Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Thursday, September 24, 2020
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Monday, September 21, 2020
Progress Report
Even though the COVID Pandemic has been slowing business around the country, I’ve working hard all this spring and summer to keep the momentum going on the SJS DIRECT imprint.
John Haynes: The Man With Nothing To Lose performed well this spring. The book got extremely positive feedback from readers. Sales took a little dip in comparison to A Conversation With Death and Dark Succubus, but I’m working towards getting them back up.
People are coming back for the two previous John Haynes books John Haynes: Dark Succubus and John Haynes: A Conversation with Death. And a few are coming back for The Man Who Rules The World and The Temptation of John Haynes.
The strong John Haynes series sales are one of the reasons I commissioned Mike Williams to put a new Cover on The Temptation of John Haynes. I wanted all the John Haynes books to have a consistent trade dress and make it easy for readers to identify them. I want readers to have an incentive to pick up the book that started it all and Mike's art will get people buying Temptation!
I wanted to offer John Haynes: The Man With Nothing To Lose with a Josh Howard variant cover in paperback, but I was forced to discontinue it due to Amazon’s policies. According to Amazon, you can’t have two paperbacks with different covers. So for now instead I’m offering the book on Google Play and Smashwords with the variant cover.
So if you were one of those lucky ones who picked up the Josh Howard variant paperback in March you’ve got a collector’s item!
Unfortunately, Isis: The Main Event didn’t perform as well I expected it to. While it did get some sales in April, it didn’t perform as strongly as previous Isis series books. Maybe it was because it was related to the world of wrestling. Or Maybe people just didn’t like Nemesis or Umbuttra.
Due to the poor sales on the books in the Nemesis arc, Isis:
The Ultimate Fight, Isis: Power of the Princess, and Isis: The Main Event I
probably won’t revisit those characters again. While I wanted to do a follow up
story to continue Umbuttra’s feud with Isis, I’ll just put a period on that
story. No need to keep writing an arc that doesn’t sell. So for the third story arc I'll probably introduce a new bad guy.
Had some really good sales on the Spinsterella Trilogy books. Had quite a few people pick up Spellbound and Spinsterella. And I got some five-star reviews from readers in the Goth scene.
I'm really happy to see people picking up my Black Goth Fiction books, those are ones that mean a lot to me. I want more Black folks to know that the Goth scene has a lot of brothers and sisters in it, and that there is a place for Black folks to express their darkness.
Had a sale or two on The Thetas, some Isis series books like Isis: Imitation of Life and some E'steem books like Demons Anonymous.
On the Nonfiction front, The Man Crisis passed the milestone of 400 sales and 20 five-star reviews. While I’m happy to have sold so many books in two years, I’m more happy to see so many men having their lives transformed by The Man Crisis. Many of the men who have read The Man Crisis have learned why their lives are out of whack and are getting things back on track.
STOP SIMPIN continues to sell strongly in paperback and Kindle format. Like The Man Crisis it’s a book that transforms the lives of most of the men who have read it.
At Reader request I finally published a paperback version of Why 70 Percent of Black Women Are Single. In the six years where it’s been digital exclusive Why 70 Percent of Black women are single has had over 3,000 sales. The Paperback had strong sales in the month of August, and
The SJS DIRECT Fall 2020 books are 95% ready, I’m putting the final polish on Eternal Night and E’steem: Blast From The Past.
Eternal Night is Lilith Graves origin story and chronicles how she became an undead. This one lays the foundation for the vampire lore I established in Isis: Night of the Vampires, Isis: Bride of Dracula and Isis:Escape From Transylvania. It’s the fourth novel to feature a Black Goth Heroine, and the first horror novel I’ve written. Matilda Crowley from the Spinsterella books makes a cameo!
E’steem: Blast From The Past is a follow up to E’steem: The Sands of Time. The second part of the time travel arc, this one has the present day E’steem and John Haynes taking on the E’steem from the past. Inspired by John Byrne’s Classic Marvel Two-In-One #50 this one is FUN FUN FUN!
E’steem: Blast from The Past also features the E’steem: No Good Deed comic by myself and Bill Walko as a second story. Bill did an amazing job on the art for this comic and I think it showcases how easy my stories translate from prose into the comic book medium.
I’m hoping this sneak preview will get people excited for an upcoming Indiegogo or a Kickstarter for an Isis graphic novel. I’d love to offer that book to everyone sooner rather than later, but the only thing holding me back is money!
Thanks to the Patrons, Superchats and Paypal donors I have the art and letters done for the E’steem: No Good Deed backup story that’s supposed to be featured in the Isis graphic novel, now I just need to raise the funds to pay for the main Isis story!
And the SJS DIRECT 2021 books are in page layout right now. The books of the 2021 include:
John Haynes: Taking Care of Business. In this story John Haynes and Lilith Graves team up to take on a trio of hired assassins. In this story we learn a lot more about John’s influence on Morris Phillips and why executives working with him want to get him out of the company in a body bag,
Isis: Revenge of the Cybergoddess, where the Goddess next door throws down against the Digital Diva in a follow up to the events of Wrath of the Cybergoddess and building up on storylines set up in Isis: Samurai Goddess and E’steem: Ascension. This one is EPIC and has big intense battles on the level of The Man Who Rules The World,
And E’steem: #CancelTheKatian Where E’steem takes on colored haired SJWs who want to cancel her for continuing to enter a demon space. #CancelTheKatian Making a comical commentary on SJWs and Woke culture with this story and how people can overcome cancel culture and cyberbullying.
John Haynes will be making an appearance in Revenge of the Cybergoddess and #CancelTheKatian.
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| Concept art for the Isis Pinup! |
I’ve commissioned artists to do the covers for John Haynes Taking Care of Business and Isis Revenge of The Cybergoddess. I need to sketch up the cover for #CancelTheKatian and the 2021 books will be pretty much ready to go.
Over the pandemic lockdown I finished the 2021 books and I’ve even started on some of the 2022 books. The Conclusion to the second Isis story arc, Isis: Legacy is finished and in page layouts and I’m getting ready to start the next John Haynes book, John Haynes: At Death’s Door. Yes, DEATH IS COMING BACK!
In addition to writing books I’ve Been real busy doing YouTube videos and livestreams. I get lots of requests to appear on livestreams. Over the last year I’ve been on quite a few shows like Soul Provider, Gboot2786 and Dennis Spurling, in addition to do my own livestream Fridays at 10PM. That's the reason readers of this blog have been getting vlogs instead of written blogs, I've been so busy with the YouTube channel and increasing my web presence.
So far I've got over 12K subscribers and I'm looking to further expand my audience. I was surprised to find out the creator of Blue Marvel Kevin Grevioux is a subscriber of my channel and has been watching my videos. That's the second celebrity I've found that watches my videos. Last year I found out Judge Joe Brown watches my channel and now it's Blue Marvel Creator Kevin Grevioux watches my content. I wonder what other celebrities watch my channel.
In spite of the pandemic I’ve been working hard to keep making progress. Haven't made a major breakthrough yet but I'm still building momentum.