Herman P. Hunter's Blog: Herman P. Hunter's THE LORE FORGE

Now that summer is here, I thought I would update you all on my upcoming appearances. Unfortunately, there aren't many this year. On...

Jump to the YouTube video here . So, if you've been paying attention to my social media updates, you'll know I'm working on a book for...

Jump to the YouTube video here . So, if you've been paying attention to my social media updates, you'll know I'm working on a book for...

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS FOR THE WIZARD'S STONE , THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB, AND THE REVENANT AND THE CULT ! Jump to...

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB ! Jump to the YouTube video here . Recently, at the Midland Mall Comic...

Jump to the YouTube video here . So, yes, I know it's been a while since I've posted a blog post or a video. The last three months have...

THE REVENANT AND THE CULT, BOOK TWO is now available for purchase. Pick up the thrilling conclusion to the two-book series today!

Pick up your copy today at the following outlets:

...and many, many more. Also, if you have a Spotify premium membership, you can access all of my audiobooks as a part of the subscription.

(As of 3/3/2025, Audible has still not made this book available for purchase)

One of the things that you probably don’t know about THE WIZARD’S STONE is that there was a reason why I sent Odo out on his journey during the autumn.  While THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB takes place in the spring or summer (I don’t think I mention the season in the story, if I recall correctly), and THE REVENANT AND THE CULT books take place during late spring, I made it a point to set THE WIZARD’S STONE during the autumn.

Why?

Because autumn always scared the crap out of me.  The world turns cold, animals migrate to warmer places, plants die off, and leaves wither and fall.  Autumn is a time of dying for the world.  It’s no wonder why our modern-day concept of Halloween took hold during this season.  There is nothing more despairing to me than the black and white image of trees whose limbs are absent leaves, and fields of corn that are nothing more than withered stalks.  It can be grim, depressing, and lonely.

With autumn, the nights start to get longer and creatures start to hibernate.  There’s no snow on the ground so there’s no impediment to travel.  And, at least in Michigan, being the wet season of the year, the rain comes down chilled and hard.  A miserable condition that lowers spirits and makes people anxious to be back indoors.  Back inside their dens where they are warm, safe, and dry.

For me, Autumn is the perfect time to set a scary story, which THE WIZARD’S STONE sort of was – a horror story.

And now you know.

THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB, BOOK 2 is now available for presale!

https://youtu.be/FzGMxziFVGU

It usually takes a few days - and a few calls to Amazon - to get the book's landing page straightened out. However, in the coming weeks, you should be able to purchase any of the three formats - paperback, eBook and audiobook - from Amazon / Audible, or just about anywhere else.As soon as I have stock in house, I will be making THE REVENANT AND THE CULT, BOOK TWO available for presale on my author store. Likewise I will be making THE REVENANT AND THE CULT books available as a bundle, for a discounted price. You can access my author store here.

So, now that 2024 is done, I’ve done a lot of soul-searching on my pursuit to be an author.  Frankly speaking, the more I ponder this, the more depressed I become.  I have to address facts and try to make arguments for continuing this pursuit that either overcome or bypass the many obstacles I’m facing right now.  Maybe this is the reason why, in my daily life, I try not to think too much about the future.

I continually question my vision and my skills.  I know I have deficits in certain areas.  The avenues to backfill these voids are expensive.  This is the unfortunate truth of being a self-published author.  I could list these shortcomings, however, doing so would be more trouble than it’s worth.  I know what I need.  I merely lack the funds to obtain them.

Yet, the biggest problem I face is building an audience – my “tribe,” as another author put it.  They’re out there.  I see you.  In fact, that’s the advantage of having such low sales volume, especially online.  I can see when someone picks up THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB, then comes back a couple of weeks later to buy a second book, then a third.  This has happened several times in the last 2 years.  What’s heartening is that I’ve tripled the number of my Amazon followers since 2022 and doubled the number of people following me on YouTube.  The problem is that, in order to get somewhere, those increases need to be greater. 

What’s worse - my biggest fear - is that the audience that appreciates my stories may be an invisible mob, and the path to them is hidden.  I’ve seen them.  They’re showing up to buy books at in-person events and some of them follow me from one event to another.  But, aside from that, I have no way of easily reaching them and informing them that I have a new book out.  I have an online store, but I don’t suspect I’ll see many sales from it in the near future.  I don’t think they go to Amazon and I’m pretty sure they no longer go to bookstores as bookstores no longer cater to them.

I really don’t mind doing in-person events.  Yet, the biggest problem I have is that these events are more expensive than selling products online.  What I make, I often lose in expenses: hotel bills, table fees, mileage, and so on.  And, to do these events, I have to register as a business which comes with a whole new set of complications like keeping books, reporting taxes, etc.  All of this leaves me less money and time to write.

I could use this post to implore my hidden audience to subscribe to my email list, however, I’m not even sure they’re following me on social media.  Or maybe they are?  I just don’t know.

My gut feeling – and it has yet to be proven wrong – is that my “tribe,” is probably pretty large.  The challenge before me is to find them.  My biggest obstacle is not knowing how to do that.

In the end, my focus has to remain fixed on producing books.  After that, everything is secondary.  I think that a change in direction for this site might be worth a try.  So, I’m going to ditch the monthly updates – I tend to do weekly updates on social media anyway – and start producing more content for the blog. 

I’m not sure that this will attract that hidden horde of readers that I need, but what I’m doing now isn’t working.