End of the Series. What’s Next?

Introdutction

With the end of The Bow of Hart Saga, now I have to determine what I do next. What are my next steps and how soon can some new projects be expected?

Print Plans

It’s been really fun and good to have written the three books of The Bow of Hart Saga but as got mentioned in Tuesday’s release party for The White Arrow, there are some new places to go with writing and the series. In effect, writing as ended for the series but not new projects. I now plan to put the series into print and work on marketing that to get to libraries, independent booksellers and possibly some chain bookstore shelves. I’ve also got some opportunity with audiobook to consider. So, The Bow of Hart Saga lives on and will have new formats to explore.

Regarding print, I already have the print cover for The Bow of Destiny and can probably have the print version formatted in relatively short order. My hope is to release the first book to print by the end of October. After that, I can order the full covers for An Arrow Against the Wind and The White Arrow and schedule to release those to print in November and December respectively. It seems like a tight schedule but, since these books are already published the actual work is minimal in terms of production.

However, the main work will be in marketing these books to stores as I don’t want to just depend on print-on-demand for their sales. I have a marketing plan for stores at this point and my hope is that the sales history plus my audiobook opportunities help push the print onto bookstore shelves and even library shelves. It’s a bit ambitious on my part but I think that it can be accomplished though the chain booksellers will likely take longer to receive a decision about distribution to stores. In that respect, libraries and independent stores will take short-term priority while the chain-stores will be a longer-term goal.

The End is The Beginning

But that’s not all of my plans for writing. What else am I working on besides expanding the number of formats for my finished series? I’ve already been working on some short fiction opportunities and I’m waiting to see what happens with these. If anything positive happens with this effort I’ll be certain to announce what they are but that’s all I have to share about them for now.

However, I am interested in putting together my own anthology and self-publishing that. It may take several months but that could be a fun little project. Additionally, I might like to write a couple more short stories for The Bow of Hart Saga and putting them together with Trading Knives and What Is Needed to form a full prequel anthology to the series – again a fun little project over the course of several months.

Additionally, my larger projects involve writing full novels. Two of these are already moving toward completion very soon. Since these are going first to my agent to be shopped around to publishers, I’m going hold off on sharing what these projects concern in detail. These are both hybrid genre fantasies that are each unique in setting, character and story-telling. I’ve found that these two projects are quite a lot of fun to write and I believe that they will be quite good. If publishers don’t take these on then I’ll certainly publish them next year to start two new series – either way it’s a win in terms of writing. I will definitely have new books out.

I’m also considering starting another series that has more of a pulp feel, being much shorter novels. However, the character and the series will be very interesting, I think. It will be a bit gritty in feel but not over the top. The series will revolve around a knight just making it on his own after the kingdom he served has collapsed. That’s a bit vague but there’s quite a bit more to the premise. I’ll probably start it by November since I hope to have my longer novels completed for submission. I want to keep busy and a shorter novel would be just the thing for me. I might even get it in for NaNoWriMo but we’ll see.

Conclusion

My expectation is that I’ll remain very busy the rest of this month on my two novel manuscript and working on print plans for The Bow of Hart Saga. Throughout the end of the year, I hope to put together some short projects including the first novel of a pulp medieval-style fantasy with a bit of grit. Coupled with that will be some preparation for re-releasing my existing short fiction publications into longer anthologies sometime early 2018. I’ll be busy but it will also get easier as I complete the larger two manuscripts since the others will be shorter projects. Along the way, I hope for some other opportunities including audiobook publication for my existing series to solidify so that I can announce the specifics (hopefully sometime this month, but who knows). One thing is for sure, the publication of The White Arrow was not the end but merely the turning of a page – and I’m looking forward to turning this page.

Thanks for stopping by to read today. I’ll announce any new developments or changes to my plans as they occur. Please leave your thoughts and questions in the comments section below this post and I’ll reply as soon as I can.

About the Author

P. H. Solomon lives in the greater Birmingham, AL area where he strongly dislikes yard work and sanding the deck rail. However, he performs these duties to maintain a nice home for his loved ones as well as the family’s German Shepherds. In his spare time, P. H. rides herd as a Computer Whisperer on large computers called servers (harmonica not required). Additionally, he enjoys reading, running, most sports and fantasy football. Having a degree in Anthropology, he also has a wide array of more “serious” interests in addition to working regularly to hone his writing. His first novel, The Bow of Destiny was named 2016 Book of the Year by Fantasia Reviews and is the first book of The Bow of Hart Saga. The sequel novel, An Arrow Against the Wind, was released in April of 2017. The third book of the series, The White Arrow, is due to be released during the Fall of 2017. P. H. Solomon also authored the award winning short story, The Black Bag, which won best published short story at SCWC 2012. P. H. is also a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).