Wow. What a year it’s been. Our biggest yet! I can say without any doubt, that when Steve Beaulieu and I started AETHON 7 years ago, we never expected it to come this far. It was supposed to be a side thing. We’d be full-time authors who helped publish some author friends who wanted nothing to do with the actual job of publishing and marketing.
Today, that couldn’t be further from the truth. 1500+ books published and millions of sales later, instead, it seems we have found our calling. We’re proud to say that we are one of the 10 best-selling publishers on ALL of Audible, regardless of genre, and consistently rank amongst the highest in science fiction and fantasy on kindle. And now, we have an incredible deal with Overdrive to bring those titles to libraries as well.
We aren’t perfect, and like any publisher, we make mistakes, but our primary goal has always been simple: help authors earn real money from writing. Everything else is secondary. But not only authors. We have held the line against A.I. and work with dozens of editors, artists, and narrators from around the world, both employees and freelancers, helping them earn a living, working in the field they love.
Our partnership with WEBTOON continues to grow, which has allowed us to add many more human artists to our ranks. The Dungeon Crawler Carl Webcomic has been a hit. I can’t tell you how difficult it was for our art teams to adapt such a beloved and popular IP to a new medium while sticking close enough to the original story to keep most existing fans happy while appealing to new ones. They’ve done an unbelievable job on our biggest webcomic project to date, and we have dozens more coming such as He Who Fights with Monsters, Beware of Chicken, and Defiance of the Fall—just to name a few.
But 2025 wasn’t only about eBooks, audiobooks, and webcomics. This year we took steps to grow beyond a digitally-focused indie publisher of books—a process that has been as frightening as it is exciting. Starting with the acquisition of Vault Comics in January to Wicked House in October, we have worked tirelessly to keep our independent nature while entering the arena of retail for books and comics in new and creative ways.
In just one year, Vault has released the most successful independent comic of 2025 in Post Malone’s Big Rig, with 100s of thousands of units sold. We also started the AETHON: Vault Collection line of retail novels this Fall, with our first two projects selling out of their first print runs in a season we expected to be more of a learning process than anything.
I can say wholeheartedly, breaking into the retail space has been the most challenging task we’ve taken on yet. Together with the awesome Vault crew, we’ve spent 100s of hours this year just planning and meeting with reps from distributors and stores. It has been exhausting. I give so much credit to Damian and Adrian at Vault for dealing with our expectations as we try and do something that really has never been done before. And I can say after all those hours: The buzz for our 2026 lineup is strong.
Anyway, I apologize for the essay. 2025 was a huge success. We hope 2026 will be even better. I want to wish a sincere thank you to the entire AETHON staff who never stop working hard. Damian, Adrian and everyone else at Vault for growing with us. The Wicked House team for all the work we’ve put into crushing horror next year. All our cover artists and editors. Narrators. Art studios and art directors. To Steve who always trusts my crazy ideas and has become one of my closest friends in the world. And of course, to all you readers out there! Without you, we’d be publishing for nobody and wouldn’t be able to pay so many incredible humans to produce the content you love.
Happy New Years, and here’s to a brighter 2026!
Rhett Bruno (CEO, Aethon)
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