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A political power struggle between diverse factions in a Victorian Horror/Fantasy universe. Mysteriously unconnected events lead three Marshals down dark paths to hidden Truths in Aberdown.
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Prophecy sends Brand Wilde to sell his smoke apples in Minian. Dangerous upheaval in the mountains, and a growing evil from beneath them has him seeking answers. There is darkness ahead despite the fire bound within him.
Fernando Crôtte liked an update for LOUISIANA BLOOD - A Chandler Travis and Duke  Lanoix mystery


Small update. First editing session now over. This will soon be off to the team at inkshares for the various stages before publication.  Now can I ask a small money free favour?  I’d like all my 250 followers to "follow" me over at the follow up site BRUGES BLOOD --- the next Chandler Travis and Duke Lanoix mystery.  All you have to do is click the link and FOLLOW me.  

Here’s the link  BRUGES BLOOD  thank you all so much for getting LOUISIANA BLOOD  published!  And here’s the cover for the next mystery.


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    Fernando Crôtte liked an update for To Live and Die in Avalon

    Well, friends, the campaign has ended and we didn’t meet our goals. If you pre-ordered a copy you should be receiving a refund shortly. 

    It is with a heavy heart that I write this update, but I am proud of what has been accomplished since this started way back in February. 

    I’ve written short stories, poetry and songs for nearly as long as I could write and even before I knew how to play an instrument. I have always wanted to write novels, but wasn’t sure I could pull it off and was always afraid of failing. I finally put aside that fear earlier this year and decided to try and take one of the plethora of the novel ideas bouncing around in my skull and make it into a reality. I attribute a lot of that courage from my incredibly supportive spouse and a couple of mentors in the English department at school who pushed me to reach for something more. What I began working on was a fantasy novel, but I quickly switched gears when the Nerdist Space Opera contest began. I took a character I had made up when I was in high school and was enamored with Emma Peel, James Bond and retro-science fiction serials and put her center stage. 

    When the contest began I had a rough idea of the story and all of its beats, but barely enough to make a full novel. I asked one of my best friends, a professional graphic designer, if she could create a cover for me and I began the truthfully draining process of trying to promote a book I hadn’t really finished yet. This was always the part I dreaded, the self-promotion part, but despite my social anxiety issues I went door-to-door pushing my novel, went to comic book stores and coffee shops, messaged every single person on my Facebook friend’s list, began building up a Twitter following, did interviews for podcasts and local news and networked with a lot of brilliant authors throughout Inkshares and Goodreads. The solidarity with my fellow authors is what helped me push forward the most and it is something I’m going to continue cultivating. It really helps to know you’re not alone in this endeavor and that authors of all levels of success and experience are willing to lend a hand or ear when it’s needed. 

    I lingered around 19th place in the contest, pretty respectable considering there were nearly a hundred submissions. When it was over, I put the aggressive marketing on hold and worked hard on completing a more polished draft. By the time I had asked for my first extension I had finished the second draft clocking in at about 75,000 words. I can tell you now, that all of the work I’ve put into this book has not been done in vain and despite the outcome of the campaign, I’m still going to continue to polish this book until it is the best it can be. 

    I’m not going to sit here and tell you what I think I did wrong or what wasn’t enough. That’s self-defeating and I call this a near-success, not a failure. Ending with 119 pre-orders out of 250 is not bad at all. What I will tell you is that while I continue to fine tune my novel (and the aforementioned fantasy novel) my role on Inkshares and Goodreads is going to be more cheerleader rather than self-promoter. There are still a lot of great authors out there trying to meet their goals and I encourage you to give them a look and help them get where I couldn’t. This is not the end for me or To Live and Die in Avalon by a long shot. My only plan right now is to finish the best version of the book possible before I decide what to do with it next. 

    I’d now like to acknowledge some of the Inkshares authors who showed their support for me and I encourage you to look them up, follow what they’re doing and help them reach their goals. Or at the very least, be the cheerleader for them that they’ve been for me:

    Michael Haase

    Tony Valdez

    RH Webster

    Billy O’Keefe

    Eric H. Heisner

    Stephen Carignan

    Joseph Asphahani

    Thomas J. Arnold

    Nell Walton

    Mike Donald

    Tal M. Klein

    Tabi Card

    Matthew Poat

    James Rasile

    RF Martin

    Bekki Leber

    Seriously, the list goes on and on and if I didn’t mention you by name, trust me, every single person on my follow list for both me as an author or the book itself is important to me. Thank you. You’re all wonderful people for even just caring to see where this book could go. 

    A special thanks to Jeremy and the Inkshares peeps, I love you guys. Thanks for providing a platform for fledgling writers like myself to take a chance and put it out there. You’ve opened huge doors for me and I’m eternally grateful for that. 

    The story is not over yet. This is not goodbye, just see you later.  

    Thank you!

    Jason

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      Fernando Crôtte liked the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?
      First time poster, long time lurker. As many of you may know, I am author of The Astronaut Instruction Manual. Seeing as this change in author royalties has a rather profound affect on me, I feel qualified to interject on this topic.

      Essentially, the change is active immediately. And in nearly all cases–including for the larger part my own–this will be consensually retroactive.

      Meaning, new terms have been created for authors and funding writers and they are going to affect new deals as well as established successes.

      So you would think I’d be upset about that, right? Well, surprise, I’m not upset. In fact, I’m thrilled.

      In a past life I did businesses. Lots of them. Some losers. Some winners. Some even lucrative. All–and I mean all–were great learning experiences.

      When I got my deal with Inkshares I thought this is crazy. It was literally too good to be true. You cannot run a company on those margins. It is impossible. After the process of creating my funding book, I knew I was right. There is no doubt in my mind, Inkshares put around $30-$50k into my book while pulling only about $10k in funding and pre-sales. I’m no math genius but I’m a whiz at addition and subtraction, and those numbers don’t match up.

      Retrospectively, even now, going into our third printing of The AIM, I know Inkshares hasn’t made its money back. Yet.

      Of course, if I were an evil genius I’d being going BWAA-HAA-HA-HAA-HA right now. However, I’m not an evil genius. I’m not even a genius. I’m an astronaut teacher and author and Inkshares is my publisher who has done an absolutely astounding job of impacting the marketplace with my book: Third printing, audiobook deal with Penguin Random House, and of course the tv series deal with Legendary. Plus the creative freedom and rights I retain as writer and creator? Plus we are now working on THE COMIC BOOK (!!!)? 

      Wow.

      To quote from Kurt Vonnegut, "If this isn’t good, I don’t know what is."

      Without Inkshares, I would have none of this. I LOVE INKSHARES. I WANT INKSHARES TO SUCCEED EVEN MORE. So if I have to make fair adjustments to secure and guarantee even more and greater success, I’ll tell you what I told  @Adam Gomolin:

      “Count me in.”

      And Adam had made it very clear. If the deal didn’t look good to me or if I thought I could find a better deal somewhere else, he’d help me with an exit strategy. 

      PFFFFFFFFFT. Me exit Inkshares? Yeah right! No sir-ree-bob, I’m here to stay. I love the culture, I love the attitude, I love my fellow authors (@JF Dubeau, @Jamison Stone, @Gary Whitta, @Jim McDoniel I’m talking to you), I love the camaraderie, I love the community, and most of all I LOVE BEING AN INKSHARES AUTHOR.

      The most telling fact I can share is everyone I know and love is staying put. What more, last week I think Inkshares had over 1000+ new book campaigns started. That means even more new awesome authors to share in this wonderful new model. ("Traditional publishing with crowdfunding front-end" I tell my friends.) We started Inkshares together. We have succeeded together. And we are now evolving together. Yes, I’m staying.

      Heck, where would I go that is any more fun (and profitable and empowering and authenticating) than Inkshares? Like Montgomery Scott says in JJ Abram’s 2009 Star Trek reboot, "I like this ship. It’s exciting!"


      –

      PS one last thing. Speaking of awesome new authors, while I’m here I just want to shoutout a book and author being funded that has caught my (generally behind the scenes) attention. It is @Evan Graham’s Tantalus Depths.
      Being an established author around here means you get to call the actual Inkshares’ Head Honchos and say, "Hey, I think you should take a look at this project." Which I did today about Tantalus Depths.
      And like I told Adam, and while it may be early and maybe I’m wrong what do I know but in my opinion I think Evan writing and dialog is terrific and I think Evan has what it takes to win a Hugo.
      We’re Inkshares. Like a big extended family or even a non-sucky high school. Let’s see what we can do about getting Tantalus Depths funded, ok? He’s close! Back Tantalus Depths and then spread the word on FB and Twitter. 
      Alright. Thanks and keep up the good work, everybody!
      like · liked by Tal and 10 others

      People who have liked this comment in the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?

        Fernando Crôtte liked the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?
        I don’t post much on forums. I don’t even lurk. I probably should because. Who is this asshole injecting his stupid opinion into our forums, right?

        For those who don’t know, I’m JF Dubeau, author of The Life Engineered and A God in the Shed, proud participants in the Too Many Controller anthology. Unlike what some of you might have heard I have not sold any rights to any of my properties YET, but I think it’s been made clear that things are moving in that direction.

        The changes don’t bother me. Some of you may (and already have) rolled their eyes saying that, of course I don’t mind the changes. After all, I’m one of the privileged few.

        Fair enough! I am so far very lucky. I can’t deny my good fortune and while I’m nowhere near the level of success some have assumed I’m enjoying, it’s been a good run and that run is all because of Inkshares. As a quick clarification, I’m still working full time as a marketing director. I have yet to receive any sum of money that would be considered life-changing and the number of groupies that knock on my door is still at a manageable two or three per day. Perhaps four on weekends.

        And that’s the crux of it really. If you’re anything like me, an aspiring writer who’s only just starting to build his career and reputation, money shouldn’t be your focus. If it is, more power to you and I get that the changes in royalties are a concern but money isn’t part of my plan at this stage. I’ve so far not made that much money from royalties anyways, so moving the dial 15-30% one direction or another has very little impact on my life. The visibility, contacts, opportunities and pure, distilled experience I’ve gained so far however? I can’t even begin to put a price on that. Money will come. I have no doubt. If I put in the work (20-40 hours a week on top of my current job) and I keep learning and growing as a writer, I’ll either build up to where I have enough fans of my work that I can do this full time, or I’ll get a lucky break that will allow me to move ahead in the industry.

        I’m very lucky so far because I’m (hopefully) following in the footsteps of the incredibly talented @Mike Mongo, but I’m looking forward to the next writer who’ll be following in my footsteps (unless these footsteps lead off a cliff. DO NOT follow these footsteps!). Then the next writer. And another. Because that’s what’s being built here. There are a ton of people on this platform who are embarrassingly talented and creative. I feel ridiculous being a trailblazer for them, knowing that they will outshine me like the sun outshines the moon. I’m hoping to ride their coattails like a bronco into the sunset.

        So yeah, I’m cool with the changes. I can’t ask you to be cool with them, but I can tell you where I come from and hope you understand and maybe share my feelings. I’m even cool with the lack of transparency. Why? Because Inshares isn’t a vanity press. They’re not a self publishing service either. In other words, I’m not an Inkshares client. They don’t owe me transparency and in many ways it is a curtesy that we get as much as we do (truth is that it’s a synergy thing where they benefit from our feedback, but the bottom line is that transparency isn’t owed to us).

        I’ve written this stupid essay three times, each from a different angle and each time with a different level of aggression.

        The big takeaways are these:
        • The terms are what they are and they’re not aimed at ‘screwing us over’
        • The invitation to leave isn’t meant to be dismissive but at the same time there’s only so much resources that should be put into keeping a disgruntled supplier, especially in such a saturated market
        • The increased revenue from getting a bigger share of royalties will help make books more financially viable on their own, keep investors happy, allow for growth so that more services can be added and the current ones improved. It’s an investment by the authors in the future not of Inkshares but of their success as authors on Inkshares
        • Communication is nice to have and I believe it is Inkshares’ philosophy to have as much of it as possible, but if they don’t have time to tell us everything they’re doing I’m fine with that too. I’d rather they work on publishing, marketing and selling books
        • Every success on Inkshares benefits all of the authors on the platform. The rising tide lifts all boats

        An extra note: Each book, from my understanding, is looked at individually for how it should be handled in the secondary markets. Mike Mongo and I are living vastly different experiences and I expect that will be the case for everyone who gets this opportunity. Which means someone is siting down, looking at each property and deciding whether to pursue it at this time (The Life Engineered is not being pursued as far as I know) and then building a plan on how best to do that. Aside from the fact that this is a time consuming aspect of the work I hadn’t really considered before, I am FASCINATED by it and want to learn more.

        This is a cool platform in its infancy. It’s growing in interesting ways and I’m happy to be along for the ride because I’m a writer in his career infancy and I want to grow right along with them in interesting ways. So no, I’m not exiting. I might ADD to what I do with Inkshares with other projects, but I know that these are just more opportunities that my experience with this platform have created.

        Cheers, and keep writing
        JF
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        People who have liked this comment in the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?

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