Overall Reflections of 2024
2024 was a big year for Uncomfortably Dark, as it was our first official year as a small press. We had fifteen releases including my solo releases under the Kindness in the Dark imprint, and our poetry releases under the Blood Moon imprint. We had six signed authors that all kindly gave my big idea a chance and it was an honor to work with all of them. I had a lot to learn and recognize that I still do. My authors knew that upfront and they all patiently endured my learning curves.
We held our first Open Submissions for manuscripts in October and November and were pleased by the number of submissions we received. We will be announcing those new authors very soon, along with our 2025-2026 release schedule.
For this year, there will be a bigger focus on wider marketing and promotion, more local events for the publishing house, and a bigger push on getting our titles, new and current, into indie bookstores. Ingram Spark is being utilized for this purpose to ensure that stores and libraries can order any of our titles. And through the wonderful support of Raw Dog Screaming Press in our efforts, we can put our ARCs on Net Galley as well.
This year, my mom Linda, (you all know her as Nana Nola) and my daughter, Katie basically joined the team as silent partners, background support, convention managers and more. They helped fund the projects and events, made sure we had bookmarks and other swag ordered in time for each event and release and basically helped keep me sane while I juggled my day job, my family, my own deadlines, the publishing house and the editing company.
360 Editing
With regards to 360 Editing, Mort Stone has been an essential part of this endeavor. His attention to detail, story structure, loose ends and more is a huge asset to what we do for our authors. Between the two of us, we review each manuscript several times, add suggestions, make corrections for typos, grammar, and more.
While we specialize in editing for new authors, over the years we have done edits for Aron Beauregard, Dan Volpe, Kristopher Triana, Kristopher Rufty, Nat Whiston, Jay Bower, Jeffrey Caston, Royal Poff, D.W. Hitz, Jason Davis, Tony Evans, Wendy Dalrymple, Joseph Pesavento, Steve Van Patten, and others. I look forward to working with many other new and returning authors as I truly love this part of what I do and working with Mort has become a seamless process.
The Uncomfortably Dark Patreon
The Patreon for Uncomfortably Dark offers several tiers and payment options, including an annual option. The membership tiers began at $3 and go up to $20 a month and includes free books, merch, behind the scenes look at artwork and works in progress.
All patrons get access to a full novella or novel that is written in weekly installments in its raw and unrevised format, followed by the free eBook prior to wide release. There is also daily content that includes fun questions, poetry, book reviews, literary essays and more.
This year has some changes in store, including new merch, more original content from our authors, interviews and more.
All proceeds from the Patreon go towards the publishing house expenses, including website fees, shipping supplies and more.
Join us below:
2024 Stats & Numbers
We ended up with over 10, 000 orders and/or downloads. This included free promotion days, so while not all sales, that’s a great deal of exposure for our titles, our authors, and a new publishing house.
Some of our top sellers were Cuckoo by M. Ennenbach, The Bishop series by Candace Nola & M. Ennenbach, Come Out & Play by Patrick Tumblety, Old Too Soon by Brian Bowyer, and Have a Blast by Nik Robinson.
For top page reads, Cuckoo and Bishop lead that list, followed by Shadow Manor, Baker’s Dozen, Old Too Soon, and Breach.
Our page reads hit over 128k with our highest month being in December when we ended the month with 17k page reads. For all of 2024, our page reads slowly went up month over month, so I was thrilled to see the year end with our highest month yet. That shows steady progress and growth, which is what we want.
We do release many of our titles on Godless prior to the wide release so I’ll list the top sellers on there as well, because all sales are important to note and distribution on multiple platforms is always ideal.
For Uncomfortably Dark top sellers on Godless:
The Unicorn Killer/ The Vet/ Zippers/Clownshoes (all by Candace Nola)
Innocence Ends by Nikolas Robinson/ Where the Dead Don’t Die by Ronald J. Murray/ Dark Disasters Anthology/ The Generator Anthology
Final thoughts on the year
Much to learn still but we are getting there through trial and error and other methods. Excited for the new authors and for the ones coming back with new titles for Uncomfortably Dark. Deeply grateful that we ended the year on a high note for page reads and with so many titles out in the world with new readers.
Love the teams that we work with, including the Review Team and the Street Teams. Without all their help in getting eyes on our books, eyes on indie horror as a whole, and being supportive of our platform, we couldn’t do what we do.
This year had its challenges, both personally and professionally, like many of you, but we managed with the help of our friends, family and team members. I’m looking forward to 2025 with fresh hope and we hope you stay with us for the journey.
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