Somehow, it’s June. Eight months ago, I published my first book through this independent venture, Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies, the first entry in the Tales of Ciel saga. By Tuesday, we’ll have published five novels and a novella, with a sixth locked for release on July 7 and a second novella-length work inching toward a summer release date. This time last year, I promised the first Weekly Riders expedited timelines without compromising quality. The expedited timelines are already in evidence. I’d argue the qualitative piece is as well.
Written reader reviews accrue slowly, but from the 45 responses immortalized on Goodreads, the HTP catalog holds a 4.53 average. That’s well above the median indie author and competitive with the more celebrated authors in the trad publishing ecosystem.
Critical acclaim is the other qualitative signal worth tracking, and the verdict there is even more robust. The Goodreads rating will shift as the sample gets bigger. The critical consensus is already clear, and it’s overwhelming. HTP publishes books that deserve to sit on the shelves next trad published bestsellers.
SPR is the only outlet that’s reviewed all three novels in the Zephyr Trilogy, and senior reviews editor John Staughton concludes that the series starts strong, executes with ferocity, and sticks the landing in a way that “exceeds expectations for the epic fantasy genre.” Trades ranging from The Independent Book Review to Kirkus concur.
The critical case is even stronger for The Divine Heretic. Seven Days of Mercy has a legitimate claim as the most critically acclaimed epic fantasy debut of 2026. Every trade publication that picked the novel up awarded top marks. Publisher’s Weekly awarded their distinguished “Editor’s Choice” badge. Kirkus slapped the book’s cover with its top-10% “Get It” designation. IndieReader dubbed the novel “IR Approved”, and HTP champion John Staughton stamped it with a near-perfect score. Locus Online, the magazine of record in the field of SFF, highlighted Seven Days of Mercy unsolicited as a featured indie spotlight title. Locus has been generous with their coverage, listing every new HTP release since Seven Days and adding our titles to their Bookshop.org page alongside the trad published titles we like to be weighed against. I look forward to continuing to cultivate that relationship.
In short, the press machinery is operating as promised, but we have to make sure it stays that way. To help me manage the day-to-day, the team has grown with the catalog. We now work with six different visual artists–the four series leads and two designers. We’ve tapped marketing and PR consultants to help us roll out each major release, and we’re looking to add a business manager by the end of 2027. As we enter the final quarter of our first year of operations, the State of the Press is strong, but we do have to pivot in strategic ways.
Lessons are only good if you act on them. I mentioned that I learned a few over the last eight months. In the spirit of enacting the pedagogy, I decided–in conversation with the team–to make a few changes to the strategic plan. Here’s the headline: I’m taking Shattered: The Girl Who Woke the Moon off the release calendar. In the end, the decision wasn’t about output. The first half of this year proves that our writing and editing pipeline can keep up with an aggressive publishing schedule. But the books are just the product, and the business requires other pipelines to keep pace with the content. Marketing and PR has become the real bottleneck.
We’re still a small shop. Very small. The biggest lesson I’ve learned so far: the ramp-up time before a new release is critical. The pre-release materials need time to circulate and seed discussion. ARC readers need time to digest and write up the book. Elite trades often require a minimum of six months lead time to process a pre-release coverage request. I can put eight polished novels into the market in a year, but I can’t properly market them. Not at our current level of personnel.
The seams are already beginning to show with the sophomore entry in The Divine Heretic series. The marketing plan for What Lies Between crashed headlong into the pre-release strategy for The Politics of Fear. As a result, What Lies Between received a much softer treatment. We had to make a compromise and privilege one title over another.
In this instance, we had a clear business case to follow. The Tales of Ciel is our runaway bestseller. The publishing timeline there is a priority. The Compact Cycle is our biggest upfront investment, and the series forecast with the highest ceiling. We won’t reach it if we pull even a single punch. The Divine Heretic has the critical acclaim, but not the sales to match. Not yet, at least. Marketing a second novel won’t produce any returns if the first one hasn’t gained the requisite traction.
I want to be clear: This does not mean the publication pace will slow for The Divine Heretic series. Once the first book is published, I consider the reader contract signed and in force. I’m obliged to carry the project through to the end at the promised pace, even if I’m playing for an undersold house. I believe The Divine Heretic is the kind of project that accrues a following over time as the conversation around it gains weight, but that’s an article of faith at this point rather than a rational business forecast. The Shattered series has not been published yet. It was the right title to pull.
That’s the negative side of the adjustment ledger, now here’s the balance. With the additional breathing room, I’m going to escalate the publishing timelines for Ciel and The Compact Cycle. In addition, I can thread more companion projects into the schedule between releases. That means another full Ciel trilogy by this time next year and the second Compact Cycle novel. You’ll also get the next four Ciel companion stories, and the first few entries in The Divine Heretic short story anthology. After What Lies Between, you can expect two more Divine Heretic novels in 2027. Book 3: A Myrtle Among Thorns is already in draft. Divine Heretic fans will have another finished book to look forward to before the end of Q2 2027.
Adding space also, crucially, opens up our resources to properly support the push behind The Politics of Fear and the absolute media blitz planned to launch the second trilogy in Tales of Ciel. Ciel has earned the investment. Last month, the series reached 5,000 copies sold, and it’s still finding readers at a clip. Book 4’s release provides our first opportunity for an event debut, with eager readers waiting to be reactivated. My hope, of course, is that the second novel in The Compact Cycle merits similar treatment.
Works-in-progress 2026 Part II
In closing, here’s where the current writing projects stand.
Over the last six months, a huge swathe of what would otherwise be writing time has been dedicated to admin and marketing. I had an entire trilogy to roll out, the launch of The Divine Heretic series, and the upcoming major launch of The Compact Cycle. I was also learning as I went. The Politics of Fear has been on the rails for months at this point. With What Lies Between ready to ship, I’m entering a rich period of writing opportunity.
The key projects are already in motion. First priority is the second trilogy in the Tales of Ciel. I plan to draft these together, the same approach I took with The Zephyr Trilogy. A close second priority is Compact Cycle #2, Ulterior Corruption. A Compact Cycle book is a much bigger undertaking than any individual title in the other lines. These novels are long–200,000+ words each. They operate across multiple narrative registers and cover braided plotlines that intermix thematically and narratively. The lexicon is dense, and the POVs are legion. The release date looks far out, but I need to have a proof-ready galley at least by February 2027 if I’m going to rev the marketing machine at full capacity.
The Divine Heretic Anthology is the wild card here. I’m actively working on it because it serves a paratextual purpose in conversation with the novels in a way the Tales of Ciel companion stories don’t. There’s an explicit ordering to the reveal, and the stories have to be written as a unit to achieve the intended cumulative effect. I plan to continue picking at these when I need a break from the frontburner projects. The first six will all be released individually as Amazon Ebooks. After Book 4, I’ll collect the set in a print anthology to include two previously unpublished stories that bookend the arc. The Divine Heretic novels are episodic by design. An episodic reader doesn’t need to engage with the anthology. For the sequential reader tracking the meta-arc building across the series, the anthology version will be required reading.
And that’s your mid-year report – ZBL