SOUL OF SERPENTS – a one year retrospective

2011 – 2012 has been one of the most eventful years of my life. One of the reasons is that on May 1, 2011, I began writing SOUL OF SERPENTS.

My reasons for doing so were varied. I had written the first book in the series, DEMONSOULED, in 2001, and a sequel, SOUL OF TYRANTS, in 2005. DEMONSOULED was published in 2005, but did not sell very well, which mean there was no demand for SOUL OF TYRANTS. I always regretted never having the chance to continue the story.

Another regret influenced me. I had never been entirely happy with how I handled Romaria Greenshield in DEMONSOULED’s ending, and I wanted to rectify that. But I couldn’t do that without writing another book.And DEMONSOULED had been out of print for five years. The books were dead and forgotten.

Then at last these regrets met opportunity.

In April of 2011, I started experimenting with self-publishing ebooks. At first, I thought I’d only be able to sell short technical books as ebooks – things like my UBUNTU BEGINNER’S GUIDE and WINDOWS COMMAND LINE BEGINNER’S GUIDE. But I put up DEMONSOULED and SOUL OF TYRANTS to see what would happen. But by themselves they were incomplete. I wanted a fantasy trilogy, so I could say offhandedly that I had written a trilogy of fantasy books.

So on May 1, 2011, I started writing the third book, SOUL OF SORCERY.

I remember well how strange it felt, to return to this world and those characters after a six-year absence. How different the (real) world had been, and how different I had been, in 2005. No Kindles, Nooks, iPhones or iPads back then, and in 2005 I lived in a different state and had a different job.

It was also a pleasurable experience – six years of additional practice had simply made me a better writer, and I could write much more quickly and easily than I could in 2005. And I had missed this world, and enjoyed the chance to return to it at last and continue the story.

I finished in August, and self-published the book on August 21, 2011. I didn’t expect anything to come of it. But! I now had my trilogy of fantasy books. I had heard writers garnered good results by making the first book of a long series free. So I did just that at the end of September.

Eight months later, SOUL OF SERPENTS has sold about 3500 copies, and it will (probably) reach 4000 sometime in May or June, if current trends continued. At the end of 2011, I wrote a fourth book, SOUL OF DRAGONS, and it is nearing 2000 copies sold since it came out in February. After I finish my current side project, I will start working on the fifth book, SOUL OF SORCERY, at the start of June.

As Vizzini would say, inconceivable!

And I remember sitting down to start writing SOUL OF SORCERY late on the night of May 1, 2011, having no idea that any of this would happen.

I guess there is nothing to say but this: thank you, everyone.

-JM