Recent entries

Scholar Warrior

Could you explain some about how the business is working and adapted over time? I think you mentioned you now have a full-time team?

Will Wight

Yes, I can, and I would like to do that. So, the team now consists of quite a few people. I'm gonna miss somebody--and they're on here listening, too--so I'm gonna miss somebody and then they're gonna be mad. 

Lil' Blue

All caps TEAM.

Will Wight

Yeah, the TEAM!

So, I started off with House of Blades. It was me; my family helped a lot; my friends helped a lot; and we had a family contact with a guy who was a graphic designer who had done some work with my dad fifteen years before. And so I had a contact with him and he helped me develop the covers, and so he thought, like I did, that House of Blades wasn't going to make any money. So he helped me work out a deal with some student graphic designers of his, and I would pay them half of a fair value of a cover upfront and then they would have the first ten percent of profits until they got paid the other half. And we all kind of knew--we were going into this eye's wide open--we all kinda knew that I probably would never make that much money. So, you know, joke's on us. That was great for me; it was a cool experience for them, and then, again, they got paid so it was a real job. And so that was it. That was the team.

Over time we have evolved that. We've just continued to bring people on board--especially this last year. One of the big reasons we were able to hire Travis and that we were able to do the audiobooks at all is because I hired an assistant. I hired a few more people part time to do things like manage my social media, Facebook page, and a woman to optimize our meeting time and kind of administrate the team. There was a woman we brought on, not long ago, that does our bookkeeping and interfaces with our accountant. We have my business manager--the one who's always kind of whipping me to write, and he's the one who always wants the books to cost more and for us to make more money so that we can, therefore, serve the readers better--that's his whole thing. He's like, "The more money we have, the more we can do for people and produce more books," and I'm always like, "But I want the books to be cheaper; and I want to spend longer on them; and all I care about is the story and the art." So he's like the devil to the angel that I am. That's how I think of it in my head. He probably has the exact opposite picture.

Look, this developed over time. This is year six. Only this year has our team really been this organized. So we have major quarterly meetings in which we plan out kind of the schedule for the year. We take a look at where we are, where we can go. But that's the only reason we were organized enough to make these audiobooks happen. We had people on it. And so that's why we were able to get the audiobooks out. Now, the audiobooks have provided such steady income that now--ebooks are very spikey, you get one big spike and then it drips down--we've been in just a much steadier financial position and that's helped--we have a lot more overhead now because, again, I hired a lot of people. But we also have much steadier income as a direct result of bringing them on. So it's actually pretty cool to see the baseline of the business go up as we spend more money and hire more people. So it's actually been really cool.

Keytar

Now that you seem to have an entire publishing company working for you, have you considered doing publishing for other self-pub authors? Do you do that already?

Will Wight

Yes I have considered that. No I do not do it already.

Questioner

How did the preorder sales compare to everything else? 

Will Wight

The preorder has sold a little over 6000 copies, and I would expect about that much in the first week, and its been up for three weeks, which is not bad considering the fact that there have been no kindle unlimited sales, and i would count those into a first week, so for just regular sales alone and no kindle unlimited that is actually really good, that's sold very well. The question is will I spike up in ranking? If the book spikes up in ranking then it's more visible and it will stay visible for longer and all that stuff.

Chimeric

You mentioned earlier that all your books are connected in the same universe. In Skysworn, the Sage of a Thousand Eyes was mentioned. Is that Sage anyway connected to the Elder Empire Overseer, who also has the nickname Lord of a Thousand Eyes.

Will Wight

That's actually a really good question, but she is not related to him at all, Ach Magut i think it the one.

Chimeric

Is the path related?

Will Wight

No its more of a colloquial nickname, in both cases. So the sage of thousand eyes is not on the path of a thousand eyes, i don't think, i'll have to look that up, maybe they are. Most of the sage of "whatever whatever", so sages have two names, so there's the "sword sage" and "the sage of the endless sword". so there's two names for sages, the "whatever" sage, and the sage of "whatever", so usually the sage of "whatever whatever" is their path, but in the case of the Sage of a Thousand Eyes, unless i changed this, so take all this with a grain of salt, shes not actually on the path of a thousand eyes, shes a member of the Arelius family. Therefore her ability is to see everything, like she can see all over the place, so therefore her most defining feature is her command over her bloodline ability. Whereas Ach Magut, the Lord of a thousand eyes, just kind of has eyes everywhere, and he has like a thousand eyes. I know there's a lot of overlap there and i'm sorry about that, i probably should have called him like lord of a million eyes or something cos he has a million eyes, i dunno. I just though a thousand eyes sounded better, really is kinda the crux there. But I apologise, and I hate telling people that the connections don't exist, but I am sorry, that's just an overlap in the naming conventions.

Fable

At some point would you be willing to add a table describing how to cycle the basics of Madra? As well as some of the properties that certain Madra's possess? I am wondering this because I am trying to make mechanics for a Cradle Quest. (Quest meaning something like a DnD game that is run online.) If you do not have an answer at this time then I have a simpler question. What exactly is force madra, how do you cycle it, and how does it work? 

Will Wight

So I definitely need to do that, this is something i probably need to bring up to the team, although they're certainly hearing this and are gonna hold me to this whether I want to do it or not. That's something I definitely need to do, i really probably need to do some sort of index or whatever for every series.....appendix that was the word i was looking for. The problem is it kind of changes based on the book, so you learn something new every book. So i either have to post just the very basics, so the very basics that you would learn in Unsouled, or the stuff that everybody knows, or I'd have to update it every book. So of course, before ebooks, you'd have all this at the back of the book, now i can create a page on my site and just link to it, so i could just have kind of a constant explanation encyclopaedia sorta thing up there. Its a lot more work that it sounds like, unless i do just the bare minimum and just put like a description up there of just kind of generally how the the madra system works. But i know i need to do something and i'm fully willing to do it, its one of those things that i feel like always is on my priority list, but never high enough to actually do, so it never gets to the top, so I'm sorry about that.

Xektalon

If Lindon made a drudge look like a gold dragon (since they used to be a servant line to the blacks) ... How long would it last before said dragons destroyed it and tried to kill him? And would Orhtos pass out laughing at seeing the drudge?

Will Wight

Orthos might! He might really enjoy that. But the gold dragons wouldn't have it out for Lindon any more than they already do because a lot of gold dragons are selfish and whatever. They're going around stealing stuff and raiding places. As much as I said about Sesh's law-of-the-jungle mentality, his descendants really like the good life. They're rich and they're powerful and they really like it. And so they don't settle down places; they don't do very civilized stuff, but they do go take things from people who are civilized. Civilized is a weird word. I really mean settled; people who live in settlements. And so they see a lot of stuff. But they wouldn't care really--I mean if they ran across him they would definitely be mad, but that would be kind of they already kinda hate him like because Sophara hates him, and she's kind of their leader of their generation. So an older gold dragon would just completely not care--would just try to breath fire to kill him and that's it. But the people who are going to be swayed by that, they already hate him because he murdered somebody, so he's already on their list.

Tim the Sword Sage

What was your favorite scene to write in the story thus far?

Will Wight

Definitely the Dross scene at the end of Ghostwater. That was fun to write in a sense because I knew that was a really cool punch line to the book so I spent a lot of effort trying to set that up in the exact right way. So that was just difficult and then seeing it pay off was really cool. What was hard about it was balancing the rapport and him speaking as a presence for the first time and them finishing the Ghostwater project AND beating Harmony. So I had to have all of the happen and I really had to have all of that happen at the same moment and I had to set all that up so that it made sense when it happened and that was just very difficult but a lot of fun planning. Therefore seeing it pay off felt really good.

AngryEdgelord

Is Wei Shi Seisha (Lindon's Mom) related to the Kazan clan by blood? Where does her brown hair come from?

Will Wight

She is descended from another clan. From an outside clan. She is a Wei clan member but at a certain point in her ancestry her father or great grandfather was from the Kazan clan. That's just a thing that happens in Sacred Valley.

Chat

Did you give rough ages for the Monarchs?

Will Wight

I did not. I think Malice is about four hundred years old. So we're not talking forty thousand. We're talking four hundred, one thousand, twelve hundred. They tend to die. They don't age but they tend to die. Or ascend. Old Man Lo actually is not related to the Akura clan so he's just a... guy.

Conman#8457

After reading the Cradle series I became quite interested in Chinese XianXia genre anime and noticed more than a few similarities between your books and these anime. Have you watched (or read the base material) of anime like Yao Shen Ji, Mo Dao Zu Shi, and Wangu Xian Qiong? How much of an impact do you think external material had on the Cradle series?

Will Wight

Uh yes, I've seen... that. I don't know how to refer to those in English. But yeah, I did all the research. I've read it all, seen it all, but mainly just because I'm into it. It mostly wasn't a research thing. How much of an impact did external material have on the Cradle series? Infinite. I really like the genre, I really like the conventions, and I thought, "Hey I can a story in that genre." And so then I did.

SofaKing

Thanks for sharing your crazy stories with us. As for my question do you have any plans for D&D like handbooks to come out for your universe? Also do you plan on ever coming to the Pacific North West for a book signing? 

Will Wight

D&D like handbooks... maybe. The coolest thing about D&D handbooks is the art and I would have to buy that, so it would be expensive. But it would be fun. I really like those. I just really love D&D handbooks, they're great. Will I do a signing? I mean I guess. I've done a couple. I don't do them regularly and I probably won't ever do them regularly, but I can't say that I won't ever do one. I do them at Dragon Con, if you want to come to Dragon Con in the fall.

Oka wants to be unmuted. I think it's okay to keep him muted. What do you think?

Yeah, I think we keep him muted. He deserves to be muted.

Questioner

What's your stance on fanficton and would you mind if people posted fanfiction on third party sites?

Will Wight

No, I don't mind that. I like fanfiction a lot, you know, as a concept. I have no problem with that. The only thing is make sure it's fanfiction, don't claim is your idea not mine, and don't sell it.

Human Number 678

What is the weirdest drug on Cradle?

Will Wight

Weirdest drug on Cradle. So again it's a world building question, so I can make up questions for this, that will actually be easy to make up an answer to, but I don't have a ready made answer to it and I'm afraid that if say something it will contradict something in my notes. It's hard to live-answer world building questions and I don't have the time to make up a cool answer, so I gotta pass on that one. I'm sorry.

Booker

Do you think you will ever add romance to your stories?

Will Wight

Yes, I do.

Questioner

How do you cycle force aura so you can make your own force madra?

Will Wight

So, sword aura it just an application of force aura. Ya, its just a derivative of force aura. It builds up in things that do exert great force. Not things that could, which of course anything can, anything physical. But, things that do. So, things that really do bash up against other things on a daily basis. So, like a machine or manufacturing plant would generate a lot of force aura. A rushing river does too. But you tend to not sense that. Its a lot easier to sense sword aura than it is to sense force aura until you become kind of attuned to it and you sort of cycle it some a little bit. So, the more advanced you get on a force path the easier it is to feel that, see that. One of the things I've kind of referenced a little bit, but its sort of subtle and I probably need to draw it out more explicitly, is as you get more advanced on a certain path it becomes easier for you to pick up aura of that path. So, Lindon had to learn to see destruction aura even in a place where its very prevalent. So later, its a lot easier for him to see than other people to see. 

Questioner

Like when he was cycling for blackflame during Ghostwater, he sees or at least senses destruction aura in the fire. 

Will Wight

Right. So, I mentioned that force aura would be in a rushing river. It certainly would and it would be there for anybody. But, when Lindon looked at a river he would basically just see water aura. If Renfei, who is on cloud and force, she might se, basically, the force of the white water crashing against the rocks and she would see the water aura as it interacted with the air as a big cloud. So, her vision if she opened her copper sight, her vision of the river would look very different than Lindon's.

Lil' Blue

What color is Seth and would he have cared with the Blackflame ruling the continent?

Will Wight

He is a gold dragon. He is the original gold dragon. His human form, unless I changed this, and I very well might, is a black kid. Someone sent me a picture of art of him as a little white 12 year old. I didn't think that image fit. I thought it seem like he should be a different ethnicity than the main characters, because he is from a long way away, kind of like Eithan. The whole reason he's white instead of Asian, which is the primary ethnicity of he continent, is to serve the purpose to say hey he's from a long way away. So that's his human form, but that really changes a lot. He actually can alter his skin color however he wants to. That's just kind of the form he chosen to take because that's the form humans take where he grew up. They can change little details like that very easily at his level.

Would he cared if the the Blackflames ruled the continent? His thing is he is all about the survival of the fittest, that's because dragons are the fittest. So when you do this survival of the fittest ideology, he always wins, so he and his people are the best. He feels like that the whole magic of Cradle and the whole sacred arts should be very pure and real, The strongest people directly win and they get what they need and that's the best for everybody and that's how Cradle works. That all this civilization stuff that the Akura clan love so much is just design to make naturally weaker people comfortable which does nothing but makes everything worse. So that's where all the problems come from. His main problem with the Black dragons ruling is that they are ruling and setting up a civilization, and not just holding territory. So that will be his main ideology difference with the black dragons.

joe2222

Is it possible to kill a sage with poison or did something else happen to Yerin's Master?

Will Wight

It is a very good question, its just that this a question that has become a meme among the subreddit. It is indeed possible for them to have killed the sage, but only under very specific circumstances that I have not yet explained. So, it's going to be a read and find out.

JohnnyBrew

How much of society is super dedicated to cultivation advancement? Are there swaths of society who live in protected cities and just get by or there ones who are more dedicated to decadence and leisure, or to commerce than to cultivation.

Will Wight

Yes. Absolutely there are. The rough number I work with in my head is, like, 10% of the people really focus on advancement, like really sacred artists, that's what they want. So, that's my rough number.

DJflopdog

Can an advanced enough sacred beast, who has transitioned to human form, change back into beast form at will? The dragon monarch Seth for example.

Will Wight

Somebody advanced enough can. Seth definitely can. He can do whatever he wants. But, it's somebody like Sophara from Ghostwater, the Underlady, she doesn't have a dragon form. She does, but she would have to spend soulfire and time slowly making herself back into a dragon. And, that would be an inefficient use of time and soulfire. So, it would be difficult. Even and Archlord, it's not easy. But a herald, or above, so a monarch, a herald or monarch, those can shift all the time. And shift. And shift.