It’s official. I found the time to work out everything and got The Shadowed Land published tonight. It’s the second book in my World in Chains series, and it’s not one of those stories where you can jump in after the first book. You do need to read the first.
In celebration of the release of The Shadowed Land, Empire of Chains is only $0.99. Or if you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free.
Here’s the link to The Shadowed Land.
I’ve been writing a lot recently about finding the balance I need to be successful in writing and also with life in general. I wanted to do four or more releases a year, but I just don’t think that’s going to work all the time. My books are fairly long, so there’s a lot of writing and editing work involved.
When I considered this issue, I decided I’d aim for a release roughly every four months, or three releases per year. Life is busy right now, but I think I can make that work. I’ve already written eight and a half novels. That means I can focus mostly on editing those novels, and four months seems a reasonable amount of time to get those edits done to my satisfaction (while also having the time to write some new material).
A lot of self-published writers these days have insane release schedules. Maybe I’ll be able to do that someday, but right now, there’s no way I can make writing a full-time thing. I have to accept that I have limitations, and pushing myself too hard will result in burnout and worse writing.
Obviously, if I have a book ready before I reach the four-month point, I won’t have any problem releasing it earlier than anticipated. This will depend on how things are going with new material as well.
Overall, I’m feeling my way through how to manage a writing career on top of school and work and family commitments. I feel like this four-month-release plan is a good compromise. It’s not too far from what I wanted to do, and it gives me enough time to avoid high stress levels.
In more exciting news, I’ve finished the proofread of The Shadowed Land. I anticipate releasing the book on Halloween, which is also my birthday. For now, it will only be in e-book form. The print version should come at a later date.
I’m excited to get this out there. Though it has only been four months since I released Empire of Chains, it almost feels like an eternity. Now the second book will be out for those of you eagerly anticipating it.
I’m calling this a progress update, but I have to admit there hasn’t been a lot of progress lately. I’m still working on the proofread of The Shadowed Land, but I’m not making much progress anywhere else. Life is getting in the way. Between school and work and family commitments, I’m struggling to make the time to write or edit.
I’ve also come to the realization, once again, that I keep putting too much pressure on myself as far as my release schedule goes. Ideally, I’d like to release a book every three months or so, and if I were writing full time, I could probably do that no problem, but I have a lot of other commitments, and I don’t want to rush my releases and put out an inferior product.
To take some of the pressure off myself, I have taken down my page detailing my release schedule. Putting dates, even tentative dates, on my releases has led to a lot of anxiety, and I don’t need that right now. I’m still going to work hard to get my books out there for my readers, but I’m not going to pressure myself into any specific dates until I know I can release the book by that date.
I’m hoping that this can actually increase my productivity. I have to admit I’m still working my way through how to do this whole “writing career” thing. There’s a lot to learn, and I hope I still have a lot of growth left.
Thank you for your patience as I work my way through these things.
I’ve just gotten some more great artwork from the talented artists at Deranged Doctor Design. This is for the first book in my Sunweaver series. The character depicted on the cover is Deril, a powerful Sunweaver and the son of the Sunlord, who is the only man who can keep alive their world’s sun.
This series is set in a world with a dying sun. In this world, there are two primary types of magic users: Sunweavers and Fireweavers. Sunweavers take their power from the sun and can, in turn, fuel the sun. Fireweavers, on the other hand, take their power from the planet’s core. Due to the fact that the Fireweaver god, Halarik, is the one who weakened the sun, Sunweavers persecute Fireweavers.
Through the story, though, we discover that the world is not nearly as simple as it seems at first glance. I can’t say much else without revealing major spoilers.
I don’t have a firm release date yet. I’ve learned that I’m not good with the whole release date thing. I feel the pressure to get it done, and then I get so anxious I don’t work on it at all. So I’m saying you can expect this either late this year or early next year.
Without further ado, here’s the cover.
With the completion of this draft, now I have only proofreading and formatting left before I can publish The Shadowed Land, the second book (out of four) in my World in Chains series.
Find Empire of Chains here.
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As a reminder, here’s the cover for The Shadowed Land.
Thanks to the talented people at Deranged Doctor design, I now have covers for all four books of my World in Chains series.
Without further ado, here’s the cover:
Ryan W. Mueller: Fantasy Author 