I’ve been reading the series through Royal Road and Patreon, and have absolutely loved it, but I also see the published books floating around and wanted to know if I’m missing out by reading chapter by chapter instead of the books.
Yes and no.
The latest Patreon chapters are published before editing. Azalea goes back and fleshes out ideas, adds scenes, and edits for clarity and then sends them to her editor and through a group review process, called an advanced reading copy (ARC) review team. There are often huge differences between what is published on Patreon vs what ends up in the books. Patreon is not typically updated much, if at all.
Her website is regularly updated, and should contain the most updated versions, at least pre-publishing. I’m not sure if they are updated after the book is published, Azalea will have to clarify. I’m also not sure about RR.
What I can say is that I recommend the kindle versions for a variety of reasons. First, because Azalea owns her own publishing company, Seladore, she is able to update her older books, so your kindle copies will be updated to the newest version. If you’re like me, and you like to highlight clues or scenes you particularly like, the kindle version is the best. If you want to go back and search for certain scenes for clues, the kindle’s search function is, hands down, the best.
The first book is currently on sale for $1, I believe, and the whole series will go on sale on 2/20.
To summarize: if you are reading everything on Patreon, yes, you’ll want to read on the website or switch to kindle. I’m not sure about RR because I believe Tyler is handling that. And if you prefer RR, Azalea would love if you’d leave a review and follow the story. It bumps PGTS in the rankings!You may be missing out by not owning kindle versions depending upon your reading and re-reading style. It’s up to you to decide, however you want to read is great!
After publication, I go back and update serialized chapters on my website and RR (and other places) with the latest version. Or rather, I’ve done it in the past and now Tyler will do it on my behalf to spare me a few hours.
So if you’re reading along while the book is being written, if, after publication, you go back and read from the beginning of that book you’ll find differences.
For instance, within a week or 2 the serialized chapters for Book 4 will be updated with their most current versions. (ch. 144-204)
However, I do not update the chapters on Patreon, because Patreon makes it such a pain to do so. Those chapter remain their initial pre-edited versions unless I’ve made plot-relevant change to a recently released chapter (like somewhere in the most recent 5 chapters) in which case I will update it.
I do not recommend reading the entire series of books on Patreon because important, relevant things will have changed.
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