Tabi Card followed Christopher Lee Eichenauer
Christopher Lee
Wordsmith, Word Nerd, Rebel philosopher
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Jesse West
Our greatest gift is the power of imagination. Our greatest curse is the power of emotion.
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Tabi Card liked the forum thread, How I got to 250 orders in 10 days
So I’ve gotten a ton of messages about how I got The Punch Escrow to "Quill" in 10 days. Hopefully this is useful to some of you. I think it basically boils down to: Treat it like a job. It’s your job to get your book sold. If you believe in what you’ve got, if you think you know the audience you wrote it for will love it, then invest your time, energy, and money in your project.

1. Get lucky. Luck is something you need to succeed. Luck is something you can actually control. If you don’t believe me, do the research. Having a lucky attitude makes a huge difference. 

2. Move quickly! I learned this through a couple decades in marketing. When it comes to contests, creating a distance between you and anyone behind you pays back huge dividends. Once you’ve established yourself as the frontrunner, you gain the benefit of being perceived as the favored incumbent. It pays to burn through all of your promotional energy early. If you manage to grasp first place, trust me, you will find a second wind. If you don’t, then you’ll have a pretty good perspective of your likelihood of winning and you can make the call on how much energy to reinvest based on that analysis.

3. I steadfastly followed the advice given by previous Inkshares contests winners. I hustled really really hard and harassed everyone I knew through multiple channels: Texts, twitter, FB, WhatsApp, Snapchat, even LinkedIn. I would say personal contacts accounted for over 50% of the pre-ordered books. I injected a sense of urgency by explaining the contest, the timeline, and the ask: "I’m in a contest to publish my first book. If sci fi is your thing, you’re going to love it. Especially if you like hard sci fi, like The Martian. I need to get 250 pre-orders to get it published. Please click here to pre-order it."

4. Engage engage engage!  Every single time someone bought my book I acknowledge and thank them. It makes them feel good and it encourages them to engage back with you and help promote the project. They’re part of the team now.

5. Get to know your fellow authors. Inkshares is an AMAZING community of readers and authors. I have yet to have a negative interaction with anyone here. I’ve joined three Syndicates and have interacted with countless authors. Everyone here has something valuable to pass on to you. It’s worth listening.

6. Promote and Invest! Remember when I said treat your book like your job? Well, you should also treat is like an investment. There’s a flywheel effect when people see you investing in your own work. It makes them feel like you really believe in it. I’ve been creating a ton of world-building content, videos, as well as taking advantage of every interview opportunity, promoted tweets, Facebook boosts, and such. If publishing this book is your dream, invest in making your dream come true. 

So, these are the six steps I followed. Hopefully it’s useful to you. If you have more specific questions about those or the book itself, I’m at your service.


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    Tabi Card liked an update for Cape’s Side Bay

    Hey everyone, happy Saturday!

    Today’s a big day for me, it’s the friends and family screening party for my first feature. I’m getting anxious, not so much nervous, but anxious. Really looking forward to it!

    Before I get into anything on Cape’s Side Bay’s end, I wanted to give a special shout out to Tabi Card for putting together this sweet new cover for Cape’s Side! If you haven’t already please check out her work, Scribbles: A collection of words, which is funding now and Project Human. They’re both great and I think you’ll enjoy them!

    And, WOW WOW you guys are the best! Over 31% to light-publication!!! This is incredible! Who knows if we will make it that far, but I’m getting exciting. The campaign is a long long road ahead and your support will continue to be needed to help reach the goal. That being said, you’re all flipping amazing! 

    And lastly!

    MUGS!

    As mentioned above and yesterday today is a friends and family screening of my first feature film: Out There. Also as mentioned yesterday we are raffling off some of the mugs (pictured in previous update) from the film!

    The first will go to all of you who have already pre-ordered. Then another will be given away to the next 10 pre-orders will be entered into a raffle for 1. And then the next 15 pre-orders will be entered into a raffle for another 1.

    Let’s spread the word of Cape’s Side Bay and get it to where it needs to be to become a published novel. Which in ten years you will be able to see someone read and say “hey, flip to the back. See that? That’s my name."

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      Tabi Card liked an update for Cape’s Side Bay

      Happy Friday!

      Hope you’re all doing well and fine and all that. Been a busy week and looking forward to a busier weekend! Tomorrow is the "friends and family" screening party for the independent film I wrote and directed: Out There. It’s about an introvert who applies to live on Mars. It was a fun time shooting it and I’m looking forward to watching it tomorrow night!

      Back to Cape’s Side Bay, we’ve passed 70 pre-orders and that is AWESOME! 

      Tomorrow at the screening we will be giving some friends and family mugs. Do you know what goes well with a good book? A mug of coffee, or tea, or whatever you feel you want to put in it. I want to give some away to you all! 

      But I can’t, there are too many of you. So... All previous orders will be in a raffle for an OUT THERE mug, then we will do a raffle after the next 10 pre-orders, then a raffle after the next 15. 

      Please keep sharing and spreading the word of Cape’s Side Bay! Things are going very well and I’m getting genuinely excited... which is rare for me. I promise. 

      And last but definitely not least, as of this writing J.F Dubeau’s A GOD IN THE SHED is just over 100 pre-orders from FULL PUBLICATION! Any help would be great, it’s a terrific read. I ordered mine! It’s great horror/fantasy.  You will not be disappointed. 

      Enjoy your weekend!

      James

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        Tabi Card liked an update for Sync City

        Greetings Jackolytes,

        Sync City continues to burble along nicely and there’s still time to jump on board before the funding process is done in ten days time. For those of you that are following but have yet to pre-order this is the link for you: Sync City Come on in, the water’s fine!

        And speaking of fine, there’s a fine book out there written by a fine man that could do with a nudge in the 250 direction. Mike Donald, a screenwriter by profession, has produced an absolute gem in Louisiana Blood and is 19 days away from his funding period finishing. He needs 29 more pre-orders. 19 days, 29 pre-orders. I can’t think of a better place to put your cash this weekend. Beers may come and go but a book is forever. Hit this link: Louisiana Blood  and bring a damn good book to life.

         Cheers,

         Peter

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