Ravenloft Game 63 - 06/02/2023 - Caught them, now what?
Written by David Green
We gave some thought to chasing after Gertruda with a Feather Fall spell or some such but since we were off the initiative clock, we decided that encounter was over. The only two characters that took damage were arriving late so we decided to press on. We knew this tower connected to the tower with the heart gem via a bridge a couple of levels down. What we did not realize was that this stairway was an “express” in that it started at the first level and ended at the roof but did not access any levels between. We were so busy chasing the vampire, we did not realize. There was, in fact, another staircase that stopped in between. (What a bad design.) While we discussed that, Stradanya floated up with a broom in her hand. After a bit of witty banter, Ezra invited ourselves to dinner on the first level and she agreed. We started down but decided to continue with our original plan. Evidently, she overheard that but we went on. The NPC cast a telepathic communication spell so that she couldn’t overhear us anymore.
We went down, then across then up to the level we had stayed at once. This was a bit of slow going as we switched from map to map at each level. From there, was another stairway going further up. However, as we crossed over, looking at a trap door that we never got back around to with suspicion, the carpet animated. Ezra was attacked but not engulfed. We fired away. When Patrina went (last?) she cast Dispel Magic (after a suggested Arcana roll) and that stopped it. At least for 10 rounds. But we hacked it up since we’d likely be facing it again on the way back down. We got to the top level and could see the glow of the gem across the way. It was another long spiral staircase going up and down into the darkness. At our level, floating 15 away in the center was the beating gem.
Ambrus went first and bravely Misty Stepped over, used his Immovable Rod to hang from, and attacked it with his dagger. Unfortunately, this caused 10-12 halberds that were not on the map nor in the description, to animate. They flew at him and he was eventually surrounded on all sides. Including up and down. They didn’t hit often or do a lot of damage but it added up. Kaladin flew over, flurried, and started to fly back away. However, it was pointed out that if he stayed, Ambrus would get his sneak attack dice which are considerable these days. And maybe take some heat off him which didn’t seem to work. Since Ambrus was in midair, Kaladin was the only one that could help him. Loki fired away. In the middle of the round, 3-4 vampire spawn came crawling up as well. It got very crowded. Ezra concentrated on the spawn since he did extra damage against the undead. Loki shot at the gem since it wasn’t immune to necrotic. Lady Patrina itched to do a radiant fireball but had the usual friendly fire issues. The NPC unleashed her Steel Wind Strike and did a ton of damage to multiple opponents. After that, Stradanya and Ranadan showed up as well. We weren’t sure if they were there to watch, fight, taunt, or what. About then, Kharn showed up and using his last rage, attacked her.
She had legendary actions and lair actions and her normal actions. She charmed Kharn who only has a +2 Will save and was too far from Ezra. She grabbed the Levitating Lord Q and flung him 60 feet. It was looking dire however then NPC fired a Chain Lighting that finished off the gem and a spawn or two. Stradanya, who regenerated the one attack fully, looked very upset over this. We had been told that gem was responsible for her regeneration. She phased through the bridge and floated below it. Ranadan disappeared again with a +16 stealth roll. We finished off the foes and she simply fled down. Now what? According to the fortunes we were to face her in a hidden room behind a beautiful lady on a tower of treasure. The accountant said the real treasure was in the basement so that’s where we had to go.
However, Ambrus was battered and needed a short rest. Unfortunately, Kharn needed a long rest to reset his rages but we didn’t think we could wait that long. However, we did have that idol from the chapel. I don’t know if we ever properly identified it because Brian had missed so many games, however, it gave the holder the effects of Protection from Evil after attunement. That would make him immune to charms from evil creatures and best of all, it wasn’t a concentration spell. It had other powers that would only work for a Paladin or a Cleric but immune to charm was just what we needed. Luckily that attunement was a short rest as well. We decided to go up one level to the attic since it would, in theory, only have one entrance. Up there was a bed with restraints, an iron chest, and a ladder to a trap door to the roof. We did nothing and took that short rest. Afterward, Ambrus picked the lock and found an expensive crown. It looked like the one the former lord wore in one of the pictures downstairs. He put it on. Loki went up the ladder and when he opened the trap door, a bunch of Corpse Hands attacked. We stopped there.
Assuming we finish off the Hands with ease, it will be down to the basement. We could go down the stairs but we’d face that stone wall. Unless someone has a spell, it would take hours to bash through it. Or we could try our luck on the elevator which seemed to go down. Or we could follow Gertuda’s path, Feather Fall down from the other tower, and assume/hope it ended up in the basement. That would give us surprise, I’m betting, but would also give us nowhere to run. I.e. we can’t feather fall back up. To be debated next time.
I had a few vacation days free, so what did I decide to do? Upgrade my NAS's operating system! Yay! Or not.
It didn't go smoothly. A while ago I had to downgrade from Maria BD 10 to 5. I had thought it was an issue with symbols being forced to be used as passwords and Joomla not being able to handle it. Maria DB 5 didn't have that issue, so that is what I used. Nevertheless the new operating system for the NAS did not support Maria DB 5 so I buckled down and figured out how to upgrade it and then upgraded the NAS OS. It was educational but there was more documentation on how to get the settings right for operability with Joomla. I am no expert but I am now far more comfortable setting up the database than I was. So, while it was time-consuming, it wasn't too bad.
However, the upgrade of the NAS OS failed. The data wasn't lost but for awhile, I couldn't access it on the local network. Synology has a backdoor that allows it to connect to your NAS and reset or even re-install the operating system. I'm somewhat ambivalent about it but it saved my butt from having to just do a complete wipe and start from ground zero. I did lose all my settings though. So off I went to reconnect to the network, then the ISP/WAN settings. All the settings were wiped, including the SSL certs. This is an incredible PITA. Suddenly your own browser won't allow you to connect your website because it isn't trusted. No one else can get to your website either. Synology has software that will automatically generate a license but it is only for their own backdoor connection, not your alias domain. The method used for general certificates kept failing, stating the ports weren't open. They were.
So I go to another provider and find out that the CNAME method of verifying domain ownership isn't working. They offer email verification, so I dive deep into a rabbit hole to install a mail server, that I can't get to work. I actually know a lot more about mail servers than I ever did before! Apparently not enough to get it working though. The third option is pretty simple... FTP to your site and leave a text file at a specified location. It verifies you have access to the domain's server and you have your license. This was pretty easy and I should have just done this in the first place instead of being dazzled by the possibility of free custom e-mail addresses. Though I will figure it out someday. Yesss, my precious...
So I finally get my license and after some issues with HSTST, my website is declared safe. The world can rest easy. Of course, then I go onto my website and find out that several web pages won't load! Coincidentally it is the same pages that use the module 'Minifrontpage Pro". Tah Duh! It must be that module's fault!. Not so. Apparently, those pages also use a carousel module to display images and it got borked. Maybe from the newer PHP 8. It is an old module from about 15 years ago, so it seems possible. Anyway 'Minifrontpage Pro" isn't the guilty party and that's good! This module can be configured in several ways and one of them is a carousel display. So now it pulling double duty! I didn't reach that realization instantly. At first, I thought the template was having issues. It's old too. Then a filter problem with a zero return crashed it and I had to figure that out. It was a lovely time. You'd think a program that has been around for decades (with updates) would figure out how to gracefully handle errors, especially a simple filter where there are no results. Does Google crash if it can't find what you're looking for? No! It just blushes and looks shamefacedly at the ground!
Anyway, I am done for the moment with my 'tech spa experience' (TM). Everything is up to date... or as up-to-date as Synology will let it get (they are a few years behind the rest of the world. PHP 8 is NOT the newest version, nor is their Maria DB 10 the newest revision). I think the next big thing on the horizon is figuring out how to update to Joomla 4. One of my integral extensions, K2, is not compatible. The very thought of writing my website from scratch makes me nauseous. I dived deep into the rabbit hole that is "Community Builder" and since I haven't used it in years I would have to re-learn all the parts I set up (and then no one ever wanted or used). If I truly had to do that I think I would just leave that out. No one needs my integrated chat, messaging, forums, chat rooms, or all the other things that were cool... but useless. It's the Sunk Cost Fallacy. I spent so much time setting it up I can't bear to give it up even if it's truly useless.
Its definitely on hiatus. It seems the problem with some series is that each subsequent book gets less interest than the previous on. The latest book definitely followed this trend. While the book wasn’t written soley for profit, it does give an indication of the audience size.
I tried to see if an Omnibus would help get more interest but it hasn’t really moved the needle much. I know that there are series that definitely have high interest and traffic but it appears that I am a poor publicist, because this is definitely not one of them.
On the bright side, I tried to leave no immediate cliff hangers. While the overall situation is still pending, such as the ressurection of the demon lord being on the horizen and the possible implications of a full fledged demon city being one of the portal destinations (and the politics of said demons), each book mostly wrapped up the immediate major issues brought up in that book.
I was contacted a couple of months ago by Sheperd: Discover the best books. They wanted to showcase a book I wrote. Naturally I accepted. I have been pretty horrible at marketing my book, so anything that could help was welcome. However, the way they do so is pretty unique.
An author gives them a book to showcase, but that's not the endpoint. The author then lists five books that had an impact on them and gives them a short review and how they were impacted. Ideally, there's a common link between the recommended books to tie them together. It was a cool idea and had me reminiscing over the books that I read when I was growing up and exactly why I liked them and how they affected my writing style.
If you want to see the books I recommended and why, hop over to the website. They have also done this for other authors, so you may just find another writer you like... and the books that impacted them. Sheperd.
All the edits are in. Finally. Books 1-3 have been reviewed again and corrected. The Omnibus is also updated. Sigh. This part is possibly my least favorite part of writing. It's also probably the most important. Few things bump you out of a good reading fugue than spelling and grammar errors.
One of the reasons I did all this now, was that I paid for one month of Grammarly's premium service. Every time I use it, the service gets a bit better. Usually. This year was odd. I am not sure whether it was because of Windows 11 or just a weird interaction but the Grammarly corrections only showed up highlighted in Word for the last 2/3 of the document. You could get to the 1/3 'invisible' corrections but you have to click forward from the start one at a time and it constantly reset so you had to start over. It's hard to explain but trust me, it was tedious. I am not sure I'll be using their services again unless I can verify this bug is fixed.
I doubt anyone actually buys the paperback or the hardback, but I try to make them available anyway. I noticed an oddity with Amazon's services that the maximum paperback size is about 775 pages and the maximum hardback size is about 550 pages. I only noticed this when I tried to finalize the Omnibus and found it couldn't do either one because the manuscript is about 1400 pages. That would have been nice but I guess it can't happen. I suppose I could play with the font size but who wants to buy a book with font size 6? I wouldn't be able to read my own book without a magnifying glass! This is why the Omnibus is only available as a Kindle ebook.
After I published Book 4, I have to admit I got nervous when the first review was a two-star. The comment was the events reflected reality too much. It took me a few minutes to think of what they were talking about since, well frankly I try to make all the events reflect reality or at least as much as I can predict without a crystal ball. Or at least make the events internally consistent so the consequences make sense. There have been a couple times I wrote something and specific real-life events happened a few weeks or months later and I was like "OMG, this almost identical thing happened! What if someone thinks I am mocking it!" The good thing is that it took so darn long the get this book out that I think most of my coincidental events won't evoke immediate finger-pointing and blowouts. Though I was wrong about at least one of them, I guess.
Edit 12/31/21: Something is wonky with Amazon's paperback and hardcover creator. It shows correctly when editing it but under the actual purchasing page, it's messed up. I think everything is good except Book 4. As I mentioned, I don't think anyone actually purchases these but I am trying to tweak it so what it shows is what it actually gets.
The fourth book will be published on Thursday, December 17th. I am experimenting with the Amazon Pre-Order function so it should just automagically be available that day. Or midnight or whatever. Amazon's documentation isn't the clearest. Basically, it's done. It's also been Grammarly checked but I am hoping to give it another read-through before it goes out. There are always more errors to find.
I also updated the first book, using the updated version of Grammarly. I don't know if it's because I used a newer version of Grammarly (the book was published 7 years ago) or because I bought the full subscription but it found a lot more errors. I also added chapter titles and fixed a few minor discontinuities I noticed. I plan to do the same for Book 2 and Book 3 in the next couple of weeks. Then I can update the Omnibus and completely eliminate those embarrassing errors!
Amazon has some interesting new features too. You can publish hardback versions and make paperback versions available for libraries. You don't make any money off of that but it's nice I guess.
One of my readers had some kind advice on marketing. I did go to Shadow Valley Press and looked at the information they had. Shadow Valley Press actually had an entire tutorial and pointed to a matchmaking system for getting agents and through them publishers. I am not actually married to the idea of be an independent writer. I think most such writers do it more from the lack of options. So I was actually excited that there was an an organized forum where I could contact the agents, show them my work and get some support to work with a publisher.
That is, until I read through their guide. It seems that one of the taboos of writing... or at least submitting to an agent... is to have a manuscript that is too long. I think the number they gave was over 100k (it's power level is over 9000!). Apparently the publishers don't want to print anything that long. No profit in it or something like that. That was depressing. All my work is between 110-120k. I aimed it to that length because that is the minimum length I like to read. Any shorter and I tear through it on my bathroom break. So, I guess I stay independent.
In other news, book #4 hit 120k words. You could say it was done except for proof reading... except that it would be ending in a cliffhanger. Pretty good as cliffhangers go, but still a cliffhanger. I know I don't publish as often as I should, so it would be rather cruel to publish a cliffhanger that likely wouldn't be resolved for another two years. So I will try to get to a non-cliffhangery place in the story to wrap up the current events a bit better. Its not like the last two Dresden books where you need another 200k words to finish it. So unless anyone objects to a book about 130-140k words I'll wrap it up there, rather than cut it off.
And yes, I estimated I would be done a few months ago and yet here I am. I apologize.
One of my readers asked a few questions. I responded via e-mail and later through the chat on my website (she was the first to ever use it.... whoot!), however I thought I should update everyone else about what's up.
Her first question was the name. I really delayed answering this because I only have a very tentative title. Right now its "An Exchange of Hostages" but that may change. Then she asked when I was going to release the 4th book (not including the Omnibus).
"Believe it or not, Covid hasn't really been good for my writing. Or the rest of the world, of course. My job is defined (by my employer) as essential so I go to work. It's medical adjacent. Meaning, I evaluate and test medical equipment. My family, including my two seven-year-olds, are at home all the time and while I love them, the screaming, playing and fighting aren't great for writing.
Okay, enough of the excuses. How far am I? About halfway. I slipped during the last release past December. This made me pretty sad since December is a good time for releases. People home from work with nothing to do read books. Considering the issue of diminishing returns with sequels (people buy, read and review the sequels less and less as the series gets longer) this isn't really good. It's not even that I write slowly. The first book was written in a few months once I sat down and did it. See excuse #1 above.
So getting to the point. I want it to be December but unless I get more quiet time, I think early next year is more realistic. Sorry to ramble? ."
By early this year I did not mean January. Or February. We'll see how things go. I am picking up a bit of speed and even finished the cover. Is it odd that the cover is done when its only about 2/3's done? Lets pretend that's normal. My first cover took ages and I had to use one of the cludgiest pieces of garbage editor to splice it together. I think it was a PowerDirector companion app. Now I use Paint.net and its so much easier that its actually fun. It almost inspired me to restart my children's book but I think I came to my senses. I would still have to practice an ungodly amount to make consistent looking characters. I am spread a little too thin as it is. Its still dead and the unfinished pages can be found on my website.
As a side note, while I write this, one of my girls is laying on the bed next to me playing some beeping (literally beeping) video game while talking and singing to herself. Its cute but incredibly distracting.
Well, here we are 'Sheltering In Place". Wow. What a different world. I couldn't imagine this a year ago. I only had to stay at home for about two weeks before my business declared themselves as essential services. We test medical devices so it makes sense, I suppose. So I have a job. Yay! But it's a scary world out there. Boo! Hopefully, everyone is doing their best to stay safe.
As many have likely learned, staying at home with your children doesn't usually mean you're more productive. I'm an introvert, so I like being alone for long stretches. While I love my kids, being alone with them for long stretches strains my sanity... and is NOT being alone. I think the entire world is learning this as well.
Anyway, as I have posted before I have my own non-WP website. It has some cheapo games under the "Rifts and RPG/Games We Play", under "WP &Blogs" it has my site blog, which is not precisely a mirror of here. Under "WP &Blogs/Andy's Game" is a semi-weekly blog of a D&D game I play in along with a description of the setting and gaming stuff. It may be a bit dry unless you're into that kind of thing. Under "Community" you'll find a link to the community page listing all the members and where you can make an see the member pages, publish your own blog or Article page (like a webpage and can be linked to other articles BUT must be approved by the moderator). There's also a brief tutorial on the features available at the top level. Go there if you are bored.
A reader named Sean contacted me a few weeks ago. He pointed out that my contact page was borked and the optional field "webpage" was preventing the submission of... well, contact. It is a bug of course. Sharing your webpage should be a fun addition, not a requirement, so I removed it. Hopefully, the thousands of people that were trying to contact me can now do that. Or maybe not. He also suggested I publish an Omnibus for my previously published books. <Lightning Striking Head> It was a brilliant idea. Obvious in retrospect but then again the best ones are like that. So that's what I did. People reading this likely already have read the series but I thought you should know. Sorry, its not a new book but progress has been made on book 4 despite screaming children.
The other books have hit their own roadblocks. "A Virtual Invasion" which I have been publishing on Royal Roads is mostly on hiatus due to "not enough time to split among projects". I actually have a couple chapters I haven't published. I haven't forgotten it... well not completely but I may have to re-read it to prevent stupid continuity errors. I really wish I had a photographic memory.
My other book, the children's book that I am sure you all remember? No? Um... anyway, it went well. I had the plot, drew the backgrounds with, frankly, more skill than I remembered having when I used to draw, back when I was younger. Then I hit a snag. Well, a couple but only one was critical. Drawing the main character in a cutsie manner AND making them consistent. Apparently, I am capable of drawing things as long as I don't have to make them recognizable in the next frame. Awkward. So this will likely be put on hold until I find a partner to do this with me. I had originally planned to have this as a gift for my kids on their fifth birthday since I used to tell them a variation of this story for fun, however, they barely remember it these days so I guess that ship has sailed. On a side note, if you go to my web site and look at my profile page you can listen to a recording of me reading the original version.
Well, the new year is here and a lot happened... yet so little. First of all before Christmas I was able to knock out a few chapters. I was hoping to keep some momentum going since it is difficult to get going again once you pause. A certain paralysis. Fate intervened and I was able to spend an inordinate amount of time with my family during Christmas. While lovely by itself it did mean that I wasn't able to actually do anything that required concentration. So I haven't been able to put pen to paper much since a bit before the holidays. I can't say exactly when this will change.
This isn't to say I haven't been productive. There have been a ton of miscellaneous activities I have been able to fit in between family. My website underwent a complete makeover, adding content, aesthetics and mobile-friendly content. I love my menu with the popup icons but it looked terrible on a mobile device. The book samples look much better... though whether these are mobile-friendly is up in the air, and I added a lot of images to the pages to make them more interesting. Much like the image here I am trying out. So the webpage blog gained a newsticker and news item summary a separate page for the website blog (in addition to the side module elsewhere).
I also added a forum and a messaging system because... well I always wanted one. I don't expect anyone to use it but it was fun to set up. I also have a friend who started a D&D campaign and I have devoted a page to that. Although Fantasy Grounds (basically an online platform to play with the GM and players) is pretty nice its drawback is that when the DM is offline so are all the campaign notes. This makes it difficult to plan things in between games. So we have some resources, history, notes and a calendar. So far only one other player has even looked their but again, it was fun to set up and I learned more about Joomla. One other player makes a log of all the events that happened each game session and he gave me permission to upload it under his name as a game blog. Again I don't think he's seen his own work yet. Ironic.
Fantasy Grounds... the online RPG platform you love to hate. A bit buggy at times but better than the alternatives. If you have been reading this blog and my website blog you may have realized that my favorite RPG game is Rifts, not D&D. However, Palladium is pretty conservative when backing 3rd parties so there hasn't been a way to play it online. Over the holidays I spent some time working with an Extension for a FG ruleset that should allow people to use FG to play Rifts online. It takes a bit more elbow grease than D&D since Palladium hasn't licensed the content but if the GM is willing to put in the work it should be pretty darn compatible. I even did an online tutorial on how to use the FG Extension and put the Youtube video on my website.
There is also a program that allows you to update the Theme (GMW Campaign Toolkit, it basically modifies the artwork in FG) that I played around with. I re-used some of that work in the website upgrade. I wanted to do another tutorial to explain a few grey areas on the use of the software but I have literally not been alone in the house since the first video tutorial. It's hard to get the quiet needed to do that kind of work and frankly its been so long now that the specifics I had wanted to talk about are not as sharp in my memory. Oh well, it was a nice dream.
And finally, getting back to the book and all that boring writing stuff... when I first published the third book I submitted to many reviewers. More than fifty I think, though I didn't keep exact track. Most of them rejected it due to lack of time, interest or it being the third book in a series. However, two Reviewers actually came through. One back in October "Mrs Y" and "Amy Shannon" just recently. Neither one is really a stellar rating but they are actually the only ones I have gotten in five years of asking... so yay! Also, neither one had read the previous books. I doubt I could tolerate reading a book starting in the middle of the series so it worked out as best as I could expect.
A visitor to my blog had an interesting idea. There is a website called Royal Road. People go there to publish their stories in a chapter by chapter method. They get feedback and in some cases financial support (through Patreon and Paypal). He suggested I publish my "Chained Worlds Chronicles" there. Until he brought it up I hadn't even heard of the website so I didn't know what to think. I am still not completely convinced it is a good idea but I thought I'd give it a try with the other book I am writing. See how it feels. So I am now slowly proofing and publishing "A Virtual Invasion" to Royal Roads and Webnovel.
Personally, I am a little skeptical. Both of these sites don't make it practical to promote yourself or let people know you have other series or even where else you exist on the web. Also, there are truly a ridiculous number of books/chapters being published every minute that new novels are pushed down the list so fast it's a wonder people are aware they exist. Nevertheless, I thought I'd give it a try and see what it's like to do something besides Amazon. Those of you who have read my blog in the past know I tried Barnes and Nobles and Apple with truly pathetic results, but time marches on and I suppose I need to keep up with the alternatives out there, even if I later decide it's not for me. Anyway, look for it here:
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/25326/a-virtual-invasion
https://www.webnovel.com/book/13992152105836405/A-Virtual-Invasion
When I first published my book (#1) in 2014 Indie reviews weren't really a thing. They may have existed but either I didn't find them or I simply don't remember them. With my second book, I definitely knew they existed but I think I only found about 5 people/sites to request reviews from. There were others but they were all pay sites. None of them decided to review my work so I had to depend solely on my readers.
Then I blinked. Two years later and I am looking for reviewers again and OMG there's a ton! I have just been going through one list (The Indie Review list) and there are 297 entries! Some of them don't count for me since they only do romance or historical or non-fiction but that still leaves a ton.
The community changed a bit. They have a lot of pull. Each site has a review policy and checklist (as required by the Indie Review List). Some have automated contact sheets and are pretty mechanical others want the personal touch. There was one site that wasn't taking reviews but they pointed out that a lot of writers are pretty rude when requesting a review, sending out impersonal request letters that didn't even have their name. They had a good point. Until I went to that site and read that I did the same thing. She suggested at least addressing the reviewer by name. A simple but very personal touch.
Now keep in mind that a lot of review sites are run but groups that don't release their names or enter a queue so you don't actually know who will read your request. Others use a contact form that is straight to the point and no frills. Still, if you are sending a request to a single person this can really change the tone of the e-mail.
Another reviewer had a neat angle. He required you send the contents of page 69 of your book. Apparently, there's a theory that this can decide whether to buy the book or give it a pass. Fortunately, my MC was doing something interesting on that page instead of brushing his teeth or taking a nap. Or researching. He does that a lot, which important for character progress but I suppose would be a somewhat lacking excerpt. Wow, I really dodged that bullet.
Another thing that is new is author interviews. I have no idea what they are but they sound interesting. Well, kinda. I have a hard time imaging people want to hear how I deal with two crazy twins every day but I suppose I could talk about my creative style... or something. Maybe my shopping habit. I did do some question and answers over on Goodreads. Maybe someone read that.
One problem I am doubtless going to run into is that this is book #3. I know that if I was a reviewer I wouldn't want to review a book in the middle of a series on its own merits. Heck, I am not sure I want them to. after I had submitted about 20 requests I realized this and I offered to send them the earlier books. Of course, considering that most of them barely have time to read the book you request I have my doubts they will want to read 2 others first. Still, with over a hundred relevant reviewers, I have hope that some of them will want to jump in.
More...
I have just submitted the third book to the Amazon store! So its almost out. Of course, Amazon has to review the submitted content for horrible errors but they usually do that within a day or so. They say it could be up to 72 hours but I think that's just to allow them some leeway.
Reviewing your own work for errors is always entertaining. Not. I used Grammarly for the initial review. Either this add-on has degraded or my memory isn't as good as it used to be (a given). My second pass review, where I read the entire story from scratch, caught a ton of glaring mistakes that I could have sworn Grammarly used to fix. Perhaps in an attempt to get you to buy the complete version they moved the useful part of the program into the pay only section. As much as I try to review the story, I always have heaps of incredibly useful feedback from readers that catch errors. Thank you for that! The books wouldn't be nearly as readable without your help.
Every time I upload a new book to Amazon, their system has changed slightly. This time I found they have a program where they offer your paperback book to be picked up to alternate distributors. I am not sure who this is... bookstores? Coffee shops? Car parts depots? Probably not the last one. The program is promising until you realize that you get 40% royalties instead of 60%. This plus the base price increase means that you have to increase the book price. Who is going to buy a $20 paperback? Despite this, I signed up for it. After all, no one buys my paperbacks anyway;) Does that count as a Hail Mary pass?
On another front, I joined Amazon Associates. It allows you to place targeted ads on your website that point to specific products. If people click on that link and buy stuff on Amazon then you get something back. I forget how much but a percent or so. I signed up because I have a new (well not so new anymore) website that I wanted to display my books on. I was trying to find an add-on that would display the reviews from Amazon for each book. Needless to say, I failed.
There do seem to be such add-ons in existence but each seems to require you apply for Amazon's API program. Not user-friendly and the requirements for Amazon accepting you into the program are...unclear. The Amazon Associates program allows you to go to Amazon and have them make a targeted advertisement for up to 4 items. This includes a tiny cover graphic, the cost, and the star review rating total. Not exactly what I wanted but it was something.
Anyway, I got kicked out of the program. Apparently, if you don't get a minimum number of sales from this advertisement within 180 days you get kicked out. In other words, you aren't allowed to advertise for them... That's odd logic but it does tell me that no one looks at my webpage;)
Just moved into a new house about two weeks ago. What a huge endeavor. Every time I move I get determined to throw things out. Nothing was done during this time. A few weeks before that I got a new NAS and installed Joomla on it. Joomla is a free Content Management System. Basically a newfangled webpage. It was fun learning how to create a web page ( web.myworlds.icu ) though I still have issues with it saying it's not secure. I am not sure if its a firewall issue or a VPN issue. I'll figure it out eventually. All in all a remarkably unproductive month. I am trying to get back into a routine. I still have those three projects to get out!
I have had a few questions from readers about how far along I am with book 3. I am about 3/5 done (unless it runs longer than expected). I am looking at a release around December. If I can find that Amazon program where I submit it through them I may use that. This would delay the release a few months since you promise Amazon not to publish it separately while they look over your submission. However, I may never be able to find that offer again. Never let it be said that Amazon's publishing program is clear and well documented. I will deny it!
On a somewhat related note, I am also working in parallel on two other books. One is a children's book. I wanted to have it ready for my little girls' 5th birthday, but it is going to be late (already is). I am doing the drawings myself. I used to draw when I was much younger. My talent pales in comparison to a professional artist, however, I think it should be adequate for children's illustrations. I also narrated it and recorded it for my kids. They enjoyed it. I may use this to test out the waters for audio books. It's only a ten-minute story and I can do it myself, so it should be good to get my toes wet. It is a fun side project and I suppose I would be done already if I were working on it for more than an hour a day.
The second project is sorta a lit RPG genre story. This is a crossover genre, generally describing full immersion VR MMO games. I find them frustrating since playing a computer game generally has no lasting real-life impact. I am trying for more of a reality crossover.
I know it looks like I am splitting my time three ways... and I am. However, I also find myself working on them all on regular basis. So, all in all, I have actually increased my writing speed for Book #3.
Wow, been over a year already. Last year wasn't great for my progress. My mother passed away and I got distracted by other projects as well as having to move. Still, I am getting back on track. I am hoping to have the next book done by the end of the year. Amazon has a program where if you haven't published something you can submit it to them. I am not sure of the details but I may try that. If I do I'll let everyone know.
Thanks for all the people asking for statuses. I appreciate your interests and will try to do a bit better with updates.
