Vincent Trigili's Blog, page 16

January Update on Volume IV

I wanted to give everyone a fast update on Volume IV of the Lost Tales of Power series, so here it comes! I would say that ninety percent of the editing is done! I am just struggling with one key part right now, which I sent back to my editor for more work.

My cover artist sent me a cell phone picture of the cover, and it looks great! She is going to try to have it scanned and sent to me today. If I get both of those things done in the next couple of days, then I should be able to release this volume on 1/13/2013! That is my goal right now. The print edition will take at least two weeks longer as I will need to wait on the proof to print and ship before I can make it as ready for sale.

In other news, I am changing the way I am doing my ebook distribution. In the past, I would only release directly to Amazon and Smashwords. This meant that both of those platforms had the books ready for sale within 24-48 hours, but the rest of the eBook vendors took a month or more to get the books. For Volume IV, I have set up accounts with both Kobo and Barnes and Noble to publish directly to them. This means they should also have the books ready for sale within the first 24-48 hours of release. Hopefully this will also fix issues that I have dealt with in both of those stores where they had the books listed wrong or unavailable at random times.

I am also working on a special edition that will come out around a month or so after Volume IV. I will have more news on that as we get close to the release date of Volume IV. Obviously, work is continuing on Volume V throughout all of this, but it is too early to guess a release date for it yet. I certainly would think by Christmas, but we will see how it goes.

Attention all Lost Tales Fans!

I want to build a FAQ section to cover some of the basics (partly because I have not had the time to build out the wiki more) so I need from you, QUESTIONS! You can ask any question you want, but I will filter what I actually to choose to answer. I am looking for questions about:

Characters

Story Line

Magic

Technology

The Multiverse

Writing in General

And other things focused on the series

I would like to include these in a special yet to be announced edition of the ebook, and in the Wiki. So please drop them in the comments below, email them to me, or use the contact me form on this site to send them in. I would like to have a good sized collection of them so send as many as you can think of. I will filter questions for something that I feel is a spoiler for books that have not come out yet, but as of the release of Volume IV, I consider the world of Lost Tales is built and anything in those four books is fair game to question and post answers to.

I know most of you have not read volume IV yet, but I will not post the answers to the questions until IV is out. Therefore, even if your question is a spoiler for IV, it is still fair game.

As incentive to send in questions, assuming I get enough questions to make this viable, I will pick one person at random to receive the special edition ebook that has not yet been announced, for free. One entry per unique question submitted. I will pick the winner by assigning every question a number, and then using random.org to pick the winner. So enter early, and enter often!

Decemeber Update On State of the Series

As we are closing in on Christmas, I wanted to let everyone know the status of the series. First, the writing of Volume V is going well, but I decided to axe a few chapters out of it, so the word count is back down to around 15-17k. I really like the primary story line I have going, but the secondary is struggling and weak, so I might trash the entire secondary story line and start that over.

However, I know most of you really are not concerned with Volume V right now. You want Volume IV. Of course that will change in the weeks after I get four out, but until then I can give you update on Volume IV. I have heard back from most of my pre-readers and made some the corrections that they suggested. The manuscript is with my editor now, and she is working through it. In addition, now that most of the initial cleanup from the storm (Sandy) is behind my cover artist, she is finally able to make progress on the cover.  I think we are on target for a late January, early February release.

Of course, since the world is supposed to end on 12/21/12, you might not get to read Volume IV! I will see if I can get Grandmaster Vydor to look into the problem and at least delay it long enough to get Volume IV out. He is a busy man these days, so we will just have to see how that goes. If you wake up on 12/22/12 and the world is still here, you will know that I was able to pull some favors. If not, then please accept my apologies in advance, as I will not be able to give them out at that time.

Question For Lost Tales Readers

As you know, I tend to write in the first person point of view. I also tend to have 2-3 main characters that can take the “I” position. I try to make who ever is the “I” character obvious in the first paragraph of the new chapter. The feedback I get on this is a bit mixed.

One group of readers state they would prefer I put the name of the “I” character as the heading of the chapter. Seems that this group tends to have a higher occurrence of YA readers then the other group, but sample size is not big enough to validate that observation.

The second group tells me that is unnecessary and my transitions are normally well done and easy to follow.

So my question for all of you is this… assuming a couple-few main characters do you prefer the “I” character be placed in the chapter heading or handled by the text of the story itself? Something like “Chapter 1 : Vydor.” Of course the third person chapters might be a bit trickier. Might do something like “Chapter 99: The Old Man” or “Chapter 15: The Seven”

Reply in the comments and let me know what you think! I am thinking about adjusting Volume 4 based on this feedback. So please speak up!

November Update

The writing of Volume V is well under way. I have plenty of new characters and problems for our heroes to deal with and a certain large, orange cat comes back as a main character. Finally, the leverage that Grandmaster Vydor has over him will be revealed. Small bit of trivia for you, in an early draft ofEnemy there was a chapter with him where Vydor and Kellyn visited him at his home. It took place during that year that the book skips over. I cut it as a distraction to the pace of the novel, but it was not forgotten! It has come back from the grave and is bigger and better then before.

Also, Volume IV is on its way to pre-readers! My plan right now is to get all their feedback by the first week of December, then send the book to my editor. That might allow our release to be as early as late January, but we will have to see.

My cover artist hand paints the covers, and she lives in path of the recent Hurricane Sandy so there will be a delay on her starting her work. That delay could push us in to the holidays where her time will be less. So this might push the release back some also. I have spoken to her, and she is fine, but does not have power as of yet. They are still assessing damages but thankfully all humans and pets are unharmed.

Right now I am aiming at release before Valentine’s Day, but there are still to many unknowns. I will update as I have more information.

 

First Draft of Volume IV is complete!

Last night I completed the epilogue of Volume IV. At one hundred and seven thousand words it is roughly the same length as Rise of Shadows. Because I use an iterative writing process this is pretty close to what the final draft length will be.

Next phase will be the pre-editing phase where my wife and I go over the book and clean up the worst of the errors. That will probably take at least a month more. Once that is complete, we will send the manuscript to our editor and she will beat it up without any mercy. While this is all going on, our cover artist will be working on the cover.

This all means that I am expecting probably a January or February release at this point. I had hoped to make it for Christmas, but it just does not look possible now, especially given the upcoming holidays.

Volume IV, as mentioned previously, ties up all the major loose ends dating back to Enemy of an Enemy. It will not close off every loose end. Some of the loose ends I am planning stories around to write at a later date. The rest I plan to leave to the reader’s imagination. I do not want to spoil much about the book, but I will say that Spectra and Dusty play a major role in it, and Grandmaster Vydor makes a return! Even Craig has a very brief cameo. It truly is an all-star cast, in my own mind.

Volume IV is the conclusion of what I am calling the first quartet in the series. Volume V, which I have already started writing, will take place in the same universe as the first four, but will start new story arcs, and introduce new characters. The Lost Tales universe is far more massive then I think has been obvious so far. I am fifteen thousand words into Volume V and it takes place in an entirely different part of Vydoria that has not yet been explored in any book, not even my unpublished ones. It has been fun to write so far, partly because in Volume V for the first time ever the main character is a zalionian!

If history repeats itself the first place to put Volume IV up for sale will be Smashwords, With 24 hours of them posting it, Amazon will likely have it. The rest of the stores can take up to a month or more, but I will do what I can to kick them around a bit. I will have more updates as things develop on this front. Keep watch on this web site, @LostTales on Twitter for the latest news!

September 2012 Update

Once it again, I have let a long time pass between updates, so here is a random dump of updates on the state of the series:

This morning I passed 80 thousand words, and seventy-four chapters of the rough draft of Volume Four. This puts me behind schedule, and I am not predicting making a Christmas release at this time. I am still hoping for that, but time is ticking away on me. I am nearing the conclusion of it, so I probably will have the ARC ready for pre-readers in a month or two. I have already contacted my cover artist and sent her the scene for the cover. She will begin working on it after Halloween I believe.

Volume Five I have placed on hold so that I can focus on getting four done, but I am excited to see how that new branch in the series will turn out.

I will be looking for pre-readers for volume four, just as I did for volume three. If you are interested, please use the “contact” form on this site and let me know. Pre-readers get a free copy of the ebook they preview, and they get to have input into the final product. I am not looking for editors (I have two of those already), but I am looking for people who know the characters, the universe and the first three books. I ask for pre-readers to make sure everything flows nicely as a story, that characters act as fitting their personalities, that there are no huge plot holes, and those kinds of things. In short, read the story for enjoyment and take notes on any issues you might have.

So that is the random news bites for now! Please keep the emails and comments coming, I love to hear from fans, especially about what you like and do not like about the books.

Update on Volume Four and More

It has been a while since I posted an update on where things stand with the series, so here is your update!

First, the Wiki: It is in place and people can start using it. While I have put a decent chunk of information in it, there is a lot more that needs to go into it sill. I would love for some fans to help build it out. *hint* *hint* For now, I am updating it slowly as I can find time.

Second, Volume Four: Writing on book four is going well. It was approaching the 35k word mark (or about 1/3rd the length of Shadows) but I have decided that one of the sub plots is too big to be a sub plot and I am breaking it out to become book five. That cuts book four down to 20k words (or around 20% of the length of Shadows). This book features Shadow, Dusty and the rest of the Battle Wizards again on quest to find the source of the shadow that was revealed in Shadows. Volume Four will end the major arch that started in book one, but it will not end the series.

Third, Book Five: Book five will start the pattern that will continue for the rest of the series. Volumes 1 through 4 built the universe that the rest of the stories will live in. Going forward starting with book five, future books will be standalone books (or possibly mini-series) in the universe that was created in Volumes 1 to 4. I plan to maintain a master time line in the Wiki so that everyone can see how the books relate. I have several story lines that I want to write out this way, at least three or four more books worth beyond book five.

This is a bit of a deviation from the original plan, as originally I was thinking five books to tell the foundational tale, but I think by the end of Volume Four everything will be in place for the universe. Not all questions will be answered of course. Enough uncertainty will be in place to allow the freedom for future stories to grow the universe.

Finally, I want to hear from you! Shadows is selling well. It appears that at least most people that bought Academy liked it enough to purchase Shadows. So my question is how does it compare? Which was better and why?

Trouble with Nook

As mentioned previously, I recently released a new edition of Enemy that has been professionally edited. For our Smashwords, and Amazon Kindle customers it is relatively simple for you to get the updated ebook for free. However there appears to be no way for Barnes and Noble customers to do the same. I have had several readers try, and no matter what we do, no one gets the new edition. I believe this only applies to those that bought Enemy before the new version hit Barnes and Noble. Those that picked up the ebook after that should have the newest version as of their download date.

The work around for this problem is to completely delete Enemy from your Nook, and your Barnes and Noble account. Once that is done, head over to Smashwords and get the updated copy from them. They have instructions here for how to load the book on to your Nook. It is easy, and you are guaranteed to always have access to the most current edition of the book.

Update on Print Editions of All Books

As of right now, all three books are available in paperback form from Amazon Createspace! This move allows me to cut the price of the paperbacks from $14.99 to $7.99! We have received our proof copies and the quality is virtually identical to Lulu, just costs half the price and ships in half the time. It is pretty much a no brainer to switch.

The draw back is that there is no hardcover service from Amazon Createspace. I am still undecided what I want to do about that. I might produce only hardcovers through Lulu, but print editions are not the popular to begin with, and Lulu's prices are so high, that it probably is not worth the time and expense. I will likely just wait and see if there is a demand for them at all.

In a week or two they will also be available to order via Amazon's primary site, but until them you can get them directly through Amazon's print on demand division:

The Enemy of an Enemy – $7.99

The Academy  – $7.99

Rise of Shadows – $8.99