Question State of the Wasamon - 2019

It's been a while, so I guess it's best to reboot this thread as well.

2018 was a busy year in a lot of ways, and not just because of the general complications of Dorms 4 in all its parts. My NaNoWriMos project turned into a three-month oopsfest (current one's doing a little better; hope to actually finish soon), I added three more episodes to the backlog on Pizza Princesses, my brother visited and I almost broke my hand (not unrelated), and I got an adorable new niece.

On the other (uninjured) hand, I also had dismal luck self-promoting my original work on the interwebs. Project Wonderful shut down, and my initial attempts to utilize Amazon's marketing service was less than stellar. While I got some good advice in general -- e.g., what a good click/buy ratio looks like, or the need for more reviews on my work -- said advice tended to ignore certain major assumptions being made vis-a-vis how many clicks I was getting on ads, or how many purchases were being made.

And Amazon still has yet to acknowledge that my bank exists for the purposes of receiving payments. MAKING payments, on the other hand, causes no problem.

About the only actionable piece of advice I could get was to get new cover art, so that was a major focus of the second half of the year.


Link here.

So towards the end of last month I took down the five episodes I had online, and the plan is to give them all a few needed continuity tweaks, new covers, and move on from there. Hopefully I can get nine episodes up this year, get the second or even the third paperback collection together, and publish some of my other stuff that's been on the back burner waiting for some minor/major overhauls.

On the Whateley front, there's still Dorms 5 (the last of the set, I swear), plus some side stories and anthology work I've been meaning to get to.

I actually have a scheduled plan for this year.
*knock on wood*
Wish me luck!

Just a minor update.

The NaNoWriMos for the current written year concluded with 64 notebook pages in 67 days, for a total of approximately 70,000 words... as soon as I get it all typed up. I still have 24 notebook pages to go.

In Princess news, I'm getting the first episode listed on the Great LitRPG search & index site, and it should show up tomorrow, Friday the 11th. If anyone is feeling charitable, please check the site out and upvote, okay? It's the same title as in the first post up above.

(and if you haven't read it yet, there's no time like the present, *hint hint*)

And the NaNoWriMos typing is over!

That's....

67 days of writing
plus 10 days beyond that for typing
64 notebook pages
72,159 words

The end result is something you might get if someone with a warped sense of social priorities decided to write zombie fiction but then remembered halfway through the outlining process why he absolutely detests zombie fiction.

So... any takers?

I'm intrigued...

Why don't you like zombie fiction?

Malady wrote: Why don't you like zombie fiction?

Maybe because it's so infectious?

Never been a big fan of contagion horror, no matter the source. Zombies, Purple Smurfs, at least one episode of Captain Planet, just... no.

And the second episode of Princesses of the Pizza Parlor, Princesses Are Never Lost (Everything Else is Simply Misplaced) is back up on Amazon with new cover art:



Check it out, enjoy, tell your friends, drop a review...

Still looking for beta readers for a non-Whateley project. Send me a message if you're interested.

The third episode of Princesses of the Pizza Parlor, "Princesses Don't Play Nice," is now returned to the Kindle store with a nice new cover and various minor tweaks.

--

For their third session, the young ladies of the red-checked pizza table have a classmate crash the party, introducing a sixth princess with strongly held opinions on how and where the adventure should go next. With personality clashes in- and out-of-game, it's only a matter of time until someone gets down into the negative hit points.



Princesses Don't Play Nice

Wasamon wrote: *Book 3 Cover*

Oooh! She's got a great haughty look going, with the face being tilted away from the viewer, and the shadowing and stuff!

I'm not sure if it just looks haughty from this angle, or it actually is...

Oh, she's looking down at people, and that hands on hips gesture, right. That's the thing!

Yeah, Astrid (the artist) has been doing a great job with these.

Decided to bite the bullet and do a short super-sale on Episode 1 (i.e., it's free thru Thursday), just to see if I can get more people to take a chance on it. So far, I have seventeen takers,and if even two of them decide to pick up Ep. 2, then that recoups the overall loss.

So, um, if anyone around here was considering a look-see, now's the time.

VV-- link in the signature

Good luck!

Hope you did recoup the costs!

Well, two-day total is 28 free downloads, 2 further purchases.

Which is... 50% recoup, thus far?

Hopefully I can get at least one review from a complete stranger this time around.

Quick catch-up!

A week or so back, I put up the fourth episode of Princesses of the Pizza Parlor, "Grandmothers and Other Fearsome Encounters" on Kindle.



Grandmothers and Other Fearsome Encounters


I also finally got myself on Twitter, @MaikelYarimizu

Oh, cool how they're sorta sharing the pose, standing sorta similarly, having the same hand sign for their left hands, their hair, the bow, etc.

Wait, playing up the Older Alter Ego style Magical Girl?

Also contrasts great with Book 3's where they're in more different poses, but still reflecting each other...

But this one is looking at the viewer while Book 3's is looking at the sides of the viewer.

I also haven't analyzed the flare-y light thing at the center of every cover. This one's is basically just a brighter version of Purple Background, Book 3's is really contrast-y, pink on Green... Looking at Book 1...

Is the color of the Flare, the color of the background of the next book's cover??

----

So much Art to analyze!

----

Wonder what'll happen for Book 6, since you've ran out of girls, then, unless you repeat or something. Lol if its Uncle and Lady Amberyll or something.

Hey, you've read Ep. 5, so you know there's another character available. I don't run out of main cast till Ep. 7, after which point we get into the real fun possibilities...

And after some edits, some tweaks, and three instances of forgetting which version of the title I'd actually decided on, episode 5 of Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: "Boyfriends and Other Minor Annoyances," has gone live on Kindle's store.

Follow the yellow brick link!

Congrats!

It seems like he's sorta looking down in confusion? Nice!

OK, major announcement.

My wife and I have been expecting our second child, due this June. Unfortunately, some of the same issues as before have cropped up, and she's been in hospital bed-rest for a week now. The C-section is scheduled for next Tuesday.

Wasamon wrote: OK, major announcement.

My wife and I have been expecting our second child, due this June. Unfortunately, some of the same issues as before have cropped up, and she's been in hospital bed-rest for a week now. The C-section is scheduled for next Tuesday.

Here's hoping that she and your baby both make a swift recovery.

Fingers crossed, wishes sent, prayer said - everything I can do from here.
I remember when my wife was in the hospital with our second - 6 weeks total bedrest, and son was born by C-section 5 weeks premature. The state of medicine to protect mother and baby is nothing short of amazing to me. Your wife is in good hands getting the care she needs.

Hope it all goes well, Wassamon

So, here we are a week or so later, and it's time for a short introduction:



Little Miss Leona, born 1885 grams (a smidge over 4 pounds). She's coming along fine, but it'll probably be a few more weeks before she's out of the GCU and home for good.

Congrats!

Glad it all went well, and congratulations

Congratulations!

An Heir to the Wasamon Dynasty!

Congratulations.

Congratulations on the arrival of the new being!

Glad everything is well with you and yours! And congrats on the second apprentice!