ShoH Update and Poll: One Book or Two?

Hi everybody, back at it again! I'm ZOOMING through Shepherds of Haven at lightning speeds! I'm nearly done with Riel's route (Prihine alive) in Chapter 2 (literally only a few thousand words to go), and then I'm going to get started on Chapter 3 just to lay down the groundwork as I slowly flesh out the other routes on the side! 

I've also added a handy recap feature to the game, sort of like the "Key Decisions" page on Telltale games that shows you what major choices you picked in each chapter. This appears under the "Journey" tab of your stats page, which can be toggled on or off as you wish! (Default is toggled off.)

To give you a picture of my progress, here's my word count taken at different times throughout this year:

April 19, 2019: 133,000 words

August 31, 2019 (two months after starting Patreon): 152,200 words

October 7th, 2019 (having just finished several months of law school exams and applications): 160,000 words

November 12, 2019: 185,000 words

As you can see, I took two huge leaps, and this most current one shows no signs of slowing down! Now that law school stuff is over and my book deal has cleared some things off my plate, I'm really in the rhythm of writing ShoH... and so much of it is thanks to your support! I could not have written 25,000 words in the last five weeks without your patronage here on Patreon--I would have been busy working other jobs--so thank you, thank you, thank you! Your support is what makes all of this possible! ❤

As we close in on starting Chapter 3, I've been thinking a little bit about the process of publishing ShoH. We're currently averaging at about 50,000 words per chapter (and half of Chapter 2, Chase's half, isn't even done yet), and at 13 total chapters, that'll be... 

650,000 words?

No, I'm not counting the day off scenes and whatnot, so let's bump it up to around 800,000?

It's getting there slowly but surely! My partner brought up an interesting point, though: what would ShoH look like if it were actually split into two books?

My gut reaction:

• Book 1 (consisting of 6 chapters) would almost certainly be done and submitted to publication before summer of 2020, or maybe fall if something really crazy happens. So I would be able to get a product into your hands much faster!
• However, I always envisioned ShoH as a single cohesive story, and I'm initially resistant to devising a way that splits it into two parts so that there's a good "ending" to Part 1.

Pros: 

• Book 1 gets out to you much faster, and I'm able to make better progress on the game with a much closer end-goal (Chapter 6) in mind. 
• If the game is published relatively soon and has steady royalties, that would enable me to work on Book 2 even more quickly than now.
• The story, which is essentially episodic in nature, may benefit from having a big climax to leave off at in the middle (end of hypothetical Book 1).

Cons:

• I worry that the story won't flow as well because I did envision it being one book lol. Particularly character relationships and day off flow, as readers may forget about character arcs in between books...
• No save system at the end of Book 1 may incentivize readers to wait until Book 2 is published to buy rather than purchasing and reading at release date. (Hosted Games does not implement their between-game save system until a sequel is in the publishing queue.)
• I worry that there isn't enough content in the first six chapters to justify making it into a Book 1? Ending at the end of Chapter 6 will essentially end the game just as all characters are recruited. Maybe that feels... demo-y? I'm not sure! There would be a cliffhanger and a climax, but I think I'm just worried about the pacing and cohesiveness again, haha. 
• I'd have to find a second cover artist for Book 2, as the artist for Book 1 no longer takes commissions. This would be a lengthy and expensive process that I hadn't considered, and it might be a hassle to find an art style that matches the style of Book 1's cover.

(Last minute edit: There is also the Zombie Exodus route, which was unique as far as I know--where the game was dropped at release date, sold for a flat price, but technically not done (in that it ended at a certain point), with subsequent chapters being added as free updates afterwards. But I'm not sure how I feel about this?? I'd feel bad asking people to pay full price for a game with only the promise that the complete material is forthcoming! But I guess it'd be like that with a sequel...) 

I'm only sort of thinking of this as an idle thought for now, with no plans to change how I'm currently doing things. However, I would really love your input, as this affects you, too! (Don't worry, this is less of a "what should I do?" poll and more of "testing the waters and seeing what people think" poll.)

Would you rather have a full game (Book 1) to read and explore months sooner (by summertime or fall probably)--or would you rather wait for the full game in its entirety as a single product, regardless of how long that may take?

If you're a member of the Officer tier or higher, this probably doesn't even affect you that much because you have access to the alpha build! But I would still love your input as a general reader and consumer of CSGs! Which format do you typically prefer when buying and supporting games?

Thanks for your input! ❤