2024 has been a crazy year for me. On a personal level, I had a really tough time in the latter half of the year. I think it’s important to show the good with the bad to give an accurate representation of my year.
In some ways, this year has been incredible beyond my wildest dreams. In other ways, if I’m completely honest, I had a few months where I wasn’t entirely sure how I’d make it to the end of the day.
Below is a highlight reel (as is most of social media). It’s the things I’ve achieved this year. It doesn’t show the blood, sweat, and tears that went on behind the scenes. However, these are things I’m incredibly proud of, and so want to share them with you.
January began quietly with me approving the Audible files for ‘FOUND YOU’, my debut novel. The narrator, Flick Khouri, did an amazing job with the novel, and was such a pleasure to work with.
In February, I finished the final draft of ‘You Invited It In’. Of course, thanks to beta reading and editing feedback, I ended up making a fair few changes to the final draft. Towards the end of February, ‘FOUND YOU’ was released on Audible.
In March, I did something that absolutely terrified me… my first, in person, book signing event. Black Country Book Con was such a great experience. I was a nervous wreck for most of the day but met loads of incredible people, both readers and authors.
I sent off advanced reader copies (ARCs) of ‘You Invited It In’ to over 100 readers in April. I’ve written a few blog posts about how I launched ‘You Invited It In’. I’d learned a lot from previous book launches, and also from fellow authors. I think the way I launched YIII made a huge difference to sales and visibility.
April also saw the official announcement of ‘BLOODY HELL: An Anthology of UK Indie Horror’, which I had the absolute pleasure of editing and collating. I had no intention of being the person to launch this book when I suggested the idea of an anthology championing British indie horror, but I was blown away by the support and trust of the authors. We managed to secure the incredible Rachael Rose for both the illustrations throughout the book (each story has a gorgeous illustration) and also for the cover design. I cannot tell you how proud I am of ‘BLOODY HELL’, and of all the wonderful talented humans involved in the project. It was a highlight of my year.
Part of YIII’s book launch was ‘gifts’ for those who pre-ordered a paperback. YIII was the first book I did a paperback pre-order for, and it worked so well. I’ll be tweaking things with my next releases, but I’ll probably follow much the same format. The readers all loved their little gift packets. Seeing posts on social media of people receiving their gifts, alongside reviews of the book, was magic.
YIII released on May 28th 2024. I couldn’t believe my luck. The launch went beyond all expectations. YIII was regularly on the top spots on Amazon’s rankings – and still is (which is mind-blowing to me). For the first time in my author career, I could see things coming together. Each book, each launch, is a learning curve. It’s important to me to continue to grow as an author and each new release should (hopefully!) reflect that.
In June, I was scrolling through Facebook when I came across the image above. A wonderful, supportive reader (shout out to Becky Burgess, and Chad Kautz of TAiLS of a Bookworm) had shared the photograph of my book (alongside other incredible authors) on an actual real-life bookshelf, in an actual real-life brick and mortar bookstore. I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting that was for me! That same month, I made it onto the Malevolent Dark Horror Fiction Top 25 (June) List – which is a list of all the hottest horror releases of that month.
June was also the month where we did the cover reveal for ‘BLOODY HELL’. I’m sure you’ll agree, Rachael Rose knocked it out of the park with that cover.
In July, I had a mad-scientist moment and decided to release a limited edition run of 100 hardbacks of ‘BLOODY HELL’. I had no idea if they would sell and I relied heavily on other authors who had done similar releases (thanks to ML Rayner for answering all my questions). Each hardback came signed by myself, and with a beautiful signed print from Rachael Rose.
On August 1st, BLOODY HELL released. I’m so proud of the authors included in the anthology. They are not only incredibly talented, but they’re also genuinely awesome people. If you haven’t already, please go check out the anthology (and also their books). The aim of the anthology is to showcase British indie authors, and hopefully readers will find new indie authors to support.
When I sold out of the limited edition hardbacks, I couldn’t quite believe it. 100! That’s a huge number of books. It took days to package them up and get them shipped off to their homes. The hardbacks were beautiful (thanks Rachael for the special edition black cover and for organising the prints!), and it’s awesome to think of them on bookshelves all over the world!
Also in August, the audiobook of ‘YOU INVITED IT IN’, narrated by the talented Kevin E Green. I was in awe of how he brought my book to life.
In September, ‘BLOODY HELL’ won cover of the year in the Bookstagram Awards – it was very well deserved, Rachael designed a gorgeous cover. I can’t take any credit for that at all.
In October, I made the decision to write the sequel to ‘You Invited It In’. I never had any intention of writing a sequel. However, I had an idea floating around and it began to take shape. The book that I’d been planning to write next (horror set in a mining community) had themes that hit too close to home, so I put that hold in favour of YIII2 (which will have a better name). The mining novel will (if all goes according to plan) be my next project.
In October, I had a HUGE spike in readers for ‘FOUND YOU’, my debut which released two years ago. When I released ‘FOUND YOU’, I had no idea what I was doing, to be honest with you. Thanks to Horrorsmith Publishing’s, Terrify Your Tablet event, people found ‘FOUND YOU’. It ranked at no 1 on Amazon for the first time EVER, and made me more royalties in one month than it had in two years!
November was a nail-biter. ‘BLOODY HELL’ went up against hundreds of other books for a spot in the final 32 of the Books of Horror Short Smack. Voting takes place early next year in the Books of Horror Facebook group. We’re up against the talented RJ Roles.
After seeing how well YIII did upon release, I set myself the ridiculous target of reaching 1000 ratings on Goodreads. To put that into context, I had around 300 in May. A few weeks ago, I hit that target, which I’m incredibly grateful for.
This year, I had my first ever anthology invites. I was invited to take part in three anthologies next year. In December, I completed two of those shorts. I can’t wait to share more details with you about the anthologies!
On the 26th, it was announced that ‘BLOODY HELL’ had been shortlisted by the judges of the Haunted Minds Book Club (you can find it on Facebook), run by Nick Roberts, in the Best Anthology category. Winners will be announced on the 31st. Getting nominated for awards/competitions means more eyes on the book, which means more eyes on the authors. No matter what happens next, I’m thrilled ‘BLOODY HELL’ was nominated.
Finally, I share my KDP Royalties, and Kindle Page Reads. My eBooks are on Kindle Unlimited and therefore are exclusively through Amazon. However, my paperbacks are also published through Ingram Spark. Therefore, the graphs above don’t show the full picture (the IS royalties aren’t included, nor are the Audible royalties). However, it gives a good idea of the upward trajectory of this year. You can see it all began with the release of ‘You Invited It In’. I’m a big believer that if you put out good quality books fairly consistently, but without rushing to release, then readership should build with each new release. I’m crossing my fingers that my upward trajectory continues into next year.
Thank you to all of the readers who chose to pick up one of my books this year. Thank you to everybody who left a review, who posted about a book, who interacted with my social media – you are all wonderful wonderful people. I’m so grateful for all of you. Readers who choose to read indie books are THE BEST people. Another huge thank you to my author friends. The indie community is such a supportive place to be. Along the way I’ve met so many talented authors who are so gracious with their time.
I’m so excited to see what 2025 brings.
Sarah Jules Writing 
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