It's been 5 months and some change since the trailer debuted on The A.L.I.C.E. Files, and we've been fighting the algorithm every step of the way. Since the series started we've explored the Cthulhu Mythos, the world of Exalted, stories of Old Testament angels in modern-day Los Angeles, tales of Victorian horror, and more! And in addition to that, we also have announcements from the Carroll Institute's staff, and an independent rendition of the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
However, we recently crossed a rather important threshold that I wanted to tell folks about... and to ask those willing to listen to give us a hand up so we can blow past the next limit by the time we wrap up season 1!
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| Maybe two hands up... we're a lot further away than we'd like to be. |
Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!
Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more! And, of course, check me out on Blue Sky, since that's what we're talking about today!
1,000 Hours... Or 25% Of The Way To The Finish Line!
For those who haven't checked out the channel yet, The A.L.I.C.E. Files is an audio drama series with two separate but concurrent stories going on. The first story involves a young woman recruited by the Carroll Institute as a witness cataloger, and the job for the new "Alice" is to review the reports brought back by the Institute's agents from the other side of the rabbit hole... the colloquial name for the machine that opens rifts to other dimensions. The second track of stories are the reports themselves, where we see dramatized tales from these other dimensions, watching/listening to them right alongside Alice.
And we recently crossed the 1,000 hours benchmark!
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| Celebrate! |
On the one hand, that's sort of a big deal. We've been recording, editing, and releasing stuff pretty regularly, and trying to get as many folks onboard for it as possible, so it's nice to get into that 4-digit range. On the other hand, though, YouTube's rules don't allow us to monetize any part of the channel until we have 3,000 watched hours, and 500 subscribers. We won't get a cut of the advertising revenue until we have 4,000 watched hours, and 1,000 subscribers.
We're currently at just over 1,000 watched hours, and we have 332 subscribers. Which isn't bad... but hoo boy do we have a long way to go from here!
So What's Happening Between Now And The Season Finale?
At time of writing, we're 11 chapters into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with 1 more to go, we're 9 episodes into Alice's experience in the Carroll Institute, and we have a couple of small asides and announcements from Director Harrington as he breaks the 4th wall to keep the audience updated on what's going on.
Such as his update on the real Alice's basement flooding during the 4th of July storms that tore across the Midwest.
So, that comes out to 24 videos, and a total of roughly 6 hours of content for folks who want to sit down and listen to everything. But there's more on the schedule, and I wanted to lay it out for folks who are interested.
Despite the flooding, Alice managed to get the final chapter of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland recorded, and it should be out August 8. We have two more "regular" episodes of Alice at the Institute (one that is a cross over with the SCP Foundation, and one that delves into the grim darkness of the far future), which will go up on August 1 and August 15 respectively. And once those three videos are up, we'll have the season finale which ties everything together, and sets Alice up for the events of Season 2.
To sum up, that's a month or so of solid releases from where we are now, and an outline of what we'd like to do going forward... but we won't be able to get there without all of you!
Which is why if you'd like to see the channel grow, please consider doing the following to help us out:
- Subscribe to The A.L.I.C.E. Files
- Watch the episodes we have up (many of which have clues for the sharp-eyed who enjoy playing ARGs)
- Like and comment on the episodes you like (and to leave your theories about what's happening)
- Share the episodes around on your social media pages so we can drag some more folks into our orbit
If we could get 668 people to subscribe to the channel, that would get us over the subscriber requirement. If all of those new folks watched all of our videos, that would put us well over the 4,000 watched hour requirement as well! Hell, even if all the new folks just watched the Carroll Institute playlist, that would put us only a few hundred hours away from the goal.
On the one hand, this would take a lot of eyeballs and a lot of people to get done... but on the other hand, it's theoretically possible that we could get all of this done by the end of August, and then we could stride into season 2 with the ability to turn this show into a genuine income stream... and it won't cost our listeners a single dime!
So please, if you haven't checked out the channel, we could really use your support. And if you have 1, 2, or maybe even 668 friends (in person or online) we would really appreciate you putting in a good word for us.
Support The Literary Mercenary
If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!
- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)
- The A.L.I.C.E. Files (an audio drama channel I launched with Alice Liddell)
And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!
Also,
if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to
check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the
Azukail Games channel above!
Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!
That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!
And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list.
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