Humanity is on the brink of extinction. Only a handful know how we got here, and even less know what the future holds.
Hello everyone! This competition is incredibly close, and I am honored to be a part of it. I am incredibly thankful for all of your support...I am humbled to be in the top ten, let alone the top 3! There’s still just under a month to go, so anything could happen...I still need any support you’re willing to give, either by spreading the word or by pre-ordering your own copy if you haven’t yet!
Let’s talk about reviews.
Make no mistake - this is the Big Ask. This is more important than you pre-ordering the book in the first place. This is what separates a nifty thing I made for all of you from a CULTURAL JUGGERNAUT. This is what takes the signal from AM to FM. This is what gets me closer to the dream. This is what gets you closer to owning a highly-prized First Edition Asteroid Made of Dragons instead of owning a Dusty Paperback Your Friend Wrote One Time.
When you receive your copy (soon!) and you turn the last page of the story proper - before the Acknowledgements, before the Author Info, before anything - I’ve added in an Author’s Plea. It’s a bald-faced request for a review. That is how important it is. More powerful than marketing, more potent than cover design, more influential than scores of social media posts - an honest review is what makes people read new books.
Sidebar: an honest review. What do I mean by that? I mean don’t just run and give me all 5 stars to help out. It will not hurt my feelings if you think AMOD is a 4 star book, or a 3 star, or a...2 star....or.....a.......1.........(faints)
Where am I? Who took my pants and replaced them with no pants? An honest review is what I want and what new readers need. I have personally read and loved books BECAUSE of bad reviews. The thing one person hated about a book - lo and behold was exactly why I knew I would LOVE the book. An honest reaction to a book - warts and all - is invaluable, because it cannot be bought. It cannot be manufactured in a Marketing Department. I almost always read a couple of reviews or articles before I try out a book that is an unknown quantity - most readers are the same.
Here’s a review I just wrote for The Life Engineered by JF Dubeau. I think a lot of you know that we’re bunkmates on the Sword & Laser shelf, and if you like great worldbuilding and robots this book was written just for you. I really liked it - but I had some cranky quibbles, and I was honest about them here. As far as I know, JF has not launched any Capek assassins in my direction - fingers crossed. This is the type of review I love to get. Feedback, validation, criticism - what you liked, what you didn’t. I’m still growing as a writer and I benefit immensely from this kind of data.
One last thing: I need 100 reviews on Amazon. 
That’s the magic number, the tipping point if you will for that site’s algorithms to take more notice of the book. Amazon is the 500 lb. gorilla for better or worse and for the book to succeed, that’s the platform the book needs to be visible on. If 1 out of 4 of my followers here on Inkshares leaves a review - we’ll hit the magic number. Actual written reviews are better, but even just taking the time to leave a star rating is all that is needed.
Okay - I’ve yammered about this enough FOR TODAY. It’s just over six weeks until the official launch of AMOD, so I’ll be bringing this UP again. Give me some feedback here - does this make you feel weird and imposed upon? What other sort of topics can I regale you with?
As always - thank you so much for your support and attention. Crazy to think we’re coming up on the year anniversary of the Sword & Laser Contest that started this all in motion.
Hew-mons!
I’ve begun self-editing, for over 4 weeks now. Things have not progressed as fast as I expected, and that’s partly due to my cramming in reading a self-editing book (to/from work), Anne Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, Matthew Sobin’s The Last Machine in the Solar System, work and spending my time with my soon-to-be-walking 1 year old! No surprises that the last two taking up most of the time :^)
So, just chugging along... oh, there’s 19 days of funding left, so please do help me get a few more pre-orders if you can.
Yeah, that’s it... take care folks.
LLAP \V/,
Greetings Jackolytes,
In a previous update we had a sip of Jack in the present, now we’re going to have a gulp of Jack in the past. Sean Daugherty has applied his Jameson-cured vocal cords to the thoughts of Jack Trevayne in Sync City. This time we’re listening to Episode 1 Scene 11 and the aftermath of a Goth War Clan attack. Take a listen. Sean does another tremendous job. Why not get out there and share his fine work with your fine friends? And then perhaps drink a Jameson - you could always make it a double. It will make pre-ordering Sync City that much smoother.
Episode 1 Scene 11: https://youtu.be/4q1t-K3u_WA
Stay well,
Peter
PS If you are a new follower check out Sean’s performance of Episode 1 Scene 4 at https://youtu.be/oeSeW6qp1AY
