Going off topic a bit...
I'm sorry to hear of the bad month you had in February. Going through a pretty bad period myself with renovation work going on in the house with me trying to write a book as well. I write non-fiction and I wanted to get some input from Ryk, as a case study about this particular book. It is about the new possibilities (and problems) that arise from the changes that make it possible for a person to run his/her own professional life from home.
Ryk,
If you feel up to it, when you take a break from typing away at 5k words a day, you can contact me through email at mauricioblongo (at Google's famous email service) :-).
Sorry for going off topic, but it seemed strange to create a new thread and the idea came to me as I was reading this thread.
All the best,
Mauricio
As I struggle with trying to settle into a routine that balances ‘quality of life’ with a ‘successful business’, I have been thinking about how I write lately. In the beginning, I was only trying to get a few books out quickly in order to make a few extra dollars to pay the rent. I figured that if I was lucky and got 4 books out in the first year, I might make enough. Making a lot of money was never on my mind. Then, when I did start making a lot of money, that greedy side took over and I wanted to write, write, write. Of course, that also led to fatigue, frustration, and family tension. So I backed off a bit, taking 5 months between episodes. (I can’t remember if it was episode 6 or 7. 7 I think.) Sales fell considerably, and I panicked. (I have a daughter in college, and she no longer qualified for financial aide since I was making good money.) So I tried releasing more quickly, and that resulted in a more steady income stream.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that even putting out 2500 words a day, five days a week, can be challenging at times. And if you fall behind, it can be a bear to catch up. Now matter how much I try, I simply cannot maintain a steady pace. I always end up writing more than half of the book in the last few weeks before deadline! That creates a lot of pressure. It is quite painful when you have to admit that you’re not going to make a deadline. You feel like you’re letting down everyone who has supported you so graciously. (Not to mention spending their hard-earned dollars.)
So I wondered if I shouldn’t switch to a 4 month release cycle. However, that got me thinking as well. What if the frantic pace at which I usually end up finishing a story is a major influence on both the story and the writing style? If I take more time, will I end up long-winded with big words? Will the pace of the stories drag on endlessly? I mean, my writing pattern is very much like my stories. Da, da da, da da, then BAM BOOM BAM POW! (ANd Bam Boom Pow again!)
So, I have decided to continue my 3 month cycle as much as possible, at the very least through book 15. I will take a few months off between parts one and two. (Books 15 & 16) I will need some time to outline episodes 16-30, so I know where I’m going. (I didn’t actually outline episodes 1-15 until I was already writing episode 4.) I don’t know if I’ll write longer books starting with part 2, and maybe take 4 months between releases. I think I’d like to write at least 130k words instead of 100k. (I wouldn’t mind charging $3.99 instead of $2.99 either, but that’s a whole different conversation.)
Anyway, back to the Bam Boom Bang Pow!<br>
Thanks, guys.Ryk
How about mixing work with pleasure?
Scotland has been mentioned in a few episodes as well as Switzerland.
Take the family on a vacation and do a little boots on the ground research. (got to do something while the wife is out shopping)
Daughter in college, guess that means you will have to delay that Mongolian Yurt vacation.
Wife and I spend a week on holiday (as the Brits put it) in Scotland during the mid 90s. Besides it having been 18 or so years ago which makes me feel very old, it was an awesome vacation.
Ryk, once your done with the first 15 you could raffle a personalized signed box set of book for charity. Call it the "Ryk Brown children's college and hard liquor fund charity raffle".
;-P
Hang in there. Looking forward to the next book.
I like Gary's “Ryk Brown children’s college and hard liquor fund charity raffle”. 🙂
My vote (as if it mattered what I think) is that you should take some family vacations to locations you are writing about. That way you can justify it to your accountant AND the little voice in your head that says "I must work".
Seriously, you now lead a life without a lot of structure, at least compared to the past. You are attempting to setup structure around your life. If you were the boss and you were talking about an employee of yours (that you really cared for) you would build in vacation time as well as work time (and sometimes crunch time).
If you imagine a 4 month release schedule with 15 books per cycle, that is FIVE YEARS of your life. Picture yourself looking back on those five years. What would you remember? What would be the important times you'd look back on?
Now imagine how to slice that 5 years apart. You know you need a certain amount of time to complete the tasks, but you will also build in relaxation time, prep time, sleep time, location scouting time, and time for personal events such as your daughter's graduation. Looking backward from the future helps calm my nerves when scheduling a major task like this. Hope it helps you as well.
Oh, last point: write the first 3 books in the new cycle before releasing the first one. Then you'll look faster than you are. 😉
How about this: Release two versions of your next book. "Episode 11" and "Episode 11 Author's edition". Put the first one out at $2.99, the "Author's Edition" at $4.99. Put in an extra paragraph thanking the contributors to “Ryk Brown children’s college and hard liquor fund charity raffle” and offer an email of the ship plans sent at random, or something similar. See what happens. Maybe nothing, and not much harm done. Maybe you get a few bucks. Maybe it dilutes the Amazon ranking just a little, but maybe you make enough to take that trip you obviously need to take with your family.
Just a thought.
oh ooh! Write a 3-5 page small piece about a small scene between two minor characters! Something that doesn't affect the plot, but helps define one of those minor characters. Then you have some actual content that we would pay more for! That lets you have a "real" distinction between the Author's Edition and the regular one.
See one of those small pieces John Scalzi writes for his side characters, that don't drive the plot but help fill int he universe just a little bit.
Not a bad thought, a side book as a serial at 50 cent a chapter. Trickle them out or possibly some 99 cent short stories. Endless possibilities.
Ryk, please don't start creating tid bits and selling them for $1, it just marginalizes your good work and makes some of us think you're monetizing our loyalty. When John scalzi started doing that - I dropped him cold turkey... Don't care to look at what else he has now. Create good stories and then publish them when there are enough of the quality material. Charge slightly more if you feel the need to, but to start selling $1 for essentially a chapter is a slippery slope. Thank you for doing the right thing.
After reading so many great ideas for the next episode I had a thought. Am I the only one that thinks this next book will be a major disappointment? Not for us readers mind you, Ryk is too good for that, but for for Nathan Scott? I'm thinking there will be next to no help from the PC, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if there a major problems. A whole bunch of power hungry nobles fighting over what's left of the empire, scrambling for control of ships, resources and maybe even the data ark. I'm sure Deliza will play a big part, but Tug may be struggling to consolidate his forces and exert control. Takar might not be receiving even food from other planets. President Scott will be grief stricken, his son sold out the planet and was then killed by his other son. Nathan will have the death of millions on his shoulders, even if he made the right decisions nobody can easily cope with that, and he killed is own brother. President Scott could have major issues with the world governments too, he couldn't have been the only world leader to survive. He will have to fight politics to rebuild the planet enough to provide anything more than food and foot soldiers. If there is a higher ranking UDF line officer, he could end up with the Aurora and Nathan either XO or on the unfinished Celestia. Or he could just end up as the commodore leaving Nathan on the Aurora. Just because Nathan won the battle doesn't mean every politician will think the price of millions of their citizens was worth it, especially if they were like Eli and profited form the Jung.
I'm thinking lots of issues, character building and more from the Jungs pov. Maybe a build up to an assault on alpha, or a defense of either Tanna or earth. But no where near the excitement from #10, but just as intriguing while Nathan tries to build a force even to fight a guerrilla war.
Michael,
I agree with much of what you said. I also keep in mind that there are 15 books in this series. For the payoff of the 15 books to happen, then much trouble has to be resolved in book 15, which means much trouble has to build up in the next few books.
I like Ryk's style, and I'm sure he'll get us through it, but it will be interesting to see what twists he uses to get from here to there.
I still like the "Author's Edition" idea. Wouldn't really hurt anyone, but it would help load up Ryk's coffers, so he can relax a little bit.
I don't think the book will be a disappointment. Even if there is little to no combat for Aurora or Celestia, I'm sure they will still be using Falcon or other converted jump ships to get an idea of when the next group of ships in will be in bound. The answer to the EDF problem is pretty simple; switch the Aurora/Celestia to the Alliance's control. The Alliance still needs a admiral or something to coordinate between the ships in a fleet or even just logistics for the fleet. I believe before long, there will also be an operational Alliance fleet. Even if it is just from ships that the Aurora has disabled and 'retasked' for other purposes.
I see episode 11 should be out some time in May. Shouldn't we have a date by now? I'm really looking forward to this episode as I see it tying up some lose ends and getting things moving on the complete and utter destruction of the Jung empire. Granted it's gonna take time to stop the Jung but just moving things along is going to make for an interesting episode.
One more thing. Why don't we see more use of the KKV's. These are highly effective weapons and I can't imagine a person with Nathan's instinctual tactical knowledge ignoring them during a battle with large ships. I'm pretty sure he would have taken out the battleship first thing with a kkv but they were barely mentioned then dismissed without reason.
ITS MAY! FINALLY!
The KKVs were disassembled at the time of the battle with the Jung Battleship. That said, I imagine they'd make an excellent defensive unit somewhere in the Sol system to assist Aurora and could be targeted by any jump-equipped shuttle or fighter (assuming Falcon, Aurora, and Celestia are unavailable.) A small station for fighters and KKVs, something relatively easy to build and able to be modularly taken into various systems (or placed on existing small moons) would allow for Nathan to secure liberated worlds while still keeping his limited forces mobile and on the offensive.
