It's taken me a couple weeks, but I've finished Chapter III - What's in a Name?
If you've been following my previous posts, you'll know that Chapter III was originally named, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" Well, it turns out that what I had planned for Chapter III was long enough to justify two chapters.
In June, I ran my second Kindle Unlimited Countdown deal, where His Name Was Death was $0.99 for a week. I got a little bit of a sales boost as a result, but that boost didn't last after the sale.
Another day, another chapter. I recently finished Chapter II, Back in the Saddle. It's another 3100 words and 11.5 pages. I actually finished it a couple days ago but with the holiday, hadn't gotten around to posting an update.
I'll start on "Who's Afraid of the Big Bald Wolf?" in the next couple of days.
This is where things start heating up.
Just finished the first draft of Chapter I, Ghosts of the Past. It's 12.5 pages, and roughly 3500 words. I'm sure it will change significantly over the course of editing and rewrites, but it feels really good to be writing again, with a strong start to "The Second Beast".
Only 33 chapters, and approximately 91,000 words to go.
I decided to do one last outlining step before beginning work on Chapter 1. I already have the whole story mapped out in a fair amount of detail, including all the chapter breaks. Just like in "His Name Was Death", I knew I was going to name all the chapters.
Starting today, "His Name Was Death" is $0.99 for one week. No more excuses, get your copy now!
amzn.com/B01CXPVF4E
The outline for "The Second Beast" is done.
I'm estimating 407.5 pages, which is about 12% longer than my estimate for "His Name Was Death". That original estimate was actually pretty close. I'm probably looking at somewhere around 95,000 words in 34 chapters…
It's almost that time again.
That's right. It's been almost three months since my last KDP Countdown deal. Within the next few weeks, I'll drop the price of "His Name Was Death" to .99 cents for one week.
Got another great question today from a fan on Goodreads
Do the characters ever just talk to you in your head? Like say no thats not what I am going to do I want it to go this way?
Not exactly.
Finished outlining step 7 of 8 tonight, and now have 13 character charts for the most important characters in "The Second Beast." Yes, that's right, I said 13. The scope of my second novel is larger than the scope of "His Name Was Death," but I think that's pretty common for most new authors.
The first His Name Was Death t-shirts have arrived! Visit the store today to order your own.
It's been about a month since I've given any updates on the outlining process. As I've mentioned before, I use the Snowflake Method for building my outlines. It's an 8 step process, and each steps expands on previous steps to build a rich outline of the story and characters.
Did you love "His Name Was Death"?
Do you have some cash to blow?
Does the idea of being a walking billboard make you weak in the knees?
A fan on Goodreads recently asked me if I was going to release His Name Was Death as an audiobook.
The short answer is: no, there are currently no plans to make an audiobook for His Name Was Death.
The long answer is: no, there are currently no plans to make an audiobook for His Name Was Death, but I'd love to.
Another month has drawn to an end. April was the first full calendar month in which His Name Was Death was available for sale. For those keeping track, my debut novel was first available on March 13th. In the month of March, I sold 40 eBooks, 2 paperbacks, and had 16,815 pages read through Kindle Unlimited (for roughly another 35.8 copies).
The outline for The Second Beast is progressing. Outlining is always slow, probably because it's my least favorite part. I love writing, but hate planning. However, without the planning, I wouldn't produce a high quality, highly polished book.
Up to this point, I've been referring to book 2 of Dead Man's Tale as Ghost of a Chance. Unfortunately, that's a very popular book title, with several hits on Amazon. I've always known I'd need to pick a real title some day. That day is today. Introducing book 2 of Dead Man's Tale.
Got a great new review from Erica at Fantasy Book Lane. It can be hard for indie authors to get exposure through reviewers, but luckily Erica was willing to review His Name Was Death, and I'm extremely happy with the result. Read her full review below.
I discovered about a month ago that my current website hosting solution (O365) is canceling its public website hosting feature. For the last couple of weeks, I've been working on a new website on GoDaddy.
For the most part, you shouldn't notice much difference. I've made a few minor visual and functional changes, but I liked the old look/behavior, and have tried to maintain it.
My new website is live and, with it, my new address. You can now access my website from jehance.com or jehance.net. I wrote a lot of the website myself, so let me know if you find any issues with it.
