Rise received its first industry review!  It was posted on Monday, but I just found out about it today.

"Science fiction makes "Their world exploded" literal in this ensnaring SF mystery set on various fragments ("shells") of a shattered planet that still orbit around its glowing core. Set up by the Ancients, the shells host colonies of humans who depend upon the infallible technology of their ancestors to survive. But it is starting to fail, and Logwyn, a scribe, is sent by her dragon queen to interview four outsiders from different shells and cultures to piece together why. Armed only with a box whose contents she has not dared to view, Logwyn tries to draw the others out and gather up their separate but linked accounts, hoping to understand why the Ancient computers are losing data. Guthrie neatly if straightforwardly weaves together the four stories, letting events repeat without contradiction (no Rashomon here); his worldbuilding is complicated enough, including the characters’ ability to rewrite the "code" of reality, to require some simplicity of plot. Raising more questions with every answer, this volume should intrigue readers enough to look for the sequel."   Publishers Weekly

So exciting.  In other news, Inkshares is working hard with Amazon and Barnes and Noble to get the kinks in the release worked out.  Rest assured if you have friends that want to order from these two sites, they still can, especially if they’re after the Kindle version.  They can also go in to a Barnes and Noble store and order a copy there if it’s not already on the shelves. (I can’t believe I get to say that now!!)

Don’t forget to leave your own reviews and ratings on Goodreads and on the kindle version on Amazon.  And I’m still looking for some unique pictures of where people are reading Rise.
 
Check out who got his copy reserved!


So, shipments of backer copies have been flowing out, especially to the USA supporters.  However, I’ve been receiving messages from overseas supporters that they had issues with the address format and Inkshares has confirmed that there have been some issues with the overseas addresses.  So, to all my supporters in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Canada, this is for you.

As you can see in this image:

You have several boxes to fill out.  For most Germans, you will skip the State portion entirely.  For the British as well.  The most common mistake appears in the country portion.  It was mistakenly set to the wrong country.  There are other potential mix-ups but the key is, if you think you have an issue with your address, contact inkshares and they will help you.  Email them at hello@inkshares.com.  You can also message me and I can give you some pointers but Inkshares has indicated they are more than able to help you fix any issues with your address.

Thanks!

Today is the day!

Rise is now available for order.  Not preorder.  Actual order.

#lifetimeachievementunlocked

Next?  Funny you should ask.  Fall.

Happy reading and please leave a review as soon as you can:-)

Rise is in the wild!  Many of you have already received your copy and have sent images of the book to me.  Thanks for that.  I was in the throes of Post Con Depression following Dragoncon when these images began rolling in.  Instant boost to the happiness scale.

This coming Tuesday, 13 Sept 2016, the book is released worldwide.  Among other things, it means you will be able to leave reviews on Amazon.  Goodreads already allows this.  It is impossible to explain how important reviews are to authors, especially first time authors.  Your reviews do not need to be glowing pieces of literary work.  A simple I liked it is sufficient.  If you’d like to see a sample of a much more detailed review, check out this one from Alicia Smock.  I was humbled by her kind words.  Stay tuned for more from an interview she conducted with me just before Dragoncon.

Finally, Fall, sequel to Rise, is up for preorder now and the sooner it gets through the campaign of preorders, the sooner you get it.  wink wink

Happy reading!

Greetings from Dragoncon!

Tomorrow evening at 1900 I’ll be hanging out in the Sheraton Atlanta Downtown in the cafe on the same level as the Grand Ballroom.  Come hang out with me and talk about Rise if you’re in the area.

Tomorrow also I will put Fall up for preorder on Inkshares.  Be sure to get your copy reserved at tiny.cc/fallnovel

24 days to go!  Hope you all are enjoying your ebook of Rise.  I’m told next week the physical copies arrive at Inkshares HQ and then they will begin shipping them out to you.  So exciting!

To have some fun with all of you reading Rise, I’m going to ask for pictures!  Usually authors ask for pictures of their book in the wild (which I will not turn down if you see it).  I also am interested in you the reader, though.  So, here’s the idea.  Send me a picture of you reading the book, either physical or on an e-reader device, in an unusual circumstance or place.  I’m going to save all of these and then pick one person to win an as yet undetermined prize.  I’m thinking maybe an early draft of Fall to read.  We’ll see.

As for the book release party at Dragoncon, it’s going to be Thursday night 1 Sept, location TBD, before Con begins so you don’t have to buy a badge to get in if we have it at one of the hotels (a possibility still in the works).  This is just a hangout kind of thing where you can come say hi if you’re able to come that evening, get your copy autographed, and just chit chat about the book or whatever you want to talk about.  I may have some hints to share about the sequel, Fall.


Two updates in a row!  Must be something good to tell you.

Well, it is.  Check your inboxes.  Rise’s ebook is now available for you to download.  Happy reading.  And go!

We are one month away from the release of Rise into the world wide wild!  And Rise needs your help yet again when this happens.  Well, really before it happens.  Here’s how.

Bookstores!  Go to them wherever you see them and request they stock the book.  All you need is the book title and my name and they will find it in their system to order.  Even if you have a copy coming, doing this helps tell bookstores there is interest in this product and gets them putting copies on their shelves for you to, I don’t know, take friends to get.

Amazon!  This is the big one.  The number of reviews a book gets is critical in getting it visibility on Amazon’s pages.  The magic number for this is 100.  Don’t assume everyone else will do this so you don’t have to.  Just go real quick and knock it out.  And your review does NOT have to be a work of literary note itself.  It can be something as simple as “I like this book” with a star rating to show how much.  Pro tip: in the subject line put “ARC review” or “Advance Reader Copy review”.  That tells people looking at the reviews who see you aren’t a “verified purchaser” because you didn’t buy it from Amazon that you did read it because you had special access early.  Second Pro tip: copy pasta!  Once you put one on Amazon, go to Goodreads, copy and pasteJ  And Bn.com.  And Indigo.  Anywhere you want.  You can reuse the same review on all of them.

Now for the big question.  When?  Well, with bookstores, now!  With the reviews, do them as soon as you can.  Amazon won’t open it up for reviews until about 2 weeks before or less.  I’ll be sure to send out a reminder once I notice it.

Now for the last big question.  The release party.  I’m still ironing out some details but Michelle and I will be at Dragoncon.  Don’t worry, it won’t happen at con so you don’t have to rush out and get a con badge.  When I know more details, I’ll let you know.  It’s only meant to be a little deal for all of you who supported this project in GA and who come to Dragoncon to come see me and chat about the book.  For those of you in Europe, I’ll have another in Frankfurt after I get back.

Greetings, my wonderful readers.  I have two bits of news for you.

First, Rise was sent to the printer 27 minutes before the writing of this update (assuming Girl Friday sent it at the time they scheduled it; always potential for a hiccup).  Wow.  It’s, literally, out of my hands now.

Second, on the same day a Canadian distributor bought 127 copies!  I mean, the day couldn’t get any better could it?

That’s it for now.  Be sure to check out Too Many Controllers, an anthology of 15 of Inkshares’ finest authors’ short stories themed on video games!  It’s pre-production preorder phase ends next Sunday, the 16th of July.  After that, the sweet deal to get the ebook and hard copy in one order changes to individual orders.  Plus, it’s in a contest. ;-)

Hey, happy weekend everyone!

I have an actual update for you on Rise!  I finished the proofread of the manuscript last night a little after midnight my time and sent it back to Girl Friday.  It was a good thing I had that opportunity because I noticed a continuity error that was going to figure large once you start reading Fall.  Needless, to say, I’m very glad to have caught it.  Someone I work with stated the detail I fixed seemed a very minor thing to be focused on.  But, it’s the little details like that I think that matter the most in a grand tale.  Sure, I could have left it and altered the story the rest of the way.  But I couldn’t.  Those details are going to explain a lot when you put them all together later in the series.

So, Rise is back in the production team’s hands for now.  Monday they’ll go over my responses and hopefully start making those changes right off.  Assuming I got it all right, I shouldn’t see Rise again in any form I can touch to alter it.

We’re just over three months from release.  Stay tuned for more news on how you can help make Rise’s release a fireworks show of epic proportions!

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