The Ayrelon Times

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

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...

I wanted to post a quick update on my progress with Bathed in the Blood of Ravens , and give some insight on the Timeline between that novel and the two short stories: Threads of Night and The Curse of Kishina . Blood of Ravens is coming along nicely. I am halfway through chapter 16 of the 18 I have planned, and have reached 205k words written so far. This includes 2nd draft rewrites and ProWritingAid edits. I should have the rest of the book finished in another two weeks. After that I just need to fold in Proofreader feedback and give Beta Readers time to read through the book and provide feedback. So, publishing is close! Timeline The majority of The Curse of Kishina takes place 1292 years before the start of Bathed in the Blood of Ravens. This places the main events in this short story before the “First Era of Man”. Threads of Night takes place 657 years before Bathed in the Blood of Ravens, during year 575 of the “First Era of Man” The Kingdom of Arkhania was founded in year 1,119...

With the release of the website this week, I’ve been a little distracted. I admit that it’s been nice to take a break from the endless stream of writing and editing, but I’m anxious to get back to it. When this week started I was in a funk. Not a ‘I can’t think of what to write’ funk but a ‘why didn’t I edit more thoroughly as I was writing… please, make it stop’ funk. So, my wife made the brilliant suggestion of starting my website now… and here we are. Creating the website prompted me to write a quick short story. Which I did. ‘ Threads of Night ’ it is publishing over several days, one scene per day. But we know all that, Rick! What you aren’t aware of is that I’ve also been working on a series of blog posts that describe Ayrelon’s magic system in grand detail. The series is long, and there’s a lot of information to take in. So, I’ve scheduled the posts to begin on Monday, Aug 24th, and continue every Monday, Wednesday & Friday until September 14th. I have a few of those articl...