R.W. Krpoun's Blog, page 3

I was allowed to enter another book into the audio program, so Grog III will be available as an audio book in a few hours. I have priced it at $3.99.

So far, there appears to be zero interest in audio versions of my books, which is fine because this program is free, but it has taught me a lesson about formats.

Meanwhile, work on Grog VI continues.

EDIT: To be clear, I’m not complaining about sales; my daily sales are amazing for an indie author. I lurk on author forums, and audible has been a hot button issue there for some time, and for the last seven months I have been looking into, and pondering, audio formats.

So I am grateful that Amazon has allowed me to test the waters for free. As readers may have noticed, I am much more into the writing than I am in promotion my books. Or blogging.

Also, I am on Discord now, at Mondo#3294

Amazon is increasing its audio options, so Grog II will be available as an audio book within a few hours. The system uses a robot voice, so I have priced it at $3.99 to compensate. I would rather use a professional as was done with Grog, but I have not been able to convince a publisher to take the project, or find one that will work with me for a reasonable rate.

In other news, Grog VI has reached 51,000 words of rough draft.

The holiday season has gotten away from me, but I still have been writing. Grog 6 has reached 45,000 words of rough draft, and so far, the plot has been holding up.

October was badly hampered by extensive repairs and improvements to my house. but I am back to writing, with Grog 6 at 32,000 words of rough draft.

Benson will be released as an audio book later this week, part of a new program on Amazon. I hope that it will mark a greater expansion of my work into audio.

If you don’t hear from me before, Happy Thanksgiving!

SO far, motivation and story arc are holding steady. Grog 6 is now at 26,000 words of rough draft. Too soon to get confident, but I am hopeful.

Meanwhile, Memory Road is doing well, with some kind reviews and one two-star without a written aspect.

However, next week Hearts of Iron 4 gets an expansion (Actually, tomorrow, but I’m waiting until my bandwidth refreshes), so my writing time might take a hit.

Memory Road is published, reviewed, and selling. Getting it into print killed much of the week, but Grog 6 has reached 19,000 words of rough draft. It is starting a little slower than most of the Grog series, as 5 left the group in mid-activity, but a series should avoid following too set of a pattern.

Grog 6 is going to be the focus for this coming week, and hopefully both the plot and the muse will hold steady.

Just finished uploading Memory Road, my latest zombie novel, and my 27th novel to go into print. It had been stalled at 58,000 words of rough draft for nearly two years, which the final plot arc popped into my head, and once the post-publishing lull that followed Grog 5 had passed, I finished it.

It should be live later this weekend, and I hope it is found to be acceptable. I know the zombie genre is fading and over-saturated, but I write as the muse hits me.

Memory Road has entered the third round of editing, and should be published by the first week of October.

Grog 6 has reached 15,000 words of rough draft. It is far from proof against stalling, but the plot is still holding together, so we shall see how it goes.

Memory Road is finished, and has entered the second stage of editing; I am hoping to publish it around the first of October.

Sales of Grog V have been amazing, and best of all, they appear to have sparked a lot of interest in the series, as I-IV are selling, too. This gives me a great deal of hope, as my previous series have had the tendency of each successive volume to sell fewer and fewer books. Currently Grog V has 340 reviews, all but one positive; this is amazing given it has been in print for one month.

I have begun Grog 6, with 6k words of rough draft so far. Do not read too much into this, as I frequently have projects stall; Memory Road was written up to 58,000 words and then stalled, laying idle for two years before inspiration hit. Grog II-V have been must more resilient to stalling, but don’t get your hopes up yet.

As the post-publishing fatigue wore off, my thoughts turned to my many stalled projects, and a sudden burst of inspiration caused me to re-visit Memory Road, a zombie novel which had run out of plot at 58k words like a bug hitting a semi going 70mph.

Memory Road should be finished and enter first edit this week, with a publishing window of late September/early October. Afterwards I intend to start Grog 6.

Meanwhile, the 100 degree days in this part of Texas have broken, and life is a lot better.