Hello dear readers,

It’s been a little while. I try not to be too much of a bother and besides, we’ve just come through another NaNoWriMo and I’m glad to say that I’ve pulled through and met my word count.

This NaNoWriMo was different

Indeed, this time around I didn’t just set out to write a 50, 000 word novel in thirty days. Instead, I’ve embarked on a lifestyle. NaNoWriMo isn’t just a one month each year event any longer. Rather, it’s an every day thing. Without fail, I will write 1666 words each day unless I’m actively editing a book at the time. But this is boring to you. I’m boring. Let me talk about exciting things.

The Life Engineered is drawing close

We are less than three months away from the release of The Life Engineered and we’re starting the first few steps of the marketing campaign. Obviously, a lot of what’s going on is rather hush-hush, but I’m excited to say that the work Inkshares is doing on that front is incredible. It kills me that I can’t share more details with you but consider yourself teased.

The Sword & Laser Collection Contest : The Sequel

Very excited to announce that Sword & Laser is running another contest for their Collection. You might remember that collection where The Life Engineered makes its home. I am not participating in this contest. I have significantly too much on my plate right now that I can’t see myself pushing a book on top of everything. I highly encourage you to go check out the contestants though. Already a few of the new books participating look very promising and the selection promises to get better with every week.

My friend Andre is participating with his book Lies and Deception. Check it out and if you have spare credits toss them his way.

While I’m not in the contest I am still trying to get A God in the Shed funded to the 750 pre-order level. I’ll be powering up the promotion engines to push that project forward in the next few weeks but in the meantime, if you know anyone who’d be interested in a cool Fantasy/Horror book and helping an aspiring author, send them this link and tell them to pre-order A God in the Shed today.

As always, thank you for your support. It’s changing my life in ways I can’t begin to describe yet.

Cheers,

 JF

12.04.15 - Weekly Update One: The World of Herbridia & The Awakening

Hello, Readers and Followers of “The Animal in Man”. This first week has been overwhelming! I’m finding it hard to stay in my chair since I’m constantly being floored by how much interest and support is coming my way, and I am so humbled by how awesome the Inkshares community has been in welcoming a fellow author. So please let me say thank you, thank you, thank you for being here, right now, reading this very first weekly update.

Some of you have already pre-ordered the book (again, thank you!), and some of you have elected to follow the project and get a little more details about it before taking the plunge. For that, I label you a savvy shopper, sir or madam! I plan on posting at least once a week, every Friday, with a fairly lengthy description of the world, the characters, and the themes that define The Animal in Man’s story. Besides poring over the enticing details that follow, if you ever want to know more about anything (I’ll even totally spoil the plot if you push me to it!), you can engage me @BulletTime000 on twitter and/or friend me on facebook. Clearly, I already know my story’s great (*ahem*), and I really want to prove that to you and earn your pre-order.

Today’s post focuses on the World of Herbridia. It’s a small planet, about the size of our moon, which is home to five animal kingdoms that have claimed their own territories to form five distinct nations, each with their own distinct culture, architecture, laws, and more. The Leorans are comprised of mammals that roam the plains; Corvidians are birds who call mountainous regions their home; Pescorans thrive in, under, and along Herbridia’s oceans; Drakorans are the reptilian race whose dwindling population stalks the swamplands and deltas; and the Thraxians are - were - a once-thriving kingdom of insects who thrive no longer since the Extermination Wars. (More on that bloody history in a future post for sure, as the events that transpired near the end of that war set everything in motion for the hero’s story.)

Understanding what’s constantly in the skies above Herbridia is just as important as knowing who dwells on her lands below. The Aigaion is a supermassive, perhaps ‘alien’ structure that wanders aimlessly just beyond the stratosphere. When it passes, it can blot out Herbridia’s sun for a hundred miles. The star that gives this world its light is Yinna, and her smaller yet closer sister Yerda is this world’s dark moon, surrounded by a thick asteroid belt and marred by a gaping wound that’s visible even to eyes less acute than a Corvidian Hawk’s. The myths of these celestial bodies have become the central belief structure of a cult known as The Mind, which has gradually risen to immense power over the last two decades.

But we’re not ready to discuss exactly how much influence The Mind exerts, how tight their grip on the hearts and, well, the minds of Herbridians has grown. Instead, for now, you ought to know a brief history of those last twenty years or so, and you ought to know the history of what came before them, and the great event called “The Awakening” that stands in time between them.

Life was brutal, for hundreds, maybe thousands of years before The Awakening. The foundations of civilization were there, but every Herbridian’s focus was ever on the preparation, the execution, the never-ending cycle of battle. Birth. Training. War. Death. For who knows how long. Nothing was written, nothing was recorded. No stories were told. No heroics remembered. No complete victories were ever reached. All five of the animal kingdoms could ever gain any advantage, as if some unseen hand was ever working to ensure the wars would continue forever. And they did. Until suddenly they did not.

A sudden wave of fugue and unconciousness struck every Herbridian down , inducing nausea, fatigue, sudden uncontrollable bouts of dementia. But after a few days, that wave passed, and when the Herbridians came back to their senses, their desire to fight passed with it. That part of their nature was somehow, inexplicably forgotten, gone like it had never been. The beasts in their hearts were silent. They no longer remembered why they fought, so they laid their weapons down (mostly), and for the first time used their sense of reason to draw borders, forge alliances, and carve out a true foundation for peaceful society. And from that time forward, the cult of The Mind rose to power as the architects of that society. While the Herbridians might coronate kings, rally around warlords, or nominate councils to govern their everyday ways of life, The Mind has always found their way to elevate themselves as these rulers’ most trusted advisers.

I’d love to tell you more about exactly how they do so, but I’ll save that for another day. Of course if you can't wait, we can continue this quietly elsewhere... Please engage me @BulletTime000 or befriend me on facebook.

Allow me to finish by simply saying how glad I am you’ve chosen to follow “The Animal in Man.” I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re interested. Trust me, if you stay for the long haul, tune in to every update, read every chapter I post (they’re on the way!), and ultimately buy this book, then you’re not only in for a grand adventure, you’re also validating my dream of becoming a published author. For that, I cannot thank you enough.

I wrote this post on my blog for the Nerdist Contest - but it still very much applies for SON OF SWORD & LASER CONTEST that just rumbled up from the ether this week. I hope this is helpful to all you bright,shiny new campaigns!

I raise my creaking bones from the sharp-edged divan of Anxiety and Editing to applaud and salute all the new campaigns! More writers, more books, more readers – these are always good things. It’s easy to think of writing as a purely competitive enterprise – especially in a contest framework, but you know what’s great about readers? They don’t want to read just one book – they want to read many books! And bringing more attention to my publisher helps me too – *rubs together hands maniacally* – now more people have a chance to see MY STUPID DORK BOOK FOR DORKS.

But let’s talk about your stupid dork book for dorks. And more importantly about how you can survive the next few weeks of the contest with crying in the bathtub only every other night.

1. Use your campaign dashboard. Inkshares gives you plenty of easy tools to link up all of your Facebook, Google, etc. contacts and puts them in a handy list called the Reader Pipeline. This is a perfect way to start keeping track of who you  have contacted, who’s pre-ordered the book, who you need to beg harder. There are also built-in tools to contact prospective readers and also to THANK people who bought your book.
2. Get comfortable with asking people for money. Yes, I know. It’s terrible. But you have to do it. All of the easy/passive ways you can ask aren’t going to get you there – i.e. posting on Facebook, or your blog, or Twitter. You are the best salesman of your work – you need to go directly to your friends, family, acquaintances, vague strangers, lemurs and ASK for the pre-order.
3. Take a long look at your writing schedule. Assume it’s going to get thrown away for most of the contest. It’s a stressful time! You are going to start refreshing the contest page a few times an hour in the last few days of the contest – go ahead and accept that your writer-brain has checked out, and you are pure rodent-lust. It can be extremely demoralizing for writers – as surprise! – writing is what keeps us happy and reasonably emotionally balanced. You need to account for that, and build in some slack in your support network. (see: crying in the tub.)
4. Get to know the other competitors. Not just follow their campaigns from the shadows — talk to them! 5 winners are going to make it, but there’s nothing saying that even more can hit the overall Inkshares funding goal. The more you share resources, readers, knowledge, and support the easier things will be for all of you. I made several friends during the last contest and I’m very glad that they are still talking to me. .
5. Noblesse oblige. No doubt, tensions are going to run high as the contest heats up – it pays to remember that you all have the same goal, the same dream. Go out of your way to play fair, to help out the other campaigns. We’re all a bunch of small-timers trying to take the leap into a bigger arena. Even if you win, you can still stumble. Nerds must be held to a higher moral code – we are all taught by the finest stories and the greatest heroes.
6. Updates. When you send out updates to your backers – remember that they are your allies, your friends and boon companions that want to help you make your dream come true. They are not your servants or conscripts. Ask them to help you, give them clear instructions of things they can do to aid the campaign – but don’t forget to entertain them! Show them exclusive parts of the book, concept art, videos, terrible pictures of yourself. Don’t just send out endless ‘GET MO PREORDERS’ updates – if you cause your core audience to tune you out, that’s hard to come back from!
7. Cry in the shower. There are going to come moments when you will wonder why you jumped into this thing. We make stuff, we write stuff – it’s a learned skill to put your work out there in the world where anyone can bang on it, or worse ignore it. This contest is 6 weeks of permanent vulnerability – it will be hard. And it’s okay to feel bad. Here’s another post I wrote all about the emotional damage of self-promotion.
8. It is okay to ask people for money. I’m saying this twice, because it goes against the grain for so many people. My day job is sales, so I have a much thicker skin about it – but even I get squirmy when it’s for my nerd poems. People want to help you – don’t feel like you have to make them read your excerpt, or explain the whole book to them. Don’t sell the book – sell YOU. Look in their eyes and ask for the preorder. This contest is purely based on unique readers – not preorder count, so you don’t have to stress about getting multiple books out of people. Just ask – I promise that it is okay.
9. Take breaks. Seriously – as much as you can, especially those last two weeks. You are going to become an internet-octopus, dripping your tentacles across all platforms looking for information and preorders and mentions and ideas and any glimmer of aid that can come to your campaign.  Go on walks. Play video games. Write if you can. There will come moments where you will stare at the contest page and try to WILL the numbers to go up – these are normal, but get your support network to pull you away from it as much as they can.
10. Contact Inkshares with questions or concerns. Some weird stuff happened last contest. A glitch with some referral credit, things not appearing properly on campaign pages, etc. Everyone at Inkshares was always quick to respond, eager to fix the problem, and as transparent as they could be about the source of the problem and the solution. They want to get it right and they work hard to do so – it’s why I’m quite glad to have them as my publisher. (HEARTS 4 INKS)
11. Cry in the shower.
12. Your book is not on trial. There are a lot of moving parts to this contest. People are going to pre-order your book because it sounds awesome. Or because you asked them. Or because they liked the cover. Or, or or…if you find yourself slipping down the ranks, it DOES NOT MEAN your book is bad. Maybe the other books are doing a better job of pestering people, or they have a bigger family, or, or or. Do not start beating up your book and blaming it for not being shiny enough. Unless your book is into that and has given clear, vigorous consent.
13. You can do it. By that I mean – you can get your book out into the world. This contest, the next contest, regular funding through Inkshares, Kickstarter, self-publishing, finding an agent, printing it out on copy paper and hiding it in Waffle House bathrooms — you can do it.

Enough blathering from me! Good fortune and good campaigning. If you have questions about anything, drop a comment below or look me up on Twitter – @gderekadams.

Hello Rebels!

Sword and Laser - Well, what an interesting last 24 hours. After managing a very small amount of pomp and ceremony I pressed the accept pre-orders button on the project, because I am a man of my word and the draft has been completed. I then watched a movie and went to sleep. When I woke I decided to check my e-mails and see if anyone had actually ordered the book. To my utter delight two people had, including Thaddeus Woodman the co-founder of Inkshares. With a very warm fuzzy feeling inside, I started reading the rest of the emails from Inkshares and just about fell off my chair. "Sword and Laser competition! What are you doing? Not now, I'm not ready yet." I said to the only person who could hear me...our cat Kisa, who merely wondered if this was going to interfere with her jam-packed day of staring at birds and napping.

I spent several hours on tenterhooks waiting for Finn to stop sleeping, during which time I pressed the button to follow a whole bunch of people and pitched the book like a madman, and finally managed to contact him. Well, we're on the leaderboard...do we do this? Do we take the challenge offered by Sword and Laser and start up a social media campaign, cover art, rapid editing process, alpha and beta readers, prizes, marketing, and telling everyone we've ever met about our book?

YES WE SHALL

Price. - apparently Suffrage is 30 dollars for a hard copy and 15 for an e-book...and everyone else in the competition is 20 and 10.  Wha? That's not right surely? Okay how do I change that? WHA? I can't change that? Urgent desperate e-mail sent to the helpful Inkshares staff...check. Shortly (hopefully very shortly) you'll be able to support the book at the same price as everyone else in the competition. If you've already ordered the book at the exorbitant price of 30 dollars...I am humbled and I salute you, but don't worry you'll be able to get it at the cheaper price. If you ordered the e-book at 15, yeah, you'll get that cheaper too. This horse doesn't need to run in the race with that kind of handicap.

Prizes and rewards. - So of course we are going to release more chapters as we hit follower and pre-order milestones, but that means we need to revise and edit and have beta readers and we need it now. Finn and I started revising last night and knocked off the Prologue and first two chapters. We'll be putting out the improved version of the prologue and chapter One...in the next couple of days. We have also managed to convince a couple of mates to be Alpha readers and have shared the first ten chapters with them. There will be more awesome prizes coming out...we just haven't decided on what they will be because we've been a little busy.

Stay tuned Rebels for more exciting developments as they occur.