Robert Batten liked an update for The Living God

Hello everyone!

There are 15 days left in the campaign, and it is unlikely that we’ll have that Christmas miracle. That’s okay. We’ve got Quill. But, there are still 15 days left to get in on the cool incentives (even the free book cover for your purchase of a copy of the book), if you haven’t already placed your order. 

Thank you all for supporting this book. I’m working hard in the editing phase to make it the best it could ever be.

Thanks!
Kaytalin


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    Robert Batten liked an update for King’s Daughter

    We are in the last two days of the Inkshares publishing contest.  I want to personally thank each and every one of you for investing in my dream!  If you have any friends or family members who would be interested in pre-ordering my book please pass this email along to them. Your help is critical and an invaluable assistance at this point in the competition.  Thank you! Here is the link: https://www.inkshares.com/books/king-s-daughter?referral_code=b8435fa0


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      Robert Batten liked an update for Kill Creek

      Hey everybody!

      As of today, KILL CREEK has 161 pre-orders!  With 40 days left, there’s still time to reach the first goal of 250.  Thank you to everyone who has supported this book.  It means a lot.  Getting KILL CREEK out into the world is a dream that finally feels close to a reality, and I couldn’t do it without you.

      Also, KILL CREEK has been selected as the December pick by the Thriller Night Syndicate on Inkshares!  It’s always incredibly encouraging and humbling to be acknowledged by readers and fellow writers, especially those who don’t feel the constant daily guilt of my Facebook posts.

      But there’s another deadline coming up soon.  This Friday, in fact.  Out of all of the finalists in the Launch Pad Manuscript Competition, Inkshares will guarantee publishing to the Top 3 with the most unique pre-orders.  Right now, KILL CREEK is #7.  With a big surge in the next couple days, it could make the Top 3.  So if you’ve already ordered your copy, I could use your help spreading the word.  And if you haven’t pre-ordered yet, please take a read through the first 50 pages and consider clicking that pre-order button.  

      I keep calling this a horror novel, and it is.  But it’s not just a piece of gratuitous genre fiction.  It’s so much more to me.  This is a story set in Kansas, where I grew up.  Part of it takes place in Lawrence, where I attended the University of Kansas.  And the backstory of one of the protagonists, Sam, includes an actual haunted house in my hometown.  It was called Old Parker...

      The stories about this house were probably made up, but that didn’t stop us from going out there late at night and daring each other to spend five minutes alone in the pitch-black root cellar, standing on the very dirt that (supposedly) covered the grave of Mrs. Parker.  We wanted to believe these stories.  Because it meant something extraordinary had happened here.  It meant there was a power (albeit a dark power) greater than us at work in this place.  It meant we had a legend in our own backyard.

      This is the actual exit to Kill Creek Road:

      To be perfectly honest, I’ve never even been down that road.  But whenever I would drive past it on K-10, I would see that name and wonder what strange, unspeakable thing had gone down at the end of what I imagined was a road shrouded in shadow.  And so I created my own legend.  The legend of Kill Creek.

      Please help me share this legend.  I believe it’s a tale worth telling.

      And, as always, thank you.

      Best,

      Scott


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        Robert Batten liked an update for Shadow King

        Hello, everyone!

        We’re down to that nail-biting, Pepto-drinking, sweaty-palms final 48 hours before the conclusion of the 2016 Launchpad competition.

        And I’m hopeful that I’ll have good news to share once everything is wrapped up, but I’ve said all along: I can’t do it alone. Reaching the top three means adding new readers... I’ve sent individual notes to all of my prospects, and I hope to see more new names on my readers list before the Friday deadline. 

        To all the readers rooting for Aohdan and "Shadow King" -- thank you. I won’t ever be able to say that enough. 

        Take care,

        Susan

        PS. As always, please share my link liberally: www.inkshares.com/books/shadow-king and don’t forget the $25 Amazon gift card raffle for new readers who pre-order by December 16!

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          Robert Batten liked an update for The Walls are Closing In

          After much deliberation, I have decided on a launch date for the pre-order campaign for The Walls are Closing In. To provide a nice buffer after the holidays before gouging everyone’s wallets, the pre-order campaign will commence on the 13th of January - also known as Friday, the 13th. Hopefully not too ominous.

          http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m742mhxoxf1rvqh1lo1_250.gif

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            Robert Batten liked an update for The Phantom Forest

            Hi Readers!

            A few exciting updates for everyone. First of all, Phantom Forest has only **2 MORE DAYS** to qualify for the Launchpad Competition! Would love to get as many pre-orders as possible between now and the 16th, so tell your friends! Your book clubs! Your blogs! Whoever you think might enjoy the read! If I do not win the competition, we only have 30 days left to hit the minimum 250 orders for the Quill publishing deal. In a nutshell, we need another signal boost! The final 100 orders must be filled!

            We also now have a cover artist and shot a book trailer over the weekend, which is very exciting! I’m really grateful to have such wonderful creatives in my midst who are loaning their time and energy to this project. The trailer and some art samples are coming ASAP, so be on the lookout!

            Enjoy your holiday cookies, cocoa, tree decorating, and vacation planning this week!

            Love,

            Liz

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              Robert Batten liked the forum thread, Inkshares vs. The Others
              @Luke Fellner People do use Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Patreon for books, yes. They all have their ups and downs, but the main thing that keeps me from using them is coming up with funding bonuses. Like, making a t-shirt for people who give me $20, A USB stick for $30, things like that. 

              You also have to add lots of pictures and videos - nobody wants to fund something that’s text-only. Promotion is a much bigger job, and then you still have to find a good editor and figure out distribution into bookstores. At least Inkshares puts some of those steps together in one place.
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                Robert Batten liked the forum thread, Editing Until Crazy
                Exactly as Luke said. I had this tendency of looking back at previous points in a story and going "Oh god, did I seriously write that? This is embarassing...", then scraping entire projects because of it. Lately, having actually finished a novel for once, I finally began to learn to love my own work and live with those "mistakes" as part of the creative process.

                I must have spent almost 3 months day in and out editing that 690 page early draft, seeing how entire walls of dialogue went on and on with no discernable action in play, making me go a little crazy with how asinine it felt (I love my dialogues a lot, but I can see faults in going overboard). After a first full rewrite, that number went up to 790 and I´m sure that there are still sections that look like the Bee Move script... and I find it hard to cut stuff, since I have a lot of narrative material I believe necessary for the story not to feel hollow, so... yeah, currently waiting on a couple of early readers to give me their full thoughts.

                Bottom line is to love the content when you know you are giving it your best and be aware when it´s not up to snuff to have another go at it. Having people read it will also provide the perspective from someone on the dark, helping you reinforce plot points and letting you know when a certain element doesnt fit well with the story (all of this with a pinch of salt, of course)
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                  Robert Batten liked the forum thread, Editing Until Crazy
                  While working on editing for The Burned and my other stories, I’ve realized that it seems dull because it is. You’ve read the story, studied it, wrote it, and you know every single detail. But there are points while editing where I go "YES! I wrote this?!? This is awesome!" (forgive my ego) and I kinda forget I’m editing and admire myself for a minute. Be proud of what you did, don’t edit shamefully, edit constructively. 
                  There have been points where I wanted to rip my eyes out so I’d never have to read, reread, and rereread stories looking for mistakes. It can get agonizing so it helps to have people read it for you and point out mistakes. You know what you want to get across and they know what they can get from the story, so use it.
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                    Robert Batten liked the forum thread, Editing Until Crazy
                    Hey guys! I’ve been working on content editing for the last month. It was a bit hard to get going at first, mostly because I have been editing for longer than that, but once the Geek and Sundry contest concluded and The Living God made quill, I doubled down my efforts after passing it off to two beta readers. 

                    I’m getting ready to wrap up the edits from their comments and pass it off to a final round of beta readers (2).

                    I’m just curious who else has had a point with their editing process, after they’ve culled and poured over it for so long, that they just can’t see it as decent writing anymore? Has anyone else just reached a point where they have doubts about what they’ve created? 

                    I think a lot of it stems from having read the same sentences and paragraphs over and over to the point that I’m a bit desensitized to the information. 

                    What are some of your editing to the point of insanity stories? Have you ever made yourself doubt your story by focusing too much on perfection? 
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