S.L. Rowland's Blog, page 5
January 30, 2021
Big Changes to Patreon
I’ve decided to become more active on Patreon, offering up posts several times a week in addition to the early release chapters I post. For starters, here’s an updated publishing schedule for 2021:
Pangea Online 3: Vials and Tribulations– Feb 2021
Sentenced to Troll 4– Spring/Summer 2021
Sentenced to Troll 5– TBD
This is everything I know for sure. I do have some ideas I’m kicking around for a possible new epic fantasy series as well as a spin-off Pangea Online book set in the same universe. All of that is still up in the air at the moment.
Pangea Online 3 will be the last book in the series. I think I wrapped it up nicely, with books 1 and 3 standing on their own very well. However, I have learned to never say never, so if the readers demand it, there is an option to continue Esil’s story if book 3 ever surpasses 300 reviews. I doubt it will happen, but at least this way there is the option.
I also have plans to start posting short stories at least once a month on Patreon. Just look for the “Bonus Writing” tag going forward to keep track of them. If you haven’t read the alternate ending to Sentenced to Troll, you can find it there as well. Many of theses short stories will be with side-characters from existing series like Pressley the Death Knight or Grayson, but some may be new one-off stories as well. I hope to have the first one out in February.
Now, for what’s going on with me. I’m super excited to publish Pangea 3, although I am very cautious with my expectations after the launch of Sentenced to Troll 3. We’re not in the beginning stages of a worldwide pandemic or in the midst of an election, so I’m hopeful that this go-around should be better.
In February, I’ll be having another surgery. This is the same one I had in September, but on the opposite side. Because when I destroy my body, I do it properly and symmetrically. Recovery wasn’t too bad last time, so I’m not worried too much. My insurance is a lot more expensive this go around, so that has its own set of obstacles. I’m ready to be pain-free and active again.
I’ve been playing a lot of Apex Legends lately, and I’m super excited for season 8. My mains right now are Bloodhound, Lifeline, and Crypto. I enjoy playing a more support style. This season, I made it all the way to Platinum 4, but I’m hoping that with the new updates I can finally move up the platinum tier and maybe even hit diamond. My damage and K/D ratio are way higher this season than any past, so I must be finally getting halfway decent.
I stumbled across this show Fate: The Winx Saga and man, am I hooked. It urban fantasy mixed with academy and teen drama, but something about it is really resonating. I just finished episode 2 and can’t wait to watch the rest. I love the idea of magic in the real world. Maybe one day I’ll write my own urban fantasy novel.
Some books I’m enjoying right now are Battle Spire and the Cradle series. I’m halfway through Battle Spire, and. it’s basically the litrpg version of Die Hard. Once I finish, I’ll be on to book 3 of Cradle, though I really want to do a reread of Harry Potter this year.
I guess that is a good place to end this for now. If you have any topics you would like me to touch on in the future, let me know. I’ll probably offer insight into writing and publishing as well going forward.
Take care!
November 19, 2020
Why the Sentenced to Troll Compendium audiobook is no longer for sale
Earlier this year, I decided to bundle books 1-3 of Sentenced to Troll into an ebook box set. We were in the middle of a global pandemic, unemployment was at an all-time high, and everyone was scared. I thought that some money was better than no money, and even if times were tight, I could help out those struggling while also continuing to pay my bills.
So I put the compendium on sale for $.99 for that first week, and then it was $9.99 after that, $4 cheaper than buying all 3 books separately. I sold a lot of books, got a lot of great reviews, and made some new fans along the way. Initially, I thought I would never bundle them as an audio box set even though people kept asking. It just didn’t make sense financially to cut off sales of 3 individual titles that made up half of my income.
But by the time September came around I had reevaluated. I figured that if I sold more audiobooks, even if they were bringing in less money, it would put me in a better situation. This was true to a degree. I released the omnibus in audio and it sold really well for about a month, I spent a lot of money advertising it, more than I had spent on any launch previously, and was really happy with the results.
Then the unthinkable happened.
A month after release, Audible had a glitch. A glitch that revealed a lot of shady things that had been happening under authors’ and narrators’ noses for years without us knowing. For the previous month, returns that normally happened on a daily basis weren’t processed. This glitch processed them all at once. Two of my titles (Sentenced to Troll 1 and 2) went into the negative sales overnight, meaning I suddenly owed audible money for books people had returned. For the remainder of the month, I watched as these two titles continued to remain in the negative day after day. I’ll get to the reason why below.
Because of Audible’s lax return policy, anyone who had purchased any of the Sentenced to Troll books over the past year could return all 3 of them and now use one credit to buy the compendium, regardless of if they listened to them all the way through or not. As of me writing this, the Alliance of Independent Authors, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Associations, and many others are looking into the practices audible has employed and deciding what action to take.
Over the previous few months, Audible had ramped up their return policy, using it as a marketing tactic, encouraging users to return books if they didn’t love them, no matter how much they had listened to a book. In essence, Audible had been encouraging users to treat its service as a library, checking out and returning books without consequence. Because this practice didn’t hurt audible at all. They got their monthly membership no matter how many books a user returned. The ones who suffered were the authors and narrators. Authors and narrators who entered a 7 year contract for each audiobook produced and many times granting exclusivity to audible for the first year.
But back to the glitch. Due to this glitch, authors suddenly realized just how big of a problem returns were. That anywhere from 10-40% of potential sales were being returned without us having any idea. Many of them not done with ill intent, but because listeners didn’t know that returned books took money back from the author. The worst part about all of this was the reporting. You see, the way audible reports sales is a flat amount each day. I get told I sold 5 books for example, but this could mean that I sold 10, and 5 of them were returned. We’re able to gauge how many sales based on the rank on Amazon. Once this glitch occurred and returns began being counted on a daily basis again, I realized that current sales didn’t match up with what they had during the month prior. On a day where I should have sold 40-50 books, it was only recorded as 14.
Due to this, I requested Audible to pull the omnibus from sale. I felt that I had created it with misinformation. And having a box set available meant that any time I advertised book one, I would have to worry that that book would be returned once someone learned of the box set. For up to a year after the audiobook was sold, I may have to return money to audible after it has been deposited into my account. In ebook, this has never been an issue. In Kindle Unlimited, for example, I get paid the same if readers read each book individually or read the box set because they have the same number of pages. Those who purchase book one and enjoy it don’t tend to mind paying for the other two books in the series. I very rarely get ebooks returned. I proudly stand behind my ratings and reviews, and for those who don’t enjoy it I have no issue with them returning it. But with audible, it was never an issue of quality, it was misinformation that grew their listenerbase without hurting their bottom line at all. I have paid thousands of dollars to have each of these audiobooks produced and I only make 40% per sale as it is. If I wanted to take my audiobooks to other platforms, audible would then cut my royalties to 25%. I have nothing against libraries or streaming services like Hoopla. But authors who make their books available on them do so willingly and are usually compensated at a higher rate for the sale because the book will be lended out.
Anyways, for those of you who were holding out to spend your credit, I apologize for the letdown. And for those of you who have the compendium audio, I hope you enjoy it. It’s a collector’s item now.
October 19, 2020
September 23, 2020
Sentenced to Troll Compendium: Available in Audio!
I’m super excited to announce that you can now pick up the first 3 books of Sentenced to Troll in one epic compendium. That’s 30 hours of audio for one credit! This series has hundreds of 5-star reviews across ebook and audio.
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3026YKV
Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Sentenced-to-Troll-Compendium-Books-1-3-Audiobook/B08JNX5L33
*****
Big, green, and ugly. Who says a troll can’t be the hero?
Punished for his toxic online behavior, Chad faces a 30-day sentence of full-immersion therapy designed to improve his anger issues.
For his endless trolling in real life, he’s forced to play as a forest troll, the most hated race in Isle of Mythos, so that he can finally experience what it’s like to be on the other side.
To make matters worse, the heroes sent to rid the world of evil aren’t heroes at all — they’re violent felons on their own twisted paths to redemption.
Playing as a monster in a world where it ain’t easy being green, what could possibly go wrong?
Pick up the first three books in this epic fantasy litRPG series full of humor, action, and adventure today!
August 22, 2020
Path to Villainy: An NPC Kobold’s Tale is available now!
Villains aren’t born, they’re made.
Witt was an ordinary NPC—a non-player character in a video game. As a kobold skald, he sang songs to empower heroes before they entered the local dungeons.
Every day was a fresh start. Every day Witt woke with no memory of his previous encounters with all those so-called heroes. And every day he forgot the countless beatings and deaths he took at the hands of the murder hobos he valiantly buffed.
But when all of those memories suddenly come flooding back, he only wants one thing:
Revenge.
May 16, 2020
Announcing S.L. Rowland’s Economic Relief Package!
Times are tough and I believe in paying it forward when we can. I’ve been amazed by the support and encouragement I’ve received over the past couple of months as we have all navigated life during Coronavirus. I wanted to do what I could to return that generosity and help out those in need of affordable entertainment while also giving work to my cover designer and formatter.
My solution was to bundle the first three Sentenced to Troll books into a compendium. Instead of using the cover for book one and creating a boxed set, I commissioned a new cover with some of my favorite characters.
For the next two weeks, you can pick up the compendium for $.99. That’s three full books normally priced at $13 for less than a buck. This is a worldwide sale and will be priced the equivalent of $.99 in all markets.
If audio is more your thing, I’ve also discounted my entire catalog to $.99 so that you can pick up the audiobooks at a reduced price. The audio for Sentenced to Troll 3 is currently being recorded, (my narrator was out 6-weeks due to Coronavirus, but he’s better now) so if you pick it up, you can get the audio for $7 or so when it launches next month.
*in order to get the audio at a discount, you must buy the ebook and add whispersync. I have no control over the actual pricing at audible.
So check it out, leave a review, and pay it forward wherever you can!
May 13, 2020
Limited Edition T-Shirt
Buy Now!
I have an exciting announcement regarding some limited edition merch. I’ve partnered up with the amazing folks at Shirt Kong, who have been gracious enough to help small businesses affected by Covid-19.
Click the link below to go to the storefront where you’ll be able to purchase a limited edition S.L. Rowland t-shirt. You’ll be able to buy the shirt for $24, and $10 of that will go directly to me. The rest goes to the cost of production.
April 24, 2020
A Day in the Life
I’ve been retooling my Instagram to make it a bigger part of my social media outreach. After a lot of thought, I decided to use it to offer a deeper look into my life and my interests. I’m more than just a dark shadowing figure behind a keyboard, and I think a lot of people might be interested in the man behind the madness. So I’ll be using Instagram for showcasing everything from the video games I play to the beers I drank and everything in between. Plus all the same writing-related posts as before. Check it out below.
slrowlandauthor
The not so glamorous life of a mid-list author and his dog. 
