(Important) March Messenger Update

This update is a little different than usual, hence why it's labelled as important. I'll cover the important stuff first, then go into the rambling information stuff afterward.

If you've somehow missed it, Mob Sorcery 4 is on pre-order. Go get it.

Beta Reading and Demon's Throne 4

For a while now, there's been a growing disconnect between the sort of feedback I hope to get from Patreon vs what I've actually been getting. It's difficult (and dangerous) for me to determine what people think of chapters at times when activity falls off, particularly when I focus on overall novel pacing or if people are frustrated because they just want to get to the action (or specific action). Spellblade 7 remains a clear case of that.

With the size of my Patreon, and the diverse readership that often are more interested in just consuming chapters, I'm at the point where I need to separate out my desire to receive creative input from just posting chapters. For most authors and readers, Patreon is basically a place to post chapters and receive cash. Changing that is fighting the tide and mostly frustrated me. It's also led to the almost complete absence of commentary, particularly as there's almost zero engagement or interest in it anymore when I post it alongside chapters.

I contemplated a couple of solutions to this. The most cumbersome was to introduce a delay in posting chapters for tiers, in the hopes of receiving some level of feedback from Messengers (who are the most active, particularly on Discord) and openly making changes. But I know this system is controversial and often seen as a way to convince people to increase their pledge. Also, it's a PITA to deal with on Patreon itself for everyone involved.

The solution I think is best is to trial a new system of beta reading for Messenger patrons who are interested. Since I shifted to focusing on Patreon after Neural Wraith 3, my old beta reading method of doing the whole book kind of fell apart and I've been running on a highly limited number of alpha readers whose input I highly value. But my system is very hand-to-mouth and I often end up spinning my wheels when I think something has gone wrong.

With Demon's Throne 4, I want to try to improve things, get more input, and see if I can set up a new beta reading program. This will mean a gap between the Mob 5 chapters and DT4, but also a lower chance of me stopping dead partway through posting chapters like I often do (if things work out).

Anyway, check out the specifics below. Hopefully some of you are interested in helping me improve future books. For those of you who just want to read the chapters when they come out, that's fine, too.

Beta Reading Specifics

Here are the specifics:

• I'm looking for 3-5 beta readers. I don't know how many people will be interested, so this may vary and the program may fall through entirely.

• Priority will be given to people I either recognize or that have been active commenters or that discuss chapters etc.

• You will need to use my Discord and you'll be provided access to a special channel to discuss beta chapters. You don't need to be active elsewhere on the Discord.

• Beta reading will be for Demon's Throne 4 only (for now), so only apply if you're interested in beta reading that.

• This is a trial. If it goes well, I'll continue it for future books, but don't feel bad if it doesn't continue or you don't stay as a beta reader. I've learned the hard way in the past to be picky (long story, don't ask).

• Chapters will be made available through a Google Doc 3-7 days before they are posted to Patreon (assuming I don't receive heavy negative feedback etc).

• Feedback isn't about grammar/spelling, although that's always nice. The idea is to provide thoughts, vibes, concerns etc. I might ask for direct input on something, but the idea is to offer your opinion on the chapters. Hence the purpose of the Discord channel.

If you're interested in being a beta reader, either leave a comment or message me, either here or on Discord.

Schedule

As mentioned in the other updates, I'm posting some Mob Sorcery 5 chapters before moving onto Demon's Throne 4. Giving out specific dates at this point just feels pointless. Hell, even my plan to publish DT4 before MS4 fell through because shit happened. MS4 turned out to be more of a mess than I expected and a lot of IRL shit happened to make things worse. I lost actual weeks of IRL time on top of my own writing issues.

I have a lot of personal thoughts about how to approach this year, many of which I won't voice for good reason. Ultimately, I think I just need to take things as they come. Maybe things go horribly wrong, maybe it'll be fine.

Assuming it's fine, DT4 will definitely be the next book I publish, as I don't plan to finish MS5. After that, we'll see. I'm expecting Demon's Throne 4 to have a rough launch as it's been 3 years and it's a series that I know a lot of my current fans aren't that interested in.

Messenger Content

I plan to finish the Heretic Spellblade epilogue over the next month, as well as the total series commentary. The first chunk of Mob 5 chapters will have priority, but I definitely want to finish the epilogue so that there'll be a decent delay between posting that here and releasing the second omnibus of the series in the middle of the year (which will include the epilogue). I don't want anyone to feel cheated.

Mob Sorcery 4 Challenges

As mentioned above, this has been a bitch of a book. The problems are many and complicated.

The simplest problems are the IRL ones. I got a wisdom tooth infection early February, literally as I made the public post back then (I didn't realize how serious it was at the time). That cost me days of time and forced me to get my wisdom teeth pulled on short notice. That operation was nastier than I hoped, and I was on painkillers for over 2 weeks. Shit sucked. There have been some other minor issues, like storms causing roof leaks and trying to arrange repairs (it took 4 visits over 3 weeks to finally get a proper assessment lmao).

MS4 faced a more fundamental problem, which was scope. I wanted this to be the end of the Yakuza arc. The heist was supposed to happen relatively early, and I set expectations for that. Except I hadn't done any of the necessary set up for an operation of its size. Book 3 ended with a decently sized action scene and focused on intrigue, but did none of the set up.

I got feedback from alpha readers and patrons early on that this should be the heist book and ignored that. Easily my biggest mistake. I would have spun my wheels less, and likely written smoother and better paced early chapters if I'd accepted this was the heist book.

The reason I didn't want to accept it is something I've been keeping an eye on: backlash.

Mob Sorcery 3 blew up. It's my biggest release by far. The long-term sales have been weaker than I expected, but that was always a risk going into a new year.

A big release draws in new fans. It also tends to mean the next release is smaller. I'm expecting MS3 to be the peak of the series in terms of individual volume success, although as it's going to be a long series, later books will do well anyway. But the big downside is that I also notice an increase in criticism after I have a big release.

People pick up the series or find me, enjoy the books, but then want my books to change to reflect something that matches their preferences. I write big harems, and no matter how much time I give the girls, people will still get mad. There's a reason I stopped talking about that years ago, as I just don't care anymore.

The new point that's coming up a lot more is criticism about the pacing, particularly from people who I feel want a more action-oriented or progfantasy series. Mob Sorcery has elements of this, but moves slowly. It has long segments where Vince simply chills with the others. It takes time to show Vince puttering about his apartment to do chores or cook, so you see him simply living. It is a slow paced book.

At this point, the slow pacing is my style. Book 3 was slow, even if it had some major moments of action and intrigue laced throughout. It had the Christmas mini-arc which took up like a quarter of the whole book where Vince just hung out with the girls. Picking up the series and then asking the series to suddenly turn into Primal Hunter is like reading Game of Thrones and then going "stop killing people."

But people will still say that. It's already happening, and won't stop.

For me, the challenge is determining when the pacing truly is too slow. The Christmas mini-arc definitely slowed the pacing of Mob 3 to an absolute crawl, but it was also Christmas, so like, whatever. In Book 4, I suspect the biggest issue is going to be people anticipating the heist and getting upset that it isn't happening right now.

As I've grown as an author, parsing criticism becomes significantly harder. I rely a lot on my gut, and while I think I have a good feel for things, I'm not perfect. My hot take about writing, and particularly self-publishing, is that once authors start shutting out all criticism and focus too much on just churning stuff out, their quality drops drastically. It's possible to remain a stellar author for years or even decades, still improving. But I don't know a magic way to accomplish that, especially as it's easily possible to listen to the wrong voices.

I'll just keep trying to find a way to improve. Pacing does remain the one thing I constantly tear my hair out over in almost every book, though. It doesn't help that I always go over the length I plan for, throwing off my ideas.

That Unpopular Amazon Change

So, if you've paid any attention to a reading or writing community about Amazon books in the past month, you've seen the controversy about Amazon's latest change. I've avoided saying anything about it for a simple reason.

I can't do anything about it.

To catch people up: Amazon have changed the rules so that you can no longer download the files of Kindle books you've purchased (not the KU books you borrow, but the ones you outright buy). This is a blatantly anti-competitive tactic intended by Amazon to limit the ability of customers from using non-Kindle e-readers in an attempt to maintain market share.

I don't think Amazon's given a real reason for it. But we're five years post-COVID and I imagine the reason is something akin to "lol. lmao even."

I've gotten a couple of messages about it and seen some heated discussions, so I'll keep this short and sweet.

Kindle Unlimited remains over half my income. It also supports the rest of my income indirectly, because being in KU provides free advertising. Amazon pushes KU books. Being in KU means I get a higher sales rank from people borrowing my book, which means more people get recommended it, which means more people borrow my book etc. There is a downside to KU, namely that it has a relatively short lifecycle for books thanks to being a subscription service, but that's why long series exist.

KU requires exclusivity. I'm nowhere near big enough to leave Amazon without losing the vast majority of my income. I release far slower than basically every other major harem author as it is. There's zero chance I could be full-time if I left KU. Especially as Amazon is still 90%+ of the harem market, if not all of it.

If every self-published author protested the change at once, maybe Amazon would have second thoughts. But that's highly unlikely. Hell, when KU was on fire in 2023 and payouts were collapsing, it took most of the year for Amazon to react to authors who began to slowly pull books from KU.

Finally, this change won't affect piracy one bit. I've never bothered to put DRM on my books because it has zero effect. It exists to frustrate regular folk.

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Remember, if you're interested in the beta reading for Demon's Throne 4, either leave a comment here or message me on Patreon or Discord. And don't forget to pre-order Mob Sorcery 4.