And here I am late with posting, but vibing out to Beyonce's "RENISSANCE" This is a no-skips album for me, but her last couple albums have also been that for me. I love me some Bey. I know you all didn't wander over to hear me talk about Beyonce. Anyways, this might be the last blog post of the year. Between real life obligation, holiday ruckus, and me plain old forgetting I might not update the blog. I'll try to, but just know it is a possibility.
Have you been to my site? Well, if you haven't, there isn't much happening there. In fact, it has been brought offline. I had originally taken it down to do some changes, but then I was like, "Y'know what? I'm just going to take it down for the rest of the year." It's one less thing I have to think about and I can do the updates and changes at my own pace without having an imaginary clock ticking in the back of my mind. I've provided a link on the landing page to buy books and to contact me, but there isn't much else there.
Why did I do such a thing? Firstly, I've changed how I'm going to do my serials and novellas. They're still exclusives, but they'll be exclusive to my Ko-Fi account. The change is for simplicity. There were too many moving parts for doing it through my site and I needed to cut back on some things. I'm also going to use their store feature to buying experience cleaner. So when the site comes live again, and you all go to purchase a book through it, you'll have Ko-Fi, Smashwords, and Amazon as buying options. Readers going through Ko-Fi will be directed to BookFunnel to download their book to their preferred device. It's pretty easy, but support is available through BookFunnel and me as well. Another change is samples through my site. First chapter for all my books will be available as samples on my site, another feature recently rolled out by BookFunnel, which had me going back to them.
Onto serials and novellas. Goodness figuring out how to distribute exclusive content has been the bane of my author-y existence, but I think I'm content with how I want everything to go for Ko-Fi. Firstly, you all will be able to be one-time supporters or monthly subscribers, and those who choose to subscribe monthly will have different tier levels. Level 1s will get access to all episodes of serials and full novellas along with some other perks. Level 2s will get everything on level 1 along with download capabilities. There are some other things too, but I can't recall them. Level 3s, everything in levels 1 and 2, and some other things. Oh! A free copy of either the novella or serial once they're released wide. If they get released wide. I'll let my level 3s know. I just had an idea.
Now, I know my one-time donators are like what about us? Listen, I love all who support me, so I'm going to give everyone who donates something. One-time supporters will have access to level 1 posts for 30 days from the day of their donation. I don't make the rules Ko-Fi did. Another perk is if you buy something from my Ko-Fi store, you'll get access to exclusive content. So there are multiple ways people can enjoy the exclusive stuff.
All right, since it has taken me forever to get this blog post written, the world of social media has changed--officially. Popular micro-blogging site, Twitter, was bought by a person I don't share the same view points with, and I know some people are leaving, some are staying to see what happens, and others don't care and it's business as usual with them. I am part of the leaving camp, but it's not that easy since the Twitter is so ingrained in advertising and exposure, especially for indie and self-published authors. I'm currently testing out Mastadon as a new home with the idea of cross-posting to Twitter for a little while before letting the account become dormant. I'm also thinking about setting up a Discord server. Once I've gotten everything figured out, I'll let everyone know.
Okay onto WIP updates. Nothing new to report. I started editing The Adventures of Swift, but I've been going into the office recently thanks to my new position (luckily it's only temporary), so mentally I am not ready to edit it, but I'm hoping to hop into it this week. I'm also writing fanfic at the same time, and one of my fics has gotten pretty fun so I've been focusing on it too. I know bad me, but I love writing fanfic. It's just fun playing with these characters I've got attachments to lol.
I think that is all for me. It has been a weird weekend for me, so my thoughts are all over the place. Anyway, I wish everyone a safe and fun Halloween, and for those who are like me, I'll see y'all at Target the day after Halloween buying the discounted candy.
Until next time...
-DJ Small
