Discussion

G’day everyone,

This will be the last update from me regarding Kanimbla.  I just wanted to let you know that after spending the last month deliberating, I have made the decision to cancel the Kanimbla campaign on Inkshares.  

There are a number of reasons for this, the largest being that Inkshares’ distribution power is severely limited outside North America.  If I knew then what I know now, it is very unlikely that I would have ever considered a campaign with Inkshares.  The only reason I spent the last month considering my options is because there is still more than a month to go in the campaign (two months when I first came to the realisation that Inkshares might not be the best publishing option for me), the campaign has received backing from the Fantasy Syndicate and is about halfway to its goal which meant that the campaign was very likely to successfully achieve the Quill publishing goal if I were to continue.  So I had to make sure that cancelling was the right decision.  

In the end, I have decided that the benefits from publishing through Quill do not outweigh the disadvantages of Inkshares’ poor distribution power, which would have prevented the book from ever appearing in Australian bookstores (although it would have been on American shelves), and either sorely cost my Australian readers or forced me to self-publish in addition to Quill in order to alleviate some of the unwieldy shipping expenses. 

I have emailed Inkshares to cancel the campaign so for those who have already pre-purchased their copies, refunds should start being processed over the next few days.  

For those on Inkshares who have backed me, I wish you well with your own campaigns.  You’ve been a great bunch and I plan on staying in touch over Slack. 

For my friends and family who have already supported me, I am absolutely overwhelmed that you would even consider paying $50+ for my book just to support me, and shocked that the number of you that opted in at the $120+ level for three books.  Although I have always prided myself on my choice in friends, that was a lot to ask, but you delivered without hesitation.  It means a lot to me. 

However, this is not the end of the road for Kanimbla.  I will be pursuing other publishing opportunities, and one way or another the book will be published.  If everything goes pear-shaped and I am unable to have Kanimbla published through traditional or alternative means, I will pay for professional editing and design services and then self-publish the book so that it will be available at a fraction of the cost Inkshares was charging (approx $20 delivered instead of $60) for the same quality book.   I should be able to pull most of your email addresses off Inkshares so when Kanimbla is in production, I will let you know. 

In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to follow me on https://www.facebook.com/cshpicone/ and/or https://twitter.com/csh_picone as I will still be producing short stories, poetry, game reviews, interviews, and other content in the meantime. 

Thanks again and love you all!

Cheers,
Pico

G’day team! I realise pre-orders have stagnated somewhat so I just wanted to give you all a quick bell to let you know the campaign is still on track.  I had factored in this quiet period.  Twitter messages, passive promotion, and other low-reward tasks are still underway while I’m busy with prac.  In two weeks I will begin engaging with my most promising source of support, which is still largely untapped  

In the meantime, Kanimbla has just been backed by the Inkshares Fantasy Syndicate!

We’re also still #4 in the Launchpad competition, although the margin is getting wider.  Remember, top 3 gets full Inkshares publication as if it had sold 750 pre-copies so keep spreading the word! 

Ask a friend to buy a book!

 If everyone that has already bought a book was to convince a friend to buy one, Kanimbla would already be at Quill publishing goal (or very close to).

Pico

G’day everybody! 

I’m back again with a slightly pre-emptive week 3 update.  You’ll notice the number of copies sold hasn’t moved much in the last week (from 94 to 97, I believe, although I did receive ), but never fear!  Kanimbla is still on track for success.  

The focus for this part of the campaign has been on reaching out to some of my long-shot prospects (twitter followers, etc), while I spend the rest of my time distributing flyers and business cards, etc, to try and generate some passive sales while I continue campaigning over the next few weeks.  

At 97 sales, Kanimbla is currently 39% of the way to the Quill publication goal.  If you’ve already bought a book, thank you!  If you can keep spreading the word, that would be great.  And if you haven’t, what’s holding you back?  Flick me a message and let me know!

Cheers!

G’day everyone,

Sorry for the radio silence, but I recently discovered a fairly large issue that required my immediate attention - the copy of the Kanimbla that was pasted on the Inkshares site was not the finished manuscript.  I have spent the last few days searching for the final copy, but have so far not been able to find it.  It would seem that somewhere along the line, there must have been a mix up between the final and beta reader copies, leaving me with about a dozen copies of the wrong version of the manuscript saved on various hard drives and data clouds.  I have finally bitten the bullet and re-written the prologue, which you can now find on the Inkshares page.  

As you can imagine, this discovery has caused a few delays with the campaign.  In addition, I’m finding the horrendous international postage fee is deterring many potential buyers, the majority of which live in Australia.  

This means two things.  

First, I just want to reassure everyone that I will return Kanimbla to all its final manuscript glory.  I am hoping to have the re-written first chapter up by the end of the weekend, and then I’ll go on to re-write and post the second chapter, and then painstakingly work my way through the rest of the book.  

I also want to reassure everyone that the campaign will continue, and buyer numbers should hopefully start increasing as I actually start advertising the book again.  In light of the issue created by the postage costs, which I had not factored in, I will now be aiming at the 250 Quill goal rather than the 750 goal.  However, I am not happy with the thought of publishing a second-rate book, so I will be paying additional money out of my own pocket to ensure the book goes through the rigorous design and editing processes expected of a traditionally published book.  

The second thing is that I must ask for everyone’s assistance in helping me to spread the word about Kanimbla.  I imagine there may have been some early potential readers that witnessed the book in its early-version state and that were turned away because of it.  If you are aware of any of these people, can you please advise them of the issue, and advise them that it is being rectified and to please give it a second look.  Furthermore, if you are a local, can you please get in touch with me as the professionally made flyers and business cards have now arrived, and I would like them to be disseminated to as many workplaces as possible.  If you are not local, particularly those in North America where the impact of the postage fees will be the least felt, can you please help me spread the word in your localities.  I am happy to send you digital copies of the flyer if that will help.

Now for some good news!  Kanimbla is currently ranked #4 on the Launchpad Contest leaderboard, and #3 is well within reach.  If Kanimbla can make it into the top 3, it will receive the same publishing treatment as if it had reached the 750 goal.  So please, please, please, spread the word.  I can’t do this on my own but together we can!

Thank you all for being so supportive!

Cheers,
Chris Picone