Book 4 On the Way

Hey everyone, great news!  As of yesterday (July 24th) I started writing the fourth book of the Sword of Dragons!!

And I have to say…book 4 has been a challenge to get settled.  And I use that term instead of ‘get started’ because it’s been a rambunctious little book for a good couple of years, and settling on one overall story has been a challenge.

Photo by Beck Wasik

Since book 3 has only been out a week (as of today!) I don’t want to spoil what happens in it, but I CAN spoil a bit what was originally going to happen…that is to say, one of the heroes was meant to turn villain!

It wasn’t an ‘all of a sudden they’re the bad guy’ kind of thing, but the first step in a journey towards evil.  I was looking forward to the story line, but within months of when I intended to start writing the first draft…it just felt more and more wrong.  Until I realized, the character I was having turn evil would never, ever do the things I intended him to do.  It was very much against his established character, and while yes, people and characters evolve, it was so much the antithesis of him that I just couldn’t.

So I decided to change his journey completely.  There are hints of where he might have gone still present, but otherwise that story thread was put to bed.  And then I had a brilliant idea of how to end book 3 (the final page, actually,) and that meant…most everything I had in mind for book 4 was officially unusable.

Worse still, all of this meant that all of a sudden, book 4 had no main villains or central antagonists of any kind.

Changing Directions, Remaining on Course

So, as strange as it sounds, I found myself in a conundrum – I had an overall story arc for the series that still needed certain things to happen in book 4, but everything underlying it needed to change to reflect the new reality everyone finds themselves in at the end of book 3.  And I needed a central villain.

So for most of  this year, I’ve been restructuring it.  And in the end, it was a friend of mine who made a suggestion to do something that I had already planned for in book 5 that helped me (thanks Nick!)  The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of pushing the event up to book 4.  It fits very, very well with how book 3 ended.  Furthermore, it not only brings a central villain to the fore-front, it reveals THE villain of the series.

It also means that the series may end up only being 5 books long.  And I’m okay with this.  In fact, it feels right.  Secrets of the Cronal felt more epic and more like a halfway point than I thought it would be, and I feel like if I try to string along the series much longer, book 4 will feel anti-climactic compared to 3.

On the flip side, for as big (page-count) as Secrets is…I think books 4 and 5 will end up even longer.  No matter what, I don’t wish to short-change characters and their arcs, and there’s still so much to tell for all of them.

What does all of this mean?  Well, here’s one teeny tiny spoiler – the Darksteel Army, of whom we saw a little bit of in book 3, will become a lot more prominent in book 4.  Including the mysterious, clawed leader.  We’re going to find out a lot more about her from the very beginning of book 4.

That’s all for today!  I hope you all are enjoying Secrets of the Cronal!

Thanks for reading,
-Jon Wasik

Secrets of the Cronal Now Available!

Today’s the day!!!  Secrets of the Cronal – The Sword of Dragons Book 3 is now available on both Kindle eBook and Print!

Without further ado, click below for your chosen format to order your copy today!

Kindle Edition – https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Cronal-Sword-Dragons-Book-ebook/dp/B08BK6RP14/

Print Edition – https://www.amazon.com/dp/173493610X/

This has been such a long time coming, and I am so very excited to finally share this new chapter with you all!  Dark Dragons, gods, demons, mysterious assassins, elementals, this book has it all and more!  Who will survive?  And who will perish?

Also an exciting announcement, come check out a live streamed virtual release party today, July 18th at 2PM Mountain Time!  This will be my first-ever virtual release party, and I’m so excited to bring you this event and to interact with all of you.  I’ll be talking a bit more about what this book is about, answering questions and responding to comments live, and then I’ll read the first couple chapters, so come join in the fun!

You can catch the stream either on my author’s facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/authorjonwasik/

Or via our Twitch channel:

https://www.twitch.tv/l3g3ndtinker

See you at 2PM!  And to all of you who have been following along and have been long-time fans, thank you so much for your support.  You all are fantastic!

-Jon Wasik

Barnes and Noble Press Frustrations

Hi everyone,

First and foremost, if you missed the live interview this past weekend, the cover for Secrets of the Cronal has been revealed, along with a release date and pre-order!  Click here to visit the pre-order page!

Now that my obligatory marketing is out of the way :)  One of the frustrations that has recently hit the Self-Publishing market, particularly those who have used Amazon’s solution, was when KDP took over print edition services from CreateSpace (which still boggles my mind that they did this, since CreateSpace was owned by Amazon.)  And one of the major reasons this is frustrating?  Loss of previously-existing functionality.

In this case, I speak of the ability to order author’s copies prior to actual publication.  I was able to do this on CreateSpace, but once everything migrated over to KDP, I discovered that this was no longer an option, and you can only order author copies after a book has been published.  If you want to have a launch party on release-day, with copies in-hand, this is impossible via KDP.

The last time this happened, a friend suggested I try Barnes and Noble Press.  You can create a ‘personal’ book without ever publishing it, but still order as many copies as you want.  So for book 3, I thought I’d give it a try.

It has not gone well…

Bugs, Bugs, and More Bugs

Though their interface for authors is relatively straight forward, I almost immediately ran into problems with my manuscript.  It claimed I had not embedded my font in the document.  A minor frustration that eventually was overcome by switching from Open-Type Font to True-Type Font.  I don’t know why that made a difference, but it did.

After that, things started to seem okay.  I wasn’t happy with the price (about $3 more expensive than a proof copy from KDP,) but I ordered my copy anyway.  It took them AGES to print it and finally ship it, but about two weeks later, I had a copy in my hand, and was mostly happy.  Especially comparing it to KDP’s proof copy, in which they failed (again) to center the cover image properly.  I noted that they used a thinner paper stock, too, so the book was about a half-inch thinner than the KDP version.

But these were meant to be initial proofs, and I found mistakes, both in the manuscript and on the cover, that I had to fix.  I submitted my files to both.  About 10 minutes later, Barnes and Noble Press sends me a message, “We have found copyright violations in your submission.  Your submission is locked and cannot be further edited.”  Excuse me, what?!  I wrote the book, I bought the rights to the cover art, and you didn’t have a problem with the previous submission, so what the hell?

After a while of frustratingly trying to find an email address to contact their tech support, I send them a message about the error.

About 5 days go by, with me checking the project’s status each day, and each day it still says the same.  Finally they reply with, “We checked your project and do not see the error you describe.”  WTF?!  So I log in and find that, mysteriously, it no longer claims copyright violation and is in the process of being reviewed for approval to publish.  I call B.S. on the B&N Press Techs.  Someone somewhere screwed up, and as soon as you saw it, you fixed it, and then pretended you hadn’t screwed up.  Own up to your mistakes, people.

Anyway, over two weeks go by, and the project is still in ‘reviewing’ status.  Last time it only took 2 days to review, and at this point it’s been 3 weeks since I submitted the latest revisions…and since then, via the KDP proof I received, I found more issues to fix, but I couldn’t submit the updated files since the project on B&N was locked during review.  So I email their tech support again.

5 days later, I finally get a reply.  You can see where this is going, right?  Only this time, they basically said, “We’ll look into it.”

A week goes by, nothing, no fix, no contact.  I email again.  Three days later, “We’ve resolved the issue.”  Apparently no sense of urgency in these people at all, but at least it was finally approved and ready to order.

Now my latest dillemma?  After submitting updates (that I had submitted to the KDP version a month prior,) and the new files getting approved a day later for publication, I submit my order for a new proof copy.  A few days later, I check my bank account, and notice that they had charged for the proof copy, and immediately reversed and refunded the charge.  I had no communication from them about this.  So I check my order status, and it says “Printing.”  Not cancelled, nor any other errors.

So I guess I’m in limbo now, not sure if they’ll actually print my project or not.  Do I bother sending tech support another email, knowing it’ll be 5 days before I get a response?  Will it be fixed?  Certainly, at this point, not in time to approve the proof and have copies in-hand by release date, at the speed they move…

As annoying as KDP’s lack of features and watermark on the proof-copy covers are, at least they’ve been responsive in the past when I run into issues, which themselves have been very rare.

Anyone know of another self-publishing website that’ll let you order author copies prior to publication?  Preferably one that works far, far better?

Yours in Frustration,
-Jon Wasik

Cover Reveal, Release Date Announcement This Weekend!

I have exciting news!  The cover reveal for the Sword of Dragons book 3, to include the back-of-book blurb, the release date announcement, and pre-order information will be released LIVE this weekend on ShowX by VtW Productions!

At long last, the day is coming!!  I’m so excited, everyone, I cannot wait to show you!  So tune on on ShowX’s twitch feed live this Sunday, June 21st starting at Noon Mountain Time, 11AM Pacific, 2PM Eastern.  If you want to participate in the chat, I’ll be taking questions from everyone, so be sure to register on Twitch ahead of time!

You can watch the reveal at: https://www.twitch.tv/vtwshowx

See you all on Sunday!
-Jon Wasik

Secrets of the Cronal Chapter Titles

Hi everyone,

It’s time for another Secrets of the Cronal update!  Today I’m really pleased to bring you the chapter titles from the upcoming release.

One of my favorite things to do when a new Harry Potter book came out was to read the chapter titles and try to guess what each chapter would be about, and there was just something magical about it.  I admit, that was part of the reason I decided to name my chapters when I published book 1!

So, without further ado, I present to you the chapter titles from The Sword of Dragons Book 3 – Secrets of the Cronal

1	The Seal of the Covenant
2	Broken Wings
3	Shadow’s Dagger
4	Unrest
5	Stowaway
6	The Dwarf of Serelik
7	Evern Manor
8	An Unexpected Visitor
9	The Sylaric Stone
10	Under the Shadows of the Moons
11	Separate Paths
12	Fires of Jealousy
13	Traitors
14	Exiled
15	The Celestial Spires
16	Into the Web
17	Deposed
18	Sea of Magic
19	The Deep City
20	Suffocating Shadows
21	Succession
22	The Morning After
23	Parting Paths
24	The Grand Sanctuary
25	Guardian of Secrets
26	Destiny’s Choice
27	Desperate Plea
28	The Whispering Tree
29	Unlikely Allies
30	Missing Pieces
31	Strength in Shadow
32	Revelations
33	Over the Wall
34	The Final Piece
35	Dark Vision
36	Consumed
37	Refuge
38	Chrysalis
39	Star Child
40	Impasse
41	Kailar’s Choice
42	Burning Stacks
43	Ashes
44	Battle of the Cronal
45	The Great Library
46	Awakening
47	The Greater Good

I admit, I struggled with thinking of chapter titles this time around, but once I named them all and read through the book in the latest round of proofreading and editing, I felt like every single one was perfectly named :)

I’ll be working on updating the Sword of Dragons website with a new section specifically for book 3, where these chapter titles will be listed as well, until the pre-order and cover reveal is completed.

Thanks for reading everyone, I hope you’re as excited as I am for the coming release!  The next update will be the back of the book blurb, and then after that, the cover reveal and release date :D

-Jon Wasik

Sword of Dragons Book 3 Title Reveal!

Hi everyone!

Today I am so excited to finally reveal the title of the upcoming Sword of Dragons book 3!  On this, just 2 days shy of the 5-year anniversary of the first book’s release (1st edition,) it feels appropriate to share this news.

Without further ado, I give you:

Secrets of the Cronal

I’ve written about the story and development of book 3 since 2015, and one thing that I knew from the beginning, many of the secrets surrounding the religion central to Halarite would come to a head in this book.  More than anything, the biggest revelation of what exactly the Cronal is, and what its origins are.  The revelations of which will have repercussions far beyond just Halarite.

There’s more news ahead regarding book 3, so keep an eye out!  Still ahead are chapter title reveals, the blurb for the back of the book, and then finally, a cover reveal and release date!

Better still, did you know that those who subscribed to my email newsletter learned of the title earlier this week?  If you want to get the latest before anyone else, click here to sign up for the newsletter today!  :)

Sales pitch aside, my hope really is to engage more with readers and fans.  You all are phenomenal and I’m grateful for each and every one of you.  Thank you so much for reading!

Until next time!
-Jon Wasik