Whatever Wednesday #1

Haven't had much going on that warranted its own post, but got some stuff today.

First order of business: New patrons!

A lot of people have joined up in the last month or so, and I haven't been able to reach out to all of you, but I want to say first off, welcome and, second, thanks so much for joining. Whether you're a free member, fan, or super fan, I'm just psyched that you cared enough about my work to click the link and check me out. I wish I could think of cooler ways to reward you guys, but all I can think of for now is to keep the chapters coming, so that's what I'm going to do. But do know that I never get tired of getting those notices that someone signs up. It thrills me to no end to know that the ideas that have been kicking around in my brain for the last 2+ years have entertained you as much as they have. It really motivates me to keep going. So, once again--and not for the last time--thanks so much!

Second thing: Can a brother get a review?

As most of you know, this story is being posted simultaneously on LitErotica and RoyalRoad. I reactivated my old LitErotica profile, where I published a story about 20 years ago with the pen name AbbeFaria (shout it out if you get that reference!) because I figured it couldn't hurt. It turns out that almost 70% of my Patrons have come from there and the response has been fantastic. Seriously, it has blown me away how engaged people are over there. I let the other HaremLit authors I chat with know they should be utilizing that as a resource as well, because holy crap.

But, to that end, I'd like to ask a small favor, if you're feeling generous with your time. It's been awhile since any new ratings or reviews have come in through RoyalRoad, despite viewer numbers staying fairly consistent with each chapter. A lot of people are reading, but not a lot of people are rating and reviewing. Those are important for the story's visibility, however, and it really helps us authors out. The more fans that interact with the story in a positive way, the more likely it is to show up on the recommended lists for people looking for new content. A few of you comment both here and there on new chapters, and it's awesome. I'd like to ask some of the LitErotica fans if you all would consider heading over to RoyalRoad and dropping some star ratings or reviews to help keep the story popping up on those 'You Might Also Like...' lists.

So, if you've got a little time to kill, follow this link over to the story page on RoyalRoad and work your magic. If not, that's cool. I know stuff like that can be a pain, especially if they ask you to create an account. But it really helps bring other people into the fold if you do.

Final Thing: Story Progress

It may come as a surprise to some of you but I haven't actually finished writing the story. At current count I'm maybe eight chapters ahead of the most recent chapter available for Super Fans. I'm currently writing between 5-10k words a week and, at that pace, I expect to have the story done in about two weeks, as long as I dont' slack off. Once the story is finally finished, I plan to up the number of chapters posted and, for Super Fans, I may just release the remainder all at once. Still debating that.

However, that does present me with a bit of a content problem. I plan to go straight into outlining book two and start working on getting those chapters up as soon as I can. But there will almost certainly be a delay of a few weeks to maybe even a month before book two starts to appear here and on the other sites. Not only do I need to start getting those written and edited, but I also need to give book one a final pass to clean things up, correct any continuity errors that always show up after 230k+ words, add in some more descriptive language, etc. After that, it's on to Amazon, unless I'm convinced not to do that until Book 2 is done so that they can be released close together to maximize exposure there, but that's a horse of a different color.

During that break between book one's conclusion and the start of book two, there won't be any chapter updates here. When that time comes, if those of you in the Fan and Superfan tier want to bump yourselves down to Free Member status, I will totally understand. I will keep everyone apprised on progress and the first probably five chapters will be available for everyone since I will likely do that sort of release on RR and LE as well. I also need to increase chapter releases there overall. One person commented that the one-chapter-a-week release was really a drag for people, and I get it. So I'll probably have to rework chapter releases between here and the websites accordingly so that the people who read there aren't getting annoyed, but those of you who are paying for extra content get value for your money, while also giving me time to write and still do other things besides.

So, if it be Stollar's will, the story will be done in two, maybe three weeks, plus whatever time my editor needs to get them edited and for me to correct them. After that there will be some changes around here, and I hope I'm able to make everyone happy.

Thanks, folks! New chapters in less than 48 hours! It's sexin' time! Spoilers!

-DH