I'm Still Here

Yeah, I've had lengthy absences from this blog before, but this one feels like the longest.  I guess I'd have to go back over the years to see if that's true or not.  Anyway, a lot has been going on in my life the past six months and I want to make sure everyone is kept apprised on the state of things relative to the Verdan Chronicles.

First, I really don't know if the Verdan Chronicles will ever achieve a kind of "following".  Certainly, there are dozens of people who have read at least the first book, perhaps even over a hundred.  I think in a future post I'll list numbers of how many copies are actually "out there".  I'm pretty sure the number for The Fourth Age will approach 200, but many of those are ebooks that were given away and its hard to tell how many were actually read.  At this point I think I've seen between 12-15 reviews and ratings, so those are the only people I can say with certainty read it.

With respect to this blog, I used to try and promote the website, but traffic is pretty anemic and I sort of gave up on that.  Seriously, if you want a free signed copy of The Fourth Age, just send me a note at verdanchronicles@gmail.com and I'll get something out to you.  I should add "while supplies last", but am not expecting many takers.  I'm really doing this as a test to see if anyone actually reads this.

All of the above sounds pretty depressing, so let me make one thing perfectly clear...I am NOT disappointed or sad over the minimal interest in my book series.  In fact, I'm very happy that its out there at all and extremely appreciative of the people who have read it and encouraged me to "get it out there".  I think the story is awesome and I spend as much time rereading my own books as I do other works.  Yes, there's the occasonal "cringe" over missed typos or passages that could have been written a little better.  But I feel in the context of over 5000 written pages, those are minor.

So how is this year progressing?  Well, Whisper in the Universe has been published.  At the moment, I think it's the best book of the ten that are available.  I have started writing Balance of War, but am not as far along as I'd like.  It's a very tight balancing act, because war is being waged across Verdan and I have to keep all the various actions in sync.  I've written the first four chapters and I'm still less than an hour from the conclusion of Whisper.

Why am I not further along?  Well, life has a way of happening.  Writing is my passion, but its still a hobby in comparison to my day job that pays the bills.  And after 39+ years of employment, my employer has decided to consolidate several departments to select cities, mine not being one of them.  What does this mean?  Well, first it does create some stress and periods where its hard to focus on writing.  Although, I'm certain somewhere down the road I'll be able to channel those feelings into my characters.  Feelings of loss will be important in Balance of War and this may help in that regard.

In the meantime, I continue to do several kindle giveaways.  But those are likely to come to an end when my job goes away later this year.  I have been contacted by several companies that would like to help me market my books.  After researching, a couple appear to be obvious scams with internet stories of money being lost with no services delivered.  I think it's pretty evil to prey upon people's hopes and dreams. 

Some companies appear totally legit and I have no doubt they could help me.  The problem is this.  All they can really do is increase exposure and maximize the possibility of people discovering your books.  They can really guarantee nothing.  There are literally millions of published books out there and over a hundred thousand are fantasy/sci fi.  I'm certain that many of them are pretty good.  Not all of them can become a bestseller.  So in the end, you pay a company thousands of dollars to promote your books.  Only a limited number will "catch on".  For the rest, the company can say they've done their best and since they already got paid, they just move onto the next author.  They make money through sales, not through making sure your book sells.  That's not to say they won't help many authors, but its still like gambling and with my job situation, that is a non-starter.

So what are my plans?  I will continue to write.  I will continue to do what I can to get my books into the hands of anyone who wants to read them.  I will continue my giveaways at least through September.  It gets "iffy" after that.  I will do small promotional events, like the recently announced calendar.  It really does look very awesome.  For more frequent updates, I highly recommend following VerdanChronicles on Facebook.  Balance of War will be published in 2020.  The final book will tentatively be published in 2021.  It will be the final book in the Verdan Chronicles.  I can't tell you why, but I know how it ends and there really will be no continuation of the series.

However...and we'll see how this works out, I do have an idea for a spin-off story.  It may be something I only publish online.  We'll see.   So, I hope everyone enjoyed their summer and I will really try not to be gone as long this time.  I have some exciting stuff planned for this site as well.  But it may be late this year before I get to it.