More Chapters?
This
question hopefully interest many of you. When I first started this
blog, I had a couple of view-count benchmarks that would make me post
another chapter in a week; the thing was, though, those benchmarks
were reached a lot quicker than I had ever imagined and I posted
pretty much all the chapters I had finished editing within the first
2-3 weeks.
Now I've spent some time and built a
small chapter-buffer again and have been asked by some about what
would be required for me to post more chapters in a week. And my
answer is this: I don't know.
It takes me about 10 hours, sometimes
more, to finish one chapter from basic story-line to finished edited
story-form. And this is when I exclude the time I've spent on
world-building and character creation. So, my question to you is
this: is there any interest in donating for me to post more chapters
every week? And if so, what amount would a chapter be worth?
Since I got some help from
Jack Napier with creating a poll I'll put the link here:
I probably think donations would be
the best way to give me the time I need to write more, but it might
also be too early to ask for something like that, and that
presumption might put some of you off, but hey, money makes the world
go 'round.
I've also had the thought of getting
some advertisement on this blog because I would likely get a small
amount of money from that; and that money could accumulate until I
would be able to take a day off anything else and only focus on
writing that day. But this is not something that I feel would be
worthwhile—not at the moment at least—and I also don't like how
advertisement makes the pages slower to load and more of a traffic
burden for those of you that use your phones or other similar devices
to read this.
The third option, if I want to make
this into something I could spend lots of time on would be for me to
take some time off anything else and edit the first volume until it
is completed and then sell that on kindle before all the chapters
have been posted here. I don't know about this option, it might be
good, it might be bad. It might even create a decreased interest in
visiting this blog, which wouldn't be a good thing. So, I'd rather
not do that; not now, at least.
Right now, one of the most important
things, as I see it, is to increase the amount of readers until the
amount reaches at least ten times the amount right now. Then, the
interest in this story would probably reach a point where even if
only a few percent would be willing to finance this, it would still
be enough for me to spend 40 or more hours a week on writing.
Therefore, I ask you to spread the word if you enjoy reading this
story, and help me make this into a success both for your future
reading pleasure and my dream of becoming a writer.
I thought I'd at least see what you,
my readers, thought of this. So I wrote this rather lengthy post,
because, as we all know, in the end, it all comes down to that
intangible thing called money. And on that note, some food for
thought: what is money, really? Isn't money just a representation of
quality work divided by time? Isn't it just the physical
representation of time spent by one person in correlation to the
value created for others? So, is money the physical representation of
work well done?
Well, anyway, as I'm writing this I've
been awake for more than 30 hours straight now and am feeling a bit
tired; this might be the reason for the last paragraph's slightly
philosophical digression.
About how to create the time I need to
be able to post more chapters: any input, ideas, or suggestions are
more than welcome, and I thank you in advance for your thoughts.
my humble opinion is that I think money is effectively nothing more than pieces of paper, coupled with some coins of metallic origin. it's a circulation that might get contaminated or even exploited by villainous persons, and I hope in the distant future that it will remain no longer.
ReplyDeleteI can't donate but I have some plans to execute that will hopefully increase the activity within this blog. Mayhap that it will help somewhat substantially, and I wish you good luck in your aspiration to become a full-fledged writer -- which will be daunting, to say the least.
kbye
Thanks, all the help you can give to spread the word is very much appreciated :)
DeleteThought I'd see what people thought of the idea of helping me be able to write more. I'll keep writing and probably post more than one chapter once in a while when I have enough finished chapters lying around and I reach a view-count goal, even if I don't get donations. It's was mostly a thought on how to free up my time.
I'd rather do something I enjoy, such as writing and barely scrape by financially than do something I don't enjoy and live in the eventual apathy such a lifestyle has sometimes lead to for me.
Wasn't really talking about the physicality of money, but more the insubstantial, purely numerical, value of it. And also its actual purpose. Though, I agree that it is an easily exploited system if you have enough influence over its “value”-shifts that it becomes a tool for those with too much money to use as something to control others unjustly.
The problem about monetary systems being exploited is that money is just a tool that we've “commonly agreed” to being the numerical representation of worth, and all tools can be used for either harm or good depending on the mentality of its user. And all tools can be broken and misshapen if handled incorrectly especially if its over a long period of time.
It's said that money is the root of all evil; I'd rather like to say that the unwholesome pursuit of money without reservations is the true root of evil.
I like to think about things such as that, and was more or less asking mostly to see if I would get any answers that might alleviate a moment of boredom in my spare time.
Phew, long post, but had to give a more in-depth answer since you're being so active on the blog at the moment :)
As a reader who enjoyed your Story very much this far I would be really happy to get more chapters than now. In the poll there was no option i felt comfortable with, so I will try to explain.
ReplyDeleteEven though I like to read more I wouldn't donate right now, especially not at a regular basis. The story is just at the beginning with no clear direction thus far. Which is alright storywise, but not for donating. A second problem for me is your credibility, which might sound kind of harsh, but I just dont't know if I get my moneys worth.
But I have a few ideas which could work for you and might create more viewers.
The first one is something I would really like is a modification of your third option. Kindle has something called: "Kindle Serials". The book is published in episodes (aka chapters). As a reader I would buy the book and would get all the episodes when they are published. I could see that you would publish 2 chapters (or more ;-) ) a week as a episode in the kindle book and only 1 chapter a week at your website. Everyone who wants more and faster chapters could buy the kindle version. Leechers or people who can wait are coming to your website as well as potential new readers to hook them to the story. Its kind of a premium service: People who invest will get chapters faster and earlier. It would give you more credibility too, at least in my view.
The second idea might be patreon. Everyone who pledges gets the chapters faster and you would only get the money if you deliver. Might be a good motivation for you and a more secure feeling for the people who donate. You might want to set a minimum word count for each chapter in that case, so that the reader/pledgers feel at ease.
I could even see a combination of the two ideas. The more pledges on patreon the more episodes for Kindle or something like that.
I hope I got my point(s) across without sounding like a total dick :D Its kind of hard as a non-native speaker to formulate constructive criticism.
Be that as it may, keep up the good work. I think I will stick here for quiet a while and if youo keep it up, I will be sure to donate some day (Yeah, thats a promise).
First of all, I'm glad you like what I've written :)
DeleteYou're right about saying that donations should only be given when you feel I've given enough value to warrant it. And I agree that it might be a bit early to ask for donations or other financial support since I just started this; it's never easy to trust someone unknown on the internet. I just read some comments about it and thought it would be a good idea to see what you readers thought about it.
And I also feel that it is a good idea to see if I might be able to make some money from my writing, because if I could, then I would feel very inclined to spend most of my free time on writing. That would be good for both you and me. I have written quite a bit of the future story in what I call story-line(meaning that it is mostly written like how you would tell about something that has happened, and not how it is seen from the character's perspective); in this story-line the story is planned out beyond volume 3.
No worries about telling me you don't feel it's worth it to donate right now, it's better to know that than to not know it. Honesty isn't something I'll ever interpret as something bad. I appreciate you telling me your thoughts.
I had not heard of Patreon or Kindle Series before, so I checked them out hastily, and from my first impression I think Patreon is the better choice of the two. I'll have to do a more thorough investigation later in the week, since today and tomorrow I have some things I must do.
Do you have any thoughts on what would be better? Or any knowledge about what their differences are? Or a comparison of their good and bad points?
The word count in a chapter is mostly governed by the chapter's specific scene and what happens in it. So, it is mostly out of my control, but I think the average should be very close to 4000 words per chapter if I exclude the Interlude(which isn't really a chapter). 4000 words per chapter isn't something I would consider short, or long, but that length is quite suited for web-novels. And it isn't like this is Epic Fantasy :)
I think a good story has places where it is most suited to start and end a chapter. Especially when a book is completed. I've noticed that some of the greatest books I've read have been those that make me feel like at the end of one chapter I just can't put down the book and have to read the next chapter. These kinds of books are also pretty much the only ones I've reread within 5 years of the first time I read them.
I have a planned “system” on how I spend my time on this story, and most of it right now is writing volume 2 into story-form. I only allow myself to proof-read and edit the next chapter to be posted after I've converted a later chapter that is in story-line to story-form. This way I'll always be more than ten chapters ahead of the posts on this blog, and I only need to read through them and edit them before I can post them(which only takes a few hours, at most, per chapter). By doing this I can also make any large changes that I feel are important before I've posted something here; that has already happened once and—from my point of view—it made the future story a lot better, so it was worth it.
Right now, the easiest way to get me to post more chapters would probably be to tell others about this blog and have more readers come here and read. I've decided upon a few new view-count goals now that I have created a little chapter-buffer again. My earlier goals were a bit too low and the buffer ran dry quickly...
Thanks for taking the time and telling me your thoughts :)
Yo Ataraxia. Thanks for the great read once again. I'm still loving this series. I also am wholeheartedly supporting your idea to post the full volume on kindle. I'd certainly buy it.
ReplyDeleteIf you were to finish the whole volume, make it available on the kindle, and then continue to post one chapter a week on this site, I think you could very easily drop cliffhangers that would make some not able to tolerate waiting, and instead choose to buy the book.
That isn't the option of a dick(pardon my word choice), but more the option of a professional who wants to earn something from his/her work. I wouldn't blame you if you chose to drop only a chapter a week. I'd immediately buy the full volume. I'm a big light novel/web novel fan anyway so I pay money often for the stuff haha.
One more thought here. I think donations are a worse option than selling the volume ONLY BECAUSE people naturally don't like to hand out money. They would rather use their money to get something in return. If that money means more chapters, then so be it. The only issue with donation is everybody will think "I'll leave that to somebody else", you feel me?
Anyway, TL;DR: I love this series, and really want more. I recommend it as much as possible, and am totally for the kindle idea.
Thanks, that's good to know.
DeleteI also had that thought, that if I keep posting one chapter a week here and put up the completed volume for sale it would make people who really like reading this story buy it. The first volume has gone beyond its half-way point though, so I'm not sure if it's the best idea with volume 1. It will more likely be done with volume 2.
What would you be willing to pay for a volume?
I haven't checked what other LNs are priced at, and don't really have the time for that right now.
I thought I'd follow something I'm hinting at in the story and make it 6.4$, but that feels like it's a bit expensive. I have to look and see what other LNs are priced at, then I can use that as a reference and have mine be at a similar price.
My problem is that I seldom remember prices after I've bought something to read because right after I've bought it I'm reading the book and have gotten completely engrossed in it.
I understand the point about people not wanting to donate because, as you say, it isn't a sure thing if you get anything out of it and you can always wait for someone else to do it. Which is why I didn't put up a donation-link or advertisement on this blog when I began it. I thought it would be best to see what the readers think about what I've written and give something before actually trying to earn some money from this.
I haven't decided at all what I'll do about trying to earn some money from this. But all the thoughts of others makes it easier to think about it from different perspectives and it lets me make up my mind faster about what would be best.
Spreading the word about this story is probably the best thing that can be done to help my writing right now, since the more people that like the story, the more I see that it might be worthwhile to cut down on sleep and spend as much time as I possibly can to write more of it. So it's great that you're recommending it to others :)
You could charge based on content. I usually see light novels placed around $11 to $15. Eleven dollars is the generic amount, fifteen is for really popular novels, or novels done by companies who think it'll be very successful. At least, that's my opinion.
DeleteI'd be willing to pay anything from 5 to 12 dollars. I feel like anything cheaper than that would be far too good of a deal for me and a bad one for you.
I'd say you should charge .85 cents a chapter, and see what that puts you around in terms of price. Then make the whole volume that price.
I only say that because your chapters are usually quite detailed. Otherwise, if you had inconsistently sized chapters, I'd give you a more solid price.
DeleteGood to know. I should go with a lower price for volume 1. 6.4$ could be appropriate then, because I've already posted many chapters on this blog, and it will be more of an indicator of interest from the buyers that they think my writing is good enough to pay for in the future.
DeleteI'll keep in mind the 0.85$ per chapter for later volumes though.
Your thoughtful suggestions have made me quite motivated to spend all my free time on editing the rest of volume 1 and go through all chapters once more after that so I can publish the complete volume 1 on kindle. I should probably spend a couple of nights with reduced sleep and get it done.
Good luck! xD
DeleteI'm so glad my comment and poll spurred such discussion. I'm really glad, I feel like this story could really take off. You hit the nail on the head already, I think you should first focus on increasing the unique view count with the added benchmark goals like you said to keep everyone locked in. As well as iron out your volume one chapters. I really liked lezu's suggestions, I had never heard of those before but his descriptions sound promising. I'd definitely pay for a "premium" release. Depending on how it's implemented donations may still be applicable.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was great that you took the initiative to create the poll. There's always value in having more points of view to think from, and this page with its discussion has given me lots of ideas on how to further my goal to become a full time writer. So I thank you for that :)
DeleteAnd I also think that one of the more important things are to have more readers right now.
The Kindle series idea is certainly a great one; that would make it possible for those that want to give me a helping hand to get a favorable reward. Right now—this week—I unfortunately have little time to spend on researching what options would be best, but I'll do that fairly soon.
Are you any good at art? Ik it's still pretty early in the series but I think if some artwork could be designed it would really boost the unique views. Have you ever played ragnarok online before? Each monster has a card that can drop, it would be cool to design cards like that for every monster and put their background info/descriptions on it(after the monster has already been introduced of course). Each one would have world of calyxia tag or something. Then you put them up on deviantart and post them on some image boards every now and then. I've been trying to learn blender and am fairly proficient at PhotoShop so I'd say that I would help but I would be shooting in the dark. Even with the descriptions you've given in the story it would be hard to make it exactly how you imagined everything.
DeleteI honestly feel like that's a bit too much right now. Ataraxia could do it, but that is a lot of work. To be honest, I think the focus should be the story first, then the art later. But it isn't up to me! Just my suggestion!
DeleteJack Napier, I'm not good at art, or at least not digitized art.
DeleteWhen I was younger I was better than average with pencil and charcoal, but that doesn't really translate to digital pictures. I've never even tried to learn how to create beautiful pictures with Photoshop or the like. So, no, I'm not good at art.
I could write a more in-depth description of the Black Ooze, Jay and a few other characters and places if it was needed, but I think I should focus most of my time on writing the story. I'm closing in on the half-way point of volume 2 in book-form, which is nice, but not good enough. I want to have volume 2 done before the year is over, so that's my main focus right now.
Chase Wolfinsteen, I agree that the priority should be my writing. It's what I'm better at, so what time I have should be put into that. Life is all about time, and how you spend it, which is why I need to do that which brings the greatest benefit/enjoyment to myself and others.
DeleteMy proficiency in art is not good enough for me to spend much time on it, all I ever do is have fun with a pencil while listening to an audio-book. The best thing that has come from that is that I've sketched out a map of a continent inside the game-world. I'll most likely post it later, when I've made more adjustments, and the story has progressed enough for the map to be actually worth your time to look at.
Yea, if you ever have some spare time and could put some better descriptions together I could throw a few different variations your way as a thank you for all your hard work. Fan art ftw, I wouldn't mind if you used them in your kindle versions either, don't need any compensation, wouldn't complain about an extra chapter release if you like em though :P
DeleteI'm already spreading the word of your blog to friends I know of that loves novels / stories because yours are of a high quality.
ReplyDeleteThough some of my friend begs to differ on that point, none of them said your work is a bad thing and is now, most likely, spreading the word also. So I really hope you'll get more visitors, because it'll be additional incentive for you to work on this project more.
All in all, I don't mind donating, though I must say I am sorry because I cannot donate, not at the moment at least, for I have no financial income at all; for now the only support I can show is by promoting your blog to more and more people.
Regarding the money issue, whatever is your decision I'll support it fully. However, being a parasite to your story, it'll really kill me if you'll do something like "I'll post new chapter only if this threshold of ___ dollars/yourchosencurrency is reached."
Here's me hoping for a better future for you and an even better option than the one I feared.
Best regards.
I really like the whole kindle thing. Those who are possible will buy your work and those who aren't will keep leeching also i hope they will spread the news about your amazing work!
ReplyDeleteFor the artwork if it is possible i would really love it but most the important thing that you should focus would be obviously the story i think.
Btw if you put the whole volume on kindle i would definitely BUY IT!!!!!
You just made me think of a pretty great idea mada. Maybe the op should only put the artwork in the kindle release. That would give him time to work on the story and not have to worry about it this early. People would by the kindle release in order to support the op and get faster releases plus the added bonus would be the visuals. I think it would be a great incentive that could get bring more people to buy it.
ReplyDelete