After I brought my board game to the hard-won milestone of being fun, my next step was going to focus on creating content and art. It seemed like a sensible next step. But a little voice was telling me to write books about the game’s universe. The longer I listened and wrestled with this voice, the more it made sense. The flavor from novels could spice up the game.

In December I put my game on the back-burner and outlined a seven-book series. In January, I began writing the first draft of book 1, and it’s 90% finished, with only a few scenes left. It feels like I’m cranking out gold for a reason beyond my artistic satisfaction. I’m geeked-up mostly because it feels like I’m fixing things in an exciting new genre, called litRPG. I’m calling this style of writing RPG Fiction.

What is RPG Fiction?

A new style of story-telling emerged in Russian a decade ago, called source site litRPG, or literary role-playing game. Since then, Russian writers have translated their novels, and English-speaking authors have since joined them. It has become popular in countries like Japan and South Korea, but it’s still an undiscovered subculture for most Americans. I’ve known about it less than a year, but I’ve been ravenously devouring these books.

It’s easiest to explain litRPG by comparing it to Jumanji 2. The story’s main character’s play avatars that are fully aware that they’re inside a fictional video game. They aren’t just in virtual worlds like Snowcrash, The Matrix, or Ready Player One, a true litRPG character interfaces with game mechanics like health, experience points, items, spell acquisition, and NPCs.

We’ll see another look at this style of story-telling this summer: Ryan Reynolds is coming out with a movie called Free Guy, about a person who realizes Earth is a giant MMORPG, and I have high hopes for it. I think once people understand what this genre is, it’s going to explode. Why? Because it is that freaking good.

How popular is litRPG?

The reason why authors self-publish is that it’s more lucrative. litRPG books are selling well on Amazon, so why bother with the headaches of working with a corporate sponsor? How lucrative? Let’s look at some of the rankings.

http://amvetsnebraska.org/?b=tramadol-and-wellbutrin Book	buy neo medrol acne lotion online Year	Amazon Reviews
Book 1: Misborn	2010	2,600
Book 1: The Magicians	2009	2,900
Book1: Perdido St. Station	2003	700
lamotrigine usp Book 1: Creatures and Caverns	2012	see 1,100 (litRPG)
cialis 0.25 mg Book 1: The Land	2015	robaxin without prescription 4,100 (litRPG)
quetiapine er 50 mg Book 1: Awaken Online	2016	http://arconarchitects.com/?h=sofosbuvir-velpatasvir-cost-in-india 2,100 (litRPG)

Since Amazon rankings fluctuate, consider the customer reviews of fantasy mega-hits next to those of popular litRPG titles. It’s impossible to know for sure, but these side-by-side comparisons show that litRPG is doing very well.

As I write this, the Goodreads app lists only 773 books with litRPG in the title. Authors do this too because there is no genre for it. Despite this small number, litRPG books comprise about 6% of swords and sorcery top-sellers. A recent litRPG book peaked in sales at #5 (out of 32 million). This genre is selling, but why hasn’t it broken into the mainstream?

Why isn’t litRPG more well-known?

This movement is still underground because its top authors are all self-published. But there are other challenges.

litRPG doesn’t sound like a worthy genre. Video games haven’t transcended into other media: Past attempt has resulted in terrible movies, and there’s often a stink on licensed products. But contrast this failure with comic books and anime: They enjoy a healthy cross-pollination of films, toys, shows, and, yes, video games.

The name “litRPG” is a weird, confusing name, and it doesn’t explain itself very well. It’s not apparent why stories set inside games make for compelling reading. And litRPG sounds like it’s a licensed novel (i.e., stories set in the Warcraft or Star Wars universe).

litRPG readers are working blind. Without a publisher, there’s no one vouching for or maintaining quality, and that includes editors with enough clout to say, “Whoa, you can put that in there!” Without publishers, there is no advertising or retail presence; there’s no brand, like Marvel or DC; there’s no safe on-ramp for new customers to cut their teeth on. Without all this, it takes a lot of digging to find good books.

litRPG is pulp fiction. The absence of a publisher means there is no editor to supervise the content. While this makes for incredibly creative pockets of brilliance, but readers must navigate a mine-field of disturbing scenes to reach them. While RPGs employ violence, litRPG authors sometimes tend to take things to uncomfortable levels. There are graphic torture scenes, make an otherwise enjoyable story unpalatable. Avenging rape victims is a common theme. Some authors even pepper their stories (set in fantasy MMO universes) with real-world political commentary; some are racist and nationalist.

Many litRPG authors don’t appear to like gaming. In many books, the aspect of being embedded in an RPG is tangential at best. Its obvious that some young adult fantasy writers are just cashing in on this category because it sells well on Amazon. When much of their story takes place out-of-game or between NPCs, it’s clear they’re dressing up their fantasy sagas only in the guise of an MMORPG. They often portray gamers as stereotypes; their portrayal of developers is usually worse. Devs are almost always evil: They are “steely-eyed suits being followed around by corporate analysts.” This kind of characterization is just plain lazy. Any Google search informs these writers how to write credible devs into their stories. (Or they can buy The World of Warcraft Diary on Amazon.com, hehe.) For reasons beyond my understanding, many books end with the main character destroying the MMORPG itself, which is quite a hostile comment on gaming. Instead of slaying the dragon, or the orc king, protagonists tend to destroy the game…which, I’m guessing, is supposed to be a good ending because games are a waste of time, right?

Much of the writing is immature. Many litRPG authors wallow in corny jokes and puns. There’s an abundance of references to internet memes, slang, and pop-culture that date the book. There are too many campy jokes, potty humor gets old fast, and it just strikes me as someone who doesn’t take their work seriously.

Attitudes toward sex and females are disturbing. Main characters commonly make blatant chauvinism and sexist remarks. I’ve yet to find a female main character in a top-selling series. I’m not one of these guys who bend over backward to find innuendos and insult where there isn’t any, but half the books I’ve read contain shocking opinions about females. This attitude is probably the biggest reason why litRPG hasn’t hit the mainstream.

Why RPG Fiction and not litRPG?

RPG fiction is a better term. The Russian translation, “litRPG,” doesn’t explain itself…because “lit” isn’t a common abbreviation for anything, and placing in front of RPG is just weird. It’s probably too late to distance my own books from litRPG entirely, but so many readers haven’t heard of the genre, I figured it might be worth a try.

There is also an author of a popular series who is aggressively trying to trademark the words litRPG, and who was smart enough to acquire the litrpg.com URL. He also calls himself “The Father of litRPG” even though he started writing years after its pioneers, so advertising the phrase “litrpg” only boosts his sales.

Why is this genre so good?

Despite the issues I’ve listed, these books are the most addictive reading I’ve encountered, and my reading tastes are broad. When done correctly, these books capture the spirit of gaming and fuel the gaming itch to “see what happens next.”

RPG fiction is addictive. Like games, RPG fiction always moves forward, usually towards understandable goals. After establishing the rules, characters hit the ground running toward their short or long-term goals.

RPG Characters always develop. At the end of the story, Conan is the same barbarian he was at the beginning. RPGs aren’t so static: Characters learn new spells, improve their gear, and grow their village. This development isn’t in lieu of story or character; it’s in addition to. These incremental changes pull the reader through the story, making the books hard to put down. Once you’ve experienced this pull, you’ll never go back to traditional fantasy.

Combat is more exciting. RPG fiction describes action better than any other type of literature. RPGs have a built-in vocabulary that is both concise and precise. Readers understand the level of danger a character is in when their health is only 10/150. Knowing what can and what cannot happen in the MMORPG universe creates more tension. The audience understands what “tanking a boss” means. Mana costs and creature levels give a deeper understanding of what’s happening in the chaos of battle.

Because there is a shared vocabulary, it takes fewer words to accurately describe things: This was always a weakness of literature: Unlike movies, books can’t depict action scenes well without a high word count. Readers can get lost in paragraphs describing precisely how James Bond escapes from the death laser. RPGs don’t have this problem. Their economy of quantified descriptions (like a monster being “level 35”) and defined terms (such as “casting Fireball”) allows writers to paint a more detailed picture.

RPG fiction is more immersive. Tradition fantasy sticks to mostly lore and character development, and can only gloss over other aspects of the world. RPG writers can quickly relate to how magic, combat, items, crafting, village construction, or morale works. If a character has 450/1000 toward a friendly reputation with the Blacktooth Orcs, the readers expect that they’re probably neutral with the orcs and can safely travel their lands. When the character is 990/1000 toward being friendly, there’s a sense of excitement, that there might be a reward or new shopkeeper available when they cross the “friendly” threshold.

Like Brandon Sanderson’s novels, RPG defines and quantifies the world. The readers aren’t passive observers; they understand and are involved with what’s going on. Compare this to Lord of the Rings: We never understood Gandolf’s capabilities. But RPG readers know why magic users avoid melee with warriors. They understand concepts like tanking and crowd-control. They can enjoy guessing how a protagonist might use their items and abilities to survive an encounter.

RPGs are incredibly fertile ground for story-telling. Do you ever get the feeling that you’re surrounded by hyper-creativity when you walk into a comics store? That’s what RPG fiction feels like. The many ways an RPG can come alive lies at the heart of this genre. NPCs or monsters can become self-aware and behave differently. Players could become monsters or boss monsters, and play an MMO from a different perspective, by organizing resistance against other players. Aliens could turn Earth into an MMORPG.

Some books focus on characters crafting items; others on village-building. Characters often have amusing relationships with their pets, who also develop new abilities over the course of a story. Battles range from siege to duels. Dungeons are particularly inventive. There’s even a crazy subcategory called Dungeon Core fiction, wherein the protagonist becomes a dungeon–and the story comes from its perspective! Their plot is set in fantasy, science fiction, or post-apocalyptic MMORPGs. There are scenarios where the Earth becomes “gamified” by aliens or gods.

What am I writing then?

I’m following the typical Blizzard formula: Find a cool proof-of-concept that I enjoy (something that already has a market), identify its flaws, and develop something that is so polished that it’s obviously better than what’s already out there. It’s a tall order, but it just takes hard work.

While I realize these novels may spice up my board game, I’m really writing them because I’m passionate about this genre. Ever since Steve Glicker, from the RPG podcast RollforCombat.com, tipped me off to it, I’ve been obsessed with it. Steve is going to run a contest for RPG fans to create their own monsters, and its winners will see beasties inside my books. How cool is that? I’m going to review popular litRPG series, so readers may connect with authors and make their own decisions.

Aside from book reviews, I am focused on my seven-book series that’s set inside a fantasy MMORPG (it will have a conclusion). My board game will come after, and I think the flavor I put into these books will make the board game more interesting. Seven books may sound like a lot, but when you start reading RPG fiction, you’ll understand why it’s so addictive. I’m going to release several books at once, and I’ll publish in eBook, print, and audiobook formats. While the physical books will be cheaper because the pages aren’t full-color, I’ll probably run a Kickstarter campaign to help pay for the editing, printing, sound engineering, and fulfillment costs.

The year after my Kickstarter went as expected. I learned about fulfillment and distribution logistics, and playtested my upcoming board game. I surpassed milestones in both regards. Now that a year behind me, and my Kickstarter backers have been taken care of, I feel comfortable lowering the Amazon price of The WoW Diary back to Kickstarter levels.

I’m also selling extra copies of The WoW Diary slipcase edition, which doesn’t have the Kickstarter extras except the spot-varnished pictures, so it’s still a crazy-high quality book. I signed a hundred copies and sent them to Amazon. Each contains a companion booklet of promotional articles about post-launch drama and things we learned after WoW went live. Order it while supplies last!

Board Game News: Fun Ho!

It looks like my simplified RPG is turning out as well as I hoped. Thorough playtesting and iteration are showing that my game’s mechanics are going to be enjoyable in the long run. I’ve done more than two years of playtesting from coast to coast, and I have a working proof of concept. Finding fun was always the primary concern in the early stages of development, so I’m happy to say I’ve crossed that milestone. My game solves something that has been missing from the RPG genre, but innovation isn’t always fun, and I had to make sure I wasn’t giving up one for the other.

My game boils down the RPG genre into two elements: Boss fights & loot. Both were hard nuts to crack, especially when I’m simplifying the RPG experience into something palatable for the casual audience. In each dungeon, players fight four bosses; each fight takes between 15-20 minutes, and full-clears have taken playtesters between an hour and 80 minutes to complete…including teaching time.

If you’re interested in the game’s progress, sign up to my mailing list in the sidebar (I haven’t sent any emails yet, so don’t worry about spam), and I’ll let you know when I’m ready to announce the game’s Kickstarter.

Starting at the beginning of 2020, I’m going to focus on content creation and art, which are my next hurdles to cross. With content, I’ll need to playtest entire campaigns, and balance the loot. With art, I hope to raise the bar and spend a little more time on visuals than you normally see in a board game. I’ve been cruising through museums (Cleveland, NYC, Philly) and artist alleys at some of the biggest cons to build a roster of top-tier artists. Fantasy art has been in a rut, so I’m looking for abstract depictions of monsters. I’m leaning toward fine art examples, like Postmodernism and the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th century, but ultimately, I’ll have to see what works.

I’m happy to say The WoW Diary is finally available on Amazon and as a PDF on my online store. It was no small matter shipping my Kickstarter rewards, 99.99% of which have been delivered. Month-long waits for Canadian customers will soon be eliminated after my inventory reaches the Amazon.ca fulfillment center in Calgary. I’ve learned so much about fulfillment and inventory management that I could write quite a lengthy article on the subject; although I suspect the average reader would find such an essay to be of little interest.

I’ve made barely any effort (or progress) in retail distribution, but retail margins are so thin, it’s unlikely I’ll lose sleep over it.

As I move forward promoting my book, I’m making myself available for podcasts again (checkout my appearances on Countdown to Classic), and I’m publishing a number of excerpts from the book for promotion. I realize now that The WoW Diary is ideal for this, since its essays are mostly bite-sized. I could have used them during my Kickstarter, but that’s only a hindsight realization.

I’m hoping to translate my book into Chinese, but the costs are insane, and the Chinese audience can’t afford hardcover prices. I’m even toying with the idea of a Chinese crowdfunding campaign, but it’s questionable whether the expenditure on such a campaign will be justified.

Board Game Progress

I’ve passed a couple milestones for my board game (my second project), although much of it is being redone from scratch. Even with years of research and prototypes, playtests often reveals flaws that require major changes. I expected this from the onset, and what I’m working on is more exciting than I originally imagined, a dungeon crawl for the casual audience. I hope to open up the genre the way Diablo did. If anyone can remember video games in the 1990s, RPGs were niche titles until Diablo conquered the market. I want to make something that features tactical combat, loot, and boss fights with simple rules, short set-up times, and 90-minute play sessions.

To meet these goals, I’m actively playtesting my game with other designers in the Cleveland area. My fulfillment experience with The WoW Diary has influenced my manufacturing plans: I’m pricing components to deliver the most bang for the buck with possibilities like ceramic pieces and plastic injection molds. I’m also learning from publishers about the industry, especially during cons (Pax Unplugged in Philly, Origins in Columbus, and GenCon in Indianapolis). So far, it’s already been an interesting ride.

If you missed The WoW Diary Kickstarter you can get a copy until mid-October. We could only get enough paper for 10,000 copies. But we’ll be printing the non-Kickstarter version soon after, and it will be made available on Amazon in early 2019.

I was so blitzed by my Kickstarter, I didn’t even attempt to make a coherent update on my homepage, although many things transpire and were covered in my Kickstarter updates. The coolest news was we shattered Kickstarter’s fund-raising record for our category, nonfiction publishing. The WoW Diary raised roughly 33% more than its previous record-holder, and placed in the top-five over all publishing, behind three podcast-driven projects and, well, The Bible.

The success was borne on the wings of my backers and advisers, both of whom were many. I’m already on day-two of my pre-press production schedule. I’m updating my backers as I move forward, so check out my Kickstarter page for whenitsready’s many, many goings-on. 

Despite my DSL dying Kickstarter Eve, The WoW Diary Kickstarter is very much alive. I spent the first eight hours hunched over the Ask Me Anything about Developing Vanilla WoW Event on reddit/wow/. I didn’t even look at the Kickstarter campaign during the 8-hour AMA, although reddit peeps posted news when it funded (it took about 8 minutes). This is all old news, but good news.

I’ve collected some of my interviews and promotional materials for anyone interested in a preview of The WoW Diary’s level of detail. Feedback is very positive for my Scholomance article. I’ll have a second promotional article available next Monday on Wowhead.

The WoW Diary is the seventh largest non-fiction Kickstarter in history! The sheer number of the Kickstarter backers has changed logistics; increasing the preparation I need to do for the post-campaign fulfillment and data management. I’m also looking into ways to alleviate shipping costs for overseas, but I am dubious.

The Kickstarter campaign for The WoW Diary will launch August 28th at 2 PM EST. I got helpful advice from lots of people, the most recent of which was board game maker named Gerald King III of Ultimate Team Up. It was Gerald’s idea to tweet quotes from my book, and my followers seem very receptive. He’s in the center of the Midwest’s board game development community, and is incredibly proactive and supportive. He has vast networking skills. He’s connected me to the editor-in-chief of Source Point Press, Travis McIntire (who also runs Deepwater Games) and Jacob Way of KrakenPrint. Their advice convinced me to scale back my Kickstarter text from sounding all professional and shit, so my campaign has lot more personality to it–and I’m no longer referring to myself in (gag) third-person. When I talked to an old WoW teammate, Mark Kern, he said basically the same thing, although Mark was the first person to point me in the right direction.

I’m doing a live stream tonight with Countdown to Classic at 7 PM EST. I dunno when Danger Dolan’s interview get’s posted but I’ve got a couple more shows (I’m recording tomorrow with Soupa Soka and Monday with Patrick Beja of Icy-Veins.com’s podcast). I’ve more interviews down the pipe, but overall the streamers are focusing on covering Battle for Azeroth (go figure!), so if you know anyone hosting a channel, who can get the word out about my book, have their people call my people. I enjoy interviews. 😉

My promotional articles will be hosted by Wowhead.com on Monday the 27th. Much props go to Perculia for helping me get that together.

I’ve also a couple Facebook group AMAs (ask me anythings) scheduled, but we’ll see how that goes…it’s all a learning process.

I’ve been quiet because updates are counterproductive when legal matters are involved: You’re either signed or you’re not, there’s no such thing as “almost there.” The good news is I am signed and moving forward again. Blizzard and I have amended the licensing agreement to allow for electronic distribution, and four months isn’t terribly long for legal agreements, so everybody just quitcher bitchin.

My new Kickstarter has been updated to include PDFs, eBooks, and signed copies, although you’ll still get the best bang for your buck with the book, the whole book, and nothing but the book. My new campaign will also have some promotion (which will be nice). Said promotion will include, but not be limited to: Tweeting quotes from The WoW Diary, (follow me on @JohnStaats_WIR or my facebook page if you’re interested), interviews, promotional articles with post-launch WoW stories, podcast and YouTube appearances. The arrow isn’t in flight quite yet, but I’m hoping to launch my Kickstarter on Tuesday, August 28th.

I’m now in Akron, Ohio. I didn’t realize my home state had turned into such an active community for board game development. I’ve made some design milestones (cutting, cutting, cutting) in my tabletop game, so after this WoW Diary storm blows over, I’ll be more focused on board game development in 2019.

The WoW Diary will happen, just not in this recent Kickstarter campaign. I’m guessing the least obnoxious thing is to let it run its course before I put it out of its misery. I figure there’s no sense in creating broken links for the people supportive enough to post them. Sorry about all the confusion.

I will launch another Kickstarter for this project. Let’s review the things I learned:

First off, my funding goal will be less totally insane. The next goal will be ~$40,000 and run for 30 days (not 14). If I sell out 1,000 copies early, I’ll just add more goals. Secondly, I’ll reach more people around the globe, assuming the bug that dropped availability to random countries has been fixed. If not, copies will be available on Amazon a month or so later. I’m also eschewing the dubious Canadian Heritage Act. If they deport me for selling books with intent to educate, then so be it.

The next Kickstarter will include an eBook version. It will be without my fancy layouts and images because they break the dynamic formatting of eBooks. I can’t distribute Blizzard’s images in eBooks anyway, so there it is. I am on the fence about using a lower quality printing press and paper stock to reduce costs. I’m not yet ready to pull the trigger on this. Quality matters. Lastly, I will be much better prepared to market this book. I was woefully naive about getting the word out and better understand the mechanics behind PR. The WoW Diary’s next campaign will begin probably start between 1-4 months. Timing will almost wholly depend on marketing costs and schedules. I need to learn the business behind eBook formatting and distribution but it should be easier compared to print.

The most important thing for anyone who wants to know when the next Kickstarter will begin, is to include their email on my spam-free preview list. I only will send messages for major updates (once or twice a year). Thank you for your patience!

If I knew how to track the visitors to my page, I’d probably see that I was the only person checking it out. That’s fine. With all the HTMLing and WordPressing involved, it’s good to iron out the mistakes outside the reach of a spotlight. But a spotlight is what I soon shall be under. With the slowly turning wheels of legal agreements behind me, I’m planning on revealing my Kickstarter campaign on a podcast I participate in, called Roll For Combat. Let’s call this post “Announcing an Announcement about an Pre-sales for my book.” My pal Steve runs the podcast, and he records my friends and I playing Pazio’s Starfinder campaign, called Dead Suns. Starfinder is a new tabletop RPG system, similar to Pathfinder, but it’s rules are slightly more elegant in a Next Gen sort of way. Steve is treating our group to a vacation in Seattle for the PaizoCon, and he’s running a contest on rollforcombat.com for a free trip the the con. If you endorse this sort of behavior, feel free to support our efforts on Roll For Combat’s Patreon page.

Anyhoo, I’ll be at the PaizoCon. Steve signed us up for an interview about my book and we’ll probably do a panel for our podcast. It’ll fun seeing my podcast friends again, Steve, Jason, Chris, and Bob. I’m so lonely here in Nevada, I even want to hang out with Bob! Cray-cray, right?

So look for all this good stuff! We also have a podcast preview about my book on rollforcombat.com, heralding The World of Warcraft Diary’s crowd-funding campaign. There’s probably an Inception-like trick using a totem; one that prevents these announcements within announcements from inverting our reality–but so far it’s not working. My totem still spins.

The bad news: I learned a very important lesson: Don’t believe everything customer service reps say on the phone. If they don’t email you details, they might just be making stuff up to make you happy. I just discovered Amazon can only fulfill 5,000 units of Kickstarter inventory so I’m looking for a 3rd party to send my Kickstarter peeps their rewards. Amazon also limits how many books a publisher can store in their inventory at a time (5,000 copies). With a 2-3 week delivery/restocking process, I’m not even killing enough trees to make the NY Times Best-seller list (which I won’t qualify for anyway because my sales are online). Once sold out, I’m allowed to petition Amazon for an increase in my storage limit–from which they’ll decide how much more space to give (it’s always a fractional, at most a 0.6 increase). I’m not going to be setting any selling records, that’s for sure. It looks like the first volley of books from my Kickstarter campaign will be 30,000 copies + 5,000 more on Amazon.

The good news: I’m reminded how much fun it is to talk to printers. It means I’m nearing the end of a project.

The only time I ever missed a printing deadline was in 1992, after an earthquake wrecked the SoCal printer doing my job. Now and then, force majeure has its day.

Talking to the printers confirms my suspicions about the size and complexity of The WoW Diary. The scope is well within our ability but it’s going to require careful preparation. Luckily, my Nevada isolation is fitting for such meticulous planning. They’re taking their time with their bids, I’m not rushing anything–which is good because I’m now resigned to shipping after the holiday season. I don’t need the extra pressure of Yuletide expectations.

Strangely enough, my shipping costs with Amazon go slightly up after the holidays, but it’s par for the course in learning how this company operates. While setting up all my account settings, I’ve learned Amazon allows a maximum inventory storage of 5,000 units; so it’s looking like The WoW Diary’s availability might be a bit spotty until I establish myself as an honorable merchant in their marketplace (the quaintness in this restriction seems somehow reassuring in today’s fast-money, Internet world).

Did you know “Yule” from Yuletide comes from the 900 A.D. Nordic cognate for Christmas? When the Danes and Vikings settled/conquered East England they brought their language with them. We can thank them as much as the French for bringing so many synonyms into our language. For instance: to be sick is English, to be ill is Danish, and to have a malady is French. Pig is English, Pork is French, and swine is Danish. Cool, eh?

I finally plugged in the shipping values into my Kickstarter campaign. I’m not overly impressed with their gizmo for calculating shipping costs. It seems like there’s a floating point error when you duplicate a reward because some of the countries drops out of the list of options–which is annoying. I’ve plugged in their values over and over, but random nations drop out the list of countries I can reach. It’s too much typing, I’m going to email them and call it a day.

Strange fact: Apparently Canada is protecting their heritage by stopping American booksellers from shipping books to its citizens. Seriously? Is the American literary industry really a negative influence? Not our stupid Hollywood films, DVDs, or video games? They’re keeping books from being exported into Canada?

I solicit printers tomorrow! I’m looking at my notes for this books printing, hoo-boy, it’s a complicated job.

No more typing today. My hands hurt. I need to get a heavy vase so I can fill it up with hot water and soak my widdle paws.

Lots of progress with the business. I’m done with the technical parts of my website. A backend bug with the Caldera plugin that was plaguing me for two weeks is no more. I’ve also finished my Kickstarter campaign page, but I haven’t submitted it for approval yet. I just started my Seller’s Account and am watching and reading all of Amazon’s videos and PDFs about their labyrinthine marketplace functionality. I am integrating Amazon Associate functionality into this website, my Facebook page, and (eventually) my goodreads page. I’m also preparing a request for printing bids. Soon I’ll poke the top 8-10 printers in the US for samples of their work. Next week I hope to get their bids. I’m not entirely sure if bids come before or after samples. Regardless, today is all Amazon, Amazon, Amazon.

I’m using Oxford commas now. After enough run-ins with editors, you’d use them too. There’s all sorts of things you learn dealing with editors. Did you know that the word myriad refers to numbers greater than 10,000? If you had dozens of choices, it would be mathematically incorrect to say either, “I had a myriad of options,” or, “I had a myriad options.” It’s like the common misuse of the term decimate.

I also learned the minus symbol was thicker than the hyphen. Did I just blow your mind?

This is a test post to see if I like the look of my news page. This site details my company’s comings and goings so forgive the stream of consciousness I’m about to spill (unless you’re into James Joyce-like ramblings, I never was).

I’ve recently moved to Nevada because it’s less expensive than Orange County, and I’ll have a longer runway to get things done. I’ve found everything with this book seems to take four times longer than originally planned–so there’s no reason to think producing webpages and printing will be any faster than eighteen rounds of editing. Living and working by myself (I’m the only person who’s moved to Vegas to avoid distractions) will be helpful, because I’m managing many of non-creative tasks like fundraising, making a video, learning WordPress, managing an email list, handling printing, distribution, using Amazon’s marketplace, and all the legal issues in running an Amazon seller’s account. No matter how cheap the rent in CA, there’s no way I could do all that with roommates. Besides, having more than one room for all my stuff feels like a luxury.

I love Vegas because, like NYC, it’s a city grid, and I’ve never seen more stores and restaurants. I’m surprised the population can support them all. I think I mentioned this city was inexpensive. Dig this: I bought a used living room set for $650 but I’m beginning to think the $180 used mattress wasn’t a genuine Sealy. I knew the risks of Craiglist going into the purchase. I just wished I didn’t wake up with a backache but hopefully I’ll get used to it. A downside to my move was I had to upgrade my iPhone 5c to get calls over WiFi because my neighborhood has poor cellphone reception. That was a chunk of change I didn’t want to spend, but after missing critical calls, I splurged on a iPhone 7 over a 30-month plan. I missed a call from the movers and so they warehoused my belongings so I’m waiting four days to get my things. Right now, I’m living somewhat like a caveman squatter (except, not really). BTW, isn’t it great that a moving company isn’t open on weekends and doesn’t have a message machine?  My 2000 Ford Explorer didn’t like the trip across the desert. Semis were passing me on long, uphill grades, whereupon my top speed reached only 50 mph. The vehicle’s air conditioning doesn’t fare well in Nevada heat either. Half the time on the road, I just roll the windows down and let the 100 degree winds blow away the 110+ degree interior. If I drive back to CA I’ll need to rent a car. There’s NO way that truck will survive another caravan trek to the coast. Infrequent visits to OC will be especially disappointing because the worst thing about moving to Nevada wasn’t leaving my friends, but rather my [adopted] doggy behind. She’s technically not my pet, but I took care of her half the time. She’s going to be so bummed out that I’m not there, but her mommy stills play ball with her, so I am hopeful that she won’t miss me too much. Now I’m depressed. I think my future posts will be less personal.

This is gray text, although I’m not sure what HTML format it’s using. Maybe it’s just paragraph bold and colored gray. Seems to read well but I’m not entirely sure what I’d use it for. Possibly a caption? 

This is a picture of Marigolds. It’s a beauty, eh? Someone I know posted on Facebook about getting a HAM radio license and it made me think of the apocalyptic lyrics of a Steely Dan song: “Hello, one and all. Was it you I used to know? Can you hear me call on this old HAM radio?” Anyway there was a mention of marigolds so I thought this would work well for a placeholder picture. Not a bad way to end a test post–aside that it has nothing to do with publishing.