It’s a question of 'conversions'.

At least that’s what my bare-bones marketing training and experience tells me.

I spend an unusual amount of time thinking about how to get more readers. How do I convince people to take a chance on ‘A God in the Shed’? Should I do character sketches? Another video? A giveaway?

While these are all good methods and have their merits, I think I need to get back to basics and stick to what’s important.

This is going to be a good book. 

‘A God in the Shed’ has gone through a few revisions already and been in the hands of several test readers and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve been told it doesn’t need it, but the story is going to get another re-write and with the experience I have working with editors and Inkshares I know they won’t let me get away with anything less than an excellent novel.

The characters are compelling.

What I love about ‘A God in the Shed’ is the cast of characters. The core group is a few ordinary kids that deal with the extraordinary events of the book. Venus is a genius level girl who’s spent her whole life as a fish-out-of-water, either because of her intelligence or eccentric parents. Penelope is a fiercely independent and ambitious young woman who has difficulty with her set life plans being interrupted by the supernatural happenings. Donald is the kind of guy who’s always had it easy in life but still managed not to let himself be spoiled by things while Abraham has maintained a facade as the strong-but-dumb kid, caring for his ailing father. 

Surrounding them is a second layer of main characters, mainly the families of the young cast. Venus’ uncle is a bizarre man with strange secrets while the village idiot, Sam Finnegan is quickly revealed to be a layered onion. First affable, then a monster but then a victim again.

The magic is fascinating.

The gods have their magic but so do mortals. Either by using loopholes in the functioning of reality or by creating pieces of Art so convincing as to trick the universe itself, old disciplines have opened up the door to strange magics. Not to mention that objects and people touched by gods are irrevocably changed.

There’s a tight majesty to how magic works in St-Ferdinand and the world of ‘A God in the Shed’.

Mainly, it’s a story about beauty.

I use the expression ‘a story about terrible beauty and beautiful terror’ and I mean it. ‘A God in the Shed’ is about that place in between horror and majesty where you can’t be sure what is light and what is shadow. It’s from that doubt that the ‘horror’ of this fantasy tale comes from.

I’ve added Chapters 7 through 9 to the project page. I’ll try to give out more information about the setting and about the story, without too many spoilers, as we get closer to the end of the Nerdist Collection contest.

Help make this book happen. Talk to your friends and family and get them on Inkshares. They’ll get 5$ credit just for signing up and if they use your reference link, you’ll get 15$ of credits yourself!

Support the arts. Support my dream. Pre-order ‘A God in the Shed’.

And if you’re already a supporter: thank you. You’re the kind of person who makes things happen.

JF

Hi friendly mortals,

My regular update will be multi-faceted. I want to remind you guys about the raffle to get your name and likeness into ‘A God in the Shed’. Of course said likeness will be murdered to further the story but what are you going to do?

I also would like to point you to my guest post from last week on SF Signal. It’s largely my opinion and predictions regarding Inkshares and what I think their role in the publishing industry is and how it might shape things for authors in the future.

Finally, I’ll be uploading a few more chapters of ‘A God in the Shed’ for you guys to enjoy. Keeping in mind that this is all a draft at this point and you’re likely to see some massive improvements in the final version.

Of course, all of this is only possible if ‘A God in the Shed’ gets published, so if you’re still on the fence about pre-ordering, consider getting your copy today! 

Cheers! 

JF

Hello friends!

I'm holding on to a few pieces of interesting news until they are confirmed but let's just say that I'm very excited about next week.

I can already tell you that I'll be posting up a few more chapters of 'A God in the Shed' as I clean them up over the weekend, so look out for that.

I couldn't let Friday pass by without an update and a little something to let you know I love you. So I whipped up some iPhone wallpaper images from the cover for 'A God in the Shed'. You'll find them here along with any further information or items I might come up with for the book as time goes on.

A quick reminder :This idea has me very excited and a lot of people seem to be interested in having their likeness be murdered in the story. Don't forget however that for this to even happen, the book needs to get published and the best way for that to happen is for 'A God in the Shed' to make it into the top 5 by the end of the month.

So if you're still on the fence about ordering, consider doing so soon and if you want to increase your chances, recommend the book to friends and family (or strangers, or your pets).

Thank you so much for your continued support. You guys are the blood in my veins.

JF

Before you call the cops on me, let me explain. 

'A God in the Shed' is a Fantasy/Horror story. This means I'm going to be murdering some characters. I decided it would be fun to have one of these victims be one of my supporters. 

The idea is that everyone who pre-orders the book gets a chance to win. Every pre-order that is from a reference will award the referrer an extra chance. The more you promote the book, the better your chances of 'dying' by my keyboard. 

The winner, chosen at random, will get to collaborate with me (we'll Skype or something) and we'll come up with a suitable way to include your likeness in the book, as a minor character, which will be gruesomely dispatched.

As a disclaimer: You can't, without their approval have someone else 'killed' in your stead. I reserve the right to cancel this contest if any issue that make it too complicated should arise. 

Hello friends!

(Don't feel like reading all this? Just go to this link for the important part.)

I remain impressed and grateful for your support. Even if you’re just following me to keep track of what’s going on, I appreciate your presence. But, what is going on?

I’m sending personalized emails to followers and supporters of my other book, ‘The Life Engineered’ to ask them to support ‘A God in the Shed’. It’s fun but time consuming and doesn’t leave me much time to create things that might be entertaining for supporters. Thankfully, this awesome little community we’ve formed amongst the participants to this contest have my back. 

Paul Inman, fellow winner of the Sword & Laser contest, author of the upcoming book ‘Ageless’ and currently funding ‘Motor City Chronicles’ surprised me with this awesome voice over of the prologue to ‘A God in the Shed’. Have a listen. It’s incredible. He absolutely nails the tone of the narration, conveying perfectly the sad, detached emotion of the scene.

I think if I take anything away from this contest it will be how much we are now so much more than individual writers trying to break into an insular and increasingly political industry. We are now a burgeoning community of fellow authors supporting each other in our desire to create worlds and tell stories. The lesson of the first contest, how these people with whom I’m competing today are my contemporaries and colleagues of tomorrow has permeated the consciousness of most of the participants. We all want to win the contest but we also all want each other to get published and that’s amazing. Crowdfunding depends on community for its lifeblood and to see this forming in real time is a fantastic experience.

I’d love to think my initial blog posts about working with each other have something to do with it but the truth is that this is something in the very nature of the people involved. My initial plea for mutual support was less a motivator than an observation of an inevitable truth; we are all in this together.

Have you pre-ordered ‘A God in the Shed’ yet? If not, please consider doing so. If Paul’s narration doesn’t convince you then at least go pre-order ‘Ageless’ and/or ‘Motor City Chronicles’ to reward the man for his amazing work.

Thanks Paul.

Thank you everyone for your support.

JF 

I love this job. 

 Between short outings for some exercise, I spent most of my weekend sitting outdoors with my laptop writing. I wrote articles and guest blogs. I wrote emails to friends and followers to ask for support. I wrote notes on ‘A God in the Shed’. Despite it all being considered ‘work’, I loved every minute of it. 

 Fine, the part where I’m asking for support isn’t great because I feel like I’m soliciting people for money, but the writing part… especially the articles and notes; I could do that forever. 

 Of the notes I’m working on, I’m trying to figure out a spoiler-free way to explain the magic in ‘A God in the Shed’. It’s an interesting challenge because I think the subtle eldritch backdrop of the story is fascinating but I also don’t want to strip the mystery out of it. 

 In other news, I’m pleasantly shocked that we’re hanging on to the top 10 spots. As your ranks grow so do the chances this project will creep back into the top 5 in time for the end of September. The gratitude is the greatest surprise though. I’ve gone through it once but it still floors me how much appreciation I end up feeling for each order that comes in and keeps this project moving forward. 

Keep reading and keep spreading the word my friends, 

 JF

How am I holding on to the Top 10?