Hey everyone,

Ghosts of War has seen quite a bit of growth in the last few days and we've hit a few milestones. We passed 100 orders (109 in fact), and passed 60 unique readers up to 64. 

Most exciting of all we're super close to 200 followers on the Ghosts of War project page. Why's that exciting you ask? Well for one it means almost 200 of you lovely people have shown an interest in my work, but there is one other thing it means.

We can win this.

Okay, so maybe not outright win it right now, but bear with me. 

• Right now Ghosts has 198 followers, if the 134 that are yet to back the project do so, Ghosts will leap up to 7th in the rankings.
  
• Ghosts will then only be 10 or so readers out of the Top 5
• If each of the 198 were to then get just ONE other person to buy a copy, that would rocket into 1st with 396 people .

Now I realise that it's probably not realistic to expect everyone to do that, but at the very least if we can get all followers on board and just a third of them get someone else, Ghosts will be in the top 5.

So if you haven't backed Ghosts yet, I want to strongly urge you to do so. I promise that in backing this book you'll be getting a fun and enjoyable experience, and not only that you'll be making an immeasurable difference in my life.

Now if you're a fellow Inkshares author in this Nerdist competition following Ghosts, you might be wondering 'What's in this for me?' Well I can answer that pretty definitively.

If you back my book, I will back yours. It's that simple. 

We're all in this together, and there's no reason we can't all help each other to the goal. If you've already backed my book, and have a book in the contest that I haven't ordered, let me know on twitter (@robo3687) and I'll sort it out.

So that's all for now, I hope you'll all consider helping to push Ghosts to the top of the Nerdist contest. We have the numbers to do it.

Look for an update over the weekend with some of those character details I said I'd be doling out. Should be some fun behind the scenes goodness.

Until next time guys.

Hey everyone

This is just a bit of a heads up to let you know about a few changes that will be happening to the Ghosts of War page over the next couple of days.

First and foremost you no longer have to follow the link to the pdf to read the 8 chapter preview. Some people had told me this was a bit of a hassle so now all 8 chapters are available in full right on the Inkshares website.

So if you haven't already read the preview follow the link below to the first chapter and then follow the links at the bottom of each page to read the further chapters. 

Ghosts of War Chapter One

I'd love it if you could all have a read through and drop in any comments or suggestions you may have along the way. This is your opportunity to influence the final product, so be sure not to pass it up.

Second, I plan on cutting down the amount of info and large pictures that will be on the main project page. Things like the character bios and backstory stuff will be taken down, and the cover images will be shrunk down a bit too.

The info that is being taken down will be reworked, and possibly expanded upon and distributed via regular backer updates over the next couple of weeks in the lead up to the end of the Nerdist Collection contest.

This is all in an effort to make the project page a neat and tidy little thing that won't daunt people with a tonne of info when they land on the page.

And lastly, I've had some people who backed Ghosts during the Sword & Laser competition ask me whether their preorder was still valid, or if they'd need to preorder again. 

The answer to that is it doesn't, so if you supported me last time and were thinking it carried over to this contest, you'll have preorder it again.

It's still only $9.99, and you still only pay if I'm successful in getting Ghosts funded.

I hope we can get you all back here and pushing this through to the finish line soon.

Thanks guys.

It's Sunday the 6th of September and as it stands now Ghosts of War has 144 followers and is gaining more every day at a steady rate. So that means there's about 100 of you out there yet to make a decision about backing this book, and I guess it's up to me then to convince you. So here's a few things for your eyeballs and eardrums that are both new and things you might have missed.

Audiobook of the first chapter

Click here to listen to the chapter on YouTube

Fellow Inkshares author Paul Inman has done a great audio reading of the first chapter of Ghosts of War. He really did do a great job and I'm really thankful that he offered to do this for me. Paul's book Ageless was one of the winners of the Sword & Laser competition earlier in the year and he has an entry in the Nerdist comp as well: Motor City Chronicles - Book One: Transgressions. You should totally check them out.

Book Preview

Click here to view the Ghosts of War preview pdf

If you haven't had a chance to look at it yet, there's a 100 page, 8 chapter preview of Ghosts you can read right now, for free. It's basically a third of the book and I feel like it gives a good set up of the characters, the story and the world it's set in. I've had many people tell me they've really enjoyed the preview, so I hope you can check it out and that you like it just as much.

Character Sketch Timelapses by BrotherBaston

Click here to view Part One (featuring Cole and the rest of Shadow Point)

Click here to view Part Two (featuring Kira, Oren and Tobias)

Back during the Sword & Laser competition I had some art commissioned to give an idea as to what the characters in Ghosts look like. It was brought to my attention recently that I had never shown the second video. So, here it is along with part one.

The art was done by Brother Baston who you can find on YouTube and DeviantArt.

The New Cover

By now you may have noticed the new cover for Ghosts, well here it is again, just for your eyeballs.

Kinda snazzy no?

Social Media Banners/Pics 

Sharing is caring, so if you happen to be so inclined as to help promote this book a bit, here's a few things you can use.

Facebook Cover Photo

Twitter Cover Photo

Or if gifs are more your thing...

You can also just use this link ---->;;; http://bit.ly/ghostsofwar , or grab your own referral link from the project page (to get those tasty, tasty credits). 

Still here? Fantastic.

The goal of this comp is to get into the top 5. Currently I'm a ways away from that, but at the very least, breaking into the top 10 is something that's super easy (like super duper easy). 

Remember the 100 of you I talked about at the start? This is where you come in. If each of you were to support me in this and preorder just one copy of Ghosts, I'd be solidly in 7th place. 

This would increase the books exposure tenfold and put it within reaching distance of the top 5, which of course is the ultimate goal.

And once we get there, if each of you got just one more person to buy a copy, that would put me comfortably into THIRD.

That's how easy this can be. Five minutes of your time, and asking one friend is all that it will take to get Ghosts of War firmly embedded in the Top 5. 

I don't want to beg, but this is my future on the line here. Being an author and writing these stories is what I want to do, it's where I want to be. Inkshares is my best shot at doing this right now and you guys that have supported me thus far are the key, you're the ones that will help this across the line. If I could buy all the books I would, but I can't, that's not how it works.

Five minutes of your time could mean a better future for me.

Thanks guys, all your support thus far has meant a lot, keep it comin'.

We can do this.

Hey guys, I've got something cool to share.

 

Update Time!

Guess who's back? Back again...

So we've reached the end of the road for the Inkshares campaign, but we're far from the end of the road for this book.

In the end I sold 181 copies of my book, which in truth, is far and away more than I thought I would actually get. No, it wasn't enough to win the competition, and it was quite a ways from meeting the 1,000 copy target, but that's okay.

So how's the book going?

Progress on the book slowed a lot over the course of the competition, the effort of promoting it and 'sale watching' was a drain on time available and motivation. Since the competition ended I've taken some time away from the book, just to think about it, and mostly to just do anything else but write. It's been a nice little break (and I've also been playing far too much of The Witcher 3...).

I've also been thinking about how best to end the book, and the original ending has changed in ways both slight and significant. Slight in that a character has been inserted into the climax, and significant in that their inclusion has mostly pushed the plot for the sequel to the 3rd book. In fact I was having trouble forming a story for the third book all along (it was getting quite concerning) and this simple insertion of a character solved a whole tonne of issues. So it's a good thing.

So, what now?

Well for the next little while I'll be getting a rough structure planned out for books 2 and 3 and making sure the end of this book sets ups the sequels properly enough. Then I'll actually get around to finishing this damn thing. Early July is the estimate.

Yeah, but then what?

For the rest of July I'll be doing outlines for the second and third books, as detailed as I can manage in order to be ready to start writing them towards the back end of the year. In August I will be doing a full edit of Ghosts and will start prepping it for publishing.

Publishing? But the campaign didn't...

I've decided that I'll be self publishing Ghosts of War, as it's the most practical and cost effective avenue for me to get the book out there as soon as possible. At this point I'm looking at having it out before the end of the year. If all goes well I will probably come back to Inkshares in an effort to fund the sequel.

I have made a record of everyone who preordered Ghosts and when the time comes that it's available I will contact you all and let you know what's happening. 

I don't know how long this project page will stay on Inkshares for, but I'll periodically pop in and update on how things are progressing as long as it's here.

Lastly, I want to thank you all for believing it me and this book enough to support it, it all means a great deal. Even if it didn't get there in the end it was still nice to know you were willing to help out. It's all very much appreciated.

Thanks again.

Hey guys, update time.

Update for Tuesday the 26th of May:

We're into the final push towards the 31st of May and the end of the Sword & Laser contest. We've finally gone over the 100 sale mark but Ghosts of War is still currently just over 200 copies out of 5th place, so it's quite a climb, but I'm not losing hope that we can still push this over the line.

As a booster to the end of this competition I've compiled an 8 chapter preview of the book, you can view/download it at the link below. It's around 100 pages and should give a good insight into the story, the characters and their relationships and hopefully will leave you wanting to read the rest.

http://bit.ly/1HtTtAf

Getting 200+ orders in the next few days isn't going to be easy, so as always I'd love it if you could help me out by sharing the link to the sample (it contains links to order the book) and using whatever methods of coercion you have at your disposal to convince your friends/family/coworkers/underlings/minions to grab a copy. Every little bit helps.

On the writing front, there have been a few changes to the end of the story. There were some key characters who were just sitting around (literally, they were in a room doing nothing) while all the climactic stuff was going on and based on everything I'd written up to that point, I realised there was no way in hell those characters would just sit idly by. So I've been planning out and reorganising the ending a bit to incorporate them a bit better.

It's actually been a good thing to happen as bits of my prior ending didn't make much sense and the premise they set up for the sequel wasn't going to work. So now this ending works better and it's allowed me to further develop my ideas for the sequels which I've been doing a bit of as well. 

Good times.