Huh. I should have checked the post office box yesterday before saying I didn’t have $600 yet. (I did check it Monday.) Turns out I did have the full amount for today’s chapter; I just didn’t know it.

Things are looking up. Guess I should get serious about writing Chapter Seven.

Next chapter at: $900
Current total: $830

Okay, here’s the deal: At $300 per chapter, Chapter Three shouldn’t have been posted.

At $250 per chapter, it made the cut. The take so far, for the first two chapters: $545.

I decided to go ahead and post it anyway. The increase to $300 was largely based on the theory that I’d be coordinating with other authors through Serial Universe, and that didn’t happen, so at least for the moment I’m going to cut readers some slack.

However, it’s clear that this serial is not thriving — I’m basing this on hit counts as well as receipts. I’ve identified some of the reasons for that — bad timing, not Ethshar, not enough people familiar with Nightside City, poor publicity work on my part, etc. I’m not sure what I can do about some of them, but timing I can tinker with, and publicity I can work on.

It doesn’t look as if I’ll be keeping a weekly schedule at $300 per chapter. I’m not really going to try. I’ll still post additional chapters when enough money’s come in, but that may mean “never,” and I’m not going to stress out about getting things up every Wednesday. I may drop the per-chapter price to $250 at some point; I haven’t decided for sure. It won’t go any lower than that, though.

I’ll be e-mailing donors with additional details, and I’ll post here with running totals sometimes.

This does not mean I won’t do more serials in the future, or at least attempt them — this one had special problems, being a sequel to an old book. I’m not in any hurry, though.

Next chapter at: $900.
Current total: $545.