Dear royals,

A congratulations is in order. To Joseph Asphahani, Matthew Isaac Sobin, and Craig Munro, congratulations on winning the Sword & Laser Collection Contest! I wish you a great success in the publication of your book and may it be the nitro to your authoring dreams :)

To all the royals who have claimed a title, thank you so much for showing support during the duration of this contest. I might not have won, but I'm a winner already - having you backing me (as cliche as it sounds, it's true). So thank you! 

Now, what happens to The Slave Prince? Being that it was launched for the Sword & Laser Collection Contest, and being that the contest is now over, this book will return to being a draft project. The crowd-funding will be briefly put on hold, hence all your funds will be returned to you. As to when the project will go live again, I'm still considering the best time to do so. 

Crowd-funding is much more difficult this time around (and I thought the first time was tough already). Gathering support from readers is harder than from family and friends. But that doesn't mean I'm going to give up. Based on my 'findings' during the Sword & Laser Collection Contest, I discovered that less than 50% of followers of this project pre-ordered. So in order for me to reach the minimum publishing level of 250 pre-orders, I'll need 500 or more followers. Should I reach that number of followers, it's a guarantee I'll launch the project. But should I not, I'll have to think of something else.

If you'd like to lend an extra hand, please share this project with your bookish family and friends. Share it with lovers of adaptations and retellings. Share it with your book club over some tea. And share it with your cat-lady neighbour with the enviable book collection. Help bring the follower count to 500 so I wouldn't have to think of something else. I'm really hoping to have another book published this year, and I would really love for The Slave Prince to be it. Having your support would mean a great deal to me.

With all that said, I'll still be adding new chapters to The Slave Prince (should it be permitted in the project draft stage). And I'll be sure to let you know prior to relaunching the project too. If you have any suggestion or feedback, feel free to send me an email at jeynagrace[at]gmail.com. I'll be more than happy to hear from you :)

Once again, congrats to the winners! And to the rest, have a wonderful weekend!