In my last blog post, I talked about how I can totally release one novella a week to professional standards. I did that. I’m on week three, and I’ve proven to myself, as much as everyone else, that it can be done.
That said, what’s that awesome quote from Star Trek VI? “Let us redefine progress to mean that just because we *can* do a thing, it does not necessarily follow that we *must*.
In this case, the question is why mustn’t this be done? Frankly the answer is feedback. So far, other than readers reassuring me that they’re enjoying it, the main piece of feedback I’ve had regarding the series is that people still haven’t finished reading the first one. Or they have finished up the first one but they haven’t had time for the second yet.
Point taken! My releases are coming too fast for my readers!
So, first, a bit of news. Heroes of Gracia Episode 3 is called THE SEASON OF STORMS, and is available for sale at Amazon now. I’d like to encourage you to go buy it.
Second bit of news: This release will be the last of the weeklies.
So far the stories break down as follows:
THE VACANT FORGE served as an introduction to the larger series and briefly introduced the main characters.
THUNDER AT ARIDAS focused on the party healer, Tanryn, and the questions of faith that she must face. It also introduced a recurring villain, a tiefling mercenary who is out to collect the bounty on the rogue.
THE SEASON OF STORMS focuses on the party’s reluctantly honorable rogue, Nalgaar, and also answers some questions that were posed in parts one and two of the series. There’s also a pretty good chance that the plot threads introduced here will lead to some interesting things later.
Next up, there will be one more story of the same length, to be released in two or three weeks (I have a freelance project I need to take care of before I can write this one). It will focus on the party’s warrior and former blacksmith’s apprentice, Antilos, and delve deeper into the larger story.
After that, I’m charting a new course. First, I should say that I’m committed to this experiment of producing episodic content on a regular release schedule. I’m just not as committed to releasing them every week. Instead, starting with episode 5, I’m going to transition to longer pieces (roughly 100 novel-length pages each), which will be released on a monthly schedule. That means that if you’ve followed this far, you’ll be getting more material less often, and at a lower cost per word. The down-side (if this is in-fact a down-side) is that Drivethru pricing and Amazon pricing will be synced. But that also means that you can look forward to more story with your story.
So yes, I’m insane, but I’d like to think that it’s in a good way, and that I’ve accomplished what I initially set out to do. I intend to continue with my goal, just in a different way that doesn’t overwhelm my readers.
Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who has followed this effort so far, and I look forward to sharing the rest of the story as it unfolds.
