Writing Update: June & July 2023 (Patreon)

Apologies on the silence, there's a bunch of things going on in the backend that has been keeping me rather busy. Some of it is going to go into business side updates, so... we'll see how it works out.

Anyway, let's get into the updates.

A Thousand Li

Book 9 of A Thousand Li is nearly done. Edited, proofed, audiobook completed and we're just getting things sorted on the backend like getting contracts and invoices paid, the artwork and the formatting for the book sorted and all that lovely bits.

Because everything is done, we're looking at the possibility of pulling the release early a bit.

Book 10 of A Thousand Li is currently being written. Weirdly enough, I 'finished' the book at around 95k words, but wasn't happy with it. I spent a couple of weeks this month trying to figure out what needed to be done and I've now added about 20k words since I'm done, with still more to be added.

A lot of this addition is scenes that flesh out the book, circumstances within and the set-up for the next two books to finish it up. A lot of what I needed to add are required to make the final book satisfactory really.

I currently have the next audiobook slot set-up with Travis Baldree later this year and we'll, hopefully, get it written and recorded.

After that, I'll likely keep working on A Thousand Li for 11 and 12, so the Patreon's are going to likely be up to 2 books ahead. My plan is to have books written more in advance so I can do things like get editors and narrators sorted and simultaneous release things like that.

Anyway, that's the major writing project.

Climbing the Ranks

Plans continue apace for the release for CtR! The great news for Climbing the Rank is that we have the first book fully written and we're working with Tantor to get it recorded. We have finalised a narrator (which, if you read CtR know, it's a toughie because of the Manglish within it) and are looking forward to it.

We're getting the Kickstarter sorted for the print release of the work. It launches this month!

Because we have the chapters released on Starlit Publishing, we won't be going into Kindle Unlimited with this release.

Actual release date wide for the first book is I believe around November or so, but keep an eye out for the Kickstarter (we need some lead time for getting books printed, etc.).

System Apocalypse

Alright, lots of plans for System Apocalypse. We have a few new co-authors, following along with their works in the short story anthology. The first of the completed works is already in editing, so we'll soon have an announcement of a new trilogy of works set in the System Apocalypse universe. We've got plans for this to be released in relatively short order for this one, so expect us to hold back a little on the actual release timing.

System Apocalypse: Relentless book 3 is nearly done. We've gone through and edited about 2/3 of it, waiting for the last 1/3 after which there's a final draft, copy edit, proof, etc. Expected release towards the end of this year.

KT's working on book 4 of the Australia works. She's been derailed a little with real life, but I expect we can see finished books coming out end of this year and earlier next year one after the other as she's done with her other obligations.

Lastly, there's one other SA universe work that has been moving along at a decent pace. As always, no formal announcement till the book is in editing, but I'm excited to see this one finished. It's a challenging work that expands the SA universe a lot.

As for my own work, I just finished a short story that I'll be releasing in a bit. No timing on full-length novel releases as yet.

Magic Kingdom at War

So, this series is a pain. Seriously, it's INCREDIBLY crunchy, which is why I requested help from some patrons to go over the works I've written. I am now facing a bigger problem, which is that I do not know if I have the time or space to finish it. I might have to put this on hold for a bit while I keep writing and fixing it up, with an eventual release in a year or two.

It's super crunchy and the amount of words I'd need to write to keep it running alongside CtR AND ATL is just... yeah.

Hidden Dishes

The release of the Nameless Restaurant went well, and we've had some requests for additional works in the universe. I'm playing around with some ideas really, so I might end up expanding on the universe. Of course, it'll be a side project, so no guaranteed timeline; but I've begun to work on the overall plot  for the next book.

Other Projects

No idea about other projects right now. I am debating on what to do with Magic Kingdom, so I need to figure out if I'll just put it to bed and work on another major project or keep at it. If I keep at it, I need to build out a decent 'end' for it, which I'm not sure of at the moment which is my biggest concern, or at least a few decent stopping points.

I need to stop creating series that go on for million plus words....

Why the Concerns?

So, there are three major concerns. Not in any particular order but...

Business wise, Kindle Unlimited is dangerous. I've always tried to move away from it as much as possible, but recently, our payouts have been incredibly low. Finding a series or working on series that are planned for being outside of KU seems the smartest move financially. To do that though, the major places to look are NOT in LitRPG which is incredibly heavily KU dominated but other genres.

Then, we have production wise. As you can tell, I'm writing A Thousand Li for another two more books, which is another few hundred thousand words or more. Climbing the Ranks is huge too, and I went into a lot of this discussion in another blog post. But basically, working on both these series at the same time means I barely have time to work on anything else. So adding Magic Kingdom is tough. Planning for and writing shorter 'burst' series, of 3-5 books maximum, maybe shorter in format might be the way to go.

Or writing a series that releases one book a year which is fine... Anyway, production is a big concern. I don't like leaving readers waiting forever, so figuring out how to structure books is a concern.

Lastly, we have creative energy wise. Magic Kingdom is... tricky. It's a very crunchy book, so figuring out production on it and doing all the calculations is fun, but it's not super creative. Also, getting stuck writing two SUPER long series when I have other things to do is not super satisfying to me. So, I'm tempted to leave the series alone and maybe use the 'extra' time I get to just do random creative stuff that I enjoy.

Of course, that becomes a problem business wise (aka paying my bills) since many of my 'fun' projects don't really make much. So...

Yeah. No idea. We'll see what happens. If Climbing the Ranks manages to actually do decently, I can afford to spend more time doing fun projects. So we shall see.