August promotion (part 2)
Time for the promised update (a day late, sorry)
The numbers
The order numbers for the August free giveaway blew my expectations by an order of magnitude, so that was incredible!
I placed the book on the Freebooksy mailing list (free ebooks every day - highly recommend signing up if you're a Kindle user), and the numbers were wild.
3320 downloads of Air Superiority and Compromised across both weekends, with at least 2461 individual readers.
Most of these will probably sit on a device and not be read, but even a fraction being read is super exciting! There are a few new 4 and 5 star reviews on goodreads, and people putting it on their virtual bookshelves, so there's hope.
Air Superiority was briefly in the top 100 best selling free ebooks when the numbers hit, but has since crashed back down now it's back on the regular list. I'm honestly not sure how much of a different that really makes in the grand scheme of things, but it was nice to see.
Another cool number was the "Amazon Followers" count going up. To anyone who migrated here from there, hello, welcome, and thank you for reading.
Why do I care?
Validation, mostly. I started this wanting feedback, and reviews are (so far) very validating. It also makes me feel less like I am "wasting" time when I spend my evenings writing instead of practicing Norwegian or exercising or reading or doing any number of productive things.
Which brings me nicely onto Renegades.
Renegades update
I have been doing a massive amount of writing, both in the evenings and in the weekend when I have spare time to sit down with my laptop.
The wordcount is creeping up as I get words on the page, and the scenes are really coming alive. There are a few twists in this tale (would it even be The Corvids if there wasn't) and everything is fleshing out nicely.
Chapters 1 to 5 are finished (pre-editing, of course), Chapter 6 is halfway there, and Chapters 7 to 13 are in varying states of completion. The prologue is absolutely not going to change, but I might rework the epilogue - we'll see!
I hope you enjoy the new characters as much as I enjoy writing them. However, I still like the original Corvid cast. Once I am finished with Renegades, I have a few plans for this series. One is a continuation, i.e. the start of a new three-part arc centred on Xavier and the Nók Ok (devil birds = the white-bellied sea eagle).
However, I am also contemplating a book centred on Thailand's Element 7, who I'm excited for you to meet. ANOTHER thought centres on the OG Air Superiority Corvids (Baltic, Baguette, Donkey, yes, but there is also Seraph, Twizzler and Hexe). ANOTHER is centred on Nico van der Meer, who absolutely deserves an MVP moment or ten. Where would Nikolay sit? Sorry, that would be spoilers.
For now, I am focussing on Renegades. Writing, editing, publishing, I'm currently on schedule. After that, I think my plans will adapt to what readers want more of, and I'll take it from there.
Final comments
Renegades word count (01 September 2026): 63684 words
Thank you to everyone who left a comment or sent me an email. It is very motivating, and I truly appreciate your time.
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