New Year Wishes and plans for 2022 (Patreon)

Hi guys,

First of all, as 2021 comes to an end, I want to say thanks to all of you who supported me that year. 

When I started writing my first RR work Magik Online in 2018/2019, the thought of living from writing was only a dream. The early days were so difficult, both in my personal and professional life, that I burned out on my very first web serial.

Two years later, I’ve landed multiple publishing deals, have a webtoon on the way, I can afford to focus on writing full-time, and most importantly… I’m happy.

This wouldn’t have been possible without you.

I will always remember the early days when I only had ten patrons and made unique Magik Online character sheets for each new supporter. Some of you have been with me since the very beginning. I know that for all the new opportunities that I enjoy now, it all started with you; and I won’t forget it.

As such, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for supporting my stories and helping me live the dream.

2022 is going to change many things on my end (and the Patreon), so I wanted to share with you some news.

• Time-Lockdown until March-April

My plan for the winter holidays was to get some rest, think about my 2022 strategy, see family and friends, try to organize some roleplay sessions on Discord, and build a larger Patreon backlog.

Unfortunately, building up the chapter backlog has proven difficult. Family life during the holidays doesn’t help get alone time to write, and I still had to work on other contractual obligations like the webtoon scripting.

I feel like I’m in something of a ‘time-lockdown;’ with two web serials to work on plus the Vainqueur comic scripting & other stuff piling up (with the occasional RL unforeseen hiccup), I have too many obligations, contractual or otherwise, to develop the Patreon the way I want… which doesn’t sit well with me. I made the mistake of committing to too many projects at once, and for that I apologize.

I believe the current update schedule (two chapters of Underland and Kairos a week) and Patreon structure will remain in place until March/April 2022, where some of my current contractual obligations will end and let me finally break the ‘time-lockdown.’

Why March/April? For the following reasons:

• Vainqueur Webtoon & Other Surprise coming out in March

The Vainqueur the Dragon webtoon should be released on Tapas in mid-March 2022 according to my editor’s estimations; I still don’t have the exact release date, but I’ll post it as soon as I get it. Maybe I’ll be authorized to give you a preview. We’ll see how that goes. In any case, with the scripting work done, I should have more time to write web serials.

As part of the release, I’ve also been approached for a secret Vainqueur project that I think you’ll enjoy quite a lot; confidentiality prevents me from giving more details yet and I don’t want to announce anything until I have something solid to show. 

All I can show you is this sneak peek ;)

• Kairos going to KU in April and concluding at the same time

As I warned before, I signed a publishing deal with Aethon to release Kairos on Kindle Unlimited as a test run. The third volume of the trilogy, starting on January 4th, will conclude Kairos’ epic journey across post-apocalyptic Ancient Greece.

The series will start going up on Kindle Unlimited on April 12th 2022; which should be around the date where I finish the third volume of the series. As a result, Kairos will be taken off Royal Road around that time (and probably Patreon too), so don’t forget to download the free Patron ebooks beforehand.

• Underland ending around April too

As you know, Underland has had a strange release on Royal Road. Due to how the trending algo works, I had to release multiple chapters early to get on RR’s Rising Stars, changing the number of advanced chapters from 12 to 8. Due to the time-lockdown described above, I never managed to find the time to rebuild the backlog.

While I understood a lovecraftian horror story was a lot more niche than my older works, I hoped that bringing in new readers would compensate for people jumping ship after the Perfect Run’s conclusion.

It didn't. 

The truth is, instead of picking up more steam, the Patreon has actually been losing people over the last months. Most of the exit surveys’ reasons boil down to two very simple messages: not interested in the current stories & not enough advanced chapters.

I blame the shift away from comedy and Underland’s brand of horror being a bit too ‘niche’ for Royal Road, which is my main source of web serial readers and new patrons. While Underland does have a solid readership on RR and good reviews, I feel it doesn’t emotionally connect as well with people like the Perfect Run or other series; and after releasing more advanced chapters to get on Rising Stars, I simply don’t have a large enough backlog to make Patreon subscription enticing. I could probably build a larger backlog if I only had one story to focus on, but due to my current contractual obligations, I’m full.

When I outlined Underland, I designed it as a single volume book with the door left open for expanding the universe into a longer series afterward. However, considering the Patreon trend, I’ve decided to keep it as a single novel and focus on a new series after finishing it.

As such, I’ve decided to end Underland around the same time as Kairos. There should be 30/40 chapters or so to go before the volume’s conclusion.

• Story Poll for new Series

Once both Underland and Kairos are finished, I intend to start a new series and fully focus on it; meaning produce three/four chapters a week with a large backlog.

As usual, you’ll get to choose what next story I’ll be working on through a poll. With the various changes I detailed above, I think I’ll publish it in late January/February to better build a chapter backlog, order covers, etc…

I’m 90 percent sure that the next story choice will be between a Perfect Run spinoff (a superhero western following Leaf & Seed) and a new LitRPG series (I’m currently hesitating between a humorous take on the ‘System Apocalypse’ genre or a Vainqueur the Dragon spinoff to celebrate the webtoon’s release; I need to refine the concepts a bit). 

Nothing confirmed yet on the story choices, but I'll keep you informed soon. 

• Long-term publishing plans

As you probably know, I’ve been suffering from piracy problems making publishing on Amazon after a series is concluded/advanced quite difficult (and costly in time and money). The possibility of getting stories out on Amazon after they concluded was a major reason why I could afford to end them on a satisfying note without stretching them out endlessly; as I could still earn money from them even after people unsubscribed from the Patreon and the story was freely available on the web.

However, hardly two weeks pass without some website copying my works without authorization. Some I’ve been able to take down, others not. Hunting down pirates is a full-time job, and like a hydra, cutting one head means two others appear elsewhere. Time sending notices and filing copyright claims is time I could spend writing or developing adaptations.

For now, the best option I’ve found is to write most of a volume, release a backlog on Patreon, and only bring it to RR when I can safely send a manuscript to Amazon. That way the book will be validated on Amazon before pirates can copy it and make the publishing process exponentially harder. It’s not ideal, but that’s the easiest counter I’ve found yet. Making a new website or app is costly and doesn't stop scrapers; and having seen how difficult it is to bring viewers to a blog/website, staying on RR/Amazon is simply a must. 

We'll see how that goes. 

• Final words for 2021

2021 was a chaotic year. I've seen family and friends launch new projects and others fight cancers, states closing and opening with Covid. In a way, it was a prolongation of the 2020 year and the new worldwide status quo we now live in.  

But I’ve got a good feeling for 2022. Maybe I'm tempting fate, but I hope we're finally reaching the end of the tunnel and that our future will be brighter than the past. 

I pray this year will be good to you, dear patrons, and that my writings will give you some joy in these troubled times. 

Thanks for supporting me in 2021, and see you in 2022.

Best regards, and Happy New Year,

Voidy.