Hello, Curio Citizen supporters!

I’m here to give you all a little update on the progress of Curio Citizen’s publishing process. I’m still awaiting an official timeline and estimated release date, but I’ll take a few moments to fill you in on the information I do have.

As with any publishing company, Inkshares has a whole host of people who will be working on getting my book ready for bookshelves (and your inbox/mail box!). I’ve already filled out paperwork for the marketing team, who will organize the best methods for promoting my book, and the creative team, who will be designing my official book cover. I have also submitted my entire Curio Citizen manuscript, which will be assigned to an Inkshares editor. Like with any publishing company, the editor will read my manuscript and help me perfect it to be the best it possibly can be before publishing.

As you can imagine, this complicated process can be rather lengthy. Because of your help in this contest, my book will go through the full publishing process, which includes:

Editing: Inkshares handles the entire editorial process from developmental to copy-editing; from fact-checking to proofing.

Producing: Internal layout design, cover design, printing.

Distribution: Through Inkshares’ partnership with Ingram to book sellers like Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and hundreds of independent bookstores.

Marketing: Social media marketing, email marketing, traditional and online publicity.

Selling movie and TV rights: Sales of movie and TV rights for our books in Hollywood through a partnership with UTA.

So, although I don’t have an official timeline estimate for the publishing of Curio Citizen, I can tell you that the average time for a book to go from completed manuscript to being on the shelves is about a year. I can’t wait for you all to read Curio Citizen, but I hope you don’t mind being patient! It takes a long time to get everything just right, and at the end of the process, hopefully Curio Citizen will be ready for success!

I will continue to keep you all updated as more concrete information comes my way. I am so excited to move from writing to the next phase of hard work--publishing.

Please keep letting other people know about Curio Citizen who might be interested. Although the contest is over, Curio Citizen is still available for pre-order. The more copies sold and the more hubbub surrounding the book, the better chance it has for success.

Thank you!

Katherine

Okay!

So, around 92% of you want the slightly delayed autographed book, and that is what you shall get. On July 24th I will enter Inkshares’ office with a bunch of special pens and not leave until every pre-ordered signed book is numbered and autographed. For the few of you who wanted your books early but unautographed, I’ve discussed the matter with Inkshares and they asked that you simply pop them an email at: hello@inkshares.com and let them know that you pre-ordered a signed copy of The Punch Escrow, but you’d rather get an unsigned copy sooner.

More news soon! We’re almost at the finish line. We’ve crossed the 4,000 pre-orders threshold. Tell you what, if we break 5,000 by July 24, I’ll add something extra for all of you early backers.

More soon!

-Tal 

Greetings, adventurers!

The Wednesday reading went well, despite some technical/parental? hiccups. You can watch the reading right here! I’ll do a reading of chapter 3 in a few more weeks--around mid-July. After some feedback, I’m going to try and keep the live readings to a shorter amount of time, keeping it just to the reading.

I announced my backer contest on the live stream on Wednesday night as well. Here are the rules!

1. Preorder the book! 
2. Like and share the pinned post on my Facebook page (NOTE: make sure the share is public so I can see it!) 
3. Those three things are the pre-requisites for the contest. You can earn bonus entries, however... 
4. Share a picture of the book’s cover OR the business cards on Instagram  (1 entry each)
5. Tweet a link to the book using the hashtag #MushAnch (1 entry) 
6. Being a Patron on my Patreon account gives you 1 entry per dollar value of your monthly contribution (i.e. $5 month = 5 entries) 
7. Referring a friend who preorders the book will get you 10 entries! Please get them to contact me after they have preordered. This is the only one you can do multiple times. If you refer 3 friends who preorder the book as well, you’ll get 30 bonus entries! 
8. Requesting a "street team" package and posting pictures of successful promotional material placement will get you 5 entries. 

The prize? A $50 Amazon egift card (in YOUR CURRENCY). This contest will be going on until July 31st. 

The Nerdist contest is officially over, so I imagine people will be looking to the LaunchPad contest now. This would be a great time to preorder and help Mushroom and Anchovy move up the contest ladder. We’ve dropped down to 6th place as another contender has swooped in to 5th! We still have several months of the contest left, however, so it’s still anyone’s game. I will continue to keep a close eye.

Speaking of the Nerdist contest, congrats to everyone in the Sci-Fi contest! Special congrats to backer and author of Curio Citizen Katherine Forrister, who got 2nd place! As you know, I was really pulling for her, so I’m so happy for her that she got in the top three! I can’t wait to read Curio Citizen!

I changed the name of the backer categories to something a little more in-universe: Adventurers are ebook tier, Agents are print book tier, and Commander is the 3-copy super backer name-in-the-back-of-the-book tier. 

I know this is Lore Day but I’ve already inundated you with so much today that I don’t want to hold your attention too much longer! I’ll move it to Monday instead so you can get a DOUBLE LORE WEEK next week, and I’ll try to keep the updates to a minimum. Unless something awesome happens.

A final note: I’ve been submitting a press release for the book to multiple sources, and will be reaching out to different avenues over the coming weeks. As well, we’re just 11 preorders away from the chapter 4 posting. I hope to be able to share that incredibly zany chapter with you soon!

Whew! That’s a lot. Thanks for your attention, folks. Next week’s e-mails will be a lot more fun. ;)

May all your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

I hope June has been good to all of you. In Australia, the end of this month marks the end of our Financial Year, so the joys of tax time commence! /faceplant.

The past month has been another busy one, but the statistics won’t reflect that this time — I haven’t completed any more scenes and my word count hasn’t increased. Instead, the time has been spent digging deeper into the world building with my editing team, making sure everything we include (or exclude) is rock solid. 

Coming out of this round of workshops, we have deeper science, more detailed history, and a path forward that will (hopefully) deliver something fresh to the genre.

Looking ahead, there’s still some work to complete before diving back into the rewrite again, but we’re close, and I can’t wait to get more of this to (digital) paper.

As always, feel free to reach out if you have any questions. If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to jump on Facebook and give my author page a like, or sign up to my author newsletter (covers broader content than just this novel).


The following is a special sneak peek from a revamped prologue I’m looking forward to sharing the full thing:

Six letters ended the world. We didn’t realize it at the time — swept away by the excitement of advancing technology and endless possibilities. We failed to predict the chain of events which would follow, but in hindsight they appear inevitable. Sooner or later, someone was bound to be tempted as we were. Perhaps they wouldn’t have made the same mistakes. Perhaps they would have been more cautious. Perhaps not. History cares not for your regrets, pays no heed to your guilt. It will not change regardless how often or fervently you pray. History’s purpose is not the past, but the future. If we are lucky, we learn, move on, and build a better tomorrow. If we don’t, I fear we are all doomed...

Oh my goodness. I really don’t have words to express how grateful I am to all of you who have followed my journey with Curio Citizen from the beginning, or for those amazing supporters who got excited and jumped in last minute. I am truly amazed and humbled by your support and love.

And it paid off in more ways than just my eternal gratitude! Last night, Curio Citizen won 2nd place in the Nerdist Sci-fi Contest! We got 277 total pre-orders, and 270 of those were from separate readers who were enthused enough by Curio Citizen to pre-order! Back at the beginning of the contest, I repeated to many people, many times, that getting to 50 would be amazing to me. That number changed to 80, then 100, then I was SURE I would cap at 150 when I thought I had run out of people to ask. But you all rose to the occasion and showered me with pre-orders by spreading the word. I am FLOORED by the amount of support I have received in the past month.

I started writing Curio Citizen a year ago, and this summer, I was fully ready to begin the long submissions process to try to get it published. I am SO lucky to have had the opportunity this contest offered and all of you to rally and make it happen. I will now be a published author and can jump-start what will hopefully be a successful career. My head is full of stories to be told, and I cannot wait to share them all with you!

Many of you know the details of why being published is so important to me and my family, and what I have overcome in life to get to this point. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for giving me this chance towards an amazing future.

So, as of right now, Curio Citizen has won 2nd place, it is listed as #21 Best Seller in Science Fiction on Inkshares, and its status is officially "In Production". I am awaiting further instructions and information on the way forward, but I will continue to place updates here as I go!

I would like to also send congratulations to Ferd Crotte and Daniel Lee for their wins. It has been an amazing roller coaster of a competition, and I am glad the three of us succeeded. To all the other competitors, I have loved reading about your books, and I really hope you reach full funding through your continued Inkshares goals.

Thank you again, to every single person who pre-ordered my book. I am truly touched beyond words.

-Katherine