Rise of Azraea (and Its Sequel)

I uploaded Rise of Azraea: Book I to Amazon last June, with the intention of posting the sequel last month, and investing in some advertising once both books were up there. The sequel has been (essentially) finished for a long time now, except for a final pass through copy-editing. I'm having a hard time sitting down and doing that; an author copy-editing his or her own writing is never an optimal situation (if you saw the original title of this blog entry, you see what I mean).

However, having the past six months to watch how everything has worked out, I've learned a couple of things.

First, I've learned that there are details to my writing that I'm capable of improving on - word choice, etc., so although I wanted Book I to be done and finalized, I can look back now and see certain places where I have to say, "well, that sucked." That being the case, there's a compelling argument for updating the book. Calling it a "revised edition" wouldn't be accurate, as there'd be no real changes to the characters or events, but it would be worth updating it just so I don't obviously sound like a clueless white guy.

Second, I've learned that Amazon is not an ideal platform for self-publication, regardless of your motives. I already knew that, unless you could spare a minimum ~$400/month on advertising, it's impossible to translate self-publication on Amazon into a livelihood. I was fine with that, as I was mostly just trying to get my name out there so that agents might recognize it when I submitted other things. However, the barriers imposed by the $3.99 sales tag and the hassle of dealing with Amazon e-pubs, have limited my readership to nine people. Ultimately, I'm not too surprise - I mean, I thought I'd get twice that many readers in 6 months, but still, I didn't expect much.

Third, I've learned that (by comparison) blogs are a decent platform for self-publication. I don't know if more than 1 or 2 people 'follow' this blog - I'd be surprised if anyone really does; I update it irregularly, sometimes with obnoxious rants. Yet my readership on some posts exceeds 100 people. While that's orders of magnitude below what would define a successful blogger, the fact remains that my individual blog posts are typically read by 5 to 10 times the number of people who've looked at my novel.

Knowing what I know now, I have a couple of options.

One option is to update Book I on Amazon with the tweaks that need to be made, and then drop the price to make it more accessible. Unfortunately, I think that the inconvenience of clicking the "buy" button probably dissuades more people than the $3.99 price tag. Another option is to pull Book I off of Amazon, and post it somewhere that's more generally accessible - specifically, a blog, posting a bit at a time while I make the edits to Book I and Book II. My concern here is that the 9 people who've paid to read the book may be annoyed to find it gone and posted free elsewhere.

However, after reviewing Amazon's regulations, I'm leaning towards a middle course. Provided you aren't working through KDP Select, Amazon doesn't bar you from posting your work elsewhere. Legally, it's entirely cool for me to have the book on Amazon and on a publicly visible blog. Now, that might seem redundant, but either medium has some distinct advantages for the readers.

The blog will be posting the books a little bit at a time - actually, I've already programmed most of the publication dates, so it's set up to release about 1/3rd to 1/4th of a chapter every day, Monday through Thursday. Going by that schedule, the epilogue to Book I would go online at the end of April. Then there'd be a short break filled by the appendices, and then Book II would start to go up - I'm not sure how long Book II would take to finish on the blog. Book II is no more than 10 pages longer than Book I, but it's divided into more chapters because it's structured a bit differently. Still, it'd probably be done by the end of the summer.

Some readers will find that slow pace appealing, but others will find that intolerable, and want to finish the book immediately. Fortunately, the latter will be able to access a complete and nearly identical copy of the book already available on Amazon, and I intend to have the sequel also posted there long before it begins being published on the blog - though I may run with a lower price tag, since you'd be paying for 'early access' rather than 'exclusive content'.

And speaking of exclusive content, for people who will have read and finished the book, there'll still be some reason to check out the blog publications once and a while. I've set the blog's publishing schedule up so that a new chapter will start every Monday. However, depending on the length and pace of the chapter, that sometimes leaves a dead spot on Thursdays. Rather than have the publication schedule varying unpredictable from week to week, I intend to fill those shortfalls with bonus stuff - writer's notes covering various things.

I've been asked to explain how the names are pronounced, so there'll be a Thursday blog post that explains the pronunciation, and even says a little about the real-world etymology and rationale for the names. I've also got some of my own not-so-great-but-I-have-to-use-it-somewhere sketches to post, with notes about character design and such. I've got maps to post, and various notes - unnecessary details for following the story, but fun additional stuff in case someone comes across the book and wants to use Caelia for a D&D session. I'll also be moving some of the drier reference material (history, geography, etc.) over to the new blog, where it will be available alongside the book.

I hope this will sit well with everyone.

The new book-blog will be available here at https://azraea.blogspot.com/ The foreword is scheduled to go up on Sunday.

I put a content warning on the blog because of the violence in the novel. That's probably unnecessary, but I don't want anyone going into it thinking they're getting a romance novel, and being surprised when a giant centipede consumes a horse like a meat slurpee.

P.S. I believe a blog has to run at least 6 months with a certain readership with advertising to be possible, so unless it's very successful, and I miraculously produce a third book by the end of the summer to keep the blog rolling, I won't be making any income from the blog-posted book. Many thanks to the nine people who have read the book on Amazon - you know who you are, and for the most part so do I. :-p

Update: Rise of Azraea, Book II

Last night I (hopefully) finished revisions to the sequel to my first book, Rise of Azraea: Book I. It started out as the ending of the first book, but that ending felt very rushed, and anticlimactic (after what is now the ending of the first book). So, I separated it, made it more in-depth, more character interaction, and a lot more action in general. After two revisions, it's grown to 90,017 words, nearly as long as the first novel. I hope to proofread it while traveling this weekend.

Book II is, hopefully, a meaningful story - especially in the context of recent events - but still funny and exciting (with maybe a few sweet, romantic moments). Some highlights from the hopefully soon-to-be new book:

Some technomagic geekery from the chapter, "We're Under Hill and On Air"

“Octaves,” Ochsner suddenly realized, “The numbers represent octaves. The system is translating between one set of spells and the other using bardic casting as a universal language. The numbers it’s assigned to each of your gnoman spells tell us the composition for each one based on musical notes…” 

Vicki studied the numbers and broke out a big grin as she understood what Ochsner meant. She whistled the first sequence in the list, and when she finished there was a soft chime, and then a voice came from the tablet in her hands. 

“This is scout two,” the gnoman voice said, “What’s going on? I heard this thing make a dinging noise or something.” 

Ochsner and the two gnomans whooped and cheered over the success. 

“Seriously, is everything okay?” the voice said again. 

“Yes scout two,” Vicki said, “Base is just revolutionizing the art of remote communication.”

Some moralizing, from the chapter, "You Never Really Go Home Again"

Azraea sighed and shook her head. She took Kaira’s hand and squeezed it, “I’m sorry. I know what you meant and there’s nothing wrong about being worried about those closest to us. The problem isn’t that we callously devalue the lives of the rest, it’s that we’ve accepted that the slaughter of a hundred people in the street is just something that can happen, and we believe that if it had to happen, then we should be thankful that at least it didn’t happen to someone close to us.” 

Some colorful side characters, from the chapter, "And Things Went South from There"

“Salmon roll!” the little grey haired woman never remembered names, but she could remember her regulars by their orders, “I thought you graduated?! Come in, come in! Who is your friend? Where are Mammoth Steak and Chicken Fingers?” 

“Samantha, this is Lily. Lily, this is Samantha,” Azraea said, “She helped me out of some trouble this morning.” 

“What sort of trouble?” Lily said suspiciously. 

“A dicksack got handsy with Salmon Roll and caught on fire. It was a debacle, ma’am.” 

“I see. I always knew that would happen eventually.”

Some reflections on the 2016 election, from the chapter, "Black and White and Dead All Over"

For Syliva, it was simply amazing to watch; she’d crafted a complex strategy to place herself in power, but most of it had become unnecessary – her base was unwavering, sustained not by personal interest or welfare, but simply by the spite they felt for the segments of the population that reviled her. All she had to do to keep them happy was to act like a monster.

A little orc/elf romance from the chapter, "A Fair to Remember"

“Now tell me, have you ever eaten anything deep fried?” Thrakaduhl asked. 

“I don’t even know what that is.” 

“Well, that explains your delicate dimensions.” 

Kaira raised an eyebrow, “Delicate?” 

“In much the same way a rapier is, of course.”

Two male characters passing a Reverse Bechdel Test, from the chapter, "Retaliation"

“A lot of the guard has gone away without leave, and what’s left is straining to maintain some semblance of peace in the countryside. Technically the men you see here are on vacation.” 

“Hell of a vacation.” 

“You know what they say, ‘come to the city, see the lights, kill the fascists,’ and all that,” Jericho nailed a rushing Firebrand in the head with one of his arrows. 

“Fascists?” 

“Or anarchists? Honestly, I don’t give a shit what they are at this point. I’ll call them bad guys and have my moral introspection after this is over."

The Rise of Azraea, Book I

Just a reminder that this is currently available on Amazon:

The Rise of Azraea, Book I
A work of historical fiction based on three years of academic research into the life and reign of Caelia’s most controversial ruling woman.

The kingdom of Caelia fractures and crumbles beneath the weight of a dragon whose spiteful greed and silver tongue have sowed desperation and resentment across the country; for a college graduate, it’s the sort of hopeless job market that makes strolling into a dark forest to face a vicious monster seem like the least-objectionable option available. 

Three college friends, Azraea (a human necromancer), Kaira (an elf who wants to be an orc), and Ochsner (a dwarf who wants a job), have finished their studies in Caelia’s capital city, and are faced with a seemingly hopeless future. The three women agree to spend one more summer together, and accept a contract to kill the Scolopendrae of the Dark Dweller’s Forest. Their post-graduation road trip leads them through far more danger than they’d anticipated, as they’re forced to deal with corrupt highway guardsmen, orc survivalists, ancient automatons, gnoman spies, and werewolves perpetrating insurance fraud. Fortunately, as they say, "What doesn't kill you..."

The Rise of Azraea, Book I, is a high fantasy story with elements of comic fantasy and satire targeting present day, real world issues such as economic inequity, and sexual and racial discrimination.

The Rise of Azraea, Book I

Currently available on Amazon:

The Rise of Azraea, Book I
A work of historical fiction based on three years of academic research into the life and reign of Caelia’s most controversial ruling woman.

The kingdom of Caelia fractures and crumbles beneath the weight of a dragon whose spiteful greed and silver tongue have sowed desperation and resentment across the country; for a college graduate, it’s the sort of hopeless job market that makes strolling into a dark forest to face a vicious monster seem like the least-objectionable option available. 

Three college friends, Azraea (a human necromancer), Kaira (an elf who wants to be an orc), and Ochsner (a dwarf who wants a job), have finished their studies in Caelia’s capital city, and are faced with a seemingly hopeless future. The three women agree to spend one more summer together, and accept a contract to kill the Scolopendrae of the Dark Dweller’s Forest. Their post-graduation road trip leads them through far more danger than they’d anticipated, as they’re forced to deal with corrupt highway guardsmen, orc survivalists, ancient automatons, gnoman spies, and werewolves perpetrating insurance fraud. Fortunately, as they say, "What doesn't kill you..."


The Rise of Azraea, Book I, is a high fantasy story with elements of comic fantasy and satire targeting present day, real world issues such as economic inequity, and sexual and racial discrimination.

Much to Do, Little Time

I finally took the plunge this weekend and put my first completed novel on Amazon. I was getting to the point that tweaking it and editing it was doing more harm than good, so I decided I needed to get it out of my hands and move on with my life.

I've had the rough draft for the immediate sequel finished since March, so I would hope to have that up within the next year, hopefully sooner than later. I also have another, unrelated novel finished, for which I want to try finding a publisher, but fitting it to a market is tricky. All while that's going on, I want to get my dissertation ready to defend by September, and look into advertising for the book (though I may wait to seriously promote it until after the second book is online).




James N. McDonald is a "liberal academic" born and raised in Missouri and residing in Tennessee. He holds one degree in history, two degrees in psychology, but loves writing fiction. His first, completed novel, The Rise of Azraea, Book I, is a high fantasy story with elements of comic fantasy and satire targeting present day, real world issues such as economic inequity, and sexual and racial discrimination. It is currently available on Amazon.