June Update (Not A Chapter) (Patreon)

Hey, everyone, and welcome new readers! This last month was a big one, the editing of Bonded Summoner Book 2 taking significant effort. I had a break, but in all honesty I spent a significant amount of my time editing Book 2 anyway. I wrote many new words and cleaned up the book quite a bit, so while I didn't make much progress on Book 4 at all, I still worked quite hard.

I recently added the yearly subscription option here on Patreon. So far, there were 3 takers on this! Thanks for supporting me in this way. I don't really want to plug this feature much, because I feel like there is too much that might change about my writing in the next year(more on that below). Also, there is another option coming up in the next few months that I might use in addition to Patreon: Reamstories. The content across the two platforms would be identical, but just keep in mind that this option may appear eventually. For webnovels/stories posted serially, this option is clearly superior in every way that I can tell, both from a user and an author standpoint.

I was dreading making this report as I felt like I made the least progress ever, but when I detailed it out, I found that I was quite productive! Unfortunately, just not very productive on Bonded Summoner book 4. I do have a true vacation planned in July where I might not even release bonus chapters, though I will probably spend it all once again editing Book 3 for the August 1 release. It may end up quite similarly to this last vacation.

Some stats:

Words released in May: 40k Book 4 (I was surprised at this number. Despite the 2-week break, you guys still got quite a bit of content! It seems the average chapter there was quite long...) 

There was also ~6k in Bonus Chapters for book 2 released, and then a brand new 3k epilogue and 3k prologue (though the latter was a bunch of recycled material).

Words written: 20k Book 4, 3k Bonus chapter, ~15kish in Book 2 + editing. I am ~120k into Book 4, nearing what I consider the cut off for the book here.

I also added about 10-15k to Secret ProjectA (24k total, roughly ten chapters), and about 10k into Secret ProjectB for 10k total (4 chapters). Really, I feel like I need to be about 40-50k into a project before I want to share much about them, as I feel like too much can change. I could replace the entire MC or love interest, and that's not very enjoyable for the reader, I don't think. One is a cultivation/harem story, and the other is a litrpg harem story. Both have planned dungeon elements.

Eventually though, the plan is for me to probably stagger series releases on patreon, slowing down my release schedule on Royalroad / Scribblehub for bonded summoner until nearly a whole book is available before I launch either of them. 

I don't think I can continue to dedicate 3 chapters per week to Bonded Summoner for much longer, wanting to mix it up a bit. 

The words flow so much better for me for these new stories, helping keep my mind fresh, as I'm feeling a bit of series fatigue with bonded summoner.  The number of characters and factions, combined with all the editing and everything I need to do to previous bonded summoner books, is just stretching me to the limits here and really feeling like a job or a chore. Which is fine, but I'm already working another one(job), part of why I had been able to accomplish all this writing was because I enjoyed it so much.

On top of that, I really want to find out if I'm really cut out for this writing thing.  Bonded Summoner might just be a fluke to me, that it has been relatively successful. I can compare my release to dozens of other new authors in the genre, and it has done comparatively well above average by far, which is amazing!  I want to try out another book series, to see if it can do even remotely as well. 

Once again, thank you all that support and continue to support me. I hope to continue creating content that you guys enjoy. I will continue working on Bonded Summoner well into the future, but the pace is just going to change. I hope you all like what happens next!

JJ Bookerson