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Merry Christmas one and all!

Another year gone! I hope all of you are well and with family and loved ones this holiday season.

On the present-giving front, I have two!

First! ART! A WIP of the opening panels of the webcomic pilot, along with concept art of Aion and Thanatos! Sadly, I don't have the updated Thanatos with White Dove sitting on their shoulder.

Second! The Grandfathered Iona tier ($10) has been briefly unlocked! For anyone at the current Iona tier ($15), it's everything in that tier... but cheaper! For anyone at the current Elaine tier ($10), it's just pure extra content for the same price for jumping over! If you're currently in the grandfathered Elaine tier... I'll be honest, it's probably not worth it. You can't go *back* to the grandfathered Elaine tier if you leave it.

You can stay in the tier as long as you'd like, but once you leave the tier, you can't get back into it. Once again, grandfathered Elaine tier beware! Merry Christmas!

Presents done! Onto more announcements!

Next week is my admin week. No chapters! Boo! Hiss! 

In January, the week of the 26th is going to be my admin week. No chapters then.

Book 9 is JUST about done, I anticipate chapter 405 will be the last chapter of the book. It's a shorter book - about 110k words - but book 8 was stupid long at 210k words. It's not my shortest book, but it's not a beefcake.

Book 10 is plotted out, and that's looking like it'll be beefy. I just sent the commission off to the cover artist.

I'll be announcing and linking things once they're all ready on Amazon. I was hoping that it'd all be set for today's announcements, but sadly no. Sorry!

Along with book 9 being done comes a fairly important announcement and shift. Read me! 

For a long time BTDEM was on RR, and being a fairly traditional serial. As many other books have gone to KU, BTDEM has only briefly 'flirted' with KU, going on for 3 months before bouncing back to RR and the rest.

KU didn't quite meet my initial projections, and I made a calculated risk that I'd do better on RR at the number one spot. Plus, at the time, it didn't matter if I was making slightly less money.

Things have changed on my end. Salvos managed to earn the #1 spot - a big congratulations to Melas! - and I'm going to be moving this summer. At the same time that I move, my wife is dropping back to support, and my writing is going to become my family's primary source of income.

I also ran some analysis on what I did wrong last time I was on KU. Primarily, I was missing the pitch and plug to pull people from KU to RR and Patreon.

I can afford to play games when my income is secondary. I can't afford to play games with my income when it's primary for my family. As a result, when book 9 launches on Amazon, books 1-7 will also go up onto KU. This has no impact on anyone reading on Patreon.

On a positive note, when my wife and I move and flip things around, I should be able to up the number of chapters I produce in a week. I'm not making any promises, but I can easily imagine writing at least 4 chapters a week. If my creative juices are doing well, 5 chapters a week, with the possibility of starting a second series. (IF - big IF - I write a second series, it'd be more of a "one chapter now and then to build up a big initial story" type thing that I'd probably keep semi under wraps until it was ready. BTDEM will always be my primary focus.)


Webcomic update: Images above! I've gotten more, and work is being done. There's rumblings about a kickstarter with a lot of incentive artwork and other things! I'll let you know more as it happens.

Audiobook update: Honestly, I haven't heard much from Podium. They have books 7 and 8. They'll release it when they're ready... which I hope is sooner rather than later...


I'm sure I had more things to say that I'll remember the second I hit post...

Merry Christmas and happy holidays one and all!

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Comments

Rainer

You currently laterally transfer from Elaine tier to Grandfather Iona tier.

Matt H

Obviously you should do what's best for your family and I hope this decision goes well for you. However, I'd say you're incorrect in saying that this decision doesn't affect Patreon readers. One of my favorite things about this story is that I'm able to easily go back and read old chapters unlike many other popular stories that started on Royal Road and transitioned to KU. Now, I won't be able to reread earlier parts of the story without *also* paying for KU in addition to Patreon. It's always a bit disappointing to me when authors go this route.

Necrotyr

What's the USD price of the grandfathered Ellaine tier? In my local currency it's a 16x jump in price to go to the regular Ellaine tier (or grandfathered Iona)

SleepingNight

Just do what is best for your family. I'll have a little bit of trouble going to your older chapters, since patreon mobile is crap, but just do whatever is best for you and your family.

Necrotyr

Hmm, i think Patreon is being wonky, on the pledge page it says 5DKK but my receipt says 35DKK, so it's only a double in price, not x16.

Flying Goat

If you do have time for more chapters, you could just build up a backlog for your break week, instead of releasing 4 a week, assuming it doesn't require too much work just to release chapters - it's about 3 more chapters per month, either way, though break week + maybe bonus chapters if you manage it is more flexible. I'm completely happy with the current release rate, regardless. You're the most consistent author I follow, in terms of releases. Anyhow, enjoy your break week. Hope your changing things around works out for you, even if it ultimately doesn't result in more chapters or a new series (which would be great as well)

Fusssel

Same, if the additional chapters can be scheduled somehow, release them over your break, so you can enjoy your break and the reader have a steady influx of chapters. If it isn’t possible on patreon, then do it how you planned it. Your break is an important part!

Fusssel

The switch to KU won’t really affect me as I already read it on patreon and also buy the books on my kindle 😄

Anonymous

Also same. Another author I follow(Shirtaloon) is cutting back to 3 chapters per week in order to reduce stress and stay caught up on RL stuff.

Anonymous

We do have epubs of all completed books available here on patreon. Just download the files to reread offline whenever

wheelsOfMime

Does that mean that book 1 will also disappear from RR? I think that would be a mistake. RR is a great tool for discovery and pulling in more readers. Especially with how many ratings you already have there.

Glowy3

I wish you a Merry Christmas with your family! Have a relaxing admin week.🎄

Anonymous

There’s a surprisingly small (not in the absolute sense though) overlap between rr and KU, lots and lots of readers on KU stick to published books for one reason or another. BTDEM is also very mature on RR, a large section of the audience who potentially would become a patreon, already are patreons. Eventually the scales tip towards the potential money from KU outstrips the slowdown of future patreon growth, in many cases for popular books rather significantly. With a family to support, and a new single point of failure in the household finances, this is almost certainly the financially sane move to make. And is also probably the best move for current and future readers, as more financial security is also more security that the writing will continue, BTDEM will be finished some day, and more stories will follow that in the future.

SelkieMyth

Hey! I have all the epubs out on Patreon, and I'll be poking everyone a few times with "Here's the epub, go download it!" so you have access to it forever!

Cirvante

Agreed, this seems like a more elegant solution. With three chapters a week, you always know that the next one is two, maximum three days away. That's good and an additional chapter wouldn't markedly improve it. It's the admin weeks that hit hard.

Cirvante

Merry Christmas!

Anonymous

Merry Christmas

Wizard Tim

Merry Christmas!

wheelsOfMime

Does KU require exclusivity? If not, then I absolutely see no downsides to leaving a hook (book 1) still published on RR

Anonymous

Merry Christmas