Will Wight is such an underrated author and I'm glad he's finally getting the attention he deserves. My wife introduced me to his writings (I'm a lucky man)
Found Traveler's Gate and read it on a whim, and was instantly hooked on the magic system. Immediately jumped on Crimson Vault and cried when I had to wait for City of Light. Even the novella was amazing to me. I just fell in love with that world. Years later, when I saw cradle, I jumped and gobbled that sh** up. I'm currenly working my way through the Elder Empire series, and feel kind of bad that I just skipped it, knowing it was there the whole time. The man has just never disappointed me in anything but the length department. They end soooo fast 😭
@@PaperTigerProductions oh I'm definitely looking forward to it. I just really don't know why I skipped on it, like so many others have. It's just baffling that I looked right at it, knowing how much I loved The Traveler's Gate trilogy, and just ignored it.
I've been reading wills stuff since like 2016, and it's been incredible to see his writing improve over and over and over even after starting off good. Definitely the only author I pay attention to outside of release dates. He's a super cool guy, and it's been an incredible journey. Glad he's finally getting more recognition
That's fantastic! I've been trying to get into audiobooks so I just did a reread of House of Blades by listening to the Travis Baldree narrated audiobook. It really is a different kind of reading experience-we put it on in the car whenever we have a long commute and at first, I wasn't even sure how much of the story my husband and daughter were taking in. Then one day, we got in the car, and it was a short drive so I didn't put the book on, and my five-year-old daughter asks "but what about the story?" 😂
@@PaperTigerProductions that's awesome! I just finished that series a couple days ago because they are free atm on audible! It was good...But I havent found anything that hooked me like cradle hahah...cheers!
@@lasko1404 Try Elder Empire if you haven't already! It's a lot closer to traditional fantasy than Cradle or Traveler's Gate so it is slower paced but no less epic. Also if you read it now, you'll pick up on a few cameos from the other two series appearing briefly in the books!
I read Unsouled a few months ago to try to step into the world of indie published fantasy. It was one heck of a step! Loved the worldbuilding, it really swept me in, and though the pacing seemed slow for the first half of the book, I think it was forgivable since it's such a long series (and it reeeeeally picked up the second half). Totally on board for Will Wight to step up to the Sanderson pedestal!
The opening of Unsouled is FASCINATING because the very first thing you read is an "Information Requested". Normally this would be a HUGE nono because it's literally an infodump but it _WORKS_ and it drives me insane that I can't figure out why it works.
🤣 I tried to pull out just the best stuff, but there was still a lot. Nine years of blog posts plus the comments section, plus Reddit plus Facebook plus Twitter. Thank goodness that most of Will's journey is documented on his blog which is MUCH easier to search through than any of the other platforms and for the Abidan Archive (though I'm fairly certain that isn't a complete database either because there are blog post comments that aren't in there).
It is! It absolutely is. And he is SO MUCH SMARTER about applying that work ethic in a strategic, focused way too... **looks at all the time I wasted making Instagram content that I could have spent working on the next book and facepalms**
Nice analysis of Will Wight. I read unsouled after I saw his kickstarter video, which was brilliant and I liked it. It's a great book, indistinguishable from a trad published book. One thing I think that wasn't mentioned in the video is that he first published in 2013. Which makes all the difference. I'm not saying that you can't get the same succes today as in 2013. But it's (by pretty much all accounts) much harder to get to any level of success if you're starting out today unless you have some kind of marketing plan. Yes, there probably still are a few exceptions which hit it big right out of the gate without any marketing at all. But they are just that, exceptions.
Great point. There's so many titles out there that without some method of driving quality traffic to the product page in that launch period, it's pretty hard to get the momentum going!
I'd never heard of this guy, but how totally inspiring!!! Self-publishing is definitely a long game - you have to chip away, improve each launch, improve your systems, keep working on making everything work better each time you release a book.
@@PaperTigerProductions I love that you can actually control that though - not like trad where you just have to let go of all the things, do what you can, and hope your publisher is doing the work you'd like them to (I'm hybrid, so I have experience of both lol)
@@cassie_hart The thought of turning over that much control to somebody else terrifies me. If I self-publish and something doesn't work, I can try to figure out why. Either the book's no good (write a new one), the cover and blurb are no good (get new ones) or the marketing's off. In all of those cases, I'd be able to do something about it. But to do pretty much the same (or close to the same) amount of work and then have no say over what happens eventually? I'm not sure it's worth it!
@@PaperTigerProductions It's not. Not in my experience anyway! Maybe if you had a big deal and there was a lot of money involved. Being able to make small tweaks that can change the trajectory of your book sales is such a massive thing though and trad pub just doesn't work like that. It's a slow thing, whereas with self-pub you can pivot on a dime, constantly changing up your plan as trends change and move - your back list isn't dead in the water after six months! lol
I really want Will Wight to go wide with his books. Would love to see how it impacts his sells and recognition. I totally see your point about how being in KDP Select is a great place for new authors. But now that he is more established and has a large backlist he could probably outsell his KDP page reads. I have been doing more research on wide and looking at various author numbers. Even just being in libraries can have a huge downstream impact. I think going wide is a better long term strategy. Have you done a video yet on wide? I'd love to see your thoughts.
What I'm wondering is whether going wide in all formats or just print would make a difference. I use libraries a lot, but whenever I do, 99% of the time it's to read in print. I've read some ebooks from my library but only when I couldn't find the print book in their catalogue (and idk about audiobooks since that's not my thing at all). I should have checked this before I filmed, but Will Wight IS wide with his print and audiobook formats - you can see them in the Ingram stock app! It's just the ebooks that are restricted thanks to enrolling in KDP Select. But it looks like that alone hasn't been enough to get him enough traction outside KU/Kindle readers, though I wonder how much is because he's self-selected into that readership? It'll be interesting what he does when launching his next series, or whether he would consider taking his first two series out of KU. My impression is that not that much of his Cradle fanbase converts through to reading those two other series, so the loss of KU reads might not be that big. But it's hard to guess without more info on how the split between Kindle sales and KU reads breaks down between his series. I did do a video on the benefits of going wide the last time IngramSpark increased prices, which is over here: ua-cam.com/video/-HOxb90DxHk/v-deo.html
@@PaperTigerProductions How funny that we use libraries completely opposite. I live far from a good library and it is cheaper for me to pay an out of state fee at larger libraries. So my library use is almost exclusively ebook and audiobook. It is interesting that he is wide in print but exclusive in ebook. I will have to hunt around and see if he ever talks about why he has gone that route. I'll be watching his career with a lot of interest. Off to watch your other video!
@@hollijo He's not said a lot on the print route, apart from this Kickstarter being his push to get into bookstores. Because he's exclusive to both Kindle and Audible, print is the only format he can take wide, in which case it makes sense to go for IngramSpark over KDP's Expanded Distribution (which is basically via IngramSpark anyway).
As someone that doesn't like Sanderson, I think will is a better author. Now all of my friends tell me I'm wrong, he's just behind lol, but regardless he is one of the best current fantasy authors currently out there.
@@0candlestick0 That's fascinating! Usually there's a big overlap between the Sanderson and Wight fanbases. I agree though-Will Wight doesn't get enough credit for how well-crafted Cradle is. He's been able to pull off some amazing storytelling.
I agree with is complaints on the Stormlight Archive. It is a tediously slow series that plods along at a snails pace. I have never read a novel so bloated. While I enjoy the series I feel each novel could be as much as a 5th their total length and not miss a major story beat.
You can't! Not with ebook sales, because those don't get counted. But audiobook sales do...so Will Wight sold enough audiobooks alone (about 20k copies) to make it on the list. TWICE. It's insane, especially when you think about how many more ebooks he sells.
I am...but I don't really use it, except for the occasional review of some children's picture books since that's what I publish under my real name! (and the only thing that prompts me to do those is the thought of my next newsletter 😅)
Will Wight is such an underrated author and I'm glad he's finally getting the attention he deserves. My wife introduced me to his writings (I'm a lucky man)
He is!!! And I can't wait to see where he goes from here, especially once Cradle wraps next year with Waybound!
Found Traveler's Gate and read it on a whim, and was instantly hooked on the magic system. Immediately jumped on Crimson Vault and cried when I had to wait for City of Light. Even the novella was amazing to me. I just fell in love with that world.
Years later, when I saw cradle, I jumped and gobbled that sh** up.
I'm currenly working my way through the Elder Empire series, and feel kind of bad that I just skipped it, knowing it was there the whole time. The man has just never disappointed me in anything but the length department. They end soooo fast 😭
The end of Elder Empire is fantastic! It's such an underrated series and deserves more love.
@@PaperTigerProductions oh I'm definitely looking forward to it. I just really don't know why I skipped on it, like so many others have. It's just baffling that I looked right at it, knowing how much I loved The Traveler's Gate trilogy, and just ignored it.
I've been reading wills stuff since like 2016, and it's been incredible to see his writing improve over and over and over even after starting off good. Definitely the only author I pay attention to outside of release dates. He's a super cool guy, and it's been an incredible journey. Glad he's finally getting more recognition
Can confirm - having read everything he’s written, Will is tied with Brandon as my favorite author.
Will did his own sarcastic version of Brandon's Kickstarter and people surprised him by backing this much 🤧😂
I laughed so hard at Will's Kickstarter video...and then yes, I absolutely backed it because Will is awesome. 🤣
Will Wights Craddle series is what got me into books a few years ago....now I just listen to audible all day as I do my stuff!
That's fantastic! I've been trying to get into audiobooks so I just did a reread of House of Blades by listening to the Travis Baldree narrated audiobook. It really is a different kind of reading experience-we put it on in the car whenever we have a long commute and at first, I wasn't even sure how much of the story my husband and daughter were taking in. Then one day, we got in the car, and it was a short drive so I didn't put the book on, and my five-year-old daughter asks "but what about the story?" 😂
@@PaperTigerProductions that's awesome! I just finished that series a couple days ago because they are free atm on audible! It was good...But I havent found anything that hooked me like cradle hahah...cheers!
@@lasko1404 Try Elder Empire if you haven't already! It's a lot closer to traditional fantasy than Cradle or Traveler's Gate so it is slower paced but no less epic. Also if you read it now, you'll pick up on a few cameos from the other two series appearing briefly in the books!
I read Unsouled a few months ago to try to step into the world of indie published fantasy. It was one heck of a step! Loved the worldbuilding, it really swept me in, and though the pacing seemed slow for the first half of the book, I think it was forgivable since it's such a long series (and it reeeeeally picked up the second half). Totally on board for Will Wight to step up to the Sanderson pedestal!
The opening of Unsouled is FASCINATING because the very first thing you read is an "Information Requested". Normally this would be a HUGE nono because it's literally an infodump but it _WORKS_ and it drives me insane that I can't figure out why it works.
lol, it took me forever to watch this because I kept pausing to read the postings on top. 🤣 Good stuff.
🤣 I tried to pull out just the best stuff, but there was still a lot. Nine years of blog posts plus the comments section, plus Reddit plus Facebook plus Twitter. Thank goodness that most of Will's journey is documented on his blog which is MUCH easier to search through than any of the other platforms and for the Abidan Archive (though I'm fairly certain that isn't a complete database either because there are blog post comments that aren't in there).
Will’s work ethic is inspiring.
It is! It absolutely is. And he is SO MUCH SMARTER about applying that work ethic in a strategic, focused way too... **looks at all the time I wasted making Instagram content that I could have spent working on the next book and facepalms**
Nice analysis of Will Wight. I read unsouled after I saw his kickstarter video, which was brilliant and I liked it. It's a great book, indistinguishable from a trad published book.
One thing I think that wasn't mentioned in the video is that he first published in 2013. Which makes all the difference. I'm not saying that you can't get the same succes today as in 2013. But it's (by pretty much all accounts) much harder to get to any level of success if you're starting out today unless you have some kind of marketing plan. Yes, there probably still are a few exceptions which hit it big right out of the gate without any marketing at all. But they are just that, exceptions.
Great point. There's so many titles out there that without some method of driving quality traffic to the product page in that launch period, it's pretty hard to get the momentum going!
I'd never heard of this guy, but how totally inspiring!!! Self-publishing is definitely a long game - you have to chip away, improve each launch, improve your systems, keep working on making everything work better each time you release a book.
💯 Cassie!
@@PaperTigerProductions I love that you can actually control that though - not like trad where you just have to let go of all the things, do what you can, and hope your publisher is doing the work you'd like them to (I'm hybrid, so I have experience of both lol)
@@cassie_hart The thought of turning over that much control to somebody else terrifies me. If I self-publish and something doesn't work, I can try to figure out why. Either the book's no good (write a new one), the cover and blurb are no good (get new ones) or the marketing's off. In all of those cases, I'd be able to do something about it. But to do pretty much the same (or close to the same) amount of work and then have no say over what happens eventually? I'm not sure it's worth it!
@@PaperTigerProductions It's not. Not in my experience anyway! Maybe if you had a big deal and there was a lot of money involved.
Being able to make small tweaks that can change the trajectory of your book sales is such a massive thing though and trad pub just doesn't work like that. It's a slow thing, whereas with self-pub you can pivot on a dime, constantly changing up your plan as trends change and move - your back list isn't dead in the water after six months! lol
😱 dead in the water backlist after six months? Yikes!
This video is so fire. Thanks for making it!
🥰 I'm glad you enjoyed it!
You really have fantastic videos thank you for posting
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy them 😊
Will Wight uses this really old/outdated recipe for success. He just writes really good books.
Amen!
My accidental discovery of Wills books changed my life , seriously. Lol.
Me too!
You could really benefit from a better microphone! I like your content but the sound quality and reverb is a bit hard to deal with
I know 😭 I promise I'll upgrade soon!
I really want Will Wight to go wide with his books. Would love to see how it impacts his sells and recognition. I totally see your point about how being in KDP Select is a great place for new authors. But now that he is more established and has a large backlist he could probably outsell his KDP page reads. I have been doing more research on wide and looking at various author numbers. Even just being in libraries can have a huge downstream impact. I think going wide is a better long term strategy. Have you done a video yet on wide? I'd love to see your thoughts.
What I'm wondering is whether going wide in all formats or just print would make a difference. I use libraries a lot, but whenever I do, 99% of the time it's to read in print. I've read some ebooks from my library but only when I couldn't find the print book in their catalogue (and idk about audiobooks since that's not my thing at all).
I should have checked this before I filmed, but Will Wight IS wide with his print and audiobook formats - you can see them in the Ingram stock app! It's just the ebooks that are restricted thanks to enrolling in KDP Select. But it looks like that alone hasn't been enough to get him enough traction outside KU/Kindle readers, though I wonder how much is because he's self-selected into that readership?
It'll be interesting what he does when launching his next series, or whether he would consider taking his first two series out of KU. My impression is that not that much of his Cradle fanbase converts through to reading those two other series, so the loss of KU reads might not be that big. But it's hard to guess without more info on how the split between Kindle sales and KU reads breaks down between his series.
I did do a video on the benefits of going wide the last time IngramSpark increased prices, which is over here: ua-cam.com/video/-HOxb90DxHk/v-deo.html
@@PaperTigerProductions How funny that we use libraries completely opposite. I live far from a good library and it is cheaper for me to pay an out of state fee at larger libraries. So my library use is almost exclusively ebook and audiobook.
It is interesting that he is wide in print but exclusive in ebook. I will have to hunt around and see if he ever talks about why he has gone that route. I'll be watching his career with a lot of interest.
Off to watch your other video!
@@hollijo He's not said a lot on the print route, apart from this Kickstarter being his push to get into bookstores. Because he's exclusive to both Kindle and Audible, print is the only format he can take wide, in which case it makes sense to go for IngramSpark over KDP's Expanded Distribution (which is basically via IngramSpark anyway).
Sanderson is the man. This guy must be good
Will Wight is very, very good. If you're between Sanderson reads and re-reads, you should give his stuff a try!
As someone that doesn't like Sanderson, I think will is a better author. Now all of my friends tell me I'm wrong, he's just behind lol, but regardless he is one of the best current fantasy authors currently out there.
@@0candlestick0 That's fascinating! Usually there's a big overlap between the Sanderson and Wight fanbases. I agree though-Will Wight doesn't get enough credit for how well-crafted Cradle is. He's been able to pull off some amazing storytelling.
I agree with is complaints on the Stormlight Archive. It is a tediously slow series that plods along at a snails pace. I have never read a novel so bloated. While I enjoy the series I feel each novel could be as much as a 5th their total length and not miss a major story beat.
Stormlight is definitely not for everyone!
I thought you couldn't be featured on the nyt list if you're self published.
You can't! Not with ebook sales, because those don't get counted. But audiobook sales do...so Will Wight sold enough audiobooks alone (about 20k copies) to make it on the list. TWICE. It's insane, especially when you think about how many more ebooks he sells.
Are you on goodreads? I'd love to get all your recommendations 😎✨
I am...but I don't really use it, except for the occasional review of some children's picture books since that's what I publish under my real name! (and the only thing that prompts me to do those is the thought of my next newsletter 😅)