P.H. James liked an update for Storm Song

Good afternoon, Sailors!

Well... we did it! It feels surreal right now, but it’s official! Storm Song is listed as the #2 finish of the Geek & Sundry fantasy contest.y The last 3 ’months have been incredibly intense and stressful, but so so so worth it. 

I’ll be keeping you guys updated on what’s what as this progresses. 

Thank you again. I’ll update again when I can be more coherent and not just a bundle of overwhelming emotions  

Until then!

- Allison

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    P.H. James liked an update for Bad Medicine: Slay it queen!

    Friends, drag fans and zombie enthusiast

    Only 24 hours left in the Crypt TV horror contest and our girl Bad Medicine is holding on to the second place by as string of her torn gown.

    The next day will be nerve-wracking for yours truly. As I told you before, I lost my first Inkshares contest by one book; since then I’m totally traumatized.

    So, if you haven’t gotten your copy of Bad Medicine: Slay it, Queen! Please, pre-order today. Do a queen a favor, put my mind at ease.

    And now, the final drawing in our contest to become a drag character in the book:

    The new queen joining the cast is Miss Ms. Dinah Myte (AKA Mister P.H. James)

    Ms. Dinah Myte is a former U.S. Army Specialist who found a cure to his PTSD in drag.

    Congratulations to all the winners!

    That’s it for today. Short and sweet.

    On my end, I’ll continue pushing until the last minute of this contest.

    Happy Halloween!

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      P.H. James liked the forum thread, Looking for feedback? Join Critshares!
      Just signed up to try this.
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        P.H. James liked an update for Human Resources

        Campaign Week 1

        Day seven of the campaign and the crowdfunding competition is now drawing to a close.

        It has been an intense week.

        The support from my friends, family, and the community has been astounding. In seven short days, you have all ordered 125 copies of Human Resources! That is crazy — Human Resources is now 50% of the way to guaranteed publication on the Quill imprint!* What’s more, that has been enough to push the book into first place in The Launchpad Manuscript crowdfunding competition!

        Unfortunately, second place has not been idle — they have been working hard to erode my lead in the competition, so we can’t slack off now! If you haven’t yet ordered a copy, it would be great if you considered doing so. Other things that are incredibly helpful are all the posts people have been making on social media, and the fantastic reviews / recommendations people have been leaving on Inkshares. Please keep it up!

        I’m working on some special campaign content for the coming week -- keep an eye out for the next update :)

        * If you would like to know what the Quill imprint is, and how it differs from the full Inkshares publishing service, I talk about it on my blog here.

        Judges’ Top 50

        Today the The Tracking Board announced the second round finalists from the formal judges stream — the Top 50. Guess what? That’s right, Human Resources made the cut!

        Some more information about Inkshares

        I know a number of you haven’t encountered Inkshares before, and some of you haven’t heard me speak about it before. I want to take the opportunity to familiarise everyone with the Inkshares model (my apologies for those this is old news to).

        Inkshares is a book publishing company that selects the books it publishes through crowdfunding. The books not yet published on this site (i.e. Human Resources) are author drafts — they have not gone through a publisher’s editing process. When projects successfully fund, that means there is a delay before books are available for those who pre-ordered. Once a book is funded, before you receive your copy, the following must happen:

        1. The author makes final changes to their manuscript.
        2. Inkshares editors work through and enhance the manuscript with the author.
        3. The polished manuscript is published (design, production, shipping).

        There is more information available on the Inkshares FAQ and on their “How it Works” page.

        The short version:

        1. The excerpts you’ve all read are not the final versions.
        2. The book won’t be available immediately after the campaign finishes.
        3. You will be kept informed every step of the way.

        Thank you again for your support,

        Robert
        https://www.inkshares.com/books/human-resources

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          P.H. James liked an update for Tantalus Depths

           

          Good lord...I don’t even have words...

          We did it. We finally did it.

          After campaigning day and night since March...after losing literally hundreds of orders in the credit abuse scandall....after extending the campaign a whole two extra months...We’ve done it. We’ve reached the full publishing goal of 750 copies.

          Tantalus Depths is a book now. It’s an honest to God book with a full publication deal. It’s happening.

          It took 461 people and six syndicates to make this happen. Of particular note is the Idosyncraticate Syndicate, which swooped in out of absolutely nowhere and pushed us over the final line. Thank you all, from the depths of my heart. I love you all for this.

          I’ll have more words soon, when I can process them. For now, I can only say: thank you.

          My life changed forever today. I owe that to you.


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            P.H. James liked the forum thread, Tips for staying motivated?
            *Sorry, this ended up being very long-winded. I bolded the more relevant information to your question.*

            I understand completely what you mean! I’ve posted small snippets of writing with short stories on blogs, but I’ve always been reluctant to share them with my network of people.

            I decided I wanted to actually do something with the novels I’ve been working with over the years, so I posted one on Inkshares and then was encouraged to join the Geek & Sundry contest and start funding. 

            I did a lot of research on how to run a successful campaign, and it all seemed to boil down to messaging literally everyone you’ve ever met and asking them to support you. I started easy, with people that I knew I could count on. Then, I branched out to people I was acquainted with, and then I moved on to people that I sort-of-kind-of-knew. All of these, even down to messaging people I know very well, has been an introvert’s anxiety induced nightmare.

            This has been an exhausting adventure, made more exhausting by the fact that I’m introverted and it is really hard to ask people for help or to support me. I’m only a month into a three-month contest/campaign and going forward seems daunting.

            I’ve already gotten nasty messages from people,  sadly most were authors that I did nearly free or completely free design work for and had felt confident they would return the favor of with their support. The response rate, or lack-thereof from people that I know has been equally disheartening. The need to keep up in a contest that is solely driven on the amount of people you know, and can get onboard with your project, and less about the quality of your writing is exhausting, especially for writers who are not comfortable with sharing their work or do not have a vast network. 

            My saving grace has been in my very close friends who have pushed the book to their network, and when I say push, I mean going to people personally (friends, family, and co-workers) and getting them on board with pre-ordering.

            Yesterday, I took a big hit in the motivation area. When you realize the campaign or contest you’re in is very carrot-and-stick with the prize continuously moving forward and you continuously chasing it, on top of tumble-weed replies or cricket responses in your network, you get knocked a couple of pegs in that department. When I get bummed a friend says, "You’re allowed to throw a pity party for one day, and then the next day you get back to work."

            I’ve been through a lot in life, things far worse than the stress of this campaign, and so I have to remind myself that this is a cakewalk, even if losing will close a really great door for me. I grew up poor, I worked to put myself through college while taking care of my elderly grandmother. I gave all of myself, emotionally and monetarily, to parents and to the point I had to move a thousand miles away, with little money and no job, in order to save what was left of me. I’ve been desperate. I’ve been broken. I’ve cried myself to sleep nights on end, but no matter what happened in life I kept pushing. I worked endlessly, and I still do. Sixteen hour work days are "normal days" for me. 

            Motivation. When I’m tired, when I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown and I wonder why I keep going on, I think about what I want in life. I think about that goal and I let myself feel how much I want it. I let myself understand how much I truly want it, and I press on. I learned the hard way that, for most of us, nothing is ever given in life. For most of us, the only way to ever to see that goal fulfilled is to want something bad enough that you’ll give anything and do anything to accomplish it.  What I learned about motivation is that it is best found in that fire that burns inside you. Motivation is found in that burning, soaring, breaking need to have that one thing that you’ve always wanted and the willingness to do anything it takes to succeed. When you lose motivation, seek that flame inside you. Seek that goal, and remind yourself of why you do what you do. Let that fire drive you onward.

            Sorry for the longness, it is a personal problem with finding it hard to write short things. I wrote a blog post a while back about motivation and goals, you can find it here.
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              P.H. James followed Witherfist
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              What’s in a name? In the Last Empire, a name is the most powerful weapon you can possess.
              P.H. James liked the forum thread, Launchpad Manuscript Announcement Error
              Hi All,

              Some of you may have noticed there is a banner on the home page announcing the finalists of the Launchpad Manuscript competition and linking through to browse the competitors.


              This is actually a technical glitch on the Inkshares site right now - the page the banner links to is not correct (it only has five projects listed and none of them are finalists in the competition).

              I’ve confirmed this error with the organisers and have been assured the Inkshares Team are working on fixing the issue. In the meantime, if you do want to see the list of current finalists, the official announcement is here.
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                P.H. James liked an update for The Catcher’s Trap

                Dear Friends

                I have news to share with you. The most important one is a slight change of plans in the release of The Catcher’s Trap. We have decided to delay the release of the e-book, so it is out closer to the book official publication day. The Catcher’s Trap e-book will be available on October 21.

                Originally, we were planning on releasing the e-book on October 8th, but it doesn’t make sense to release the novel an entire month before the physical book, when trying to maximize the marketing efforts. You have already waited over a year, and I thank you for your patience. The book will be in your hands before you know it, and hopefully, you’ll love it.

                I also want to share with you my interview with WNPR. I was featured as part of a new series of immigrant stories, where I talked about coming to the U.S. my struggles as an immigrant and the story behind my first novel The Catcher’s Trap. If you want to learn more about yours truly, click the link below.

                WNPR interview

                Finally, I want to ask for your support once again. You are the people who made The Catcher’s Trap happen, and I appeal once again to your big heart to help me win the CrypTV horror contest. I’m currently in second place, and I need your support to make it to number one.

                Please get a copy of Bad Medicine: Slay it, Queen! You won’t regret it

                get it here

                Have a fantastic week!

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