Barnstorming Jackolytes,
Absolute barnstorming! We have breached the 200 pre-order wall. 250 is in our sights. For those of you that haven’t pre-ordered: https://www.inkshares.com/books/sync-city?referral_code=9f560b73 will get you there. For those of you with friends and family into hard-boiled sci-fi, the same link will do. Jack has only got this far by standing on the shoulders of giants. And those giants are you. Share the Sync City love and make Jack so.
Cheers,
Peter
Happy Monday readers and followers!
After a restful weekend visiting my best friend on the other side of the state, enjoying homemade spicy chicken and waffles and the new season of Daredevil, I’m back and ready to kick off more exhaustive promotion of my book!
First off, I want to hear from all of YOU who haven’t pre-ordered yet what’s holding you back. If you feel so inclined, please reach out to me directly at split0@gmail.com, I would appreciate any feedback. As with most of the authors here on Inkshares, the sample chapters are from a rough draft of the story and it is in constant revision. In fact I have a folder on my desktop titled "Avalon Revisions", where the latest edits of each chapter reside. So, if you have feedback or concerns related to the story, I would very much like to hear it.
48 days is still a decent amount of time to make it to Quill, but I need everyone’s help! I messaged everyone on my facebook friend’s list directly, went door to door in my apartment complex and dropped off promotional postcards at bookstores and comic book stores around town.
In the meantime, I’m going to do the thing I have the most control over and that is continuing to craft and refine the story. The sample chapters will continue to be replaced with revised versions as I go along (Chapter 1 has already been revised and uploaded).
Thanks again for all the support and please don’t hesitate to reach out!
Jason
@atomicboywonder
split0@gmail.com
facebook.com/atomicboywonder
Various and Sundry Updates - TWO WEEKS until LAUNCH Edition
Hi everybody,
We are closing the 3rd week of the preorders campaign, thought i’ll let you know where we stand.
Statistics: we’ve hit 115 orders, which is 46% of publishing (250 orders) or 15% for a full contract (750 orders).
Updates: A special thanks to Micha Knopf for proof reading chapter 10. Though the chapters uploaded are raw and pre-edit, i have uploaded it again, bettered. would be cool if you check it out.
Arts and Crafts: Here’s the book’s new temporary cover (some of you have noticed the change). Trying to include it here in low definition, pardon me if you don’t see anything.
Teasers: as I promised last week, there’s already a live PDF containing uploaded chapters, if you care to read them on kindle or Ipad, please do! this has also been shares by THE KINDLE ENGLISH MYSTERY BOOK CLUB on Their Facebook, thanks to David Gooch.
As promised there will be another two chapters available before the campaign is over - trying to decide on the first one, to be shared soon...
I had great feedback from lots of people, to whom I am grateful. PLEASE KEEP SHARING the book and let’s get this done! imagine the strong living-room conversation you can make by starting a sentence "my friend is the published author of..."
THANKS to EVERYONE (especially those who ordered and those who ordered in the future). Yours, Jonathan
Dear Readers,
Apologies for the delay in sending out updates. My IRL job was crazy over the last week and I am just now getting caught up.
Bad news first: As you have probably figured out, we did not win the Nerdist Space Opera contest, but not for lack of trying!
Good news: We did make it to our Quill! Quill means that we have sold a minimum of 250 copies. We are still funding and will continue to sell copies until May 2. With luck and help from everyone seeing this update, we will get 500 more copies sold and be able to go forward with a full publishing deal!
As incentive, I will post Chapter 8 to Inkshares once I finish editing it. I will post Chapter 9 when we get to 500 copies sold, and I will post Chapter 10 when we reach full funding goal of 750 copies sold!
Thanks for all your support so far in this campaign!
- Webster
It’s time now to begin the official MUSTERING PERIOD for Blood Dawn Risk (from this point forward known as "The God-King War").
If you’re thinking of ordering Blood Dawn, then you can help one of our players by pledging your pre-order to them.
You can win prizes!
I will be giving out special prizes to allies based on pre-orders pledged. You are automatically eligible if you pledge your own pre-order to one of the dragons or houses (listed below) playing in the game. From that point forward, additional pre-orders that you pledge count as your pledges as an ally.
These are not competitive prizes. They will be based on reaching a milestone, so no matter what you’ll win if you attain it.
Bronze (10-19 pre-orders)
You can collaborate with me to create a minor character who will appear in Blood Dawn.
Silver (20-29 pre-orders)
You can collaborate with me to create a setting which will be worked into Blood Dawn.
Gold (30-39 pre-orders)
You can collaborate with me to create ANY other thing you’d like (plot, setting, or character) which will be worked into Blood Dawn.
Diamond (40+ pre-orders)
You get to participate with the game winner in creating a part of the Blood Dawn world with me (the grand prize for the dragon or house who wins the game).
*Note that prizes are cumulative, so if you attain gold, for example, you will get the prize for bronze and silver as well. So if you attain gold, you will get to create a minor character, as well as a setting, AND any other additional element.
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Here is a summary of the houses you can pledge to. These houses will all play in the game with troop armies, trying to conquer territory and capture dragons:
House Vastaron - one of the high houses in Powrend
House Mastion - one of the strongest, most widespread houses in Powrend
Clan Mynro - a nomadic clan in Ulyria
Clan A’Kyrif - one of the Ulyrian mountain clans
Clan Jodhyn - a clan of the Fifedan highlands
Asfani - one of the seven High Sultanate ranks in Allvara
House Asparone - among the fourth ascendent class of High Dalen
House Shamel - a Lividian house, of the Order of Thistles
Here is a summary of all the dragons who you can pledge to. These dragons will try to evade capture and increase in strength by wreaking havoc on house armies:
Zamisha Zhon - the Old One
Avabazzelaur - this is Manwen’s dragon, the most mysterious of them all
Branakataurai - Vastwing
Azzavani - the Seven-headed
Talaza Parau - the many-minded
Azzavaston - the Crystal-Winged
Lazahalaur - Graceflight
All pre-orders pledged between now and the start of the game will be used to determine the house or dragon’s initial strength when the game begins. For example, if the dragon Branakataurai gets 8 pre-orders pledged to him, he will start with 8 hit points in addition to the hit points he starts with by default. If House Vastaron gets 13 pre-orders pledged to her, then she gets an additional 13 troops.
How do you get pledges?
Simply email me at johnrobinrt@gmail.com after you place your order to tell me who you’re pledging to and you’ll officially be in the game as an ally. I receive an email whenever someone pre-orders my book so I’ll match up your pledge with the confirmation email I get from Inkshares, then I’ll enter it in the spreadsheet I’m using to keep track of everything for when the game launches.
For future pre-orders you pledge, email me to tell me who you’ve pledged and which house/dragon the order is for, and I’ll match that up with my pre-order confirmation email and add it to your pledges as an ally.
How can you get pre-orders?
It’s one thing to tell people to order a cool book. It’s another thing to tell them you’re involved in a cutthroat game where their pre-order will help you contribute to the book by collaborating with the author. Of course, you should tell them about Blood Dawn, have them watch the fan trailer on the page on Inkshares, but the game adds a whole new dimension of fun and likelihood that they might help.
What I recommend is you think of all your friends, coworkers, and family who you know like fantasy books. Tell them about this game and direct them to my Inkshares page, watch the fan video with them. If you’re feeling ambitious, root through your contacts list in your inbox and email people (I recommend one at a time -- that’s usually the most effective), telling them about this game and linking them to Blood Dawn. Make your email short and give them easy to follow instructions.
You can even think outside the box. Two of our players are using Facebook to build a team of helpers. You can do absolutely anything you’d like to get pre-orders, just as long as you tell me who has ordered for you and I can match that with the pre-order email I get from Inkshares.
What if you don’t want to be an ally, but you want to pre-order now and pledge to an ally?
That’s absolutely fine too! All non-pledged pre-orders will be gathered up and used as part of a secret “Easter egg” in the game.
Therefore, ALL pre-orders between now and the game’s end will count toward the game.
Happy Sunday!
Happy Weekend, Space Crew!
I’ve kept the airwaves quiet this week, but it wouldn’t be very Captainly of me not to connect again with a crew who’s gotten me this far.
Since the Nerdist contest closed I’ve done the following:
I see the rest of this funding campaign going a bit differently than it did during the Nerdist contest, primarily because I don’t have 700 friends in my crew...yet.
Of course, I am still counting on you. We have until May 5 to get to 547 more orders, and every single one of those will count. Please keep spreading the word. I’m working on getting new referral prize packages ready among other, err, things that I hope I can update you on in the next week.
Note that pre-orders no longer need to be unique. This means that if you’re someone who likes to share, feel free to pile them on. Also note that the ultimate package—the "Fleet Commander"—will get you three books at once, and could save you and your friends on shipping costs.
I’d also like to take this time to draw your attention to a couple other funding books.
Christopher Huang’s Murder at the Veteran’s Club just went live today! Chris is a writerly friend of mine and knows how to craft a mystery. If you like historical period pieces and love mystery even more, this is probably the book for you!
If you’d like to delve into something a little more on the horror side, check out JF Dubeau’s A God in the Shed. This is his second Inkshares success-to-be, and everything about this story has me excited to read it. It’s already passed the Quill goal, so it’s definitely coming out, but you can help push his orders off the tracker.
That’s it for today. When my campaign ideas start to become a real thing I’ll reveal all the secrets. Until then, please keep being part of my crew. May seems far away, but I assure you we’ll need all the time we can get to make this book boom.
Your Supremely-Secretive-Scheming-Space Captain,
-AC
So since Inkshares said that it was OK to promote my book via a different medium, I just want to share my Kickstarter project with you all.
Even if this project is successful, I still hope to get the gold standard with Inkshares in the future, to take advantage of the huge potential of the US market, but for now, this is my focus.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/988709253/children-of-the-wise-oak
I still can’t believe it. I’m trying and failing to process the fact that I won the Space Opera contest. Incredible.
First and foremost, I want to acknowledge all of the other wonderful entries. I’m not going to be as bold as others have been to name favorites, but I want to summarize it all very simply:
EVERY BOOK IN THE CONTEST IS AMAZING. Take the time to peruse the entries. if there’s nothing that strikes your fancy, then you are entirely too picky and weird to be here...GO HOME!
Seriously...there are some incredible ideas out there, and I hope everyone puts all of their effort and love into taking them as far as they can. I know I have. I’ve had a few people email me directly to ask about the "secret to my success," and my answer is simply this:
Do you know anyone who doesn’t know you’re a writer? Do you know anyone who doesn’t know you have a book that could be published unless it doesn’t reach a certain number of pre-orders?
If your answer is "no" to either question, then you aren’t doing enough. This is your life, your story, your career as an author. Nearly all of my neighbors and every single one of my wonderful friends on Facebook and Twitter bought a copy of my book. Why? Because I asked them very nicely and directly, and I am a good person and a good writer. I believe in myself, and I told everyone I possibly could that I do. Have you done that yet? If you haven’t, you should.
That is all for now, as far as advice goes. I hope I didn’t come off as cocky; I only want the best for all of our stories, and that is seriously what has worked for me thus far.
Otherwise, my week has been exceptionally amazing in that I have also been invited to be a writer for Renderosity Magazine! Renderosity is a site that mostly focuses on computer-generated animation and art, but the magazine branches out and includes many subjects, including an article featuring yours truly. I will be starting an arts forum on their website, so look out for that...
Also worth noting is another amazing happenstance of this week in receiving a shipment of other Inkshares published books:
If you haven’t, then please go and get these works:
"An Unattractive Vampire" by Jim McDoniel
"The Life Engineered" by J.F. Dubeau
"Abomination" by Gary Whitta
"Asteroid Made Of Dragons" by G. Derek Adams
These books represent our future, and if they aren’t well received, then what should you expect? Get as many Inkshares published books as you can, and then please review them on Amazon and wherever they appear. Why? Because Inkshares is a label, and the more sales and the better reputation Inkshares gets, the better off everyone who gets published by them is!!! Do it! Got extra credits? Buy a book you’ll get in your own hands in a few days!
Greetings hexers,
I’m happy to say I was able to finish chapter 3 yesterday. I didn’t know it was finished yesterday, but I realized it this morning sitting down looking at how I’m planning things out. This means I will post this up for you today. I’m sure you’re going to LOVE it.
Chapter 3 sees the introduction of another major character that certain readers will be very interested in *cough* A.C. Weston *cough*. I am having a TON of fun destroying Orange County and rebuilding it. I only regret not being able to do my research in person. Instead I’m working from memory and from consultations with Professor Google. If anyone lives in Orange County and finds inconsistencies, please let me know. It’s best to change these things now before we get further down the story road.
Have fun learning more about Dax and Isidore!
Cheers, Amanda
PS: Remember I’m still giving out prizes for referrals on my quest to get to #DHM750. Right now Joe Terzieva and Billy O’Keefe are leading the pack, and I know either one would look amazing in a Church of Technology pendant. I can’t wait to start giving these away! Join my Mech Crew today and start winning!
