The State of the Lore Forge, 2025

So, it's been a while since I've posted here. It's been a busy year, and the next book has taken a LOT longer than I hoped to finish. Seeing that we're reaching the end of the year, I thought I'd post a summary of this year's events as well as my plans for 2026.

The Lore Forge Store

This year, I set up my online store. I've been wanting to do this for a while now, and I've finally pulled the trigger. Right now, inventory consists of physical media, namely my paperbacks. I've also partnered with BookFunnel and plan to use the service to distribute my eBooks and audiobooks to interested readers. Right now, I'm in the process of figuring out how to integrate BookFunnel's service with the way the store operates (as with any website provider, mine has certain limitations). There are other reasons, which I'll explain in a different section. The store, at present, is only available to US customers. I'm working on expanding it. The issue revolves around VAT and shipping. Plus, I want to crawl before I walk. I've already had three customers purchase books from the store at present.

You can purchase individual paperbacks as well as paperback bundles. So, if you liked The Revenant and the Tomb, and want to buy the rest of my books (as many have in the past) you can purchase them at a modest discount. And, if you use the codes I send in my email updates, you'll get an additional discount on top of the bundle price. I've found that the money you save with the discount code, for the most part, often covers shipping, making my store's price competitive with Amazon's.

When you purchase directly from me and avoid middlemen like Amazon, I make more per sale. I roll this into production and overhead...because the website and all the tools I use don't come for free.

Starting January 1, 2026, use the code BIONICHEDGE2026 to get a 20% discount in the store (good through December 31st, 2026). Click here to go to the HPH Lore Forge Store.

Social Media Changes

I've had a love/hate relationship with social media for a while now. Unlike other, more successful authors, I'm not really consistent with posting stuff to this blog and my various social media sites. Likewise, I've always wanted to open up a paid subscription service where you, my readers, could get advanced or additional content. I've been kinda stymied by places like YouTube, X, and Rumble, where you must have so much content and so many followers before you can unlock a subscription plan. Likewise, what my website hosting service offers is a little cumbersome. Furthermore, I haven't been posting much on this blog because, well, so few people come here to read stuff.

Enter Substack. Instead of putting my blog posts here, I've started writing a weekly "column" on Substack. Not only am I getting more views, but I'm also getting more followers. My blog posts garner 5x the views I get here. So, for the time being, Substack will be the home for my weekly blog. What becomes of the website blog? My intention is to put out a monthly email newsletter - you're reading the first issue. It'll be a summary of the prior (or current) month's activities, along with a heads-up on upcoming events. It'll also host things related to this site, like changes to the store, new book announcements, updates from BookFunnel, Amazon, or whatever. I'll probably do an end-of-month newsletter as a recap, but the schedule is still being debated. If you want to join my email list, go to the Subscribe page of my website. Click here to go to Notes From The Lore Forge, my Substack page.

This Year's Sales

This year was spent attending many live events. I started with the Midland Comic Con in Midland, Michigan. My last live event was at the Bluewater Comic Con in Port Huron, Michigan. The events themselves seemed to be a good summation of this year's book sales. I started out strong but ended up weak. For a second year in a row, I sold completely out of stock at Midland. This year, I brought nearly TWICE the number of books I had in the prior year. By 2:30 pm on Sunday, I literally had nothing to sell. Contrast this with my Port Huron event, where I barely made my minimum. I have a bare minimum number of books that I try to sell at every event. At all but one, I met that minimum. I'm already lining up more events for next year. If you know of an event that you'd like me to attend, contact me at author@hphunterwriter.com. I'm more than happy to look over the details. Part of the issue with the events is the additional cost of attending. You have table fees, hotel bills, and transportation costs. So, if I do manage to make money after deducting my expenses, it's relatively little. Online sales tend to have a LOT less overhead. Part of the downturn in sales was that I stopped paying for ads on social media. This was a conscious decision on my part for two reasons. First, it's nearly impossible to be profitable with online ads unless you spend thousands of dollars. Secondly, I wanted to see what sales I'd get WITHOUT spending on ads. The good news is, I brought in more revenue than the prior year (nearly double at this point), and I'm not that far behind last year's sales volume. I have reduced the price of the eBook versions of The Revenant and The Tomb to 99¢. I'm also considering making it and The Wizard's Stone Amazon Exclusive as well - I'm still debating this at present. Part of my rationale is to utilize The Revenant and the Tomb for its original, intended purpose as a loss-leader to attract readers to my works (I mean, this happens when someone buys the paperback at a live event, why not do it with the eBook?). Secondly, because Kindle Unlimited pays for page reads, I'm going to see if I can squeeze into that market as well. Honestly, going wide - meaning selling at places like Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo - has not netted me many sales at all. I'm also going to switch to Amazon's paperback service to sell my books on Amazon. This is a cost issue. Because of how Amazon treats books distributed by Ingram Spark on its platform, I'm barely making any money per copy. Ingram will still be my provider with other book sellers like Barnes & Noble, as well as my online store. Honestly, I've sold almost as many paperbacks through my store, and more than 10x times the number of paperbacks at comic cons than I have through Amazon. So, Ingram will barely notice me jumping to Amazon next year.

The Next Book

There is no release date set for the next book as of yet, but I will not be releasing it on my traditional launch date. Nor will I be releasing all three formats together. I'm going to prioritize the paperback and the ebook first. The audiobook version will come later. The reason for this is basically cost. I suspect the manuscript will be around 140,000 to 150,000 words. That's bigger than both the Revenant and the Cult books, combined. Because of this increased size and because of inflation, the cost of editing and audiobook narration will skyrocket.

Also, because of Audible's new royalty payment schedule - which I discuss on my Substack page - I will not be putting my book on Audible. I apologize in advance, but I'm not going to allow Audible to screw me any more than they already are. You'll still be able to get my audiobook everywhere else, and perhaps even through either my store or a subscription service like Substack. I'll provide details when my audiobook strategy is decided. The pricing for all my books is calculated based on word count and printing costs.

The protagonist of the next book is Odo from The Wizard's Stone. He's all grown up and is a full-fledged and competent wizard. His travels take him to the far north of the world, where he embarks on a quest to investigate what became of a remote settlement. And, as per usual, there is lots of adventure, as well as some Lovecraftian horror for those of you who enjoyed The Revenant and the Tomb.

In Conclusion

So, that's what happened this year and what to expect in 2026. Financially, I'm hoping for a better year, of course.

My event calendar is filling up quickly. Right now, I am working to attend Confusion in Novi, Michigan, at the end of January. To keep tabs on where I'll be throughout the year, check out my Event Calendar under the Events item on the main menu of my website. Every author says they love their fans, and now I know why. Running around anonymously in the author trenches can be depressing and frustrating. Indeed, your support and your encouragement really do make a difference. I am always humbled by your reactions to my work. In fact, I'm sometimes utterly flabbergasted by them. After hearing them, I know I may very well be on the right track.

Until next time, bold traveler...

Herman P. Hunter.