RhaegarRRL
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Info post on publishing / Amazon
🕑 Added 2022-07-06 15:02:38 +0000 UTCHello everyone
Sorry, not another chapter :P.
Announcement in regards to the publishing of Azarinth Healer on Amazon.
Most of you who read this won't be affected by this at all or won't care but it was an important topic to myself and I do want to keep you in the loop as always.
I was initially very resistant to consider a publisher for Azarinth Healer. Both due to the business communication and additional work on my side, but more so due to the start of the story.
As many of you know, I didn't have a lot of writing experience prior to Azarinth. The beginning of the story is incredibly weak in a lot of aspects, mostly on a technical level. I understand a lot of that now but always considered the amount of effort required to go back and fix things up, as not worth it. A damn near rewrite would be necessary and I wanted to focus on new content or new stories instead.
Most publishers would likely look at the numbers and popularity of the story, without really understanding any of that. So when I finally considered my options again, I wanted to make sure that my publisher and editor understood what the hell they would be working with.
In the end I chose Portal Books based on my now editor and friend Brook, who has put in an absolutely insane amount of work to fix up the first chunk of Azarinth Healer.
When I first read through some of the edits (pages covered in red) and suggestions, I quickly started to realize that not just the technical aspects could be fixed, but that the writing itself could be massively improved with our collaboration.
I've gone back and changed up a lot of the plot and character issues I thought were glaring and the more we're working on book one (chapters 1-74), the more I just realize how fucking ridiculously cringe many of the scenes really were. Often somewhat small tweaks could fix things but with other parts we had to essentially rewrite entire characters.
Now to the actual point of this announcement. The story will be put on Amazon and will be enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited program. Many of you will not give a shit or will not know what that means. So I'll summarize - KU means a significant chunk more money for nearly everyone that is involved in the project.
What it also means is exclusivity. While a book is enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited program, it cannot be available anywhere else. Which means the original chapters which made up book 1 (and subsequently later books) will have to be taken down from Royalraod (and patreon/scribblehub) while the books are enrolled in KU.
It's a lucrative model for Amazon as they have a library of books that others don't have. That's not the point though. Any author can put their things onto KU, I don't care. I even encourage it if the author wants to turn writing into a career. That is how the market works at the moment, and where people have the highest chance of financial success.
But my situation is a little different. At the moment I already make more than enough to live off of my writing. A fact that puts me in a position of privilege. A position where I can choose not to take the money option in favor of other things.
The main consideration here is Royalroad. The website where I assume most of you have found Azarinth Healer. For me it's the website that not only had me read through entire nights of dope ass stories, but the site that allowed me to become a full time writer. Well, the site, my writing, the readers, and patreon as well of course, and mainly those who support me on there. But the fact remains that without Royalroad, I wouldn't have been able to do this. Writing would've stayed a hobby, or maybe I'd have made a website at some point or I would've posted on some other site.
But as it is, Royalroad played a massive part in why I can write as a full time job. And that should make it clear why ripping the story away from the site, chunk by chunk as books get released, in favor of essentially more reach and money feels wrong to me.
I talked to various people, mostly other writers, about their experiences and options with publishing, Amazon, and KU. And I was torn on what to do. As Azarinth grew larger, I was pretty sure I wouldn't go the KU route. There are other options. Non exclusive ones, like the one Nobody123 (Mother of Learning) or Mecanimus (Journey of Black and Red) chose.
I spent a long period of time considering all of this and talking to other writers. KU still made sense on a lot of fronts based on the editing process I've gone through and the potentially higher passive income with future books, but there were problems with it that I felt I had to address.
- Royalroad, which was previously not part of the contract at all will be added as a royalty benefactor of Azarinth Healer's Amazon release. This means that for every bit of money this project makes, in KU, Kindle, Audio, Royalroad will receive a cut. This is NOT a statement, it's not an expectation of other authors, nor a dig at the business decisions of anyone. I just personally feel that for myself, this is required to justify a launch on KU.
The portions of the story that will be removed from Royalroad as books come out, will continue to benefit the site passively. All current Royalroad readers will continue to receive new chapters until the story ends.
- Editing through book one... there were many sections that are just straight up crap. From a technical perspective, or just because of plot, references, and other issues. Worst I feel are a few scenes and characters with topics related to sexual violence and sexism. All of that stuff can go and I don't want to subject any possible new readers to the original version if a better one is out. I think it would be for the best to have one published definitive edition of the story, hopefully without any of those issues remaining.
- The last issue with going KU is that free readers on Royalroad will lose access to more and more of the story, starting at chapters 1-74 (excluding a bit at the start that I can leave up I believe), similar to what you've seen many other stories go through in the past year or so.
However if you're reading this right when I post it, and you've read past chapter 74, nothing really changes for you. Except possibly the availability of a heavily edited and partially rewritten version of book 1 on Amazon and an Audiobook soon(tm).
I'd imagine most of the people who've been using Royalroad for a while, have checked out Azarinth by now. And new ones would likely come from Amazon, having already read the first book.
- Additionally, I felt less conflicted with the KU decision because of the announced ending to the story. Of course I still don't know how long it will take to finish it, but we'll get there :).
All of that left me with little reason not to go with KU.
I know that I have told some of you that I will not be going exclusive with Azarinth Healer. I hope that the explanations and solutions I've detailed here sufficiently clarify my decision, but do feel free to dm me for a chat.
Cheers,
Another one of those word suppliers
(I'll cross post this to RR with a chapter release this week)
Comments
Ashywashy
I’m so excited for this! I can’t wait to see all the work done on it! I hope there is an audiobook planned as well, that would be an instant buy from me!
Calleman20
Will we get all the books in a zip format so we can download them and save them to our device? We have already spent a lot of money on Patreon so maybe we could get the books for free? This is just a suggestion but it would be really awesome if you did that for your loyal Patreon supporters. Also would love to buy signed hard covers of the entire series to put in my book shelf if the price is reasonable at least.
Chad Hagner
I've been wanting to reread this story from the beginning and I love the KU platform. I'm very excited for your books to start being released!
G. Harthane
I think that's the plan for now but my focus is AH for the time being :).
G. Harthane
I know Kana and Wing personally. Please see the comments from them on this topic on the Royalroad post (https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/16946/azarinth-healer/chapter/943076/chapter-854-dust-info-on-publishing). Their revenue is nowhere near as significant as some people imply. As to benefits going to people I interact and work with - Yes, much of the benefits do go to people I work with. The Royalroad cut means Kana who keeps the site running and provides the platform gets a cut. Readers have gotten content for years, that is what I make. They read my story, they don't put in time editing or administrating a website for me. Those who support me with money in return do that for what I write. I would love to put out a free version of the edited stuff but because I couldn't handle all that work myself, plenty of other people have put in a shitload of time.
So, after AH will the focus switch to Infrasound Berserker? It could use a good bit of lovin' :-) Excellent story and definitely has the potential to be another epic story.
Jasonzerowars Playes
Can’t wait to have a copy
Phoenix
RoyalRoad gain revenue through ads and premium memberships, plus possibly donations, if I remember correctly. I agree with your thoughts about this, though
Jeff091
Hi, thanks for the story Concerning Amazon: I don't have a problem with the change to Amazon. Let's not talk about ideal, it isn't even good, but sometimes a bad choice is the best you have. I consider Amazon the problem and not the authors. In my opinion, the individual authors have, simply put, too little power, to deserve blame for a flawed system. Concerning RoyalRoad: Yes, it probably is the page I found this story on. Yes, supporting the site is a good thing. No, I would not feel morally obligated to support the site, I assume the owners gain revenue due to advertisement, and have thus probably already benefitted greatly from your story. What I like about royal road is the writers, the reviewers, commentators and readers, and moderators (as little contact as there is for us average readers). Do the benefits go to the people you interact and work with, or to whoever owns the page?
G. Harthane
I appreciate the response :)
Thomas Verjans
Oh don't worry, I completely understand where you're coming from and I'm not saying you're wrong to do so. I just wish there was a way to get the edited e-book without supporting Amazon is all. I'd buy it in a heartbeat. You know way better than I do what's feasible with your available time and funds, and I don't begrudge you doing whatever works best for you. Best of luck, and thanks for the story! I'll keep supporting you on Patreon no matter what anyway lol
fbt
whatever feels right to you is fine by me, fwliw! :) That said, I totally get your thinking here, and find it worthy! Happy trails...
G. Harthane
I mean Royalroad and Patreon are kind of alternatives. The format is just different. You already got the story, and there are plenty of ways to get a pdf as it's all still free. But for me to get a properly edited, formatted ebook with marketing and a publisher behind it, I'm not the only person to make decisions, and a publisher will likely choose amazon to publish because it's easy to do and has an insanely huge platform. To get the cake and eat it too, I'd have had to do it all myself or with volunteers or people I paid, and that's a shit ton more work. I would've simply chosen not to get it done at all, and now I'm excited to get an edited version out. As many issues as Amazon has, that's what they made possible. If you don't want to buy from that platform, then that is okay. Just want to give some perspective. I'm not arguing against your points.
Travis Beck
Sounds great, looking forward to it for purchase and re-read. If you decide to release in Audio format please please please do not include the stats line by line. Just a quick, “Ilea added all 50 points to intelligence bringing her to X” or something like how you do later on in the story. Hearing a narrator go through stats word for word is terrible and the worst part of listening to lit-rpg audiobooks.
Good on you! I'm delighted that you are supporting RoyalRoad. I have great affection for that site as well.
Thomas Verjans
Very happy you're getting published, I just wish there were ways to buy e-books like this that don't involve Amazon. I don't mind paying for books, I love supporting authors, but I've never bought a single thing from Amazon and I'm very much going to keep it that way. It was an issue with the first volume of Beware of Chicken as well, for example. The lack of alternatives bugs me a bit.
Terry Stevens
Fucking hell mate, about god damned time. Yee haw, and all that jazz. But I would suggest that you make the first book price at something like £1.99 or £2.99. Mostly because if I had come across Azarinth after it has gone onto KU, and before actually reading the first segments, if the price is below £3.00, I will usually give a book a go. But if it is higher, that is when I put serious thought of buying it. Usually going with the not option.
