Updates and Newsy Things

Your ears are in for a treat!

Actress A.V. Caris has been recording voiceover narration for the audiobook version of Ascending Mage 1: Changeling Justice.

It hasn’t been to the production engineer for fine-tuning yet, but we wanted to share a sneak peek with you.

Here’s the raw recording for Chapter One of Ascending Mage 1:

Isn’t she amazing? We’re so excited to add audiobooks to our lineup for those folks who prefer to read with their ears.

We’re expecting to have this first audiobook ready for release in early November.

Excuse us a moment as we squeal excitedly. There might even be some celebratory war horn blowing happening today.

Q: Why the silly catfacery?

A: Another milestone has been reached here at our nascent publishing venture: we’ve hit 10,000 books sold!

It’s taken us seven months and five novels to hit that mark, mind you, so it’s not like we’re anything special. We’re well aware there are plenty of authors selling ten times that with one title, in much shorter time.

Nevertheless, we’re delighted to reach so many readers! 😊

A big key to reaching this milestone has been read-through from Ascending Mage 1 through the rest of the series (thus far; we’re outlining for 10 books in the Ascending Mage series).

Crunching the numbers, we’re able to determine that two-thirds of the folks who buy the ebook version of Ascending Mage 1 will go on to read the next book in the series. That ratio rises to 72% for those reading in Kindle Unlimited. We’re guessing that’s simply because the barrier is lower; with their monthly subscription it costs nothing to continue reading the next book, so there’s no purchase decision to be made.

And 71% of those who read Ascending Mage 2 go on to read AM3. That number surges to 91.66% among KU readers. That’s a pretty decent read-through rate!

By format, 60.9% is in the form of Kindle Unlimited page reads. Ebooks comprise 37.3%, with paperbacks a mere 1.8% of total sales.

It’ll be interesting to see how audiobooks fit into the pie when we start releasing those (which are currently in production).

As best we can figure, we’ve sold books in 12 different countries. Some of those countries—such as New Zealand and Christmas Island—are sold via Amazon’s Australia store; we only know that we have readers there because they reached out to us. In fact, one of our Alpha Team members is from New Zealand!

It’s pretty wild to know that our stories are being read literally on the opposite side of the planet from our home state of North Dakota.

All of this has happened because of YOU, our loyal readership. Our readers continue to inspire us to keep pushing forward.

Ten thousand times over: THANK YOU for reading and reviewing our stories!

It’s not even been a week since Ascending Mage 5: Changeling Uprising was released, yet we’ve already begun outlining for the next novel!

Ascending Mage 6: Hold The Line picks up the story in the aftermath of the previous book’s battles (no spoilers!).

Here’s the gorgeous cover:

Our cover artist, Ben Roque, yet again nailed the emotions in this scene. And you’ll note Ember’s pickup–Ruby the red Ranger–in the background. As with all of our book covers, there’s a squirrel hidden somewhere in the image. Can you find it?

Ascending Mage 6: Hold The Line

Ascending Mage 6: Hold The Line is page-burning modern fantasy with a kick-ass heroine and magic that will grab you by the throat.

Expected release date: November 22, 2019.

Pre-order the ebook now and get it delivered to your device on release day:

“The odds are never in her favor. Good thing this mage doesn’t play by the rules.”

With a tagline like that, you know Ember Wright is about to throw down and kick some asses!

The latest installment–and Season One finale–of our Ascending Mage series is coming out on Sunday, September 22, 2019. You can order it now in paperback form, or pre-order the ebook and it’ll get delivered to your device after midnight on Sunday.

Just don’t expect to get any sleep when you start reading it!

Full description:

The odds are never in her favor. Good thing this mage doesn’t play by the rules.

She once passed as an obedient servant. Now, Senior Investigator Ember Wright shines a light on corruption wherever she finds it.

But the corrupt are hitting back. They’re hitting back hard. Her cover blown, they’ve branded her as public enemy number one.

With a target painted on her back and on anyone who dares help her, Ember leads a global uprising. When her changeling friends get caught in the crossfire, she learns the true cost of freedom.

Win or lose, she stands for justice against the oppressors. She doesn’t stand alone.

Ascending Mage 5: Changeling Uprising is page-burning modern fantasy with a kick-ass heroine and magic that will grab you by the throat.

Last month, we began auditions for the voice actor who will narrate the Ascending Mage series.

We posted audio samples of our top four picks and invited you to cast your vote.

Several hundred ballots were submitted, along with helpful feedback. Everyone had their personal preferences for who gave the best performance resembling their own interpretation of Ember Wright.

Ultimately, the decision was ours.

We wanted a convincing actor who was easy to listen to, exhibited a faster pace to match our page-turning style of writing, and who had experience creating professional-grade audiobooks. Though all the vocal talent was great, the decision became crystal clear.

It’s our privilege to announce that we found that perfect voice!

Stephanie Willing is an actress living in New York City with experience in a wide range of audiobooks, commercial voiceovers, and theater. She’s adept in various accents, genders, and age ranges—vital, considering the ensemble of characters she’ll be portraying in our novels. Because she narrates romance and also writes children’s fiction (and our Ascending Mage series is definitely not child-friendly), she’ll be recording under the pseudonym of A. V. Caris. She’s got a new website dedicated to genres of more mature audiobooks such as ours.

Says Stephanie:

I’m absolutely thrilled that your words and my voice are going to bring this exciting series to life. This is gonna be a lot of fun 🙂

Stephanie is upgrading her recording booth to a Studio Bricks setup. Ascending Mage 1: Changeling Justice will be the first audiobook she narrates in the new studio, with post-production engineering expected to occur in October. The rest of the Ascending Mage novels will follow.

She’s working with a dialect specialist to get Ember’s accent just right. Stephanie has also been studying North Dakotan accents to ensure authenticity, even though we’re convinced that we North Dakotans have no accent; it’s everyone else who has one!

In case you missed the poll, here’s Stephanie’s audition:

Welcome to the team, Stephanie — or should we say, A. V. Caris!  It’s so exciting to know that our stories will soon reach a whole new crop of people who prefer reading with their ears.