Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 68

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Made good progress on editing DRAGONSKULL: WRATH OF THE WARLOCK, and we are on track to have it out sometime next week.

This means it is a good time to sign up for my newsletter! When WRATH OF THE WARLOCK comes out, newsletter subscribers will get a free ebook copy of THE FIRST HOLDFAST.

Without spoilers, the protagonist is a character who returned in DRAGONSKULL: TALONS OF THE SORCERER.

Sign up for my newsletter here!

-JM

Magic The Gathering Arena: Reasons For Conceding

One of the handy features about Magic The Gathering: Arena is the ability to concede a match at any time. You can do this towards the end or late middle of a match if you realize that your cards just aren’t going to allow you to win, or if you find yourself in an untenable position and don’t see a way forward to victory. It’s not all that different from resigning from a game in chess once you realize that checkmate is inevitable.

However, if you’ve played MTG: Arena for any length of time, you will notice that sometimes people concede very abruptly towards the beginning of a match, or even after the first few turns when the outcome of the game is still very much in question. Or sometimes even when they’re winning!

It seems mysterious on the other end of the experience, though the gold and experience from a win rather dulls the edge of the mystery.

But puzzle over it no longer! I’ve conceded abruptly many, many times, and it’s almost always because Real Life intrudes. Here are just a few of the reasons I have conceded:

-I was cooking a meal with a long preparation time, and thought I could squeeze in a match while waiting for something to boil/settle/bake. This turned out to be incorrect.

-There was a weird noise and I have to investigate. When you own a house and hear a weird noise, the reaction isn’t “what a strange noise.” Rather, it’s “what was that noise and how much is it going to cost to fix.” (Though to be fair, if you rent, you can report any problems to your landlord/rental company, who will ignore them and then raise your rent.)

-There was someone at the door.

-A package arrived at the door, and since it was raining/sleeting/snowing (or this winter, all three at once), I needed to bring it off the front step immediately.

-An important phone call that I need to take has come in.

-A phone call that turns out not be so important has come in.

-If you play the game with the volume cranked up to maximum, it makes a LOT of random noises – the goblins growl, the monsters roar, the cards make swooping noises when you play them, and so forth. Since my tablet is easily portable, I was using the game to rouse a family member from sleep, and we really need to get out the door and into the car. Time to concede!

-Someone needs tech support.

-You know what? I’d just rather play Skyrim again. Or Master of Magic.

So those are just some of the many reasons I have conceded a MTG: Arena match!

-JM

cover image for DRAGONSKULL: WRATH OF THE WARLOCK!

Editing is underway for DRAGONSKULL: WRATH OF THE WARLOCK, so you can see the cover image below.

If all goes well, the book should be out (hopefully) towards the end of next week.

-JM

The Pulp Writer Show, Episode 149: Principles of Storytelling

In this week’s episode, I respond to reader questions & comments about the principles of storytelling.

Once again it is time for Coupon of the Week!

SEVENFOLD SWORD: OMNIBUS ONE is going to have a Bookbub deal this month, so it seemed a good time to have SEVENFOLD SWORD: NECROMANCER be the coupon of the week! You can get 50% off the ebook with this coupon:

MARNECRO

The coupon code is valid until March 27th, 2023.

As always, you can listen to the show on Libsyn, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Amazon Music.

-JM

Coupon Of The Week – 3/13/2023

Once again it is time for Coupon of the Week!

SEVENFOLD SWORD: OMNIBUS ONE is going to have a Bookbub deal this month, so it seemed a good time to have SEVENFOLD SWORD: NECROMANCER be the coupon of the week! You can get 50% off the ebook with this coupon:

MARNECRO

The coupon code is valid until March 27th, 2023.

-JM

 

DRAGONSKULL: WRATH OF THE WARLOCK rough draft done

I am pleased to report that the rough draft of DRAGONSKULL: WRATH OF THE WARLOCK is finished!

Next up is a short story that will be called either THE FIRST SOMETHING or THE FINAL SOMETHING, haven’t decided the title exactly yet. Newsletter subscribers will get an ebook copy of the short story for free once WRATH OF THE WARLOCK comes out. It will have a better title than THE FIRST SOMETHING or THE FINAL SOMETHING.

The attached image doesn’t have anything to do with DRAGONSKULL PhotoManipulation, my favorite stock photo site, did a big sale on their Fantasy Landscape Bundle, so I bought it and used some of the assets to make an image I’ll use with a Facebook ad for FROSTBORN in April.

-JM

The Pulp Writer Show, Episode 148: Bing Chat AI, Good Or Bad?

In this week’s episode, we take a look at Microsoft’s new Bing Chat AI, and discuss whether it is a good idea or not. I also talk about Magic The Gathering: Arena, and describe how my Facebook and Amazon ads performed into February 2023.

As always, you can listen to the show on Libsyn, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Amazon Music.

-JM

Sevenfold Sword Online sequel!

Good news! SEVENFOLD SWORD ONLINE has sold enough copies to merit a sequel!

I would say it sprinted triumphantly across the finish line, but to be honest it kind of limped haggardly. Still, it counts.

The sequel will be called SEVENFOLD SWORD ONLINE: LEVELING.

I’m not entirely sure when I’ll get to it. Probably after the summer? I think I will start on it in April after I publish CLOAK OF DRAGONFIRE, but it will be a side project for a while.

Thanks for reading! Everyone who read the book seems to have really enjoyed it, so if you want to give it a try, you can get it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon CA, Amazon AU, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play, Smashwords, and Payhip.

Meanwhile, my main focus is still on DRGONSKULL: WRATH OF THE WARLOCK, and I’m on Chapter 15 of 20. Almost 75% of the way through!

-JM

Weekend progress update

Let’s see where I am at with my current writing projects.

I am 60,000 words into DRAGONSKULL: WRATH OF THE WARLOCK, and if all goes well I hope to finish the rough draft next week.

I am also 6,000 words into CLOAK OF DRAGONFIRE and 6,000 words into SILENT ORDER: THUNDER HAND.

SEVENFOLD SWORD ONLINE: CREATION is at 97% of where it needs to be by March 13th to make a sequel viable. Let’s see if it can cover the remaining 3% of sales in the next ten days!

-JM

Ad results February 2023

Somehow it is March already, so let’s see how may ads performed for February!

First up, the Facebook ads. Here is what I got back for every $1 I spent on advertising a series.

Frostborn: $3.65 (And the audiobooks were a quarter of the total revenue.)

The Ghosts: $2.89 (And the audiobooks were a third of the total revenue.)

Cloak Games/Mage: $4.21.

So the Facebook ads are doing well.

Let’s check in on the Amazon ads. Remember, for an Amazon ad to work, it needs 1 sale for every 6 to 8 clicks, so I’ll list how many clicks it took to get a sale and how much I got back per $1 spent.

Dragonskull: Sword of the Squire: 0.83 clicks, $6.63.

Cloak of Dragons: 5.05 clicks, $0.06.

So DRAGONSKULL remains the champion of Amazon ads for me. CLOAK OF DRAGONS just barely didn’t lose money on advertising, but I think that’s because I haven’t had a new Nadia book out since November. It should pick up once I finally get CLOAK OF DRAGONFIRE out.

Finally, DEMONSOULED, which I advertised in both Amazon ads and Facebook ads:

Demonsouled: 2.25 clicks, $1.40.

I think for March I’ll probably stop advertising DEMONSOULED on Facebook and keep it just in Amazon ads, since the Amazon ads seem vastly more effective for that series. I’ll take that budget and put it into lead generation for my newsletter instead.

And, as always, thanks for reading, everyone!

-JM