Discussion

Dom L · Author · added 3 months ago
I was a wee baby when I funded this book, now I’m the old man from the Metallica Unforgiven video
Dom L · Author · added about 1 year ago
Is this book ever coming out
John Chew · Reader · added about 4 years ago
Blood Capital today, Blood States tomorrow - looking forward to the expanded universe!
Robert Batten · Author · added about 4 years ago

It’s been such a long time since I sent out an update I wouldn’t blame you if you’re asking yourself, "Robert who?" right now. Fair enough, I’ve been negligent in my posting to both this blog and sending out newsletters, but I haven’t stopped writing (I promise).

I’m here to thank you for your patience and provide a brief update before diving back in to finish this book. So, firstly (and most importantly), those of you who backed my novel here on Inkshares are no doubt wanting to know how the book is going and when you’ll get your copy? The great news is I haven’t been slacking off and am still diligently working away on the manuscript. I’ve commented on this before, but it turns out writing a book is hard (who knew, right?) and I had a lot to learn if I was to produce a book worthy of your amazing support. Since Inkshares picked up the book, I’ve been incrementally transforming both my first draft and myself into something I can be proud of. I won’t lie, it’s been a long, drawn-out process thanks to day jobs and family responsibilities, but we’re in the home stretch: the world of Blood Capital is more real than it’s ever been, we have a cast of characters who are interesting to explore, and we’ve honed in on a plot that can take us on a more rewarding journey.

Looking ahead, I still need to finish this final draft. To help speed that up, I’m looking at all the ways I might claw back extra time. I took all of December off from my day job, which made a huge difference. Now, I need to power through the last chapters. After that, we’ll polish, copy-edit (fix typos and poor grammar), pull in some beta readers, and then prepare for release. The exact date of release will depend on a bunch of things, many of which are outside of my control, but I’ll endeavour to keep everyone informed.

Beyond Blood Capital, there’s a bigger world to explore, so you can be sure I’ll start work on a sequel. With the experience I’ve had writing Blood Capital and the lessons I’ve learned, I expect (hope?) that will be a faster project 🙂

Thank you again for your support—I’m sorry to have gone for so long without providing an update (I’ll do better moving forward).

Thanks!

Robert.

Hi All,

Thank you everyone for following my novel or pre-ordering a copy. As I’ve posted before, this feed of Inkshares emails is deliberately quiet, as I send out most of my updates using my author newsletter. I do this as I have many subscribers from outside Inkshares and it’s the easiest way to manage things (and avoid hitting you twice with emails). If you aren’t subscribed to my newsletter, you can sign up here: https://robertbatten.net/sign-up/

I’m writing this email now to ask for your help. I’ve been made aware my newsletters have been falling foul of spam filters and dropping into many people’s spam folders. I’ve just sent out my November update and I’d like to ask the following favours of anyone who’s subscribed:

  1. If you haven’t seen my author newsletter in your inbox, could you double check your spam folder? If it’s there, can you please click the "not spam" button?
  2. Could you please add robert@robertbatten.net (the address my newsletter comes from) to your contacts? This will help tell the mail providers that you do want to receive my emails.

Thank you for your help. I hope everyone is excited for the holiday season!

PS: as part of my process to clean-up the mailing list and get back on the good side of the spam algorithms, I’ve had to purge many emails from the list. If you thought you were subscribed, but don’t have a newsletter in your inbox or spam folder, I may have accidentally purged you — sorry! You can re-subscribe here: https://robertbatten.net/sign-up/

Cheers,

Robert

Robert Batten · Author · added over 5 years ago
A new author newsletter has just gone out! It includes a new Blood Capital snippet, concept art, a Neil Gaiman giveaway, and more. If you’re not on my mailing list, you can find it online here: preview.mailerlite.com/v0k1n0

As a reminder, most of my updates are via my newsletter, rather than the Inkshares emails, as it allows me to send out one update across my followers and not accidentally spam some people twice. It also gives me greater ability to craft attractive updates. If you want to join my mailing list, you can sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/v0w0y4 
Robert Batten · Author · added almost 6 years ago
My latest newsletter went out this week, including the announcement there will be an audiobook! You can read the web preview of the newsletter here. There’s also a fun discussion on my Facebook Page about possible narrators here.

If you’d like to receive my newsletter directly, you can sign up here.
Robert Batten · Author · edited about 6 years ago · 1 like
Hi all,
I’ve teamed up with an amazing group of authors to offer an amazing Star Wars give-away.  It’s open to everyone, worldwide, so hurry before entries close — you have until 20 March @ 12pm AKST.


ENTER HERE
Rick Heinz · Author · added about 6 years ago
Congrats man!

Hello everyone, welcome to 2018!

Work on Blood Capital has been progressing at pace since NYE and we are now close to completing the developmental edits (at last!). Check the progress chart below and you can see I’ve almost completed the rewrite, and that all of Acts One and Two have had my second pass. Once this is complete, it should just be a matter of getting the final development notes from my editors and incorporating them, then we move into copy editing (grammar and spelling).

Everyone has been wonderfully patient with me over the past year, and that has made this process so much easier. Thank you. I’m aware the journey has been long — I had no idea how long it would be when I entered the competition back in 2016. To provide an idea of the work behind the scenes, I’ve been averaging almost 18 hours a week on the novel, which multiplied out over nine months (roughly how long I’ve been working on edits), adds up to more than six hundred hours so far. 

We are now on the home straight, and Blood Capital is set for release at the end of July. A marketing plan is coming together to support the launch, and I’ve now seen an early version of the cover art. As soon as the cover art is finalized, I’ll send out a special update, but for now I can tell you it’s going to stand out on shelves.

Cheers,

Robert
https://robertbatten.net 

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