A (Not So) Healthy Dose of Chaos: Ups & Downs -- Next-to-Last Draft Finished!

Hello everyone!

The progress on Book 4: Ups & Downs has reached its pinnacle, and the next-to-last draft has been finished.

I have ordered a "proof" copy of a softcover version of Ups & Downs as that is how I prefer to do the final editing before release.

I originally had softcover versions of the Chaos series on Lulu.com, but from a little research, I've found Lulu to be a bit expensive.  How expensive?  Well, the Pocket Book-sized (4.25 x 6.875 in) no-frills print version of Ups & Downs would have cost a little under $8.00 just to print up a proof copy (not including shipping).  If I wanted to sell that on Lulu's marketplace site, it would have been almost $16.00 . . . and that is before increasing the price to try and make royalties, AND does not including shipping.

I compared that to Amazon.  For a US Trade Paperback size book (6 x 9 in), which I had a headache trying to covert, I had a proof copy printed up for . . . (drum roll, please!) . . . a few pennies over $4.00.

I don't know how good the quality is for Amazon printing, but from a few books I have that I think might have been print-on-demand through Amazon, the quality seems to be on par with Lulu.  It's likely I'll move all softcover versions of the books to Amazon, based on price alone.

That being said, the one advantage of Lulu is that they offer hardcover books, and Amazon print-on-demand does not.  I may entertain making up some hardcover books to sell as limited editions at some point, but those are a little under $15.00 each, just to print up.

I could be wrong on all of the above; if I am, please let me known in the comments.

Anyway, enough of my babbling about print-on-demand; you want to hear when the eBook of Ups & Downs is coming out!  That depends on how fast the printing will be done through Amazon, and then converting to an eBook will probably take a day.  So, I'm planning on a late October (near Halloween) release for Book 4 in both eBook and print formats, and will be available first on Smashwords (to be filtered out to other eBook retailers through its distribution chains) and Amazon.  I would also like to do another live-stream to commemorate the release; I'll let you all know further information closer to the release date.

Honestly, I'm excited to see your reactions to things that happen in the book.  I've given you some hints about the contents of this book, so I'll summarize them here, along with a few new entries to whet your appetite:

• It is a character development-heavy book.
• Are any members of any tenants' families going to come to visit?
• Is there a conference for landlords?
• Is Ken going to officially be dubbed a knight of Kisstil?  Will he get to visit Matrona's planet?
• What is Matrona's space-time manipulation "specialty?"
• What is Alisa building in her garage?  And what's more, will we see it in action?
• Re-contracting is coming up.  Will that mean a shakeup in the number of tenants?  Will the tenants want to re-contract?
• If something big concerning a battle appears and the tenants are involved and injured, how will Ken really react?
• If Silver is Ken's teacher, does that mean Silver also has a teacher?
• Does Atlantis exist?
• There are a total of six (6) combat situations, so if you wanted to more action, you're in luck!
  

I do want to thank you for keeping with the irregular release schedule of the series!

Oh, and here's a preliminary cover for the eBook of Ups & Downs, featuring Alisa: