Safe to say its pretty much the home stretch for the Horror Contest. I wanna express my gratitude for those of you that have ordered Ereshk so far, it really means a lot. Even though I won’t be taking one of the top spots here, I consider the most valuable thing I’ve taken from this was interacting with my fellow competitors and being introduced to your projects. There’s definitely a lot of talent here, and I consider myself lucky to be among you all. Good luck to each of you, and that goes for everybody in the Mystery contest as well!

After the contest, Ereshk still has a month to hit the quota. No pressure, right?

Finish strong everyone!

Good day, everyone.

First, an important note: If you have purchased Bane of All Things but don’t recall receiving a thank you note from me (whether by email or on LinkedIn or Twitter) your purchase might be stuck in the system. It happens, and when it does, it’s not obvious to the buyer. If you suspect this, please email me at leo@leovaliquette.com.

Today’s update comes at an important stage for Bane of All Things (BoAT) – we are at the mid-point of the initial 90-day campaign. 

The good news: Sales have steadily gained since the campaign launch. Some fantastic feedback from Inkshares authors and supporters such as yourself gives me confidence that I have something good here. 

The not-so-good news: Based on our sales velocity to date, this campaign will not hit its target by the Jan. 12 deadline.

What does this mean?

There is always a Plan B. 

Funding campaigns are often extended at Inkshares’ discretion, but of course, they must have achieved sufficient momentum to warrant it. In fact, when I launched this campaign, I had the option of taking a longer funding window, but decided to test whether the default window of 90 days would spur a greater sense of urgency. 

It might yet – I have personally reached out to almost 1,000 people in my extended networks on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. That many more remain to be contacted. Many have responded favourably with an intent to buy and just haven’t yet. Sales have started to trickle in from the Inkshares community itself as readers active on the platform discover BoAT on their own.

What you can do  

You have already graciously given your support and I am deeply grateful. If are interested in doing more, here are some options:

1.    Spread the word. Please share this with any friends or family whom you think might also be interested. Some of you have mentioned talking about BoAT with your book club – how’s that going? 

 2.    Leave a review on my Inkshares page – that kind of endorsement always helps. 

3.    Buy again for someone else. You can make additional purchases. Take the ebook, for example. When BoAT publishes, you will receive your e-book copies as downloads in whatever of the main formats you prefer. That makes it easy to pass additional copies along by email as gifts. 

Remember – if you buy three or more print copies, you will be recognized as a Super Reader supporter in the back of the book. Pictured is an example from a current Inkshares title.

To date, 10 generous individuals have supported Bane of All Things as Super Readers.

4.    If you have followed but haven’t purchased BoAT, please do. If you liked what you have read and want to see more, now is the time to buy before we all get distracted by the holidays.

That’s all for now. Happy reading.

Cheers

Leo

Well friends, we’re overdue for an update. I was holding off on sending one out until Tantalus Depths had officially been put into the copy editing phase, since I really wanted that to be the next news I could deliver, but unfortunately we’re still not there yet. I do have good news, though, so stick with me to the end of this update for that.

At the moment, Tantalus Depths is in a sort of limbo between the end of the development editing process and the beginning of the copy editing process. This is because Adam Gomolin, the CEO of Inkshares, has personally given me a new set of notes for further recommended revisions. Adam knows his stuff, and has helped other authors achieve enormous success with their debut novels, including getting TV and film deals. As much as I want to finish this process, get the book into stores and the hands of my longsuffering supporters, I have to take Adam’s feedback seriously. He wants this book to succeed as much as I do, and I owe it to all of you to make this book as strong as possible before wrapping up the editing process. He and I have been going back and forth over how to make improvements to the book for the past couple of weeks, and I should be able to deal with this final edit over the next couple weeks, aiming for an absolute final development draft by the end of the year.

So that’s where the book itself is sitting right now. I know it feels like it’s not going anywhere (believe me, I am painfully, intimately aware of that feeling), but progress is happening. That leads me to my first piece of really exciting news:

Tantalus Depths is going to have an audiobook!

We’ve signed a deal with Audible to produce Tantalus Depths as an Audible-exclusive audiobook. Audible will produce this audiobook in-house, with a professional narrator and crew. We don’t know any details about the juicy stuff like who the narrator will be yet, and production can’t really begin until we’ve fully finished the final draft of the manuscript, but this is really exciting news nonetheless. I’m a huge fan of audiobooks and have listened to them religiously on Audible for years, so I couldn’t be more thrilled. I’ll keep you all updated on this as it unfolds!

Finally, I have one more piece of exciting news. I’ve been keeping this one under my hat as a special surprise to you all, but the time has come to finally let the cat out of the bag!

I, along with 19 other published and soon-to-be-published authors, participated in a short story anthology, which will be released on New Years Day and is now available for pre-order. My brand new original short story, Breach, is a standalone story set in the same universe as Tantalus Depths and Proteus.

Breach is a tense, thrilling tale of desperation and peril as two starship crewmen struggle for survival in open space, trapped in a piece of debris when their ship is destroyed by pirates. Death surrounds them on all sides; can they hold it together long enough to survive the deadly debris field, their own diminishing air supply, and bloodthirsty space pirates intent on leaving no survivors? You’ll have to check out Escape: A Writing Bloc Anthology to find out.

After all these delays with Tantalus Depths, I am so glad I can finally present you a tiny peek into this universe of mine with this new short story. Beyond that, though, I am beyond thrilled that my work gets to appear alongside so many other incredibly talented authors in this anthology. I’ve read most of the other stories, and let me tell you, you’re in for a treat here.

Well, I’ve dumped way more than enough info on you all for now. I’ll give news on the final draft of Tantalus Depths, the audiobook, and the Escape anthology as soon as I’m able. Stay tuned!

We are just shy of 60 days into the Inkshares Mystery & Thriller Contest and as much as I was looking forward to crossing this marathon finish line this week, the Inkshares organizers have decided to let us continue to run until mid-December. I’m currently in first place and hope that continues. To be on the safe side, there is still time to encourage others to order the book. Every order gets me closer to publication. As a reminder, during November, I am donating $5 of every order to the NaNoWriMo.org non-profit and I would like nothing more than to have to write a big check for a good charity. So please continue to spread the word. 

A few backers have asked when they can read the book. I’m currently working on the third draft, so the honest answer is I have no idea, but most likely in 2019. In the meantime, I’ve posted 10 revised chapters on the Inkshares site. If you want to take a look, you can do so by clicking on the READ tab below the cover art. (Or click here to go straight to the first of these, the Prologue.)    

It seems there are still a small number of orders that have not going through. If you have not received an email confirmation from hello@inskhares.com with the subject Gumshoe Rules Confirmation, then you’ll need to place your order again.  If you have any uncertainty, you can email hello@inskhares.com directly to check if your order was received.  Please go to https://www.inkshares.com/books/gumshoe-rules  to place your order. 

As this is Thanksgiving in the US, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on how grateful I am to be able to write and publish a novel. Without your support the book would not get published. I am especially grateful to those who not only ordered a copy of the book, but also badgered, spammed or otherwise encouraged other people to do so.  And even though it is sometimes uncomfortable to ask for this favor, it has been nice to be in touch with so many people and hear what so many friends and colleagues are up to.

So thank you everyone for your help! As a reminder, if you can want to reach out to one more person and encourage them to order the book, that would be fantastic!  I’m excited to have everyone along this journey!
--Z.Z. Traver
PS. Back in the spring I attended a writing workshop and met local Detroit author Stephen Mack Jones, who wrote the highly acclaimed August Snow detective novel. I am grateful for his feedback and encouragement upon reading the early chapters of this manuscript.  

Today is the 20th of November. In the original scheme of things, the Inkshares Mystery & Thriller contest would have ended on the 24th of November, four days from now; however, the deadline was extended some time back to the 14th of December, which means we have a little more breathing room.

Or, it means other people have the breathing room to catch up to us....

Well, we passed the Hundred Reader mark a few days ago, and just yesterday, we received the backing of the Staff Syndicate. That’s great news. If we can reach 250 readers by the 14th of December, it’s publication and no questions asked. It seems like a big hurdle, but hope springs eternal, and an honest effort could still count for much.

Remember to check your online Inkshares bookshelf, especially if you’ve not received a personal thank you email from me. It would be terrible to miss out on things simply due to "technical difficulties".

For now, though, I have a novel to write. You’re going to love it.

Good day, everyone. Now that this campaign has finally crossed the century mark in pre-sales, it’s time to announce something near and dear to my heart.

For those of you who don’t know, I am Canadian and live in our nation’s most populous province, Ontario.

One dollar (in Canadian dollars) from each copy of Bane of All Things sold during this campaign will be donated to Autism Ontario (www.autismontario.com). This registered charitable organization is the leading source of information and referral on autism in the province and one of the largest collective voices representing the autism community in Canada.

Why am I doing this? Simple. His name is William. He’s 13 years old and he’s my son. And he has two cousins, Aidan and Tristan. All three are autistic. 

I will make this donation whether or not my Inkshares campaign is successful. That’s right – even if we fail to reach the target, that gift will be given, on behalf of all of you who kindly offered your support.

But, the more books sold, the larger that donation will be. 

In closing, I want to give a special thanks to all of you who came on board to support this campaign since my last update. It doesn’t matter what level of support you have provided, you matter. My deepest thanks. Please continue to spread the word if you have any friends or family whom you think will also enjoy this gritty, fantastical tale.

I do want to give a shout out to Linda Simpson. Not only did she come on board as a Super-Reader last week, she promptly recruited two other Super-Readers.

(Linda runs Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care Inc. (www.PPRC.ca), which specializes in providing personal employment counseling services to Ontario residents with physical, psychological or developmental disabilities looking to enter the workforce.)

That’s all for now, happy reading.

Cheers

Leo