This post exists to answer questions I’ve received more than once recently… or once, but it was important enough it deserves an answer. There are a few questions nobody has asked yet, but I’m certain someone will be asking soon. (Albeit not many of those.)
Regarding Patreon:
Q: I have a cindercorn $5.99 membership; why can’t I see the read alongs?
A: That is the per novel Patreon perk. You need the monthly Patreon, which you can find here. Cindercorns and Spicy Ponies with Bite ($25, $100 a month) tiers gain access to the unpublished readalongs.
If you are a per novel subscriber and want monthly perks, you can cancel your membership and then subscribe to the monthly patreon. (Either as a free subscriber or in whatever tier suits you best.)
Q: What is this “join for free” stuff?
A: If you are looking at the monthly Patreon, you have the option to receive updates that are sent to everyone or all subscribers. You won’t have access to do anything beyond read the posts and possibly comment on those posts, but it’s a way to follow what I’m doing on the Patreon. I will be posting to everyone that the newest book is available in the Patreon store, which will let you buy it early if you don’t want to be subscribed as an otter (or higher).
If you have clicked “Join for Free” on Patreon, the button will disappear and Patreon will instead offer you an “Upgrade” button. (You do not need to upgrade.) You will begin receiving emails with updates that are sent to everyone.
You may or may not be able to comment on the posts. (I’m honestly not sure; I haven’t played with the feature personally.)
A: What about the Per Novel Patreon?
Q: After Grave Affairs is released, I will be closing that Patreon and will doing everything through the Monthly Patreon. The Patreon store will allow me to offer the Patreon editions of books at retail prices.
A: Will there no longer be discounts for the Per Novel Patreon?
Q: Once Grave Affairs launches, the discounts offered through Patreon will be ceased, and the Patreon edition will be available at retail price through Patreon.
A: What is included in the Patreon edition?
Q: The Patreon author notes and the bonus short stories. Otherwise, it’s the same as the first retail edition of the novel.
A: Why are the new book read alongs restricted to Cindercorns and Spicy Ponies with Bite?
Q: Previews are an advanced perk, and I do previously published read alongs in the Pixie and Otter tiers (which are also available to Cindercorns and Spicy Ponies with Bite). The read alongs will continue until the book is finished or published (and if I’m finalizing, they’ll just get a SURPRISE, book is done…) so they won’t have much delay from “writing” to “finalized version.”
The Upcoming Sales~
Q: When will the sales be?
A:
- Playing with Fire: September 25 to October 1, 2023: $0.99. ($6.99 after sale.)
- Hoofin’ It: October 2 to October 8, 2023: $0.99. ($7.99 after sale.)
- Hearth, Home, and Havoc: October 9 to October 15, 2023: $0.99. ($3.99 after sale.)
- Serial Killer Princess: October 16 to October 22, 2023: $0.99. ($5.99 after sale.)
- Whatever for Hire: October 23 to October 29, 2023: $0.99. ($6.99 after sale.)
- Owl Be Yours: October 30 to November 5, 2023: $0.99. ($4.99 after sale.)
- Last but not Leashed: November 6 to 12, 2023: $0.99. ($4.99 after sale.)
- No Kitten Around: November 13 to November 19, 2023: $0.99 ($6.99 after sale.)
- Blending In: November 27 to December 3, 2023: $0.99. ($6.99 after sale.)
- Cheetahs Never Win: December 4 to December 10, 2023: $0.99. ($6.99 after sale.)
- Burn, Baby, Burn: December 11 to December 18, 2023: $0.99. ($6.99 after sale.)
Q: Will books 13+ of the Magical Romantic Comedy Series be going on sale?
A: Not anytime soon. Perhaps next year, should I do another Magical Romantic Comedy series release near Christmas. At current, I’m only putting books up on sale should I have a reason to. Those reasons usually involve getting a Bookbub deal to advertise the book or a promotional event like I’m doing for Whiskers on Kittens.
When Will $This_Book Come out?
Q: Sequel to Last but not Leashed? Sequel to Serial Killer Princess?
A: Yes. When? I don’t know. It will be a Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) anthology. (These will release in the same anthology.)
Q: Death’s Door? (Jade/Sandro #3)
A: It is in the shortlist of books coming out after I finish A Light in the Dark. I am not doing any more preorders until I survive 2023. The number of preorders I set up for 2024 depend on the Future Production fund.
Q: When will you finish $this_series?
A: Eventually. Right now, I’m focused on healthy production, and that means not planning everything down to the second. I have a list of books to prioritize. Generally, that prioritization works as follows: series with 1-2 books until completion are being prioritized over just about everything else. Once I have a few more series finished, then I will worry about continuing other series.
Q: What is the Future Production fund?
A: When I did the financials for the Royal States series, I discovered I was the only person who hadn’t gotten paid for writing the books. (Getting paid is… pretty important.) Moving forward, to prevent this from happening again, I am saving all funds required to produce a series in a savings account. When I have enough to pay for a book, I will pick a book for production, and I will produce it. I will pay myself, and my staff, before the release of the book. I issued myself a pay rate of $25 an hour.
While my time and skills are very probably worth more than $25 an hour, this is fine. The current way I pay myself (including the Future Production Fund) makes everything balance out at the end.
For everything except Patreon, for ebooks, after fees/monthly staffing bills/advertising expenses and taxes, I put aside 60% to the household and 40% to future production. For audiobooks, instead of future production, it goes to audiobook production.
This should keep things rolling while my household still gets paid.
The better the books do, the faster I can produce things. Right now, I have enough in the fund to pay for one book after A Light in the Dark releases. Ideally, I’m hoping to have the funding for three books after I finish A Light in the Dark. After that, we’ll see how things go.
Q: You’re not quitting, are you?
A: No. I’m just making changes so this is sustainable. I love writing books, but writing books for essentially free… kinda isn’t gonna fly long-term. Rather than kill series, with most outside of the Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count series) getting the axe, I’m changing methods. Finances are always an issue for authors, even the ones who are successful. (Unless you’re Stephen King or similar… because yeah.)
I’m no Stephen King.
Honestly… you had more questions than this, but I will do another edition of the Question and Answer game tomorrow. (I’m tired and under the weather, so I’m going to play games for the rest of the night.)
Please stop worrying. It’s okay. I’ll eventually get to the book you want me to write. But right now, I’m focused on making my work environment healthy and happy-making rather than sad-making.
Please be patient. Books take a long time to write. I know they only take a few hours to read, but… I’m not going to write faster to appease random strangers on the internet, not at the cost of my health.
Take care, and happy reading.
~R.J. and the Furred, Frond, and Finned Management.
Please get to feeling better, healthy & happy!
You are doing fine. Glad you are taking care of yourself. You should not be an afterthought.
Please feel better soon! And ignore the trolls that can’t be nice online. Because I’d rather a book be once or twice a year than never. Plus that’s the way it USED to be anyhow lol you’d wait patiently for a book to be released on hardback maybe once or twice a year. So this new trend of wanting books every month is stupid hard to do as your books don’t end on cliffhangers nor is it 5 “books” to complete a story… so silly poo poo heads just need to get real and quit making it hard for those of us fans that don’t want you to quit and would rather you pay yourself AND be mentally healthy because that’s what makes for better reading anyways 😘🤗🤗
I hope you feel better soon! Rest well :-).
Working for free should only be done to help a charity. Readers are NOT charities! I’m always in favor of gainful, legal, enjoyable work. Thank you for yours.
Half of my problem is I LOVE charities and do a lot of charity contributions… I’m physically not really capable of doing the physical work for charities, but I do a hella lot of monetary contributions
Hope you are doing better soon.
Apropo of nothing, I just read Silent Stalker again and noticed you even told us but I missed it the first time. One new fact, clearly stated, can change everything. And did. Thank you for this Masterwork. I am an idiot for not seeing the comment the first time.
I’m 100% confused right now, but hey, glad whatever the thing is did you good XD
Readers miss things ALL the time. It’s okay. That’s what rereads are for!
The fact that her father was not as believed. The comment aprox a chapter and a half before.
Ah, yes… when the characters were starting to twig to the fact there was something odd about their perceptions.
Also apropo of nix, Emma May Sansaul from Foul Play is likly from the Atlanta area.
She is a swan mae after all.
No, she isn’t a swan mae. That is a very specific lore/mythos. She’s a lycanthrope shapeshifter. Swan maes/mays are very, very different beasties.
Sorry, the pun was worth a try. I admit I am the reason the reason the Barony of Starkhoffen enacted a pun tax. {SCA ref.}
I signed up in Patreon, how do I get to older posts so I can read along?
Use the search box and start with Storm Without End, you’ll have to scroll down quite a ways. (you can try things like Storm Without End 1 or 2 or 3 to find specific chapters.) Alternatively, you can just scroll all the way back to the beginning of the archive. Your tier only has access to certain books, so I recommend starting with Storm first.