sure you're subscribed to my mailing list to get updates on it! In addition, since I've decided to self-publish, if you all really really want it, I'll start releasing sample chapters.
Good-bye Kindle Vella
Yes, I to received that email from Kindle saying they were officially sunsetting Kindle Vella. This was a real bummer to me considering I was planning on releasing a few prequel short-stories that pre-date The Sage's Seal on Kindle Vella one chapter at a time in episodic format. Looks like I'll just have to make those into other books. I may decide to release some as direct downloads to subscribers right here on my website, so, make sure you sign up for the mailing list!
Personal Note
I know I've been a little MIA over the last five months. The reason for that is that, after 15 years, I finally won custody of my daughter. In addition to that, I left my full time job to officially pursue things in my life that make me happier (and make me money) including my writing.
Though its been a weird last few months, its been a time that's given me a lot of inspiration, so I've already started thinking about incorporating a little bit of my story into other stories and making them something very special. More on those stories as they develop.
That said, I want to say thank you to all of you who have been there giving me words of encouragement as I went through this time and were anxious to hear more about the upcoming stories.
To continue to hear more about what's coming up, don't forget to subscribe to my mailing list and follow me on social media! See you all in the next post!
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