Dear human,
This is not my first stab at writing this post. In fact, I’d tapped up a glorious post, very long, full of wow… I went into a glorious feline rant about how readers who do not buy any books in a series until the series is entirely done ultimately help make series die terrible deaths for fiscal reasons. (Like, seriously. If the authors aren’t paid for the books while they’re working on them, the series die and aren’t finished. If you want to see a series succeed, buy the damned books. Hold onto them until the series is done if you’re that keen on reading the series in a binge, but don’t act so damned surprised when a series isn’t finished if you weren’t helping to support the author and the series.)
That was basically a condensed version of the rant: if you don’t buy the books because the series isn’t completed yet, please don’t complain to the author if the series is pulled from production. Authors need to eats foods, too. And pay rent. (and we don’t even count these numbers in our costs to produce a novel figures!)
Then, as it’s been around six months since the female had evaluated the Witch & Wolf world, we decided to have a look.
We had to delete our rant and change the subject matter. The rant kinda incinerated upon the shock of what the numbers had to say.
First, you glorious bastards rallied in a subtle, evil (that’s a good thing) way. We’d been all ready with expense numbers: the $2,500 per book in expenses to produce. The $25,000+ in general advertising expenses to help bring the series back to life. Then there was the stress of the pirating situation.
Then there were the, uhm, less than stellar reviews on Inquisitor, which was admittedly the female’s first venture into urban fantasy, so we expect the poor reviews. She’s gotten a lot better at writing since she released that book in… 2014?
Yeah, we think 2014. Numbers are hard.
We really DO NOT look at Inquisitor’s reviews. Ever. Especially not the tortured dead turtle review from the boy toy of some other jealous writer who hated when other people have success.
Yeah. That one is a gem. I hope, one day, it erupts in flames and is forever lost on all sites.
(Don’t be that person. It’s just crude and uncouth. Really.)
| Title | Earnings | Sales | Borrows | Pages | Giveaways |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Totals | $75,361.85 | 28,068 | 756 | 2,645,574 | 56,285 |
| Inquisitor | $12,640.81 | 4,653 | 555 | 398,617 | 17,537 |
| Winter Wolf | $7,780.95 | 2,275 | 198 | 334,794 | 9,007 |
| Shadowed Flame | $7,655.61 | 2,795 | 0 | 342,316 | 5,647 |
| Beneath a Blood Moon | $7,389.38 | 1,816 | 0 | 524,457 | 9,855 |
| Karma | $6,642.11 | 2,072 | 0 | 228,891 | 4,030 |
| Witch & Wolf Omnibus Box Set | $6,259.50 | 3,399 | 0 | 262,537 | 4,079 |
| Blood Diamond | $5,267.32 | 1,519 | 3 | 338,367 | 3,139 |
| Silver Bullet | $5,053.81 | 2,034 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wolf Hunt | $4,315.36 | 1,477 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Witch & Wolf: Complete Series | $4,286.97 | 2,970 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol 1-5 | $4,190.73 | 1,415 | 0 | 147,394 | 475 |
| Pack Justice | $3,879.29 | 1,643 | 0 | 68,201 | 2,516 |
Did you know, if the female had been paid for those giveaway copies, she would’ve earned $154,052.04? Yeah, we hadn’t known, either. (The female is playing with the calculator while laughing.)
Now, here’s the interesting thing: the standalone novels seem to perform better than the series books.
In good news, that opens Witch & Wolf standalone novels as a possibility moving forward. In bad news, that means the series books aren’t good enough for people to want to keep reading. (I’m looking at you, Wolf Hunt.)
Honestly, that’s the result the female expects. The newer books are just better books, but you have to get through the first two books first, and Inquisitor and Winter Wolf are not the female’s best works.
For the record: Karma and Shadowed Flame were the pirated Witch & Wolf books. We were not expecting these books to have rallied so much.
There’s just no excuse for Pack Justice. It just was not liked. Poor book. Don’t worry, Sean. The female still loves you, even though it seems like there’s just nothing we can do for you beyond give you a nice coffin, take you down to the river, and chuck you in. While on fire.
Please note that there was a long moment of silence while the female retreated to the corner and rocked back and forth for a while, likely trying to come to terms with this situation.
She has major issues with Karma/Jake. The piracy situation really burned her hard. On one hand, she’s delighted that there’s a lot of love for Karma. On the other hand, she remembers a little too well how shitty that release week went for her.
Also, it doesn’t help that the last time she started working on License to Kill seriously, her mother-in-law passed away. (Yeah. That draft was just flat-out scrapped. Human don’t care. She will not look at that draft evers again. It don’t matter she was 45,000 words into it. That draft is toast. Nope, nope, nope.)
That’s on her, and falls firmly into the kicking, screaming, child-having-a-temper-tantrum category.
Anyway, a few things.
First, we need to remind the human that the omnibus/complete series sets include Blood Diamond / Silver Bullet, and that counts! They’re not terrible. They’re just in box sets.
Except poor, poor Wolf Hunt… The female loves you best of all, Declan, and don’t you let anyone tell you differently!
Second, the female literally has an entire binder of Witch & Wolf standalone concepts she tossed in a storage bin when she gave up on the world in general. They’re still there. Maybe.
Third, you all better freaking love Dustin because the female loves Dustin, and Dustin could legit result in your Witch & Wolf fans being indulged more often with random standalone novels and novellas. Because Dustin.
Like, seriously. That’s how you get her to do more Witch & Wolf. Dream happily about them novellas and novels, but please don’t leave snide comments on the reviews of other books that you want more Witch & Wolf. That makes her want to light the entire series on fire and never write them again. Catch my furry drift?
The female really don’t like that.
(Side note: The female has been working on Dustin short stories lately. Can’t you tell?)
Fourth, It took two tries to spell fourth correctly, and the female’s back in her corner rocking, this time due to spelling trauma. Get over it, female! It’s not that big of a deal.
First number after fourth, yes, yes, she’ll get over it and work on License to Kill eventually. And she’ll even do stuff for that poor slackass Sean. (Because she does want those finished and off her plate.)
Second number after fourth, no, the Witch & Wolf main series will not continue despite these pretty numbers. The Edge of Midnight will complete the main arc, and that’s that. It was designed that way from Wolf Hunt’s conception. The Edge of Midnight is a good final resting place for the main series as a whole. (Sorry, humans. You will have to cry into your beverage of choice and cope. All series come to an end, and seven books is a very good number for the main Witch & Wolf story line.)
Third number after fourth, nothing is even being considered for this until 2020 because the female is really not going to stress over projects in 2020 except for Grave Humor in May 2020, k?
We are all sorts of serious about this. Female will be all sorts of relaxed and working on happy projects in 2020. (Originally 20202, because she needs a 18,182 year vacation apparently.)
We lost the point in that mess somewhere.
So, why did we pick the image of the female’s Faith Hunter shrine? Simple. The female loves Faith. That’s all.
Annnnnnyway, unexpected result was unexpected, and we do not know yet, at this point in time, what it will mean for Witch & Wolf moving forward, beyond the basic fact it won’t be completely dead. It just won’t happen in the way some fans might like. (Seriously. The Edge of Midnight is the END of the main series. She plotted it to end there, and it ends there. It is done then. Forevers! But you might get standalone novels of the shenanigans and adventures of old and new characters.)
You all are freakin’ book ninjas. This kitty approves.
Now, for a trip down memory lane. Here is a picture of Tia the Majestic for your enjoyment. (Look! The female isn’t even bawling her eyes out! I’m good feline therapy when I’m not hiding under the bed like a dunce.)
Tia really loved her daddy very much, and she enjoyed holding his hand when he used his computer.
Please let the female know…TRUE fans will follow her no matter what road she stumbled..I mean walks. YOU are truly talented and a lot of us ignore the reviews. I’ve written some…but I don’t write negative ones. Who’s to say I wasn’t cranky and that’s why I didn’t like the book.
Life in general is a ridiculous roller coaster. I imagine it’s the same for poor Authors! All those thoughts and not enough time to release them!
YOU are the Author…WE are the fans…YOU control what you write…WE will follow 🙂
Can you please tell that to the people who leave low-star reviews because they’re upset the female didn’t write the series they wanted? Can you bring a leashed rabid badger, too? Wait, don’t do that. Honey badger already don’t care. Honey badger with rabies would really not care.
Yep! But I liked Justice! Love magical with a body count though. Laugh every time I read! Will wait as long as needed for more! Take care of yourself .
I liked Justice, too. And I’ve been very patiently waiting for the sequel.
Very patiently.
In other news: you write it, I buy it. Possibly on several platforms. ‘Cos, reasons.
🙂
Hey, I didn’t even know you existed until I ran into you on the IA blog. (Those were some weird years. I’m still only just branching out wrt fiction.)
I find it so, so really weird that people actually realize I exist on the IA blog, I’m just there because I love IA so much I can’t help myself. One day, she’s gonna be like, sit down, girl. Calm yourself! And then I’d just swoon from delight probably. Because yeah.
I have a ridiculous adoration for IA.
I suppose to be fair, I realized you existed there, but it was readers of your work talking about how much they enjoyed it who gave me that final push to try it. So glad I did!
Honey badger with rabies would really not care at all you would tho
Karma and Shadowed Flame are the only ones I’ve bought\ read from this world, ironically enough. I liked both enough to read a sequel with no interest in the rest of the series. I might read other stand alone though.
Fair warning, Dustin is in Beneath a Blood Moon, as is Charles Desmond, and those two characters capture souls. (Mine included.) That way darkness lies! (You should totally go. Bring a kitten with you.)
I’ll grab the sample! I’ve really loved just about everything else I’ve read by you and your Bernadette alterego, even with the shifter subthemes, it’s just my personal issues with a lot of the standard shifter tropes that make me twitch making it hard to get started.
Just be aware the Complete Series set is the only way you will be able to get it for a few weeks. 🙂
I keep telling your human that people are realizing just how amazing she is are yet she is still so shocked by it! I will read whatever is written by the female and would be happy to send my German Shepard to bite people that leave bad reviews. ?
Witch and Wolf was my introduction to the female’s writing so it holds a special place in my heart. I have since expanded and have read almost everything written by all of the authors who reside in the female’s head. I actually just started re-reading the series. But I will happily devour anything she publishes.
*gives RJ a party hat and a cupcake* Celebrate! it went better than you expected. this is allowed.
Personally, I have been known to buy over several platforms due to attempted conversions on fellow readers, so I’m not really that surprised.
Also, I am far from the only person who has said, more than once, “if you write it, I will buy it”
*grins* I also have been known to read out good bits to whoever happens to be around when i am reading a good bit…yes, this includes on public transport, and to complete strangers in public spaces.
Anything that promotes a happier RJ is a good thing!
Well done, you!
Just to let you know, I loved Wolf Hunt and Declan! And Pack Justice! And the entire Witch and Wolf – even Inquisitor (although it is not up to the standard of the others, I love it as I can see and trace your evolution as a writer – I really like being able to do that).
And bluntly, if I see a book written by you, I’m buying it!
‘Buy the series if you want them to go on/succeed (even if you don’t read them all until they’re done)’ is right. It should be common sense.
Though I do feel that it’s also important for authors to extend a kind gesture here as well, and not end their books with unbearable cliffhangers in the middle of a series. (Not talking about the female specifically, but generally on the topic of the ‘why people are afraid to buy series until they’re finished’.) I still sometimes refrain from reading a book that is in the middle of a series until I’ve bought the next one, because one explosion of anxiety in the end of a book may just as well spoil the rest of the series forever…
I’ve only read 2 books of the Witch & Wolf for now (just making my way through various series at the same time), and loved Winter Wolf, which I read first. In case of Inquisitor, to be honest, I wasn’t sure I liked it while I was reading it until I reached the ending…and then liked it, and I still fully intend to read everything that comes out in the series. It just takes time to get hands on paper copies in this part of the world.
I’ve seen a couple of very upsetting “reviews” that were not reviews at all, but just nasty coming from nasty people for their own inexplicable reasons on Goodreads, and was very disappointing with the fact that the moderators on the site are not in a hurry to react when you report content that is clearly against their own guidelines… Stay strong against the nasty, let them stew in their nasty all on their own.
(P.S. While we are on the topic of adjusting and slapping books around (or was it in the next post?) I’ve recently read Blending In and The Captive King…and discovered some impressive typos (well, only one of impressive level and other minor ones). Perhaps they were already dealt with, since I buy paper books, but since typos are sort of my favourite food (I get paid to hunt them, but also collect them, and roll in them in private), I did wonder if the female had some preferred way of dealing in this case (let her know in specific way/pretend we never saw anything and never mention it again/etc.))
All the best.
I can has a form for errors!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLvYbjGn73uWUNAlJS7NbLkD6r-F4cAnX9TIgx6WO0KOQ0-w/viewform
Ooh! That’s awesome! I’m one of those irritating people who notice and mentally edit, and I know some authors would prefer never to hear about it. But with ebooks it just seems like it *should* be possible to catch and contain them periodically.
Great, thank you! Now I will know what to do with myself when I see something I can’t unsee. (Sorry in advance for the duplicates of things other people also send in!)
“‘Buy the series if you want them to go on/succeed (even if you don’t read them all until they’re done)’ is right. It should be common sense.
Though I do feel that it’s also important for authors to extend a kind gesture here as well, and not end their books with unbearable cliffhangers in the middle of a series”
I’ve had a handful of series where I paused reading because of a cliffhanger that I knew I wouldn’t be able to deal with; I generally do continue to buy until done and then read them in one go though. The only time I can think of where I threw in the towel was when it seemed like the storyline was being dragged out just to increase the # of books, not for plot reasons. {Not you of course!}
That’s a different issue, though. These are people who haven’t read or bought ANY of the books because the series isn’t finished, and then they complain.
If they have not read ANY of the books, how do they know they were harmed and need to complain? oh lol, humans
I’ve done the thing where I read the first one, realise that I won’t rest until I can finish the story in one go, and then just collect books until it’s finished. But, to be really honest, what happens more often is me buying the series, but then never actually finishing it, but instead re-reading only first books over and over again…
Hi there, you do what you need to do ?. Writing is hard, creating is a long process, boy do I know that one I work full time and create when I can, and office work doesn’t always help except to pay the bills. In a good news for you, I like the omnibus for the convenience but I’m not the kind to wait for them, I pretty much read every book that you send into the world, love ? your stories and also buy them in audio, yep I’m a book monster. So yes I do understand what you’re going through, take care of yourself and the kitties ??
Hi, I own many of your books and recommend them to my friends. I also really like Pack Justice and Wolf Hunt. I can’t figure out why the numbers are down.
Keep writing for your fans.
I only discovered you recently, and am pursuing the strategy of ‘buy all the books by this author’. So long as you keep writing, I’m good.
The Furred & Frond Management fully approves of this strategy. Happy reading!
I just discovered your books earlier this year. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything so far and have downloaded more that I haven’t read yet as I like to read one series at a time. You do what you need to do for your health and well-being. I’ll wait (somewhat) patiently!?
I loved Pack Justice and Sean! What is wrong with people!
I love all your books and since I am the head of a book club, I introduced your books to them. We are currently reading Whatever For Hire.
I have all your ebooks under all your names, most of them in paperback as well and I’m working on getting your audible books. Long drive to work and lots of treadmill miles to enjoy.
Waitwaitwait there is a book club and the book club is reading one of my books?!
Hold on, I don’t have my bucket list check list doohickey handy… I’ll just go squeal in the corner and scare the cats.
I also saw your comments on IA blog., which led me to check out your books. Within the last week, I have re-read all of the W & W books I had and bought and binge read everything else, except the romantic comedy books. I can’t wait to get to read the rest of the series as well any standalone you come with.
Please keep writing and ignore the negative stuff. You’re great.
love Declan best also
I know, I know, I have dredged up a very old post with this comment, but I have a question/conundrum. I I initially started reading your books due to Murder Mittens taking over all of my fb ads. And my book budget quickly disappeared for oh…. the next year? I might need a signed doctor’s note for having spent a year’s budget in under two months.
My question is: is there a full timeline/suggested reading order for the Witch and Wolf books as well as spin offs? I have read some of the side stories (Karma/ License to Kill) without fully connecting everything. And boy was there confusion between how the Inquisition was presented when I read the first Witch and Wolf after having read Karma’s story.
I do plan to basically read everything, but I am confused as to what order to read them, much like watching the Marvel movies.
Sorry for the long winded comment.
The Witch & Wolf box set is the preliminary starting material. Cheapest to get that set together. After that you can branch in whichever general direction you want to go. There’s not really any set reading order beyond the core books are the main Witch & Wolf novels.
I love Pack Justice and I really love Dustin. Write anything and I am there. I am rereading all your books again, because they are the best. I have all as ebooks and I’m working on buying all the books. I have a shelf for just your books.
Awww, thank you!