I hit publish on Guild of Tokens chapter 1 about 6 months ago, starting a new serial experiment that would see the entirety of book 1 of my epic urban fantasy series released for free.
Now that we’ve reached the end of this first chapter of ARC Worlds and the NYC Questing World series, I wanted to take a moment to debrief, get your input on the next phase of the newsletter, and share a big announcement!
Debrief
Guild of Tokens clocks in at 49 numbered chapters, 2 interludes, a prologue, and an epilogue. All told, I released two chapters a week for almost every week in the six-month span, save for holiday breaks and a mid-point break. That’s a pretty consistent clip, but I wondered at times how many people were reading each chapter on release, how many people were saving batches of chapter to binge-read, or maybe some combination of the two. Substack’s statistics and metrics have improved since I launched in the fall, but they don’t offer the level of granularity of Google Analytics.
If you fall into any of these camps (or your own camp), let me know in the comments! And if you’ve finished the book and have been dying to share your thoughts with someone, this Friday I will be launching the first-ever ARC Worlds book club session, where we’ll discuss book 1, easter eggs, and more!
In addition to the twice-weekly chapters of Guild of Tokens, I released weekly chapters of Guild of Magic for paid subscribers, a monthly open thread, a monthly links/adventure game nostalgia feature, an interview feature, the first part of a series on building a readership, and several art reveals/process posts.
At times, the 3-times-a-week chapter releases sapped my energy (and maybe your attention) to the detriment of non-fiction content. With that era of the newsletter behind us, I plan to re-double my efforts on non-fiction content side, as well as finally launch the third section of the newsletter that will be devoted to comics!
I’ve been writing the first issue of a comics series over the past several months and will giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the series from all angles, as well as writing about comics I’m reading and highlighting other indie comic creators.
Finally, since ARC Worlds launched, our subscriber base has grown from zero to just over 250 this past week, through a combination of existing monthly newsletter subscribers, Kickstarter backers, BookFunnel group promotion sign-ups, Substack network sign-ups, and word of mouth.
I’m thankful for each of you for coming along this journey with me and am excited to grow this newsletter over the rest of the year and beyond! Now that all chapters of Guild of Tokens are live, it’s the perfect time to tell a friend to jump on board!
So please spread the word and consider becoming a paid Guild member to help support the newsletter and bring more stories, content, and art to the world of the NYC Questing Guild!
The BIG announcement(s)
And now, the moment you have all been waiting for!
I’m excited to reveal the cover for book 2 in the NYC Questing Guild series, Guild of Magic, with a guest post over on blog-friend-of-the-series, FanFiAddict!
In addition to the cover reveal, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the cover, illustrated by Felix Ortiz and designed by Shawn T. King, and can sign up to be notified when the Guild of Magic Kickstarter campaign goes live this summer! Make sure you do, because for the first time ever, I’ll be offering an early backer reward that will only be available during the first 48 hours of the campaign!
What are you waiting for? Go there now and I’ll see you Friday with the first-ever ARC Worlds book club!
I'm looking forward to bingeing on this. I read the first couple of chapters and enjoyed them a lot, but haven't found the time to keep up with the series. Now that it's all out there I'll aim to dive in sooner rather than later.
Also, I wasn't sure if you knew this already, but just in case: you can plug your Substack into Google Analytics and therefore benefit from that enhanced data.