Oxylus
patreon
September Announcements!
🕑 Added 2023-09-28 12:45:49 +0000 UTCHey Everyone!
I have some news. This is gonna be a bit long, bear with me. In 2-3 weeks I will be heading home. I don't have a firm date yet, but once I do, there will be some changes around here.
First, I will be pausing RoyalRoad and what's now called the Apprentice Artificer's tier for two weeks after I get home to spend time with family. I've been gone for four months, and I don't want to worry too much about other things.
As a reminder, book 1 is being released on 16 January 24. Mark your calendars! This will be on Kindle Unlimited, Epub, Audible, and Paperback.
The cover art is in work now and the audiobook production starts mid-Oct.
Next, a couple of notes regarding the stories.
Mana & Mayhem, all told, did decent. It's sitting at around 1100 followers on RoyalRoad. I feel like it's got some really rushed writing and I eventually want to go back and edit it. The sequel, Quests & Quills, will be starting probably in the new year.
Corporate Mage, I will be writing what I call part 2 here soon. I am really enjoying where that story is going. For those who haven't read it, it is set 35 years after the Flash... on Sloane's Earth. Still slow releases because I don't want any Manabound delays. My backlog got tight there for a bit with Mayhem at the end. Though, I hope those of you reading it are enjoying what's going on so far for Lexi. I plan for 5 parts to book 1. This will likely turn into a trilogy or more. We'll see.
Manabound, things are really starting to amp up in book 5. Sloane's journey is getting a bit more focused, and less reactionary. Gwyn's getting older, she's starting to really grow up and is starting to discover who she is as a person.
For those who keep asking, I'll go ahead and say it: don't expect a reunion until at least book 7. Sloane's journey is still going, and things are blowing up, but expect her to be making forward progress constantly until then. Gwyn has a lot of things happening in between that time, and she's not going to be sitting idle.
Now, where does Manabound end? Currently, and this could change, the main story of Manabound ends after book 8. But! A sequel series will begin immediately after. In world time, it should also begin almost immediately after. (Likely!) You'll see why it's a sequel series and not just book 9+ as we get closer.
Lastly, here's the big Patreon stuff.
Back when I started Manabound and Patreon, my average word count per chapter was at 2850 words. Now, having written 17 chapters into book 5 that average is over 6k words. Mana & Mayhem's average count ended at 5369 and that's just because the first chapter and second epilogue were so short. It's over 5.5k when those are taken into account. Over 6k if you just look at just chapters 17-35... Yikes.
This doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon. In fact, book 5 of Manabound is shaping up to be around 220-230K words. Mayhem was around 204k.
With that in mind, I will be changing some of the tiers to reflect the amount of content that is being produced.
I am going to be updating the Artificer Tier to include 15 chapters ahead. We'll build up to that over the 2 weeks that everything else is on pause. The Apprentice Artificer tier that is $5 will remain at 11 chapters ahead, but will be going away for new readers.
Everyone who currently has the Apprentice Artificer tier will be grandfathered in.
So, if you want to keep it and stay 11 ahead at $5? By all means, enjoy it! That is a small thing I can do for you amazing people who have supported me thus far. And let me say, that your support has meant the world to me.
That said, if you drop it, you will not be able to come back and grab it unless some shenanigans happen around the time it's going away. (message me if that occurs.)
Now, I will be adding a new $5 tier (Tinker) that will stay at 6 chapters ahead, or essentially one month if we account for my admin weeks.
Again, I want to thank everyone who has given me their support, and I hope you continue to enjoy my stories.
There's so much more to come.
Summary of Release Changes:
Public Release (RoyalRoad)
- Delayed Access to chapters (>2 months behind)
- No Access to Side Stories
- Occasional Bonus Chapters (Think Holidays)
Tinker Tier: ($5/mo)
- Up to 6 Advanced Chapters
- Delayed Access to Side Stories
- First look at Bonus Content
- Occasional Bonus Chapters
Adventurer (Hiatus) Tier: ($5/mo)
- Up to 6 Advanced Manabound Chapters
- Current Unknown # of Advanced Chapters for Quests & Quills (Mayhem sequel) when that begins. (We'll figure it out!)
- Delayed Access to Side Stories
- First look at Bonus Content
- Occasional Bonus Chapters
Apprentice Artificer (Grandfathered) Tier: ($5/mo)
- Up to 11 Advanced Chapters
- Delayed Access to Side Stories
- First look at Bonus Content
- Occasional Bonus Chapters
Artificer tier: ($10/mo)
- Up to 15 Advanced Chapters
- Advanced Access to new stories before they get released.
- Advanced Access to side stories.
- First look at Bonus Content
- Occasional Bonus Chapters
Noble Tier: ($20/mo) - No Changes
- Access to the full unedited backlog for all written works
- First look at all new content/stories
- Limited - Create Characters for the stories
- Limited - Create Locations for the stories
Guildmaster Tier: ($50/mo) - No Changes
- Access to full backlog of all chapters for all written works
- Full Worldbuilding Content / Access
- Limited - Create Characters for the stories
- Limited - Create Locations for the stories
- Signed Copy of Published Book (When Released)
Comments
Oxylus
This is pretty in line with many other authors that I've seen. For example, Selkiemyth with BTDEM has a $3 tier for 5 chapters (<20k words) and a $10 tier for 25 chapters (<90k words). The main benefit anyone gets from reading on Patreon is early access. (I have a bunch of people I subscribe to as well.) As for 6 ahead, I came to that number solely because that is what keeps that tier 1 month ahead of public releases. That's essentially an arc ahead if not more at all times. Plus, that tier will get delayed access to side stories. (With the first chapter coming once the new tier is created.) Purchasing a fantasy novel is getting a fully complete novel after however long it took to write. Reading on patreon is getting access to them as they're being written. The benefit is different in that regard. Not to mention, easy access to come chat with me regarding the story whenever you want on discord. (That's to anyone~!) I do agree that there is a downside to existing patrons who cannot maintain their grandfathered tier, but I have almost doubled the amount of content since I made that tier over a year ago. I've poured just about every spare hour I have outside of my day job into my writing, and gone from an average of 37k words a month to 86k words a month. Which went most recently into Mana & Mayhem, and now into Manabound. You guys will see more of that benefit as things get settled with me back home in the form of all sorts of new content, like for example, Corporate Mage or another Manabound side story that is coming soon-ish.
Adam
Only just saw this. $5 a month for just 6 advanced chapters seems a bit much. That’s $60 a year. $60 is 6-20 ebooks. You could buy 7.5 copies of an almost 400,000 word fantasy novel like The Way of Kings for that much. And just comparing a single month, 6 6000 word chapters is 36,000 words, while an average fantasy novel is around 90,000 - 100,000. The value proposition and incentive for new patrons seems low for the $5 tier. It also punishes any existing patrons who, for whatever reason, don’t or can’t keep a consistent membership to stay grandfathered in.
Oxylus
More details coming! There's a reason it's not just book 9 and beyond. Rest assured, it will feature all of our Manabound characters.
BelligerentGnu
My only problem with this is that one and a half books is not nearly enough of Gwyn and Sloane taking on the world together.
