Alright friends, the grand finale is approaching.

Technically, it’s more like 28.5, since the campaign actually ends in the afternoon on the 29th, but close enough.

We are now officially in the final month of the Proteus campaign: a campaign that has been running for well over a year now and gathered an astonishing 558 orders already. We have less than 200 left to acquire, then Proteus will receive the same full publication deal that Tantalus Depths has already earned.

Can we do it? 192 orders in one month is no small thing, after all. Even so, the answer is a firm yes. Not only can we do it in that time, but we can likely do it sooner. On Tantalus Depths’ last day campaigning, we gathered more than 80 orders. 80 orders in one day. Granted, two syndicates boosted us that day as well, but my point stands, we could hit that goal in just one or two days of real, solid support.

I don’t expect to reach our goal in two days, obviously. But my point is, we could. Our final goal is absolutely within our reach. My personal goal is to finish the Proteus campaign before Tantalus Depths goes into copy edits, which is likely to happen in the next two weeks. This is an extremely doable goal, provided we really rally for it.

Now more than ever, I need your support. If you haven’t yet ordered Proteus, order a copy. Order two copies. If you have ordered a copy, order a second copy. Get your friends to order a copy, get your family to order copies. Ask anyone you can think of to order a copy. If you can’t afford to buy a copy, please tell everyone you know about this book, share these posts on your social media platforms, be as obnoxious about it as I’ve been this entire past year.

It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be stressful and exhausting. But it will be so worth it.

Let’s do this thing.

Great news everyone!

First of all, the glitch that was making it appear that we had lost all our pre-orders seems to have been fixed. The number of pre-orders currently displaying on our Inkshares production page now seem to accurately reflect the number of pre-orders we’ve sold, which brings me to our other piece of good news:

Those numbers just got an unexpected boost!

The Staff Syndicate has chosen to support Proteus this month! I had honestly given up any hope of getting any more syndicate support for Proteus, so this came out of absolutely nowhere. Thanks to their sudden surge of support, we’ve gained more than a dozen brand new orders all in one day, and have been brought up to 537 preorders. That means only 213 more to go!

We’re getting so close to the final stretch, and I plan to ride the momentum from this unexpected windfall as far as it will go. The next couple weeks are going to be a wild ride.

Important announcement:

Well, folks, we’re due for an update, and I have some good news.
We’ve passed the 500 pre-orders mark!
 

We’re at 510 right now, with 40 days left ‘til our goal. That means we only need to sell 240 more copies to get Proteus its publication deal. We are over two-thirds of the way there.
Unfortunately, this has been a much busier summer than I expected it to be, so progress has been slow the past couple of weeks. I’m gearing up for a super intense August, but it’s still going to take every scrap of support I can gather from now until the campaign’s end. We should be getting approximately 6 pre-orders a day to stay on target, which is no easy thing to do when I’ve already asked everyone I know for support. This is why now, more than ever, I’m dependent on you all to get the word out. If each of you could find just one person who’d be interested in supporting this book, we’d absolutely crush our goal I cannot stress enough how much I can’t do this without your help.
It may feel like we’ve been treading water this entire time, but we are truly making progress that we should all be proud of.

I’ll leave you this week with another lore update. In the spirit of the long and agonizing stasis this campaign has endured, let’s take a look at the technology the Somnambule uses to keep its 50,000 colonists safely preserved during her 150 year journey. Cold stasis is gruelling, painful, and invasive, but just like our campaign for Proteus, it’s a necessary hell with a paradise on the other side.

Hello friends and supporters!

I mentioned this briefly in my last update for Tantalus Depths, but I don’t think I actually shared it in a Proteus update, so I’m amending that now. We’ve received one more extension for Proteus, making our new deadline the end of August. I didn’t want to do it, but with about 270 orders left to go, there was no chance I’d hit the goal otherwise. With our new extension, we should have no problem hitting the 750 pre-order goal on time though. We’re almost two thirds of the way there, so with your help, we should definitely be able to do it!

In other news, the amazing Jacqui Castle just interviewed me for Writing Bloc. We discussed the merits of crowdfunding and worldbuilding, and I shared a few insights about the writing process for both Tantalus Depths and Proteus. Check it out here!

Thanks to your continued support, Proteus has finally hit the halfway point in its publication campaign! We are now officially over the hump: from now on, we are closer to the end of this journey than we are to the beginning.

There is a LOT of work left to be done, though. It’s taken a full year to get this far (though that includes several long breaks while I worked on editing Tantalus Depths) and now we have only a little over a month to get the rest of the way there. That’s a lot of ground to cover, but I know we can do it, if we all work together. I know I say this every update, but I cannot stress this enough: telling your friends and family about Proteus is so, so important. If everyone who has already bought a copy found one other person and convinced them to order one too, this journey would be done overnight.

Remember, sharing social media posts is extremely helpful, but telling your friends and family about the book in person is even more impactful. Talk to your brother, co-worker, spouse, anyone you know who might be interested. You’ll be amazed how many people are interested in supporting the arts. I know I have been.

Even if the only thing you can offer is emotional support, I will certainly take that too. I’m not the kind of guy who takes to this crowdfunding thing easily, and it is the most emotionally draining thing I’ve ever done. I’m committed to getting this thing done no matter what, so I’m willing to take that toll, but words of encouragement are always welcome.

Alright, enough of the sales pitch. We’ve hit the halfway point on our journey, just like the crew of the Somnambule at the beginning of Proteus.  At the end of our journey is a publication deal for Proteus, but at the end of the Somnambule’s journey is something much more precious. I think it’s time we found out what’s so important that the Expansionary Coalition thought it was worth the massive undertaking of shipping 50,000 souls halfway across the galaxy, don’t you? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the planet Bella Rosa: The Promised Land.

Update!
Just a short one today, but a worthy one.

Proteus has finally passed 300 preorders! We officially have more pre-orders than the Somnambule has crew members (conscious ones anyway. We still need to sell about 49,700 copies to match the number of colonists in stasis. We’ll get there). This is solid progress! We’re slowly crawling up on the halfway mark, and I’m hoping to reach it within the next two weeks. We’re slightly behind schedule, but not by very much, and progress has still been pretty steady overall.

I’ve mentioned it before, but the stretch between 250 and 500 pre-orders is a vast, empty wasteland for a pre-order campaign. We’re right in the middle, so we don’t get to feel the surge of excitement that accompanies the first couple weeks of a campaign’s launch or the similar surge as we see the finish line approaching. Right now, nothing seems to make an impact. But I assure you, it does.

Please keep showing your support by liking and sharing Proteus on all your social media. Tell all your family and friends about this book, online and in person. I know I say that every time, but I can never overstress how important it is to spread the word. If you haven’t yet pre-ordered a copy, or if you think you’d be willing to order a second or third one to support the project, I implore you to do so. Proteus only becomes a book with your help. I’m just the writer here; you’re the ones who can turn it from a concept in the notes on my computer to a printed book on shelves worldwide and in your own hands.

Thank you as always for your support, it means more to me than I’ll ever be able to express. I cannot wait to share this book with all of you.

Greetings friends and supporters! I am pleased to say that in the first few days of my return to the Proteus campaign, we have pulled in a healthy amount of support. Thanks to your help, we’ve reached 286 pre-orders already! That puts our ultimate goal at 464 orders away, which does seem daunting, but if you think about it, we’re also only 89 orders away from the halfway mark. That’s my next goal, and it’s definitely within sight.

Keep up the good work! Tell all your friends and family, about Proteus, and if you have the means to do so, please order a copy.

Now with that order of business out of the way, it’s time for another of my famous lore updates!

In Tantalus Depths, you were introduced to the Colonial Hegemony; the massive, multinational alliance responsible for establishing humankind’s presence on worlds throughout the galaxy. But the Hegemony is not the only such alliance. Now, Proteus introduces the Expansionary Coalition. The ambitious, multi-generational Bella Rosa expedition is the greatest undertaking the Expansionary Coalition has ever attempted in the pursuit of its goal of finding a better home for humanity. For the Coalition, this is not merely exploration for its own sake. It’s an imperative for their future survival.

The Coalition has hung its hopes on the fate of the Somnambule and its 50,000 colonists. Have they placed all their faith on a doomed voyage? Only one way to find out. Support Proteus today!

"Cry ’Havoc!’, and let slip the dogs of war!"

The time has come at last. It has been almost a year since my first attempt to fund Proteus. In that time, I have spent most of my time and resources working on my development draft for Tantalus Depths. I severely underestimated how long it would take for me to finish that first round of heavy edits (I fully thought I would have had them done well before the end of the year), but at last, they are finally done. I sent the manuscript back to my editor about a week ago, and while I wait for him to work through my revised manuscript, I finally have nothing I have to do with that manuscript.

Which means it’s time to switch gears again.

For the next month or so, I am free of any responsibilities with Tantalus Depths, and I plan to take advantage of that opportunity to finish my Proteus campaign, which I started almost an entire year ago. I am still very determined to secure a publication deal for this second book, and thanks to my extension, I still have all the progress we made the first time I campaigned this book. There is still a long way to go, though.

At present, Proteus has 275 pre-orders. It needs 475 more to receive the publication deal I’ve already earned for Tantalus Depths. As of today, I have 97 days to get those orders. This is very doable, but it’s going to be a big challenge. I’ll need as much help as I can get, from all of you.

If you ordered a copy of Proteus last year, your order is still active. You’ll receive your copy when the book eventually comes out. I could not be more grateful for the support you’ve all shown Proteus and Tantalus Depths already, and I absolutely hate having to ask you for help yet a third time. If you have not already ordered a copy of Proteus, I would be extremely grateful for your support: you will be helping me establish my new career as a published author. If you have already ordered a copy and want to help more, you can absolutely do so by ordering a second or third copy. I would be eternally in your debt, and I simply cannot understate how much such a gesture would mean to me.

If you’re not in a position to support the book directly by ordering a copy, you can still help. I’ll be posting a lot more Proteus content soon, and I need to get it in front of as many people as possible. Please like and share as many of these posts as you can, and tell all your friends and family about this book. The more exposure we get, the better!

Thank you for your support, and I look forward to sharing a lot of exciting new content with you very soon.