Fifteen Million (An Announcement for Path of Dragons)

Just wanted to make a quick announcement before we get to today's Path of Dragons chapters...

Some of you already know this, but when Podium (my publisher) informed me of the publishing schedule for Path of Dragons, I was a little bummed out. More than a year is a long time in this genre, and I was worried about losing steam. However, once that initial malaise wore off, I decided to look at that long gap as an opportunity. So, in addition to working on the overall story and establishing a plan for how it was meant to go, I decided to focus on marketing.

I started doing ads on Royal Road. I made a TikTok account (and even got a few thousand views on some of my slideshows!). I commissioned a bunch of art. But most importantly, I implemented the double-chapter-month plans. Those efforts skyrocketed the story onto the Popular this Week list on Royal Road, increasing its visibility by a significant margin. Once it made it onto that list, it never left the front page.

It's been months of hard work to maintain that momentum. Anyone who frequents the Discord server will confirm that I've had my good and bad days. But I've stuck with the plan, and at last, it's paid off.

Just yesterday, the story had its biggest day yet (over 70k views), but the big news is that we finally reached my top goal (in terms of views). Fifteen million. That's how many views the story has in its lifetime. When I set that goal, I thought it was a pipe dream. I didn't think I'd ever achieve it. It was one of those aim for the moon goals, and I was perfectly fine with coming up short (and ending up among the stars). I didn't think we'd actually hit the moon.

And yet, we did.

For that, I want to thank you all. It's an enormous source of pride (not just because it's a big number, but because it represents staying power and persistence), and I can't say how much I appreciate the level of support and engagement you've all given this story. I love writing it, and I love seeing how invested everyone else is in Elijah's journey.

So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. So, so very much.

And I guess it wouldn't be an announcement if I didn't ask you all to head over to Royal Road and leave a rating, review, follow, and favorite (or whatever combination you prefer). Those help the story so much.  

Also, remember that the first book is coming to Amazon/Audible soon (May 6), so keep a lookout for an announcement concerning pre-orders.