New releases
Retailer requirements change. It's unavoidable. Reviewing the output from Smashwords and Rakuten Kobo releases, it became clear that the divergence has become more profound rather than less. All three major retailers - Smashwords, Rakuten Kobo, and Amazon KDP - are using different engines to generate MOBI/EPUB formats for titles. All three are parsing and producing outputs differently with mutually exclusive expectations specifically around Table of Contents. So we're moving forward with Very Dirty Stories #206 to Very Dirty Stories #259 on Amazon KDP, but anticipating we may need to do a formatting patch once we've experimented enough with the Amazon KDP Table of Contents generation to correct for how Amazon KDP is generating their MOBI format.
Revised releases
With the pivot to validate formatting and test differences in expectations, the initial Amazon KDP wave will take a small step backward to update Very Dirty Stories 201 to Very Wicked Dirty Stories #205. This may be an imperfect process to identify what needs to change in the releases for optimal presentation. Then the systematic updates to the back catalogue can proceed once we have a stable format template.
The revisions will prioritize Cherish Desire Singles and Cherish Desire Divinations titles first. There are things that occur within longer titles - like story cross-referencing - which are ideal to factor in before tackling large numbers of Very Dirty Stories titles for updates. There is also overlap where any editing or revisions to stories in Cherish Desire Singles titles ripples outward to the Very Dirty Stories titles that those stories were originally published in.
Site updates
A lot of work on fundamental aspects of the sites has been completed. On-going tweaks and tuning are being incorporated as we add new retailers and additional content. There are specific site areas which are still presenting in older layouts while transitioning pages and content forward.
One big addition has been the introduction of Bandcamp for audiobook and audio erotica performances. This will slowly replace our presence on SoundCloud and YouTube. Bandcamp provides a streaming support with apps for iOS and Android as well as via a browser. There is no ad or other interruption to listening to the audio content. And there is a way for listeners to buy and download content they enjoy. This is a vast improvement over the direction YouTube has taken and much more accessible than SoundCloud.
Paperback and audio erotica
As mentioned above, the focus on Cherish Desire Singles and Cherish Desire Divinations releases with new formatting means there will be a lot of work being done on our longer titles. As a result, we're bundling in the effort to produce much improved print editions with the re-releases.
This is a huge undertaking. Based on the initial review of what needs to be done for KDP's Print On Demand service, how poorly conceived their baseline templates are, and the nature of the content structure, it's going to take a good amount of time with each title to get this right. However, there is a pent up demand for print paperbacks of many of the longer titles and collections. And we'd like to make sure the Wulf Daughter has a print copy of Cherish Desire Singles: Sexy Identities Collection 1 for her portfolio. These print editions will begin to come out toward the end of January.
The collaboration with Kenzi Reads of FICS GONE WORSE continues to move forward. Setting up Bandcamp has established a place for audio streaming, and we're looking at video streaming options after releasing some initial content on YouTube. We're working our way up to longer titles while practicing with short stories first. Anticipate more content in the late February and early March timeframe.