Figured I'd tackle something that seems to be pervasive in the discussions I'm seeing, but might not necessarily be caught as much by people who aren't as tapped in to discussions.
Let's be clear, I'm not the first person to discuss this. I've seen posts in 20booksto50k, Wide for the Win, kboards and heck, the 2022-10-26 14:59:02 +0000 UTC View Post
The Sundering Blade preview chapters will now be releasing since Book 8 of A Thousand Li has wrapped up. This is a novella that will be released exclusively for free next year with the Action Fantasy Book Club.
Chapters will be released Tuesd...
They brought him into a building, not the central one but off to the side of it. Amah was already seated, rubbing her knee with a grimace of pain. By the side, a woman was brewing tea.
“Sit. Sit. We don’t have a lot of time. We got you out, so talk. And make it quick,” Amah said, glowering at Arthur.
“First things first, names!” Arthur said. “I’m Arthur. Arthur Chua. B...
2022-10-22 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post“You’ve done well,” Laoban Yang said, eyeing Wu Ying as he exited his cultivation daze. The older man was seated on one of the many boulders that made up the rock garden, perched cross-legged on the sharp tip.
A few days had passed since Wu Ying had lost consciousness on that fated night. Since then, he had been forcibly commanded to recuperate and train the newly reorganized Never ...
2022-10-21 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostSo, the question is what you're looking to get out of the PR firm. There's something to be said about using them to develop brand materials, logos, websites, etc and help you develop a consistent brand image. For those who don't know how to do it, or don't have it all put together, there's an advantage to working with a professional (though often, many of these things can be done piecemeal for ...
2022-10-19 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostBeggar Soh arrived a good hour later, grumbling about having to change out the water a couple of times. Somehow, even having washed, he still managed to look scruffy and unkempt with traces of dirt having managed to make its way to his face, hands and bare feet. Still, his stench was significantly reduced and the new rags he wore were less malodorous, just stained.
Wu Ying and the Proprie...
2022-10-18 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostArthur was never sure afterward who threw the first blow. All he really knew was that things had been tense in a Malaysian standoff – like a Mexicon standoff, but with more races and parangs instead of guns – and then the thing he knew, everyone was punching, kicking and slicing one another up.
Being rather broken at the moment, Arthur was not able to pay full attention to the fight. ...
2022-10-15 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostHappy Friday!
Jenn here :)
For those who are interested we've got US and UK audible codes available for Stern der Rebellen: Ein Apokalyptischer LitRPG-Roman (Die System-Apokalypse 8) (German Edition).
This is book 8 in the System Apocalypse series - it is in GERMAN. If you'd like a code either comment below or send a private message ...
The temple that sat upon the mountain loomed over the lush, green surroundings. The entire edifice was not tall enough for mountain mist to reach it, nor were there significant sources of water and waterfalls to provide an overabundance of humidity to obscure. Instead, the temple was serene in its standing, a silent sentinel that watched over the surrounding farms and villages.
The Temple...
2022-10-14 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostConvergence.
That's the theme of this post and the very last post on this topic for a bit. There's always things changing, but I think I covered the majority of things, except this last topic.
I'm seeing - sometimes in the shadows, sometimes more overtly - a convergence in publishing.
Here's a few examples:
Inside the unchanging darkness of the cave, Wu Ying found his ability to sense the passing of time fading away. Caught up in the contemplation of that long evening, he replayed each moment over and over again in his mind, teasing apart that long evening of discourse, compliments and wind dao’s. He recalled the way his bloodline had reacted, to both the proximity of the dragons and their domin...
2022-10-11 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe first punch hurt. A lot. Not as much as the second one, even as he managed to block the third with his spear. That got grabbed and yanked away as Samseng jumped back with it. Leaving an opening for his friends to charge Arthur.
He’d managed to send a knife edge strike into that man’s neck, leaving him clutching his throat and trying to breathe around the bruised trachea. Too bad h...
2022-10-08 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostDays turned into weeks. The once modest and rundown house had been modified, old maintenance chores long put-off finished. The roof had been redone entirely, new rushes placed alongside clay tiles. Whitewash had been added to the walls, clay patches added to the wooden timbers to reduce draftiness and a couple of worn windows and their sills replaced.
More importantly, nearby a larger fre...
2022-10-07 13:29:09 +0000 UTC View PostSome of the bigger players in the indie world are watching the changes happening in FB/AMS/Amazon, along with the increasing volume of works that are available / being put out and believe that breaking out for new writers are getting harder and harder.
Unless you slip into a genre that is underserved and hit it big, the need to do promoting (and often, paid promo) is goin...
2022-10-05 17:59:01 +0000 UTC View Post“He did not look happy,” Wu Ying observed, staring down from the tower he had been provided to the courtyard below. Beside him, Captain Ren Fei laughed a little before clutching his stomach, the minor motion enough to send paroxysms of pain through his body.
“I would not think so. One could almost believe that they had been hoping that we might fail,” Ren Fei said. “But who woul...
2022-10-04 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThere were many things Arthur learnt over the next few hours. Firstly, altering a cultivation technique was, thankfully, not impossible. Secondly, that altering a technique so that it was actually useable was very difficult. Thirdly, every alteration and failure enacted a debt of pain and agony that made pulling Yang chi into his body a walk in the park. A Malaysian park, in the middle of the d...
2022-10-01 13:01:09 +0000 UTC View PostA brief moment of debate, then Wu Ying acted. He pulled himself closer to the oyster, prying it open, resolved to keep going. He would just have to work faster and hope that his luck held. He only needed two more, after all. He had other options, in the worse case scenario of running out of air, though he would prefer not to enact them.
Somehow, as he pushed off the latest oyster, he noti...
2022-09-30 13:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostAlright, last post we talked about changes we’ve seen in writing software as well as machine translation. This post is going to discuss the big changes which have, in many cases, triggered this initial conversation.
Audiobook AI Voices
Machine reading of books has been around for a while. I know a number of people who tell software like Alexa or SIRI to read their...
2022-09-28 17:59:01 +0000 UTC View PostHi All!
Jenn here with a quick announcement about the Master Class tier.
Firstly, thank you for making it that we sold out of the Master Class tier!
Secondly, we've revamped the Master Class into two options. Both tiers are still at the $20 price, we're just making more options for getting the audiobook benefit.
#1 - Master Class (audible codes) - this was the orig...
2022-09-27 17:07:42 +0000 UTC View PostRecently Patreon made some updates to their billing options - Patreon is now offering monthly subscription billing for new patrons only. You can read more about it here. I have opted into this billing and it's in effect for all new patrons.
As a...
2022-09-27 16:45:32 +0000 UTC View PostThe midday sun beat down upon the junks, their sea anchors deployed to keep them in place. Sails furled, the ballista had been rolled out, the massive harpoons on the ships angled to point downwards at the sea itself whilst others were trained towards the outside of the ring. Additional rafts had been deployed, many with smaller catapults set-up to throw the furled nets on them, volunteer sailo...
2022-09-27 13:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostIn the end, when it came down to buying his techniques, Arthur had chosen to balance what he wanted immediately along with choosing to save for the future. Between paying for the various boxes, keeping Credits for the building and also expanding his combat techniques and potentially having funds for more armour, he had found himself with much less resources than he had wanted. In the end, Arthu...
2022-09-24 13:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post“They arrive in six days,” Viscount Khao said to Wu Ying over breakfast weeks later, eyes gleaming with worry as she stared at him. Even seated, she seemed to vibrate with concern as she continued. “I know you understand how important it is to send the Pearls back to the king but…”
“It will be done. Today,” Wu Ying said, holding a hand up. “If the weather had permitted, we...
2022-09-23 13:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostAIright, let's talk about AI. Or, well, not AI itself because it's really NOT Artificial Intelligence but really good machine learning. I know there are specific terms, apologies if I miss them; and if anyone has greater expertise and wants to jump in, I'd be grateful.
AI Updates in Brief
To begin with, let's talk about the recent changes because those are the ones ...
2022-09-21 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe next morning, Wu Ying met his new teachers below the fort itself, in a deep pool and reservoir dug into the very earth itself by the initial builders. Multiple floors had to be crossed to enter the reservoir, long chains of buckets set aside behind a gated entrance; while glowing spirit stones and enchantments kept the entire emergency reservoir both fresh and clean.
The man who waite...
2022-09-20 13:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi All!!
Jenn here with the lovely cover reveal for book 8 of A Thousand Li. With book 8 off to the editors we're celebrating!
How do you like it?
“My left nut for an internet connection,” Arthur muttered, as he continued to stare up at the ceiling. He gently prodded his body mentally, reviewing how it felt, how it moved. He could not tell anything majorly different but that didn’t seem to matter. Maybe the world was a little warmer around him? He was a little colder? It didn’t seem to be the case but…
“Coulda, shoulda, ...
2022-09-17 13:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostApologies. I never did do a September update and I ended up entirely forgetting that this needed to be done. Let me get this out of the way, quickly so you all know what is going on.
System Apocalypse
The biggest news is the anthology. I have now shortlisted and signed the majority of the stories for the anthology, with the work going to be around 75k wor...
2022-09-16 15:48:31 +0000 UTC View PostThe Viscount defied a number of Wu Ying’s expectations. Firstly, the fact that she should have been named Viscountess; though the use of a non-gendered terminology might have been a peculiarity of the kingdom’s own social mores. Secondly, the approach to the fort and the insides had been artfully blocked from his spiritual and wind sense, with additional blockages strengthening till they re...
2022-09-16 13:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostWe talked about how print publishing is changing, significantly for trad publishers. Yet, print (whether hardcover or paperback) is just one part of the market these days.
Meantime, in the digital world...
Trad publishers are completely missing entire segments of the market.
Webnovels and Webserials
Webnovels ...
2022-09-14 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post