On Sunday I sent in the completed manuscript, along with the dedication, acknowledgments, and a couple surveys from the folks at Girl Friday Productions to help them on the design and marketing fronts.  I also spoke on the phone with Avalon (coolest name ever) from Inkshares about the process.

The next step is for GFP to figure out who within their organization are the best fits for my own project - developmental editing, copy editing, design and marketing.  Once that happens (within the next week or so, I believe), we'll conference call for me to meet the team.

Once that happens, I'll be able to fill you in on more of the timeline.  I would imagine the editing process will take at least a month, maybe two or more, depending on how much work GFP suggests I do revising the manuscript and how much time I've got to respond.  My page is officially "Publish date pending" as of some time ago, so we'll see.  

Long story short: while It's All Fun and Games may make a perfect Christmas gift, not this year :p

Also, I'll once again take the opportunity to mention the other books from the contest that are slowly but steadily moving toward publication and could use your support, whether you've got some spare referral credits lying around or even an extra $9.99.

The first is The Catcher's Trap , which is currently at 832 pre-orders with a month to go.  That's just 168 more.  "The Catcher’s Trap is the story of a young man fighting for his life and his freedom in a world where demonic beings have enslaved humans. This is the origin story of a hero born out of the darkest struggle of the human soul."

The second is a book called Single Version, which had been chilling in the top five for much of the contest but ran out of steam a week or so before the end of the contest.  "A massive paramilitary group. A fully armed society. An exploding population of cockroaches. Amidst it all, an entomophobic pacifist who has yet to need a cybernetic limb."  

For those of you with little girl-people in your lives, make sure you check out Sadie McGrady, Leading Lady, which is a picture book "created to help young girls imagine themselves as candidates and leaders"

The last thing I'll mention is that Inkshares is still in rapid growth mode.  Many of you came on board with the double $5 credits to preorder a $9.99 book for free.  The Inkshares long term model is based on building a reader base in the hundreds of thousands so that books will fund organically by the people already signed up (rather than authors like me begging people to order).  The long and the short of it is that if you know someone who likes to read, send them over to explore the books currently funding (or order a book already in production - many ebooks, mine included is only 6.99, so that's free with new user credits too).  Inkshares has the potential to truly revolutionize publishing, but only with our help.

That's pretty much it!  Don't forget to visit It's All Fun and Games' Facebook page, and thanks for your continued support!

Cheers

Dave