“Not another one.” Samantha scowled. “We’re not some kind of anime fellowship here. This is real life, you know.”
“I know that.” Lilith, though embarrassed, still managed to give a rather cute pout. “I just think it would be appropriate.”
“And what would we call ourselves?” asked Christian.
Tristin, unable to contained himself, said, “how about the Jiggling Jugs and Dangling Dicks?”
“NO!”
That day, everyone learned a valuable lesson. Never ever let Tristin name anything. He sucked at it.
AFTERWORD
Hey, everyone. It’s Brandon, and I’ve finally been able to release the third book of The Executioner Series… which ends on another cliffhanger.
Fuck.
I think it is safe to say that I’m not a very good urban fantasy novelist. The Executioner Series was inspired by Jim Butcher’s series, the Dresden Files. I know. I know. Brandon, this series is nothing like the Dresden Files! Where is your snarky wizard PI living in Chicago?! Where’s your cheerleader police officer? Where’s your sexy investigative reporter?! Where’s that perverted creature living inside a skull?! Yeah, I don’t have any of those.
When I say this series was inspired by the Dresden Files, what I mean is that after reading the entire Dresden Files series (as in all the books that were available at the time I began writing The Executioner Series), I was inspired to try my hand at writing something that was purely western urban fantasy. Not western as in “wild west” western, but western as in “not littered with anime tropes” western. Again, I don’t think I succeeded in this regard. I mean, let’s be honest: even though I tried my best not to make this story seem like an anime in book format, it is still littered with anime tropes. About the only thing that isn’t anime is my protagonist who, unlike those poor losers in harem anime, isn’t getting cockblocked or cockblocking himself.
There were a lot of problems I stumbled across when writing this series. The first was, of course, trying to stay away from anime tropes. I found so many littering my page that I think I just gave up on getting rid of them at some point. However, the other problem came in the form of a monetary one.
I am pretty sure I’ve mentioned it in other Afterwords, but it costs money to publish a book. Granted, I could write a book, make my own cover, not hire a copy editor, and publish this on Amazon Kindle and it won’t cost a dime, but that is the recipe for a crappy book. If you want to make a high-quality book, something that is actually worth publishing, then you need to hire an artist (or book cover designer), a copy editor, and at least one proofreader. The general cost to publish a book that is worth publishing is about $3,000 to $5,000.
As a self-published author, I don’t make much money. Right now I’m making enough to pay my bills, buy food, and have my next book published, but I’m not making enough that I could afford to publish more than 7 books a year. I currently have four different series that I’m publishing: A Most Unlikely Hero, American Kitsune, Arcadia’s Ignoble Knight, and The Executioner Series. Of the four, The Executioner Series is not only the least popular (which also means it makes the least amount of money), it is also the one I have the hardest time writing. Because of this, I decided to forego publishing this one twice a year in favor of my other series.
It’s sad, but as much as I don’t want to, I have to treat my writing like a business… because that’s basically what this is. My livelihood comes from my writing. Unfortunately, things like people illegally downloading copies of my books, my books not being mass marketable (I write for a niche market), and a lot of other issues means I’m just not making enough to cover the cost of another book.
Fortunately, that was last year.
At the moment, I’m actually doing pretty decently, which is why despite this crappy cliffhanger ending, I do have some good news.
The Executioner IV will be published early next year. I’m not sure when, but I’m hoping to publish it either in February or March 2019, so you all won’t have to wait that long for the final book of this series to come out.
Anyway, that is all for this afterword. I apologize for making it so heavy. I think this was something I’ve been keeping in for quite a while. I hope I didn’t scare you all too much. Before I go, I would like to thank my artist, Lawrence Mann, for making my cover art. I’m a little sad that my writing can’t hold up to his awesome covers. I also want to thank my editor, Dominique Goodall, for fixing the little mistakes that I just can’t seem to catch during my self-edits. Finally, I would like to thank you readers for buying my books, putting up with my cliff hangers, and reading my depressing ass afterwords. It means a lot to me.
I hope to see you all in the final volume of The Executioners Series!
~Brandon Varnell
P.S. if anyone would like to support me more than you do now, I officially have a Patreon that I’m using to try and hopefully fund some of my publishing expenses.
www.patreon.com/BrandonVarnell
Have you been turned on to Brandon Varnell’s light novels yet?
Wait. That sounded kind of wrong.
AMERICAN KITSUNE
Volumes 1-9: A Fox’s Love, A Fox’s Tail, A Fox’s Maid, A Fox’s Family, A Fox’s Vacation, A Fox’s Mate, A Fox’s Revenge, A Fox’s Rescue, A Fox’s Hostility
THE EXECUTIONER SERIES
Volume 1: Succubus
Volume 2: Escape
ARCADIA’S IGNOBLE KNIGHT
Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4
A MOST UNLIKELY HERO
Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4
Follow me at www.varnell-brandon.com!
Or:
@AmericanKitsune
@BrandonBVarnell
Brandon Varnell
Brandon Varnell
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bvarnell1101.tumblr.com
patreon.com/BrandonVarnell
Enclave Page 38
