Final days before release of Project Radiant
Oh boy! has the last few months been a bit a push… Project Radiant, the first book of the Red Tape & Ruin Series is released on the 28th April 2026.
From getting the ARC copies out to the very kind people who agreed to be my ARC team to getting the audiobook narrated, it’s all been a big learning experience.
Listening to each chapter as it was completed for issues or problems helped with the editing and I ended up making some a number of edits in a lot of chapters. Just goes to show that even proof reading online, on paper and in the proof copies from Amazon and Bookvault, you can still miss some things. It was a surprise to have that many errors, but it makes the final product better when it releases.
For this book, unlike my other four books, I have decided to not only release on Amazon, but also via Bookvault to allow it to be ordered by libraries and physical book stores. This hopefully will increase the chance of sales. But did come with some extra costs. I think I will do a blog post on how much it costs for you to release a book as an independent author – it is not the cheap option, let me make that clear now!
I have also decided to release in multiple formats over the standard ebook and paperback formats we all know and love. Mainly an Audiobook and a hardback large print version, to try to be more inclusive.
The large print book had to have completely different formatting to aid in accessibility. The RNIB best practices for large print books focus on maximizing legibility and readability through a minimum 16-point font (Arial or similar Sans Serif), high contrast, left-aligned text etc. all of which meant the book size went from 328 pages in paperback to 536 pages in the hardback version – this meant printing costs go up and so that is why you will see such a disparity in the list price between the two formats – its not me just trying to get more royalties.
The audiobook as well is something new to me, this will be available on audible at some point in the next two to three weeks which is great, but it is going through a four stage review process of “metadata review”, “audio review”, “cover art review” and “final verification”. Hopefully it wont take too long!
I am also going to release the audiobook via Authors Republic, who will distribute the audiobook to everyone who isn’t audible and apple, such as Spotify which I hope will increase the reach of the book even more, we can but hope.
I’ve really enjoyed the writing of this book and also the second book in the series “Lifetime Subscription”, but the admin and marketing is not my strong point. Having worked in the Internet space since 1998 you would have thought that social media marketing would be my right up my street, how wrong you would be!
I have around 24 days to get my shit together and hope I can get some traction on the marketing, so people will at least know that it is available to read.
As ever, you can pre-order the kindle version of Project Radiant on Amazon and on the 28th April be able to order the paperback, large print hardback, listen to the audiobook or read it for free on Kindle Unlimited.