The State of the Tales by Bob Empire, 2024

That's me wedged between Sherrilyn Kenyon and John G. Hartness at Dragon Con. Yeah, 2023 went pretty ok.

So yeah, at the start of each year I like to take a few moments and recap the previous year, and talk about what the year to come will hold. So lets dive in!

A Look Back

First of all, the biggest aspect of 2023 was that I got married! The LadyFriend is now the LadyWife, and I couldn’t be happier! But let’s be real…y’all aren’t here for my personal life. Just know that I am happy as a clam.

When it comes to book releases, this was a great year. In March I put out Walking the Darkness Down, the fifth book in the Redemption of Howard Marsh. That was followed by book six, Calling the Devil Partner in July. This enabled me to get out the second omnibus edition of that series, which I titled Burning Wisdom, which also came out in July! Lastly, in October I put out Southern Saudade, my first book set in the world of Jubal County that was not part of The Redemption of Howard Marsh.

On the ‘writing that hasn’t yet seen daylight’ front, I wrote a horror novel set in the world of Jubal County, the first in a trilogy. I also got a chunk done on a novel for my patrons on patreon, that will likely not see daylight for many years to come haha.

On the Convention front, I hit a few rad goals like:

• Doing my first convention outside of Alabama or Georgia, with my guesting at ConCarolinas

• I had my first paid attendances with Imagicon in Brundidge Alabama and the Atlanta Self Publishing Conference.

• My first author guest of honor appearance, also being Imagicon.

• I hit my goal of doing 6 panels at Dragon Con!

• I set a new panel record for myself with doing 11 at CONjuration.

• I was a guest at ConCarolinas and Multiverse for the first time.

On the personal podcasting front, it was a down year for sure. Once Southern Fried Fantasy wrapped up, I didn’t really accomplish much. There were no new episodes of Books, Beards, Booze, and I didn’t really start anything new. I did get a few Tales By Bob episodes out, but meh. That said, I did guest on a bunch of shows! Especially over on the GoIndieNow platform, which is always a blast. You can check them all out on my about me page if you have a hankerin for more Bob.

On my assorted revenue streams, like games and shirts, I didn’t really release anything much new there. Sales were a little better on shirts, but I just have a few evergreen designs that have slowly been building a little bit of steam. I only did one new game I think, and it was as a part of Multiverse and it hasn’t actually been released. I of course was working on game content behind the scenes, but nothing hit the light of day yet.

Last Years Goals?

What were my goals for 2023? Which did I hit, and which did I not? Here is what I stated in the last State of the Tales by Bob Empire:

• Finish writing book six, and get it ready to publish. (DONE!)

• Make an omnibus of books 4-6. (DONE!)

• Finish my Jubal County horror novel and submit it to an interested press (fingers big crossed). (Sorta. This became a trilogy, and book one IS done, but I ended up sending a different trunk novel out to an interested press).

• I want to publish at least one book from my 'chest.' I am undecided on if it will be steampunk, horror, or something else though. (DONE! It was Southern Saudade).

• Start writing book seven. (FAILED! As you will see in the next section, work won’t start on it until Q4 2024).

• Money allowing, I want to get an audiobook recorded of the first Jubal County Omnibus. Shit ain't cheap, and I don't think I have the draw (yet) to run a successful kickstarter for it. (FAILED! But there is news!)

I also added a few small goals at the tail end of that post:

• Double my number of Patrons on Patreon from 4 to 8. (DONE!)

• Tick off 5 items from my Success Markers list. (DONE!)

A Look Ahead

So what does 2024 hold? What sort of goals and projects am I looking to knock out? I am setting some pretty ambitious goals for myself. I am using this 12 Week Year strategy some friends told me about, which is allowing me to pretty in depth plan out my year.

• Finish books 2 (started, Q1) and 3 (maybe half done, Q2) of my Jubal County horror trilogy. They are on the shorter side, and may wind up as novellas of some sort if they don’t end up hitting full book length. They probably won’t release until 2025 however.

• I want to write a novella or short novel I am calling Blackwater Requiem in Q3.

• In Q4 I will start the next six book arc of Howard Marsh books.

• I want to release one or two already written short story collections, one horror, one steampunk. They just need some pretty major edits. Tentatively they are getting edited in Q1 and Q3.

• In each quarter I want to lay out one small RPG zine. They will likely just get published in pdf initially, but long term there will be a print version.

• I plan to re-release all my books with new fancy interior layouts, slightly refined covers (just the spines really), and improved back matter. With this, I think I may finally make the plunge and go ‘wide,’ meaning I would no longer be exclusive to Amazon.

• Audiobooks. I have a verbal commitment from a narrator, we are supposed to be starting in late Q1, early Q2 on getting book 1 done. So fingers crossed that at least 1 if not 2 and 3 come out in 2024!

• Refine my business: switch to mailerlite, stand up my small press, go wide (probably, as I said).

I’m not going to do much with shirts or podcasts honestly. If I get a cool shirt idea I will throw it up, but I am not planning on doing anything. And as for podcasts, until I get more into my groove at the new job, I don’t want to commit to anything.

On the Convention front, I am planning to ramp things up a little bit! At least one bigger event each month is the goal. I am doing my first two in Tennessee, my first in Huntsville, and possibly my first in Mississippi. Otherwise I am mostly doing events I have done previously. I am crossing my fingers that I will be a guest at JordonCon, and an attending pro at Dragon Con. Those are the two big question marks on my year convention-wise.

Small goals:

• I want to get to 20 patrons on Patreon.

• I’d like to tick off at least 3 success markers (they are getting harder haha)

So yep, there is a lot that is going to be happening, if all goes well! Lets cross them piggies!