Justin Blaney's Blog, page 59

A note on the newest version of Evan Burl, part one and two

I released Evan Burl and the Falling in August of 2012.

It rose to #1 on Amazon and many great reviews starting pouring in (and some not-so-great reviews). But over the following months, I began hearing more and more, from a significant segment of my audience who were frustrated with the ending.

Some were even angry.

If you were to ask me what emotion I wanted my readers to feel when they came to the final page of this novel, anger would not be at the top of the list. The problem was primarily that I ended the book on a cliffhanger, rather than resolving the story arc and answering many of the questions I built into the story.

The funny thing was, I hate cliffhanger endings too. So why did I write it that way? I really don’t have a good answer, except I was probably too eager to get the book to market. And maybe I thought it would be cool to tell a big epic story over several books. Chalk it up to the foolishness of my youth.

To rectify my literary sins, I went to work on the concluding half of Evan Burl and the Falling and decided to re-release both parts together as one complete story. The result is the book you hold in your hands. Part one and two, joined together for eternity, never to be separated again.

At least not until the movie.

Kidding.

(Kind of).

Now you know the full history of my adventures in self-publishing thus far.

Probably more than you wanted. It’s a scary sight to behold, giving an author the power to change his story long after it’s been published. But, I hope my year-long-public-focus-group experiment results in a story readers are more likely to enjoy. And that I won’t end up on any “people I hate” lists because of one of those nasty cliffhanger endings that are the rage with young people these days.

In light of the above, please email feedback, grammatical errors, tips, questions, personal advice, or funny pictures of your pets to evan@evanburl.com. I promise to respond to every one. Unless you’re creepy.

Thanks!

Justin Blaney

A note on the newest version of Evan Burl, part one and two

I released Evan Burl and the Falling in August of 2012. It rose to #1 on Amazon and many great reviews starting pouring in (and some not-so-great reviews). But over the following months, I began hearing more and more, from a significant segment of my audience who were frustrated with the ending.
Some were even angry.
If you were to ask me what emotion I wanted my readers to feel when they came to the final page of this novel, anger would not be at the top of the list. The problem was primarily that I ended the book on a cliffhanger, rather than resolving the story arc and answering many of the questions I built into the story.
The funny thing was, I hate cliffhanger endings too. So why did I write it that way? I really don’t have a good answer, except I was probably too eager to get the book to market. And maybe I thought it would be cool to tell a big epic story over several books. Chalk it up to the foolishness of my youth.
To rectify my literary sins, I went to work on the concluding half of Evan Burl and the Falling and decided to re-release both parts together as one complete story. The result is the book you hold in your hands. Part one and two, joined together for eternity, never to be separated again.
At least not until the movie.
Kidding.
(Kind of).
Now you know the full history of my adventures in self-publishing thus far. Probably more than you wanted. It’s a scary sight to behold, giving an author the power to change his story long after it’s been published. But, I hope my year-long-public-focus-group experiment results in a story readers are more likely to enjoy. And that I won’t end up on any “people I hate” lists because of one of those nasty cliffhanger endings that are the rage with young people these days.

In light of the above, please email feedback, grammatical errors, tips, questions, personal advice, or funny pictures of your pets to evan@evanburl.com. I promise to respond to every one. Unless you’re creepy.

Thanks!
Justin Blaney

10,000 downloads in one day

Hey everyone, yesterday Evan Burl and the Falling went free on Kindle and we had 10,000 downloads. We also went to #1 best selling status for three genres: fantasy, teen, and suspense. Thank you so much to everyone for your positive reviews and helping to spread the word. It made a huge difference!

Evan Burl part one and two now FREE on kindle

From 2/21 to 2/25, Evan Burl is now free on Kindle.

Here's a link

http://www.amazon.com/Evan-Burl-Falli...

Enjoy! And don't forget to let me know what you think!

You can email me on GoodReads or at evan@evanburl.com

Thanks!
Justin Blaney

Evan Burl part 1 and 2 now available in one volume

For those of you who have read Evan Burl part one already, you should know that the version up on Amazon includes part one and two. Originally, this book had 52,000 words and ended on a cliffhanger ending. I intended to follow it up with a second part to resolve the ending, but after a lot of thought have decided to include both parts in a new version with the same title. Now, Evan Burl and the Falling, is around 118,000 words with 51 chapters and a complete resolution to many of the key storylines.

Originally, I wanted to write a bunch of shorter books which would make it easier for readers to jump into the story. For most readers, this wasn't a problem. But for some, I discovered this was really frustrating. The last thing I want is for readers to be angry or frustrated after finishing Evan Burl :), so I decided to make a change.

For those of you who have read Evan Burl already, I hope you enjoy the additions. You should know that significant changes were made to part one in order to make the book fit in one novel.

For those of you who are new to Evan Burl, I think you will appreciate the inclusion of a complete story arc in one story and I hope you'll let me know what you think!