State of the Fordy 2022

Seems to be a bit de rigueur at the minute for people tell you what they’ve been up in an end of year announcement, and there isn’t a bandwagon I won’t jump on so here we go. Also, I haven’t posted on this blog since *checks notes* June last year, so we’re probably overdue…

February saw the release of Engines of Empire! It even sealed a Kirkus Starred review, which I’m led to believe is pretty prestigious. Sales have been… okay. According to my publisher author portal it’s done just over 10k across all formats, which I don’t think is bad, but it’s also not lighting up the charts. A lot of that could be due to the lack of a UK publisher, but I’m still holding out for a heroic commissioning editor to ride in on their chariot and save the day. Nevertheless, book two – Engines of Chaos – is written, edited and ready to go in April next year, so hopefully that will persuade reticent readers to jump on board.

Despite also having rather disappointing initial sales, my historical fiction novel, Oath Bound, managed to get itself longlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. It didn’t get shortlisted, and with the competition it was up against I knew it had no chance of winning, but it was encouraging nonetheless. Oath Bound was my first foray into histfic, and to make the final 12 for a prize like that (chosen by librarians no less, from just under 130 entrants) was real validation that I can make a go of the genre.

It’s sequel, Shield Breaker, also came out this year, also to the sound of crickets. Richard Cullen is a new name in the genre and it might take time to build up a following. However, in conjunction with the publisher, we ran a promo at the start of October, and gave away a lot of free ebooks. Since then, sales have actually been quite steady (according to my author central figures). Let’s hope by the time book three hits the shelves more people will want to jump on board.

Since I haven’t managed to hit any bestseller lists (again – it’s an occupational hazard I’m afraid) I took on some narrative design work in March to keep the lights on, which has seen me busy for most of the year. Kaidan is a samurai inspired transmedia brand, dripping with cosmic horror. Along with writer Steve Savile, we’ve produced some novellas, and mine should be available next year.

Recently, I also had the rights to the Steelhaven trilogy reverted back to me. I’ve relaunched the ebooks independently, and I’m currently trying to sort audiobooks for Herald of the Storm and The Shattered Crown. Will I be writing more in the series? Well, I always intended to, so I guess we’ll just have to see how well the relaunch goes when I smash the FB and AMS advertising next year.

And speaking of next year… I obviously still have two novels to produce to complete the Age of Uprising and Wolf of Kings series. Due to these commitments I’ll be stepping away from the contract work and concentrating fully on the writing of Engines of War and Winter Warrior. That’ll take me up to July next year, and luckily I have enough in the war chest to keep a roof over my head until then. Beyond that…

Quite frankly, I have no idea. There are very popular authors who’ve recently announced they’re having to take deals with smaller publishers, or that they’re leaving the writing game behind altogether. And these are authors with much-lauded novels out there. It’s tough in the industry at the moment, advances and royalties are being squeezed, particularly in the trad industry (unless you’re already a celebrity household name), and more authors are turning to indy. I’ll certainly be flexing those indy muscles and testing the waters, but there could also be more to come from my current publishers – I just don’t know yet.

I’ll end by saying a massive thanks to anyone who’s read and reviewed any of my books over this year. Particular thanks to booktuber Elliot Brooks who single handedly did more to spread the word about Engines of Empire than anyone. Hope you all have a cracking festive period and next year brings you a little closer to whatever it is you’re chasing.

Cheers

Rich

In The Works!

2018 has been a very eventful year. It saw the release of A Demon in Silver, the first book in my new fantasy trilogy, War of the Archons (most recent review from The Tattooed Book Geek here). Book two, Hangman’s Gate, is written and will be release in June 2019. I’ll be going through the MS over the festive period one last time, before it goes to typeset early next year.

I also left my full-time job as a computer game writer in October to go back to life as a full-time author. Consequently, I’ll be getting busy in 2019 writing lots of stuff to hopefully sell in traditional, as well as self-published markets.

So, if you’re interested in what’s coming up, here’s a little rundown of what I plan to get my teeth into next year:

Traditional Publishing

As mentioned I have one novel coming out in 2019 and I’ll be writing the third in that trilogy during the first half of the year. There are also two new series I’ll be starting next year, in the hope that they’ll be picked up by traditional publishers. Obviously there’s no guarantee of that, as it’s a very competitive market and previous publication in no way guarantees future book deals. Nevertheless, I’ll be principally working on the following:

Spear of Malice: The third book in the War of the Archons trilogy.  This is pretty much fully planned out, I just need to iron out some cracks in the plot before writing can begin.

Codename Nightstone: I wanted to write something epic. In fact not just epic but EEEPPPIIIICC! Consequently I’ve been working on the world-building and plot for this for about six months. I wanted it to be ready early next year and the WIP is around 25k words complete already. Plan is to finish around half of the MS for book one (which will be around 80k-90k words of the 180k word final MS) before pitching it via my agent.

Codename Seax: This will be a complete change of genre for me. I’ve been reading and enjoying a bit of historical fiction over the year and fancied dipping my toe in. Consequently I’ve planned a novel set in 11th Century England. Chapter synopsis is done and I’ve got quite a bit of research material to chew through before I can start, but I’m looking forward to firing into this one.

Self Publishing

I recently made a little foray into self-publishing after Solaris granted me the rights back to my 2011 novel, Kultus. To make it a worthwhile endeavor, I need to increase the volume of product I have available (not to go too much into the details, but for ROI after advertising, self-published authors generally need a large back catalogue) so that’s my plan for the latter half of 2019. Initially I’ll be working on two projects:

Codename Strykers: This will be my first proper collaboration. An old friend of mine recently released his first self-published novel, which I’m currently reading and loving. After a few conversations we decided to work on something together. This will be a military sci-fi series with a demonic twist. If all goes well the first book will be out towards the end of 2019.

Brood: If I’ve got any time left next year I’ll be continuing the tales of Thaddeus Blaklok which started in Kultus in 2011. Book two, Brood is currently in the works, but I’ve recently put it on the back burner. I’ve planned six books in the series to do his story justice, and the eBook of Kultus is currently available for 99p/99c. You can get a sampler with a comic and short story by signing up to the mailing list on my website here.

And that’s me for at least the next 12 months. Obviously this sounds like a lot, and plans are often changed depending on circumstances, but hey – aim for the stars you might hit the moon, and all that. So make sure you have a cracking Xmas, and I hope to be blogging a lot more next year with good news about book deals and publication.

Take care of yourselves

Rich

SFX Review

This month’s SFX has given me a rip-roaring 4* review. I’ve been reviewed in its hallowed pages before but this is my best performance so far. Perhaps I’m actually getting better at this writing lark!

Review & Interview Roundup #2

Hello all, and welcome to part two of my publicity roundup (because I know you don’t want to miss a thing!).

The blog tour continues with an article at Bibliosanctum and a few words from me about worldbuilding.

And Literary Wisdom have an excerpt from A Demon in Silver featuring a bit of background.

The guys at Skiffy & Fanty asked me what My Superpower would be.

Drew at the Tattooed Book Geek was over the moon that his quote for the Steelhaven series appeared on the back cover of A Demon in Silver.

Doreen Sheridan over at the Frumious Consortium, who are hosting a blog on the 20th June, thought A Demon in Silver was “a thrilling, twisty trip through a brutal fantasy land,” and she was, “definitely on board to see where Mr Ford goes with this series next.” Full review here.

LynnDee Wathen at Booklist Online thought “the multitude of characters readers are introduced to—most of them unsavory—are worth investing in”. Full review here.

And finally if, like me, you’re not a huge fan of cat pictures on the internet then there may be something to change your mind. Dr. Liz Bourke (@hawkwing_lb on twitter) kindly posted this snap of her cat, lounging around with a good book (I’m assured that no animals were harmed in the taking of this photo).

Blog Tour

A Demon in Silver hits shelves on Tuesday in the UK and the US. To mark this momentous occasion I shall be spreading the word via all that is social media and embarking on my first ever blog tour! Below is a list of all the lovely peeps who have allowed me to spout words on their websites…

Coming Soon…

Yes it’s been a while since there’s been any blog action, but prepare to be dazzled! June 12th sees the long awaited release (sorry, my fault) of new novel A Demon in Silver from Titan Books. It will also see a blog tour event, so I’ll be making up for a distinct lack of action on here.

In the meantime, take a look at the first review for the new novel which appeared in UK magazine SciFiNOW.

Clash of the Titan!

It’s been a long time coming, but yes, I have finally scored a new book deal with Titan Books. Full details are here. Obviously I am well stoked about this and can’t wait to get to work. The guys at Titan were great and the series couldn’t be in better hands. Also, props to my agent John Jarrold for making this happen. He really is da man!

In other news, my Steelhaven short story, The Halfwyrd’s Burden, has been produced as an audioshort (if that’s even a thing) on the Far Fetched Fables site here. Have a listen… IT’S FREE!!

World domination begins…

Lovely news in the form of not one, not two, but three new translation rights deals this week. In addition to the Spanish deal already sealed, Herald of the Storm will soon be available in French, Bulgarian and Italian. Full details are on my agent John Jarrold’s website here. So it’s Nasdrave, Santé and Salute from me!

Trailer

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, there’s a trailer for the mass market paperback release of Herald of the Storm available on YouTube right here. Thanks to Mark Smith, otherwise known as Pilgrim Angry, for the music, and those clever chaps at Headline for putting it together for me.

The shape of things to come…

Last week Fantasy Faction listed their Top 10 Anticipated Fantasy Books for 2013 and, though I didn’t make the top 10 I did get an honourable mention alongside the legendary Robin Hobb! Some of you with a keen eye may also notice they’ve revealed the cover… and the title… which has been a closely guarded secret for, ooh, about three days!

For those of you who’d like a bit more, here’s the spread for the hardcover, complete with snappy blurb (which I didn’t write). Clicky for a bigger version:

Advanced reader copies are impending, so I may well have one in my grubby paws very soon. You, however, will have to wait until April. Unless of course you’re very nice to me, or offer hard cash, in which case I’ll see what I can do!

Edit: They’ve also done a Most Anticipated from April-June 2013 list over at A Fantastical Librarian. Guess who’s on it!