The moment of truth!
Tonight I put 100 names of those who pre-ordered copies 105-204 of Blood Dawn in a blue wizard's hat and drew one name from it. You can watch a short clip on Vine to see the process if you're curious:
You can't quite see the name (this was my second Vine video to date and I'm still trying to get the knack of balancing out 6 seconds of footage), so I hope you all trust me.
Nonetheless...
It was a DRAGON! Congratulations Lisa Hall, whose dragon name is Lahalazar.
Thank you again to everyone for believing in this book. Stay tuned for more to come, including an exciting announcement about another opportunity as we look ahead to the next milestone.
First off, congratulations to the five winners of the Nerdist competition. Well done to each of you. And super congrats to Welcome to Deadland by Zachary Tyler Linville
and It’s All Fun and Games by Dave Barrett for being selected as Nerdist's first collection novels. Nice job guys!
Now that this really cool contest is over all of us who didn't win are probably tempted to take some time off and lick our wounds. Well Monkey Business says screw that noise. We're not licking anything. We're forging ahead on the long road to 1,000 pre-orders. Now that everybody here is all hunky dory back on the same team and not in competition anymore, lets get on with this business. This Monkey Business.
See what I did there?
I would like to start my post-Nerdist marketing push by asking, what do you guys want? I don't feel great about just pummeling you with requests to order my book. Would you like me to post more of it on the site? Would you like an audio recording? Would you like me to do some more silly sock puppet videos? I'm here to help so if anybody has any requests, thoughts, etc. Let me know. Your thoughts are appreciated!
Having said that, I will include a link to the facebook page for Monkey Business. Please like it, share it, build an empire of monkeys who will pre-order this book into existence. And send me any suggestions you might have to my email below.
Thank you guys so much! Hope you have a great day,
Landon
https://www.facebook.com/landonwrites
landoncrutcher@gmail.com
Wow. I don't even know what all to say other than thank you all so much and I'm blown away by this entire experience.
The Nerdist Collection Contest wrapped up, and Welcome To Deadland finished out in first place, met the pre-order goal, AND was selected by The Nerdist for their collection! When I found out my jaw dropped and I was overcome with shock and excitement. I never would have reached these amazing goals and opportunities if it hadn't been for each and every single one of my readers. Family, friends (both old and new), fellow authors, and everyone that showed me and Welcome To Deadland support, this is all because of you!
The journey to bring the book to your hands is far from over, I'm both nervous and excited to see what the future holds and I can't wait until each of you are able to hold and read a copy for yourself.
Thank you to InkShares and thank you Nerdist, without all of you this opportunity wouldn't have presented itself to all of us.
One day soon you will all be graciously welcomed through the gates of Deadland.
-Zac
It's time for me to cram yet another update into your already too full inboxes.
The Nerdist Collection Contest is almost at an end. I am not in it, but I've made friends with many of the authors in the contest and have loved showing support for their work along the way. Even after the Nerdist competition, there will still be several great projects funding and I look forward to our continued work together.
I thought instead of giving you a long list, I'd share with you my number one favorite project that's not in the top 5.
Now, this has been hard for me to do. But I confess, one has stood out for me above all others (keeping in mind I am an epic fantasy reader and love sprawling epics with maps and immersive worlds).
So here it is, my number one top pick:
Rune of the Apprentice, by Jamison Stone.
I've shared Jamison's book with you before, and his guest post over on my blog (haven't seen it yet? Read it here.)
Rune of the Apprentice felt to me like a novel after my own heart. I was blown away by Jamison's maps, his diligent world building, and his passionate tale about a young orphan's quest to stop his special gift from killing him. Reading Jamison's work, I'm at once transported to something out of a Brandon Sanderson book -- yes, his writing is that good.
Jamison also draws his own maps. They're spectacular! I want to share one with you here:
Isn't that amazing? If you love immersive epic fantasy, you should definitely go to his page for Rune of the Apprentice and read more, and consider backing his project:
https://www.inkshares.com/projects/rune-of-the-apprentice
Jamison is also giving all his profit raised from pre-orders to charities that support military families. Inspired to write Rune of the Apprentice during long periods where he would be away from his wife during her service in the military, Jamison is doing something very generous by giving back to those who struggle with similar issues of separation. This is a great cause, all around, and I'd love to see you support this book to help it come to life.
Well, folks, today was a banner day in the annals of Disintegration.
We started in 17th. Then, throughout the day, 30 of you ordered my book, bringing it to 296 copies sold. Can we sell four more before the day ends? Hitting 300 would be nice. All "This. Is. Sparta!" Which is even more appropriate because I am a Michigan State Spartan!
I'm so incredibly grateful that you all saw fit to swoop in and buffet me into 14th place, which lasted all of, like, a minute before the angry hornets nest that is Janna Grace proceeded to smoke me to the tune of 20 new orders and counting (yes, she's still going. No mercy rule, here. I think she's from Long Island, as well, which is giving me yet another reason to feel bad about where I grew up).
But, in the interest of sportsmanship: good for her. I don't know how she did it. I've had to beg and plead and wring my hands and give copies away. I'd probably kill (though, probably not; that's illegal) for an army of folks who wait in the wings to pour a beatdown on anyone who'd dare to usurp my position.
Even still. Hell of day. Hell of a job by all of you who chipped in.
And, for the love of all that is holy, and -- if it's more your thing -- unholy, order my book, please! The contest ends tomorrow at 12 p.m. Pacific, 3 p.m. Eastern. We can catch Janna if everyone who is following but hasn't ordered ... orders. She can't be the only one with a rocket ship, can she? You don't like seeing anyone just run away with the boobie prize, do you?
Me neither! Harrumph!
