Campaign Week 1

Day seven of the campaign and the crowdfunding competition is now drawing to a close.

It has been an intense week.

The support from my friends, family, and the community has been astounding. In seven short days, you have all ordered 125 copies of Human Resources! That is crazy — Human Resources is now 50% of the way to guaranteed publication on the Quill imprint!* What’s more, that has been enough to push the book into first place in The Launchpad Manuscript crowdfunding competition!

Unfortunately, second place has not been idle — they have been working hard to erode my lead in the competition, so we can’t slack off now! If you haven’t yet ordered a copy, it would be great if you considered doing so. Other things that are incredibly helpful are all the posts people have been making on social media, and the fantastic reviews / recommendations people have been leaving on Inkshares. Please keep it up!

I’m working on some special campaign content for the coming week -- keep an eye out for the next update :)

* If you would like to know what the Quill imprint is, and how it differs from the full Inkshares publishing service, I talk about it on my blog here.

Judges’ Top 50

Today the The Tracking Board announced the second round finalists from the formal judges stream — the Top 50. Guess what? That’s right, Human Resources made the cut!

Some more information about Inkshares

I know a number of you haven’t encountered Inkshares before, and some of you haven’t heard me speak about it before. I want to take the opportunity to familiarise everyone with the Inkshares model (my apologies for those this is old news to).

Inkshares is a book publishing company that selects the books it publishes through crowdfunding. The books not yet published on this site (i.e. Human Resources) are author drafts — they have not gone through a publisher’s editing process. When projects successfully fund, that means there is a delay before books are available for those who pre-ordered. Once a book is funded, before you receive your copy, the following must happen:

1. The author makes final changes to their manuscript.
2. Inkshares editors work through and enhance the manuscript with the author.
3. The polished manuscript is published (design, production, shipping).

There is more information available on the Inkshares FAQ and on their “How it Works” page.

The short version:

1. The excerpts you’ve all read are not the final versions.
2. The book won’t be available immediately after the campaign finishes.
3. You will be kept informed every step of the way.

Thank you again for your support,

Robert
https://www.inkshares.com/books/human-resources

No map today, because I’ve gotten a bit lazy in my efforts to convert the rest of my continent map over.  When I do get around to finishing there will be 5 more pieces, bringing it up to an 8 part map.

I do have new content to share though.  We hit 50 unique readers over the weekend, so that means I get to upload another chapter to add to the already way too long list.  I fear I may be addicted to sharing chapters.  Remember that for every 20 new unique readers who order I’ll share a new chapter, so for everyone following who hasn’t ordered get to enabling me already!  Seriously though, thanks to everyone.

I’ve decided to abandon the sequential release of the chapters this time, because I’ve been wanting to share what is one of my favorite fight scenes of the book for months now.  Because of the leap ahead that’ll happen I’m going to summarize what leads to this scene. 

At this point in the story it has been revealed that Palkaz has come to the mainland to hunt down his brother(and the titular Magus) Pentaz and drag him back to Thierdenvolgenlund to face real justice for his use of magic.  There’s a couple of reasons for this, but you can be certain that one of those is Palkaz’ wounded pride after Pentaz so thoroughly humiliated him during his escape.  His pursuit has led Palkaz to a small village in the Frozen North, where he soon discovers that Pentaz’ actions as he was passing through has led to the village being plagued by a shall we say "sizable" threat.  The resulting confrontation does a good job of showing off Palkaz’ snarky confidence as well as his unshakeable determination(not to mention his combat abilities).

The upload always messes up my formatting, so I’ll have to take time to fix that.  You should be seeing the new chapter before too long today though. That’s all I’ve got for today.  We’ll continue our dragon talk this Friday.  Until then, thank you all for your time and support.  Keep reading and enjoying!

Just a small update on this chilly Tuesday evening. Three new readers threw their support behind Witherfist earlier today, putting us ever-closer to 7th place in the contest top 10.

It occurred to me this morning that I’ve yet to share on Inkshares the character art of Sunderei, the Imperial scribe who appears in the third excerpt on the Witherfist project page - so here he is! 

~ Jenny

Hello all!

Fae Child is still moving forward. I have been working on the manuscript in my spare time, and hope to have it completed in the next two months. In other words, before the campaign is over! We have 67 days left to make 175 orders (to reach Quill) which means I just have to sell 2.6 copies every day until the end of the year! Is this insurmountable? No, it isn’t, but it does mean that I’m going to have to start doing something different, because what I have been doing is only bringing in 2-3 orders a week.

In that vein (of making changes) I have commissioned a bit of artwork. This is Abbie, after she first comes through the pond into the Otherworld.

There will be more to come! Please share Fae Child’s link with your friends, and make use of the "recommend" button on the page. I am thinking up a giveaway for referrals to launch after we’ve hit 80 preorders and I’ve given away the last dragon. 

Thank you all for your support,

Jane-Holly

Halloween Update! Today’s lore is going to be about Vampires... because... well..

So... onto The Staking of Vampires

Vampires have undergone significant evolution since their initial debuts in legend. The book, Vampire Evolution from Myth to Modern Day, covers their transformation in great detail. From old tales depicting vampires as reanimated corpses, wraiths dressed in tattered burial shrouds, or even Japanese folklore. But commonly today, the stake through the heart is seen as a metaphorical silver bullet to the vampire. From catatonic immobilization to instant destruction—the current legend is flashier than its origin.

The belief was that corpses, were crawling out of their coffins, and feasting on their relatives. So burial practices simply advised nailing the corpse to the bottom of the coffin. It didn’t need to be wood or even through the heart. A steel stake or a rock, driven through the rib cage would suffice—almost like pitching a tent. Which, ultimately, seems a lot smarter than trying to stake a vampire who is currently active and wields powers of the undead. A bit of pre-emptive action and safety measures regarding the undead never hurt anyone. 

Next week I’ll cover Trick-Or-Treating or the Witchfinder General. I’m saving some Seventh Age news for later and closer to launch date. So for now..

Copy edits are done, and we have a cover!

Thank you all for your comments and feedback! I am really grateful to everyone who took the time to voice their opinion. This final version has been tweaked to make it a little lighter, and I think will be really eye-catching both on store shelves and as an online thumbnail!

Next step is trying to secure cover blurbs from prominent authors or reviewers, then final proofreads, spine and back cover design, and final interior layout for both the ebook and hardcopy versions! It’s all coming together!

Thank you all yet again!