A Shift in Strategy

Greetings, travelers.

I hope the new year is treating all of you well. So far so good over here (mostly). Blades for Hire releases about one month from now, and pre-orders remain open at a discounted price until 2/25 if you want to snag it for less than your morning coffee.

Outside of that, the New Year has brought with it a lot of introspection. I find my publishing goals have changed a lot over the past year and a half, and I feel now is the time to share the new direction with you all.

If you've been following me for a while, you know that I initially hoped to self-publish my debut novel, A Night of Knives, at the end of 2024. As you can see, that didn't work out, and that has caused me to reevaluate my goals for my writing career as a whole.

After much reflection, it's clear to me I was never going to hit that publication date - at least not with a book I was completely happy with. It slowly became evident to me that I was just trying to keep up with my peers in the self-publishing space. I saw how quickly everyone was getting their books out and didn't want to miss the train. I didn't realize until later how antithetical that approach was to my goals as a writer.

For as long as I've been writing, I've been trying to stick to the advice shared by my favorite authors - people whose careers I would like to emulate, to some degree. These include household names like Sanderson, Martin, and Abercrombie. A common underlying theme echoed by all - and probably one of the oldest lessons in literature - is this: slow and steady wins the race. These authors typically wrote several books, over many years, before being published. While I think self-publishing is a great option, I don’t want to use it as a shortcut for getting my stories out and then regret it later.

I’m a firm believer that you only get to make one first impression, and for me, I want that impression to be the best it can possibly be. In order to do that, I need time. Time to write my novels, rewrite them, and make them the best that they can be. Having realized that, traditional publishing looks more and more like the best option for me to pursue.

That doesn’t mean I will never self-publish anything. More anthologies, short-stories, novellas, etc. will continue to be shared while I work on my novels. I just think right now that the best avenue for those, and the one that most aligns with my goals, is going to be the traditional publishing route. That may mean you don’t see A Night of Knives - or any full-length novels from me - for several years, but it does mean that when you finally do, you will be getting the best possible version of those stories, which is no less than you deserve.

Thanks for coming along on this journey with me, and I promise it will be worth the wait. Until next time.

~Brandon