Ticker

I'd imagine about the time Ryk knows when the book will be ready with minimal chance of the book being delayed so that the ticker is correct.

So that means the last book in this cycle (#15) will drop near the beginning of 2015. Ryk has been kind to us so far, pricing the books at a very reasonable $3/book. I, however, have pierced his insidious plan. Number 15 will be priced at $10,000 a copy!

Us addicts better start saving up! 😉

So that means the last book in this cycle (#15) will drop near the beginning of 2015. Ryk has been kind to us so far, pricing the books at a very reasonable $3/book. I, however, have pierced his insidious plan. Number 15 will be priced at $10,000 a copy!

Us addicts better start saving up!

No, no, no. You think to small. It won't be EP 15, but rather EP 75, after a massive cliff hanger in EP 74. At that point you'll have 74 EPs of momentum. No way a reader could simply skip the last chapter after reading the series for that long.

Although, on that note, if he does make it to EP 75 (assuming he doesn't start doing a poor job or things get too repetitive), everyone who kept reading that far will probably have shelled out $225 each for the series. The number of people that bought the new EPs should give a good indication as to the number of people who will buy EP 75. I'm not sure many new comers will be willing to read so many EPs to catch up after the series gets past EP 30.

On a perhaps interesting note, I realized that for many people reading the series. There will come a point, when the series is too long to re-read from EP 1, before the next episode comes out. Come EP 75, figuring 8 hours a book, you'd have to read over 7 hours a day, every day in order to read all 74 books. This might cause issues with the evil plan and might indeed make EP 15 the proper time to charge massive amounts of money, while people are still able to re-read the series multiple times while they wait.

The time to read each book PLUS the entire series up to that episode sounds like a factorial. I, for one, look forward to occupying my drab and dreary days and nights with another reading session. 😉

Three books makes a Trilogy. Four makes a Quadrilogy. What does 15 make? How about 75?

Just to clarify the structure of the series. Each 'Part' is 15 episodes long. All story threads introduced within that part are concluded within that part. So, by episode 15, the story being told now will be complete.

Now, just because a particular set of adventures comes to an end, that does not mean that the lives of the characters and/or the FS Universe suddenly comes to an end. 'Part 2' (episode 16) will begin a whole new set of adventures, with many of the same characters. However, some time will have passed since the end of part 1 (episode 15) and the beginning of part 2 (episode 16).

Each part will be designed to be enjoyed without having to read any of the parts that came before it. If a reader joins the series at episode 16, they will still be able to enjoy the story. Of course, they won't know the characters or the FS universe as intimately as those who have read everything that came before. (For example, they might learn that Jessica killed Jalea at the battle of Answari, but they won't know exactly how she killed her, or the smart-ass remark she made after she killed her.)

If new readers had to go back and read everything that came before in order to enjoy the current books, then I doubt anyone new would join in after about episode #30.

Of course, there may be clues sprinkled about the ENTIRE series that will provide OMG or AHA moments later on that only those who have read every episode will truly enjoy to the fullest. I mean, I gotta do something special for all you who have followed my craziness since the beginning. 😉

Ryk

The time to read each book PLUS the entire series up to that episode sounds like a factorial. I, for one, look forward to occupying my drab and dreary days and nights with another reading session.

Three books makes a Trilogy. Four makes a Quadrilogy. What does 15 make? How about 75?

Na, it's a summation if you re-read the books only once. In order you get a factorial you would have to do each of the following steps until you get to N (the number of books in the series)
1. Read the first book once
2. Read the previous books once, read the second book
3. Read the previous books twice, read the third book
4. Read the previous books three times, read the four book
...
N. Read the previous books N-1 times, read the Nth book

So if you had 4 books to get 4!, you would need to do the following:
1. Read the first book once
2. Read the previous books once, read the second book
3. Read the previous books twice, read the third book
4. Read the previous books three times, read the four book

I think you get the idea, at the 75th book, you should read the previous books 74 times, then read the 75th book. It would require a lot of dedication.

The total hours assuming an average of 8 hours a book is equal to sum of (i*8) for i = 1 to i = N, where N is the number of books, in this case, N = 75. This ends up being the same as 4N^2 + 4N.

To get a factorial you need to use product instead of sum, product of (i*8) for i = 1 to i = N. This ends up being the same as 8^N*N!.

I'm not sure there, Nuc. I was saying that:

Book 1 comes out, I read it.
Book 2 comes out, I read book 1 then book 2.
Book 3 comes out, I read book 1, 2 and then 3.
Book 4 comes out, I read book 1, 2, 3, and then 4.

So by book 75 I am reading book 1 for the 75th time.

Also, the keen reader will ascertain that Ryk did not deny his nefarious plan to charge $10,000 for the last book! 😉

Just to prevent anyone from desperately saving up for the last book;

1-15 will all be priced at $2.99, regardless of length.
16 and up will probably go up to $3.99, but not much further than that
Whatever price the first book of a part is, that's the price the last book in that part will be.

I'm not that greedy. (Or sneaky.)

Ryk

Or you could drop book 1 to a quarter dollar. Add 25 cents for ever book after. Book 15 would be $3.75 and by the time we are hooked into book 75 it will be $18.75.

Or go by series and +50 cent per book with 15 being $7.50.

The possibilities are endless.

😉

@Eric: That would be the summation. I meant read the previous books only once before you read the next one.

@Gary: That approach increases the prize of the series from $225 to $712.50 more than tripling the price (although only increasing by 2.5x if he charges $3.99 after book 15). And yes the possibilities are endless.

The idea of jacking up the cost of the last book came to me after seeing the ebook "How to avoid huge ships". It was priced at $150!

Your math formula might be correct if you only re-read the books when they come out, but I don't know about you I re-read the books two or three times again before the new book. However when the number of books gets to big ill think I might go back only two or three books to get a refresher. Also I think it would be cool once Ryk finishes a series that he has them printed in hard back maybe three parts to a hardback cover. I don't know about you but there is nothing like the feel and smell of a real book.

Kelly:
True enough, it's more of an upper limit and an idea of how fast the number of books increase. Mostly I did the formula to show that the increase wasn't exponential but rather polynomial. There are a number of ways that I could have been more accurate, but they require additional math notation. I could add a few if anyone is interested. 🙂

I love the smell of new books in the morning. LOL take off of Apocalypse in the Morning a Vietnam movie or was it Apocalypse Dawn.

I wish I could hold a book sigh. Oh well I will read em on my Kindle.

I agree that the books that you have published should be made into sets 3 or 4 books per set? If you went 16 episodes that would make 4 sets. (one way to make more cash for your daughters school.