July 2025 - Plans

Hey all,

I wanted to start this month’s newsletter with a rough recap/summary of where I am with In The Shadow Of Mountains (ITSOM), and what I’ve been doing these last few months with it. Here’s the rough timeline:

- March 2025 – finished posting it on royalroad.

- April 2025 – received offer from the publisher. Began re-write.

- May 2025 – signed contract for publishing deal.

- June 2025 – finished re-write of book 1, publisher pitched story to audio production companies, began re-write for book 2.

- July 2025 – Confirmed audiobook offer from Podium for the audiobook, signed contracts. Waited for confirmation on book length required by podium – 215k words was too many, so we knew we needed to cut it down, but whether we cut it to 165k words or 180k words was the question, and we couldn’t start the professional edit until we knew how much we’d have to trim. In the meantime, nearly finished re-write for book 2 but paused due to the above length question. Started working properly on the new project in the interim.

Plan for future:

- August 2025 – Complete book 1 cut and professional edit and give finished manuscript to podium for audio production.

- September 2025 – Complete book 2 professional edit and hand over finished manuscript, and book 3 re-write.

- September 2025 – Complete book 3 professional edit and hand over manuscript.

- October 2025 – reach 100k words of new project.

- November 2025 – complete book 1 of new project and work on royalroad launch strategy.

- December 2025 – launch new project on royalroad and patreon, hopefully hit rising stars.

- 2026 – work my ass of writing the new project – aiming to get 2 more books written and out during 2026, so that by the end of the year, the new project has 3 books out on royalroad and a good following on patreon (hoping for somewhere between 3000-4000 followers by end of 2026). Meanwhile, ITSOM should be hitting the digital shelves probably in summer, autumn and winter. More on that below.

So as far as I’ve been told, Podium have a timeline of about 8 months from receiving the final manuscript to launching the audiobook. They have much bigger means than my publisher currently, so we’re definitely stuck to their timelines, rather than visa-versa. That's also a rough timeline and open to change, so we really have no exact timeline yet, other than 'sometime next year'.

I will know a firm date closer to the time, and obviously I will let you all know, but for now we’re anticipating a spring/summer 2026 release. Book 2 will release 90 days after, and book 3 90 days after that.

I will be given some choice in narrators, so I’ll make sure to get one that can nail Jorge’s accent. For those of you who have only read the original, I think the re-write is just a whole lot better, with a fair amount new or changed substantially. I’m also expecting it to get far more polished with the professional edit and the trim of somewhere between 30-50k words.

I’m personally going to order some author copies of the physical book from amazon Print On Demand – to hell with the outrageous prices – but I expect most of the sales will be e-book or audio.

Whichever way you choose to consume your books though, ITSOM will be in your chosen format! I’m so unbelievably excited for this, and I hope you guys can stay hyped for when it comes around. I’ll be sure to include updates on who the narrator is, what the cover art is, and all that good stuff in future newsletters once I know, but for now I’ll leave you with a picture of my dog and well wishes for the next month 😊

P.S. Dog Tax