Recent entries

    September 2019-December 2019 ()
    #924 Copy

    Questioner

    Why aren't the books longer?

    Will Wight

    If I could still release 2 books a year and have them be 20k-30k words longer than they are now, but make no extra profit, I’d do it in a heartbeat. (I wouldn’t literally double the size of the books in the middle of a series, that would be jarring, but I could imagine a substantial increase of ~25%.)

    But it’s like you said: if I take that whole year to write one double-sized book and release it, I’ll have fewer people reading it. So I’ve done two books’ worth of work for less than one regular book’s worth of visibility and engagement.

    I can’t maintain momentum at that pace, so I’ll slowly lose visibility until I vanish in the sea of Kindle Unlimited.

    Also, I have people emailing me angrily every time about having to wait six months. I can’t even imagine the response if I said I was adjusting my pace to one book per year.

    There are a lot of reasons, but they mostly relate back to momentum.

    I’m reliant on Amazon for all of my marketing, which includes letting anyone who isn’t subscribed to my social media accounts know that the book is released. Most of my readers are not following me for releases, they simply notice that a new Cradle book is out and go buy it.

    Amazon is geared toward a structure of pushing the leaders, i.e. the more you sell, the more visibility you get on the site, and the more you sell. As long as you keep pushing that wheel of releases, you stay highly ranked on the site.

    And I am dependent on that rank to reach most of my readers. The MOST efficient release schedule would be a book every 1-3 months, but they would take a...significant drop...in quality if I tried to write them in that amount of time.

    I’ve stuck to a schedule of 2 books per year, which I’ve been able to do because I’m already established and have a large fan base, but I do see a huge dip in reader engagement and awareness between those two releases. I’ve been told by many other authors that this schedule is not frequent enough or maintainable...except that I’ve been able to do it.

    High-profile published authors can do otherwise because their publishers handle the job of getting the word out to readers, but since I’m dependent on Amazon, the name of the game is momentum.

    So...given that I have a finite time frame within which to write and produce a book, I have a finite word count, and trial and error has taught me that the sweet spot for that word count is about 90-100k words.

    There are many other reasons, such as consistency within a series, but this is the main one. If I only release one book a year, people forget about me, sales and visibility drop, more people forget about me, and then instead of topping the Amazon charts I’m no longer able to write full-time. And then the books take even longer.

    That’s the partial answer. TL;DR - It’s about how Amazon works.

    However, this answer is complex and always evolving. Any part of it could change as my situation and Amazon’s policies change, which they both often do.

    September 2019-December 2019 ()
    #925 Copy

    AlexandertheDrake

    Has anyone one else noticed that Yerin knew the symbol for Unsouled in book one?

    Will Wight

    She is! This is addressed in Blackflame, I believe. She recognizes some of the old symbols, like the one used to indicate Unsouled, which are separate from the script used in everyday writing. The reason being that those symbols are often used in training manuals.

    Also, since Unsouled is a concept unique to Sacred Valley, she learned about that symbol and its meaning since arriving there with her master.

    September 2018 - December 2018 ()
    #926 Copy

    Dissentinel

    I know she's a main character, but maybe writing something specific to Yerin would be cool?

    Will Wight

    One potential title I have for book (I think it’s 9, but it might be 8, or even not used at all) is Wintersteel. And it’s a Yerin-focused book. Lindon’s still in it, of course, but Yerin has the A storyline.

    I have a plot for it and so on. The main concern is that it might not fit the story by the time I get there.

    Will Wight

    As of 9/29/2019, Will has changed his mind.

    As many of you know, my original vision for the title “Wintersteel” was to use it for a Yerin-led book with Lindon playing the backup role that Yerin usually plays.

    Uncrowned ending with Lindon being eliminated from the tournament suggests this as well.

    However, I abandoned that plotline as soon as I began writing Book 7. As I said in the original quote, my big fear was that the plot I had in mind for the Yerin book wouldn’t fit by the time we got there, and that was the case here.

    I tried to figure out a new title, but by the time I started Uncrowned, I had already developed a lot of Book 8 in relation to the title Wintersteel, so I still felt it fit the best.

    However, this is the first time where I might re-title a book after announcing it. I’m still considering it. For one reason: because of what I said before, now fans (reasonably) expect it to be all about Yerin.

    It won’t be. It’s a Lindon book.

    Yerin obviously has her own thing going on as well, and it will be important, but Lindon will pursue a goal of his own like usual. As you would expect if I hadn’t said anything.

    This is a good illustration of why I’m always hesitant to talk about my future plans for the series and should probably do so less frequently. What I say outside of the book creates expectations that you carry into the book.

    That’s not a bad thing! But it is double-edged, as in this case with people now thinking that Yerin will be the only one doing anything that matters in the next book.

    TL:DR - Wintersteel is a Lindon book like usual, though of course Yerin does have a major storyline. And even though I enjoy talking about the stories, I need to learn to keep my trap shut.

    ...and now that I’ve said all of THAT, let me include my usual disclaimer that I haven’t written the book yet and anything can change in that process.

    Footnote: This is not final and very much subject to change.
    Sources: Reddit
    September 2019-December 2019 ()
    #927 Copy

    Decadakon

    The Akura family tree must be very confusing.

    Will Wight

    Yeah, the age dynamic is indirectly addressed in Underlord. And I think I have a line in Uncrowned about Fury and Mercy being half-siblings.   Also yes, I did draw an Akura family tree and it is really weird.

    Uncrowned Release Stream ()
    #931 Copy

    Questioner

    Can we get that Spotify playlist to listen to?

    Will Wight

    I intentionally made my playlist private because I named them after the books and so I was afraid somebody would search on Spotify and see what I'm listening to. I'm not afraid, just more like-well yes, afraid.

    Uncrowned Release Stream ()
    #932 Copy

    Questioner

    How much does an audiobook cost to produce?

    Will Wight

    That question varies wildly and is difficult for me to answer. It doesn't cost me very much in terms of the amount it generates, but that's because I'm comparing it to audiobooks in successful series that I know are gonna generate a lot of money. So therefore to me, they make a lot more than they cost. But if you're just trying to get your own audiobook made, it may be relatively expensive. That's probably a question better suited for Travis Baldree.

    Uncrowned Release Stream ()
    #933 Copy

    nighthawk7890 (paraphrased)

    we need an anime

    Will Wight (paraphrased)

    When I looked into how much it cost to develop an anime series, it takes 1.5 to 2 million dollars for one season of anime and I don't have 1.5 to 2 million dollars, but over time, potentially, we could generate that, 'cause I do put most of the money that I make back into hidden gnome. I pay myself a salary out of the money that goes into the business. What we do with the money is when we get the check at the end of the month what happens is amazon cuts us a check two months after the royalties come in. When we get the money, we immediatly put 10 to 15 percent into an account to giveaway, or no, the minimum we do is I think 12 percent. We range it between 12 and 20 depending where the check comes from. That's the first thing we do and after that we pay taxes. Of course, the whole amount, I'm not cheating anybody out of taxes. We also save and pay expenses and employees and that kind of thing. I'm one of the employees we pay, so, I get my salary. Then, after that most of it goes into the business account - we save it or we invest it in the business. So, we're saving up quite a bit of money. My personal preference would be that someday we have enough stocked up that we could someday do an anime. That'd be amazing. Those are my nerd dreams.

    Uncrowned Release Stream ()
    #934 Copy

    Will Wight

    What nobody asked and I'm going to answer anyway, is 'What is the new thing I wanna write and develop?' I want to develop something that is kind of in that world, in the isekai-isekai, by the way, is a Japanese genre, it's from another world. It's like people in our world being sent to another world. I don't really wanna write that particularly, like somebody that's literally from this world that we inhabit right now because I don't want to incorporate Earth slang or Earth words, that kind of breaks me out of it a lot. But what they do is they get teleported basically into a fantasy world, and then they have to learn to survive and adapt in that world. So I don't mind the idea of an outsider having to learn to survive and adapt in a world he's not familiar with and it is kind of a standard fantasy world. He's going around doing standard fantasy things, like adventuring. Kinda like if you got pulled into a D&D game. Something like that, some mix of that and dungeon novels and LitRPG, something in there is something I'd like to write. Kind of a light novel concept. I've been developing a lot of those. Attempting to develop a lot of those, I have not gotten very far. I want to have a good vision for what it is before I begin writing it, and I don't, so I have not.

    I've tried a bunch of stuff, one of the things I've tried most recently is a world kinda based on the magic system of 5th Edition but more of the worldbuilding of 4th Edition [D&D] because 4th edition has better worldbuilding than 5th edition does because 5th edition is kind of designed to do whatever game you wanna run. Therefore they don't tell you what goes on in the world, you decide as the DM. So I have tried to do some stuff like that, and I didn't really like it. It didn't work for me. Maybe I'll continue developing that and that will eventually ring my bells, but so far not.

    One of the things I've tried often is 'What if I just sat down and I just put very little planning and thought into it, and I just wrote one of these isekai or web novels, or if I just wrote a character just running around a fantasy world. I can't do it. I don't work that way. I sit down and I start writing and I have no interest in this person or place. I have to have some development in the world in order to want to explore it so I just don't enjoy it. I tried to write it off the top of my head, and I couldn't do it.

    Uncrowned Release Stream ()
    #935 Copy

    Questioner

    How much of my writing do I [Will] keep?

    Will Wight

    I usually keep most of it, now, but I used to write basically two words for every word I kept. Less that I was going through and cutting things and more that I would write something and I would just toy with it. Over the course of developing a scene, I would end up writing twice as much. It would take me a thousand words to write a five hundred word scene.

    Uncrowned Release Stream ()
    #936 Copy

    Questioner

    How many books do you think Cradle will have?

    Will Wight

    I think 12. I said that recently on the subreddit. Which I fully understand, not everyone looks at the subreddit, so why would you know that? But I recently decided there is going to 12 for a couple of reasons. One is cradle is not structured in trilogies, but that's four trilogies. That's enough content. Secondly, it's a good length and I think that's about when I want them to reach an endpoint. That feels right to me, I think I can do the stuff I want to do in five more novels. After that there might be a spin-off or a continuation. Who knows? I would like to do some new stuff, because I just love doing new stuff. One of the things I like the most is coming up with new ideas, I just love doing that, and I don't get to do that a lot when I'm working on one series. That is something I'm looking forward to, and I also would like to go back to Traveler's Gate, it's been a long time. But of course, Elder Empire first.

    Uncrowned Release Stream ()
    #938 Copy

    Garoob

     You mentioned you were recently coming up with some magic systems. How do you start coming up with magic system ideas?

    Will Wight

    I have a little form I fill out when I'm making a magic system; what are the limitations of the system, what are the actual powers of the system, which sometimes when people are designing magic systems, they forget to have what the system can do, because they've talked about what the system can't do. I have what kinda what makes it work, what are the costs and limitations, what the history of it is, and I have all these little things that I fill in. Usually what happens, what I have to do is narrow down, because of course a generic magic system can do anything right? its magic. So I'm usually picking one narrow theme or set of abilities that it can do. Which means I'm really choosing a set of things it can't do, so usually when I'm working on a magic system I then am thinking about all the things it can't do which then suggests another magic system. That's how I actually did it when I came up with a bunch of magic systems in a row. It normally gives me inspiration for what any other magic system could do.

    one of the other things I do, interestingly enough, I come back to D&D because there's a lot of stuff you can think about in D&D, like wizards are just better than non spellcasters in D&D, so the problem that some people refer to is, linear fighter and quadratic wizards, so wizards improve exponentially and fighters improve linearly, because of course wizards can stop time and fighters can swing they're sword a little harder. There's kind of an inherent issue with having magic users and non magic users, that issue being, one of them can use magic, and the other one is inherently bound by the rules of physics, and I don't like that. So I've tried to develop a lot of magic systems, kinda like in Cradle, but in Cradle, everyone is a magic user, and that's the obvious answer right? you have everything be an extension of the magic system, that's the easiest way to solve that.

    One of the things I've thought of, is I've been trying to do different expressions of a D&D system, even one that would fit in a real table-top RPG, where the martial characters are not inherently outclassed by the arcane characters, because they can do such supernaturally amazing stuff thats its effectively magic but it's just martial magic. It becomes magical. I've done various approaches to that, there's a lot of ways to solve that problem, so I have that problem in my head, and that set of criteria, so then I try to design systems that have the things I want and dont have the things I don't want, so I've approached that many different times.

     

    Questioner

    Is that process how you came up with a whole bunch of magic systems along side each other in the Traveler's Gate series?

    Will Wight

    Actually, no. The Traveler's Gate series really is one magic system. The gates work the same way, every territory requires the key, something to open the gate. But then I just added another set of restrictions onto each one. So this is a unique thing. So yeah, Tarturus travelers open gates quicker, Endross travelers, their gates slowly grow and grow and grow but they also get harder to control, Helgard travelers have to know the names of things they summon, so on and so forth. And I did that just to kind of-each one is a little unique, in addition to being thematically unique. And that was just a way of distinguishing each Territory from one another. I did not really design 12 magic systems. I designed 1 magic system with 12 different expressions.

    Uncrowned Release Stream ()
    #939 Copy

    erineeclark (paraphrased)

    Who is your favorite character in all your books?

    Will Wight (paraphrased)

    Look, I really like Eithan, I think that's pretty obvious from the way I have fun writing him, mainly just 'cause writing a character like Eithan allows you to do a lot of really fun stuff. So, when I'm writing characters, the number one thing I usually do is I go "ok, i have a general idea of what the story is gonna be about" and so, the first thing I do is, I name them after their role in the plot. So, Alin initially was 'rival', 'cause I didn't wanna come up with a name for him so, I named him after his role in the plot and his role in the relationship to Simon pursuing his goal was 'rival'. Then I started coming up with names for people. Then I go "ok, what kind of person would fill that role in this circumstance?" - That's when I fill in their personality, so, I make sure that their personality feeds into what role they have in the story. That's usually how I do it, but Eithan was a character I really just wanted to have in one of my books, he's actually one of the earliest characters I ever created, because I loved the idea of somebody, who could just see and hear every single thing going on around him and so, he used that to just pop up out of nowhere.

     

    In the original draft of what would eventually become 'Cradle', it looks very different now, so, these are not at all spoilers because this is almost completely unrelated to modern 'Cradle', except with the words, but it was originally an Abidan series called 'The Ghost and the Spider'. This was gonna be the name of book one. 'The Ghost and the Spider' was following the Abidan, these people training to be Abidan and 'The Ghost' was Mercy. It was actually a very different version of Mercy, she was very quite and withdrawn, kind of an emotionless sort of character, so, basically the opposite of Mercy now. 'The Spider' was gonna be Eithan, because he has detection powers. So, Eithan was 'The Spider' and so, he had these powers like Eithan has in the real books and so, he would use 'em to pop up and so, Mercy was 'The Ghost' and she had inherent similar powers of 'she couldn't be detected at all', so, the only one who could detect her was Eithan and so, they had this really neat dynamic, where nobody noticed her and everybody noticed Eithan, except for him, who noticed her, so, they were both popping up and neither of them were the main character and so, they would all like pop up out of nowhere. Anyway I liked that dynamic, I had a lot of fun and so, Eithan survived into 'Cradle'.

    Uncrowned Release Stream ()
    #940 Copy

    Mythonida

    Who is your LEAST favorite?

    Will Wight

    Again, if I had a character I didn't enjoy writing, I just probably wouldn't write them. So, Dross is hard, he's not my least favorite character, but he's hard to write. I usually do an entire pass on the book that's just Dross dialogue, I do that for Dros and Yerin. I don't do that for anybody else. So that's difficult, he causes me a lot of work, but I like him.