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Yicheng Liu sent an update for The Remains Of Civilization

Hey guys,

So today is the last day of the campaign. I had originally wanted to write a loooong update on this and rant a lot. But as I move on with revision the book, I discovered that I ramble too much. I’ll keep this short and try to get to the main points. 

First of all, this is not the end. Yes, it’s a failed campaign, but I still plan to have this book published. I will try my hand at investigating traditional publishing (approaching publishing houses and agents) and self-publishing (when I figure out how to connect an Australian bank account through a confusing system that doesn’t seem to be easy to understand). Sooner or later, this book will be in your hands as I had promised. 

Also, yes. I will infrequently update you on my progress and journey as an author.  I won’t leave you people in the dark about the direction I’m taking for this book since you would be some of the first group of fans for this book. I’ll keep on keeping on...somehow. 

Finally, a HUGE thank you to the dedicated fans of this book. I had honestly low hope on whether or not my talents as a writer would be good enough, but apparently it’s enough for more than SEVENTY people to decide to rummage through their wallets a little bit and see if they can spare a bit of cash. There’s many people who had brought multiple copies of my book because they genuinely believed in it to be something worthwhile. People like Billy O’Keefe,  Kelsey Ray Barthel, Tabi Card, etc have pledged a TREMENDOUS amount of their interest to this book. It’s because of the ones that believe this book can be entertaining enough to be purachased multiple times that I want to truly make an effort to not disappoint. I’m a writer, and I’ll try my best to not disappoint. 

Thank you for staying with my rants for the last 7~8 months or so as I collect my thoughts and discover the world of writing and publishing. I am indebted to the beautiful group of writers I met (digitally) and the avid readers that connected with me. Getting this book in your hands will be something I’ll try my best doing. 

Sincerely,
Yicheng LIU. The writer guy. 
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    Yicheng Liu liked the forum thread, How I got to 250 orders in 10 days
    So I’ve gotten a ton of messages about how I got The Punch Escrow to "Quill" in 10 days. Hopefully this is useful to some of you. I think it basically boils down to: Treat it like a job. It’s your job to get your book sold. If you believe in what you’ve got, if you think you know the audience you wrote it for will love it, then invest your time, energy, and money in your project.

    1. Get lucky. Luck is something you need to succeed. Luck is something you can actually control. If you don’t believe me, do the research. Having a lucky attitude makes a huge difference. 

    2. Move quickly! I learned this through a couple decades in marketing. When it comes to contests, creating a distance between you and anyone behind you pays back huge dividends. Once you’ve established yourself as the frontrunner, you gain the benefit of being perceived as the favored incumbent. It pays to burn through all of your promotional energy early. If you manage to grasp first place, trust me, you will find a second wind. If you don’t, then you’ll have a pretty good perspective of your likelihood of winning and you can make the call on how much energy to reinvest based on that analysis.

    3. I steadfastly followed the advice given by previous Inkshares contests winners. I hustled really really hard and harassed everyone I knew through multiple channels: Texts, twitter, FB, WhatsApp, Snapchat, even LinkedIn. I would say personal contacts accounted for over 50% of the pre-ordered books. I injected a sense of urgency by explaining the contest, the timeline, and the ask: "I’m in a contest to publish my first book. If sci fi is your thing, you’re going to love it. Especially if you like hard sci fi, like The Martian. I need to get 250 pre-orders to get it published. Please click here to pre-order it."

    4. Engage engage engage!  Every single time someone bought my book I acknowledge and thank them. It makes them feel good and it encourages them to engage back with you and help promote the project. They’re part of the team now.

    5. Get to know your fellow authors. Inkshares is an AMAZING community of readers and authors. I have yet to have a negative interaction with anyone here. I’ve joined three Syndicates and have interacted with countless authors. Everyone here has something valuable to pass on to you. It’s worth listening.

    6. Promote and Invest! Remember when I said treat your book like your job? Well, you should also treat is like an investment. There’s a flywheel effect when people see you investing in your own work. It makes them feel like you really believe in it. I’ve been creating a ton of world-building content, videos, as well as taking advantage of every interview opportunity, promoted tweets, Facebook boosts, and such. If publishing this book is your dream, invest in making your dream come true. 

    So, these are the six steps I followed. Hopefully it’s useful to you. If you have more specific questions about those or the book itself, I’m at your service.


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