Sent 04/30/2025
Hello again, readers and SFF nerds,
Updates
It would appear that I launched my second self-published book last month, titled Gaea. This means that I am currently hard at work drafting the third installment in The Mother Trilogy, titled Luna.
— Current Progress: 14% (21k words) —
This time around, I’m going for a hybrid writing style, using a rough sketch—or rather, a series of messy sketches—and building off of that as I write, letting the story connect itself. Unlike usual, I’m working from multiple starting points simultaneously. I made sure I had Gaea pretty solidly outlined, and I wanted to hold off on publishing Mani (Book One) until I had that one nailed down, but I was purposely leaving Luna a bit open-ended. I have lots of ideas, seemingly far too many to cram into the intended size, but I’m planning to string them together as I go along. I like to keep my “outline” document, essentially a personal wiki/doodle zone, updated every time I come up with something new, or am expanding an existing plot point, or can finally solidify an unknown.
As far as marketing goes, I’ll admit I’m in a state of wheel-spinning limbo right now. I shut down all my Amazon ad campaigns for Mani, of which I actually had four. I was trying to be careful and smart and collect data, all that jazz, yet I still managed to spend $200+ for a grand total of two sales, which is kind of . . . insane. I’ve been informed that it’s good to have at least 20 reviews first, however, as a sort of social proof, and I only had (and have) 10, so maybe that is a factor? (The power of reviews, guys!)
Over on the Royal Road side of things, I’m quite happy with how Mani has performed on there, reaching just over 4,000 views and 58 followers as of writing this—though it could always use more! It is now finished uploading, and can be read for free at this link. I recommend checking it out if you haven’t read the sequel yet, as I posted the first ten chapters of Gaea following the Appendix material.
Tales from the Earthen Sky chapters are still releasing once per week on Friday evenings, with Act 1 ending soon.
That’s all for now. Have a great rest of your week!
— Jacob Gamber