Chapter 1050 - The Alchemists: From The Author (1/2)

Rose was very impressed with Rune. Suddenly, all her worries about the picture were gone. It felt so good, to have someone stand up for her and protect her. Leon used to do that... but now he actually became the source of her sufferings.

Rose felt grateful, having Rune by her side. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently. ”Thank you.”

”Don't mention it,” Rune said with a smile. Even without her asking, he would do it.

.

.

>>>>

FROM THE AUTHOR:

Thank you so much for reading this book, this far. We have come a long way, from February 2019, until now, May 2021. It has been a wonderful 27 months for the most part. This is the first book that I write on this platform and for the public after I stopped writing for over 18 years.

This book means so much to me, and your support in the form of reviews, coins to unlock the book, comments, and feedback, helped me to keep going and writing, even though this book was not popular. Well.. it's actually STILL NOT POPULAR to this day.

For every one of you on this platform that happened to find this book and liked it, there are 10k people who didn't. It shows how unpopular this book is, even though as most of you said it's a really good book. Sadly, just being good is not enough.

So, thank you for reading so far. I know I haven't been able to update regularly lately because, I have explained so many times, my time is limited and I have to prioritize the books or jobs that will bring me money and put food on the table for my kids.

I have apologized many times, and even changed the privilege into 1 coin and gave a 99% discount for the new chapters as a way to make up for it.

For those of you who came to and are not used to reading digital novels and serialized like these, I am sure you will always compare it to traditional novels you buy from the book store. You buy it, you read it, and be done with it.

s are different. The stories are written every day by the authors and readers enjoy it every day too, as part of their daily life, like reading newspapers with your morning coffee.

FYI, If we compare this book to a traditional book you buy from a bookstore, by the time you have read ”The Alchemists” and ”The Prince Who Cannot Fall In Love” until the last chapter, it would be the same as reading 40 traditional books, the size of The Great Gatsby.

That's what 27 months of writing ”The Alchemists” give you.

I know some of you complain about the amount of coins and time you spend reading this book. Well, that's 40 books for ya.

You can get a traditional paperback for $5. Well, this book is 40 times that. I hope you can do the math.

Q: WHY DON'T YOU FINISH THE ALCHEMISTS BEFORE YOU START WRITING OTHER BOOKS?

Last year, on average, The Alchemists only made $20-$50 per month. I am an interpreter by profession and I charge my clients $100/hour for phone interpreting and $400 per day for all-day conference/seminar.

So... imagine earning so little for so much effort... It broke my heart and made me think I shouldn't be a writer in the first place since people didn't think my book was good enough to read.

Do you see how pitiful it was for me to continue writing a book that took 4 hours of my time every day to get so little money?

Btw, last year, I wasn't even confident enough with my English that I hired an editor to edit this book and I spent $500 per month just to get the chapters edited.

If I was a businessman, I would have already quit since the investment surely only brought me losses. The book made $50 per month but lost $500. That's the dumbest thing someone could ever do. Right?

However, I am an artist, an idealist, who kept thinking I just need my big break, for people to someday see my work and get recognition. So, I kept writing.

However, after Covid-19, the pandemic severely depleted my source of income because people don't do conferences anymore and interpreters couldn't get work. So, I can no longer afford an editor.

Because of that, I started editing the book on my own. It ended up being a good decision because I could improve my English and now I can write directly in English.

Q: WHY DO YOU HAVE SO MANY BOOKS? WHY NOT JUST FOCUS ON ONE?

I started writing another book because I want to be popular. I want to get my big break. I want to make money from my stories, not to keep losing money. I started writing Finding Stardust and still write The Alchemists together. Sadly, that book also didn't do well.

From February to December 2020, I was writing the two books together because I didn't get a lot of interpreting jobs due to the pandemic. By January 2021, I suddenly got a bestselling book: ”The Cursed Prince”.

FINALLY, I got a book that sells. The Cursed Prince's popularity brings a new audience to my early books and slowly they started to make more. If last year, The Alchemists made around $20-$50 per month, in 2021, it is starting to make $400 per month and more.

Without ”The Cursed Prince” perhaps some of you wouldn't be here and ”The Alchemists” will still make $50 per month.

I think, in the 27 months of The Alchemists being published, it has earned around $3500 total. So, on average, it made $129 for every month of its existence.

($3500 : 27 months = $129)

For comparison, The Cursed Prince made that $3500 in just one month.

So, should I continue writing The Alchemists or should I focus on writing the ONLY book that makes me money?

Who will pay for my kids' school and food if I chose to focus on The Alchemists?

Many authors just dropped their books and started new ones when their early books don't sell. I don't do that.

In the 27 months that I am writing on , I have published almost 5.8 million words (in two languages), so it's around 2.9 million words just for the English books. That's around 100k words per month or 2.1 copies of ”The Great Gatsby” per month. It means I am constantly writing.

I don't become lazy and give up just because my books are not popular and didn't earn. I still write 100k words per month. Honestly, it was made possible because I was stuck at home by the pandemic and couldn't do my regular interpreting jobs.

Writing is very fulfilling and even though it didn't make me money, my soul was enriched and I became happier. That's why I kept going.

How I wish I can write all day.

However, since the beginning of 2021, after one year of Covid-19, businesses have started to have a new normal and I started getting jobs back to do remote simultaneous interpreting. That's why from January 2021, my update rate for The Alchemists and Finding Stardust is slowing down.

Should I say no to interpreting jobs that pay me $100 per hour or should I write a book that on average gives me $129 per month?

You might ask, ”Well, remote interpreting only takes an hour, why don't you write the rest of the day?”

Have you seen how interpreters work? To do the one-hour job, we need several hours of preparation, and after the job is done, our brain will be so tired that we can't do any intelligent work for the next several hours. That's one of the reasons why the interpreter's fee is high.

After working all day at a conference for 5 days, I usually couldn't function for the whole next week. It's just so tiring.

So, now that I start to resume my day job, I don't have that much time anymore to write.

I have ”The Alchemists”, ”Finding Stardust”, ”The Prince Who Cannot Fall In Love”, and ”The Cursed Prince”. Out of four, only one book makes me decent money.

Maybe you wonder why I keep saying my books don't make money since you spend a lot of coins on them. The thing is, as the creator, I only keep less than 30% of what the books earned.

The rest are divided between Google or Apple as the app store provider and as the platform. That's how it works.

One chapter normally costs 6 coins or $0.12 (twelve cents) of which I get to keep 3.6 cents.

MOST PEOPLE who read books on use fast passes to read the books for free. Only less than 5% pay with coins. It's sad fact, but it is what it is.

So... a book can only earn if it's hugely popular and have soooo many readers to get that 5% into a significant number. My books aren't.

Only ”The Cursed Prince” is popular enough to earn money to justify the time I spend writing it.

Since I have to prioritize, I decided to pause writing Finding Stardust because that book made the least money. On average, that book only made $90 per month. So it was paused for two months.