And here... we... go.

Thank you, Catherine! It's an interesting niche, as they go.

Doesn't mean I'm gonna stop experimenting with other stuff... now that I know web serial's the way to go, I'll be working hard on other projects and genres that catch my fancy.

It's numbers time for February!

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 23 copies in February, bringing the year's total to 51.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 12 copies in February, bringing the year's total to 50.

Dire:Born sold 83 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 102 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 446.

Dire:Seed sold 59 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 77 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 320.

Dire:Sins sold 57 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 46 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 248.

Dire:Time sold 60 ebook copies, 1 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 62 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 262.

Dire:Wars sold 57 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 49 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 255.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 8 copies and had 8 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 57.

Final Frost sold 9 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 1 kindle read (They must have grabbed it before it left KU and just now got around to reading it,) bringing the running yearly total to 30.

Threadbare Volume 1 sold 901 ebook copies through Amazon, 5 ebook copies through D2D, 0 through Kobo, and 3 Print copies, bringing the running yearly total to 2926.

Threadbare Volume 2 sold 1784 ebook copies through Amazon, 3 ebook copies through D2D, 1 through Kobo, and 4 Print copies, bringing the running yearly total to 2411.

Threadbare Volume 3 sold 153 ebook copies through Amazon.

Yep. Volume three is out. I busted my rump to get it out before the end of the month. I wanted to see if there's any truth to the book-a-month notion, and this has set up a December-January-February chain. We'll see how March sales go... so far it's decent, but too early to tell.

That's Threadbare done. That's that weird creative fit that grabbed me, and drove me, got 300 thousand words out in two months done. I'm still kind of stunned that worked out.

Stunned and happy. This is... yeah, this is good.

Now I'll take some time and wrap up Dire:Hell, then shop it out to my beta readers and editor. This one can take its time, all the time it needs. It's a rough story, and I know I've got work ahead with it. But it should be good for another launch month worth of sales... even if I don't expect it to hit Threadbare levels of sales.

That said...

I've noticed a lot of bleedover, and sales in Dire's neck of the woods since I launched Threadbare. People finish the Threadbare books and they go looking hungry for more. And Dire's evidently a tasty meal. If she wasn't, I wouldn't be selling past the first book in the series. But I'm seeing motion all down the line...

12 products for sale. A short story, a novella, a box set, and nine novels. Things are starting to shape up. Still got a long way to go. That said...

...I no longer have any doubt of the outcome. In May, barring misfortune, we will destroy the last of my wife's student loan debt. From that point on, any profits from royalties shall go to savings. And once I have saved up an equivalent amount to my day job's annual pay, I'll start making preparations to leave my day job and go full time as a writer. If it all works out, 2019 is gonna be a good year.

Maybe. If I can keep this up. But y'know... I think I can.

Oh, not everything's going to be as solid as Dire, or as good as Threadbare, but I think I'm close to reaching bookish critical mass.

But...

There's no reason not to stack the deck, a bit.

Now that I've found that the web serial format agrees with me, now that I know I can trust myself to stay on target, there's a critical component of my strategy that I must set up. Something I have to research, figure out, and utilize before I get too much farther down the road.

It's time to study and learn about Patreon.

Expand on web serials? Absolutely.

Web serials are simply serial stories that are posted online as they are written. Sometimes through a user's own website, other times through fiction sites such as spacebattles.com, or royalroadlegends.com.

If you are a decent writer, and can keep a good, steady schedule, then web serials can be a good option. You still need ways to get eyes on your story... but if you're using a fiction site, then that's what they're there for.

That's what Threadbare is, is a web serial that I chopped up and novelized in three parts. I wrote Threadbare fast, several thousand words a day, almost, from November to January.

I didn't have to go looking for beta readers; the readers on the fiction sites did it for me. I didn't have to do any major structural editing. The ratings and reviews of the story showed that it was fine as it was.

It allowed a turnaround time that was downright ludicrous.

But... it took a LOT of work to keep myself on the daily deadline. A LOT of willpower. If I hadn't been writing in discovery mode and having fun every step of the way, then I wouldn't have made it.

Still, it took a lot of the pressure off, writing in that format. If it didn't work out, or I couldn't finish the story, oh well. I wouldn't have been able to sell it, but it would still have entertained the folks who read it.

So yeah, that's web serial writing. If you want me to get down a bit farther into the nitty gritty of it I can, but looking at it in a broad sense, it's just a Dickens style serial story distributed through more modern methods.

March ever on! March into April, and here's the numbers from month three of 2018.

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 28 copies in March, bringing the year's total to 79.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 19 copies in March, bringing the year's total to 69.

Dire:Born sold 60 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 7 direct sales, and had 72 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 588.

Dire:Seed sold 50 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 2 direct sales, and had 59 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 433.

Dire:Sins sold 48 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 45 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 345.

Dire:Time sold 48 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 47 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 360.

Dire:Wars sold 46 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 45 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 350.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 10 copies and had 8 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 75.

Final Frost sold 10 ebook copies, 1 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 1 kindle read (They must have grabbed it before it left KU and just now got around to reading it,) bringing the running yearly total to 42.

Threadbare Volume 1 sold 722 ebook copies through Amazon, 1 ebook copies through D2D, 0 through Kobo, 14 Print copies, and 9 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 3672.

Threadbare Volume 2 sold 655 ebook copies through Amazon, 1 ebook copies through D2D, 1 through Kobo, 9 Print copies, and 1 direct sale bringing the running yearly total to 3077.

Threadbare Volume 3 sold 1956 ebook copies through Amazon and 5 print copies, bringing the running yearly total to 2114.

To say that things are going well is an understatement.

LitRPG is definitely going to be my genre for a little while. I'm wrapping up the final touches on Dire:Hell, and after that, it's a plunge into this new, hot, territory. I'm already working on a dungeon core story, web serial-style. So far it's getting good response, but I'm not sure how much of that is Threadbare's rep following me. In the end it doesn't matter.

I'll have my tenth novel out this month, once I'm ready to drop Dire:Hell. I'm secure enough that I can write as I please, and mix up my methods as I see fit. Not yet at the point where I can depend on it for steady income, but that's fine.

Oh! I'm going to be attending the 20booksto50K vegas conference, this November. If you haven't heard of it, I recommend checking out the facebook group. This is a by-indies-for-indies conference, with workshops, seminars, and networking galore. They've done so well and gotten such a name with the Vegas conferences that there are others held throughout the world. There's one coming up in Bali next winter, and one planned for Edinburgh, as well.

Hard work is paying off. Can't slack off, though. Eyes on the prize, and the prize is becoming a full-time writer without driving myself and my family to poverty.

2019, perhaps, if things keep going well. I think I can do it, it's just a matter of WHEN in 2019...

@Mclesh: Thanks! It will be a load off, yeah. This is about a year of our planned progress condensed into a handful of months, and lordy, does it feel good. After this, things get a hell of a lot niftier.

Well, except for estimated taxes. Those are gonna be nasty next year. Gonna have to save a fair chunk to compensate, but eh, first world problems.

@rwm4678: I haven't read Aleron's books yet. They're on a list, but I've got a few ahead of them. Good places to go after reading Threadbare... mmm... The ones I've found most intriguing thus far are as follows;

(Disclaimer: These are purely my personal reading preferences, and do not always map to success in the market. Just opinions, and a matter of taste. I am not endorsing these as a professional, but as a reader)

Ascend Online 1 by Luke Chmilenko: A good, bog-standard LitRPG book. It's not overly complicated, does its job well, has top-notch characters and engaging dialogue. The action is damn good, too. Unlike other books it doesn't have much going on outside of the virtual world, preferring to focus on in-game drama.

Dominion of Blades 1 by Matt Dinniman: Interesting spin on the genre, with a plot twist that you probably won't see coming. Bit more of a downer than is usual in litrpg, and the protagonist goes through some pretty rough times. Good characters, good action (with gory consequences,) and realistic dialogue.

The Dark Herbalist 1 by Michael Atamanov: Nice take on an extreme underdog situation, with a few subplots happening outside of the virtual world. Decent characterization and good action. The dialogue is mostly good, but makes it clear it was translated from Russian, so that may or may not be your thing. It was fun spotting various turns of phrase, here and there.

Delvers LLC 1 by Blaise Corvin: A sci-fi take on the genre, that doesn't have a virtual world at all. Just a capricious techno-god, a test planet set up like a fantasy world, and species from across the universe. Damn good characterization for the heroes, the supporting cast and antagonists could use a bit more, but it's forgiveable. Snappy dialogue and realistic action.

Well, this month drove some differences home.

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 10 copies in April, bringing the year's total to 89.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 12 copies in March, bringing the year's total to 81.

Dire:Born sold 54 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 3 direct sales, and had 60 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 707.

The newly released Dire:Hell sold 272 ebook copies and had 130 kindle unlimited reads, for a launch-month total of 402.

Dire:Seed sold 36 ebook copies, 4 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 41 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 514.

Dire:Sins sold 45 ebook copies, 4 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 30 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 424.

Dire:Time sold 29 ebook copies, 5 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 39 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 433.

Dire:Wars sold 37 ebook copies, 4 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 33 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 423.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 7 copies and had 7 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 89.

Final Frost sold 4 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 0 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 46.

Threadbare Volume 1 sold 327 ebook copies through Amazon, 0 ebook copies through D2D, 1 through Kobo, 7 Print copies, 350 through a special storybundle promotion, and 7 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 4364.

Threadbare Volume 2 sold 327 ebook copies through Amazon, 1 ebook copies through D2D, 2 through Kobo, 11 Print copies, and 4 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 3422.

Threadbare Volume 3 sold 375 ebook copies through Amazon, 2 ebook copies through D2D, 1 through Kobo, and 5 print copies, bringing the running yearly total to 2508.

I launched Dire:Hell this month. What a difference between it and the Threadbare launches! It's doing well... for a superheroes book. But it's clear to me that this won't generate the momentum or heights that my litrpg launches did.

The message is clear; if I want to grow, I'll have to shift over to this more vibrant genre, at least for the time being. Fortunately I'm okay with this... I've been planning to wrap up Dire for the foreseeable future anyway.

And if inspiration strikes, I'll go back to write more heroes and villains stuff. Got a whole big universe to work in, and plenty of characters to toodle around with. Dire is my foundation there, and she is strong!

On to Threadbare. You might notice that there's an additional entry up there, called "Storybundle special promotion." Basically, I was invited to take part in a Storybundle anthology. I gave them permission to put Threadbare in an anthology with other litrpg books. The anthology was only available for a limited time, and was one of those pay-what-you-like deals, with a minimum of $15. Proceeds were divvied up between all authors, with a sizeable cut going to the organizers and charity. Worked out for me! I was hesitant to try it at first, but some research and a good read over the contract showed they were aboveboard. So that's about 350 sales that I wouldn't have had otherwise. And the check just arrived, so I can attest they pay in a timely fashion.

What next? Where do I go from here?

I've been working on something over on Royal Road... a Dungeon Core book. That's a subgenre of litrpg. I don't think it'll be as big as Threadbare, but I'm having fun with it. I'm already about fifty-thousand words in. This isn't meant to be a series, but we'll see how it goes. I won't force it. Barring weirdness, it'll be a book in two months or so.

Shortly before that time, Threadbare's audio books will start to come out. And whoo doggies, I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes.

After that? Let's just say I've got plans for Threadbare's world. It's time to focus in on a smaller part of it...

It was a good month. Launching mid-month in April means that the momentum carried pretty well into May. Have a look at the numbers, you'll see what I mean.

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 30 copies in April, bringing the year's total to 119.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 14 copies in March, bringing the year's total to 95.

Dire:Born sold 106 ebook copies, 4 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 215 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1032.

Dire:Hell sold 366 ebook copies. 11 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 440 kindle unlimited reads, for a launch-month total of 1219.

Dire:Seed sold 81 ebook copies, 1 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 182 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 778.

Dire:Sins sold 70 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 147 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 643.

Dire:Time sold 60 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 145 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 638.

Dire:Wars sold 64 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 148 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 637.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 9 copies and had 9 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 107.

Final Frost sold 7 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 0 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 53.

Threadbare Volume 1 sold 195 ebook copies through Amazon, 1 ebook copies through D2D, 1 through Kobo, 9 Print copies, and 0 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 4570.

Threadbare Volume 2 sold 191 ebook copies through Amazon, 2 ebook copies through D2D, 3 through Kobo, 5 Print copies, and 0 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 3623.

Threadbare Volume 3 sold 201 ebook copies through Amazon, 1 ebook copies through D2D, 2 through Kobo, and 6 print copies, bringing the running yearly total to 2718.

A good month! It's alleviating some of my worries about the disparity between the superheroes subgenre and LitRPG. It was a good launch, it just took two months to shake out. Which is fine. My fans are patient sorts, and don't immediately rush to grab things, it looks like.

Which is good, because my next book is at least a month away, if not more. Been working on a thing called Bunkercore, a dungeon core book story with a postapocalyptic slant. It's only about 60k into the first arc, though, and I'm not getting the time I need to work on it.

I'm not getting that time because I'm working on a massive thing for my mailing list. It's a roleplaying game based on Threadbare. And holy screaming heck, it's taking time. Threadbare's system is a big, chunky thing that takes lots of pages.

I knew it would. I'm going to see diminished sales overall for a bit, due to momentum slowing.

I'm hoping that the Threadbare audiobooks make up for some of that. The first one comes out tomorrow, the others will follow in one and two months, respectively, if things go to plan. Though I get paid quarterly there, so It'll take a while to see the impact.

There is much to do, and nowhere near enough time to do it. If I were a full-time writer it wouldn't be an issue... but I'm not, and it is.

But one day I WILL be a full-time writer. I paid off my wife's student loans last month. I'm down to a single remaining debt; the mortgage. Can't sweep that out with one month of profits... but I CAN start overpaying it, and ripping out chunks of the principal.

I don't have to eliminate it completely before I go out. I just have to bring it down to a chunk small enough that a few lucky months will get rid of it.

Eh. Counting chickens before they hatch...

I'll do fine. This is good. Just have to keep writing.

Oh! There IS one more thing that happened in May, that I should comment on.

Through pretty much sheer luck, I dodged a bullet.

Back when I started publishing Threadbare, I declined to put it into KU. I wanted to leave the story up on Royal Road and a couple of other places, as a thank you to those sites for boosting my signal. So that meant no KU.

In the April to May timeframe, scammers started using the gamelit and LitRPG categories for cover. They do this sometimes, running legitimate authors' works through their pageflip bots, in order to cover up what they're doing for the dirty authors. But I watched in horror as bunches of my peers had Amazon rescind their page flips, suspend their accounts, and in a few cases, shut them down entirely. All because of unmanned algorithms and the work of some unscrupulous thieves.

I dodged it. The only stuff I have in Kindle Unlimited are the superhero books, and that category isn't popular enough to draw scammer attention.

Terrifying. Up until now I'd been mourning the lost profit from KU. But now... now I know it worked out for the best.

Many of my peers are withdrawing their books from KU for good. Many are still arguing with the 'Zon, trying to get some justice. They're all down earnings from lost sales. They'll likely never be recompensed.

This storm didn't touch me, but there's no predicting when the next one will pop up, or what form it'll take. Amazon's been full of drama lately.

Nothing is certain with this path. Ever.

Here's to us, then! :: Clinks glasses together ::

Yeah, they seem to hop from category to category. Last month it was LitRPG, next month, who knows? Urban fantasy, mayhaps. The scammers will never stop trying, and Amazon will never stop hunting.

Eh, it's hard to say. KU is doing well for the Dire books, can't argue that. But yeah, diversification seems to be the way to go once you've expanded your portfolio. Too many eggs in a single basket is asking for trouble.

Holy hell.

Uh. I've got NEWS.

But first, the numbers.

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 15 copies in June, bringing the year's total to 134.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 9 copies in June, bringing the year's total to 104.

Dire:Born sold 49 ebook copies, 6 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 100 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1187.

Dire:Hell sold 75 ebook copies. 8 print copies, 2 direct sales, and had 114 kindle unlimited reads, for a total of 1416.

Dire:Seed sold 39 ebook copies, 4 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 86 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 907.

Dire:Sins sold 37 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 71 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 754.

Dire:Time sold 28 ebook copies, 5 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 66 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 737.

Dire:Wars sold 32 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 70 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 742.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 6 copies and had 4 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 117.

Final Frost sold 6 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 0 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 59.

Threadbare Volume 1 sold 181 ebook copies through Amazon, 1 ebook copies through D2D, 0 through Kobo, 6 Print copies, and 0 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 4758.

Threadbare Volume 2 sold 178 ebook copies through Amazon, 1 ebook copies through D2D, 0 through Kobo, 4 Print copies, and 0 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 3806.

Threadbare Volume 3 sold 152 ebook copies through Amazon, 1 ebook copies through D2D, 0 through Kobo, and 3 print copies, bringing the running yearly total to 2874.

Okay. So pretty good numbers. Especially for the second month after a launch. I've got a little leeway here, which is good, because I'm not sure if I want to release Bunkercore. It has... issues. I might have to take a few months and work on the next thing in the line instead.

The Threadbare audiobook has been selling. It spend the first three weeks of its launch hovering around 1500-2000 overall in the Audible store. I'm not sure if that's good. I have no scale to measure it by, since I'm not sure how much that translates into direct sales. My publisher will pay me in September, so I'll know whether or not it was good then.

Speaking of audiobooks, I've signed with the same folks who did Threadbare. They're going to produce the Dire Saga! This is exciting. My one insistence was that they find a female narrator for this series. They agreed it made sense, so before the end of the year I should hear my first protagonist's voice in glorious surround sound... ah, what a feeling!

But that's not the big news.

Back a couple of weeks ago, I was enjoying my vacation at Origins game fair, when I got an instant message through my facebook author page.

It was from an associate producer of the View.

Evidently they do a recurring segment called "The Ladies Get Lit." Each host chooses and offers up a book, singing its praises and recommending it to the audience.

And for the July segment, Whoopi Goldberg chose Threadbare, Volume I.

...

Yeah.

I checked it out, followed up with an email, and ran down the names and addresses involved. They checked out. I called up my audio publisher, filled them in and asked them to check it out. It checked out. The View really is going to recommend my book.

The only tricky thing was that I had to get them print and audio copies for their studio audience. My audio publishers took care of the audio end of things, but the print copies were on me. See, for trade published authors this ain't a thing. They talk to their publisher, and their publisher sends over the print copies. But I'm self-published, so this is just another thing that I had to handle personally.

And I tell you I didn't mind. I ordered them up from Createspace and shipped them merrily on their way. All 195 of them. Highest priority shipping.

I paid that bill smiling.

I'll be breaking the news on my author page soon. My friends and family and writer's group already know. Now it's time to go public.

In one week, so long as everything goes right, my book will be on television in front of a couple of million viewers.

I am so very, very glad I paid for the best cover I could, because I'm pretty sure that cover alone will get me beaucoup sales.

But... hopes and dreams aside, I'm posting this as proof it can happen to YOU. It can happen to anyone. We don't control who sees our books, or when they read them. This struck completely out of the blue, and it hit because the right people read my book at the right time. It's luck.

And it can happen to YOU.

Work hard, keep working, and find ways to work without losing the joy. The only way to lose is to stop writing.

So.

Yeah, a busy month. A good month.

But next month? Once July 9th hits and passes?

I am very, very interested to see what's gonna happen, there. And I'm very much hoping it affects my numbers. Hugely.

Oh, uh, yeah. The episode airs July 9th. Sorry, thought I mentioned that.