I know a while back you said that once you were finished writing episode 15, you would write the rest of NetCast and publish it as one novel. Any time frame on when that will happen? Thanks in advance.
I was going to turn it into a whole book, but decided instead to continue releasing them as shorts. However, instead of publishing them through Amazon and charging 99 cents, I'm going to provide free access to them, as rewards for being on the mailing list. That mailing list is very important to me. It not only provides me with the visibility I need on Amazon to keep sales up and attract new customers, but it is my safety net, in case Amazon's terms ever become untenable. The list used to grow by a thousand names every release, but ever since Amazon started allowing customers to be notified by email when an author releases new work, the signups on my list have dropped to about 100 per release. (It makes sense, really. Why would someone choose to give their email address to me when they can just let Amazon notify them.) For that safety net to work, I need to have at least 30,000 subscribers on it. (I currently have about 18,000.) Putting the Netcasts, as well as short stories that occur between episodes and more detailed artwork, behind a member firewall on the website, I hope to attract more signups.
So, a "sign up to receive alerts and access to special content" kind of deal? Would those of us already on the list have immediate access or would we have to sign up again?
The current plan is to add the ability to select your notification levels. Something like, "Main Saga only", "All Saga related books", and "All Notifications". Everyone already on the list would be informed that they can edit their notification levels at any time, but the default would be "All Notifications."
So, short answer is no, you would not have to sign up again. We are still a ways off on this, so it's not going to happen any time soon.
Would the additional content be readable on the Kindle or would we need to open it with another package? - I kind of like Kindle format (even with the stupid missing breaks for scene changes...)
Nothing like a little passive-agressive nudge in the morning, eh? lol
Yeah, the path that leads to is a little odd. locally released content basically means no copy protection, which makes Ryk a little more vulnerable to piracy, but the target audience is a little more loyal... not sure how it shakes out.
As to format, 4 Isles, Calibre does a great job of converting if necessary. I use it for a lot of different types of content, to convert to Kindle (MOBI).
When you think about the fact that Ryk is (possibly) releasing the rest of the net casts for free anyway, he looses nothing even if they are pirated and available on other sites then it would still be advertising for him... (albeit to people who will likely not buy anything anyway...)
ie, couldn't hurt
I don't concern myself with pirates. (Unless they have guns and/or swords.) None of my Kindle books have DRM, so they can be pirated by anyone with even a modicum of techno-savvy. If pirates want to pirate my books, they will find a way. And those that think it is okay to get stuff for free are unlikely to be willing to pay for my work anyway. There are still more than enough people who still understand the concept of right and wrong, and are willing to pay for my work. As long as there are enough of them to keep a roof over my head and food in my belly, I'm happy.
We have not yet decided how to offer the content. I would like to make it available for download in all popular formats, as well as in an online reader. However, making them available for download might be making it WAY too easy for the pirates. So, we're still working on that idea. Most likely, it's going to be available in .mobi, .epub, and .pdf formats for download.
So what would the time line be for release of the rest of the net cast story? I have missed it and would like to find out the rest of the story. And thank you Mr. Ryk Brown for an awesome story. And willing to share it with us!
Just curious as I have not heard anything recently (unless I missed something on another forum post), are there any updates on future releases of the netcast short stories?
I think I read that they were breaking his stride and on the back burner. Not really sure were I saw that.
