What A Great Way To End 2017!

I’m actually sick in bed. Which means I’m spending the day reading manga, sci-fi books, watching anime, and of course a little bit of shitposting, but I didn’t bring you to the blog today dear readers to complain.

I’m elated.

2017 has been such a great year for me, probably the best of my life. I’ve kicked off my dream of becoming a professional author and finally made it. And I made it under the Science Fiction Writers of America’s qualifications of professional authordom too! I’m sure they’re hard at work being totally fair on my application.

But the reason I’m so elated is the success of For Steam And Country. It took to the end of  the year, but this epic YA Steampunk Fantasy has finally surpassed my debut, multi-award nominated novel with its 81st and 82nd positive reviews on Amazon. It keeps selling and more people keep loving it!

I’ll be honest. When I first started getting For Steam And Country  ready for publication, I was extremely nervous. I had conversations with my first publisher who wasn’t certain whether the success of my first book was due to it being tied into a very popular game property, or if it was due to my writing. It was a really valid concern, and something that had me on edge about this second release.

Worse for the fear in my mind, I’d taken a couple of big risks: 1. My readership is vastly comprised of Military SF readers, and Steampunk both is a semi-dead genre with a limited market appeal, and most Military SF readers don’t actually like the genre.  2. I wrote it from a perspective of a first person 16 year old girl, which was difficult artistically AND made tougher as a sell because most of my audience are men.

It turns out I didn’t need to fear it at all. Though there are certainly a couple of folk who didn’t like the YA Steampunk or perspective elements and told me they avoided it as such (which I don’t fault you for, and you’ll enjoy my next book, The Stars Entwined MUCH more as it’s geared more toward you), the vast majority of my readers read it — and loved it more than my first.

And then more readers kept coming.

I’m truly humbled, having been so nervous about this book. And I thank you so much for giving it a shot. I love For Steam And Country  – and the sequel, The Blood Of Giants won’t leave you disappointed next year. I’ve dialed up the action and adventure in it to 11.

But for now, I’m enjoying the fact in these last days of 2017, that my own property and world was able to surpass that of something very popular already. It means a lot to me, and it fuels me to keep writing super fun adventures for you all now and in the future!

2018 is going to a be a great ride. I’ve got my Patreon, in which I’m cranking out new short stories every month (some of which will tie into my novels, so look out!)  along with other cool content like draft chapters, deleted scenes, etc. I have a few comics I wrote that are  in production with artists, and I’ll be releasing a full SIX novels next year to keep you guys going. We’re just at the beginning of all the winning in science fiction!

Don’t forget to sign up for my mailing list too. As I’ll be doing giveaways, sending out free stories and the like in promotion of my next books.

I’ll leave you with my Twitter new years message:

As our community rapidly grows stronger and smarter, I want to wish all of my friends, supporters, enemies, haters, and even the very dishonest File 770, a Happy and Healthy New Year. 2018 will be a great year for Science Fiction!

— Jon Del Arroz (@jondelarroz) December 31, 2017