The Ayrelon Times

First, check these links out and circle back to this post to found out who/what/when/where... if you're interested. https://www.ayrelonpress.com/ https://www.ayrelon.com/ https://www.rlparkerfantasy.com/ A while back, a fellow author, and friend, named Mike Conley switched his website around to reduce his monthly costs, and found a solution so obvious the rest of us just didn't think about it. Well, the rest of "us" members of that particular Discord community. I just got the chance to pull the trigger on migrating my websites off of SquareSpace onto Google Sites myself, and I've got to say... I think the switch has been pretty amazing, so far. You'll notice: New graphics An improved color scheme An improved layout, and menus Smoother performance And the fact that my blog is now external, but wrapped inside a page of the site(s) Now, there were a few slightly tricky, or tedious steps involved. I plan to film a tutorial video for YouTube some time this week and...

I haven’t posted a blog in some time, so I figured I’d catch everyone up on what’s been happening, what I’m doing, and what’s up next from me, R.L. Parker, and the world of Ayrelon in general. As some of you might know, a few things happened quite rapidly at the end of 2022. First, I published Dusk, my third novel, on November 15th. It’s launch was decent from a pre-order perspective, and I was excited to continue promoting it. To do so, I joined TikTok and that ended up taking over my life for the next few months. I’ve grown my TikTok account a great deal, made a lot of new writer / reader friends in the process, and helped many authors along their publishing journey. All of that has been amazing, but to say it took a lot of my time would still be an understatement. Even with a new social media platform as a distraction, I managed to write the first draft of Enveloped by Dark’s Embrace in November, December, and February (I took most of January off). It currently clocks in at 195k w...

We recently started Audiobook recording preparations and noticed that some of the content in the book didn’t quite roll off the tongue the way we like when read aloud. So, I took a two week break from everything else and focused on reading the book out loud to myself and polishing the content so that it read smoother. I finished that process late last night and then immediately formatted the new copy for e-book through Draft2Digital and uploaded then uploaded the new version to Smashwords, Amazon KDP, and Google Play. Once that was complete, I set about formatting the paperback copy in Adobe InDesign. My goal wasn’t just to get the updated content in place, but to reduce the overall printing cost of the book and make it more affordable for my readers… IE: for you. In short, I succeeded. Here’s a longer breakdown of the before & after details: Old Version :: 5x7 Paperback Pages - 786 Font Size - 9.5pt Projected Profit - $2.53 Price - $32.99 Print & Distribution channel fees - $3...

 I can't believe it's finally here!

So… a funny thing just happened. I finished formatting the ebook files, and was hopping around to get everything set up. And… when configuring Draft2Digital profile for the book, it didn’t let me specify a “start selling on” date, only a publish date. As a result, pre-orders instantly went live on 6 sites weeks before I intended them to . Yay?! Feel free to visit any of these retailers to place your pre-order, any time you wish. They may take a few hours, or a day, for the individual sites to put the pre-order live… but it’s there. It’s out in the wild. It’s… real . UPDATE : Publish date has been moved up to June 25, 2021 !!!! E-Book Pre-Orders Now Available On: Amazon Kindle Angus & Robertson Apple Books Barnes & Noble Bol Gardners Google Play Books !ndigo Kobo Mondadori Odilo Scribd Smashwords Thalia

The folks at Indie Book Butler were kind enough to interview me, and blast it to their social media. Feel free to hop over and check it out .

Everything is formatted and uploaded. Once the “Title in Setup” goes into eproof status and I approve, I’ll be able to order my physical proof. But um… check the date on the right ;) Two dates to care about!! PREORDERS SHOULD GO LIVE: March 20, 2021 PUBLISH DATE IS TENTATIVELY: September 3, 2021

Let’s talk about Adobe InDesign… Formatting a novel for both e-book and print is tedious. There! I said it! You authors out there know what I’m talking about. There are so many facets that affect how you get it done, and how successful you’ll be at it. Where are you publishing? How long is your novel? How many chapters did you break it into? Do you use Mac or Windows? Can you afford a software license for the fancy stuff? Can you get by with free formatting processes? Does your book include graphics, or little poems/parables at the start of each chapter (like Bathed in the Blood of Ravens)? Is it Tuesday? No matter what system you choose—and you’ll likely try several before you settle on one—there is a learning curve. A learning curve that you must fit into your schedule between any day job you might have, your family time, attempting to continue writing, whatever time you’re spending on marketing yourself and your novel… the list goes on and on. Through experimentation, scouring of bl...

Today I finished the final editing pass on Bathed in the Blood of Ravens. After receiving the last of my Beta Reader feedback last week, I spent most of my evenings and the entire weekend working on finishing touches, and even added some new content. Now I dive head first into the self publishing process, and it’s going to be a bumpy ride. I just spent the last few hours repeatedly exporting to Word from Scrivener, to play with initial formatting. Then I fell down the rabbit hole of formatting my book for print. Paper sizes, margins, gutters, font sizes, white space, section breaks… whew! My lovely wife and I are trying to decide which size to target, because that has a dramatic impact on page count. Remember those smaller paperbacks that seemed so common in the 80's and 90's? Mmhm. Those. 4.2x7 inches, according to my calipers. Page count for Blood of Ravens at that size, with 9pt font mind you, comes in at a whopping 1022. Meanwhile, at 6x9 inches with a slightly larger font ...

Several things have happened recently that have me both excited and stressed. I haven’t posted an actual blog entry in some time, so I figured now was as good a time as any to start blogging the whole post-writing process. So far what I’ve learned is that everything that has to happen after you write your novel takes much longer than writing your novel, and is much more work. So, if you think writing is hard… well, you’ve some surprises waiting for you. Editing Woes The first point I’d like to cover is the whole Editing process. Well… my novel is fairly large. Not huge, by epic fantasy standards, but definitely on the larger side. Now, it’s worth noting that writers think in terms of word count, rather than page count. The reason is simple: page counts change, even without a change in word count. Page count doesn’t just rely on how many words your story has, but also the dimensions of the page, your margins, the “gutter” you leave to allow for the book’s binding, your font choice, the ...

The Raven was hand drawn, and the cover was composed by the wonderful and talented Charlotte Mallory!

Bathed in the Blood of Ravens is finished! Well… writing, self editing, and rewrite passes are complete. It’s in the hands of Proofreaders as I type this. The cover art is coming along nicely, thanks to the wonderfully talented Charlotte Mallory. Once I incorporate Proofreader feedback, the next step will be to get it into the hands of Beta Readers. You can sign up here to be notified when it publishes! And you can sign up here to become a Beta Reader, and get access before it publishes! I have to say, I feel rather accomplished right now. Not only is this my first novel, but it’s a huge one. If you’d like an idea of just how large Bathed in the Blood of Ravens is at 219,594 words, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was 76,944 words. I mention this not to compare the two books in quality, but to show how big of an undertaking this was for me. So, what am I working on while I wait for Proofreader and Beta Reader feedback, you ask? Nice of you to ask… Book 2: Enveloped by Dark’s Embr...

For those of you who’ve known me for a while, this website and my writings are a long time coming. For the rest of you, welcome to the adventure! Yes, this post signifies the beginnings of my internet presence as an author. No, I’m not published yet… but that’s not going to deter me. Publishing will come with time, and I’ve a lot of writing to do before I worry about it. I’ve wanted to be an author since I was eleven years old. At the time of this article, I’ve reached the ripe old age of forty-five. Not a big deal, I know… but it’s a long time to put your dreams on hold. I grew up poor. So, when I became an adult I focused on my career rather than my dreams. I wanted to make sure I could provide for myself, and my eventual family. It was a decision born of necessity and a deeply ingrained sense of responsibility. That may seem disheartening to some. I mean, following one’s dreams is supposed to be the way isn’t it? In reality it gave me time to grow as an individual and strengthen my ...