So today is the last day of the campaign. I had originally wanted to write a loooong update on this and rant a lot. But as I move on with revision the book, I discovered that I ramble too much. I’ll keep this short and try to get to the main points. 

First of all, this is not the end. Yes, it’s a failed campaign, but I still plan to have this book published. I will try my hand at investigating traditional publishing (approaching publishing houses and agents) and self-publishing (when I figure out how to connect an Australian bank account through a confusing system that doesn’t seem to be easy to understand). Sooner or later, this book will be in your hands as I had promised. 

Also, yes. I will infrequently update you on my progress and journey as an author.  I won’t leave you people in the dark about the direction I’m taking for this book since you would be some of the first group of fans for this book. I’ll keep on keeping on...somehow. 

Finally, a HUGE thank you to the dedicated fans of this book. I had honestly low hope on whether or not my talents as a writer would be good enough, but apparently it’s enough for more than SEVENTY people to decide to rummage through their wallets a little bit and see if they can spare a bit of cash. There’s many people who had brought multiple copies of my book because they genuinely believed in it to be something worthwhile. People like Billy O’Keefe,  Kelsey Ray Barthel, Tabi Card, etc have pledged a TREMENDOUS amount of their interest to this book. It’s because of the ones that believe this book can be entertaining enough to be purachased multiple times that I want to truly make an effort to not disappoint. I’m a writer, and I’ll try my best to not disappoint. 

Thank you for staying with my rants for the last 7~8 months or so as I collect my thoughts and discover the world of writing and publishing. I am indebted to the beautiful group of writers I met (digitally) and the avid readers that connected with me. Getting this book in your hands will be something I’ll try my best doing. 

Sincerely,

Yicheng LIU. The writer guy. 

Dear readers, and believers in Blood Dawn,

Though each of you likely have received the big news about Blood Dawn’s departure from Inkshares, it’s possible I might have missed someone.

Yes, it’s true, my email wasn’t hacked. Blood Dawn is leaving Inkshares.

Despite funding for Quill and being well on track to hit 750 pre-orders by August, I have chosen to pull Blood Dawn from Inkshares later this week.

There are many sides to this decision. It has been looming over me for about a month and a half, and ultimately is about preserving my own creative energy so that I can get to the polished third draft I want to pass over to production. This has been a difficult and painful choice, however ultimately the crowdfunding model has placed too much strain on me mentally and emotionally and my priority, beyond the desire to build a readership for Blood Dawn, is to make sure Blood Dawn is as amazing as it can be. Even though it is hard and to many people disappointing, I am convinced this is the right choice.

I want you all to know that Blood Dawn will have a bright future and the book you backed or followed will someday soon be ready for you to read. If you backed this book, you will be refunded as soon as it is taken from the website (likely this Friday).

So what is the future of Blood Dawn?

To find out and be a part of that, make sure  you’re on my newsletter, as it will be the new home for Blood Dawn. Please make sure you get on it right away so you can follow along weekly my creative journey, including access to exclusive fan content.

This Friday, I will be going into depth on my choice to leave and prospects for the future. Here’s a link:

The Inkshares platform brought out one great thing for me, and this will continue, as it is the quality which I think has been the definition of my success: the ability to unite authors and inspire a spirit of collaboration as we endeavor to reach our readers.

When I joined this platform one year ago, it was very isolated and crowdfunding campaigns felt like islands. I wanted to change that, and I did.

It started with a simple extra step to a thank you email:

If someone was an author and they backed my book, I checked out their book and asked them if they wanted to work together. It’s amazing how many responses that generated, how many group emails sprung up, how full my inbox was every day. That movement snowballed and soon we formed a community that now is more than 500 strong on Goodreads. Numerous collaborations have sprung up in subgroups of this group, and still ideas guide our way toward growth and evolution.

I have been regarded as the leader of this community, however this label is false. Instead, the leader of this community is no one person but a spirit that exists between us. All of you reading this now who are authors, I want you to know that in my departure, there is no reason the light that has burned brightly on Inkshares needs to diminish. In fact, it is my hope that in stepping away it will inspire others to step forward and add to what we have all been doing together from the beginning.

I am leaving Inkshares, but I am not disappearing into outer space. I am grateful for the more than 100 email friendships I have begun here with fans and fellow authors, and expect that to continue as this journey moves on.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me and this project.  Again, the link to where you can follow my progress in my creative work is:

For those here on Inkshares, keep doing what your’e doing, and let’s stay connected through email and our other collaborations. 

John Robin