Dear backers and friends of Trekonomics,

I just posted the final, revised and expanded introduction to the book (minus a few still-ongoing copy-edits!). Cover will be revealed and shared will all of you this week. We are on schedule!

You may read the new introduction to Trekonomics here: 

https://www.inkshares.com/projects/trekonomics/book_segments/introduction-3720

In addition, if you are so inclined, I invite you to read my latest column celebrating the 15 years anniversary of Wikipedia: http://fusion.net/story/256371/wikipedia-15-years-old/. 

As always, 

Live Long, and Prosper.

M.

I hope everyone's new year has been good thus far. Though we had several great losses, we shouldn't lose hope for the potential of this year.

Work has been keeping me pretty busy as well as editing chapters on any free time I can find. With the first round of editing pretty much finished, I have to think about what I will do next.

I thought about entering Sword & Laser contest, but at that point I didn't feel confident yet until I had finished cleaning up the story. Now I have to decide, do I wait for the next contest while refining the story or start the pre-order campaign.

Friends and family are eagerly awaiting the start of pre-orders, however attempting to get new readers and other authors to commit on a pre-order is so very daunting.

For now however, I am curious to hear from anyone in regards your opinion. What do you think of the story so far with the five chapters upload so far? Right now the finished novel is roughly 60k in words, or about 18 chapters.

Have a wonderful weekend!

~S.J.

Hello and Happy Saturday!  Here we have a short video where we determine the winner of the McCall's Meat and Fish Company gift certificate raffle.  So sit back and enjoy, especially the last seconds, which include an amusing directorial snafu!  

https://youtu.be/PNyFq2z7-Rs

As of today only 78 copies of "Women Like Us" need to sell and we'll have met the goal for Quill Publishing. If you're like me you want to hold this book in your hands, and we're getting closer every day. But there's only a month left, so please pre-order if you haven't, and if you have there's nothing wrong with having that back-up copy, just in case!

Finally, stay tuned for an announcement next week about one more beagle-freedom related raffle that you can get in on if you already haven't. This  one involves a tattoo!

We won!!!!

 I can’t seem to make myself fully believe it, still so I have to keep saying it! :)

I am incredibly grateful to each and every one of you for all the help and support getting word out about my book. The last month has been one of the most exhausting experiences I can remember – Sleep? No time for that, I have to message people in other time zones! Writing? After work, there’s only time for promoting the book!

I would like to take a moment to thank my family who went above and beyond in getting me through this contest, in particular - my sisters Kirsty and Laura, my brother Keith and my brother-in-law Cyril who each worked at least as hard as I did promoting the book; my parents Scott and Elaine who reached out to more people than I can count; and of course my lovely wife Margo who not only worked tirelessly alongside me, but also somehow managed to keep me sane.

I was also greatly helped in my efforts by a number of great friends including Sebastien Genest, Mathieu Pralus, Sara Hernandez, Isabelle Pottier, Eddy Lesert and so many others that I just can’t list everyone. Again, I am grateful beyond words.

And I can’t leave out the amazing authors who helped me out and made (and continue to make) the Inkshares experience as amazing as it is – John Robin the author of Blood Dawn and backbone of the whole author community, Julian Green the co-author of Suffrage – the First World Key, Cara Weston the author of She is the End, Billy O’Keefe author of These Are My Friends on Politics, Michal Sebby author of The Inhabitants: An Unremembered Life, and Janna Grace author of the Talkers are Talking, not to mention my co-winners Joseph Asphahani author of The Animal in Man, and Matthew Sobin the author of the Last Machine in the Solar System. All of their books are amazing and well worth checking out if you’re looking for something else to read!

 And now, I’d like to make my small gesture of thanks to my supporters: here is the video link of the 4X50$ gift card draws, and the draw for a themed cake by Lolai’s Yummies. Congratulations to the winners!

 I’m looking forward to a little break - picking up Fallout 4, maybe even making it in to see the new Star Wars movie, and most importantly getting back to my writing! I’ve started to miss my characters and wonder what they’ve gotten up to in my absence! There are also still some edits and rewrites I need to finish before the manuscript is ready to be turned over to Inkshares so that the process of getting it published can get under way :)

 Thank you all!!!!

Hey good folks,

Thanks for your support! With your help, The Remains had officially reached 100 followers and 74 preorders with more than 90 days left. That left a warm fuzzy feeling inside my heart, but that isn't love...because, as a writer of comedy, I am secretly dead inside. You can only churn so many sacrifices to the old gods before your writer's block kicked you in the posterior. 

But because I feeds on the positive support that had been given to me, I had created a special book trailer to commemorate this moment and cement the fact that this book DOESN'T suck and had not been the targeted by the cats yet (though they are lurking in the background).

Here's the video in case you cannot see the book trailer for any reason: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgIR9SvXVUk

Hello Rebels! Update Time!

Well the Sword and Laser the sequel contest is over and Suffrage languishes with the crowd the winners left in their dust. To the three winners, CONGRATULATIONS! 

Finn and I will try and pick your brains about the most successful ways you you sourced pre-orders. I found the contest a great learning experience, but my initial feeling that we weren't ready seems to be true. Oh well, keep moving forward.

So what have we been doing?

Surviving on only a few hours of sleep a night as we've built things, learned things, edited things, discussed things and generally been whirlwinds of activity. The manuscript is about 75% edited. It's really coming together and something that we are very proud of. We've had three readers reach the end and the feedback has been great. 

We've had...

• ;
  
• ...Phenomenal description, eating it up with a spoon...
•  and...The first section of this chapter, the (snip spoilers), had me completely transported, transfixed, and utterly enthralled...(snip)...it's a truly wonderful narrative cocktail.  

Both Finn and I are logical and perfectionists, and we have the whole Bah humbug social media skill set. So we've concentrated on polishing the novel, concentrated on the artwork, getting social media happening like Facebook pages, twitter accounts, etc...learning how to use them...basically all the things we should have lined up before starting a campaign or entering the contest.  

We've made a commitment to spend the next couple of months (once the edit bits are over) in marketing the heck out of this. Because we both want to move forward with the second book, throw #amwriting hashtags up on facebook and twitter and throw more sand into the sandpit. 

Well that's all for now, congratulations once again to the contest winners, next update will most likely be when we finish the edit process.

Julian and Finn

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!

As promised, here is my post-contest update.

Let me clarify up front: the end of the contest today is NOT the end of the road for me at Inkshares. My campaign will continue in regular funding mode until May 1st, so I will still be seeking pre-orders to hit at least 250 book pre-orders for a light publishing option, or, ideally, 750 book pre-orders for a full publishing option.

Even though I have congratulated them multiple times, I will do it one more time -- congratulations to Joseph Asphahani, Matthew Isaac Sobin, and Craig Munro for winning the Inkshares Sword & Laser Contest. Their novels, The Animal in Man, The Last Machine in the Solar System, and The Bones of the Past, completely deserve all the success they are enjoying.

"Published" is one of the sweetest words a first-time writer can add to his or her résumé. Every author on Inkshares craves it, but not all of them can achieve it. And it's usually not for lack of quality.

Sometimes it's difficult to get people on board with a completely unknown author. I have to admit, it's a very hard sell. Some authors are better at the sales pitch than others. Some authors are already connected in the literary world to some degree (I am not). Some authors excel at both, and it pays off big for them.

But I'm glad Inkshares exists, because it's a new route that challenges the old publishing establishment. Query letters and chasing down literary agents are part of a difficult game. Inkshares opens a direct avenue between the authors and readers to let the people decide what's worth their money.

I uploaded my first chapter back in early September while the Nerdist Contest was raging on. I was absolutely in love with the platform, but I had too much other stuff on my plate to commit to launching a campaign and entering a contest. So I sat on it for a bit, even joking in one of my updates that Inkshares should consider launching an early December contest right after NaNoWriMo. Imagine my half-surprise when they actually did.

I had no advance notice, so I found out about it December 1st -- the first day of the contest. This is not an exaggeration: I remember sitting in front of my laptop with my cursor hovering over the launch button to start the funding campaign. I asked my wife if it was the right choice as I dangled my finger over the button -- Would it be crazy for me to do this? She said, "go for it." So I did.

By the way, as I was typing that last paragraph, an owl hooted outside my apartment. In the three years of living in this apartment, I have NEVER heard an owl hooting nearby. I don't know what that means. But if you've seen my cover art, watched my raffle videos, or read the chapters of my novel, you know the significance of owls and strange coincidences is not something to be ignored.

Hmm...

Anyhow, running a campaign through the holiday season seemed like a bad idea, but I did it anyway. Do I regret it? Not remotely.

I told Matthew Sobin this today, but I thought I'd share it here, too: this was easily one of the friendliest competitions I have ever participated in. Inkshares is an amazing community in that respect. Everyone wants to help each other out. We're all in this together. Things like Cara Weston's Review-a-Thon and John Robin's constant championing of other writers on the Goodreads forum are just a couple examples.

I have learned so much from this experience so far. Everyone I've met on Inkshares is absolutely solid. I will try to repay as much goodwill as I can as I continue my journey.

As for my backers, you are the ones who are keeping me going. Every e-mail I get informing me of another order reminds me of why I'm doing this. It's easy to despair during a dry spell when facing seemingly insurmountable odds. How we react to these moments is what defines our level of resolve to continue chasing that dream, regardless of how far-fetched it may be.

I am so grateful to everyone who has pre-ordered my novel. Your names have been etched in my heart, and I will never forget any of you for supporting me. I will certainly remember the early adopters who, when I basically said, "Guess what? I'm writing a novel," they unflinchingly responded with, "Guess what? I'm ORDERING your novel."

This may all sound like a eulogy, but like I said, the campaign will continue. Nothing is ending here. There is still a lot of work to be done, and I'm ready for it.

Diligent writing and editing will continue. The raffles will continue. Everything is business as usual. This just seemed like a good time to stop and reflect.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get back to work weaving stories.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend.