PROJECT COLOSSUS after action report!

PROJECT COLOSSUS was my codename for the audiobook version of THE GHOSTS OMNIBUS ONE, and it came out on March 26th. It combines CHILD OF THE GHOSTS, GHOST IN THE FLAMES, GHOST IN THE BLOOD, and the bonus short story GHOST ARIA, all excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy, which made for a monster audiobook of 39 hours.

How did it do?

Between March 26th and March 31st, THE GHOSTS OMNIBUS ONE became my bestselling self-published audiobook of 2020 to date, and I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t my bestselling self-published audiobook of 2020 total. In those six days, it generated 11% of my total audiobook sales for 2020 through the end of March.

So I’m very happy with how it turned out, and thank you all for listening!

That said, I’m really glad I did this when I did. This might be a hunch, and I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure the audiobook market is heading for a major downturn. Through 2019 and the start of 2020, a lot of the publishing/indie publishing world touted audiobooks as the next big growth area. But I suspect that most of the audiobook market consists of people commuting to work, and because of the virus situation, a lot fewer people are commuting to work. Also, if you need to cut monthly costs, a monthly Audible subscription is low-hanging fruit, especially if you’re not commuting to work and therefore not listening to audiobooks. Because of that, I think it’s going to become quite hard to sell audiobooks in general. So it’s good to have a really long audiobook like THE GHOSTS OMNIBUS ONE, since a 39 hour audiobook is a great value for that monthly credit and therefore easier to sell.

Nevertheless, I’m entirely certain this is a good time for writers to focus on writing and selling low-cost ebooks. Fortunately, I’ve been doing that for nine years now. 🙂

And with all that said, back to writing WRAITHSHARD: SIEGE & STORM! Hopefully I will have the rough draft done this week.

-JM