The WoW Diary Reprint Delays
The backers supporting The WoW Diary reprint still don’t have their rewards, and I recently learned my distribution partner, Nolan Nasser, left the company to pursue other interests. It explains why he’s been spotting on communicating the production status, but at least he’s on good terms with his old crew. Delays in printing, shipping, and a disconnect from working outside his office left many customers rightly frustrated. He hasn’t been drawing a salary to fulfill my orders, and this makes me feel guilty about hassling him, but I respect that he’s honoring his commitment.
Halfway through the Series Finale
More than any of my books, I worried about my series finale. In a Machiavellian way, my worst book could be my last, since all my readers would be hooked and more likely to forgive a wobbly ending. This scenario is the case with many fantasy authors. Many series peter out or don’t end, and the first books are usually the best. Maybe writers lose motivation or run out of ideas. Others tie loose ends with a resolution that comes out of nowhere.
I don’t respect writers who milk their audience, and set up ways to avoid this.
I started The Book of Dungeons with a plan on how to end it. But the ideas for my last book felt fuzzy, so I planned to combine books 6 and 7 in case I didn’t have enough quality content to justify another book. That’s one reason I didn’t waste time between books 6 and 7 because I wanted the tone and voice to hold together.
It seems like it won’t be necessary—book 7 is clicking together very well.
When book 6 ended on a satisfying note, I felt pressure to avoid following it with a 40,000-word novella. Book 7 needed to be solid, so I’m overjoyed to that book 7 is shaping up to be my strongest story. Much of this enthusiasm stems from the thrill of discovery writing. There’s nothing like writing your way out of a tight spot. Another part of it is being in love with your current project. I experienced this phenomenon when building dungeons in WoW. Building something is always more satisfying than seeing it built.
Authoring Advice
I discovered 20Books, a yearly summit for independent writers. It gave me a peek at some of the more popular litRPG authors and other successful stars the business. I don’t agree with all their artistic choices, but they’ve cracked the code on advertising and making money in self-publishing. YouTube has over a hundred talks about Amazon, Facebook, and other platforms. I’m not overly impressed by how much money they’re making, because some of them are gaming the system. But what I am learning will help me deliver The Book of Dungeons to my readers.
Many of these talks leave me excited for the near future. I’m preparing to build a community of my own in 2024 and taking pages of notes from others’ mistakes and successes. I’m also getting ideas for satisfying my future Patreon supporters. If nothing else, it encourages me to push forward.