Long Overdue Newsletter - January 2026
- Chris OBrien
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
At the start of every year, I depart from the normal newsletter and write out dreams and goals for Long Overdue. I treat it like a rough draft. The bigger, the messier the dreams, the better.
My hope is to channel that childlike dreaming ability, the way my 4-year-old son talks about becoming an astronaut, or my 8-year-old self mailed a letter to the Utah Jazz asking to play alongside John Stockton and Karl Malone.
When I looked back at last year's post, much to my surprise... I wasn't embarrassed. Some things I cringed at while writing didn't seem outlandish anymore. Let's start here:
Dreams from 2025: Number of Books Published
But you know what, we're at 19 published books right now. Our current goal of 20 would feel embarrassing not to hit. And once you hit 20, then 50 is doable. And so is the jump from 50 to 100. And once you're at 100, well, one of those probably lands a movie deal. Right?
Right now, we have five books nearing the finish line. Once those are published, we'll have 30 published books. That number feels wild to me. Doesn’t seem like that long ago when we were at three books.
My goal for this year: Go from 30 to 50.
Goal by the end of 2027*: 100 published books
(*My internal "dose of reality" editor is trying hard to change that year to 2028 or 2030. But I'm keeping it as 2027. In the spirit of Marty Supreme: Dream big!)
The dream of one of our books becoming a movie (or TV show) is alive and well. But that world is totally foreign to me. So, I'm taking some baby steps. Not sending a pitch to Netflix, Warner Bros, Disney, or Universal. Not yet. Right now, I'm researching Wattpad and learning how they landed Netflix deals. I'm studying Angel Studios, A24, and Music Box Films. I'll probably cold-call Music Box Films, since they're right here in Chicago, to learn more about their journey.
Also checked out this book from the Chicago Public Library to learn more about screenwriting. I'll likely begin searching for someone who has adapted a book into a screenplay.
This goal is important to me, one, because I love movies. But two, I want our authors to have multiple avenues to grow their audience: book sales, ebooks, audiobooks, and TV/film.
Dreams from 2025: Book Sales
So, that's what I'm working on this year: a path of reasonable, smaller goals for authors to pursue after they publish. For some, the dream might be 10 printed copies. A meaningful gift for their family. That's awesome. But for those dreaming of selling more copies, no matter how secret or ridiculous that dream might feel, I want there to at least be a path: Here's what the jump from 10 to 100 sales looks like, from 100 to 250, from 250 to 500. Here's what other authors have done.
A path doesn't guarantee anything. Every author and every book will reach a different finish line. But man, it's fun chasing those milestones. Your first time signing a book is a great milestone. Selling your book to a complete stranger at a book festival, that's a great milestone. A book club reading your work is another great milestone.
When I looked at Long Overdue's total book sales for 2025, I was pleasantly surprised. It's the benefit of having 25 titles in our bookstore now, rather than 4 or 5.
I was excited not so much by the number as by the potential for growth. We’ve only:
Scratched the surface on marketing
By no means figured out social media
TikTok and Instagram influencers: still a mystery to me.
Podcasts and YouTube channels: untapped
We attend two book festivals a year (in Chicago and Austin). There are at least ten more we could go to
We didn't have a pop-up bookstore event last year
We aren’t in a lot of physical bookstores
We can still grow with Amazon, Kindle, and audiobooks
It’s time to figure this out.
My strategy for 2026 goes beyond checking out a book from the library. I'm bringing in help. People with more skill and experience than me. A few examples of how this is playing out:
Author/Book Takeovers - If you follow our Instagram page, you'll notice new "two-week takeovers" where all the posts are about one author and their book(s). Right now, Nicole Gary is doing a fantastic job running the Acrimons takeover. I want to keep these two-week takeovers running all year.
Influencers - I'm convinced this is the most effective marketing channel for books (aside from word-of-mouth from readers). BookTok and Bookstagram. One of our books, Inescapable Light, was picked up by an influencer, and I immediately saw 10-15 sales that day. What would it look like to have 100 influencers posting about our books?
Book Festivals - I realized last year that I don't have to be there for all eight hours, both days of a festival. I love doing it, but it doesn't scale. My approach this year is to apply to more festivals, pursue more pop-ups, but make it a team effort. Just like designing book covers, editing books, typesetting, and navigating sales channels, there are team members who are better at running the booth
Alright, you ready for some fun? Time for the bigger dreams.
Yes, I want to get our books into more bookstores, but I also want to open a "bookstore for writers."
With a little help from AI, here's what the shop might look like:
One side for writers. One side for readers.
Small twist: The books on the shelves would be 80-90% Long Overdue books. The other 10-20% would be classics with "Author Deep Dive" lessons. Commentary on what makes East of Eden so great. What tools can authors and aspiring authors learn from Jane Austen?
But again, baby steps. I'm not signing a lease any time soon. Here are the smaller building block goals:
More pop-up bookstore events
Rent a physical storefront for November and December during peak holiday/book-buying season
A bookstore on wheels
Again, a little AI help for the bookstore on wheels. What I'm picturing is a Honda Element from the 2005 - 2009 range converted into a mobile bookstore. These run about $5k to $10k. If it's a hit, we can maybe scale up to a bigger vehicle. But how cool would this be?
Dreams from 2025: The Big Dream
However, when I'm honest with myself, that's not where I want Long Overdue's story to end. Not at all. When I have the courage to write it -- gulp -- my big dream for Long Overdue is to be as big as Netflix.
You don't know how many times I've deleted that last sentence. It sounds absolutely nuts because it is nuts. Imagine the Super Bowl betting odds on that outcome.
Alright. It was all fun and games until this part of last year's post. This is my north star, and it still feels outrageous to admit.
But here's how my daydream plays out. We go from 30 to 50 books. Then 50 to 100. Then the daydream becomes the day job. We land our first movie or TV show. Then we do it again. And again. By this point, we have a "Long Overdue Bookstore for Writers" in Chicago. And one in Traverse City, Michigan. Add a couple more popping up across the Midwest. We've got our little Honda Element Bookstore on Wheels cruising around the country. Then we upgrade it to one of those old Chicago Public Library bookmobiles, or maybe we convert a yellow school bus.
That secretly feels attainable…
If Long Overdue grew* to that size, well, the Netflix of 2026 still feels lightyears away. But it wouldn't be that far off from the Netflix of, say, 2005. Then I'd start writing another one of these “Dreaming in January” posts to kick off the next climb.
(*The reality check editor took over there. I didn't have the confidence to write "WHEN Long Overdue grows to that size...")
But I will make one small edit. I’d like to change “grow as big as Netflix” to “grow as big as Barnes and Noble.” Not so much downsizing the dream, but embracing my old-school love of physical media. I love physical books. I worked for newspapers. Even the dream of making movies still has a vision of physical movie theaters vs. going direct to streaming. I also love seeing the quiet resurgence of people buying 4K/Blu Rays/DVDs. Even Gen Z!
Going into a bookstore, or attending book festivals, or going to the movies and silencing the phone for a couple of hours is a necessary throwback to the late 1990s. That matters, being in-person. Experiencing the sense of community. Talking to other fans about the books, the movies, the scenes you loved. In a world of streaming and social media, and looking down at our phones, that nostalgic return to physical media, that little slice of the 90s feels Long Overdue.
2025 Conclusion (And this year's too)
And so I'll keep dreaming big, and I hope authors will keep dreaming big, too, and we'll work on these big dreams together, one smaller goal at a time.
February: Paternity Leave
One small caveat: There's an even bigger dream on the horizon. My wife, Ashley, is now 38 weeks pregnant, and our daughter, Addison, could be here any day now.
So, and this feels humorous to write two paragraphs after mapping out all those big dreams and plans for the business in 2026, but I'll be stepping away for the month of February to be in full new-baby-Dad mode. Our team will continue to move the five books toward the finish line, but new projects or conversations will resume on March 1st.
"Yeah, love hearing those big dreams. You know my big dream? That you don't take me to get a haircut 5 days before a polar vortex next time. Could've really used that extra fur."
-Crash, Team Dog
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Also, if you have any questions, ideas, stories to tell, you can reach Cal the Librarian at - library@longoverduestories.com
