Name of your website?Children of the First
Your name?
Alex McGaughan
Your Location (city, etc)
New Orleans, Uptown
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Children of the First is a fantasy serial webnovel about Shawn, a dragonblood college student. Shawn is a "nedrak," one of the upper-class dragonblood races, and he has a hard time coming to terms with his heritage, particularly the way his culture views other races. Shawn doesn't fit the model of what a young nedrak man should be; he rejects their religion for the most part, as well as their social expectations. This may stem from the fact that Shawn was raised by his father and has never known his mother in the traditional sense, which is unheard of in nedrak society. His mother's identity is very mysterious, which plays a big part in the story as Shawn wrestles with his heritage and individual identity.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
It's based on the mythology of Nedraika. The goddess Gaia is the Earth personified, and "mother" to every living thing. The nedrak creation story says that Gaia gave birth to the dragons, the first inhabitants of Earth. The dragons were gods, but also physical beings, and they gave birth to the first fully mortal creatures, the nedraka. Thus the nedraka are the 'Children of the First' (according to them, anyhow).
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I'd like the site to pay for its own hosting, beyond that any money I make will be put toward reducing the amount I work at other jobs, which would allow me to post more chapters, longer chapters, more stand-alone content, ect. A mainstream media deal would be cool, but I'm focused on the site for now.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
I would imagine more time and money equals more success, no? Do you mean, will I invest more if I'm successful? The answer would be yes.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
A lot more car chases and explosions.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I don't see why not. The amount of people reading the story doesn't put any extra strain on me, though it would motivate me to update more frequently. If you're talking bandwidth, then we shall just have to wait and see what happens.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
I had to learn a lot of design stuff I didn't know. That, and I had my hard drive fry a few days after the site went up. Oh, and I have carpel tunnel in my right wrist at the moment, but it could be worse.
Like if your arms fell off?
Yes, that would be worse.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Ha ha, telling my friends on forums and such has been the biggest help, but it's a little to early to tell what will prove most useful in the end.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I've spent a lot more time working on the actual site and promoting it than I thought I would. I thought all my time would be writing, but I [i]know[/] how to write, I can do that. I did [i]not[/i] know how to build and promote a site before I was doing it.
What is your website address?
Children of the First
