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.
Metamancer
During the last year, book one had four significant events.
- SPFBO X: it was entered in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off #10. This was a fun, wild ride in which I met a wonderful set of fellow contestants. Unfortunately, it suffered a bit of bad luck in the first phase, assignment to initial judges. The assigned judge began with a read of the first 10% and then chose one book to read all the way through. That format is awful for my book because the prologue is long, and the number 10% happens to turn over at precisely the ONE place where I (intentionally) allow for a bit of an info dump. The next scene is where the significance of the forgoing scenes starts to come into focus. My judge has probably never read that far. Oh well. Them’s the breaks. The story was meant to be read as a whole, not a ten-part serial.
- Audio Edition: Having been enthused by the eBook sales, especially on Kindle Unlimited, I decided it might be good to publish an Audio edition. My book seemed to do well where the barrier to entry was reduced, and it seemed to me that Audible provided a similar environment. Being committed to providing the best possible experience for my readers, I contacted several narrators and selected John Pirhalla. The audio edition became available on Audible on Aug 11, 2024,
- Second Printing: The process of producing the audiobook revealed a few necessary edits, all of a minor nature, so I made those updates and uploaded new eBook and paperback files. I still have about 40 first-printing paperback copies, which I will likely sign and offer for sale once I write up an errata sheet to include. If you really want one, let me know!
- Wide availability on all platforms: Since KU sales were tailing off and I was producing a new set of files, I decided to ensure that my book was also available to users of other platforms. This turned out to be a bit of a waste of time since, in 6 months, it’s added a grand total of 4 sales and one return (the return was on Apple Books, which is notorious for its read/return policy allowing readers to essentially read for free). As far as I know, this is the only reader to ever return my book, so I’m thankful for that!
Sales Status
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 Progress
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.
