Post Break News: NDT/Vainqueur to KU and other things

Hello everyone,

I'm back from my break! The next Commerce Emperor chapter will be up tomorrow on Patreon (a 7K words behemoth too) and Blood & Fur will follow shortly on Saturday. We're back on tracks. 

This break has been an opportunity for me to take a step back, review some partnerships, plan for the future etc... I've especially reached a certain decision about old works of mine.

Namely, I have decided to bring Never Die Twice and Vainqueur the Dragon to KU before the year's end.

- The Context

Three years ago, I published a standalone LitRPG novel called Never Die Twice about a certain undead shopkeeper, with whom Apocalypse Tamer readers are quite familiar with. That novels, though short, managed to stay on the best rated list of Royal Road for quite a while. 

However, the litRPG scene is no longer what it was three years ago. Not only has NDT fallen off the RR front page, it has both been pirated to death and doesn't bring in any new patrons. New readers are only likely to stumble upon it if they actively look for it. 

While Vainqueur the Dragon is still on the front page of RR and brings in some readers to my other stories, I have the intuition it will eventually move the same way over time; especially since its webtoon hasn't been renewed for a new season. 

In short, I feel everyone who wanted to read these books on RR and Tapas already has. These wells have dried out. The money I receive from their ebook versions exclusively comes from Amazon nowadays.

However, KU is a very different beast. Going to KU means tripling Amazon sales on average, and most of the audience there is both interested in LitRPG and has rarely heard of RR. Sending these books to KU would help give them a breath of fresh air and help fund other projects, like say, a Perfect Run Webtoon (which I really, really want to develop). I mean, half of my 'LitRPG multiverse' (Kairos, Apocalypse Tamer) is already on the platform.

Moreover, while Kindle Unlimited is currently the hot stuff for LitRPG, the market on this platform is clearly aiming towards saturation. New books must now compete with multiple volumes of the Primal Hunter, Dungeon Crawler Carl and quite a few other heavyweights. The competition is only going to get tougher as time goes on. 

At this point, the more I wait, the more these properties will lose value. I still have my name and reputation to surf upon, but as Hollywood remakes can attest, nostalgia can only get you so far. If I publish them on KU in say two years, these works have to compete with even more people. 

The moment is now... and I'm probably a bit late, to be honest. 

- So what's the plan?

At this point, while I have made the decision and am in discussion with publishers how best to do it (like remove NDT from Amazon and then republish it on KU with new cover etc...) no hard date has been set yet. 

Jack Voraces (who narrated the Vainqueur the Dragon audiobook series) and I are aiming to publish the fourth and final Vainqueur audiobook around October/November of this year, which is when I feel the series will go to KU. NDT will probably be launched around this time. 

Henceforth, if you haven't read either series yet or published the free Dracolich ebooks, now is the time to do so; as I will have to eventually to remove them and chapters from both RR and Patreon when the time comes. 

If you're asking what it means for the Perfect Run, Commerce Emperor, Blood & Fur... I have currently no intention of removing The Perfect Run from Royal Road. Besides the fact it looks good on the front page, I do feel strong loyalty to RR for launching my career and it still gets a lot of new readers. I'm unlikely to remove it at all honestly. Unlikely doesn't mean never, but yeah, I've no plan to take that particular series down anytime soon. 

As for Commerce Emperor and Blood & Fur, while I am currently in discussion with publishers, nothing has been signed on yet and I'm still weighing my options. If they eventually make their way to KU, I doubt it'll be before next year. I'll keep you informed on that front but for now things will remain as they are. 

In any case, as always, thanks for supporting these stories; a lot of you have joined this Patreon to support both of these novels when they first came out and remained long afterward, for which I am forever grateful. 

See you tomorrow for the next Commerce Emperor chappy.

Best regards,

Voidy.