Dear Machiners! 

A good Monday evening to you! We have a number of important items to address, so I will get right to it. 

First, I have been blown away by the continued response for The Last Machine in the Solar System following the Sword & Laser contest. Just this week we blew past 400 pre-orders for the novella. And there are now over 500 people following the book’s progress. So thank you all so much! With the support of the teams at Inkshares and Girl Friday Productions, I am 100% confident that we are going to produce a stellar book, with a great story and beautiful illustrations that you’re going to love. 

Toward that end, we have received a preliminary publication date from Inkshares of February 7, 2017. This is huge! I know it seems far away. But I remind myself that quality takes time and we want this to be just right. Nine months is going to fly, and that time will be well used as we ensure the story and interior design is perfect, the back and front covers shine, and we prepare and execute a promotional marketing campaign that sets us up to reach as wide an audience as possible come February. 

A couple of excited upcoming dates: I expect to receive feedback from the developmental editor on May 17th. Then on 5/26, I’ll receive the initial cover designs. 

I’m incredibly excited to see the three possible cover designs and share them with you. Our cover designer is Dan Stiles. His work is fantastic. You may have seen his handiwork before on book covers or band posters. He is also the artist for Dracula v. Hitler on Inkshares. You can check out his art here. 

FREE INKSHARES MONEY 

If you supported me during the contest, Inksharems sent you $10 in free credits last week on May the Fourth (insert Star Wars joke here, yada yoda yoda...). So, check your email! Claim your credits and get something fun to read from Inkshares. 

There are tons of great books to support - some of which have been published, while others are still in need of support to make the threshold for publication. Simply claiming your free credits and spending them can help make an author’s dreams come true, just as you did for me. 

To claim your credits: Click on the green CLAIM button in the e-mail Inkshares sent on May 4. If you deleted the email, never fear! Just log into your Inkshares account, then click on "credits" in the top right corner; click the button to get the e-mail re-sent. 

On Inkshares $10 can go a long way. For books still funding, that can be 1 ebook or 1/2 a paperback - regardless, it is one vote toward publication. For books that are already or will be published, prices start as low as $3.99 for an ebook and $11.99 for paperbacks. 

Here are couple of suggestions on what to support: 

This is the last week of the Hard Science themed contest on Inkshares sponsored by Geek & Sundry. There are many awesome projects and as we well know, the last week is when things really start heating up. So you’re support for any of these books can help shoot them up the standings toward publication. 

Last week my new SciFi syndicate supported The Amaranth Chronicles: Deviant Rising by Alexander Barnes and Christopher Preiman. The book is sitting 30 pre-orders shy of qualifying for Quill publication. Your support could make a big difference!

That’s all for now, but there’s much more excitement to come - and soon! 

Until next time, 

 -Matt

Hello everyone!

I apologize for the extended silence, but things have been busy lately. To update you on the progress of SoF, I am getting ready to receive the last feedback from my beta readers. My editor, Inkshares’ very own John Robin, is expected to finish mid-May.

After that I will do my final round of rewrites before submitting the manuscript to Inkshares for publication. Even after the manuscript is finished, it will still take several months for the book to be published. We’re still looking at late Fall for a publication date.

Thanks to everyone who had ordered thus far, and thank you for your continued patience.

Before I go, I’d like to give a shout out to Tabi Card and her book Scribbles. Check out what she has to offer below;

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You have 5 DAYS LEFT to get a free book! How is this so, you ask? Simple. If you order Tabi Card’s book Scribbles within a week, you will get: A FREE signed copy of Five Minutes (one of the Scribbles’ stories) The chance to win 1 of 4 art prints (those who order 3 or more copies of Scribbles will get automatically receive ALL 4 art prints) The chance to win the 2nd of 3 GRAND RAFFLES like the one below She can write and dream and work, but it is people like YOU, the readers, who make her writing and dreams and work worthwhile. Only YOU can make sure you will get a copy of her work in your hands (or on your e-reader/Kindle) and make her dreams of publication a reality. Watch this video for a look at what Scribbles is all about OR visit its project page. (Which also has sneak peeks at some of the stories . . .) & Order Scribbles here: https://www.inkshares.com/books/scribbles-a-collection-of-words

As always, thanks for your support!

-Andrew

Hey folks!

"It’s All Fun and Games is as much a nostalgia trip for grownup gamers as it is a gateway drug for the next generation. The pop-culture references bridge the gap between geek parents and their kids. Dave Barrett writes with all the joy and love of a nerd who runs games for his kids—while cracking Dad Jokes. The result is a rollicking good portal fantasy starting with boffer swords instead of d20s." - Dave Gross, author of Lord of Runes  

"It’s All fun and Games is one of those rare books that makes you wonder if around every corner magic and adventure await. Kids and adults alike will find themselves swept away into the world Mr. Barrett has created." — Shannon Mayer, USA Today Best-selling author of the Rylee Adamson series

 "It’s fun and exciting to get lost in a fantasy world while roleplaying. It’s All Fun And Games shows that getting lost in one for real might not be as fun, but it’s no less exciting!" — Jon Verrall, co-creator of hit Geek & Sundry web series LARPs

In other news, the edit and design work is pretty well done, so next step is off to the printer - probably some time late next week - and then about a month and a half for manufacturing and shipping back to the warehouse.  We’re right on target for backers to get their books mid-July, with the e-books coming out a little it before.

Don’t forget you can follow the book and me on Facebook and Twitter!

Again, thanks for all your support.  It means the world to me!

Cheers
Dave

Last screenwriting update! Hope you’ve gleaned some interesting things from these, can’t wait to show you the new cover on the next update!

SCREENWRITING TIP #7:  THE MARKET PLACE

A good many writers try to write for the marketplace, for what is showing in the theaters right now or what is on television.  The trouble with that theory is that if you can see the trend you are too far behind the curve to take advantage of it.  But the bigger problem is that you don’t necessarily write for the movie going audience or the television audience.  The only way that you are writing for the audience directly is if you have your own money or access to someone with money to produce and distribute your film outside the system.  Few people do.

So, who do you write for?  The studio executives, (Or more exactly for their readers.  These people are too busy to read for themselves.  They have someone “cover” scripts and only read it when Tom Cruise is attached and the budget has been finalized.  If then.)  You write for the development people, the agents, the actors, anyone you can get to read your script.  I mean the audience should be your customer but often is not.  Your audience becomes the agents and development people, who have little contact with or understanding of the audience, some even have a disdain for the “flyover states” and the folks who buy tickets or watch television.  And remember that these people have to plow through hundreds of screenplays, a dozen a week.  How can you make yours stand out from the stack?

Studios used to make movies by finding or developing a script and then hiring actors and a director.  They don’t do that anymore except for certain genres, broad comedies (usually with a name comedian attached) or horror films.  Today the studios usually wait for a package to come to them with some element attached, actor, money, director, pre-sold brand., these attachments collected by a producer.

One way to help you sell a script is to get a bankable actor attached and to do that you have to write a role that a star wants to do, usually where they are in every scene and have a turn that is Oscar worthy.  Getting to that star is the problem because the gatekeepers, agents and managers don’t want their actors attached to something that isn’t a sure thing, one of those aforesaid packages. 

The thing to do is just write something great and beat your head against that wall of gatekeepers until you bust through.  That old saw about writing what you know is true.  That doesn’t necessarily mean writing about being a barista at Starbucks.  Maybe you know Science Fiction better than anyone and you think Hollywood is doing it wrong.   That works.  My favorite though is when someone writes about a subculture that I am unfamiliar with, Creole life in Louisiana, farming in Minnesota.  If you do that right you will get attention, the authenticity will shine among those trying to write the next “Fast and Furious.”  It may not get made but it may get you a job as a sample to demonstrate your strengths as a writer.

And if you have an idea that everyone says is impossible to sell or even accomplish does not meant that you shouldn’t try.  Just acknowledge the size of the risk you are taking and don’t whine when the predictions come true.  Write it, you may be creating the next “Rocky” or “Star Wars”, both outliers when they were made.

Hey guys, 

 Over the weekend I was in Chicago for a wedding and had a chance to meet up with a few very righteous Inkshares author’s whose work i’ve been following very closely. It was a real honor to meet these guys and was really inspiring to find people facing a lot of the same publishing challenges Chris and I are but who are much further down the rabbit hole than we are. Somehow this entire process seems less daunting.

You guys are awesome! We need to do this again!