Admiral’s Trial Update
We’ve done it again guys! And none of it would have been possible without you.
Admiral’s Trial is selling like hot cakes lately and so far its on just about the same scale as Tribulation. Trial sales so far this month are up to 877 and that’s not bad. So far for book 3: Admiral’s Tribulation the grand total sold since it came out has been 2400. Factor in something around a 10% drop rate for books that get kicked down to the 35% royalty rate for rounding errors that drop your world wide sales down under that magic 2.99 = 70% number and you can do that math for the rest!
Anyway its been really cool to be on this journey with you guys and with sales like these I actually have some hard numbers to go along with the ‘hope’ that’s been mainly carrying this dream of becoming a full time writer.
What more can I say, I couldn’t do it without you guy. Thanks for being the wonderful fans that you are. Every sale but more importantly every review that you guys have done has helped to make these books and this series what it is today.
A special thanks goes out to all the people who applied for and got in to become a Beta reader before the cut off. The feed back we’ve received has been critical.
Some updates, I’m up to 102k on the Falon fantasy. Going to try to push it over the finish line in the next couple days. I have to admit to a bit more slacking than usual. Its been a struggle to put up more than 2-3k a day lately. However both boys and the wife are just back in school this week and I am determined to get back on task.
Priorities as envisioned right this moment are –
1) Complete the Falon Fantasy
2) Complete the Spalding pre-quel short story and then review the compiled Spalding/Jason shorts that are going to make up the next novella, so that we can get busy editing and put it up on amazon. (As far as the Spalding short goes the only hint I can give you is…. ‘Long Live the Automated Underground!!!’)
3) Get busy tearing away on Revenge! Book 5 won’t write itself don’t you know.
The Deposed King
19 comments
That Guy - June 14, 2013 4:23 pm
Quit your slacking, or I’ll get the plasma torch!
The Deposed King - June 14, 2013 7:37 pm
Hahahaha. Yeah I really need to!
The Deposed King
The Deposed King - June 15, 2013 12:22 am
Update, the Spalding sort story is completed and comes in at 15k, with an additional 2k short story that shows how Brence and Castwell came up on his radar and the reaction to this (terrible from both sides) news.
So right now pounding away on the Falon book and up to 104k. Its already over where I’d hoped the book would be but I guess its going to be as long as it needs to be. (so much for the 90k cut off I envisioned originally)
Anyway whenever the brother gets back to me re- the whole spalding short and next novella well get cracking on it. I tried to go and read the stuff he did but I seemed to have lost the file in the last crash. Sucks. Anyway have a blast guys!
the Deposed King
Joel Li - June 17, 2013 5:57 pm
Congratulations! Just finished Admiral’s Trial,, loving it.
The action keeps coming be, the characters are as interesting as ever and plot as enjoyable as before, with may may more things to look forward too.
This is a series that I will keep on supporting. Especially now that the universe is opening up and getting bigger and bigger with so many interesting characters. Many with their own stories to tell, that I am just waiting to read (after the Admiral’s main arc is over of cause 🙂 ).
One thing that i am concerned about (and that is because everything else is more or less in place).
Where does the Money and Food come from?
I mean when the books first started, the Admiral was on the run and thus money was not really and issue. And for food, there were less mouths to feed and grateful planets.
But now big so large an organisation with thousands of people, no support from the core worlds and non-aligned planets and a thriving manufacturing sector, how are all this supported?
I propose, that since the Confederation is now the most advance organisation in the sector. They should also most likely possess the most advance products which if sold to others will help pay for the military arm.
Also this can be a great point of angry for the core worlds. As to support the new Confederation forces, they inadvertently will take over a lot of the trade in the sector. Also the border worlds will most likely divert their taxes given to the core worlds over to the forces that are actually protecting them. Also would love to meet the individual (new fascinating char please) that has to juggle this huge burden.
Regards,
Joel Li
PS: Keep on writing 🙂
Joel Li - June 17, 2013 5:58 pm
Sigh forgot to check my spelling 🙁
The Deposed King - June 18, 2013 4:44 am
@Joel Li: Yeah money and food are two areas that could use better addressing. I just haven’t seen an appropriate place to put them in. Part of that is probably because I haven’t worked harder to ‘find’ a good place along the way.
Oh well just have to try and work it in as I go deeper. although some of those should be addressed or taken care of in the next book. I hope so anyway!
The Deposed King
Emil - June 18, 2013 2:15 pm
Really looking forward to the books.
What release date are you aiming for? (On the fantasy and Spalding side story ones)
/ N.1 European Fan
The Deposed King - June 18, 2013 8:32 pm
the Spalding half of the novella are pretty much contingent on the brother. I still need to read his early jason shorts he did. Then its a weekend or more likely two before its ready. I would hope early next month but I can’t promise. I’m also hoping to get the 1st draft with Falon done this month and start in on revenge next.
It generally takes about a month to get a full novel length book from 1st draft to final edit. A month to a month and a half anyway. We’ll probably need some help with betas on it at some point. Not sure its up to the same quality as the Admiral, but…
Anyway right now things are just a little slower than expected but it’ll get there. Wish I had a better answer but there you go.
I can tell you when I get done with my draft but after that the brother’s got to squeeze it into his schedule.
The Deposed King
Emil - June 19, 2013 5:05 am
I assure you, I’ve got no doubts about the quality of the books you release.
Also, if there’s a sign up for becoming beta checker of it, I’ll help out.
Got nothing to do this summer before university starts anyway.
Either way, I’ll be checking (As usual) your blog a few times a day for any new info.
Keep up the good work.
(May we get an hint to as what kind of fantasy book Falcon is? Magic? Supernatural Apocalypse?
Evil succubus harem looking for a new evil overlord in a newspaper and founds an perfect ‘Dungeon Master’ with years of experience which turns out to be a D&G geek?)
If not, I hope I gave you some ideas for a future book ->> Points toward the third idea
/N.1 European Fan
The Deposed King - June 19, 2013 5:34 am
Its a fantasy. Swords, horses and castles. A little low on magic right now. Its a fairly standard one as of right now. I’m just trying to have some fun with it.
The Deposed King
Jovi Won Kenobi - June 19, 2013 6:34 am
Love the books. Almost passed up on them because of the covers but really surprised and glad I took the plunge. Hopefully I’ll get a beta of the next book. I thought that with a handle like Jovi Won Kenobi it would get me a beta of the last one. Hopefully I can get my request in on time since there were only a limited number given out.
Harmony - June 19, 2013 10:28 am
Is this the same Falcon story up on Baen’s website? If so, I love it and can’t wait to buy it.
The Deposed King - June 20, 2013 12:25 am
I originally started writing over at the bar. I figured this one was going to be me giving back to the slush pile. If that’s the one your talking about.
But its the raw and uncut version. I still need to finish it and then run it by the brother before it goes out to the betas. Probably wont change too much but you can never tell.
@Jobi Won: I gave the rough draft of Trial out to about 30 betas. After that I was too busy with editing and such. Not sure how many I’ll do with the next book but I’ll let you guys know when we get there.
The Deposed King
The Deposed King
Ulrich - July 10, 2013 9:43 pm
Hello,
first I want to express my thxs for the great books. I hope you will become healthy again on short notice so we don’t have to wait to long for the next one.
Second I hope my english don’t suck to much as I am German and know my grammar is a drop out, mostly on the line of german grammar therewith having the words in the wrong order.
Third I would like to know if you want -at least by my understanding- major logical errors in a book been discussed here or more likely over under *REPORT AN ERROR*.
Fourth – and there I understand – that I am not really in agreement with other people who have written on the blog or over at AMAZON I would like to have more installments of small nitbits about the surrounding in the books, so people have some feelings how the rest of the universe envolve.
The meaning hereon is that there should be small pieces of what is going on in the rest of the important holdings of the Admiral. I am a RPG Master and the most important piece for a long good going campaign is the fleshing out of the world alongside good adventures. Now all the adventures are there to be read but the world behind them is mostly white page.
The alternative is that you have to discribe it as a major part everytime you come there in the case of change or that you let it stay more or less as a +none entity+ where everybody got his own impression.
There are at least five major parts of interest at the moment from the world picture and lots of small ones and open endings. Now I understand that people want to read about what the Admiral does, but that is the ground lay for major logical flaws which come back bitting you later on as you miss something which is clear for you – personally – if you have your own shedule for all that places but missing out on the books as they were never been discribed.
I would like to go on some points but as I don’t know if you want to have such errors been discussed here with all or want them *writer eyes only* I will stop at this point so far.
One of the logical errors in TRIAL would be got over quite easily with installing one or two sentences, the other is a complete build up of timeframes and mislogic in my eyes.
I will end here now for this moment but be asurred that I am awaiting the next one to buy on short notice. More of what I wrote was possibly coming over negatively but it was meant alongside on the constructive side. I thought that was more of interest as you got so much *Heh, great books’ so far.
Ulrich
The Deposed King - July 11, 2013 12:53 am
If there are errors in the book, use the report an error feature. Otherwise you can bring up things you think are inconsistent or could be better shown, in here.
I don’t always promise to respond to each and every thing….
The Deposed King
Vamen - July 16, 2013 10:41 pm
Ulrich is an awesome name! As the de facto Editor for these books, I love to hear feedback on the books like what you’re outlining here. When a story gets as big as the Spineward Sectors is, there are bound to be mistakes and errors.
As to ‘where’ those errors should be discussed, I’m in the process of building a new website which will provide precisely that – an area for interested fans to discuss the books on any level they may wish, from characters and story, to universe and politics, to the science (or lack thereof) involved.
As a Dungeon Master/Game Master myself, I heartily welcome the opportunity to pick another one’s brain and see where we can improve 🙂 I’m just not sure that we have the right area to do so just yet.
Glad you enjoyed the books! We’ll be sure to post progress on the new website when we’ve got updates to report, you can count on that 🙂
Ulrich - July 26, 2013 10:29 am
Hey,
sorry that I needed so much time after I started but my RL was getting a little messy in the last weeks (workload was overflowing).
I will begin with one point I found troublesome. There is the possibility that I missread something there but I were trying to really proof read it so I am quit sure I weren’t misunderstanding something. BTW this is less of a real logical fault but more in the line of misconception and not enough in the way of explaining the case there.
The point is when the Admiral is been freed and going on the bridge to get the fight under control.
He sends a message to Commodore LeGodard and to the small own troops using the confed cipher. Than he was switching to the cipher from AZT system because that should be known to the PRAXIS troops.
So far so good, also he was explaining why he was switching. He needed to make sure the cipher was been known and, of course, his *uncle* would have given all the data up to the assembly.
That is the explanation and that is fine, but if you think more deeply about it two questions come up.
a.) If his *uncle* would have given up all data the assembly and the PRAXIS troops should have known the old CONFED cipher, too – so he could have used it for the whole conversation and not changed at all.
b.) What is than the reason he was using first CONFED cipher and than the AZT cipher — if all was been known to the assembly why change at all.
Now the only answer I could come up with is that Le Godard would not know the AZT cipher so it was important to send him on in CONFED and there was the small possiblility that not the whole data bank was been given over to the assembly.
But that is not showing in the book, where upon it is highly explained why the cipher was changed there was no reason why it should be changed at all.
I hope I made myself understood – been sorry but english is really not my first language.
Possibly solutions:
a.) Pull in some small explanation into *ADMIRAL’s TRIAL* and make an upload with the next change.
b.) Put something in the discussion with *DRUID* in the next book where the Commodore shows that he was understanding the ruse but not why the Admiral was changing the cipher when it was clear that the cipher would be broken as his plan was demanding the *break up*.
You could build up thereon in the way of the Admiral thinking. *Good that I were rethinking the whole and finding my own shortcoming before the Commodore could ask.*
Ok that was that.
Ulrich
Ulrich - July 26, 2013 12:43 pm
OK, second point and this is more in the way of what I am missing in the books.
It’s background and interaction there and yes, I know, many people are calling more for action on the Admiral or one of the other main characters but for me to have a lively long term series you need more.
Now you can write something like the *FRONTIERS SAGA* of Ryk Brown where everything goes more or less about the adventures of the spaceship AURORA and than you don’t need much of background and what is going on elsewhere. It is much in the same way as the old STARTREK series. There is a background which doesn’t need to expand and advance as that all is in the time frame of weeks / month coming to an end. And also the whole infrastructure been needed is been there before the advanture started.
But that is not the same as in the SPINEWARD.
All here is more or less broken and needs to be build up, like infrastucture etc. — I mean there was a clear reason why the GAMBIT STATION got build but I have no picture of it. I can’t imagine what is going on there and why, also I can’t see what is going on on all that other planets on the RIM which are of importance and if only to produce ressources and the only come up as short spots when the Admiral got through.
All in all that is all very lifeless for me. The spot around the Admiral is everytime very clear – more or less, but the whole rest is nowhere to be seen or imagined. At least not by me.
I would like to see some short real spots which give a picture of the universe and which thereby could also advance the story line.
The medium cruisen *PRIDE* could be the subject of a one or two capitel short story plot, coming to the end of the patrol, meeting a merchant ship coming out of EAST HAVEN reporting of the situation, officially in a positive way to the planet there and inofficially having less good data.
Or they could come up on a pirate small fleet including a SUNDERN ship and another one jumping in to tell their own that they aren’t pirates any longer, starting to fight alongside the cruiser against the rest etc., defending the system they were pirating a second before.
That would flesh out the universe and yes, I know that many people wants to read about the Admiral but that is – at least by my opinion – not enough if you play some, lets build some new society/ empire – whatever from scrap.
In the MERP system they have a great explanation of RPG showing players as writers of stories on the main characters and the game master for the world build up etc.
Now in the same way I think you can look at writing a book only the other way around. Now in my experience for RPG you can have a fleshed out world where the backround is clear and the players can easily go from place to palce, getting interesting adventures and in SCIFI you get something like STARTREK or you have a world without that infrastructure to repair ships, to build equipment etc and than you have to build it up for the story and than it has to show from time to time and as the world goes further around not all can only happen when the Admiral is there.
Hopefully I made myself halfway clear hereby.
Ulrich
P.S.: Ulrich is my real name so I am not sure if it is great. It’s an old german name been in use for ovfer a thousand years.
The Deposed King - July 28, 2013 10:23 pm
Thanks for the comments, they seem well thought out. We’ll take a look at them going forward.
The Deposed King
P.S. – Like Ulrich Von-Lictenstien on Knights Tale. Que in the Herald’s yell!