State Of The Union

Added on 18 March 2009

Times are bleak at Long Midnight Publishing. Book sales are down, web hits are down. The Barney Thomson series, which at one time looked poised on the precipice of greatness, at the very cusp of taking over from Harry Potter as the Number 1 book series on Planet Earth Ever, has once more sunk back into the doldrums, is once more nestling in the fetid sewer of literary disenchantment.

The seventh book in the series, The Final Cut, is in the works. It will definitely come out at the beginning of September. The cover has changed about seven times so far, but the book itself is more or less complete. It currently resides in a metaphorical drawer, while I attend to other matters, then I will go back to it in a few weeks time. TPCKAM is reading it at the moment, and will soon pass down judgement. In a moment of madness, I also put it in the hands of a literary editor in London, even though it's still pretty rough and not yet the best example of the Barney Thomson series. I suppose it is preposterous with a high body count, and in that way entirely representative.

Whether the series is republished in line with the reprinted Book 1, I'm not sure. It's all a bit to cock if I don't, but that would take investment, and in such dark and dangerous economic times as these, with a Muppet as CEO of the company, it might not be wise. Particularly with book sales down and web hits plummeting and the company squirming pathetically at the bottom of the well of literary ignominy etc etc

Lost in Juarez has sold to a reasonable level, certainly more than the previous Barney Thomson, and has had a couple of decent web reviews - here and here - however it hasn't taken off, no one has bought the screen option, there have been no foreign language rights, and it hasn't brought the government down, which was obviously its high-handed intention. The stretch target.

Next up, time to complete The Strange Case of Solomon Green cd - into the studio at the end of the month for finishing touches and mixing - and get it out into the world some time in May. Defer a decision on the Barney Thomson re-release for another couple of months. Run a half-marathon in Warsaw the day after Scotland beat Holland in the World Cup qualifier. Go to the London Book Fair in April, try to get into the character of a man in a suit who can engage in an interesting manner with people on business matters and pitch the Barney series to anyone I can find standing alone for more than thirty seconds at a time.

If all else fails, retire gracefully from writing and start Astronaut Training in September.