You've probably heard it before. ATS's webnovel continues to be on hiatus, but as of some months ago, WN/RR postings were suspended. And here's why.
-First, let's talk about how ATS first operated, before the Brand became a thing. It technically made its debut on Webnovel, then a day or two later, Royalroad. Not much for an audience, hardly any comments or reactions. But the posts continued to come. I'd amp it up to 3-5 chapters a day.
One day I decided on a whim to split these into volumes. Do light novel format. I did my search on word count. Saw that they were typically 20-50k words. I set mine for 60k per book.
I only published it on a whim, just to give it a home and alternate place of publishing. Also helped proved the series was mine by doing it early. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made.
-flash forward, ATS continued to grow, but REALLY did when it the Amazon scene. It was becoming a small brand and cut out its very tiny corner on the vast LitRPG map.
--At first, I intended to keep the business model of free optional buy going (which by the way is completely stupid for the long term). I eventually turned this into a full-time career.
I began to see more posts (not too too many and not just me) about ATS's availability on RR/WN. Free reading. This was fine with me since I intentionally put it that way. Surely everything would continue going as normal.
Then sales dramatically dropped by 60%. Holy shit. The KU reads were always high and KU itself being a ticking time bomb or a rug ready to be pulled from beneath my feet, I found myself in a pickle.
---1 pickle: Amazon's bot. Multiple flaggings every time I published. It's nothing short of a miracle that Amazon hadn't punched me in the dick just for existing. But when you're making them money, they treat you okay. Until you inconvenience them haha.
---2nd pickle: People taking my work and posting them on other websites without my permission. Illegally translating it and CHARGING MONEY for the translations. This is wrong for everybody, not just me. Media, other authors, etc. I didn't even care about this at first, it's fucking normal. I got over it. But for the love of god, don't charge people. It was free.
3rd pickle: The Brand, the LLC, and me as an independent creator has grown. Since I'm in charge of everything pertaining to ATS, forcing myself to continue the same business model I did a year ago as a naïve, unknown urban fantasy writer turned light novel author, wouldn't work.
I've been talking and debating with people for a long coming, before deciding to pull the web novel plug. The Patre on is there to continue posting chapters, but as you can see with the low number of Patreons, it does not factor into the reason of pulling the plug. Every drop of Patreon's funds goes back into ATS.
Ultimately, RR/WN are best for strictly web novel writers with giant active followings such as Wandering Inn, Mother of Learning, etc etc.
At the time: ATS only recently achieve its 50th rating, its rankings weren't great and really, like 5 or 6 of the 1100 followers of RR were ever active. RR converted into basic 0% reviews in which could've helped it struggle better against Amazon's algorithm.
WN wasn't much better, with very few commenters, few reviews to keep it "free," nothing. A dead web novel basically. [Although today, we look at the 3 million views and wonder, wow.]
The lack of interaction made it absolutely pointless for me to keep risking my livelihood with Amazon's bot.
This message isn't an excuse. It is simply explaining what led up to the removal.
You could say By the Order of Amazon, ATS must be removed (to the allowed 10%) or face expulsion from the KDP and its Kindle Unlimited program.
I appreciate your understanding. I figured lack of engagement from the audience, lack of reviews on the platform that mattered (amazon), multiple KDP bot flaggings could eventually lead to this point.
But it's better to remove than to lose my career.
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Adding more to this, 28th of July 2020, which is months (maybe almost a year later), I still get people every now and then entering the discord.
They hadn't a clue a discord existed or that the work was still going. They don't know about the manga in progress, the new manga artist replacement, the platforms, how far the series has gotten, and who's got the rings and babies.
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/syr456/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ATSteamstone/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alvin_Atwater
Patreon: https://www.patre on.com/syr456
ATS website: https://animetropesystem.net/manga
DISCORD SERVER (BEST WAY TO CONTACT ME): https://discord.gg/t2qVaAR OR cQMPSJG
ATS novels (universal link): mybook.to/AnimeTropeSystem
US link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JD761GH
Audiobooks: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Anime-Trope-System-Stone-vs-Viper-Book-1-Audiobook/B07M9Z9C4M
I will do my best to answer all of your questions!
I would like to thank everyone that stuck with the series before it was devoured by corporate nonsense. I truly appreciate you for understanding.
ATS is currently about to publish volume 18. It has 1 spinoff, The Fallen Throne, Half-blood Rising volume 1.
Ironically, ATS has been offered a WN contract, but I didn't accept it.