What's going on? Is David Moody dead?

At the beginning of August I closed down www.djmoody.co.uk, www.theinfected.co.uk and www.infectedbooks.co.uk. I posted an update / explanation on my message board yesterday and thought it would be sensible to post it again here. It's about time I started posting something...!

Was it Baron Frankenstein who first said ‘I’ve created a monster’?! I now know how he felt. I started writing way back in 1994, had my first book published in 1996 and then, in 2001, started to use the Internet to promote and distribute my work. Over the last five years in particular, things have gone from strength to strength. I’ve been fortunate enough to sell thousands of books and gain many, many fans around the world. It’s truly humbling to think that my books have had an impact on so many people.

Where am I going with this...?

If you're reading this you might know about the various projects I’ve become involved with over the last couple of years. There’s the Autumn movie, the planned Hater movie and the ‘disappearance’ of the Hater novel to name but a few. Each of these things have so far had two main effects on me on a personal level; firstly, they’ve hugely increased the ‘behind-the-scenes’ exposure I’ve been getting and, secondly, they’ve each added to my workload. I’m not bleating – I wouldn’t have wanted anything different – but it’s been difficult. Until February this year I was still working full-time, managing Infected Books (which was almost a full-time job in itself) and trying to write. Oh, and there was the small matter of trying to be a fully functioning human being and family man. It was getting to the point where the kids thought I was just a lodger who hired the smallest bedroom in our house as an office!

If I’m honest, things didn’t get quite that bad, but they weren’t far off. Something had to give and, between mid-2006 and early 2008, it was my writing that suffered – not a good position for an author to be in. I’m embarrassed when I look back now and see that as early as 2006 I was talking about the imminent release of Autumn: Disintegration – at least it’s finished now, written but still not published! Despite what you might think, it really pisses me off when I publish a timescale (in good faith) which then gets missed by several miles. I don’t like letting people down.

The straw that broke the camel’s back for me was last October when, after dealing with some pretty unpleasant personal issues, I published a letter on my website (and on this blog) explaining why there had been delays and what books I was planning to release and when. Literally days after the letter went live, a new deal came out of the blue which meant that everything changed again!

Enough grumbling, where does this leave everything?

Put simply, as of August 2008 I’ve closed down Infected Books and am no longer working independently. Why? Because by taking this new route it means I can concentrate on communicating. And what do I mean by communicating? Two things – first, writing and releasing new books, second, finally getting to meet, speak to and interact with the people who read my stuff. I worked in the financial sector for almost 20 years and I just don’t want to be in business anymore! Other people will be doing that side of things for me now so that I can concentrate on getting the mass of ideas I have down on paper and turned into novels, films, plays, comics or whatever...

You can say I’ve sold out if you like, I don’t mind. All I know is that this new arrangement means that I’m finally being paid to write instead of having to write, then edit, design, produce, distribute and sell my books before seeing a penny. To give you an indication of the kind of effect this is having on me personally, after taking 18 months to write half of the first draft of Disintegration, it’s taken just the last 8 months to finish writing the book AND to completely write Dog Blood, the first Hater sequel. I still have to work on Dog Blood with my editor, but I’m now in a position where I can start work on a completely new novel as well as begin writing the final book in the Hater series. Instead of one book every three years, I’m now on target for three books every year!

The new website will be up and running soon, and I’m hoping it will be much more dynamic and interactive than before. I’m taking my time because I want to get it right. It will be seen by more people than the previous site ever was – as an indication of how much things have changed, the initial print run of the new edition of Hater in the US alone will be many thousands more than the total number of books I’ve so far sold independently!

Here’s an update on where everything stands at the moment. Feel free to email any questions and I’ll answer them as quickly and honestly as I can.

The Autumn books – have been acquired by my US publisher and have temporarily been removed from sale. In the very near future we’ll be discussing the timescale for publication of the entire series and this will be announced as soon as possible. At this stage I don’t yet know when Disintegration will be published. The German language editions of the book will continue to be published at 6 – 9 monthly intervals (this was a deal agreed a couple of years ago). Herbst: Stadt, the German language edition of Autumn: The City, is due for release any day now.

Hater – I’m contracted to write two sequels to Hater. As I’ve already said, the first sequel, Dog Blood, is currently with my editor and work has begun on the third book. Hater will be re-released in the UK (by Orion) and the US (by Thomas Dunne Books) on February 17th 2009. The book has also been acquired by publishers in many other countries including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Romania! I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that the book has been ‘blurbed’ by none other than Guillermo del Toro. Check out the listing on Amazon.com to see what he (and others) have said about the book.

Trust and Straight to You – have disappeared for a while. Straight to You in particular, I feel, is a great story but it has dated badly since 1996 when it was first published. These two books may well get a dusting down and a re-release at a future date!

The movies – Autumn, as I understand, is just about complete. Renegade have updated their blog with an indication of planned release dates and I’m due to see the film any day now. I’ll post my thoughts as soon as I’m able to do so. The Hater movie promises to be incredible. I don’t have much more to say right now (I’ve spent most of the summer working with Universal Studios and the producers of the film to get all the legalities sewn up and sorted out) but keep checking back here or keep an eye on the film’s IMDB page for more news.

Those who’ve been pressing me for Disintegration and Dog Blood release dates are going to be disappointed by this post and I’m sorry for that. The Autumn movie and the Hater re-release aside, there probably won’t be any more news for the next 6 months or so although I plan to update the website, this blog and the message board regularly between now and then.

Thanks for sticking with me. I hope you’ll continue to do so because it will definitely be worth it.