Heavenward on Golden Wings [Announcement] Restructuring HoGW

Hello guys,

There are some pretty big changes coming to HoGW. I pray you'll bear with me while we work them out. For a while now, I've been waiting for the current book to be completed so that I can make this announcement. Here goes;

HoGW does not have two books. It has three.

I know. That's confusing. I'll put it a better way. Due to editing changes that occurred in the production of Hatchling, the entire series is going to have to be restructured. All one hundred and ten chapters released so far will be reorganised into three books instead of the original two and here is why.

HoGW is way too big.

That shouldn't come as a surprise to some of you. In fact, a few of you probably saw this coming (Why didn't you warn me?). For over a year now, I've been writing chapters of between 2500 and 3500 words and together they form this great series that we all love. A long epic tale of gargantuan proportions that is still not done. Unfortunately, that's the problem.

Here are some facts:

The standard length for a fantasy novel is 80, 000 to 100, 000 words. The old Hatchling was 156, 000. The old Fledgeling is much bigger. All in all, I had over 320, 000 words and labelled the collection "two Books". Big books are hard to market or sell, even for established authors. Editors charge by the word, yes...even the cheap ones. It was clear that HoGW was a big block of text/paper that no proper publisher or writer would take seriously. No more reasons really. If you weren't one of my readers (and despite being one), would you spend your money on a giant book from a newbie, untested author?

Thankfully, I got some very good advice.

"If the books are too big why not chop them in two?" said the most awesome mom ever.

I considered it. The guys helping me edit also thought it was a good idea. Luckily, I did not go with it. Chopping the books down the middle would have ruined too many of the things I put so much effort into. So we took the series as a whole and chopped into thirds.

Here's your new HoGW;

Book One, "Hatchling", starts where it always has. However, it now ends at The Awakened Legacy.

Book Two, "Nestling", starts with Frightening Revelations and ends at A Decision Made II.

Book Three, "Fledgeling", begins with Fitting and ends with Farewell.

Book Four, "First Flight", will pick up where three leaves off with Home.

I understand that the changes will take some getting used to but I felt it was better to restructure the web novel now so that it would not be too different from the books especially with Hatchling coming out in a couple of weeks.

The decision had to be made. I honestly don't see any other way around the problem. Not without chucking away 100, 000 words and at least thirty-eight chapters of the series. That was not an option for me.

I just hope you'll understand.

I'll be making the changes to the series to reflect the new structure over the next few days. I've already done so for patreon and now I was working on LupineKing for a bit. Sadly, I hit a snag. I've got someone coming to help me so until I can get back to it I'll be working on rrl. Royalroadl might turn out to be easier but I'm already dreading fantasy-books.

HoGW Book Four: First Flight will begin in a week.

In the meantime, why not go and read the new story on LupineKing.com

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