A second blog post! Will this be an annual thing?
Since my previous blog, a year has passed, filled with writing, covid related topics, and the release of two books. Last year I posted my first blog post ever, and I had planned to blog more, but in the end, I never found something interesting enough to share. I guess that's odd for a writer, especially one that always has too many ideas for stories and too little time to write them all.
Although I still have nothing world shatteringly exciting to write here, I'll share what has happened since the release of my first book up till now, starting with the release of my second book. As a caveat - no editor has read through this, so there will be odd mistakes in the post!
So, mid-last-year, I released Again and Again, and it's safe to say it wasn't the success I had hoped. I had written the story for a competition, and it was meant to be a bit of a depressing story with a hidden substory. Somehow, I thought people might pick up on it and enjoy something that wasn't the usual hero's journey. I'm still not sure how many people enjoyed it, but in the end, slightly more people rated it higher than lower. Sadly, the result of this was a bit more than 3.5 stars on Amazon. I followed the results both in reviews/ratings and sales as the days passed but stopped after a month. Sales and reads plummeted as soon as the star rating went below 4.5 and stopped entirely when it went below 4.0. Oddly, the thing that bothered me the most wasn't the sales, but that there wasn't a single reaction that indicated someone found the story's hidden meaning, nor the classic that inspired me to write it. Apparently, I still have more to learn about telling a good story than I had thought.
As any author can tell you, having a story you enjoyed writing pan out, especially with some harsh reviews, can be 'cleansing' for the soul, to say the least.
Luckily right now, I still enjoy writing more than the results, so after a few evenings of hoping for better results, I shrugged and finished Nothing but bones part two while starting another story on RoyalRoad.
Nothing but bones two's first draft went smoother than I had thought, and I finished it in a few months. After that, the editing took much longer, and when an editor-ready draft was finally done, it was October. After contacting the editor that did Again and Again, I planned for a March release of the next year, leaving myself with a few months in case things went wrong.
It appears things can go more wrong than I had expected. Somewhere in January, my editor stopped being responsive, and when I finally realized the trouble I was in, it was February. Not sure what was going on, I managed to get the editor of NBB1 to reserve time to edit the remainder of NBB2 as fast as he could. If you ever read this, Paul, thanks! You're the best!
A month later, mid editing, I got a message from the sister of my editor telling me she had had a stroke but was recovering. Amanda, be well!
With all the edits I had to go through and some unfortunate mistakes, the book wasn't fully edited until mid-march. With lots of things left to do, like creating the Amazon-ready epub, I knew I had no other choice and delayed the book. As I'm just a small-time author, I don't think many people were holding their breath, but it still felt like a loss to me.
In late April, I had everything ready and put the book up for pre-order on Amazon. Things went better than I had thought, with a few people actually pre-ordering the book, making the first day the book was available my best day yet. After that, I was pleased to see that new people began finding book one, reading it, and then book two. Most of the reviews and ratings showed people were enjoying the book, and I started fleshing out the outlining for book three, the last in the trilogy about Solus.
It's too early to see if NBB2 will earn enough to compensate for the editing and cover expenses, and after that, how long it will take for there to be enough money to have book three edited. I hope it will be somewhere mid this year, but with only three books released, I don't have a lot of data to base my assumptions on yet.
As all of this was going on, Kernstalion, the story I had started on RoyalRoad, was picking up more steam than anything I've written yet, even reaching trending for a few days! Enjoying the little success, I put Minlings on Hiatus and focused on Kernstalion. Deciding against artificially shortening the story to fit within the 120 to 150k word range that seems normal these days, I just continued writing and finished the first book in early April. This first draft ended up being 230k words, and if any of my previous stories are an indication, it will only grow during editing. I have no idea yet how I'll find funds to have it edited... but that's a problem for next year.
This year I'll focus on Nothing but bones three and a short story in the same universe that I'm having a blast writing right now. The short story will release before book three and explains a few things that happened in books one and two while deepening the universe's lore. The first draft is being released on my Patreon right now, as will the first draft of NBB3.
So that should cover last year and this year. I'll see if I can think of a more interesting topic to blog about before 2022... but no promises!
To everyone that reads this: I wish you strength, health, and happiness during these troublesome times!
- John
Although I still have nothing world shatteringly exciting to write here, I'll share what has happened since the release of my first book up till now, starting with the release of my second book. As a caveat - no editor has read through this, so there will be odd mistakes in the post!
So, mid-last-year, I released Again and Again, and it's safe to say it wasn't the success I had hoped. I had written the story for a competition, and it was meant to be a bit of a depressing story with a hidden substory. Somehow, I thought people might pick up on it and enjoy something that wasn't the usual hero's journey. I'm still not sure how many people enjoyed it, but in the end, slightly more people rated it higher than lower. Sadly, the result of this was a bit more than 3.5 stars on Amazon. I followed the results both in reviews/ratings and sales as the days passed but stopped after a month. Sales and reads plummeted as soon as the star rating went below 4.5 and stopped entirely when it went below 4.0. Oddly, the thing that bothered me the most wasn't the sales, but that there wasn't a single reaction that indicated someone found the story's hidden meaning, nor the classic that inspired me to write it. Apparently, I still have more to learn about telling a good story than I had thought.
As any author can tell you, having a story you enjoyed writing pan out, especially with some harsh reviews, can be 'cleansing' for the soul, to say the least.
Luckily right now, I still enjoy writing more than the results, so after a few evenings of hoping for better results, I shrugged and finished Nothing but bones part two while starting another story on RoyalRoad.
Nothing but bones two's first draft went smoother than I had thought, and I finished it in a few months. After that, the editing took much longer, and when an editor-ready draft was finally done, it was October. After contacting the editor that did Again and Again, I planned for a March release of the next year, leaving myself with a few months in case things went wrong.
It appears things can go more wrong than I had expected. Somewhere in January, my editor stopped being responsive, and when I finally realized the trouble I was in, it was February. Not sure what was going on, I managed to get the editor of NBB1 to reserve time to edit the remainder of NBB2 as fast as he could. If you ever read this, Paul, thanks! You're the best!
A month later, mid editing, I got a message from the sister of my editor telling me she had had a stroke but was recovering. Amanda, be well!
With all the edits I had to go through and some unfortunate mistakes, the book wasn't fully edited until mid-march. With lots of things left to do, like creating the Amazon-ready epub, I knew I had no other choice and delayed the book. As I'm just a small-time author, I don't think many people were holding their breath, but it still felt like a loss to me.
In late April, I had everything ready and put the book up for pre-order on Amazon. Things went better than I had thought, with a few people actually pre-ordering the book, making the first day the book was available my best day yet. After that, I was pleased to see that new people began finding book one, reading it, and then book two. Most of the reviews and ratings showed people were enjoying the book, and I started fleshing out the outlining for book three, the last in the trilogy about Solus.
It's too early to see if NBB2 will earn enough to compensate for the editing and cover expenses, and after that, how long it will take for there to be enough money to have book three edited. I hope it will be somewhere mid this year, but with only three books released, I don't have a lot of data to base my assumptions on yet.
As all of this was going on, Kernstalion, the story I had started on RoyalRoad, was picking up more steam than anything I've written yet, even reaching trending for a few days! Enjoying the little success, I put Minlings on Hiatus and focused on Kernstalion. Deciding against artificially shortening the story to fit within the 120 to 150k word range that seems normal these days, I just continued writing and finished the first book in early April. This first draft ended up being 230k words, and if any of my previous stories are an indication, it will only grow during editing. I have no idea yet how I'll find funds to have it edited... but that's a problem for next year.
This year I'll focus on Nothing but bones three and a short story in the same universe that I'm having a blast writing right now. The short story will release before book three and explains a few things that happened in books one and two while deepening the universe's lore. The first draft is being released on my Patreon right now, as will the first draft of NBB3.
So that should cover last year and this year. I'll see if I can think of a more interesting topic to blog about before 2022... but no promises!
To everyone that reads this: I wish you strength, health, and happiness during these troublesome times!
- John
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