Magical Fantasy Fiction
Metamancer has been selected for a BookBub featured deal! This means the eBook will be on sale worldwide for $0.99 for the first week of September! Sadly, Audible doesn’t allow creators to set sale pricing (only Amazon can do that), but if you have an Audible subscription, the audiobook is (as always) available for 1 credit.
Things are progressing, though not as fast as I would like. I have written some new text and re-edited some old text, added an appendix, and replaced the prologue, but I have also given in to the nagging feeling that a fair chunk of what I had was unnecessary and made some cuts. As such, the word count went back down to as low as 32,000, but as of today, it’s back up to 39,154
One big part of what I cut was a backstory on a character mentioned briefly in book 1. We will get to know him better in the upcoming book 2, and I had shoehorned his background into the book as a prologue, but I’ve always been a little uncomfortable with that decision. I recently wrote a much more focused prologue that is shorter, more impactful, and more relevant to the core story. This will be much better than merely illuminating a single side character’s history.
Writing these backstories always helps ensure I have a character with depth that makes sense, but it also creates content that is hard to share. The first problem is that wizards in my world are very cagy about their own history, to minimize the chance of anyone figuring out their true name. A second, more practical reason is that if I just dump everything into the book, it will be a very slow story.
I’m contemplating collecting these into a collection of short stories so I can share them. I wrote a quick draft of a prospective preface/introduction to such a volume. I don’t promise I’ll ever publish it, but let me know if a series of short origin stories for wizards sounds good to you (or not). There are several other ways in which I might release such stories, but this is the idea I’m currently kicking around.
As for Lore posts for subscribers, I’ve got more material, and I think the next thing to be released will probably be a rough draft of the appendix that details the curriculum for students at the Wizards Academy. It doesn’t give away any of the plot or characters, just some background lore. Sign up and stay tuned. If you miss the previous one, signing up will get you access to that too.
Also, here’s an image I drew relating to the backstory that was cut…
So here we are at the end of 2024. Metamancer has been out for almost a year and a half. It’s long overdue for me to address the status of the series and my expectations for the publication of book 2, as well as a few other details.
During the last year, book one had four significant events.
For those interested in the economics of self-publishing, here are my numbers to date:
| Format\Year | 2023 | 2024 | Total |
| KU Page Reads | 667,544 (1,304) | 396,904 (775) | 1,064,448 (2,079) |
| Amazon Kindle | 396 | 503 | 899 |
| Other eBooks | – | 3 | 3 |
| Paperback | 99 | 9 | 108 |
| Audible | – | 66 | 66 |
| Total Reads | 1,799 | 1,356 | 3,155 |
| Total Revenue (some is estimated) | $7,588.70 |
| First Printing Costs (Cover, Editor, ISBNs) | -$4790.30 |
| Audiobook Costs (Narration) | -$3,850.00 |
| Profit Before Advertising | -$1051.6 |
| Advertising (Amazon, Mailings, BookBub, Facebook) | -$5,259.63 |
| TOTAL | -$6,311.23 |
Unfortunately, I don’t seem to be able to find a blurb that makes advertising effective. My conversion rates are always terrible, and I sell one book about once every 20-30 clicks. Whenever someone clicks on “sponsored” books on Amazon, it typically costs the author/publisher $1.50. As far as I can see, advertising books on Amazon builds readership at a cost to the author, but that is necessary because readers are very skittish about books with few reviews.
My conversion rate may be lower than usual because when discussing covers with my artist, my bias was for something that creates a curiosity to know more. I selected an initial concept with that in mind. I imagined folks would look at the cover, read the blurb, and then wonder how those fit together. I assumed they would read the book to find out. That would likely work for me, but apparently, I’m not normal. Some feedback I have received has led me to realize that many prospective readers are terrified of the possibility that they will waste their time or money. It would seem that the proper strategy is to ensure everything is perfectly reassuring and cohesive, leaving no doubts. I love my current cover, and my artist performed his craft excellently, but my input on the process seems to have led it astray. Live and learn. I am mulling the idea of a second edition with a new cover when I release book 2.
Book 2 is in progress, though I’ll admit that some technical hurdles have been getting in the way. My process for the first book left me with straightforward technical steps for producing the PDF and eBook files, and it was good for the creative side of writing/drafting and allowed me to make sensible use of GitHub version control. The downside was that I had to convert to Microsoft Word format for editing because I was writing in LaTeX format, which is unacceptable to most editors. Then I had to hand-apply thousands of corrections made in the Word document to my LaTeX original, which was absolute TORTURE.
My brain doesn’t seem to do commas and grammar at the same time as it does creativity. When writing new material, I typically hold an image of the scene in my head and transcribe what I “see” and “hear.” Technicalities generally get lost as I seek the best descriptions and mentally verify that everything makes sense based on what came before, what’s present in the current scene, and what will come next. Like all writers, I have difficulty seeing my own mistakes because I know what the page should say, and my brain loses patience and regularly skips to what it already knows rather than actually doing the work of actually reading the page. So even after editing passes and reading it aloud to myself, I tend to need a lot of corrections (90% of which leave me saying, “crap, I knew that!”). Microsft Word has grammar checking, but the grammar checking available for LaTeX-oriented editors is rudimentary and buggy.
So, I’ve re-tooled for book two and am now using a new web-based editor and a browser-based plugin for grammar checking. That transition had a few technical hurdles, but I finally overcame them this month. I should be able to focus more on actual writing in the new year. (Yay!) Hopefully, I’ll hand my editor something with a lot less rudimentary oversights this time, leading to a faster turnaround by him and me, better feedback from him, and a lot less pain for me.
“But WHEN?!?!” I hear you cry.
It’s too early to make any commitments, but I’ll say I certainly want to have a draft complete within 2025. As you can see above, I need to keep working as a consultant, so my work schedule and life events may interfere, but that’s the goal. This time last year, I was in the middle of a minor medical crisis that took a few months to resolve. 2025 appears to be starting out better for me, and I wish my readers all the best for the new year.
Especially those dedicated enough to read this whole post! The first person to subscribe (or already be subscribed) and leave a comment with the name of the character shown below will receive an email to their subscribed email address to arrange delivery of a signed first-printing paperback.
Book marketers are constantly pushing the concept of “comp titles.” Essentially, they want to say, “If you liked that, you’ll like this.” As an author, I’ve always found identifying comp titles difficult. I tend to think of works that influence me, but I take lots of minor influences from many places, so I always come up with too many and can’t decide. However, an excellent and modern comparison to my debut book, Metamancer, has recently become apparent. Since I read these after I wrote Metamancer, it’s easier for me to say, “Hey, this resembles something I wrote.”
Recently, I wanted to read something self-published with an audio version, so I picked up Runelight by J A Andrews. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable book. Then, since book 2 of Aenigma Lights is not out on audio (yet), I followed with her The Keeper Origins series. I’ve now finished the first book in that series, Dragons Reach; amazingly, it’s even better than Runelight. If you have already read my book, I highly recommend that you check them out.
Beyond her excellent storytelling, one of the fascinating parts of reading her work was continually finding significant parallels to my work. Here’s a list of similarities that I think make these two J A Andrews titles a good “Comp” for my book Metamancer:
Of course, there are differences, too.
I think it’s reasonable to say that my imagined world stands a little closer to our reality as we know it. However, it is still high fantasy and far from anything that would be called low, urban, or historical fantasy.
Final note: I’m now listening to Raven’s Ruin (Book 2 of the Keeper’s Origins series), which is less of a comp. Although it does have a warrior monk element (that also appears very briefly in my book), it leans into the romance far more heavily. Also, it spends more time on the main character’s internal dialog, which is less like my style. Of course, Raven’s ruin is also book 2 in a series, so we’ll have to look again after I have book 2 out.
Agree? Disagree? Care to suggest another comp title? Leave a comment below!
Metamancer will be touring several book review blogs and vlogs courtesy of IndieBookTours! The idea is that book review bloggers/vloggers will sign up with IndieBookTours and receive a free copy of my audiobook or my ebook in exchange for an honest review. The reviews will then be published daily across five days.
The tour is now in the signup phase, so if you are a book reviewer and think it might be fun to review Metamancer, you can sign up using their form here.
If you are a reader (or prospective reader) and want to hear what they say, stay tuned to this blog. I will post a list here when the tour is fully booked, and I know the blogs involved. As the reviewers post their content, I will update it with links.
Quick details about Metamancer:
The audio version of Metamancer Narrated by John Pirhalla is now available on Audible! https://bit.ly/Metmancer_A_US
Here are links suitable for non US markets as well:
I hope you enjoy it! Feel free to post comments/feedback below.
One of the things that has been unfortunate during the development of my book is that the word Metamancer has taken on a new meaning since I selected it.
I picked out the name Metamancer and the central concept of the main character’s talents back in approximately 2002 or maybe 2003. The idea was partly sparked by a conversation with a post-doc at Olin College (where I worked at the time) who described a cartoon with a “meta-genie” that handled wishes about wishes… or something like that. The details are now foggy, but that’s how it started.
A few days later, I was pondering what should happen to Johnny after he becomes an apprentice, and I got the idea that maybe he would have a talent for altering magic. I recall thinking of it as a sort of inverse or variant of Bink in A Spell for Chameleon, whose talent is that he can’t be affected by magic, which is a big deal in the world of Xanth, where everyone has a magical talent.
Since Metadata is data bout data, and a Meta-genie handles wishes about wishes, I coined the term Metamancy to represent magic about magic. Metamancer is the obvious name for a practitioner of Metamancy. If either of these terms existed earlier, I was blissfully unaware of that.
All was good, and I was happy with the term. I continued (slowly) developing the story, but as time passed, the term Metamancer was reinvented by others within the realm of video games. Googling around gives me the impression that it sprung from a gaming community around the game Deepwoken, but that’s just an unscientific guess based on the frequency of YouTube videos using the term.
In the gaming world, there is a concept of “M. E. T. A.” That acronym stands for the “Most Effective Tactics Available.” I think this may be borrowed from military strategy/terminology, but I can’t find a reference for that. In some games, there are combinations of skills or equipment load-outs that are clearly stronger than others, often so strong that they break or trivialize the challenge of the game or, in a player vs player game, force all the other players to conform to that setup.
These player builds (skill sets and load-outs) often center around hard-to-obtain objects or require long periods of grinding out advancement, so players who build these characters are often both hated and envied by the rest of the player base. Metamancer has become a combination slur and accolade (depending on perspective) in these sorts of games and somewhat evolved into a general term for strong and ruthless players. I remained unaware of this until just before I released the book. I had run into the term M. E. T. A. a few years earlier for game-breaking builds, but not “Metamancer”.
Unfortunately, this parallel evolution of the word probably confuses a portion of the folks who (20+ years later) now encounter my book. Twenty years ago, with little else to refer to, “Metamancer” would likely have only called to mind “Necromancer” or perhaps “Neuromancer” or “Chronomancy,” all of which are magic-related. The analogy to metadata and reference to magic should have been clear.
But, since things have become muddled with the gaming concept, this post is meant to set the record straight with respect to the title of my book and the fictional realm it depicts. Here is my official definition of Metamancer:
Metamancer: (n) A spell caster extremely talented in detecting, altering, canceling, and manipulating new and existing magic. Metamancers are often feared or attacked by their peers if discovered.
It is not in any way related to gaming/RPG M.E.T.A. (most effective tactics available)
The audiobook version of Metamancer as narrated by John Pirhalla is finished and is just waiting for approvals by Audible/ACX. There are also promotional details to figure out, but once those things are sorted, it will be released on Audible!
To whet your appetite, here’s the official audio sample. In it, you can hear a portion of Johnny’s first encounter with Morphosius. Sign up to be notified when the full audio is released.
We are proud to announce the selection of John Pirhalla to narrate Metamancer, Book 1 of the Skeltouch Saga! John is an award winning narrator for over 400 audiobooks including work for Macmillan, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Blackstone, Audible Studios, Podium, Aethon, Spotify, and more. To get notified when the audiobook goes on sale, you can sign up for our mailing list or follow William I. Zard on Facebook or X (the service formerly known as Twitter).
Finding a narrator has been something of an adventure. After researching multiple narrators, we spoke with with several excellent narrators (or their agents). One had very high rates and confusing cost estimates. Another had no availability before 2026, but did recommend some colleagues.
John was one of those recommendations. There were lower cost options, but feedback from friends and ARC readers preferred John. Zmancy Books strives to provide the best quality possible for readers (and listeners), so John will be our narrator for this project.
You can learn more about John and preview his vocal talents on johnpirhalla.com
It snuck up on me! I knew it was likely to get there, but then I got busy and stopped checking. Today I finally remembered to check my book’s lifetime KENP and this was COOOOL to see!
For those who don’t know KENP stands for Kindle Equivalent Normalized Pages, which is the unit of measure Amazon uses to pay authors that make their book available on Kindle Unlimited.