Writing Update: January 2026
On Legacy of the Gods, the impact of going wide, and the fifth anniversary of The Re-Emergence.
THE RE-EMERGENCE TURNS FIVE
2026 is a special year for me. It marks five years since I became a published author with the release of my first book, The Re-Emergence, in June 2021—the largely standalone space opera novella that kicks off the events of the Augment Saga. This little book with its plucky crew of space birds and endearing sentient AI, Seventeen (who has become somewhat of a mascot for the series) has consistently rated and reviewed well, even becoming a finalist in the inaugural Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championships in 2023 despite limited sales figures. It’s not quite taken the world by storm but it remains a book that I am immensely proud of, full of characters I adore and desperately want to do justice to in follow-up works.
Later in 2021, I released my first novel-length work, From the Grave of the Gods, which capitalises on the prelude established in The Re-Emergence with a human perspective on the aftermath of those events. This has been my best-selling work by far to-date, and again a story I am proud to call my debut.
Back to The Re-Emergence and its limited sales figures, however: I think it deserves better, quite frankly. I have tried a lot of things over the years to drum up interest in the little book, from all sorts of marketing graphics, giving the cover an extra bit of polish, regularly updating the keywords and categories on Amazon, paid advertising, entering it in contests, even to changing the blurb. Sadly none of it has moved the needle.
But it comes down to this one thing in my mind that I didn’t want to acknowledge: I think the cover is the problem. And this isn’t just a case of polishing up the existing design either—It needs a complete redesign to bring it closer in line with genre expectations. And I believe I’ve made something really cool.
So consider this a heads up. Watch this space.
LEGACY OF THE GODS PROGRESS
Progress on Legacy of the Gods is going really well and has been for the last few months. The writing process for this third novel-length book in the Augment Saga has be fraught to say the least, especially early on with multiple setbacks and rewrites. I started writing this book in November 2023 and I honestly can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get to where I am. Where I am, thankfully, at the time of writing, is really, really close to the end. Over 125,000 words, to give it a number. I aim now to get this draft finished this month, preferably in the next week or so, and I already have a solid plan for the second draft. This will be the longest book in the series so far, as it is effectively ending a major story arc/ending this era of the series. So it’s a lot of threads to bring together and a lot to try to do justice to.
I deeply appreciate your continued patience and I am going to take the piss and ask for just a bit more while I finish up this book that has honestly become the bane of my existence. I know beta readers and professional edits take quite a long time but I’m hopeful I can have this book out later this year.
THE SEQUEL TO THE RE-EMERGENCE
Because I’ve been so heavily focussed on getting Legacy of the Gods done, I haven’t made any progress on the sequel to The Re-Emergence. You can check my books page, where I track the status of my current WIPs, and you’ll see it’s still sitting at a few thousand words. On reflection, this will require a rewrite as well. I still haven’t fully nailed down the plot, though I know how I want it to start, and where it’s going to end.
I have been making artwork inspired by it, though:
You can see here two of the five maldaccian species native to the planet P’horesh, and a scene featuring Imperator Da’kora Corasar arriving in the imperial capital city (so really there’s three species featured, because Da’kora is neither desert eluvis nor western tropical nequit, but of the eastern tropical itendi species.
I did mean to do artwork for all five of the species, but I completed those two and then my wife reminded me I should get back to writing, so I put the art on pause 😅
Once Legacy of the Gods is done, I will finally be able to give some more attention to this book!
THE IMPACT OF GOING WIDE
Here’s where I’m going to talk about the business side of being an author. At the beginning of 2025, I took all of my books off of Kindle Unlimited, ending Amazon exclusivity, and published them widely on many other platforms.
I mostly used Draft 2 Digital as the aggregator for this to get Apple Books, Barnes & Noble (Nook), Smashwords and plenty of library services, but I went direct with Kobo and Google Play Books.
Then Itch.io opened its platform to authors, and of course I jumped right in. This has allowed me to add my books to co-op bundles with other authors, offering readers stacks of books after a particular theme for a discounted rate. I shared my breakdown on social media a few days ago in an end-of-year roundup, so let’s go over it here as well:
First of all, thanks to the impact of Itch.io, I sold 290 books in 2025—That’s the most books I’ve ever sold in a single year! Although because most of those were discounted, the income for the year was slap bang in the middle. Not the best year I’ve had but also not the worst.
Amazon had the most sales overall across all marketplaces but I did notice its dominance waning in the second half of the year. Itch.io was the second best platform, with those awesome bundles keeping me afloat, especially with more favourable royalty rates, too. I did have a few standalone sales, but the bread and butter of the platform really is the bundles. Then direct sales of my signed paperbacks came in third. Considering I only did one craft fayre during the year and only sold like four books… That’s not great for the other platforms below it.
Draft 2 Digital started the year strong, even getting me over the $10 threshold a few times to receive a payout. People have been buying my books mainly through Smashwords, but also on Apple and Barnes & Noble. Even got a few sales through libraries. Sales slowed to a crawl in the second half of the year and the platform raised the threshold for payouts to $20. I currently have just over $4 sitting on there waiting.
Kobo… Oh boy. Well, there was a big push early in the year on social media from readers boycotting Amazon and it looked like Kobo+ (Kobo’s non-exclusive Kindle Unlimited competitor) would get much more support. I was asked quite a lot if my books were on Kobo then. But ultimately, for me, it amounted to nothing. I’ve yet to have any reads from Kobo+, and I’ve only sold maybe three or four books on the platform all year. Consequently, I haven’t been paid for these sales at all yet, because, again, ~ t h r e s h o l d s ~ .
Bringing up the rear is Google Play Books, which was a real pain in the arse to get my books set up onto, going live much later than the others. I thought I was going to end 2025 with zero sales on the platform, but one (1) came in during December for The God Sun, which I haven’t been paid for. I don’t know what their payment threshold is or when they make payments. So I’ll have to wait and see if my £2 arrives in the coming months.
Yet again my biggest seller was From the Grave of the Gods at 115 copies, which is unsurprising since it’s Book One, and it was featured in a lot of the bundles, too. The Flight of the Aurora came in last place at only 11 sales. This one might be suffering a similar fate to The Re-Emergence with its more minimalist cover. But it has the extra disadvantage of being a mid-series novella. That also makes it ineligible for most contests, too. A shame. It definitely deserves more love.
So my first year of going wide hasn’t been a breakout success but I’m not surprised. I was told that going wide was a long game. Another contributing factor is the current state of the world, its politics, and economies, leaving people with much less disposable income now than even just a few years ago. There’s a lot people squarely in survival mode right now, so that makes judging the success of ventures like this somewhat difficult. I also didn’t do any paid advertising in 2025 and considering almost every attempt so far has met with abject failure, it was probably a good move. My expenditure for the year was lower than the income, at least.
Still not breaking even on these books though. Not even halfway there. The professional edits are a huge slice of that particular pie but I can’t do without them.
So that brings me to the end of another writing update.
I will endeavour to do these more frequently, as I realise the last one was literally a year ago. But keep your eyes peeled for further announcements regarding The Re-Emergence’s fifth anniversary, as well as for Legacy of the Gods news!
