It’s a bit odd to sit down at my computer with the intention of writing a blog post, only to find myself staring at the blank page debating on how I should start it. I often find myself in a similar situation when I’m working on the main series; I’ll get stuck on a certain line when it doesn’t sound just right, and my head starts running ahead of me to plan out what the following few lines will be. I realize I’m doing it, snap back into place, get stuck on the exact same sentence, and repeat. If it’s an exciting moment in the story this problem often fixes itself, but I usually can get pretty distracted in the doldrums of the story. I don’t think I need to use that level of thought for a blog post, though, so I’m just going to go for it! And would you look at that; an opening for the blog post has appeared.
I planned on writing this on Sunday, when it had been exactly one week since the release of Volume 2. I’ve been rather busy the past few weeks at work, which ends up pushing my free time schedule around a bit, and I sort of put a blog post on the back burner. It wasn’t a super important one anyway, right? No announcements to make. Just some rambling. But rambling can be important, so I’m making it now, ten days after the official release.
First off, thank you for all of the support on the release. It was pretty crazy to see how many preorders I got during the two week period before the release, and how strongly the interest has kept up since then! As of the time of writing this blog post, it is the #2 best seller in the “Fantasy Manga (Kindle Store)” category. I don’t quite understand this, as it is not a manga, and I haven’t marketed it as such, but the books I’m trending against there also aren’t manga, so I guess I’m in the right place! That last bit of work to get to number 1 might prove a bit more elusive, but only time will tell.
Seeing as it’s only my second release, I didn’t really know what to expect. The first release came to little fanfare, with a single eBook purchase in Australia on the first day (that was a pretty exciting sale, though!). The popularity picked up about a month and a half after that release in mid-April, then slowly tapered off as time went on. I wonder how that will work with Volume 2! Perhaps there’s a bigger wave of interest coming than this first week and a half.
I have also been extremely surprised at what his release has done for the popularity of Volume 1. As of today, it’s trending back in the top 100 on Amazon in the “Fantasy Adventure Fiction” category, which is pretty exciting! I hope that means even more people can get into the series, and now, they won’t have to sit and wait on that Volume 1 cliffhanger if they don’t want to!
Speaking of cliffhangers, my goodness do people hate those! I found the resistance to the finale of Volume 1 pretty expected: it’s certainly rough! But the pushback on Volume 2’s ending was much more surprising to me. Special shoutout to my first review on the book, rated 1 star solely for the cliffhanger ending. This might just be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t find cliffhangers all that annoying! I think the idea that every chunk of the story needs to be tied up in a neat little bow is silly. I obviously won’t be putting any spoilers here, but I felt like it was a good place to end that concluded the volume’s arc, and set up for an exciting start to Volume 3. Maybe it’ll make more sense when the third book is released, and people see where it’s going. Maybe it won’t!
Regardless of any of that, I think it’s important for me to state that I don’t write cliffhanger endings specifically to entrap people into buying the next volume. Writing is not my job, and I don’t need it to support myself in any way, so it would be a bit silly to compromise what I think is the best ending just to convince people to keep reading. If they want to read, they’ll read! It’s totally fine if you don’t like cliffhangers (I can totally understand why that would be), but I don’t think it’s a fair critique to say they’re only used by lazy or dishonest writers. Not every book in this series will end in a cliffhanger: just the ones where it feels right!
I haven’t written a rambling post in a while, but scrolling up over what I have so far tells me that streak is coming to an end, so I’ll hit you with a quick update and close out for now! Volume 3 progresses as always, despite my busier schedule. I’m at 107,500 words tonight, and I’m happy with where I’m at! I’ve got the day off tomorrow, which I hope to spend in part on writing, when I’m not playing the new Destiny 2 expansion. I’ve got some exciting bits coming up in either my current chapter or the next one, and once I get passed that, it’s going to be an all-out barnburner of a finale this time around. Excitement for writing is at an all time high over here!
There we go. Blog post officially written. If you stuck through it, thanks for listening! I don’t imagine I’ll have much to post on here in the coming weeks between work, holidays, travel, and video games (all equally important, I assure you). If my estimations are correct, I’ll have Volume 3 finished, or very nearly finished, by the end of the year, so I’ll certainly be making an update post then. Until then, thank you again for your continued support, and as always, thanks for reading.
~Adam
P.S. I’ve got a fun art commission coming up in the next few days! Look for it on my Twitter, and in the Artwork page up at the top of this page.
