Hello, Mission 51 family!

It has been three quick months since you pushed Mission 51 into the top three of the Nerdist Sci-Fi Contest on Inkshares, guaranteeing its publication. I have taken this time to continue polishing the story before turning in the manuscript to the Inkshares editing gods. I have now come to realize that I might never be satisfied. I might always want to change this, delete that, embellish and refine, cut and paste, drag and drop, etc., etc., etc.

I had given myself this three-month limit for final polishing, and my time is up. Overall, I am happy with the story, so I am going to hand it in by the end of the week and get in line for the real editorial work. I fully anticipate making further changes as I work with Inkshares’ developmental editing team. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to be starting the process.

Along with the manuscript, I am to hand in my responses to an extensive questionnaire that will direct the Inkshares team on how to best approach my story, create a stunning book cover, and develop a successful marketing plan. It will be a long process, and I look forward to the hard work of putting it all together. I will keep you updated with progress reports from time to time.

Again, I want to thank you very much for this tremendous opportunity. It is only through your kind and generous support that Mission 51 will come into existence. I will never forget what you all have done for me!

Before I go, let me recommend four books that are currently in Inkshares contests, written by authors I greatly admire. They would certainly love your crowdfunding support. Please check them out!

In the prestigious Launch Pad Contest:

Susan K. Hamilton’s The Devil You Don’t https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-devil-you-don-t

TCC Edwards’ Far Flung.     https://www.inkshares.com/books/far-flung

In the Inkshares 2017 Horror Contest:

André Brun’s Arcadia.     https://www.inkshares.com/books/arcadia

M. Robert Randolph’s The Dark Mountain https://www.inkshares.com/books/wings-of-the-crallow

Thanks again! Peace and love to all!

~Ferd

Autumn is here, and the cogs are steadily turning...

.

In my last update, I explained that the developmental editor and I were working on the rewrite 100 pages at a time. He edits one section while I rewrite the next... Well, I am pleased to report that I am roughly half-way through with the third and final segment. I hope to have that turned over in about two weeks. I’ve combed through and rewritten all of the existing text, and am now drafting a brand spanking new ending that will get the blood pumping a bit more than the original.

There will be at least one more round of developmental edits as I address the notes that Matt makes on the new draft. Each run-through should be swifter than the previous. After that, we move on to copy editing, then proofreading, then ARC printing and marketing. Cover design will take place alongside the final steps.

I am crossing my fingers that an estimated release date will be assigned once we have an idea of how long the rest of the developmental edit will take. My best guess is Summer ’18 (based on the trajectory of other books further along in the production process). If the last two months are any indication, I will be hard at work until the last minute (and after). As always, thank you for your support.

Until next time,

-Jacqui

TERRIFYING! 

And humbling.

Sitting in 3rd place in the Horror Contest…

When a very talented and accomplished author JUMP SCARES in at the top of the list.

With 109 READERS!

Under the bed I go.

But we all know the monster will find you there.

Shivering in fear awaiting my doom…I unexpectedly feel humbled…and appreciative.

The pressure is off. The contest is lost. I accept my fate.

And am sorry for any dick moves made in my over-zealous attempts to gain more followers.

The monster was me.

Thank you all so much for your support and for that lesson.

Intended or not, Dr. Karl appreciates the results. 

~Dean

ps: Dr. Karl is the protag in Murder Happens

Greetings, Space Crew!

I’ve had a number of messages over the last while asking for an update, and until this week I didn’t have one to give you. Without further ado, here’s the low-down:

"Timeline?!"

You may recall that graphic with the timeline from the summer? Well I checked all my boxes, and we’ve been onto the Inkshares (publication) portion for awhile. I handed in a final manuscript on July 1, and just received notice that production will start in...January! 

I don’t have an exact timeline on their end to know when the physical book release will be, but rest assured things are moving forward. 

"Excuse me but I want it now"

It would be uncooperative of me to hand you the manuscript, but I can tell you about other projects I have on the go if that helps. 

1. Rattle Creek Road

About a year ago I made some decent progress on a horror novel, which was an ongoing side project. I have a plan to finish that up during November’s NaNoWriMo this year. It’s currently outlined on Inkshares, though I haven’t yet decided which platform to sell it on. I’m hoping that by Christmas this year I’ll have a way to get e-books into the hands of everyone who supported (and patiently awaited) The Traveller’s Cup. 

2. Doodles

I’ve heard that some of you like the doodles that inevitably end up in these newsletters. I’ve got a derpy webcomic series in the works that I’m hoping to launch in the coming month. Stay tuned! 

3. Short Story Spin-off!

One thing that rewriting The Traveller’s Cup had me thinking about was how much potential there was for more. I wrote this as a stand-alone, and I plan on sticking to that, but that doesn’t mean we can’t know a little more about our side characters. Once the book is released (because spoilers), I’m planning to put out short stories showing more of the Grey history, and maybe a glance into the future of the universe surrounding Palunos. If these gain enough traction for a decent collection, you might see an anthology eventually too. 

So, the writing part of this project is currently out of my hands. In the meantime I’m getting to work on the companion guides, more custom bookmarks, locking down a cover artist, and ensuring a set of those key and vial necklaces go into production. 

This is the last leg of the journey, and I couldn’t have asked for a better crew to travel with. This is all a success because of you.  

Your Sappy Space Cap’n,
-AC

Hello lovers of horror and literary madness!

Thank you for taking interest in The Silent Scream of Melania Trump! Keep your eyes peeled in October for new postings with additional content. And if you haven’t yet, please pre-order the book before Halloween - so’s we can win the horror contest and rescue that castle from the evil princess! Wait. Reverse that last.

Oh, also! I’ve been meaning to ask you this: do you live within a reasonable drive from the Chicagoland area? If so, you might enjoy the episode of the paranormally hilarious  Blurry Photos podcast that I’m co-hosting LIVE next Monday night! Our topic of discussion will be HAUNTED DOLLS - AAH! So spoopy. Such dolls. Wow. You can learn more about it here: http://www.blurryphotos.org/ .

Thank you for reading! And don’t forget - a book is only as good as the psychic parasite that willed the author to write it.

Mark

Well this is it. The campaign ends this coming Friday and it doesn’t look like we’re gonna make it.

I want to send out a special thanks to my sister Michelle and to Julianne Fleming for ordering multiple copies to help me out. Thanks also goes out to Kyle Cowan, Ryne Drogemuller, M. Robert Randolph, J. Graham Jones, and David Byrne for putting in orders. They constitute everyone who did order and I really appreciate the support.

Barring some monumental miracle, Battle Flag most definitely is not going to reach even the Quill goal, so it’s time to reassess my options. From the look of things I don’t think I have the social media presence to really make a campaign like this work. So what I am going to do, after the campaign officially ends, is cut back the sample chapters to just the Prologue and 1-3. Then I am going to take a look at making another run at traditional publishing or sending The Agoge out to agents and come back around to this later. Maybe I’ll do both and maximize my chances of getting an agent for at least one of my finished projects.

Thanks to everyone who has followed me through this and I hope that one day, if you see a copy of Battle Flag on the shelf at the bookstore, you’ll pick it up and check out the other half of the story.

I don’t know if I’ll do another update before the end of the campaign but we’ll see.

Hello, my friends!

Thursday was an excellent day for Eudaimonia, I found out that it made it into the Launchpad Manuscript Competiton TOP 10! 

When I submitted it back in July I could have only dreamed it would make it this far. MIND BLOWN. Totally amazing! 

But, the Launchpad contest is completely up to the judges. We don’t have much control over what they decide. You know what we DO have control over? This here Inkshares Pre-Order Contest. This is won by you and me, asking our people nicely to pre-order Eudaimonia. 

We are sitting in 3rd place on the Inkshares Leaderboard and October 9th is fast approaching. If you haven’t pre-ordered, would you please consider doing so?  If you have pre-ordered, would you please share this link with a couple of your people?

https://www.inkshares.com/books/eudaimonia-48b598

We are so close!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Your friend,

Meghan Godwin

Hello Everyone,

I know it’s been a long time since you heard anything from me which probably seems strange since I’m supposed to be working my butt off selling pre-orders. I have not been doing that. In fact, I’m writing today to tell you that I’m closing down the pre-order campaign for Black Cloud. You should all be receiving a full refund shortly. If you don’t, please contact Inkshares and they’ll work it out for you.

There are several reasons I’m choosing to end this campaign. Some are good reasons, some are probably not so good. In short life has been busy and I just don’t have it in me to run a successful campaign right now. There are other reasons but it boils down to that. The book needs work and the campaign needs work. I don’t have the time to commit to either. I thought I could make it work but I was wrong.

So let me just say this: thank you for following the book. Thank you for pre-ordering if you did. I really appreciate the support and I hope this book will end up in your hands one day soon be it through Inkshares or some other means.

In the meantime you can always check out my first book. Which I am in the process of submitting to Audible this week. So hopefully it will be an official audiobook soon.

Thank you!   - Landon